Time Machine preview-

This Sunday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye: 

PLUS

1999  ..

PHS Juniors attend Leaders Conference 

1954  ..

1894  ..

1905  ..

  

Opinion: The Chesapeake's health and budget decisions.

 

Gov. Wes Moore and legislative leaders have an important, though unenviable, task in the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session that convened last week: Meeting ambitious goals for our environment and climate while navigating a looming $3 billion budget shortfall.

(View commentary:)

Let’s turn promises into progress for the Chesapeake Bay - Maryland Matters

Wallops benefits with NASA contract to Rocket Lab.

 

(View news story:)

Rocket Lab selected by NASA to provide Neutron Launch services under VADR launch contract - Shore Daily News

EMS in Princess Anne will transfer to county.

 

Princess Anne Vol. Fire Company

Dear Princess Anne Community,

     Since 1948, the Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Company has provided Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to the citizens of Somerset County. In 2024. Our 17 career employees ran over 3,300+ EMS calls that were transported and delivered to Tidal Health PRMC in Salisbury, Tidal Health-McCready in Crisfield, or Atlantic General in Berlin. Those were full transports from a physical 911 address to a health care facility and not good intent (non-transport) calls. With Medicare and Medicaid as the majority of the funding for these transports ran anywhere from $20 to $170 for the full transport. A typical ALS call should be billed at $1000+ whereas we may see only $20-$170 of that transport. Yes, you read that correctly. Now do that 3,000 more times at that rate. When someone calls us for a nosebleed, we cannot say no we have a duty to serve and transport. EMS supplies, Payroll, workman’s compensation, taxes, and benefits have all grown dramatically in our station. We have provided the citizens a 2-crew run station with 2 paramedics, and 2 EMTs 24/7 for the past 10+ years. We have attempted multiple talks with our County commissioners asking for more funding to support our growing EMS calls in the County and not getting adequate funding from billing. 

     With that being said, as of July 1, 2025, the Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Company will no longer be providing EMS service to the county. The Board of Directors have met with the Somerset County Commissioners in a closed meeting and they will be taking over Ems services in our First Due area. This decision was not made lightly but as a business, we cannot continue to run EMS without adequate funding to support our employees. We will work hand in hand with the county as this EMS service is being transferred over to them. No lack of EMS service will happen during this time. We will continue to answer calls until the commissioners are ready with their county-run EMS system. Our County Commissioners have agreed to talk to our current employees and offer them a package deal in the coming weeks.

Old Stockton fire vehicle looking for a good home.

 (WBOC)

(View news story:)

A Piece of Firefighting History is for Sale in Stockton | Latest News | wboc.com

The return of a vanished Chesapeake island-

 

(View article:)

Poplar Island 2.0: Bay's Next Island Rebuild Details Revealed | Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Phoenix Police: Former Oriole's death likely drug related.

 (Sports Illustrated 1/13)

The death of former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz came out of nowhere, as he was just 37 years old.

On Monday, the cause of death was revealed and reported by outlets, including the Baltimore Sun.

The Sun reported that Matusz likely died of a drug overdose on Jan. 7, according to a report filed by the city of Phoenix police department.

The report said that Matusz was found on the couch of his Arizona home by his mother and that there was drug paraphernalia around him. Along with that, there was reportedly a white substance in his mouth

The paraphernalia indicated a lighter and straw. Investigators also found fentanyl, heroin and crack cocaine around his body.

Worse, it appears that Matusz was taken to a local emergency room two days before he died. The report did not indicate why he was taken to the hospital, but he was discharged. It was recommended that he seek mental health assistance. He was taken to a behavioral health hospital, but he was not admitted.

The report also noted that two days before he went to the hospital, he told his mother that “there is nothing left for me.”

He made his Major League debut with the Orioles in 2009 at 22 years old and went 5-2 in eight games with a 4.63 ERA. He remained with Baltimore for the bulk of his career, with his best season coming in 2010 when he went 10-12 with a 4.30 ERA in 32 starts. He finished fifth in AL rookie of the year voting.

But he never approached what the Orioles were hoping for as a first-round pick.

He went 27-41 with a 4.92 ERA in his career with Baltimore, which ended with him as an effective middle reliever in his final two seasons with the franchise.

In 2016 the Orioles traded him to Atlanta, which designated him for assignment. He hooked up with the Chicago Cubs but was DFA’d after one start.

He never pitched in the Majors again, though he pitched in the minors with Arizona in 2017 and in the Mexican League in 2019.  

Time Machine: 100 years ago this week in Pocomoke's newspaper; 2012, 1957, 1888, circa mid/late 1950's.

 

                                (excerpt)

January, 2012

(Third graders at Pocomoke Elementary School listen as Assistant Principal Michael Browne, right, explains the importance of the school's selection as a 2012 Maryland Blue Ribbon School, an announcement made earlier Tuesday. Six schools were honored for exhibiting high performances or significant improvement in reading and mathematics on Maryland assessments, and will go on to compete for National Blue Ribbon Awards, which will be announced by the U.S. Department of Education in September.)

Salisbury Daily Times

October, 1957

Peninsula Enterprise

*August, 1888

Record and Gazette (Pocomoke)

*Circa mid/late 1950's

"Club 16" was an early evening Monday-Friday locally originating live program from the studio of WBOC-TV featuring entertainment and public interest items.  In this photo we believe staff announcer John Rahe was hosting.

tkforppe@yahoo.com

Cybersecurity incident involved public schools in Worcester and Somerset.

