The Board of Education of Harford County and the Harford County Education Association (HCEA), which represents the approximately 3,000 public school teachers in the county, jointly announce that a tentative contract settlement has been reached between the two organizations. This agreement maintains health benefits at its current level and does not include a cost of living adjustment or step increase for teachers.
After four months of negotiations, a tentative agreement was reached when representatives of the school system and HCEA signed the document on June 29, 2009.
Specifics of the tentative agreement will be shared with members of the Board of Education of Harford County and with the teacher members of HCEA. The agreement becomes official after ratification by both the HCEA and the Board and will become effective July 1, 2009.
“My fellow Board members and I are glad that we were able to reach an agreement with the Harford County Education ...Continue Reading
State regulators have approved the construction of a third nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in southern Maryland – even as those regulators prepare to review a business deal that could be crucial to getting the new reactor built at all.
The state’s Public Service Commission approved the 1,600 megawatt reactor following an 18-month review including public meetings (which were largely pro-nuke love-fests). The decision was dated Friday but not made public until late Monday evening.
Constellation hasn’t firmly committed to building the new reactor, which wouldn’t come online until sometime next decade and could cost as much as $9 billion to construct. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission still has to approve the project and has said it won’t do so until 2012.
The new reactor and three other similar nuke projects around the country were proposed by UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint venture between Baltimore ...Continue Reading
So, you didn’t get tapped to represent District B on the Harford County Council. Then, you were somehow passed over for that sweet superintendent spot. No worries! Here’s another opportunity to serve the public (albeit as a volunteer this time) on the Harford County Republican Central Committee.
Kidding aside, central committee members are normally elected but a new member will soon be appointed to serve out the term of Michael Geppi, who resigned his post on May 27th.
The goal of the HCRCC, according to Chairwoman Kim Wagner, is “to promote Republican principles and candidates in Harford County.”
Maybe that helps explain Geppi’s resignation – it’s a little hard to promote Republicans and run against a Republican at the same time.
Geppi told The Dagger he resigned from the HCRCC to focus on his campaign for the Maryland House of Delegates representing Bel Air/Abingdon in District 35B, a seat currently ...Continue Reading
A $65,000 grant through Maryland Environmental Services and a $500 donation from a Bel Air-based nonprofit group will allow Harford County’s nine waste oil and antifreeze recycling locations to remain open and keep monitors and restrooms active on the MA & PA Heritage Trail.
Information on the grant and donations was released late last week and gave County Executive David Craig’s office a chance to remind the public that the reduction in services were “due to last minute budget cuts by the County Council.”
Waste Oil Recycling Locations Spared
Grant from Maryland Environmental Services Allows Harford County Sites to Remain Open
(Bel Air, MD) – - Faced with the issue of closing nine waste oil and antifreeze recycling locations due to last minute budget cuts by the County Council, the Harford County Department of Public Works consulted with officials at Maryland Environmental Services (MES). Through a grant program available from the Maryland Department of ...Continue Reading
Ongoing Campaign to Support Harford’s Farming Community
(Bel Air, MD – June 25, 2009) – - It is with great excitement that the Harford County Economic Development Agricultural Advisory Board announces the completion of the latest initiative in the Division of Agriculture’s Buy Local campaign.
In an advertising project reminiscent of the days when barns were used to promote everything from chewing tobacco to the local five & dime, two barns in Harford County were recently painted to feature the County’s ag logo, the slogan “Support Harford’s Farms – Buy Local,” and the County’s ag marketing website, www.HarfordFarms.com.
The purpose of the Buy Local campaign is to raise the public’s level of awareness about the availability of locally-grown food and other agricultural products. “In these tough economic times, it’s so important that as many of our hard-earned dollars as possible stay right here in Harford County,” stated Ag Advisory Board chairman Richard Holloway, ...Continue Reading
Backing off a proposal to close the Fallston Library branch, Harford Library Director Audra Caplan announced yesterday that budget cuts would instead be felt across the system in the form of reduced hours of operation, cuts in materials and services, and job losses. The change in plans was to be formally approved by the Library Board of Trustees last night along with the FY10 budget, following a public hearing at 6 p.m. at Fallston High School.
Library Director Caplan said the move to keep Fallston open was in response to an “outpouring…from residents from all areas of the county”. She said “the message was clear” that cuts should be absorbed across the system in order to leave the doors open at all 11 branches.
The $1.6 million in cutbacks will be effective July 1. They are expected to include:
(Bel Air, MD) – - The Harford County Department of Human
Resources recently notified County government employees which work days will be used as unpaid furlough days. Five furlough days were submitted as a part of the FY2010 budget to offset local government funding cuts imposed by the State of Maryland.
County offices will be closed on the following days which have
been selected as unpaid furlough days:
- Friday, July 24, 2009
- Friday, September 4, 2009
- Monday, October 12, 2009
- Thursday, December 24, 2009, and
- Monday, April 5, 2010.
Employees who work at 24/7 water and waste water operations
or the personnel Emergency Operations Center will not follow the
same schedule as other employees and are being required to exhaust
their furlough days in lieu of other leave throughout the fiscal year.
Along with all County government offices, Harford County’s
five senior centers, its Parks and Recreation Centers, and Harford
Transit Bus Service will ...Continue Reading
(Bel Air, MD) – The Harford County Department of Public Works has
announced that the Tollgate Yard Trim Drop-off Site located at 703 North Tollgate Road will be closing all operations on July 1, 2009 until further notice.
The closure was necessary in order to meet a final cut imposed by the Harford County Council to the FY2010 Operating Budget which removed an additional 5% of funding from nearly all county departments and agencies.
Harford County residents will still be able to drop off yard trim directly at the Harford Waste Disposal Center’s Mulch and Compost Site, which is located at 3135 Scarboro Road in Street, Maryland.
Current operating hours at the Scarboro site are Monday through Friday from 7:00am until 3:00pm, and Saturday from 8:00am until 2:00pm. Effective Saturday, July 11, 2009 the hours at the Mulch and Compost Site will change to 7:00am until 3:00pm, Monday through Saturday.
By implementing system-wide layoffs, furloughs and salary reductions, slashing the materials budget by nearly 20%, and closing all branches of the Harford County Public Library system on Sundays, the Fallston Branch has been saved and will remain open.
The decision and recommendations of the Library Board of Trustees were announced during a Wednesday afternoon press conference.
“The Board of Trustees has removed the closure of a branch, specifically Fallston, from the budget reduction proposal,” the press release states.
A public hearing on the budget proposal will proceed as planned on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. at Fallston High School.
Here is the full press release:
Library Budget Reductions
The Harford County Public Library held a press conference at 3pm today at the Bel Air Branch to announce the Library Board of Trustees’ recommendations for the FY10 budget reductions and the impact these reductions will have on services throughout the county.
Harford County Director of Human Resources Scott Gibson has spent the past few days notifying 34 administration employees that they would be let go. The action was the Craig Administration’s response to a round of budget cuts enacted by the Harford County Council to support a cut to the real estate tax rate. The tax cut is estimated to be worth about $54 on a $300,000 home.
The Dagger has been provided with a list of departments and positions where employees were either laid off or terminated, as indicated by the column headings on the chart below. The column marked “other” provides supplemental information which identifies vacancies that have been frozen and also notes transfers of so-called classified employees. According to Gibson, classified employees are required by the terms of their contract to be given preference over non-standard, temporary employees. So classified employees were sometimes transferred rather than laid ...Continue Reading
