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September 26, 2023

Talbot Spy

Nonpartisan Education-based News for Talbot County Community

Point of View Dan Point of View Op-Ed

Focus On Talbot: A Lakeside Cover Up? By Dan Watson

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In obtaining the County’s approval to permit the huge Lakeside subdivision to begin, the Town of Trappe, and apparently others “in the know,” withheld important information about serious problems with the operation of the existing Trappe wastewater treatment plant from the County Council, the Talbot Planning Commission, the Public Works Advisory Board and the public.  

As a matter of process, withholding critical information should be unacceptable.  As a matter of substance, the status of that plant is important because the first 120 homes—maybe twice that number, really—are supposed to be hooked up to that decades-old plant that is failing every month to meet even its out-of-date discharge limits.

What we know for certain is this: the latest MDE plant inspection (2/14/19) found the plant to be in “Significant Category 1 Non-Compliance.”  Moreover, for twenty-seven of the thirty months from April of 2018 through October of 2020—during the very period that Lakeside was being reviewed by the Planning Commission, the Public Works Advisory Board, the County Council, and (in theory) the public—the Maryland Department of Environment (“MDE”) reported ZERO nutrient load in the effluent discharged by that plant, which is impossible.  Nevertheless, MDE was reporting “No Violation Identified.”  Maybe no reports were filed, I don’t know. (But that itself would be a violation of regulations.)  It wasn’t until November 2020, four months after the County Council adopted Resolution 281 (the act needed for Lakeside to proceed), that ZEROs stopped being reported.  

How can it be that no one knew this?  How could the Council have approved of the developer hooking up more homes to the Trappe plant in this circumstance?  

And putting this all into context:  every single month of 2021 the Trappe plant has failed to meet nutrient limits by wide margins—like 219% in February, 244% in March!

The data above are all from the authoritative EPA website called “Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)” showing monthly data from mandatory discharge monitoring reports (“DMRs”) from Maryland’s wastewater treatment plants, including the existing Trappe plant.  (https://echo.epa.gov/effluent-charts#MD0020486; click on “Download All Data.”)

That the Town of Trappe and others “in the know” revealed none of this to the County Council, the Planning Commission, the Public Works Advisory Board (“PWAB”) and the public is confirmed by a careful review of the publicly available transcripts, video, and minutes of three meetings of the PWAB, four meetings of the Planning Commission, and two meetings of the County Council (one of which was the public hearing), all of which took place in 2020.  

Discussion of the status of the Trappe plant did come up in those discussions, and what the reviewers received, purposefully or otherwise, was a good deal of dissembling, non-responses, omissions, obfuscation, and in one or two instances, answers that seem to be misleading.  Check the transcripts.  For example:

  • When Planning Commissioners asked about the obvious implications of MDE’s recent refusal to permit connection of eleven homes on Howell Point Road to the Trappe plant, the answer was confusing and ambiguous.

  • When Commissioner Ghezzi asked the Talbot County engineer straight up, “Could the current treatment plant even handle this [connecting 120 homes]?”, a meandering  discussion ensued.  The then County Attorney (who is now “of counsel” at the Applicant’s law firm) said, “But is the system operating up to the MDE standards?  I can’t answer that right now.  They collect monitoring reports, I guess, each month that has the data for what sort of output the facility is doing. However, that is an existing facility that is approved by MDE…”, and so Ms. Ghezzi’s question was never directly answered.

  • Immediately prior to the County Council’s final vote on Resolution 281 (which gave the project its go-ahead), Ms. Price and Mr. Leasher were pressing the Applicant and the County Engineer about the status of operations at the Trappe plant, when President Pack ended discussion with this statement: “I don’t believe that the wastewater treatment plant is substandard.  I believe it is discharging according to its MDE permit.  The levels are within its permitted MDE applications.  So I wouldn’t say that the plant is substandard at all….I don’t think the plant is currently facing any type of violation at this time.”

In every instance the Applicant’s attorney, the County Engineer, and the County Attorney were in the room and said nothing about the plant’s most recent inspection status or the curious fact that discharge monitoring reports were showing ZERO nutrient discharge….an impossibility.  I do not know who else knew what at the time, but the Town of Trappe—who partnered with the developer as “the Applicant”—surely knew the truth.  The Applicant’s attorney seems always well prepared, and it would be reasonable to expect him to know the facts too, and perhaps the County’s staff concerned with wastewater issues, even though they do not have authority over that plant.  But those are just assumptions.

