Not surprisingly, Deena Kilman, executive director of the Waterfowl Festival, wants to break all records when this time-honored weekend of Eastern Shore culture begins its 54th celebration on Friday in Easton. That would match Deena and her board’s innovative new ways that are making Waterfowl the “It” place to be for families and, yes, their dogs in the Mid-Atlantic. We asked Deena to walk over to the Spy studio yesterday and share with us the top five things to get excited about the festival. It wasn’t hard for her to list them off in rapid fire.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about this year’s Waterfowl Festival, please go here.

November 14 –16, 2025
Friday & Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Sunday: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

 

Easton’s future looks increasingly coordinated — and confident. In our Spy check-in on Discover Easton, Town Council member Maureen Curry and Easton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) Executive Director Holly DeKarske discuss how far the town’s economic development strategy has progressed and where it’s headed next. Both women describe a partnership between the Town and EEDC that’s stronger than ever, grounded in professional expertise and a shared vision for a thriving, walkable community.

Curry, who’s watched Easton evolve over three decades, points to a “synergy” that she says is unmatched in her time with the town — a team that’s data-driven yet rooted in local character. DeKarske adds detail to that picture: a new three-year strategic plan with measurable goals, advanced analytics tools like Placer AI to track event foot traffic, and a Main Street program that’s paying visible dividends in storefronts, landscaping, and civic pride.

Their conversation moves easily from the technical — key performance indicators and visitor movement data — to the personal, like the care that goes into decorating downtown or the excitement of showing visitors Easton’s library, art museum, and neighborhoods beyond the historic core.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. 

Even before the latest confusion over SNAP benefits, hunger in Talbot County was already stretching the seams of a fragile food network. “We were already seeing increased need—and probably more need than a lot of our neighbors are aware of,” said Nancy Andrew of the Talbot Family Network, whose data shows county food pantries now serve more than 3,000 people each week. The uncertainty surrounding federal benefits has only deepened the strain. “This is not a problem that just came up because of the issue with SNAP,” said Andy Hollis, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Service Center. “Food insecurity in this county is real. We sometimes hide behind the prosperity that Talbot County has.”

In a Spy roundtable filmed last week with Andrew, Hollis, and Amy Horne of the St. Michaels Community Center, all three described a surge in demand that has doubled in just a year. The Neighborhood Service Center pantry in Easton, for instance, served 174 households in September, up from 87 the year before. In St. Michaels, Horne said, “We ran out of hot meals in about an hour and fifteen minutes—which I’ve never seen before.” The county’s need spans age and income: seniors on fixed incomes, families earning minimum wage, and the working poor who come early before shifts to pick up food. “It costs one person $42,000 a year to live in Talbot County,” Horne noted. “Most of our neighbors don’t make that.”

Still, the conversation carried something other than despair. All three spoke of a community that gives back as quickly as it’s asked to. Hollis recalled a stranger who slipped him a $20 bill at BJ’s after learning he was buying food for a pantry. “That’s what keeps me optimistic,” he said. Both the Neighborhood Service Center and St. Michaels Community Center are adding evening hours for working families, with updates to be posted soon on FeedTalbot.org.  As Andrew put it, “Every day, people in this county craft together—through big hearts and hard work—a food system to fill the gaps. It’s imperfect, but it’s ours.”

This video is approximately nine minutes in length.  Donations and volunteer opportunities can be found wit hthe following agencies .

For Kentavius Jones, executive director of Talbot Mentors, the recent surge of immigration enforcement on the Mid-Shore by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is less about politics than humanity. Week after week, he’s confronted with the fear and disruption these actions bring to the families his organization serves—students coming home to find a parent gone, mentors trying to comfort children left adrift. Known to many simply as KJ, he speaks with quiet urgency about the need for compassion in public policy and a justice system that recognizes people, not just cases.

In our Spy interview, Jones acknowledges that America’s immigration system needs reform. But he argues that tearing apart families who have worked, contributed, and built lives here betrays the nation’s values. The America he knows, he says, is one that offers grace—one that protects rather than punishes those who’ve pursued its promise.

