Real Estate Information Archive

Oh sure, Chesapeake Beach Water Park is not the only way to stay cool this summer. There are a lot of different methods you can employ to battle the and tropical rain forest-like humidity that can come along with summertime in Maryland.

Depending on where you live, you could perhaps head to the beaches and relatively cool breezes offered by the Atlantic Ocean, but this option might mean long drives through heavy traffic and may not be that much cooler than your back yard. You could spend all your time indoors, blasting the air conditioning in your face, but you probably don't need to incur the costs associated with turning you house into an igloo.

Here’s another option: Let Chesapeake Beach Water Park cool off you and yours!

Located in the lovely town of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, Chesapeake Beach Water Park is owned and operated by the good citizens of this fair city. The park's typical hours are (weather permitting) 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. The features and amenities offered by the park include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Free parking
• Water slides
• Fountains
• Waterfalls
• A lagoon
• Kids activity pool
• Locker rental
• Certified and EMT trained lifeguards
• Changing facilities and showers

When you pack up your bunch and head on over to Chesapeake Beach Water Park, you will also want to keep these rules in mind:

• No outside food or drink
• No alcohol
• No diving permitted anywhere in the park
• Traditional swimwear required
• All slides require feet-first position
• Kids in diapers required to wear swim diapers

For more information on the Chesapeake Beach Water Park, visit the its official website or call (410) 257-1404.

Parents and politicians across the country have been concerned about the status of our schools and the quality of the teachers educating our children. This spurred the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and focused attention on teacher certification. The most respected form of certification is provided by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. (NBPTS) This non-profit, non-partisan organization has been applying their rigorous testing standards to teachers nationwide since 1987.

The state of Maryland is ranked in the top ten states having teachers certified by NBPTS. In February, two teachers from the Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) joined the 2,124 Maryland teachers who have achieved this prestigious certification.

Charles County teachers Cary Smith of North Point High School and Marcie Jett of Piccowaxen Middle School achieved certification after a difficult yearlong performance evaluation. The NBPTS standards are high yet both CCPS teachers were able to rise to the challenge to join the 31 of district teachers who have already met the rigorous NBPTS criteria.

Cary Smith teaches English at North Point High School and achieved her certification in language arts. Her certification was aimed at adolescence and young adulthood. Smith was first hired by CCPS as a language arts instructor at Mattawoman Middle School in 2003. She moved to North Point when the school first opened its doors in 2005.

Marcie Jett, a special education instructor at Piccowaxen Middle School, achieved her certification in working with special needs students. The certification covered children from early childhood through young adulthood. Smith originally joined the CCPS as a special-ed instructor at Dr. Thomas L Higdon Elementary School in 2001 before moving to Piccowaxen in 2007.

Both Charles County teachers Cary Smith and Marcie Jett started on their road to certification in 2010 as did the other 6,200 educators nationwide who would later be certified by the NPPTS in 2011. The yearlong certification process revolves around a teacher achieving the standard of the Five Core Propositions:

• Teachers are committed to students and their learning
• Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students
• Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning
• Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience
• Teachers are members of learning communities

The propositions are tested throughout the one-year assessment phase through many different methods including student work samples, reviewers observing the instructor in class or by video, and analysis of their student’s achievements and challenges. How the instructor interacts with their students and presents their material is rigorously scrutinized before a series of written exams. These exams rate the instructor’s knowledge in their field and how they are able to communicate this information successfully to their students.

There are many advantages of NBPTS certification for Charles County teachers and the school district. The certification is good for 10 years and leads to career advancement and higher salaries. It also allows teachers to move between states more easily as many states waive having to take state certification test if the teacher is NBPTS certified. The school districts benefit as studies have shown that NBPTS certified teachers have proven to produce students with higher grades and fewer in-school problems. The certification also helps a school and their district meet many of the Federal standards of the No Child Left Behind Act.

As demand for energy resources increases, officials in Southern Maryland have been looking for renewable and greener sources of energy. One option for renewable energy in Southern Maryland recently cleared a hurdle when the Charles County Board of Appeals granted a special exception for SMECO Solar to build the area’s first solar farm on land zoned for agricultural conservation.

Plans are in the works for a 5.5 megawatt solar farm to be built near Hughsville, Maryland by the Southern Maryland Electrical Cooperative. SMECO officials say the 48.5-acre farm will generate enough energy to power 1,200 homes or enough energy to run the St. Charles Towne Center Mall.

Co-op spokesman Tom Dennison told the Washington Post the solar farm will be owned and operated by SMECO and meets state requirements for renewable energy and customer demands. The state’s utilities are currently required by The Maryland Public Service Commission to use solar power for 0.1 percent of its energy output. This level will increase to 2 percent by 2022. State law requires 3 percent of utilities’ energy output to come from renewable energies. Dennison says SMECO currently meets these requirements through energy credits, biofuels and other natural resources.