The good news is that last week I wrote directly to all of the County authorities and provided detailed information on these matters.  Call me naïve, but I believe this will be appropriately investigated and responsible people will get to the bottom of it.  But immediate rescission of Resolution 281 is necessary and appropriate while this important issue is assessed.

Finally, I would like to point out that this issue is completely independent of the initial reason I called for rescission of Resolution 281 ”without prejudice:” that after getting the greenlight from the County to start Lakeside, the developer made significant changes to the plans for the new wastewater treatment plant and its spray irrigation.  Those changes seem to be serious, and appear to be the basis for Judge Kehoe remanding the discharge permit back to MDE for a new review and public hearing.  The County Council still refuses to abide by its own Rules of Procedure and let me present a petition calling for rescission of 281.  The Acting County Attorney’s answer to my complaint in the Circuit Court of Talbot County is not due till later this month.

The withholding of important information by an Applicant—including one of our own municipalities, no less– is a compelling reason for rescission of Resolution 281, separate from the post- approval plan changes.  Anyone wishing to express support for, or join in, Petition 20-01, which is very much alive, should simply send a short email to that effect to [email protected].

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

 

 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Focus on Talbot: The STR Problem–Two World Views by Dan Watson

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At a two-hour work session in mid-December, the County Council discussed and took “straw votes” on almost twenty relatively small changes to the County’s short term vacation rental (“STR”) law. Most of those administrative changes were non-controversial, with support or no serious opposition from citizens and STR business interests alike. However, the big policy issues that many members of public had really come to hear were not taken up, but deferred to a work session being held at 6:00 PM this coming Tuesday evening, January 21st at the Wye Oak Room. Interested citizens should definitely attend.

I believe there are two conflicting world views in play.

MINIMAL STANDARDS, BUT NO LIMITATIONS

First is the belief that it is undesirable to limit the number or location of STR’s in the County in any manner, beyond ensuring each is physically safe and meets some modest operating and design standards.

So long as those criteria are met and an application is properly filled out, every single-family residential property in the unincorporated portions of Talbot County–no matter how zoned, no matter in what type or density of neighborhood, no matter if it shares a private drive with others, no matter if other STR’s are right nearby—should be eligible for an STR license as a matter of right.

Furthermore, the conversion of homes in our neighborhoods to this highly profitable commercial use should not be restricted to Talbot citizens, but is an opportunity purposefully extended to all outside investors, including corporate investors, who do not pay income taxes here, raise families here, or vote here.

Obviously, the primary rationale for this position is economic development (though marginal benefits are what matter), and in any event “economic development” is what must be balanced against other major impacts on the County. As well, it would be good to be clear-eyed as to just who benefits and who is harmed.

The primary proponents of this world view are the local STR property management firms, the Mid-Shore Board of Realtors and a few of its agents working the STR market, and some current STR owners frightened (unnecessarily) that existing licenses are under direct threat. [See recent Spy Article “Follow The Money.”]

RATIONAL LIMITATIONS ON NEW STR’s:

The other point of view is that while STR’s have a place in our community, issuance of new STR licenses must be rationally limited in one fashion or another—otherwise, before it is too late the entire fabric of our residential neighborhoods (and therefore Talbot’s “character and quality of life”, in the language of the Comprehensive Plan) could be eroded.

Why? Because of these new realities that did not exist 10 years ago: Internet marketing; the highly profitable Airbnb/VRBO business model; the sudden emergence here of property management firms aggressively promoting and facilitating this use (the largest not even locally owned); the rise of outside investors focused strictly on this for-profit use; and the high impact a concentration of transient STRs can have on a local neighborhood.

Primary proponents of this world-view are residents of local communities, already affected by STRs, supported by a number of civic organizations, and operators of B&Bs, hotels and motels trying to stay profitable with transient lodging facilities in areas properly zoned in the County.

LIMITATIONS ON NEW STR LICENSES:

There are innumerable ways to rationally limit (but not eliminate) new STR licenses in Talbot County; as Walt Kelly’s Pogo said, we’re surrounded by insurmountable opportunity. The next column will discuss some of these alternatives.

If you read the news, you know the onslaught of Airbnbs and VRBOs all over America, from the largest cities to the smallest hamlets, have caused communities to demand increased regulation of this new phenomenon. Talbot is no different in that respect, though better off than some in that we are ahead of any crisis locally. But remarkably, the Talbot County Council is considering relaxing some existing regulations.

INCORPORATED TOWNS:

Fifty-two percent of the residents of Talbot County are completely unaffected by the STR law; they are the residents of Easton, St. Michaels, and the other incorporated towns, each of which regulates its own STRs. In St. Michaels, STR’s are restricted to commercial zones. And STR’s are appropriately limited in Easton too, as only a citizen whose home is a principal residence is eligible for an STR license. (All five Talbot County Council members live in Easton, and thereby enjoy this protection.)

