Bank Promotions
Dominique Bias
BERLIN — Raymond M. Thompson, President and CEO of Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company in Berlin, has announced two promotions.
Dominique Bias has been promoted into the Taylor Bank Management Trainee Program. She started with the bank in May of 2013 as a Customer Service Associate at the Pocomoke branch. She graduated from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. Bias is a resident of Pocomoke.
Tori Cross
Tori Cross was promoted to Electronic Services Representative. Cross began her career with Taylor Bank in September of 2012 as a part-time CSA at Main Office. In May of 2013, she was offered full-time employment and has worked in East Berlin, Ocean View and Fenwick. Most recently she was offered an internship at Main Office focusing on marketing and electronic services. Cross anticipates completing her Business Degree at Salisbury University fall 2015 or spring 2016. She is a resident of Pittsville.
House Donated To Habitat
SALISBURY — GNI Properties in Salisbury this week donated a house on Church Street to Habitat for Humanity of Wicomico and provided some funds to help defray the cost of demolishing the residence severely damaged by a fire.
The residence was previously a rental property, but after a terrible fire, GNI felt that Habitat for Humanity of Wicomico County could build a new home on the site in its place and provide a local family with affordable home ownership. In addition, GNI’s Gary Chandler presented Habitat for Humanity of Wicomico Executive Director Molly Hilligoss with a check for $5,000 to be used toward the demolition of the house to make it more affordable to rebuild.
“We are grateful to the Chandler family and GNI Properties for their loyal and generous support of our mission,” said Hilligoss. “Our revitalization efforts have had a positive effect on the quality of life in the Church Street area and for all of us in Wicomico County. Habitat succeeds because of the tremendous support of families like the Chandlers.”
Habitat for Humanity of Wicomico County was founded in 1987 and has since built 61 homes locally. Through volunteer labor and tax-deductible donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and rehabilitates simple, decent homes with the help of the homeowner, or partner, families.
Solid Gains For Casino
BERLIN — Maryland Lottery officials last week released the revenue figures for the state’s five operating casinos for the month of September, showing significant gains for the Casino at Ocean Downs in Berlin.
Maryland’s five casinos generated around $87.5 million in September, driven largely by the Maryland Live Casino in Anne Arundel County, which contributed over $49 million, or well over half of the state’s entire revenue from the casinos during the month.
Closer to home, the Casino at Ocean Downs generated $5.7 million from its slot machines in September, which was around $760,000 more than was generated during September 2014. The increase represented a change of over 15 percent from September 2014 to September 2015. The Casino at Ocean Downs’ gross gaming revenue per machine per day was $237.85 for its 800 slot machines.
The Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County generated $6.2 million in September and reversed a trend of declining revenues. The Hollywood Casino’s revenue increased by $295,000, or five percent, from last month to September 2014. The Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore generated over $22 million, which was down about $243,000, or one percent, from September 2014. Finally, the Rocky Gap Casino Resort in western Maryland generated about $3.9 million in September, representing a modest increase over September 2014.
Maryland, Delaware Blur Healthcare Borders
BERLIN — Maryland and Delaware healthcare providers are among the first in the nation to develop a system to readily share patient medical records and blur the borders between the neighboring states.
During the last two years, the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) has been working to blur the state’s borders, at least when it comes to medical records. Across the border in Maryland, Atlantic General Hospital and Peninsula Regional Medical Center also participate. The hospitals provide admission, discharge and transfer summaries of Delaware residents from their centers. These notifications are the result of tremendous collaboration between DHIN and Maryland’s Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP).
Correspondingly, DHIN provides to CRISP the same information for Maryland patients who are treated at Delaware hospitals. Delaware and Maryland are among the first states to provide this type of cross-border health information exchange in the nation.
Certification Achieved
BERLIN – The Coastal Association of REALTORS® (CAR) announced that Multiple Listing Service Administrator Veronica Bishop has been awarded the e-PRO® Certification, the official technology certification program offered by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR).
Veronica Bishop
Bishop, who has been with CAR for over six years and is a former REALTOR®, joins more than 30,000 real estate professionals who have earned NAR’s e-PRO® Certification and dedicated time and effort towards learning how to use the latest social media technologies to create an online presence and reach today’s hyper-connected consumers.
