Charles County Research Articles

Exploring barriers and facilitators to direct-to-retail sales channels: Farmers’ perspectives on wholesaling produce to small food retailers in Charles County, Maryland

In 2020, a mobile application (app) was developed to connect small food retailers with local pro­ducers, recognizing the underutilization of direct-to-retail sales channels. Before piloting the app, formative research was conducted in Charles County, Maryland, to gain an understanding of existing direct-to-retail sales channels for locally grown produce. Seven stores were surveyed to explore current local produce stocking, and four farmers participated in in-depth interviews to pro­vide insights into their experiences with direct-to-retail marketing channels. The results indicate a limited stocking of local produce in the small food stores, some of which was self-procured to obtain adequate quantities. Farmers expressed a passion for contributing to food security in their commu­nity and a willingness to collaborate with store owners to strengthen their direct sales; however, they cited barriers such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, competition with large distributors, and logistical challenges. Considering these existing barriers and facilitators, small food stores may still possess a unique potential to establish direct sale relationships with local farms. Such relationships could be effectively facilitated through the implementation of a digital strategy.

More than Blue vs. Gray: Barton Bates, Arnold Krekel and the Struggle over Emancipation in St. Charles County, Missouri, during the Civil War

More than Blue vs. Gray: Barton Bates, Arnold Krekel and the Struggle over Emancipation in St. Charles County, Missouri, during the Civil War

Measuring the Effect of Pandemic Lockdowns on Economic Activity Within the St. Louis Metro Area

This paper uses Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker data for four of the largest counties within the St. Louis MSA to better understand the effect of stay-at-home public health orders (a.k.a lockdowns) on local economic activity. A difference-in-differences analysis finds that small business openings and small business revenue (measured by Womply) declined by 8.5 and 15.8 percentage points respectively during two weeks of extended stay at home orders (May 4-18, 2020) in St. Louis County and St. Louis City County versus St. Charles County and Jefferson County. In contrast, consumer card spending, employment, and unemployment insurance initial claims were not significantly different during this time period. The effects on small business openings found for the St. Louis counties were larger than those identified by Chetty et al. (2020) of state-level reopenings across the U.S.

Geospatial Health in the Context of Privilege and Cost: Determining Characteristic Based on Travel to Leisure and Protest Locations during COVID-19 Mitigation

Objectives: Determine community characteristics, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on travel to the popular leisure destination, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, and racial-justice protest locations in St. Louis, Missouri during key dates in May 2020. Methods: Travel data was acquired from a U.S. marketing firm and consisted of anonymized and aggregated device GPS data. Sample inclusion was limited to residents of census-tracts within the City and County of St. Louis and St. Charles County, Missouri (n=384). Tract characteristics were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau. Results: Tracts with higher proportion of residents traveling to protest locations were significantly more likely to have higher proportion of: non-white residents, residents with no health insurance, and residents working in healthcare support and food service. Conclusions: Based on characteristics, residents from tracts that had higher significant travel to protests are likely to be more adversely affected by the CoVID-19 pandemic. Further, significant differences in community characteristics highlight the racial inequities identified in CoVID-19 transmission. Policy Implications: Findings suggest it may be advantageous for local CoVID-19 mitigation efforts to adapt or collaborate with local racial-justice protesters.

Frank William Westhoff (1863–1938): A Music Education Leader of the Progressive Era

The purpose of this study was to examine the life and work of Frank William Westhoff (1863–1938), a leader in music education during the progressive era (circa 1890s–1950s). Research questions focused on his work as a music supervisor, teacher educator, pedagogue, and textbook author. I also explored Westhoff’s contributions to the profession and influence on music education. Westhoff was born in St. Charles County, Missouri, in 1863. He moved to Decatur, Illinois, in 1884, and in 1893 he began supervising music in the city’s public schools. From 1901 to 1935, Westhoff served as music instructor at ISNU, where he taught methods classes, directed ensembles, and supervised music in the local public schools. He died in Normal, Illinois, in 1938. Although Westhoff was not as prominent a figure in music education as those who led the field on a national level during his time, he played an important role in sustaining, perpetuating, and expanding school music on a regional basis throughout much of the progressive era. He was a founding member of Music Supervisors’ National Conference at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1907, and published numerous compositions and didactic materials, including a statewide curriculum that helped standardize music instruction in Illinois.