Attend Tuesday evening’s work session and hear directly from the County Council on STR issues. Six PM this coming Tuesday evening, January 21st at the Wye Oak Room of the Community Center, Ocean Highway.

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Talbot Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Focus on Talbot: Follow the Money by Dan Watson

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This article is directed to the adults around here, people who didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.  

The issue is simple:  Will the County Council protect the County’s neighborhoods and residential communities, as rightly expected by local citizens who actually live here full time, whose lives (and not just money) are invested in this special place, who pay local income taxes, and who vote here?  Or will Council Members vote against local citizens and facilitate a new boom in “Airbnb” type rentals, feeding the financial interests of non-resident outside investors and a relative handful of (powerful) people who are positioned to benefit financially, notwithstanding the woe it brings to others?

That adage “FOLLOW THE MONEY” is the key yet again.

The County Council is being pressed to relax Short Term Vacation Rental (STR) regulations enacted just last year, when what’s really needed is to strengthen them.  This issue is critically important to the future of our community in the long run, but today the only people who seem to be aware of the battle are (1) neighbors of existing STR properties and (2) the relative handful of people—maybe one- or two-hundred of 37,000 Talbot Countians—who stand to make the real, serious money from these arrangements.  

Full disclosure:  I personally have no dog in this fight.  No STR property is yet (!) in my neighborhood, nor do I have any financial interests affected for better or worse by STRs.  Indeed, I was hardly aware of the issue until last year’s election…but I’ve been following it pretty closely once I saw the impact an imminent boom in Airbnbs will bring to Talbot County.  I am now an advocate for thoughtful regulation—not elimination–of STRs so we can have them but avoid harm to the folks who actually live here, brought about by exploitation of Talbot’s unique merits by outside investors and those who would milk that cow.

This brief commentary cannot delve into the many aspects of STR regulation.  But I do want to stress one overarching idea to keep in mind as you read about STRs: FOLLOW THE MONEY.

The Council is being lobbied from two directions.  On the one side is an informal group of full-time local residents who have been neighbors of STR properties for years.  This amorphous group, with no resources, came together under the banner “Neighborhoods Are For Neighbors” when the zoning code was rewritten last year. They were less than happy with the regulations enacted at that time—the ones that might now be relaxed.  (That displeasure in fact led to their participation in the successful effort to oust the Council President.)   

On the other side is the newly created Talbot Vacation Advocates (“TVA”), described in their own introductory memo as “a group of concerned Short Term Rental (STR) homeowners, vacation rental companies, tourism businesses, and local professional groups.”   While some current STR owners are on the list of members (more on that below), the named organizers—no surprise here—are four (4) vacation rental companies and the Mid-Shore Board of Realtors.  Do you doubt TVA has access to resources to lobby this legislation?

These are the businesses that—along with the (almost invariably) out-of-County investors who buy properties for STR or Airbnb use—are the ones making significant money on these internet-enabled ventures.   (The largest vaction rental firm behind TVA was recently acquired; it is now a subsidiary of a regional firm that simultaneously markets Airbnb type rentals in Ocean City, the Delaware Beaches, and North Myrtle Beach SC.)

To state the obvious, there is nothing whatever wrong with investing and with making money—I’ve done it myself, in real estate.  An investors’ point of view is not somehow illegitimate. What is important is that everyone has their eyes open, and recognizes when self-interest lies behind arguments being advanced to influence public policy.  

TVA states that its “aim [is] to partner with and assist the Talbot County Council in revisiting (and, where appropriate reasonably revising) STR regulations.”  For me, “partner and assist” is particularly worrisome language given the financial and organizational support the real estate community advanced to some members of the Council in 2018—in fact, today’s majority on the Council.  

That some current STR licensees have joined TVA is illogical, but understandable when one reads the scary–but untrue–promotional material TVA’s organizers have put out.  It is illogical because the people who already have STR licenses and play by the rules are already in the catbird seat. A sudden boom of new STR properties will mean only more competition, pressure on prices and occupancy.  But given TVA’s bald assertion—that “a large group will continue to argue to ban all STRs in Talbot County”—of course all 140 current licensees should rise up. 

Having followed this closely for 15 months, read all comments submitted to the STRB, and attended most of their hearings over the summer, I can assure you that no one is advocating a “ban all STRs in Talbot County.”  If owners adhere to the law and take reasonable efforts to assure their renters do too, then there is no risk of losing an existing license.  (But understand, very few of the STR owners are local residents, and so must go on what they’re told by their rental agents…so, join TVA and send emails to the Council!) 

