Madge Thomas, 98, poses with her Easter Tree. Decorating her Easter Tree is a long tradition, started when she was a school teacher, and she has been putting it up every since. The tree is decorated with butterflies, wooden and plastic easter eggs, birds, a skunk, bunnies, hand blown eggs and over 100 flower blossoms.
One egg, decorated with colorful rick rack, was a gift from a student who brought it on the day Madge's class was going to Washington D.C. Not having time to go back into the school to put the egg, Madge carried it loveningly with her all day.
By Jesse Ringgold
It all started around 1996 when a few friends of mine and I were constantly told by police that we could not skateboard on the streets of Ridgely. We were a hazard to traffic. When we took to the sidewalks to skate, we were told we could not loiter there either because we blocked the sidewalk and any pedestrians walking by. We tried the post office, IMS (now Sunrise Distributing), Ridgely Elementary School, and every other business in Ridgely that had concrete, pavement, curbs, or steps for us to skate, but again we were kicked off because no one wanted the liability of us getting hurt, or the presence of juveniles loitering on their property.
Shun as outcasts from the heart of the town infrastructure, we were forced to retreat into the sanctity of Martin Sutton Memorial Park. It was here that we found a beautiful slab of pavement left behind from the old basketball court. It was untouched and unused, and it didn’t seem to bother anyone that we were there. We built our own ramps and rails to give us some terrain, and in a week we had built our own skatepark. We left the ramps there, and it was awesome for about two weeks until we arrived one morning to find the ramps had been confiscated. Again, liability issues mandated we could not leave ramps there over night because someone might get hurt and sue the town.
As a last resort before attempting a revolution, my friends attended a town meeting and raised our concern. Since we could not build our own park, we requested that the town build one for us, fully insured and secure to alleviate any liability issues. The town commissioners agreed it was a feasible idea, but needed an initial plan to consider implementing the project. So, my friends and I organized the Ridgely Skateboard Association (RSA) and developed a plan of what ramps we wanted and where to find ramp designs. After presenting it to the Town, they agreed to start the project, and the wait began…
Two years later, like a mirage in the desert, I saw a fence had been put up around the perimeter of a newly paved slab at the park. Two weeks later, the beginning of summer 1998, a professional contractor of four workers showed up and began building what would become the Martin Sutton Memorial Skateboard Park. We did it!
The park was glorious: a 4 foot mini-ramp with adjacent 4 foot quarter-pipe, 8 foot bank, 6 foot quarter-pipe, half-pyramid with sub-box, 2 hand rails, and a 1 foot fun-box. We skated that whole summer, and the park was a beacon of light to skaters all over Delmarva and the Western-shore of Maryland. The fall of 1998 brought the very first Ridgely X-treme Games, thanks to the Town Commissioners and Officer Kevin Nagyiski of the Ridgely Police. In addition to being a great facility for skaters and an attraction to visitors, the park established a link between the Town and the youth of Ridgely. This original park of wooden ramps would provide recreation and amusement to Ridgely for seven and a half wonderful years.
In September 2005, long after my peak years of skateboarding, George Cohey, a Ridgely resident and employee of Towers Concrete in Denton, approached Commissioner Nancy Gearhart about Towers providing cement and labor to build a new concrete skatepark, FREE of charge. Commissioner Gearhart jumped at the offer and had Gary Bodine of Towers Concrete attend the next Commissioners meeting. Gary, son-in-law of Mr. & Mrs. Bill Towers, offered to help contribute to youth alternative sports by building the park himself. Additionally, Towers Concrete would donate 187 yards of concrete and materials to build the park. Construction began in January 2006, and after many months of long hours forming and pouring concrete, Gary completed the park and the Grand Opening was held on July 22, 2006.
The new concrete park is beautiful and will last for many years providing quality ramps and recreation to the skaters who use it. A special thanks goes out to George Cohey, Gary Bodine, and Mr. & Mrs. Towers of Towers Concrete for your dedicated efforts and donations in creating the new park. A sincere thank you to the Town of Ridgely Commissioners and workers, both past and present, who have contributed to accommodating the skaters of Ridgely in building and maintaining the park for us.
WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:
RSA Founding Fathers: Jimmy Lyzon, Rusty Eaton, Jesse Ringgold, Justin Durner, Miles Garrett.
Ridgely Commissioners: Lou Hayes, Dale Mumford, Jerry Wallace, Nancy Gearhart, Linda Epperly-Glover, Chuck Hunter.
Special Thanks to: Kevin Nagyiski, Rico Gestole, and Merl Evans of the Ridgely Police Department; the Durner Family; Wayne Bropst; and the people of Ridgely.
24/7 Skate Crew: Charlie Boncella, Justin Durner, John Moran, Jesse Ringgold, Buddy Bowen, Bobby Bambary, Tyler Ebling, Jordan Durner, Doug Johnston.
**To anyone else who may have contributed to, or supported the Dream City Skatepark and the skaters of Ridgely… Thank You!
Note: In return for providing the skatepark, the Town of Ridgely will enforce that you wear your helmet and keep the park clean. Respect for the Town and the skaters before you who made the park possible is a small price to pay for the awesome facility you now have.
The 2008 RVFD Annual Installation of Officers and Awards Banquet was held Saturday, Jan. 19 with a "Hunting" theme. There were quite a few people with their camouflage ready to have a good time. Several awards were presented by President Rick Baker and 2007 Fire Chief Lou Hayes.
Chief Hayes also presented a special award to Chief JT Bartz of the Goldsboro VFD for the generous loan of one of their engines to RVFD while Eng.405 was in rehab. A special award was presented to the Baker Family, in remembrance of Palmer "Pete" Eaton for his 52 years of faithful service to RVFD.
Chief Engineer George Cohey was presented several awards including the President's Award, one by Senator Colburn and another from Delegates Addie Eckhardt and Jeannie Haddaway among others. George was congratulated on 32 years of service.
Ridgely Town Commissioner swore into office the RVFD 2008 officers and then presented President Rick Baker with a check from the town.
The awards were capped off with a video put together by 2008 Chief Bobbie Utz. After the video presentation, tables were moved, lights were dimmed and everyone enjoyed dancing to the music provided by DJ Todd Lord.
If you have a story or an article about the community you would like to include in the Newsletter, please email ahege@comcast.net