Friday, June 17, 2022

Time Machine Preview

This Sunday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye:

1829  ..  On the lower Eastern Shore-


2007  ..  Construction in progress on an important Pocomoke City structure-

1921  ..  

1972  .. 


Plus local history author Jim Duffy's TV segment about the circus coming to Saxis.

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

From the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office-

Deputy First Class Glenn Hilliard

Funeral services will be held Tuesday June 21, at 12 Noon at Emmanuel Wesleyan Church on Beaglin Park Drive in Salisbury. There will be a public viewing for two hours prior to the service. 

The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 111 has established a fund for the family of Glenn Hilliard. Checks may be made payable to the "Memorial Fund for Glenn Hilliard" and either mailed or dropped off at the Bank of Delmarva located at 921 Eastern Shore Drive Salisbury, MD 21804.

 Operation We Care has a PayPal account set up to also accept donations - click on the button that says "Donate" and you will find the link for the "DFC Glenn Hilliard Family".


Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Snow Hill Paddle Fest!

                                                            

Dear Friends — We're baaaack! 


Walk on Water and the Town of Snow Hill Present the 5th Annual Return to Goat Island Paddle Fest Saturday, July 23rd, in Snow Hill, Maryland. 

Walk on Water will be celebrating a milestone 10-year Anniversary this July making a memorable race weekend even BETTER!

So, Join us on Saturday, July 23rd, for a FUN day of racing and hanging out with family and friends as we gather to celebrate the paddling lifestyle and all that it means to us. 

Races are open to paddlers of All levels: 

2-mile Open Race - SUP All & Kayaks (under 12 ft. ONLY)

6-mile Race - SUP 14' (category incl 12'6"), SUP surf style (under 12') and Kayaks & Surfski

Dash for Cash Sprint (right after the main races) -SUP 14' (ONLY) 

Kids Races on giant inflatables. 

Read more about it:

ReturntoGoatIslandPaddleFest | PaddleGuru

The O's

 

(Sports Illustrated)

Baltimore Orioles Chairman Responds to Relocation Speculation

Orioles chairman John Angelos pushed back Monday against speculation that the team could be relocating in the near future.

“As I have said before, as long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over the Inner Harbor, the Orioles will remain in Baltimore,” Angelos said in a statement.

John’s brother, Louis Angelos, filed a lawsuit against his older brother and his mother in Baltimore County Circuit Court last week, alleging that his brother took over total control of the team in defiance of his father’s wishes for the sons to share the franchise.

According to The Baltimore Banners report regarding Louis Angelos’s lawsuit against his family, the Angelos brothers have been at odds since their father and longtime owner of the Orioles, Peter, became ill in 2017. When Peter Angelos got sick, he reportedly appointed his wife and sons as co-trustees of a trust governing the family fortune, which included the Orioles franchise.

In the suit, Louis hinted that John could sell the team or move it to Nashville.

“John intends to maintain absolute control over the Orioles—to manage, to sell, or if he chooses, to move to Tennessee (where he has a home and where his wife’s career is headquartered)—without having to answer to anyone,” the suit says.

John dismissed the accusations of his brother on Monday, saying in a statement: “For [my mother and father] as for me, the Orioles will forever play at Oriole Park, and at no time ever have we contemplated anything different.”


Monday, June 13, 2022

 



Wicomico Sheriff's Deputy is killed

The Pocomoke Public Eye posted this story Monday morning but it didn't appear until later when we discovered a technical glitch in the posting process. Check wmdt.com or wboc.com for continuing updates on this story. -tk for PPE

(WBOC)


Wicomico Sheriff's Deputy Killed Trying to Arrest Fugitive in Pittsville

PITTSVILLE, Md. (WBOC/AP)- A Wicomico County sheriff's deputy was shot and killed late Sunday night while trying to arrest a fugitive in Pittsville, authorities said.

Wicomico County Deputy First Class Glenn Hilliard spotted the suspect, who was wanted on multiple felony warrants, coming out of Talbot Apartments on Gumboro Road in Pittsville, the sheriff's office said. A foot chase ensued and Hilliard was shot trying to arrest the suspect, later identified as Austin J. Davidson, 20, of Delmar, Md.

View news story:

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Time Machine: 1964, 1979, 1989, 1882, 1939, 1922, and local history author's part 2 TV segment on Steamboat Days.

 

               

                 (1964-1989: From smoking review to total ban)               

                                             



February, 1964

Salisbury Times

January, 1979 (PGH bans smoking except in designated areas.) 


Salisbury Daily Times

August, 1989 



Salisbury Daily Times


August, 1882 (The lower Eastern Shore described)

The Aegis & Intelligencer(Bel Air Md).