More Than Double: African American Women and the Rise of a "Women's Vote"

More Than Double:African American Women and the Rise of a "Women's Vote" Liette Gidlow (bio) On a late October day in 1920, forty-seven-year-old homemaker Matilda Wheelock and three other African American women visited the Board of Elections in Phoebus, Virginia, to register to vote. Each filled out an application, signed it, and answered a question about the definition of "a republic." All four women registered without incident. Wheelock's experience was not typical for southern African American women in the first elections after the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. The document that testifies to her success—a remarkable field report by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) investigator Addie Hunton—also details the obstructionism that many Black women encountered at registrars' offices across the South. Wheelock and her neighbors succeeded in registering, but Wheelock's own daughter did not. That same day, the registrar "quizzed" twenty-three-year-old Lucile Wheelock, a college graduate, for nearly an hour before announcing that she "did not pass."1 The Wheelocks and their neighbors were part of a fresh surge to the polls of southern African Americans that began in the fall of 1920 and continued for years afterward. As newly enfranchised southern Black women tested their new rights, many southern Black men also seized the moment to try to regain the voting rights they, their fathers, or their grandfathers had lost. Even though many aspiring voters failed in their efforts, some succeeded, and their successes, together with the persistent demand for voting rights by those who failed, altered the course of US politics for decades to come. These developments among African Americans were not the result that most white woman suffragists sought from the Nineteenth Amendment. After ratification, these suffragists worked to harness the power of women's ballots to try to solve pressing problems like economic insecurity and continuing legal inequality. As the 1920s wore on, white female voters failed to develop into a cohesive voting bloc or "woman's vote." Despite enfranchisement, suffragists' goals seemed as unattainable as ever, leaving many contemporaries then, and scholars since, to conclude that the Nineteenth Amendment "doubled" the electorate but did little to change election results or policy outcomes. Women's apparently low turnout at the polls, although difficult to measure precisely, made a mockery of suffragists' claims that women wanted to vote. Nor did many women win election to [End Page 52] office. By the end of the decade, progressive causes largely faltered. Woman suffrage recognized women as equal citizens in this signal civic right—that remained important in itself—but, frankly, not much changed.2 This interpretation of women's suffrage, however, does not fully account for the activities of aspiring African American women voters in the Jim Crow South at the time or more broadly across the United States in the decades since. Many contemporaries assumed that southern Black women had no interest in voting; certainly, white supremacists had long made the same claim about southern Black men. That assumption may have been the natural corollary to Booker T. Washington's well-publicized claim that African American men had no desire for "political equality," but it was far from the truth. In the fall of 1920, southern African Americans—newly enfranchised women together with male family members and neighbors, many of them veterans of the First World War with proud records of service to country who were now exempt from poll taxes—surged to the polls to claim, or reclaim, their right to vote. Their fresh demands for the ballot, triggered by the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, changed the course of US politics for the next hundred years. ______ In the months after ratification, African American women succeeded in registering or voting in communities in at least nine southern or border states, sometimes by the hundreds or thousands and often accompanied by men who were also determined to participate. In Charles County, Maryland, south of Washington, DC, some 160 Black women and nearly 90 Black men registered themselves as Republicans during the September registration period. In Savannah, Georgia, a local newspaper reported that "an astonishingly large number of negro women—more than...

"Barbershops Encouraging Black Boys to Read"

This research project Involved interviewing Title I personnel in Charles County Public Schools and visiting six barbershop owners in Charles County Maryland who are a part of the Barbershop Books project. The visit to these barbershops included interviewing the owners of the barbershops as well as reviewing the books used in the project. These barbershops display a variety of books for young black boys to read while they are waiting to get their hair cut. These books are located on a small bookcase in the corner of the barbershops’ waiting area. The idea of books in the barbershops was to help improve reading skills for Black boys in elementary school. The project was purposed and funded by the Charles County Public Schools Title I Program. The literacy project began in August 2018. Mr. Alvin Irby, who is a former kindergarten teacher in New York City, is the founder of Barbershop Books.

Model High School Athletic Safety and Security Plan: Charles County Public Schools Thomas Stone High School Athletic Emergency Action Plan

PrefaceThis plan is designed for but not limited to the use of all athletic department/Thomas Stone personnel in caring for the injured, whether they are a student athlete, coach, administrator, or event spectator. Always refer to the main emergency plan for the school in the event of conditions or incidents not listed in the athletic plan.Each venue's specific emergency response plan identifies several ways to contact emergency medical services and summon further help. Some of the venues have a fixed telephone line that is easily accessible in case of an emergency; for locations that do not, a cellular phone or walkie-talkie relay system will be used.Prior to start of contest, the Thomas Stone High School certified athletic trainer or coach should meet with visiting team coaches and visiting athletic trainers to review emergency procedures.IntroductionEmergencies may arise at any time during athletic events. Expedient action must be taken to provide the best possible care to the sport participant in emergency and/or life-threatening conditions. The development and implementation of an emergency plan will ensure that the best care will be provided.As emergencies and athletic injuries may occur at any time and during any activity, the sports medicine team must be prepared. Athletic organizations have a duty to develop an emergency plan that can be implemented immediately when necessary and to provide appropriate standards of emergency care to all sports participants. This preparation involves formulation of an emergency plan, proper coverage of events, maintenance of appropriate emergency equipment and supplies, utilization of appropriate emergency medical personnel, and continuing education in the area of emergency medicine and planning. I hope that through careful preparticipation physical screenings, adequate medical coverage, safe practice and training techniques, and other safety avenues, some potential emergencies may be averted. However, accidents and injuries are inherent with sports participation, and proper preparation on the part of the sports medicine team should enable each emergency situation to be managed appropriately.Components of the Emergency PlanThese are the basic components of an emergency plan:1. Emergency plan personnel2. Emergency communication3. Emergency equipment4. Roles of first responder5. Venue directions with map6. Emergency Action Plan checklist for nonmedical emergencyEmergency Plan PersonnelWith athletic association practice and competition, the first responder to an emergency is typically a coach or certified athletic trainer. The type and degree of sports medicine coverage for an athletic event may vary based on factors such as the sport or activity, the setting, and the type of training or competition. Certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), first aid, prevention of disease transmission, and emergency plan review is required for all athletics head coaching personnel associated with practices, competitions, skills instruction, and strength and conditioning, as well as the sports medicine staff. Head coaching personnel are responsible for implementing emergency plan review among their staff.The development of an emergency plan cannot be complete without the formation of an emergency team. Roles of individuals within the emergency team may vary depending on factors such as the number of members on the team, the athletic venue itself, or the preference of the on-site administrator or athletic trainer.All members of the emergency response team must make sure the athletic trainer, the athletic director, and the principal are notified of any and all student athletes taken to the emergency room, regardless of the transportation method.There are six basic roles within the emergency team:1.Establishing safety of the scene and immediate care of the student athlete. …

Blood Cries Out from the Ground: Reflections on Ferguson

I know Ferguson, Missouri. St. Stephens Episcopal Church, a parish of the Diocese of Missouri, is there, and as Bishop of Missouri, I have been in and out of Ferguson more times than I can count. Founded in 1888, the parish is mostly middle-class and working people, not unlike the surrounding community. Settlement in Ferguson began in 1854, and the town incorporated in 1894. An inner-ring suburb, the city early on became one of the first bedroom communities around St. Louis, with easy rail access into the city. Major industry did not come to the town until the 1940s, when Emerson Electric, then the largest manufacturer of airplane armaments in the world, moved to Ferguson from St. Louis. Emerson provided good work for the residents of Ferguson and helped the community thrive. Now, however, and despite being number 121 of the Fortune 500 Companies, it is as if Emerson were not there. Corporate headquarters remain in the city, at 8000 West Florissant Avenue, the street made famous for protests and riots in the aftermath of Michael Browns shooting death on August 9, 2014. But manufacturing jobs have mostly moved offshore, a common tale for any working-class community in the United States. Few people living in Ferguson work at the company, but Emerson has at least increased its involvement in the community in the months following August 9.As recently as 1970, Fergusons population was almost entirely European-American, and in 1990, that portion was still 74 percent. By 2010, however, the population had shifted to 67 percent AfricanAmerican, with 29 percent identifying as European-Americans. Fergusons demographic began to change when more affluent residents, mostly European-Americans, began to move west in St. Louis County and then into St. Charles County. Again, here is a pattern common throughout the nation, and white flight does characterize the changing demographics in many cities in the United States. A closer reading of the particular history and politics of St. Louis, not drawing solely on general trends, will help make clear why the place where I live is one of the most racially divided in the country.Two hundred and fifty years ago, in 1764, a group of French and Creole settlers came to a place some twenty-five miles south of the confluence of the two great American rivers, the Missouri and Mississippi. The iconic arch on the grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial marks the site of the trading village that these settlers established. Pierre Laclede, his common-law wife Marie Therese Chouteau, and stepson Auguste Chouteau led this endeavor. Thus began St. Louis. By the time of Auguste Chouteau's death in 1829, the family had accumulated thirty-six slaves, all of African descent. So began the long disparity in power and privilege enjoyed by European-Americans and African-Americans in St. Louis. The disparity dates from the time of the region's beginnings, but it continues in later chapters of the region's history. Understanding the strength of slavery's hold on the region's economy, politics, and identity is key to making sense of the present racial crisis.Both leaders of the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, were slave owners. This expedition, leaving St. Louis in 1804 to find the headwaters of the Missouri and a path to the Pacific Ocean, included Clark's slave named York, a bondservant since childhood. William Clark was territorial governor when Missouri became a state-a slave state-in 1821. Reaching statehood became possible because of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which defined how slaveiy might spread, or not, in the huge territories of the West. It is interesting to note that Clark, though not an Episcopalian, was a charter signatory for the founding of Christ Church, now our cathedral, in 1819. Slavery continued to define the places for blacks and whites in Missouri history, a fact deeply rooted in the region's DNA.Slave labor accounted for much of the region's wealth gained during the heyday of the steamboat years, roughly 1820 to 1860. …

Hero: The Honorable Thomas McLain “Mac” Middleton, Senator District 28 Charles County; Chairman, Maryland Senate Finance Committee

Hero: The Honorable Thomas McLain “Mac” Middleton, Senator District 28 Charles County; Chairman, Maryland Senate Finance Committee

Arbitration in America: The Early History

On June 29, 1789, Zephaniah Turner of Charles County, Maryland, wrote to President George Washington and observed:Our Laws are too Numerous. Is it not possible that an alteration might take place for the benefit of the public?…Could it not be possible to curtail the Number of Lawyers in the different States? Suppose each State was to have but Two Lawyers to be paid liberally…[and] where a real dispute subsisted between Plaintiff and Defendant a reference [to arbitration] should be proposed, and arbitrators [be] indifferently chosen by both parties…whose determination shall be final.

Maximum entropy modeling of mature hardwood forest distribution in four U.S. states

In the eastern United States, mature hardwood forest provides habitat for many species of native flora and fauna, but is much less common now than historically. This study examined the utility of maximum entropy modeling and spatial application to identify ecosystem types like mature hardwood forest. I performed pilot modeling in Charles County, Maryland, where I compared fine-scale geographic data available locally to coarse-scale data available nationally. As expected, a model constructed with the best locally available data, including LiDAR-derived canopy height and fine-scale soil maps, outperformed a model constructed with nationally consistent data. However, the model using national data nevertheless accurately identified most mature hardwood forest sites and excluded most young forest. I then applied the coarse-scale approach to four states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Average test AUC (area under the receiver operating curve) based on 10 replicates varied from 0.76 to 0.80 when comparing mature hardwood forest locations to general forest locations. The maximum training or test sensitivity plus specificity threshold, depending on the state, captured 78–79% of positive locations while rejecting 74–81% of negative locations. The maximum entropy approach is versatile, and can be applied to other ecosystems and species.

