Minute with Mayor Cook – Sept 13, 2023
What a busy and exciting week we have had here in our small Town!
We held a beautiful 9/11 Day of Remembrance Ceremony on the corner of Dover and West Streets, put together by Easton EDC and Talbot County. Featuring several notable speakers, and lovely patriotic music from Easton Middle School, the event both solemnly paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the attacks 22 years ago, and also laid a framework for the future promoting work towards building a stronger and more resilient community in our region.
We also saw the Special Election that sees us with a new Town Council President: Frank Gunsallus! Congratulations to Frank on this momentous win. I look forward to working with him, and the rest of our Council to continue moving our great Town forward.
In addition to the memorial event and the Special Election, we also played host to a national tour that came through Easton. After the event on September 11, we hosted a Council of State Community Development Agencies (COSCDA) tour in conjunction with the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
COSCDA is a national organization that specializes in collaborating with states to help promote and enhance community development programs that better communities. Each year COSCDA visits a different state, and the state selects one town to tour and highlight relevant projects in their region. This year Easton was selected as the town to represent Maryland for this tour.
The tour brought in over 150 visitors from around the country to visit various grant-funded programs taking place in and around Easton. They were brought in on four large charter buses that each had a detailed schedule covering highlighted projects. The project locations they visited were Housing on the Hill/Buffalo Soldier House, the Talbot Senior Center, Channel Marker Inc., Critchlow Adkins Children’s Center, Early Head Start, St. Vincent de Paul, and Galloway Meadows Apartments.
It is really an honor to be chosen to represent the state of Maryland for this, especially as a relatively small town. The fact that we are able to promote so many important and interesting projects on a national stage is remarkable. We’re very proud to show off so much positivity and progress around our community.
I want to personally thank the members of our staff who helped make this tour a great success: Don Richardson, Dawn Hutchison, Jim Bent, Trevor Newcomb, Lynn Thomas, 1st Sergeant Pat Sally, Bushy Thomas, Greg Mueller, and Easton EDC leaders Holly DeKarske and Deena Kilmon all put in tremendous effort and made this tour an achievement that reflects brightly on our Town.
Warmest Regards,
Megan
