Category Archives: General News
Cambridge Matters – June 28, 2018 – Free Legal Clinics
CAMBRIDGE MATTERS
By: Commissioner Steve Rideout
swrideout@aol.com
June 28, 2018
Dear Friends:
Attached is a notice about free legal clinics that are being offered by the MidShore ProBono organization in different locations on the Eastern Shore. MidShore ProBono represents low income people across the Eastern Shore in civil matters. If you have a place at work or in your community, such as a community center, where you can post this, please do so. Please share it in your churches and with people that you know who might need legal help or may be working with people who need legal assistance in a civil matter.
If you have questions or want to help MidShore in providing its services, please contact me so that I can get you to the right person. For those of you who are lawyers or know a retired lawyer who may not be licensed in Maryland, you are needed to help provide these services. If you are not licensed, Maryland allows you to practice under limited circumstances to assist the poor, so please be in touch if you would like to help.
– Steve
Community Disasters Training
Dorchester County DES is offering the following course: Search and Rescue in Community Disasters, Strategies and Skills Surviving Disaster – PER-334 on October 10 and 11, 2018. The course is 1 ½ days and will be held at the City of Cambridge Public Safety Building Training Room, 8 Washington St., Cambridge, MD. To register for this class you need to go the Maryland Emergency Management Agency Learning Management System (LMS) at: https://memamaryland.csod.com/client/memamaryland/default.aspx .
If you do not already have a FEMA Student Identification Number(SID) go to: https://cdp.dhs.gov/FEMASID/ to register for a number.
Please refer to the attached flyer for additional information concerning this course.
The Search and Rescue in Community Disasters course provides training for individuals to survive a disaster and to safely conduct search and light rescue response, aiding their family and neighbors in the immediate aftermath of a natural catastrophe, technological accident, or human-caused incident. The course is intended for members of the whole community and draws on information and lessons learned from a variety of disaster incidents such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and man-made events for discussion points. This course is not intended for the professional responder however would be beneficial for the responder’s family. The course also uses hands-on training to demonstrate best practices for effective search and light rescue, which can be used in both residential and commercial environments.
Stephen I. Garvin, MDPEMP
— Dorchester County Emergency Management Agency
Cindy Smith
— Grants & Housing Administrator, 410-228-0281 ext 1104
Volunteer Planters Needed – June 18th, 19th, & 21st
CAN Residential Rentals Study and Interactive Map
Click for Interactive Rental Housing Map. Each dot represents an individual rental property. Zoom and pan to identify properties more easily. Click on a dot to get basic information about the property. Click “satellite” to switch to satellite view. Accurate to December 2017. CAN cannot be responsible for outdated or otherwise inaccurate information.
Volunteers Needed for CAN Social Events
The Cambridge Association of Neighborhoods (CAN) needs volunteers to help organize social events throughout the City.
We need as much help as you are willing to give — we need help with everything from planning and coordinating city-wide and ward-wide events to hosting small neighborhood gatherings to working behind the scenes. Whatever you can do, we need your help!
Take advantage of this opportunity to have some fun and meet new people!!
Chuck McFadden will host an organizational meeting at 6:30 pm on Thursday, April 26, at the WHCP Meeting Room, 516 Race Street, in Cambridge!
For additional information contact Chuck at ragtime31@gmail.com
Be There or Be Square!!
Historic Preservation Commission Seeks Comments on Proposed (Draft) Guidelines
After a lengthy process of public input and staff support, the Cambridge Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) recently released the draft version of its proposed Design Guidelines for the Historic District (attached below), and seeks additional public input before finalizing the document. The draft was posted on the City website on April 13th, at http://choosecambridge.com
The second and final Public Input Session will be held in City Council Chambers on Tuesday, April 24th at 6pm. Oral comments will be accepted by telephone (410-228-1955). Email comments may be sent to Herve Hamon (hhamon@choosecambridge.com) or Pat Escher (pescher@ choosecambridge.com) by April 18th, or shortly thereafter. Comments may also be mailed to the Department of Public Works, c/o Pat Escher, 1025 Washington Street, Cambridge, MD 21613.
The design guidelines can be summarized in three statements:
(1) Preserve and maintain historic properties to prevent deterioration
(2) If repairs are needed, use in-kind materials (identical or very similar to original) or approved substitute/synthetic materials
(3) If repairs are not feasible, replace using in-kind materials (identical or very similar to original), or approved sunstitute/synthetic materials
The Guidelines have been structured to make them more concise and easier to use. For example, each section of Chapter Four (Guidelines for Buildings) is organized by building feature, i.e. roofs, porches, facades, etc. Within each section there is a list of Guidelines (i.e., requirements) and Recommendations (i.e., suggested, but not necessarily required). A text description follows each section. Chapter Five (Landscapes) and Chapter Six (Additions and New Buildings) are similarly organized.
In addition, valuable information is contained in Chapter One (Introduction), Chapter Two (Processes/Procedures), Chapter Three (Design Principles), Appendix A (Summary of the Guidelines) and the HPC Administrative Review Chart, Appendix B (Architectural Styles found in the Cambridge Historic District), and Appendix C (Development of Cambridge – Economic and Geographic Factors). A final Appendix under development will clarify what substitute/synthetic materials may be used on historic buildings if original materials are not available or are prohibitively expensive.
Key dates for finishing the guidelines:
– April 19 – Public comments due to DPW
– April 24 – Public input session
– May 14 – Presentation to City Council
– June 21 – Final draft due to Maryland Historic Trust (MHT) and City Council
– August 6 – Comments due back from MHT (45 days required)
– August 13 – Final document presented to City Council for vote and approval
Attached below is the full text of the draft (proposed) documents:
– Cambridge Historic Design Guidelines
– Appendix A (HPC Guidelines and Recommendations Summary),
– HPC Administrative Review Chart,
– Appendix B (Architectural Styles in Cambridge), and
– Appendix C (Development of Cambridge – Economic and Geographic Factors)
These documents and more information about the Historic Preservation Commission can be found in the Boards and Commissions listings of the Cambridge City Website at https://www.choosecambridge.com/
Cleanup Rescheduled – April 21, 2018
CAN is participating in Project Clean Stream which is a City-wide effort to clean up waterways of Cambridge. CAN’s area is Cedar St. where the Creek starts at Generation III Marina. We need volunteers from 10 to 11 on SATURDAY, APRIL 21.
We will be working with five or six High School students, who can actually bend over. We know tennis, golf, and gardening are great but what could be more fun than picking up trash! Do your good deed for the Spring and join us on Cedar St. We will have gloves, bags, traffic vests, etc., so all you have to bring is your happy self.
We’ll meet at 10 am in the parking lot on Cedar St between Perimore St and Moreland Ave (across from Generation III Marina).
Join us for an hour
— Chuck McFadden
Volunteers Needed – Saturday April 7 Cleanup
CAN is organizing a group of volunteers to participate in the ShoreRivers Cleanup Day on Saturday, April 7.
We’ll meet at 10 am in the parking lot on Cedar St between Perimore St and Moreland Ave (across from Generation III Marina). Please join us!!
Contact Chuck McFadden at Ragtime31@gmail.com or CambridgeCAN@yahoo.com for additional details.
CAN SURVEY RESULTS – PRIORITIES FOR CAMBRIDGE – March 26, 2018
The results of CAN’S survey on “PRIORITIES FOR CAMBRIDGE” are in!!
The first attachment below summarizes the numerical results of the survey. A total of 144 individuals completed the survey, representing a response rate of almost 25% of our distribution list.
Overall, Economic Development was rated as respondents’ top priority, with Public Safety and Safe/Livable Housing sharing second place.
The second attachment provides the narrative comments received from respondents. These comments are particularly useful in demonstrating the intensity of feeling underlying the numerical data.
In light of the survey results, one of CAN’s top priorities going forward will be to encourage the City to strengthen its economic development efforts.
Although we elicited an excellent response rate for a survey of this type, CAN is working hard to expand its email list so we can reach a broader cross section of Cambridge residents in future surveys.
Note from CAN Board Member Frank Cooke: As a former statistician, I would disagree with part of your conclusion [above]. While jobs and economic development is clearly number 1, you should not declare public safety and safe/livable housing are second implying that everything else is third or less. Given your sample size, improved city facilities and strong finance are statistically indistinguishable from the the two second place finishers that you cite. All one can really say is that jobs and economic growth seem to be the most important factor and that environmental and health issues are lower priorities. The other four concerns fall somewhere in between and are in a statistical tie. The results indicate to me that CAN’s focus on housing is not in line with the citizens who responded. I think it should be instructive to CAN’s board of directors and hopefully will be a topic for further discussion of CAN’s emphasis. I would appreciate it if you would post my response to the general membership. Thanks for conducting the survey. Respectfully, Frank Cooke