The decision to build the solar farm has the support of local landowners and government officials and is expected to cost around $20 million to build. Federal grants and loans through the Department of Agriculture will help pay for the project. The cost-effective project will eventually pay for itself as SMECO owns the land the solar farm will be built on and the utility can generate solar credits.

Ten percent of the energy produced at the Hughesville location will be used for a new operation center near the solar farm and the rest will go to customers in Charles County.

The solar panels will be mounted on the ground and face away from traffic on nearby Route 5 to prevent glare that would distract drivers. A protective wetland zone on the south end of the property will stay protected and will not be affected by construction of the solar farm.  

The decision to build the first solar farm in Southern Maryland was made by SMECO in October of last year as new sites for renewable resources were sought.

Development plans still need to be approved by county officials but Dennison says they expect to break ground this summer and have the solar farm up and running by late 2012 or early 2013.

Parents along with local, state and the federal government have been looking at what our children are being taught in public schools for quite some time. From the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to the current debate on charter schools and school vouchers, there is concern about ensuring that students are learning. However, many schools are stepping up to the challenge of teaching in a new way through the use of technology.

The students in Charles County Schools have access to some of this new technology due to a partnership between Charles County Public Schools and the Community Bank of the Tri-County. Jim DiMisa of the CBTC recognized the need for students to have a solid grounding in financial training due to the dangers of credit card debt, uncertainty in the economy and the need to save for retirement.

At no cost to the school, the CBTC works to help create a program of online financial training using the Financial Literacy Platform for High Schools or EverFi™ system. This program is an online tutorial where the students learn in an interactive, visual format. It uses examples taken from real life using a format modeled in part on the popular and recognizable SimCity games. By using this format, the program walks the student through the training in which their financial decisions directly impact their online avatar’s life. These direct impacts bring home the lesson in a way traditional lecture and books simply cannot match.

The students using the program reap the benefits using a format which the United States Air Force found beneficial in its own training. By fashioning the lesson in the form of a familiar game, students learn the program faster so they have more time for learning rather than spending time digesting how to operate the program itself. The familiarity increases retention of the lessons and students enjoy the lesson as well.

The EverFi system trains students on a number of important financial concepts:

• Use and risk of Credit Cards
• Budgeting and Managing Debt
• Savings and Retirement Planning
• Different Loan types and College financing
• Home ownership versus renting
• How the U.S. financial system works
• Stock trading and how the Stock Exchange works

The overall reaction to the program has been very positive. Teachers enjoy being able to track their students’ progress through the program and they can provide one-on-one lessons as needed. Teachers also found students using the program were more knowledgeable and asked better questions in class. To everyone involved the program has been a win for the Charles County schools, the teachers, students and the community in general.

Charles County’s property values have encountered some tough sledding. The melt-down of the housing bubble, the fallout from the robo-signing scandal and an explosion of foreclosures have caused property values to drop all across the country. The housing market is still struggling to correct from the over-inflated boom era vales. Charles County, Maryland has been hit hard in this environment and seen median property values drop for the fourth year in a row. What does this mean for someone interested in moving to the area?  What affect does this steady decline have?

The Good and Bad of Declining Property Values

The key to looking at declining property values is to see that it’s not necessarily negative. Certainly those who whose home values were inflated are facing losing a lot of money. However, when one buys a home, there is always the risk the value will go down instead of up. In the volatile housing market of the last decade, many home buyers bought homes under the faulty idea that home values would always go up.

So now we are seeing a correction to where the market is returning to realistic home property values. To use one example, this presents an opportunity for buyers to buy a home which once sold for $450,000 for as low as $350,000 and to have confidence that this value will hold.

The bad, of course, is felt acutely if one happens to be the owner of a $450,000 mortgage on a home which now has a value of only $350,000. Another negative accrues to Charles County because it must make do with tax receipts on a home that has dropped $100,000 in value. This has led to tight budgets not only in Charles County but for counties across the nation. However, the current problems obscure the fact that Charles County remains an excellent place to live.

The Ground Truth

While property values have dropped for the fourth time in as many years, one has to remind oneself why they were high to begin with. The answer is simply that it was worth paying $450,000 to live in Charles County. Why? There are many reasons ranging from the scenic beauty of the area, to the excellent schools and colleges, to the availability of work in the Washington D.C. metro area. None of these factors have changed. So, in the short term there will be budget issues for city and county politicians to deal with, but the fact remains that Charles County is an attractive place to live.

Viewed from this standpoint, Charles County property values declining means prospective buyers are well positioned to be able to purchase a home and reap the rewards of a buyer’s market.