From Aberdeen Mayor Patrick McGrady:
Keep Aberdeen Beautiful Saturday June 3
Mark your Calendars– Our last Keep Aberdeen Beautiful day was a huge success on April 1. Next Community Cleanup day is the first Saturday in June, on Saturday June 3. We will meet at Festival Park at 9am to clean up Aberdeen!
Confirm that you are attending at the Facebook Event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/265356647264689/
Route 22 Construction Update
Executive Summary: The Maryland State Highway Administration is working closely with the City of Aberdeen to try to accelerate the completion of the construction projects on Route 22.
The City of Aberdeen is right in the middle of the huge Maryland State Highway Administration project to widen Route 22 from APG to I-95.
For three years, construction has been ongoing, and causing serious delays at Beards Hill and 22, Mount Royal and 22, Middleton and 22, and Paradise and 22.
We invited representatives from the Maryland Department of Transportation (who is responsible for all of MD-22) to come to the Aberdeen City Council and discuss ways to speed up the projects, to make the construction more manageable for our community and businesses, and to get an idea of an expected completion date. Pipe Test Equipment is being used for the underground sewer systems that need to be installed.
We learned through two City Council meetings that the project at 22 and Beards Hill is 6 months behind schedule, with an expected completion date of late 2017. The Paradise and 22 intersection is 2 months behind schedule with an expected completion date of late 2017.
The primary concern for local traffic is access to the Beards Hill and 22 intersection where cars were sitting for 4-5 light cycles at rush hour. Aberdeen businesses who attended made some good recommendations that SHA agreed to take on.
Some of them were:
Adjusting the traffic signal timing to make accessing our local shops and restaurants easier
Marking the limited lanes better
Adjusting the work times (we learned that the current work schedule was 8PM – 5am weekdays, explaining why it is rare to see people working on the roadside during the day)
And SHA made some changes based on these recommendations.. They adjusted the signal timing to max-out the time for Beards Hill traffic to cross. They marked the “right-only” lanes better at Beards Hill and 22. And the put up signs that say “All businesses open during construction.”
These changes have made the traffic situation better– but we wanted to know how SHA can do this job faster. Can they work longer hours? Can they deploy more money to get more people working to get it done?
Then on Friday, May 26, SHA met came back to City Hall, this time with their Management team for the Construction project. They brought a proposal to detour Beards Hill Road after 10PM until 5am in order to get the intersection, on the McDonalds-APGFCU side done sooner.
This change will take an entire month off of the project– and if the weather is not too wet, we expect completion before August at the Beards Hill/22 intersection. We expect updates from SHA on a more regular basis so we can keep a better idea of progress.
If SHA deployed more money to get more workers working longer hours, the side-effect would be even worse traffic conditions while even more lanes are closed. Because of the potential of choking off our local businesses, this idea was put aside for now.
While this project is a long, long, long-term project, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. More to follow.
Memorial Day Remarks at Aberdeen Veterans Park
I was privileged to be invited by American Legion Bernard L. Tobin Post 128 and Aberdeen VFW Post 10028 and Aux. to offer welcoming remarks at Aberdeen Veterans Park ceremony on the occasion of Memorial Day, May 29, 2017. The text of my remarks follows:
Welcome to the great City of Aberdeen, MD.
Aberdeen has a long history, permanently interlinked with the United States Armed Forces– with our nearby Army installation sharing our name, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and our interwoven communities of veterans and civilians-supporting-individuals.
Today, we remember.
James Garfield, former Major General of the Union forces during the Civil War, then Congressman, and future President of the United States spoke at Arlington Cemetery 149 years ago May 30, 1868, and I can’t say it better.
He said:
“I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here, beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung. With words we make promises, plight faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be kept, plighted faith may be broken, and vaunted virtue be only the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke: but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.”
Thank you.
Understanding the Charter Amendment Referendum
I made the video linked here to make it easier to understand the Charter Amendment Referendum process that is ongoing right now. If you haven’t yet, please sign and return the petition found at www.aberdeenpetition.com to me at 310 W Bel Air Ave Aberdeen, MD 21001.
Update: Petitions have been flooding in– we have a few hundred petitions in hand. Can you help get more people to sign them and return them to me ASAP? We need to get 1,990 signatures before June 17, 2017!