This video is approximately six minutes in length.

 

Walkersville resident Marlene Eyler, 74, works as a host at a restaurant and cares for her 20-year-old grandson who lives with her. And now she has to add the chore of finding a new Medicare insurance plan to her challenges.

Eyler, who learned recently that she will lose her Medicare Advantage plan with Aetna, is one of thousands of Maryland seniors expected to receive notice this month that their supplemental Medicare plans will no longer be available next year, sparking frustration, fear and confusion.

“I’m very happy with Aetna, I haven’t had any issues with them,” Eyler said. “I’m just frustrated with the state of Maryland that they can’t give the older people better insurance.”

Insurance carriers say that Maryland’s unique hospital system is costly for them to do business in, and several are reducing their coverage in the state or pulling out of counties entirely. But that leaves residents like Eyler forced to navigate finding a new health care plan for next year.

“I’m taking care of him,” she said of her grandson, “plus having to worry about all this insurance stuff. And I have to work because I can’t pay the bills without working.”

Dean Slaughter, a 70-year-old Annapolis resident, is tired of having to change Medicare Advantage plans year after year. He recently got a letter from Aetna as well, telling him that his plan will no longer be available in 2026.

“Now we get to sit down and do the dog-and-pony show – see what’s out there, which is not much to offer. The insurance companies are leaving the state of Maryland,” Slaughter said.

Industry experts say as many as 100,000 Medicare recipients in Maryland, like Slaughter and Eyler, will have to scramble to find a new health care plan by the end of the year or risk losing coverage at an age where many require costly medical care.

About a quarter of Maryland Medicare recipients use a supplemental program called Medicare Advantage that helps retirees use a private insurer for additional health coverage such as vision, dental and transportation assistance that the standard Medicare plans may not offer.

But there’s been a long-running problem that’s coming to a head: State officials and people in the health care industry say the Medicare Advantage market in Maryland is more expensive than in most other states because of Maryland’s unique hospital payment system.

In recent years, the state has offered insurers a grant to help cover some of their costs and encourage them to keep offering the coverage in the state. That grant is going away, however, and some insurance companies have shrunk their presence in the state as a result.

A spokesperson for Humana said that the insurance company will no longer offer one of its Medicare Advantage plans in five major Maryland jurisdictions.

“Humana has exited one Medicare Advantage plan in Maryland for next year,” according to the statement. “Beginning Jan. 1, 2026 … Humana Gold Plus SNP (HMO DSNP), will no longer be available in the following counties: Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford, Howard and Baltimore City.”

Humana says that those affected by the termination will maintain their current coverage through Dec. 31, 2025, but they will need to find new coverage during the Medicare Annual Election Period, which runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, if they want coverage next year.

Aetna shrunk its Medicare Advantage coverage to just three counties next year.

“Each year, we assess our ability to meet the health care needs of our members and adjust our plans to ensure they can deliver an excellent and sustainable member experience,” a spokesperson for Aetna said in a written statement. “In 2026, in Maryland, we will offer Medicare Advantage in the following counties: Frederick, Harford and Montgomery.”

Part of the issue comes from Maryland’s unique Total Cost of Care hospital payment model, in which a state board called the Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) sets hospital rates. Under the current system, insurance carriers pay higher hospital rates than in other states and get reimbursed by the federal government for Medicare Advantage services at lower rates than elsewhere. Meanwhile, insurance carriers are unable to negotiate hospital rates under their plans.

As a result, it’s more expensive to use Medicare Advantage in Maryland than in other states, and Maryland seniors aren’t getting the same quality of benefits, a spokesperson for CareFirst said in a recent statement.

Insurers reducing their footprint in the state leaves residents like Jie Shen, a 68-year-old living in Cockeysville, having to look for a new plan. That often means finding new doctors and hospitals for health care services.

“This is getting very frustrating,” Shen said. “I just want to stay on one plan at this point. I don’t know which one to choose.”

While there is time to search for a new plan, Medicare Advantage recipients note that the options available in Maryland are dwindling as carriers pull out of the state.

“It’s a hassle,” Slaughter said. “All of a sudden, you’re working with people who don’t even know you, and it’s not the way I want it … I feel like I am a number, and a cattle in line instead of a person, and it’s degrading.”

Even those who will still have their plans in 2026 are worried about what may come down the pipeline later.

Sharon Vickers, 78-year-old resident of Pasadena, was relieved to hear that her Medicare Advantage plan with CareFirst will continue into next year.

“I was concerned. Especially since my husband has passed, not having someone to sit and talk about it and discuss it,” she said.

As many Medicare recipients do, she works with an insurance broker to help find appropriate coverage for her needs. The broker informed her that she would be “comfortable this year,” but that he couldn’t “guarantee anything for next year.”

But she feels that the Advantage plans are already too expensive for what they offer and may skip out on coverage entirely.

“I may be looking at one day not being able to afford health care coverage,” Vickers said. “I’ll do what I have to do when the time comes, and that may mean going without health care.”

Meanwhile, the Maryland model is undergoing a major transition this year, as state health officials and federal officials finalize new terms of the States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development, or AHEAD, model.

Current negotiations appear to prompt the state to offer solutions to the stabilize Medicare Advantage. There may also be significant changes to the state’s Medicare rate-setting authority.

Shen, like other Medicare recipients, hopes something can be done so that insurers will stay in the state.

“I don’t know if the state can help, but that’s what I ask for,” he said. “They should do something.”

By Danielle J. Brown

Easton resident Lance Simon might have been speaking for the entire Town Council when he summarized his argument in favor of adopting Ordinance 840, which adds campaign reporting requirements for town elections. Simon notes that it adds much-needed transparency by tracking and publicly reporting candidate spending. He said that cities like Salisbury, Bel Air, Laurel, and Ocean City already have similar policies and would give residents important information about campaign funding. His remarks are this week’s Council highlights, as well as councilmember comments.

The Spy had interviewed Mayor Megan Cook and Councilmember David Montgomery six months ago when they had proposed the legislation. You can see their interview here.

The Council moved to a vote and adopted Ordinance 840 unanimously.

This video is approximately six minutes in length.

Maryland officials unveiled a $340 million settlement Thursday and issued a new water quality certification to the Conowingo Dam, clearing the way for dam owner Constellation Energy to seek a new 50-year federal license to operate the hydroelectric facility.

The deal also resolves years of contentious litigation over the nearly century-old dam, which has become an environmental flashpoint in recent years as its overwhelmed reservoir has allowed polluting sediment to overflow into the Susquehanna River.

Particularly during severe storms, water overflowing from the Conowingo reservoir carries nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus downstream, contributing to “dead zones” for underwater life in the Chesapeake Bay and hampering a struggling multistate effort to clean up the bay.

The settlement between Maryland, Constellation and a pair of clean water advocacy groups — Waterkeepers Chesapeake and the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper — includes $87.6 million for pollution reduction measures, including planting of trees and underwater grasses. It also includes more than $60 million to improve fish passage over the dam, control invasive species and create a hatchery for freshwater mussels to be planted in the river; and another $77.8 million to clean up trash and debris rushing down the Susquehanna.

Constellation will also pay $18.7 million to explore, and possibly begin, dredging at the dam’s reservoir. But any dredging is still a long way off. All parties are waiting for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study that will use computer modeling to assess the impacts of dredging on the reservoir and river downstream. Once that study is complete, likely in late 2026 or 2027, the Maryland Department of the Environment will decide how to use dredging payments that Constellation must make annually for 25 years.

Even then, the agency could move toward getting a dredging permit, could call for more studies — including evaluating the potentially lucrative reuse of silt dredged from behind the dam — or could designate Constellation’s dredging payments to other environmental projects if the Corps study indicates dredging is inadvisable.

Robin Broder, executive director of Waterkeepers Chesapeake, said Thursday that she feels confident dredging will happen eventually.

Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Ted Evgeniadis said his team believes dredging is an economic and viable option. Prior estimates, which found that dredging would cost Constellation “hundreds of millions of dollars every year for 50 years,” are no longer accurate, he said.

“Dredging is much different today than it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. There are new technologies today, whether it’s a hydraulic dredge or an ejection dredge,” Evgeniadis said. “All of these new things that have come up over the years are going to be looked at.”

A news conference Thursday at the foot of the dam — near where fishermen cast their lines and below scores of circling vultures and waterbirds — featured what one Constellation official said would usuallyt be considered “strange bedfellows”: Maryland state officials, leaders of environmental nonprofits and Constellation Energy CEO Joseph Dominguez.

Dominguez jokingly turned his pocket inside out Thursday, telling the crowd: “Yeah, this is costly for us. And yeah, I don’t have anything but lint left in my pockets on this one.”

“But I’m glad it’s resolved. I’m glad we can get up here and proudly say we’re doing all of this work,” said Dominguez, praising Gov. Wes Moore’s “steady hand” in the negotiations over the dam, which has 11 turbines, and can produce up to 572 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 165,000 homes.

The story goes back to 2018, when Maryland issued a water quality certification to the dam’s previous owner, Exelon. Constellation and its energy generation portfolio split from Exelon in 2022 to became a standalone business.

That certification would have required the company to mitigate the nutrient and sediment overflows, or make compensatory payments to the state that Exelon said could have totaled $172 million a year. That’s because the dam contributes an estimated 6 million pounds of nitrogen and 260,000 pounds of phosphorus to the bay each year, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Exelon challenged Maryland’s certification in court, and eventually the two parties reached a closed-door deal in which Exelon accepted a number of environmental conditions and agreed to pay about $200 million over 5o years toward restoring the Susquehanna and easing fish passage over the dam. In turn, Maryland waived its authority to issue the water quality certification, to the ire of environmental groups.

That’s where a federal court said Maryland went wrong. In December 2022, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the 50-year hydropower  license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission  because it said Maryland could not waive its authority to issue the certification.

That sent Maryland back to the negotiating table — now with Constellation and the two environmental groups, who had also challenged the original water quality certification as not going far enough to protect the ecosystem. This was happening just as Moore was taking office.

“We inherited a project that was mired in lawsuits, had frustrations on all sides, where the future of the largest source of renewable energy in our state was in question, while environmental impacts were being unchecked,” Moore said. “I had people who said to me — they had a lot of words — but it all could get summed up in basically a few simple sentences: Stay away from the Conowingo Dam, because that problem is just too difficult to solve.”

Moore’s new environment secretary at the time, Serena McIlwain, having just arrived from California’s Department of the Environment, had to quickly get up to speed on the Conowingo Dam, along with the state’s other environmental challenges.

“I was told that, well, everything kind of went wrong with the negotiations before we started. One was, we didn’t have the right people at the table,” McIlwain said. “And I said to my team, make sure the right people — the waterkeepers — are at the table.”

Maryland learned “hard lessons” from the court’s rejection of the previous settlement, said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. This time, the state issued a revised version of the 2018 water quality certification, along with the settlement.

“The Department of the Environment will retain full power to enforce compliance with water quality standards — and that matters,” said Brown, who called the settlement a “historic victory” for Marylanders and the Chesapeake Bay.

Getting to the finish line was challenging. Brown said it took more than 30 mediation sessions. McIlwain said there were times when some of the parties were “ready to walk out the door.” Among the biggest sticking points was the dredging issue, said Adam Ortiz, a deputy secretary at the Maryland Department of the Environment.

“We could have given up months ago. We really could have,” McIlwain said. “But I knew I needed my job, and I said: ‘You guys are going to get back at that table, and I’ll bring more food. I don’t care. We’re going to get it done.’”

Constellation’s Dominguez bemoaned the long road the dam operator had to walk in order to get its critical new license from FERC.

“It shouldn’t have taken us 10 years to sort through all of the issues here, and that’s a bit disappointing,” he said. “But … the resolution to those permitting issues often requires people coming together who have different interests, that sometimes have conflicting interests, and bringing those folks together and making something good happen.”

By Christine Condon