 

Worcester County Public Schools

January 10, 2025

Dear Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) community:

This letter is to inform you of a recent cybersecurity incident involving PowerSchool, the software vendor which provides our Student Information System (SIS).

(View Superintendent Lou Taylor's letter:)

PowerSchool Announces Cybersecurity Incident, WCPS Impacted | WORCESTER COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Recollections from generations past (Marah Stevenson Finney- 4)

 

Marah Stevenson Finney (1913 - 2006)

TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS FROM 1982 INTERVIEW

(Continued from last week)

INTERVIEWER: …. Transportation. Did you all have cars? Everybody? Or …

MARAH: Yes, when I was a child, the first car that I remember we had in

 Baltimore, was an Overland.

INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)

MARAH: Loosely related to the Studebaker family.

INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.

MARAH: When we moved down here. ‘Course, my father had died, he was

 only 42. When we first moved down here, my Uncle Walbur, he came up in his

 car, which I think was a Studebaker. But it was an open, what you would call

 a touring car. And in the wintertime, you put curtains where we now have

 windows.

INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)

MARAH: You snapped the curtains up. And I remember coming from

 Baltimore that real cold Christmas, and we had hot water bottles to keep our

 feet warm. (Both laugh.) And it was cold. No car heaters.

INTERVIEWER: I don’t think my generation can even fathom …

MARAH: No, you can’t. You really can’t visualize that, I’m sure.

INTERVIEWER: How ’bout the train, did you ride the train?

MARAH: Yes, when I was in high school, rode the train. Then after high school

 from here to Philadelphia. Then changed to go to Pittsburgh where my sister

 was living. And we rode the train to Baltimore. 

INTERVIEWER: How ’bout steamboats?

MARAH: In my mother’s day, there were steamboats on the river … And they

 used to go to Baltimore from Pocomoke. When I graduated from high school

 and I went to Towson to school, there was a steamer that left from Crisfield,

 from Crisfield to Baltimore. And we went ... to Towson by that steamer.

 Someone took us to Crisfield. It was probably Dr. Giddens because I lived

 with his sister.

INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.

MARAH: Bob Giddens, his father.

INTERVIEWER: His father, right, he was the dentist.

MARAH: And I know the night that we were on, you had cabins, and you spent

 the night going from Crisfield to Baltimore.

INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)

MARAH: And that particular night, there was a small fire on the boat. It did

 soon extinguish.

INTERVIEWER: I can imagine what it was like to be on when the boat was on fire, ugh. How about your first car, did you …

MARAH: It had roll-up windows, it wasn’t a snap-on ride.

INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) What year was it that you got this?

MARAH: That would be about 1933.

INTERVIEWER: Did many girls get cars, or did they …

MARAH: No, really, that was not my car, that was a family car. No, I didn’t have

 a car of my own until, well, when I married, we first had a car.

INTERVIEWER: Right. Okay. Public Landing? How often did you go?

MARAH: Not too often, maybe two or three times during the summer for

 picnics. We had several families that went on picnics together during the

 summer. Dr. Sartorius, who’s now at Hartley Hall. 

INTERVIEWER: Hartley Hall.

MARAH: Well, his son Norman.

INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.

MARAH: Was in my class in high school, and Bill the year ahead. And Rick

 was a year older, and our families were close because our fathers and

 mothers were close, and we always had picnics either at Public Landing or in

 Ocean City. And then the Sunday school had their picnics at Public Landing. 

 And there was lots of fried chicken and salad and rolls …

INTERVIEWER: How ‘bout swimming?

MARAH: Swimming, for the ones who could swim …

INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh. It wasn’t like it is now.

MARAH: No.

INTERVIEWER: In the pictures, the women were all covered up with umbrellas.

MARAH: Right, right.

INTERVIEWER: Nobody would think of going to the beach with umbrellas now.

MARAH: Right. My first bathing suit when I was about nine years old had

 sleeves to the elbows.

(Both laugh.)

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did you ever go to Red Hill?

MARAH: Red Hill was (clears throat) a picnic area before Public Landing. And

 I went several times, but I was very small, so I don’t remember much about it.

 But at the time, churches had picnics down there too. But due to the harsh

 terrain, it’s quite a long trip during the day.

INTERVIEWER: Did you ever go to Assateague?

MARAH: No.

INTERVIEWER: Maryland? (referring to Maryland's portion of Assateague?)

MARAH: No. It was not open … to the public.

(Continues next Saturday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.)

Jan 9 incident believed connected to earlier shooting.

 
 Pocomoke City Police Dept

Attention Pocomoke City residents; the following is a joined incident update from the Pocomoke City Police Department and the Worcester County Sheriff's Office:

On January 9, 2025, at approximately 11:20 P.M. The Pocomoke City Police Department responded to a call of shots fired at a residence on Maple Street in Pocomoke City, MD.  Detectives from the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation were called to assist. The residence was struck multiple times, but thankfully, no one inside was injured.

This incident is believed to be connected to the shooting that occurred on Linden Avenue in Pocomoke City on January 5, 2024.

📞 If you have any information about this incident, please contact the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation at 410-632-2076.

🌐 Submit Tips Anonymously

Citizens can also provide information anonymously through the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office App, available for free on the iOS or Android App Store.

Your help is vital to keeping our community safe! 🙏