In a historic election for the Town of Easton, Megan Cook has been elected as the town’s first woman mayor. Cook’s victory was a decisive one, as she earned 1,068 votes in person, beating out incumbent Mayor Robert Willey and current Ward 1 Councilman Al Silverstein.

As the current Easton Town Council President, Cook brings years of experience and leadership to the position of mayor. Her victory is a testament to the town’s desire for change and progress.

Cook’s election is a significant milestone for women in politics, especially in a town where women have historically been underrepresented in elected positions. With her victory, Cook has shattered the glass ceiling and paved the way for future generations of women to follow in her footsteps.

But Cook’s victory is not just about gender representation. It is also a testament to her vision for the town and her ability to rally support behind her campaign. Throughout her campaign, Cook emphasized the need for greater community involvement, economic growth, and infrastructure development.

By engaging with voters and making her vision clear, Cook was able to inspire voters to turn out in record numbers on election day. A steady stream of voters kept the polls busy throughout the day, with more than 2,200 town residents stopping by the Easton Volunteer Fire Department to cast their ballots.

Despite Cook’s decisive victory, the election was not without its share of drama. As of Wednesday afternoon, 226 absentee ballots remained to be counted, making the Ward 1 and Ward 3 seats too close to call.

In Ward 1, Frank Gunsallus holds a narrow 11-vote lead over Maureen Curry, while in Ward 3, David Montgomery has a larger lead over incumbent Ward 3 Councilman Ron Engle.

The Talbot County Council has proposed at their regular meeting on May 2, a real property tax rate increase of 2.55 cents for $100 of assessed valuation for all properties located outside the incorporated towns, which is 5.3% higher than the current rate. Properties located within incorporated towns will have a tax rate differential of between 6.01 and 13.30 cents lower than the county rate.

During the public hearing on the constant yield tax rate, the Council made it clear that they were raising taxes regardless of what happens to the tax rate. The FYI 2024 proposed budget prioritizes public safety and education, which reflects a significant investment in the employees who are the backbone of service delivery. The budget also prioritizes funding for capital improvement projects, infrastructure, and addresses escalating costs associated with state-mandated funding requirements.

The proposed property tax rate of 0.74344 for county-owned properties includes property tax revenues that are 2% over FYI 23 revenues, an additional 1 cent increase to the property tax rate as authorized by the voters of Talbot County in November 2020, and a 4.8% educational supplement to support Talbot County Public Schools. The county’s property tax rate will increase by 6.14 cents, which amounts to a 9% increase, with 3.48% of the increase as part of the county real property tax rate. The remaining 5.52% increase is attributable to the education supplement used to pay for the increased funding for schools.

The county tax bill for a home with a property assessment of $300,000 will increase from $2,046 to $2,230, which is a $184 increase, $144 of which is attributable to the education supplement. While the proposed increase in property taxes may be viewed as a burden by some taxpayers, it is worth noting that other counties will also be experiencing the same challenges in meeting the increased funding requirements of Maryland’s Blueprint.

Overall, education expenditures for Talbot County represent 43.7% of its budget, with Talbot County schools representing 42.1% of those expenditures. The budget proposal includes funding for capital projects requests for school renovations and funding for infrastructure, such as roadway enhancements, culvert replacements, and the extension of sewer service in an effort to remove dependence on septic systems.

Public safety accounts for the second greatest expenditure in the budget proposal, with 23.8% of the budget allocated to it. Included in the budget proposal are requests for additional funding for school nurses and the cost of three resource officers. The proposal also includes a 4% cost of living adjustment and one step for employees.

The Council has emphasized that the proposed budget is the result of conservative budgeting practices that have been successful in Talbot County in the past, and that they are committed to providing necessary services for the community. The budget proposal will be adopted as part of the fiscal year 2023-2024 annual budget and appropriation ordinance on May 23, 2023.

Get out the vote. That’s what councilmembers Megan Cook, Al Silverstein and incumbent mayor Bob Willey  are telling their supporters as town residents prepare to cast their ballots Tuesday. The ballot will also include Ward 1 and Ward 3 town council elections.

The Talbot Spy has covered this election extensively over the last few months and have compiled some of that content to help the undecided.

Avalon Spy Town Hall Meeting 

Ward Map

 

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is pleased to announce its intent to acquire two contiguous properties to its waterfront campus, including the current home of the Crab Claw Restaurant. Under the terms of the transaction, the restaurant will remain open for business throughout the 2023 season under its current ownership.

“This anticipated purchase marks an exciting new step in CBMM’s ongoing efforts to enhance our guests’ experience as part of our on-going Master Plan campus upgrades,” said CBMM President & CEO Kristen Greenaway. “We highly value our role as a community partner, and we’re delighted to be able to keep the properties in the St. Michaels’ family and serve as stewards of these historic properties moving forward.

“We believe that CBMM is the best possible owner for this longtime staple of our community, and we thank Crab Claw owner Tracey Jones Wass and her family for entrusting it to us.”

Adding the properties to CBMM’s campus is a natural fit, both in terms of their neighboring physical locations and shared history. The Crab Claw Restaurant opened in 1965, the same year CBMM did, and the two have stood side by side as staples of St. Michaels for decades.

