Towns Hopes to Utilize History As Path for Return to Prosperity

Towns hope that John Smith trail will lead to prosperity

Many believe trail will be avenue to land preservation, tourism and access to Bay

By Rona Kobell

For Capt. John Smith, Port Deposit in 1608 was the end of the line. But for Erika Quesenbery, the explorer’s stopping place just might mark a new beginning.

Instead of “for rent” signs on forlorn buildings downtown, she envisions shops full of historic memorabilia commemorating the captain’s epic journey through the Chesapeake Bay. On the waterfront, where a sewage treatment plant now sits, she’d like to see a pavilion for waterfront concerts, a place to rent canoes and kayaks, and open space for visitors to take in a view similar to the one Smith’s crew might have seen.

Quesenbery, who has been the unofficial historian of the town she fondly calls “Port” since moving there 10 years ago, has harbored these dreams for a long time. But now, she says, they actually seem possible.

Article Continues on Chesapeake Bay Journal

Watershed Chronicle: Manning the Helm for Cecil County’s New Weekly Newspaper

From the Watershed Chronicle —

After doing a little digging, I’ve uncovered an interesting tidbit of information about the soon-to-be new newspaper here in Cecil County, The Cecil Guardian.  The editor of this new self-billed “community newspaper that listens to your needs” will be none other than Chesapeake Bay boating icon Ira Black. (Full disclosure:  Ira gave me my first job in Publishing at The Mariner way back in 1997.)  Ira’s brand of wry, off-beat humor and straight shooting for The Mariner, then later with his self-titled Ira Black’s Nor’easter Magazine, helped make him one of the most recognizable personalities in the Chesapeake Bay boating scene over the past twenty years.

Article Continues on the Watershed Chronicle

Turn to the web for up-to-date Cecil County Weather

There’s no telling what’s ahead for the upcoming season here at the top of the Chesapeake Bay.  But as old man winter gets a grip on the area and those cold blustery winds have us bundling up, we tend to place a greater emphasis on the current weather forecast. Not too long ago in Cecil County, there were only a few places to turn for the latest prediction. The daily newspaper contained an outdated forecast from the previous evening. The more popular place was the local television news broadcast, but you had to make sure you were in front of the tube at the right time. Eventually the weather channel came along to provide a steady stream of data, which was a big improvement.

But these days we have access to practically personal forecasts and massive amount of weather data on demand through a range of platforms. The best of these sites uses the web to deliver up-to-date Cecil County specific data, such as current conditions, hourly and 15-day forecasts, as well as lots of radar images and maps. The interactive radars on these web pages are highly functional and helpful when tracking that fast moving thunderstorm or watching that slow moving winter storm make its way across the county since you’re able to zoom down to your town.

It’s just one more example of how the delivery of information has changed in Cecil County. It’s free and the immediacy of the Internet lends itself to such changing information in a way that no other medium can for it streams data as fast as the values changes.

The government, the originator of practically all the data which is repackaged and resold by commercial providers, has most of its information online, but there are other places too. Here are some we find helpful for better quality local information.

http://weatherunderground.com The Weather Underground is an excellent site with plenty of information. It also has great radar capability allowing you to zoom in on portions of Cecil County. It’s our regular portal for forecasts.

http://www.intellicast.com – Great radar graphics and forecasts.

www.accuweather.com – This is the major commercial weather service and its forecasts are a strength. 

http://elktonweather.com – Ed Hoffman’s Elkton Weather page streams just about any type of local weather values one could think of. He collects the data at an observation station in the Elkton area and streams all those values live online. In addition, there are graphs plotting the change over time and lots of maps and graphs. We check this one out often too, more for its local observation’s strengths.

This Weather Underground Radar image shows a severe thunderstorm charging across the county on Aug 2, 2009

Another News Publication Says It’s Your Source for Community News & Information

The marketplace for news and advertising products in the county is continuing to heat up. This afternoon, while getting caught up on current local news on the net, we tripped across a recently launched news site, the Cecil Guardian. While it’s just getting underway, the mast head says it’ll be “your source for community news and information” and a print version will circulate Dec. 3.

Indeed we have lots of ’printed matter out there to occupy our attention and deliver readers for those expensive advertisements.  The Watershed Chronicle reported on some of this early this week. Actually this isn’t an anomaly in the county for such conditions generally existed here. But the problem in recent decades is not the volume of news print that’s pushed onto the street, but the quality of the content. If someone will start bringing home quality, original news, dig into stories just a little, and periodically question politicians, they’ll have an enterprise that will have great value. Readers want such a product in this underserved market (from that perspective) and if you have lots of readers, the value of advertisements soar appropriately.

We’ll have to see how this one works out because the track record in the county isn’t strong in the area of delivering valued content in the 21st century.  Since print news first appeared here, with the Elkton Press in the 1820s, over 60 different titles have been published here. There was a time at the turn of the 20th century that 8 hometown weeklies were issued. Of course, I realize that was a long time ago, but back in the 1970s we still had two independents, the Cecil Whig and the Cecil Democrat, and the News Journal competed aggressively with local content.

Some of my best insight for local research comes from using the News Journal in the 1970s. Those columnists knew how to call things the way they say them and mildly challenge local government institutions. It’s a process that is helpful for good governance.

We’ll see if someone is finally going to capitalize on this market opportunity associated with sought after content and couple it with the Net to delivery it in an efficient, cost-effective way.

Cecil Times: CENSUS: Cecil County Women–Smarter but Poorer?