“CAR’s purpose is to serve our membership and ensure they are well equipped to be professional and successful REALTORS®,” said Page Browning, Executive Vice President of CAR. “Veronica’s vast knowledge of modern technology and social media practices and techniques is an invaluable resource for our association and for our over 1,000 members. We are so proud of her.”
Working together with the Social Media Marketing Institute (SMMI), NAR redesigned the e-PRO® curriculum to better meet the challenges of today’s real estate market. The new e-PRO® program expands an agent’s real estate technology skills and helps them connect with consumers online via social media, email marketing, and website promotion.
“Today’s consumers are beginning their real estate search online,” Bishop said. “With an increasing number of consumers turning to social media and online technology throughout their home search, it is essential for today’s agents to have the knowledge and training necessary to connect with these consumers online. I’m happy to provide guidance to our membership on what has become a vital skill in selling modern real estate.”
Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company President and CEO Raymond M. Thompson announced this week that Lee I. Chisholm was presented with a Next Leader in Banking Award at the Maryland Bankers Association BankNext event. Chisholm is the Loan and Business Development Officer of the Southern Worcester County and Eastern Shore Virginia areas and is a resident of Stockton. He began his career with Taylor Bank in March of 2006. Pictured, from left, are Maryland Bankers Association President and CEO Kathleen Murphy, Chisholm and Thompson. The award is given to a select group of bankers who have been recognized by their employer or a business partner.
Businessman Honored
WEST OCEAN CITY — On Friday Sept, 25, Coastal Style Magazine held an event to celebrate the winners of its annual readers best of poll. This year the readers of Coastal Style magazine named Scott Kammerer the Business Man of the Year in Sussex County in the magazine’s annual poll.
Scott Kammerer
Kammerer is the president and CEO of SoDel Concepts, which owns eight restaurants on the Delaware coast. SoDel Concepts also owns Plate Catering and Big Thunder Roadside Kitchen, a food truck. In addition, the company has divisions for hospitality management and hospitality consulting, film production and artisanal sodas.
“It’s an incredible honor to receive this award from the readers of a magazine that celebrates business, fashion, food and the coastal lifestyle,” he says.
The New Jersey native and high school athlete started out in the Delaware hospitality industry as a minimum wage earning dishwasher at a breakfast restaurant in Rehoboth Beach in 1994. By 1996, he was the general manager of the highest grossing restaurant in town. In 1999, he took a job as the Food and Beverage Director for one of the largest hotels in the area. In 2003, he opened his first restaurant, and later partnered with Matt Haley, forming a hospitality management company Highwater Management and a restaurant consulting company, Haley/Kammerer Consulting. He would eventually fill the role of Chief Operations Manager for Haley’s SoDel Concepts for the better part of a decade. In 2014, after Haley’s sudden death, Kammerer stepped into the CEO role. The company now has more than 500 employees and $45 million in annual sales.
“Although the award was presented to me, it really is a tribute to the great hardworking team at SoDel Concepts,” Kammerer said. “They are the most dedicated, hardworking group of people that I have ever had the privilege to work alongside.”
Chief Nursing Officer Named
SALISBURY — Peninsula Regional Health System President/CEO, Dr. Peggy Naleppa, announced that Sheri Matter has joined Peninsula Regional Medical Center, a 292-bed tertiary hospital in Salisbury, as its Vice President of Patient Care Services/Chief Nursing Officer (CNO). She will assume her new role on Nov. 2.
Sheri Matter
As the CNO at PRMC, she is the most senior nurse in the organization and responsible for supporting nursing excellence, strengthening nursing engagements and enhancing effective working relationships with an assortment of audiences including the medical staff. The CNO is also responsible for nursing practice throughout the hospital. All inpatient nursing leaders as well as direct care support services leaders report to the CNO.
Matter has a 30-year career in health care spanning a wide variety of clinical and leadership areas including acute care, women’s and children’s, emergency, rehabilitation and oncology. The majority of her career has been in management/leadership positions including 11 years as Vice President of Nursing and CNO for Pinnacle Health Systems in Harrisburg, Pa. As CNO there, she was responsible for leading Pinnacle’s nursing team, and achieved many significant accomplishments including Magnet Nursing designation and re-designation; multiple centers of excellence awards, clinical quality and service improvements/best practices recognitions as well as implementing cost containment initiatives.
Matter was most recently the Director of Oncology Outpatient Clinical Services at Wellspan Health, a three-hospital system featuring four cancer treatment centers in South Central Pennsylvania.