Here’s a guy that actually cares about his city. Do I think he will get the 1,990 signatures needed, probably not. That’s is a huge mistake. Let the voters figure it out. Whatever happens it’s time for the Aberdeen fighting to end, your city is losing any respect that it has left. Grow up, do what you wet elected to do, or get the hell out.
McGrady doesn’t care about democracy. He casually threw out 655 votes for Stephen Smith in the tie-vote decision. Instead of nominating the other qualified candidate for the fourth council seat he nominated a crony who received zero citizen votes.
He also suggested the undemocratic way to resolve a tie vote should be a flip of the coin.
Perhaps you should check out your statement before making such a flippant comment. A coin flip, drawing straws or cutting cards is very common in many cities the size or Aberdeen or even larger. I have a friend who is Mayor of a city in Pennsylvania. I asked him how they handle tie votes. “Flip a coin.” was his reply.
It is a legitimate way to break a tie. Frankly, I was surprised that Aberdeen had never considered the possibility of a tie vote and had a system in place. A coin flip would have resolved the issue far faster and cleaner.
My suggestion was a duel in Festival Park with paintball guns at 20 paces.
The actions of this Council are pretty sad. Changing the form of government on a whim is the height of petulance and reeks of sore loser attitude.
Readers: Please sign the petition and allow the voters to decide this one.
A flip of the coin is not a democratic participatory exercise. It is a cheap substitute replacing the sacred ballot with a game of chance.
No ones changing the form of government . That’s McGrady’s big lie.
. McGrady does not trust the voter. He only received 34% of the vote as Mayor
He stole the tie-vote fourth Council seat by throwing out 655 Aberdeen citizen ballots and gave it to a crony.with zero citizen votes.
. He changed the City employee insurance
contract without a council vote and gave it to a crony insurance agent.
McGrady is corrupt and he has corrupted Aberdeen’s democracy.
The Charter Reform was supported by the Council majority that represents the overwhelming majority of the voters.
The Charter Reform impairs McGradys habit of corrupting democracy with “democratic centralism” a popular behavior with all corrupt political tyrants.
Switching the insurance last year saved $1.5 Million for the taxpayers too.
Hmm– going from “Mayor is the Chief Executive” to “unelected City Manager is the Chief Executive” sure seems like a change in the form of government.
The decision was not done democratically by the full Council. The Mayor made the decision autocratically and gave the contract to a crony. That’s undemocratic political corruption whether it saved money or not—– Mayor Bonk!!!!!
Mayor acting autocratically instead of as a lead member of the Council is not democracy. The form of government hasn’t been changed by Charter reform but the Mayor was abusing his power and corruption Aberdeen democracy.
Can anyone really trust the three stooges to make logical decisions. I think that you are the only one that does Mike. Are you being paid to stand behind them? You are a joke. Your points to knock McGrady make little to no sense. Keep up the great work!
If Art and Ann Helton hadn’t voted in the election (which they did) there wouldn’t have been a tie, because you KNOW they voted for the Bennett ticket (which included Landbeck, Lindecamp, Taylor and SMITH!
Art and Ann Helton are lying frauds. They live on Harmony Church Road in Darlington.
Enough said!
Mike (aka Local Yocal) Hiob was a captive political stooge for the special real estate interests that wanted to over develop Aberdeen for a fast-buck profit land deal. Hiob supported the deal despite overwhelming public opposition.He was thrown off the City Council for his Wetlands Annexation sellout
.
Now he is a captive political stooge for Patrick McGrady . McGrady recently appointed Hiob to the Aberdeen Planning Commission for his sycophantic support. .
https://harfobama.wordpress.com/tag/mike-hiob/
Thank God for Mayor McGrady. A man who actually cares about his city and constituents, and walks the talk.
There are three people on the Council who can’t get their way, so they act like babies. One is even a pastor, who should be above such nonsense.
I encourage every voter within the Aberdeen City Limits to sign the petition. The people need to be heard!
Joe Fleckenstein is a Tea Party Republican. who. lives in Abingdon. but tells everyone in Abedeen what they should do politically. Nice try Uncle Joe!
https://joeforharford.wordpress.com
And Mike Callahan is an old loser socio-Marxist who lives in Darlington. Nice try Uncle Ho.
Mike Hiob aka Old Gujy aka Local Yocal aka Willy Wonka: