FREE St. Mary'sSt. Mary'sTHURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 CountyINSIDE WWW.COUNTYTIMES.SOMD.COM Times 2021 SCHEDULE Happy Valentines Day Letters From Loveville 2 The County Times Thursday, February 11, 2021 CONTENTS LOCAL 3 COMMUNITY 11 ENGAGEMENTS 12 FEATURE 15 Long-time counselor looks back on mental health in St. Mary’s NASCAR SCHEDULE 14 FEATURE 15 COPS & COURTS 18 COVER 6 PAX RIVER 19 PAX RIVER 19 Victoria Buckler at Loveville Post Office Virtual reality training at Pax River NAS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS 20 CALENDAR 21 “THEY’RE REALLY MISSING OBITUARIES 23 THE MARK HERE.” COMMISSIONER JOHN O’CONNOR ON THE STATE DIVERTING VACCINE FROM ST. MARY’S COUNTY TO STATE-RUN MASS VACCINE CLINICS. LEGALS 26 BUSINESS DIRECTORY 30 WEEKLY FORECAST FUN & GAMES 31 DO YOU FEEL CRABBY WHEN YOU GET YOUR INSURANCE BILL P.O. Box 250 • Hollywood, Maryland 20636 301-373-4125 IN THE MAIL? ● www.countytimes.net CountySt. Times Mary’s County Calvert County GIVE US A CALL.BRYANS ROAD YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID. LEONARDTOWN Burris’ Olde Towne Insurance Auto • Home • Business • LIFE LEONARDTOWN BRYANS ROAD As of February 10 301-475-3151 301-743-9000 WWW.DANBURRIS.COM 5,516 108 AN INDEPENDENT AGENT REPRESENTING ERIE INSURANCE GROUP Information provided by St. Mary's Health Department Thursday, February 11, 2021 The County Times Local News 3 Commissioners Chide State Over Vaccine Shortage By Guy Leonard the health department runs. Staff Writer The continued shortage of vac- Both the county health offi- cine meant the registration slots cer, Dr. Meena Brewster, and were also in short supply; Com- Served up in your the Commissioners of St. Mary’s missioner Todd Morgan said the County said local efforts to vac- on-line registration for the week- cinate the population against CO- end filled up in nine minutes. VID-19 would be faster and more “You can do it better than the favorite local spots? efficient if the county were not state thinks they can do it,” Com- deprived of significant amounts of missioner Eric Colvin said of the inoculants. Brewster’s efforts to vaccinate the The health department an- county population. nounced Feb. 6 that many dos- Health department data showed es were diverted away from St. that this week’s allotment of vac- Mary’s by the state. cine was 1,475 doses, about half of “Vaccine allotment received for the 2,925 doses the week before. this week was the lowest received Next week, Brewster reported, by the SMCHD since the first the county was only set to get 700 100 doses arrived for staff train- doses, the lowest amount since the ing/prepositioning. We are disap- second week of inoculations when pointed that allotments for local the county received just 100 doses. health departments were cut to Commissioner John O’Connor divert supply for state run mass said regional vaccination clinics vaccination centers,” a statement forced some county residents to on the health department’s Twitter travel nearly two hours to get to account read. the Six Flags location in Prince State-run mass vaccination sites George’s. have activated in Prince George’s “You’re spending the whole day County and Baltimore City and there,” O’Connor said, noting the while one is planned for Southern state-run centers attempted to vac- Maryland it has yet to be opened. cinate thousands at a time, mean- Brewster was particularly frus- ing long wait times. trated, she said, because the state “We’re robbing Peter to pay Paul was getting increasing amounts and we’re putting our population of the COVID-19 vaccine from at higher risk because they want to the federal government but the centralize these sites,” O’Connor amounts the state was distributing said. “They’re really missing the to local health departments was mark here.” diminishing. Hospitalizations in St. Mary’s “Health departments are the remain high, though they have most efficient way to administer declined, Brewster said, and the the vaccine,” Brewster said. amount of new COVID-19 cases Brewster explained that the has dropped steadily for the past state-exacerbated shortage of vac- several weeks. cine locally made making appoint- “We do appear to be emerg- ments for inoculation more diffi- ing from the post-holiday surge,” cult, because there was a great Brewster said. “This is a very gulf between when the state got encouraging trend… but this is notification of a vaccine shipment not the time to loosen up on our and when the state informed the efforts.” county. So far 13,922 people have Brewster said the state learned been vaccinated in St. Mary’s; of a federal