“Generations growing up in St. Michaels have worked at the Crab Claw as their first job, learning customer service and an appreciation for the classic seafood dishes of a Maryland crab house,” said CBMM’s Chief Historian Pete Lesher. “But the property’s roots go back even further, with the first pier in that location showing up on an atlas from 1877 and the town’s steamboat wharf, including a one-story building with a cupola, standing on the site by the 1890s.

“The restaurant itself, an outgrowth of the Eastern Shore Clam Company, opened almost in tandem with CBMM, and we’re very excited to be able to write the next chapter in this iconic property’s long history.”

CBMM will now begin the planning process for future use of the properties, which have such significance to the past, present, and future of the St. Michaels waterfront.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a non-profit educational organization that preserves and explores the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and makes this resource accessible to all.

Every aspect of fulfilling this mission is driven by CBMM’s values of relevance, authenticity, and stewardship, along with a commitment to providing engaging guest experiences and transformative educational programming, all while serving as a vital community partner.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a tentative settlement with Maryland, other states and environmental groups that sued the agency in 2020, charging that federal officials weren’t doing enough to stop Chesapeake Bay pollution originating in Pennsylvania.

The proposed settlement will be published Friday in The Federal Register, triggering a 30-day public comment period. When the comment period closes, EPA will work out final details with the plaintiffs.

“We think this is another important moment in the effort to clean up the Bay, where we see collective accountability to meeting the [pollution reduction] goals,” Hillary Harp Falk, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a lead plaintiff in the litigation, said Thursday on a call with reporters.

The settlement would end two separate lawsuits filed against EPA during the Trump administration — one from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and several other groups, including Anne Arundel County, the other from the attorneys general of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The suits accused EPA of failing to enforce provisions of the Clean Water Act by not requiring Pennsylvania to develop a plan to fully meet pollution reduction goals for the Bay set several years earlier in a multi-state compact with the federal government. The suits also noted that EPA did not use its mechanisms for penalizing states like Pennsylvania that did not meet their pollution reduction goals or for requiring the state’s to earmark sufficient funding for Bay clean-up.

The settlement requires EPA to, among other things, look for ways to reduce pollution from agriculture in Pennsylvania — the state’s biggest source of water pollution — and stormwater runoff from urban and suburban land. As part of the settlement, EPA  commits to increase compliance and enforcement efforts, as long as it has the funding to do so.

EPA has also promised to prioritize its efforts in Pennsylvania on the jurisdictions that contribute the most pollution to, or have the largest impact on, local rivers and streams: Lancaster, York, Bedford, Cumberland, Centre, Franklin, and Lebanon counties.

The EPA will also take a close look at farms not currently required to have federal permits that have proximity to rivers and streams to see if there is significant damage to water quality from manure generation, manure management practices and/or available storage capacity, and compliance history. If EPA determines that a farm is a significant contributor of pollution, the regulators will confer with Pennsylvania officials about designating the farm as a pollution source subject to environmental permitting.

“This settlement agreement really puts things in writing and makes sure that we have clear deadlines,” Falk said. “So we think this is a significant moment today.”

During the Obama administration, EPA reached an agreement with all the states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed — Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, West Virginia and the District of Columbia — to reduce the “total maximum daily load” of pollution in the Bay. Each state was given specific targets to meet by 2025.

Last fall, EPA leaders tacitly conceded that most states would fall short of their goals, and regional leaders now say that 2025 is “a deadline but not the finish line.” But Pennsylvania, by the account of the federal government and neighboring states, has consistently lagged behind.

On the press call Thursday, Maryland officials, environmental activists and industry leaders asserted that the agreement will bring a measure of accountability to Bay clean-up efforts.

“This settlement is all about the EPA taking action to ensure that Pennsylvania, a signatory to the agreement, is doing its part to prevent pollution from going into the Bay,” said Maryland’s Democratic Attorney General Anthony G. Brown.

By Josh Kurtz

Maryland Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain said the settlement “really does strengthen our Bay partnership” and confirms that “the Biden administration is not just rubber-stamping the previous administration’s lower standards.”

And Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D), whose jurisdiction has 500 miles of waterfront along the Bay and its tributaries, said his county has invested about $500 million over the past decade to bolster the shoreline and limit farm run-off — a possible model for Pennsylvania leaders to follow.

“We can tell Pennsylvania that yes, you can do this,” he said. “It’s hard work, but it needs to be done.”

Last summer, Pennsylvania officials committed $220 million to a new fund dedicated to reducing pollution flowing into state waterways, which regional leaders hailed as important to Bay clean-up efforts.

Falk on Thursday called the Clean Streams Fund “an important downpayment on Pennsylvania’s commitment to clean streams, a clean Susquehanna [River] and a clean Bay. But we need more.”

Jon A. Mueller, vice president for Litigation at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the draft settlement with the federal government does not foreclose future litigation if stakeholders believe any of the parties aren’t living up to their end of the bargain.

“If at any place along the way we feel that EPA has not lived up to the agreement we have the ability to go back to court,” he said.

Robert T. Brown, president of the Maryland Watermen’s Association, another plaintiff in the 2020 lawsuit, said the industry is counting on federal officials to comply with the agreement.

“We have to trust the EPA to enforce these laws,” he said. “We had a little problem with them doing it before this lawsuit. Now we have to trust them. We have to trust and verify