TVA has organized a veritable onslaught of emails to the County Council in recent days pressing for relaxation of STR regulations, and they will have a very big turnout at a public work session at the Community Center’s Wye Room at 5PM on Wednesday night, December 18th.  It’s an important moment for those who care about the character of Talbot County.

As you try to follow the merits of the STR debate, just remember: FOLLOW THE MONEY. 

More to come….

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Talbot Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here. 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Focus On Talbot: A Letter To The Grandsons by Dan Watson

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Here is a copy of a letter recently sent to my three grandsons to explain a recent development at my house….

Dear Boys—

You’ll recall when you were little you asked me about my bald head, very unlike yours’ and your Dad’s. As I explained at the time, every person has a skull made out of bone, and you can fit just so much stuff in there. At some point you are stuck with a skull bone of a fixed size that just doesn’t get any bigger, no matter what.

Now, people who are really, really smart, or who read the newspapers and books and learn a lot of stuff, get bigger brains, and then there isn’t enough room for hair follicles too, so the hair gets pushed out. And that’s how come some people like me come to have bald heads.

And yes, I remember you noticed a few years back that I have hair growing out of my nose, and my ears too. Same deal you see. For most people those particular hairs stay buried inside the head, but if you have really a lot of brains, then they just push the hairs out your ears and nose both, and then they have to be cut off. Your grandmother is never happy if that is forgotten for a few days.

Now it turns out that next month I am going to get hearing aids. The Doctor said it’s because reading the Talbot Spy and Star Democrat every single day, and other things as well, has made that brain keep growing and growing. I guess it is now pushing on the little ear bones, which consequently don’t work so well. But these hearing aids will take care of that, so he said it is ok to keep on trying to learn more and more stuff.

But now the eye doctor says my eyesight is getting a little funky too. Do you think reading and learning a lot can make your eyeballs pop out of your head? That would be horrible—then you’d just have to watch TV! No, I guess that wouldn’t work either, would it? NPR, I guess. Anyway, maybe a really huge brain could finally get in the way, we’ll see.

Meanwhile you guys are young, so keep on reading and studying and trying to learn just as much as you can, and maybe you’ll be lucky enough to go bald too!

Love, Granddad

PS. A big brain is different than a swelled head, which you definitely don’t want. We can talk about that next visit.

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Dan

Focus On Talbot: Zombies (Part Two) by Dan Watson

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My last column concerned the Zombies of Talbot County—those ubiquitous roadside trees and shrubs that are being swallowed whole by invasive vines and parasitic overgrowth. They are not just unsightly, disfiguring our landscape, but are seriously damaging or killing many trees outright.

Response to that article, as well as a little outreach of my own, confirms that everyone sees the problem, some are taking small, isolated steps to address invasives here and there, but there is no one is really committed to or responsible for an effective, meaningful program that will change much of anything for Talbot County.

For example, Easton Utilities is attentive to the problem. Talbot’s Master Gardeners, under Lisa Ghezzi’s leadership, have attacked invasives at the Bay Street pond in concert with the Waterfowl Chesapeake, with more planned. But according to the Superintendent of the County Roads Department, Talbot “has neither the staffing nor the funding” to do a thing about invasives other than remove fallen trees and debris. As to SHA, the District Engineer in Chestertown reported it has a small budget to deal with invasives along State roads in every county, and they contract out a bit of that work yearly. The Agricultural Extension Service has information on the web that could be useful to homeowners, and they flagged the “Maryland Invasive Species Council,” an excellent if passive resource.

And in different ways the work of ShoreRivers, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Eastern Shore Land Conservancy all have programs that intersect with the problem of invasives. In short, everyone seems to have a little piece of the issue—but the right hand does not know what the left is doing, no one owns the problem, and as things stand I see no one who is going to fix the problem in Talbot County.

Now I know that invasives overtaking Talbot’s roadside trees does not constitute an existential problem. It’s not climate change—the topic of another recent article—and the earth will spin on its axis whether or not we attack this blight. Some folks will say to hell with it–half of Talbot is going to be underwater in 50 years anyway. Or it’s just not that important.