October, 1939





Worcester Democrat


February, 1922

Democratic Messenger



Steamboat Days Part 2







Saturday, June 11, 2022

Feathers ruffled?

      

                             

With Baltimore’s Angelos family in legal battle, the prospect of an Orioles sale or move looms larger

By Jean Marbella and Hayes Gardner

Baltimore Sun

Jun 11, 2022

In a divorce, the question is often: But what about the children? When a privately simmering fight between the sons of Orioles owner Peter Angelos erupted publicly this week, it was: But what about the Birds?

Periodic rumors that the team, beleaguered on the field yet beloved by generations of Baltimoreans, could be sold or moved out of town gained greater currency with the lawsuit filed Thursday by Louis Angelos against his brother, accusing John Angelos of trying to seize control of the team and the rest of their father’s considerable holdings. The suit also named their mother, Georgia Angelos, as a defendant.

The case — coming just as the Orioles and Camden Yards prepared to host Paul McCartney for a widely anticipated concert Sunday — publicly disclosed not just that the brothers were feuding, but that some family members indeed intended to sell the team.

“If a family is not getting along, it’s easier to divide up cash than the responsibility of running a baseball team,” observed David Nevins, a longtime Baltimore-area marketing executive and former president of a Comcast regional sports network. “It seems more likely a sale will be in the offing.”

Nevins, who knows the Angelos family but said he has no inside knowledge of the troubles that led to the lawsuit, said he is taking John Angelos at his word when he likened the Orioles’ deep roots in town to that of Fort McHenry in a 2019 pledge to keep the team here.

But, Nevins added, the fact that the team’s lease on Camden Yards expires next year, coupled with the Angelos brothers’ fight, only stokes fears of the city losing the Os as it once lost its prized Colts. While the Angelos family surely wants to avoid its name becoming a city curse word like that of the late Robert Irsay, who spirited the NFL team away in 1984, Louis Angelos raised just such a specter in the lawsuit. He invoked previous rumors that the Orioles might move to Tennessee by saying that should his brother take full control of the team, he could move it there, where he makes his home with his wife, a country music singer-songwriter who owns a Nashville-based entertainment company.

“For those Baltimoreans who are a bit paranoid about the future of the Orioles in Baltimore, perhaps there is a reason to be paranoid,” Nevins said.

There are local efforts in Nashville, Tennessee’s largest city, to attract an MLB expansion team, but an aide to Mayor John Cooper said there are no current conversations between the Nashville mayor’s office and any member of the Angelos family.

And it should be noted other rumors of impending abandonment have failed to materialize. The inferences in the Angelos lawsuit may well never go further than a point in a legal document. The suit presents Louis Angelos’ version of events; neither John Angelos nor attorneys for him and his mother responded to requests for comments.

It’s also significant that while a threat of leaving town can be a bargaining chip, only once in the last 50 years has a Major League Baseball team relocated, when the Montreal Expos moved to Washington and became the Nationals.

The Orioles currently are barred from leaving Baltimore by a clause in the team’s lease on Oriole Park at Camden Yards. However, the lease with the Maryland Stadium Authority for the state-owned ballpark expires at the end of next year and long-running negotiations have yet to yield an extension.

Meanwhile, any change in team ownership and location requires approval from three-quarters of MLB team owners. The league did not return a call for comment.

Democratic Mayor Brandon Scott said Friday that Baltimore and its gem of a park are too important to the league for the city to be left without a team.

“It would be a travesty for MLB to allow [the] city that really changed the game — the ballpark that changed America — to not have a team,” he said.

He said believes John Angelos’ previous assurances that he has no interest in moving the team.

Others, though, worry not just about the Angelos family turmoil, but longer-ranging trends of the bottom-scraping team. Despite the recent emergence of highly touted prospects this spring, the Orioles have not had a winning season since 2016, nor been to the World Series since 1983 — a decade before Peter Angelos bought the team.

“When you look at the Orioles attendance and revenues, if for no other reason than that, you have to be concerned about their long-term viability in general,” said Bob Embry, president of the nonprofit Abell Foundation, which researches and funds social and economic improvements to the city.

Indeed, the Orioles were the only major league team to lose value last year, according to Forbes. The business magazine values the team at $1.37 billion.

Its average attendance so far this year ranks in the bottom third of baseball’s 30 teams, according to ESPN.

Embry said questions arose at a meeting of the Greater Baltimore Committee, the civic leadership group, during a presentation about the Maryland General Assembly’s approval of up to $600 million in improvements to Camden Yards.

“‘Why spend that money if the Orioles might not be here?’” Embry said members asked stadium authority Chairman Tom Kelso.

