Crellin Elementary's ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION LABORATORY

RURAL WORKS! Even when a handful of fourth-graders send a bunch of letters to the U. S. government's Office of Surface Mining in Pittsburgh to ask District Director Lafayette Vance "how to get rid of the orange-colored water in the stream out back of our school." See for yourself!

EDA Helps Bring Broadband to Rural Maryland

In this day of instant communications, global markets and technology-based economies, broadband access is a critical link to business success. Yet, according to a 2006 report issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 70% of rural land areas in the United States are still un-served by DSL or high-speed cable internet providers; and that’s simply not good enough. With the full support of the State of Maryland and hard work from its federal delegation, led by Senator Barbara Mikulski, the Maryland Broadband Cooperative is working with the Economic Development Administration and other federal agencies, as well as Maryland military installations and private sector partners to build a fiber-optic network that will affordably connect Maryland businesses and residents to a high-speed broadband pipeline.


The Maryland Broadband Cooperative, Inc. is a public/private partnership, formed by the five Maryland Regional and Tri-County Councils. The Cooperative works with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, as well as other State agencies including the newly created Maryland Department of Information Technology, the Maryland Department of Budget and Management, the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Rural Maryland Council to promote economic development through the construction of an universal, open access fiber-optic network serving rural Maryland. The Maryland Broadband Cooperative membership includes businesses, regional councils, county governments and state agencies.

The Philadelphia Regional Office of the Economic Development Administration has invested over $3.2 million dollars into Maryland’s Broadband Fiber optic network infrastructure.

Last October, the Maryland Broadband Cooperative celebrated the completion of installation of fiber-optic cable across each span of the William Preston Lane, Jr., Memorial Bridge, joining for the first time by fiber optic communication services the Eastern and Western Shores of Maryland. This fiber is currently providing public safety benefits to citizens and visitors while enabling private companies to expand the opportunity of Marylanders and its businesses to obtain broadband access at affordable rates.


In the next few months, the fiber backbone will be completed from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia to Anne Arundel County, Maryland on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. In Southern Maryland, the Cooperative is joining forces with the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Patuxent River Naval Air Station and other companies to expand their existing network. Farther north, in Cecil County, the Cooperative has teamed up with W.L. Gore and Associates to bring broadband access to many of the communities gearing up to attract new businesses and homeowners that are coming to the area as a result of federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC).

In This Issue

1 EDA aids in Maryland’s Broadband
2 Ben Franklin Technology Partners
3 In the Field: Upstate New York
4 Private Sector Pulse: Empire Aero
5 Regionalism in Connecticut

Dr. Anne Cavalier, EDR for Maryland and West Virginia meets with key leadership from the Maryland Broadband Cooperative, Tri-County Council for the Lower Eastern Shore

Western Maryland 2008 Small Town Symposium

To view the St. Leonard Master Plan and Zoneing Ordinance please click Here,

RuralWorks-St. Leonard

Slideshow

Rural Works Radio Interview

To listen to Charlie's Rural Works Radio Click Here

Education

EDUCATION: The #1 priority of BUSINESS

2007 Rural Maryland Summit Award for Outstanding Rural Economic Development: Charlie Ross for a rainbow of local international projects

2006 Maryland Tourism Council "Educational Development Award" for the efforts of Charles Mason Ross of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce

2006 Rural Maryland Summit Award for Outstanding Community Develpoment: "Living History Program-French & Indian War" for all Garrett County 4th Graders

“The first appointment I sought after starting my position of President & CEO of the Chamber of Commerce was with the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Wendell Teets. The second was with Garrett College President, Dr. Steve Herman. My message to each of them was the same: so long as I served as head of the Chamber, its number one priority would be education.”

Below is a list of my activities and the activities of my Board members and members-at-large testifying to that message. They currently number 23 and run the gamut from financial support to curriculum development. The volunteer hours are too numerous to count. Volunteers include educators, former educators, parents, grandparents and students. The Chamber thanks them all.


Projects that take the Chamber into schools

1. Achievement Counts
2. PIVOT at NHS & SHS
3. Job Fair
4. Career Expo
5. NHS School Performance Evaluation
6. Garrett College Presidential Search Committee
7. Freshman Seminars at Northern & Southern
8. Teacher of the Year
9. Robotics Program
10. Northern’s Machine Tool Shop
11. Electric Car Project
12. Living History Program-every 4th grader
13. Entrepreneurial Heritage Project
14. Master Plan Steering Committee for the Board of Education
15. School Calendar Committee
16. Summer Reading Program
17. Writers’ Workshop Project
18. Graduation Speeches
19. Read Across America-all libraries
20. Teaching Business at Garrett College
21. Crellin Project
22. Business/Education Partnership Luncheon
23. Garrett College Chamber Scholarship