But there is, in my opinion, a plan that could fix this completely in say five years time, pretty much eliminating scourge on Talbot County roadsides. No, I am not suggesting we all pull on our jeans and meet every Saturday to clip vines (though we should each take care of our own roadside, and maybe an outing or two would be appropriate). Instead, what we need is the ZOMBIE ACTION COUNCIL, a group dedicated to a countywide, deadline-specific, large-scale effort pulling together and helping to coordinate all the responsible parties, holding them accountable in a public way, and facilitating targeted efforts wherever possible. Appended below, for anyone interested, is an outline of key aspects of the Zombie A. C.. Just a first draft, of course.

Could this really happen, could we solve this community problem? Indeed we could—if, but only if, Talbot citizens care.

And I like the idea of “ZOMBIE A. C.” tee shirts too.

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

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Zombie Action Council

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Focus On Talbot:  We Live With Zombies by Dan Watson

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Do you too feel the disgust as you move daily among the Zombies?  Repulsive, ugly creatures looking down at you everywhere! Talbot County’s walking dead…if ever they had walked.   Nowhere are you free of their shadow; dark, scary sentries standing guard right and left.

It is just so sad.  They are all “born here’s,” not “come here’s;” spent their whole lives in Talbot County.  Do we protect, nurture, support these neighbors of ours, try to help them recover? No, we do nothing, ignoring these pillars of our community as the life is sucked out of them right before our eyes.   The Zombies of Talbot County.

I’m speaking, of course, of our roadside trees, overtaken by invasive vines and parasitic overgrowth.  Maybe a little Zombie drama can pique readers’ attention to this blight we tolerate in our community. The photos below only hint at the issue: open your eyes and you’ll see the problem everywhere on the public roadsides, the face of Talbot County.

Examples are too many to list, but we must note the worst horror story: the entire west side of the Easton Bypass from St. Michaels’ Road to well south of the Oxford Road.  And there’s the now-dead 30’ tree at the exact southwest corner of St. Michaels Road and the Bypass. Much bigger trees (dead or un-dead, who knows?) shrouded in vines stand along the woods lining Bay Street.  Easton Rails to Trails is a travesty. Freestanding Zombie trees 100 feet apart deface farm fields along the Oxford Road, especially south of Almshouse. And tight rows line Goldsborough Neck Road north of Airport Road.  These are only the well-traveled byways, but you know the same is found in Trappe, Wye Mills, Cordova…indeed to some extent along every County and State road in Talbot.

Through our inaction and indifference, native roadside trees and shrubs are being eaten alive by Porcelain Berry, English Ivy, Wild Clematis, Kudzu, Black-Swallow-wort, Mile-a-Minute Vine, and who knows what all.  One does not need to know the name of the villain to know it doesn’t belong, that it’s sucking life out of, and is likely to kill the tree that supports it.  

There are specific areas where attention has been paid, and our trees and roadsides look great.  The streets in downtown Easton, for example, are handsome and cared for (all the greater contrast to the Rails to Trails—SO SAD, as some would tweet).  But it can be done—that can be the norm, not the exception in Talbot.

We also know that vines and parasitic invasives are not a brand new problem; they have just proliferated in recent years.  And a few vines (e.g., Virginia Creeper) are native and natural. Nevertheless, while all this could be ignored in past decades, this blight is redefining the look and feel of Talbot, to our collective detriment.  

Because of sunlight and disturbed soil, the invasives grow mostly at the very edges of woods and tree lines (where also birds hang out, deposit seeds), and thrive also on unattended “lone wolf” trees.  Seldom are they a problem even ten feet into the shade of the woods. These interlopers, once established, also create undergrowth that makes tree-care itself more difficult, inviting yet more invasives till maintenance seems impossible.  Oy!

So what’s to do?  Next column will address the “who/how/what/when and where” of action we need to take, as well as reporting on programs planned and underway.  Meanwhile, look around. Look at your own yard, your own shared-driveway, the road you live on. And look around as you travel Talbot’s byways.  We can fix this, not quickly or with ease…but we can fix it.

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Focus On Talbot: Mulberries And Silk—More To The Story by Dan Watson

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I think I’ve found out where that charlatan Whitemarsh got his mulberry stock, all the shoots to sell to those rubes in Talbot County. And I’m a little embarrassed, to tell you the truth.

Last night, after the Spy ran that piece, I forwarded it on to a few friends and relatives because I thought it was pretty entertaining, if I must say so myself. A few hours later I got an email from Uncle Bud in Tucson who is the Watson family historian. Subject line was: “You may have more silk in your blood than you know.”