Impacts of Urbanization on Surface Runoff of the Dardenne Creek Watershed, St. Charles County, Missouri

Accurately documenting urban growth and evaluating its hydrological impact are of great interest for urban planning and water/land resource management. St. Charles County, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, has undergone significant urban expansion in recent decades. Rapid urban sprawl in the Dardenne Creek watershed within the county has had a profound influence on surface runoff. We examined the patterns of land use/land cover (LULC) change in this watershed using Landsat TM/ETM+ imagery in 1982, 1987, 1991, 1999, and 2003. Calibrated with the observed hydrological data in 2003, a Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment (L-THIA) model was used to evaluate the effect of LULC change on surface runoff. Results indicated a rapid increase of urban areas in the watershed, from 3.4% in 1982 to 27.3% in 2003, dominated by changes in the lower portion of the watershed close to the metropolitan area. Model simulations suggest >70% increase in average direct runoff in the watershed from 1982 to 2003, and the runoff increase is highly correlated with urban expansion. This work helps raise awareness of the scale of hydrologic impacts of urbanization in this watershed, and provides a simple calibrated tool for local planners to assess potential hydrological impacts of future planning and development activities.

Use of LiDAR and supplemental data to estimate forest maturity in Charles County, MD, USA

This study evaluated the utility of remotely sensed data to estimate forest maturity within Charles County, MD. We calculated tree canopy height using airborne scanning LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data over the entire county, and compared this to crown top height, stand age, and other data collected from randomly selected plots on the ground. Canopy height was a strong predictor of forest age, and we improved predictive power by including other variables such as land cover, slope, stream proximity, wetlands, and floodplains. These comparisons allowed us to construct a spatial model classifying forest in the study area into three age categories: ≤30 years old, 30–70 years old, and >70 years old, corresponding to young, intermediate, and mature. This spatial model was used to help characterize ecosystem condition and wildlife habitat, and help prioritize conservation decisions in the study area.

A New Pest of Rice in Missouri: Range Expansion of Triops longicaudatus (Crustacea: Notostraca: Triopsidae) into the Northern Mississippi River Alluvial Plains

Tadpole shrimp, Triops longicaudatus (LeConte) (Notostraca: Triopsidae), are pests in California rice production systems. Tadpole shrimp are an obligate species of ephemeral freshwater aquatic habitats and in North America were considered primarily a species of the western United State for many years. Taylor et al. (1987) reported an eastward range expansion into Oklahoma. Tadpole shrimp were not known to be in Missouri until 1979 when a report was filed with the Missouri Department of Conservation. There were 2 more records filed in 1983 and 2007. Early reports were along the Missouri River with the 1979 and 1983 reports being from Jackass Bend (Jackson County) and the 2007 record from Darst Bottoms (St. Charles County) (Dorothy Butler, personal communication). Additional populations of tadpole shrimp have been found in 2009 on the Arkansas/Missouri state line north of Gosnell, AR in Missouri (Dunklin County) and near Luxora, AR (Mississippi County). How tadpole shrimp came to be in Missouri is unknown, but dispersal occurs via floodwaters (Taylor et al. 1987), wind (Caceres & Soluk 2002; Nathan et al. 2005; Graham & Wirth 2008), birds (Green & Figuerola 2005), and via the pet trade (Halliday 2008). On June 8, 2007, a single specimen of an unknown invertebrate was brought to the Delta Research Center in Portageville, Missouri (Pemiscot County) for identification. The specimen was collected from a drill-seeded rice field in Pemiscot County (near Bakerville). The specimen was determined to be a tadpole shrimp but the species was not determined. Growers were alerted of its presence in the state at winter meetings. On May 20, 2008, a phone call was received about a 16-hectare field in Stoddard County (located north and west of Catron), of water-seeded hybrid rice that had not emerged. The water was drained from the field and thousands of tadpole shrimp were congregated in the remaining puddles. No viable seeds were present and the field was replanted (Ottis, personal observation). On June 2, 2008, another call was received about multiple fields in New Madrid County (near Lilbourn) that were infested. At least 1600 hectares had tadpole shrimp present and of those infested, nearly 800 hectares were economically impacted and approximately 40 hectares were replanted (Minson, personal observation). Specimens collected from both locations in 2008 were yellow-brown in color and 35 body segments. Two tails extended from the telson. The taxonomic treat-

Measuring health behaviors and landline telephones: potential coverage bias in a low-income, rural population.