vaccine shipment Feb. more than 11,000 have received 2 and only informed the county on their inoculation from the health Feb. 5; this left little time to pre- department. pare for the Feb. 6 vaccine clinic [email protected] 4 Local News The County Times Thursday, February 11, 2021 VALENTINES/PRESIDENTS DAY SALE LOWEST PRICES OF THE YEAR ON LIONEL TRAINS OVER 20 “READY TO RUN” SETS TO CHOOSE FROM ALL ENGINES ROLLING STOCK ACCESSORIES UP TO 30% OFF MSRP UP TO 40% OFF MSRP AVAILABLE 301-475-5381 • 40845 MERCHANTS LANE NEXT TO LEONARDTOWN SIDETRACKHOBBIES.COM ACE HARDWARE (UPSTAIRS) PRICES LOWER THAN MINIMUM MANUFACTURERS SALE PRICE! STAR TREK LIONCHIEF® SET CHRISTMAS LIGHT EXPRESS AREA 51 LIONCHIEF SET LIONCHIEF® SET SKU: 2023130 SKU 2023050 SKU 2023080 THE POLAR EXPRESS™ ELF WORK TRAIN LIONCHIEF SET SKU: 2022090 SANTA FE SUPER CHIEF THOMAS PASSENGER SET LIONCHIEF SET SKU 83510 SKU 84719 HOGWARTS EXPRESS LIONCHIEF® SET WITH DEMENTORS COACH SKU 2023170 THE POLAR DISNEY FROZEN 2 TRAIN EXPRESS™ SKU 2023040 DISNEY CHRISTMAS LIONCHIEF PASSENGER SET SET SKU 84328 SKU 1923140 SAVE AN ADDITIONAL 10% OFF ALREADY LOW SALE PRICES ON ALL ROLLING STOCK OVER 1000 DIFFERENT PIECES OF ROLLING STOCK & HUNDREDS OF ENGINES & ACCESSORIES 200+ DIFFERENT 0-GAUGE ENGINES TO EXPAND LAYOUTS • TRACKS • TRANSFORMERS • DIGITAL OPERATING SETS WED - FRI 10AM-5PM • SAT 9AM-3PM • SUN-TUES CLOSED Thursday, February 11, 2021 The County Times Local News 5 Some Students Return There’s a reason why to Class This Week they hire the Brooks & Barbour Team! By Guy Leonard The system’s school-based data Staff Writer dashboard available on-line will Special needs students in pro- give parents the ability to see grams such as SAIL and COM- any COVID cases that occur in PASS began returning to in-per- schools and track the response by son learning Feb. 8 in a hybrid the school system, Smith said. model that allowed for alternating The system would continue to virtual learning as well. closely monitor all COVID-19 Starting Feb. 16 the second related data as they reopened phase will begin, Schools Super- schools to students. intendent Dr. J. Scott Smith told “This is the data that will drive the St. Mary’s County Board of our decisions,” Smith said. Education at their Wednesday He said the efforts to vaccinate meeting, to include Head Start teachers as well as all other em- and pre-Kindergarten students, ployees in the public schools have Kindergarteners and 1st graders, been largely successful. 6th grades and in high school both “Anybody employed in the St. freshmen and seniors. Mary’s County public school sys- By March 1, according to the tem has been offered the opportu- school return plan, all remaining nity to be vaccinated,” Smith said. grade levels will return to the hy- All of the employees who reg- brid model. istered to get a vaccine have re- The school days will be divided ceived their first dose and many between “A” day and “B” day sec- have already received their second tions; one group will be in class dose as of last week, he said. while the other learns in a virtual More than 75 percent of staff environment and then alternate have stated they wanted to get the following day. vaccinated and Smith said he be- The amount of new weekly cases lieved that same number have fol- of COVID-19 spiked to more than lowed through, but that data was 400 during the post-holiday surge, not known to him. Smith told the school board, but “It’s not for me to know, it’s a CALL US! has since dropped to about 236. personal decision,” Smith said. “We’ve seen it nearly cut in “They’re as protected as they are half,” Smith said. “It’s about twice going to be. what we want it to be… but the “We’re in great shape: we’ve rate is going in the right direction. done everything we can.” [email protected] [email protected] “The trend is what we’re look- [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ing for.” [email protected] [email protected] Brooks & Barbour CENTURY 21 New Millennium 23063 Three Notch Rd. [email protected] [email protected] California, MD 20619 Office: 301-862-2169 Fax: 301-862-2179 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 6 Local News The County Times Thursday, February 11, 2021 VALENTINE’S DAY GIFT IDEAS Lothian Grain Elevator Will Stay Open Two More Years INDOOR GARDENING PROJECTS Liven Up Your Home & Office with Housesplants. Houseplants last month’s and year’s not a week. JADE PLANTS PILEA SNAKE PLANTS SUCCULENTS Winter Color Plants Photo credit: Perdue-AgriBusiness CYCLAMEN PAPERWHITES ORCHID By Guy Leonard AgriBusiness. Pots & Decorative Containers Staff Writer Jamie Raley, president of the St.