This was the attachment, I kid you not:

So I’m thinking Captain John Miller (also known as “Racoon Miller”, see below) may have discovered just how tough it is to be a worm wrangler to five million little critters, and so forth. Who knows where he got the right species of mulberry (Eliza?), but I’m thinking—sorta hoping, now that he’s my role model—that he had the good sense to pawn this whole caper off to some guy in Pennsylvania, where they are known to be not too smart. (I do know there is not a thriving silk industry in East Tennessee.) Please note that Racoon (sic) Miller’s wife, allegedly from NC, was the daughter of Lewis Whitner, a German immigrant who in 1747 immigrated to–wait for it–PENNSYLVANIA. I’m thinking Racoon must have had a brother-in-law.

Anyway, Bud sent me some additional information about this gentleman, my 5th Great-Grandfather he says. Born in Newberry County, South Carolina 1747. He served in the Revolution under Captain Joseph Martin, and moved to Raccoon Valley, Maynard County, in East Tennessee in 1777. By 1796 he owned 1600 acres in Clinch River Valley, and regrettably some enslaved people too. He died in 1829, not long before bro-in-law Whitemarsh (?) started his nursery, I suspect. (It is also recorded that in 1787 “Coones Miller” signed the “Petition of the Inhabitants of the Western Country,” no doubt seeking redress of some grievance, just as we do occasionally down here in this day, in Talbot County.) One of Coones’ sons was named Pleasant, which is also Uncle Bud’s Christian name, and my Grandfather’s too.

Between Racoon Miller and Billy Longmire*–a highwayman who in 1725 was sentenced to hang for stealing a fellow’s hat on the Lincoln Road in London, but indentured to Virginia instead–is it any wonder I wound up in the real estate business?

NOTE: Special Half Price Holiday Sale on mulberry shoots, Columbus Day weekend! Order soon while quantities last!

*(Google “William Longmire, Violent Theft – highway robbery, 13th October 1725”

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Focus On Talbot: Silk, then Maybe Pigs! By Dan Watson

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I’m not making this up.  A young woman from Virginia, a friend of my son, was visiting our home for a crab feast over Labor Day and noted two big old mulberry trees on our property.  I for one had never seen anyone get excited about a mulberry tree (aka, “that trash tree”), except for the grandkids who, when little, liked climbing along the misshapen trunks of one particularly weird old specimen.

It happens this young lady, Eliza, is an heirloom orchardist and a fruit historian.  She also raises pigs, but I’ll get to that later. She is Secretary of the North American Fruit Explorers Association, and has done genetic research in Kyrgyzstan where, she explains, 70% of the fruit we grow in the US originated.  Kyrgyzstan is situated on the Silk Road, which conveniently segues us back to those mulberry trees. 

Do you already know the fabulous story of Talbot County’s plunge into the silk business?  The context was that American farmers, including ours, were caught in a long-running depression that arose when peace came to Europe after the Napoleonic wars.  All the European farmers went back to work, and exports of American agricultural products–especially grain—took a nosedive. (Does the problem of falling grain exports somehow sound familiar?)  Something needed to be done.

Around 1838, ignited apparently by a huckster from Pennsylvania, the idea of getting rich (quick) on silk spread like wildfire in Talbot County; every Tom, Dick and Harry went in whole hog.  Folks would make silk from the cocoons of silkworms, which would spin this gold just by eating the leaves of Morus multicaulis, a particular species of ancient mulberry tree from China.  And it happened that this Pennsylvanian, Mr. Whitemarsh, had an inexhaustible supply of mulberry shoots of that particular species available for purchase!  What could go wrong?

“Silkworm mania ‘seized nearly everyone who could raise even a few dollars, while some even mortgaged their farms…Every available spot was used for setting out their plants.  Farmers planted down their fields and citizens of the Town (Easton) filled up their gardens.’ One Easton paper estimated that by 1839 one hundred thousand trees had been planted within one mile of town.”  Three silk companies were formed in Talbot County.  

“Then the bubble burst.  Someone made the discovery that in order to produce silk it was necessary not only to grow trees but to cultivate silk worms and extract fibers from the cocoons without destroying them.”  Who knew? By 1841 everybody had lost their shirts—silk shirts, cotton shirts, whatever. All they gave us was one of the most colorful tales in our local history…and Mulberry Station as the name for a local community and local apartment complex, one or the other presumably on the site of the Talbot County Silk Company.  Eliza found that Company’s April 1839 board minutes, attached.

(All of my information on this, and the quotes above, come from Dickson J. Preston’s wonderful Talbot County, A History published in 1983, a book that should be in every home in Talbot.  I am also sure that the Talbot Historical Society and the Maryland Room at the Library both have much more information that could enlighten and entertain you even more should you be interested.)

Labor Day 2019.   Eliza discovers with some excitement two big old mulberries at what was an old farmstead along the Miles.  She recognizes they are not Morus ruba, our boring native mulberry. They are either Mors alba or Morus multicaulis, silk related species from China.   She asks about what we know, and remembering that chapter, out comes Preston’s history to fill in the story to Eliza’s surprise and delight. 

But now here’s the great part.  In her own words, this is why Eliza is excited to encounter these remnant trees:  “I’m trying to find these old silk mulberry trees because the genetics come from Asia, where silk culture is 6,000+ years old. They have been selecting mulberries for higher protein content (among other characteristics) for a very long time because silkworms thrive on it.  I’m finding that cows, pigs and chickens also thrive on silkworm mulberry cultivars (eating the leaves). So, I’m working on building a genetic repository of mulberries for livestock farmers to incorporate into their pastures in specific ways. The idea isn’t mainstream by any means, but I’m hoping it could be!”  And Eliza, whose degree is in forestry, is heading for China in the spring to learn more about the cultivation of Morus multicaulis.

Eliza advocates for the idea of having livestock feed in orchards, perennials of which mulberry is just one.  Her website is hogtree.com. If you are interested in this project or have information you think Eliza would like to know, you can reach her at [email protected].

Now I’m thinking this idea–letting pigs feed on protein-rich mulberry fruits and leaves–is probably going to make someone a fortune.  Could be you! I happen to have a large supply of shoots available for the discerning buyer. Prices available on request.

 

 

 

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Focus on Talbot: $248.77 by Dan Watson

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Two hundred forty-eight dollars and seventy-seven cents. That was the final price just to see what we had the legal right to see all along.

Truth should be free to the public, but at least three on this Council think otherwise.

You recall those “Pentagon Papers” – the ten emails and eight texts that the County Council back in February insisted must be kept locked away? They related to decisions the State’s Open Meetings Compliance Board (“OMCB”) determined were made illegally, behind closed doors. It took a Public Information Act request to smoke out what happened. Even then, the Council refused to release their texts and emails, claiming that to do so would “harm the public interest.” In other words, they were keeping those texts and emails secret from us for our own good.

But once the State determined the Council’s secret decision-making violated State law and should have transpired in public, it followed that those texts and emails should have been public too. Yet the Council majority still refused to release them…that is, until another citizen filed a separate PIA for the same documents.

Here is what Council Members then said as they announced a change of heart:

Mr. Lesher (moving for their release): “The public was entitled to, but deprived of the opportunity to, observe our actions.”

Ms. Price: “I second that motion. …I thought from the very beginning that we should be transparent and should release those emails related to the PIA request. There was nothing in them that … the public shouldn’t see.”

Mr. Divilio: “I am happy to release the single email I sent to Mr. Pack which offered my opinion on the two issues.”

Mr. Callahan: “I don’t think we tried to keep anything away from the public; I thought we were doing our job as elected officials for the best interest of the community. That’s what I thought we were doing… I was not really concerned about hiding anything. I just think there are normal things we’re doing here, and it’s not the first and it’s not going to be the last…I’m in favor of releasing it because there’s nothing there…”

President Pack: “I was going to go along with the majority, and I will do likewise tonight in my abstention of casting a vote.”

So by a 4-0 vote the secret “Pentagon Papers” were released 6 months after the initial request, the Council proudly (and accurately) confirming there had never been anything the public shouldn’t see. In other words, the Council was not truly trying to “protect the public interest.” Just kidding!

So why the big fuss? I think it was simply about power… an embarrassingly petty demonstration (mostly to yours truly) that the Council majority could damn well do as it wished, PIA or not. That challenge as to how the Council made a couple of decisions behind closed doors was not well received. The Council probably did not expect to face an Open Meetings Act complaint, and certainly did not expect to lose it. But once that happened, the release of the “withheld materials” was inevitable and revealed the hollowness of the “protect the public interest” claim.

So what about the $248.77? State law says the County may recover its reasonable costs for “search and preparation” of materials under a PIA request if that work goes beyond 2 hours, which are free. Two points:

First, maybe “searching” for those emails and texts could have taken two hours, but the County’s charges for the rest of the fifteen hours must have been for “preparation;” that is, the County Attorneys’ time to research and prepare bogus arguments on privilege as directed by 3 (or more) members of the Council.

Second, those charges are not mandatory and can be waived, especially in a case of “public interest.” Indeed, Maryland’s PIA manual states “A waiver may be appropriate, for example, when a requester seeks information for a public purpose, rather than a narrow personal or commercial interest, because a public purpose justifies the expenditure of public funds to comply with the request.”

Is our case not the poster child for this “public purpose” waiver?

The Council majority’s decision, after several requests for reconsideration (one as late as this week) seems final. They have waived half the charge, with this somewhat insulting, backhanded comment: “This reduction in fees should not be perceived as a reflection of the merits of your inquiry, nor whether the fees were properly issued…Rather this decision is reflective of an effort to avoid dissuading citizens from inquiring into actions of their local government due to cost.”

This whole PIA kerfuffle is just petty, but it does make one wonder. Will these well intentioned, hardworking representatives, who put in a ton of time tending to County matters, act in a manner more mature when matters of real importance arise? We all hope so, I’m sure.

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Focus On Talbot: All About Those “Special Interests” by Dan Watson

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Whatever the particular political disagreement, the other side—those bums—are usually a bunch of “Special Interests” or people at least heavily influenced by “Special Interests”. All of my friends and allies agree that’s so! But funny thing is, everybody on the other side is likewise crying “Special Interests” at us, the white/black hats (depending).

Sound familiar?

Fact is, that term “Special Interest” is totally devoid of any meaning, and is beside the point. Obviously, every one of us who is not comatose has “special interests” and, worse, is a MEMBER OF SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS!

My wife has a special interest in choral music, and shares that interest with others, a Special Interest Group it seems. My one neighbor is a beekeeper, the other a skilled photographer. They too are allied with people of similar interests! My brother-in-law builds model boats, along with a GROUP of other men. (Yes, all men—illustrating just how special that group is.)

Our networks are endless.

One interest that we all share is that we want to make money, we want to advance our financial position. Show me someone who denies it, and I’ll show you…one very odd dude. (DJT?) “Making more” is a good, totally worthy aim, one that underlies capitalism and human nature itself.

It follows that many groups are organized around this proposition: we have business interests in common, so let’s get together to push ideas that will make us more money. Like a Society To Aid The Homeless, these too are “special interest groups,” though fundamentally devoted to the personal financial gain of their members. (Still, prosperity is a plus, and my gain will be good for you too: I’m now able to spend more money at your store, helping to pay the wages of your local employees, who sing in choruses and aid the homeless.)

(Associations like I’ve described almost always purport to advance members’ and community interests in many other ways too–education, charitable efforts, bonhomie, etc.–but who among us doesn’t think the primary objective is to make the members’ more money? This doesn’t mean those community benefits aren’t super, and much appreciated.)

So all that said, how many special interests groups—formally organized or not—might you belong to? A bunch that are for fun (the shooting club?), civic minded (Rotary perhaps), cultural (the cinema society?), or ones focused on personal financial gain (National Ass’n of XYZ Practitioners, or, for retired folks, an investment club).

So let’s get back to the idea of political arguments, whatever the substance, and at whatever level, from Talbot County to the G7. The right solution to any issue (assuming the parties agree on what the problem is!) should be based on facts, evidence, logic. The identity of the advocates on either side ought to be beside the point. The sticky wicket, of course, is that in any situation opposing groups are likely not to agree on the facts and evidence (and very often not on the definition of the problem)—so who are you to believe? That is where the motivation of the advocates needs to be distinguished and fully understood.

False equivalency is a great danger here. Some (when it serves their purposes) claim that the advocates for both sides are “special interests,” so its even-steven and lets not discuss respective motivations and purposes. That’s personal and somehow out of bounds.

But false equivalency must be rejected; the underlying motivations of both parties to any issue should be recognized for what they are–not because that alone determines the correct answer (it doesn’t), but to provide perspective on the competing efforts to define the problem and the competing “facts and evidence” advanced.

In assessing positions of opposing parties in any political discussion, the complaint about the influence of “Special Interest Groups” is meaningless. The question is, what is the core motivation and purpose of the particular opposing interest groups in the discussion? An adult, clear-eyed focus on that will enable anyone to better assess the definition the problem (often key) and the competing “facts and evidence” put forth.

Ok, I agree all of this is pretty obvious. But I’ve been hearing that meaningless “Special Interest” charge thrown around way too much, along with the false equivalency defense that tries to blunt an honest evaluation of the motivations of competing parties. Just thought it’d help to put a spotlight on it, obvious or not.

By the way, I was just kidding there at the beginning, for effect. The people who disagree with me of course are not bums. In every case they are all well-intentioned folks of good character and impeccable morals. They are simply confused about the facts, impatient as hell, very poor listeners, and unable to reason properly. Ok, I’m kidding again. I’m just going to drop it, ok?

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.