Population-based landline telephone surveys are potentially biased due to inclusion of only people with landline telephones. This article examined the degree of telephone coverage bias in a low-income population. The Charles County Cancer Survey (CCCS) was conducted to evaluate cancer screening practices and risk behaviors among low-income, rural residents of Charles County, Maryland. We conducted face-to-face interviews with 502 residents aged 18 years and older. We compared the prevalence of health behaviors and cancer screening tests for those with and without landline telephones. We calculated the difference between whole sample estimates and estimates for only those respondents with landline telephones to quantify the magnitude of telephone coverage bias. Of 499 respondents who gave information on telephone use, 80 (16%) did not have landline telephones. We found differences between those with and without landline telephones for race/ethnicity, health-care access, insurance coverage, and several types of cancer screening. The absolute coverage bias ranged up to 6.5 percentage points. Simulation scenarios showed the magnitude of telephone coverage bias decreases as the percent of the population with landline telephone coverage increases, and as landline telephone coverage increases, the estimates from a landline telephone survey would approximate the estimates from a face-to-face survey. Our findings highlighted the need for targeted face-to-face surveys to supplement telephone surveys to more fully characterize hard-to-reach subpopulations. Our findings also indicated that landline telephone-based surveys continue to offer a cost-effective method for conducting large-scale population studies in support of policy and public health decision-making.

The Effects of Flooding Upon the Snake Fauna of an Isolated Refuge

Abstract The initial purpose of this study was to ascertain the species abundance of snakes inhabiting a 371 ha reconstructed marsh, the Marais Temps Clair Conservation Area in St. Charles County, Missouri. This flood-prone refuge is surrounded by agricultural lands and is upstream from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Only eight species inhabit the study area. The abundance of all eight species declined dramatically after major flooding of both rivers in 1993. Subsequent major flooding in 1995 had little additional effect. The proportion of pre-flood resident species at our site to the number of non-resident species known to occur in the surrounding county was significantly lower than similar ratios at other conservation areas in nearby Missouri and Illinois. Resident species at our site were more likely to be semi-aquatic and arboreal than species found in the surrounding county, and post-flood survivors were significantly larger than pre-flood individuals. We attribute two mechani...

An examination of preparedness, response, and recovery for the La Plata, Maryland, tornado

The most severe tornado of spring, 2002, did not occur in Tornado Alley but in La Plata, MD. It was first classified as an F5 but then reclassified as an F4 on the Fujita Tornado Intensity Scale. This paper examines preparedness, response, and recovery issues by studying the town of La Plata (a bedroom community south of Washington, DC), Charles County, Maryland, and the National Weather Service. Methods employed included a site visit, field observations, and interviews.

Public Private Partnerships and Communities: Encouraging Economic Development and Citizen Participation in Charles County, Maryland

In a typical community, the commercial/industrial component provides enough tax revenue to offset most infrastructure costs. This is not the case in many suburban areas like Charles County, Maryland whose growth is predominantly residential with little commercial/industrial development. This article examines Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as an innovative economic development strategy that can address this imbalance. A framework is outlined for the development of a PPP in Charles County that will benefit the county by increasing the supply of improved, ready-to-occupy commercial/industrial sites, and by acting as a tool to improve communication between citizens and the government.

Paying for Disasters

Disasters and Democracy The Politics of Extreme Natural Events. Rutherford Platt et al . Island Press, Washington, DC, 1999. 343 pp. Paper, $35. ISBN 1-55963-696-3. Platt and his co-authors discuss how and why the United States has come to federalize the costs of natural disasters. Their comprehensive overview is reinforced through three case studies: coastal erosion on Fire Island, New York; flooding in St. Charles County, Missouri; and earthquakes and fires in the San Francisco Bay area.