Access 26 Wins Alliance for Community Media Award

SALISBURY, MD -- A documentary on a historic grist mill in Mardela Springs has won Access 26 a prestigious national award from the Alliance for Community Media. 

The “25 Years of Access” award was presented at ACM’s Hometown Video Festival in mid-July.  Honoring ACM’s 25th anniversary, the award recognizes a video that best represents the goals, purposes and ideals of access.

The documentary was shot and edited in 1977 as a student project by Creig Twilley, Access 26’s production coordinator.  Twilley now trains more than 100 local residents each year to use the community access channel’s equipment and develop their own productions.

The video, shot when Twilley was a student at Towson University, charts the history and operation of the Double Mills Grist Mill in black-and-white footage, bringing back to life the wheel, millstone, leather belts, and burlap bags that once were used to grind Eastern Shore corn. 

The finished product, which sat in Twilley’s home for 20 years, was aired to bring to life a piece of local history, said Access 26 General Manager Mike Goodson. 

“We’d love to see the past brought back to life, we’d love to think that we helped, and we’re very happy for this national recognition,” Goodson said. 

The mill is now in ruins and the dam destroyed by storms, but the local historical society is working to restore both.  Access 26 is following the restoration project.

Access 26 is a partnership of the City of Salisbury, Wicomico County and Salisbury University.  For more information, contact Mike Goodson at 410-677-5014 or visit the ACCESS 26 Web site at www.access26.org.