The money is contingent on the Orioles signing a long-term lease. The $600 million should provide a financial incentive for the Orioles, whoever might own them, to stay put since such substantial public investment may be hard for a new owner to find elsewhere.

“It certainly sweetens the pot,” said Nellie Drew, a University of Buffalo sports law professor.

The Maryland Stadium Authority said in a statement late Friday that, “with the success of recent legislation, MSA looks forward to continuing our work with the Baltimore Orioles on our shared long-term vision for the beloved ballpark,” including increasing its economic benefit to the state.

Drew noted that a non-relocation clause like the one in the Orioles current lease would decrease the team’s market value.

“Any team is worth more if it’s mobile,” Drew said.

While Peter Angelos has been at odds with MLB at times, the league may be reluctant to approve a relocation.

“Major League Baseball has a long, storied history in Baltimore and they don’t like watching their teams get up and move,” Drew said.

Politicians in Annapolis treated news of the brothers’ feud and questions about public financing for improvements to Camden Yards like a third rail.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s office did not return multiple requests for comment Friday about whether he has concerns about approving the money for the team. Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot’s spokeswoman, Susan O’Brien, declined to comment about potential concerns over the stadium spending, saying those decisions would be made at a later time. And Democratic state Treasurer Dereck Davis, who also would consider such spending in his role on the Board of Public Works (along with the governor and comptroller) did not return requests for comment.

Nor did Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson of Baltimore, or Democratic House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones of Baltimore County, whose chambers passed the bond authorization this year with broad bipartisan support.

Louis Angelos answers a question at a 2018 news conference at Camden Yards. (Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun)

While the lawsuit filed Thursday shocked many, given how privately the family has tended to operate, there have been other similar squabbles. On the same day, Los Angeles Chargers owner Dean Spanos was sued by his sister for, among other things, “breach of fiduciary responsibility,” the same allegation Louis Angelos is making.

Even without a sale or move, the local lawsuit dredges up the uncomfortable subject of Peter Angelos transitioning from his role as one of Baltimore’s most influential figures. Now 92, he has been in failing health for about five years, during which his wife and sons took more authority over his holdings. He suffered an aortic valve failure that was successfully repaired surgically, but his mental abilities began deteriorating, and by the summer of 2018, his legal career was over, the lawsuit said.

There’s also a delicate issue of timing: If the family were to sell the team now, the sale would be subject to significant capital gains taxes. Those taxes, likely amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, would not apply to a sale after Peter Angelos’ death.

While he has been a polarizing figure — it is a local sport of its own to complain that he didn’t spend enough to field a winning team — many remain grateful for his rescue of the Orioles from out-of-town ownership in 1993, as well as his past generosity to schools, hospitals and other local institutions.

The spectacle of his family engaged in a pitched legal battle saddens more than a few in town.

“Nobody should take any joy in seeing a family coming apart so publicly,” said John Maroon, a former public relations director for the Orioles and before that the Cleveland MLB team.

Maroon, who now runs his own communications firm, said the coming weeks and months will be critical for “the future of baseball in our town.

“Ultimately, what all Orioles fans want is stability, success and a promise that the team will remain in Baltimore,” he said.

The stadium authority said in its statement that it respected the family and “offers our support as they work through these issues.”

Jim Palmer, the renowned Orioles pitcher and now a color commentator for the Orioles-owned Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, is among those who want to see the legal battle settled.

“When Peter bought the club, he said the Orioles are a statewide treasure,” Palmer said, “and this doesn’t change that.

“All I care about is this gets resolved,” he said.

Nevins said Baltimore cannot lose the Orioles, and hopes “a long-term, ironclad” lease will keep the team in town.

“A city has certain institutions that define it,” he said, “and the Orioles are one of them.”

Baltimore Sun reporters Jeff Barker and Sam Janesch contributed to this article.                                                

Remembering The Pocomoke Public Eye's "JMMB"

 June 11, 2014- 

Brenda Wise aka "JMMB" on The Pocomoke Public Eye.


      (Salisbury Daily Times) 
              
 (The posting below is from JMMB in 2013 eight months before her passing.)

Friday, June 10, 2022

 


Visit Manokin River Park, Saturday, for the Princess Anne Craft Fair. Local artists and crafters will be offering handmade candles, jewelry, health & beauty items, home decor, apparel & accessories, & sweet treats! The Fair is held every second Saturday during the summer.

Time Machine Preview

This Sunday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye:

1964-1989  .. From smoking review to total ban- 


1882  ..  A writer views the lower Eastern Shore-  

         
             

1939  ..  It's at Duncan Bros. in Pocomoke and Princess Anne-


1922  ..  
Plus local history author Jim Duffy's Part 2 TV segment on Steamboat Days.