From Cecil Times

Cecil County women are better educated than men in the county but they earn significantly less money from their jobs than less-educated men, according to new three-year data issued this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The discrepancies in income are not easily explained by the cliched notions that women work part-time, or drop out of the work force, to care for children and family members. The statistics show that women living in Cecil County are working at equal rates with men but their work is not obeing rewarded with equal pay. Women with higher education levels make less money than less-educated men. But equally educated men and women only make similar salaries if they are employed by the federal government, where there are strong anti-discriminatory rules in place.

Article Continues on Cecil Times

Engaged Group of Stakeholders Generate Valuable Ideas to Revitalize Elkton Town Center

Thursday evening about 35 people participated in an exercise to help plan for the revitalization of Elkton’s town center. Part of a brain storming process, it provided community-level input for consultants from Design Collective and R K & K, a team that is developing a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) plan, in cooperation with WILMAPCO, the Maryland Department of Transportation, and the municipality.

Elkton has great potential to enhance its downtown area as a result of its central location on the northeast corridor, the consultants noted. Currently along the 460 miles of commuter rail between Richmond, VA., and New London, CT., there is one major gap, the 20 miles from Perryville to Newark. Once passenger service is restored it will aid further economic development and provide greater travel choices to the rapidly growing area.

Working in enthusiastic groups with facilitators, a lively, informative discussion ensued around future strategies, which will contribute to the revitalization and strengthening of the historic town. These were important questions related to the overall quality and health of the larger community, such as what type of future development should occur downtown, how does the old business draw visitors back to Main Street, and how does the county seat become a walkable community centered around the old Pennsylvania Railroad Depot.

This early part of the planning process seeks to identify the strengths, weaknesses, barriers, and opportunities around implementation of a strategy. That’s where the groups came in since they provided community level input. After spending about 40 minutes talking it over in small clusters, the groups made their reports and there were plenty of ideas for the planners to work on. Most started off by saying that Elkton needed to leverage its historic resources and protect those assets since a town’s heritage provides a unique competitive asset. There was plenty of agreement that unique shops and restaurants are needed in the business area in order to get people to make this part of the community a destination. Also most seemed to agree that infilling of space needs to occur since there are many open areas in the town center. These open spaces, mostly surface parking lots, detract from a town’s character and such valuable space could be used for contributing purposes. There were also plenty of talk about the need for public spaces and spheres, such as small parks and areas for people to congregate and socalize.

In terms of barriers, there was discussion about the decline of the central business district as a center of employment. In addition many noted the pressing need for a place to gather now that Judy’s Java has closed.

It was a lively engaging, meeting, full of lots of ideas, which would strengthen a Main Street. Professional planners will take the input

New Cecil County Publication Competes For Classified Market Against Chesapeake Publishing

From the Watershed Chronicle

The Changing Face of Local Publishing

Everyone knows by now that the publishing industry is in a period of massive flux.  Revenue (and circulation) have fallen off precipitously, and the increasing presence of the internet has proved to be one more giant conundrum faced by corporations whose long-standing livelihood is dependent on being “the” location for information.  Cut-backs and layoffs have been well-documented, and the transition to any future at all has been filled with obstacles.  Recently, we’ve seen the results of some of these changes in the local industry, and I’d like to discuss a couple of those.

Also, if you’ll notice, I’ve placed a collection of links to various print publication websites on the side-bar.  This is by no means a complete list, and it will no doubt grow as I do a little research.  Basically, it’s the ones I could think of off the top of my head.  This area, for being a former rural, agricultural community, is very rich in print publications.

As I was leaving the grocery store last evening, I picked up a copy of the newest entrant in the local print advertising fray, the Better Bargains Advertiser.  This new shopper (strictly classified and display advertising, no content to speak of) is being published by the people who bring you Cecil Soil Magazine. The Better Bargains Advertiser is clearly chasing the market that has long been owned by The Bargaineer, produced and distributed by Chesapeake Publishing. 

Article Continues on Watershed Chronicle

BRAC Has Developer Looking for Land in Cecil County

BRAC’s promise brings developer, banker together – Baltimore Business Journal:.

Drop in newspaper circulation accelerating

Drop in newspaper circulation accelerating

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My newspaper’s bigger than your internet :P

From the Watershed Chronicle —

I always enjoy a good discussion when it comes to publishing.  And nothing is more exciting than when I come across someone who’s point of view seems oddly slanted beyond reason.  I ran across this list of 10 reasons why newspapers are of lasting value. (Full Disclosure:  I work as an independent contractor for the same parent company).  The article itself online is behind a pay wall, so if you want to read it, you have to pay up.  Otherwise, I’d like to refute points 1-9 while agreeing with point 10.  (By the way, I apologize for the tongue-sticking-out icon I stuck in the headline.  It’s just that I couldn’t write that line without imagining a 10-year-old kid sticking his tongue out.  Juvenile, I know.)

1.  Newspapers are really old.  And traditional.

Yes, print publishing has been around for hundreds of years, much of that time as the one and only way to communicate with the public.  But just because something’s been around a long time doesn’t necessarily argue for its future.  And just because something’s been around long enough to be a tradition, doesn’t mean we should all pay blind subservience to it, either.  Take “traditional marriage” for instance.  Traditionally, marriage was a social contract by which fathers sold their daughter’s hand for the best dowry, or to cement alliances between particular families.  Somehow, I don’t think that method would work so well in the 21st century.

2.  Newspapers are great for mass communicatin’

Sure, reaching tens or even hundreds of thousands of people in print was a great tool, for its time.  But the internet allows for nearly infinite reach.  And with none of those pesky production and distribution costs to bog things down.  With a newspaper, you can only reach as many people as copies you print.

Article continues on Watershed Chronicle