Category Archives: General News

Cambridge Matters – County Charter Commission Report – July 13, 2022

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Judge Stephen Rideout (ret.)
swrideout@aol.com

Dear Readers:

The Charter Commission Report has been posted on the County Council Website. I have downloaded it, and it is attached. If you prefer to go directly to it on the County Website, I found it at

https://secureservercdn.net/104.238.71.109/c4d.327.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Charter-Review-Commission-Public-Hearing.pdf

You can copy the link above and search for it directly.

I leave it to each of you who live anywhere in the County to make your own decisions about the recommendations. Each of them has with it or separately an explanation by the Charter Commission as to its reasoning. At the final Charter Commission meeting most of these recommendations were adopted 6-0. I think one was 5-1 and one was 4-0-2 with the 2 being abstentions.

I attended most of the Charter Commission meetings, and I want to compliment the Commission Members on the work that they did, especially given the short time that they were given to do their job. While I see a couple of their proposals that I would have worded differently, they worked hard and did a very good job. I think that all of the recommendations deserve consideration by you and by the County Council. Understand that any of the recommendations that are approved would be placed on the November ballot for the voters to approve or not as they choose.

The Council needs to hear your thoughts – for or against – and why. If they do not hear from you, they may think that you do not care; so email them, call them, or show up at the meeting on July 18th before 6 p.m. and sign up to speak. Under the notice, you will have 3 minutes to speak. If lots of people show up, that may be cut back.

If you are going to speak, prepare in writing what you want to say and test it out a couple of times to be sure it is no more than 3 minutes long and bring it with you.

Below is contact information of each of the the County Council Members that is found on the County website:

Council Member Newcomb
Cell: (443) 521-6957
E-Mail: jnewcomb@docogonet.com

Council Member Nichols
Home: (410) 221-1371
E-Mail: wnichols@docogonet.com

Council Member Travers
Work: 410-228-4313
Home: 410-228-1532
E-Mail: rtravers@docogonet.com

Council Member Pfeffer
Cell: 443-521-3690
E-Mail: lpfeffer@docogonet.com

Council Member Nagel
Cell: (443) 521-5469
E-Mail: lnagel@docogonet.com

Please let them know what you think.

Thanks.

Steve

Download (PDF, 181KB)

County Council Hearing on Charter Commission Recommendations – July 18, 6:00 pm

Posted on by

Judge Stephen Rideout (ret.)
swrideout@aol.com

Below is a notice from County Council regarding the date and time for a public meeting regarding the Charter Commission Recommendations to the County Council. They have not included the information for calling in, if you would prefer to do that rather than come to the meeting. Once I have the Charter Commission recommendations or a link to them, I will share them with you. I would ask that when you receive them that you take a look and consider calling the Council members or sending them an email with your support for the ones that you would like to see placed on the November ballot. We hope that they would be at least the ones that address the issues of Transparency and the County Manager that the Dorchester Citizens for Better Government have raised. The best and most productive thing you can do is to appear at the Council meeting and take time to make a public statement as noted below.
Thanks for considering these issues.

TAKE NOTICE. Pursuant to Section 603(c) of the Charter for Dorchester County, Maryland, the County Council of Dorchester County, Maryland will conduct a public hearing on July 18, 2022 at 6:02 p.m. in Room 110, County Office Building, 501 Court Lane, Cambridge, Maryland 21613, to consider the report of the Charter Review Commission of Dorchester County, Maryland of the Charter Review Commission’s review of the provisions of the County’s Charter and the recommendations of the Charter Review Commission as to the necessity for deleting, adding or amending the County’s Charter.
The public is invited to attend the public hearing and to provide comments which are generally limited to three (3) minutes per individual.
COUNTY COUNCIL OF DORCHESTER COUNTY, MARYLAND
By: Jay L. Newcomb, President

FLOOD RISK REDUCTION WORKSHOP – March 22, 2022

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FLOOD RISK REDUCTION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP
March 22, 2022
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Dorchester Center for the Arts located at 321 High Street Cambridge, MD
Hosted by: The City of Cambridge and Dorchester County

Both the City of Cambridge and Dorchester County are looking forward to this event. This event is going to be a great opportunity to obtain valuable flood risk reduction information at a “one stop shop” event. Please share this information with your neighbors and friends. We are all looking forward to making this a successful and well attended community workshop!

www.makecambridgeresilient.org

CAN-ShoreRivers Cleanup at Long Wharf – April 2

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CAN is organizing a group of volunteers to participate in the ShoreRivers Cleanup project on Saturday, April 2 (rain date April 9).

We’ll meet at 9 am in the parking lot at Long Wharf (adjacent to where the Nathan docks). We plan to remove trash and debris from the area, as well as trim some of the growth back in the bioswales.

We will have trash bags, as well as a limited supply of gloves and “grabbers.” If you have a pair of work gloves handy, I’d recommend you bring those in the event what we have does not fit. Any additional supplies are welcome too!

Please join us and register at the following link:

https://www.chesapeakenetwork.org/cleanup/long-wharf/

Contact Judd Vickers @ judd.vickers@gmail.com or CambridgeCAN@yahoo.com for additional questions

Flood Risk Reduction Community Workshop – March 22, 2022

Posted on by

Judge Stephen Rideout (ret.)
swrideout@aol.com

Dear Readers:

Attached is a notice about a public meeting at the Dorchester Center for the Arts on March 22nd regarding the ongoing effort to improve the Cambridge Waterfront and City and County efforts to respond to high water and flooding events. There will be a number of tables where you can learn how to help address your property and flooding concerns and what is happening here in our community. There will be a number of presentations on different topics of interest.

Take a look at the attached and mark this on your calendar.

You do not want to miss it.

Steve

Download (PDF, 74KB)

Campaign for Grade Level Reading

Posted on by

Judge Stephen Rideout (ret.)
swrideout@aol.com

Dear Readers:

I have written about, and, hopefully, you have heard about the Campaign for Grade Level Reading that has come to Dorchester County and Cambridge. It is a national effort that requires communities that want to join show that they have the capacity to do what is needed over the long haul. Dorchester County and Cambridge, thanks to the J2W Foundation, has been selected for this effort.

Attached please see a press release from the Dorchester Campaign for Grade Level Reading and share it with friends and neighbors..

Thanks.

Steve

Download (DOCX, 55KB)

SAVE THESE DATES – CAN CLEANUP DAY April 2 & CAN MEETING April 13

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SAVE THESE DATES – CAN CLEANUP DAY April 2 & CAN MEETING April 13

The Cambridge Association of Neighborhoods (CAN) is getting into Spring with two important events:

On Saturday, April 2, CAN will partner with ShoreRivers for a SPRING CLEANUP DAY at Long Wharf. Watch for details coming soon.

On Wednesday, April 13, CAN will hold its ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING at 6:30 pm in the Library Conference Room. Votes will take place on nominated Board Members and proposed bylaws changes. The featured speaker will be Ward 1 Commissioner Brian Roche. Stay tuned for details!