The Harford County Department of Community Services is proud to present the 2nd Annual Volunteer Expo, designed to inform the community about volunteer opportunities available throughout Harford County. The Volunteer Expo will be held Saturday, March 27 at Patterson Mill Middle-High School, 85 Patterson Mill Road in Bel Air, from 9am-noon.
Ever considered volunteering but didn’t know where to start or what opportunities were available? Do you want to spend quality time with your family while helping the community? Does your child need more service learning hours? Would you like to meet new people and have fun? If you answered yes to any of these, come to the Volunteer Expo!
The Volunteer Expo is free and open to everyone of all ages. With nearly 60 participating organizations on site, anyone who attends can find a volunteer opportunity suited to their wants and needs. Whether once a year, ...Continue Reading
Former NFL wide receiver Qadry Ismail, who played three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens and was a member of their Super Bowl XXXV championship team, has been hired as the new men’s track coach at Patterson Mill High School in Bel Air.
Ismail, 39, retired from the NFL following the 2002 season, which he played with the Indianapolis Colts. Ismail has lived in Harford County for several years.
Ismail has been working with the team since their season began March 1, according to Jason Bellamy, Patterson Mill’s athletic director. Bellamy said Ismail has been fully involved with the team and their practices so far.
“That’s what’s been great about him,” said Bellamy, who is in his first year as Patterson Mill’s AD. “He’s out there every day, he’s all about working with the kids.
Bellamy said the school approached Ismail to serve as coach.
“I don’t remember how exactly it came about, but we were ...Continue Reading
The decision whether to renovate the Town of Bel Air’s aging building on Hickory Avenue or move town hall to a new location was one of the keystone issues of last fall’s town election. Now, there may be an answer.
The former BB&T Bank building on Main Street in Bel Air is “under contract”, according to the real estate firm handling its sale, and a source close to the deal told The Dagger that the town is the buyer and will move its administrative offices and meeting space to that location.
The former BB&T building is currently under contract, according to Donnell “Beetle” Smith of RKS Realty. However, Smith declined to identify the prospective buyer, saying only that the transaction was in a study period expected to last through mid-April. Following that period, Smith said he expects the deal to move to settlement in mid-May.
Welcome to the first installment of a new Dagger feature, where we chronicle some of the happenings surrounding Harford’s upcoming November 2010 election.
We’ll be tracking news stories, campaign events, election issues, election controversies, and a dash of heard-on-the-street rumor. We’ll be working to report and confirm as much news as possible ourselves, but we won’t be afraid to pull from the occasional outside source if they’ve got a good item.
The season is just getting underway and the hopefuls are only now coming to light, so the news is pretty sparse at the moment.
–Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Rep. Frank Kratovil were in Harford today (Thursday) to announce $750,000 in federal funds for Harford’s public safety communications technology infrastructure enhancement project. The announcement was made at Harford County’s Emergency Operations Center alongside County Executive David Craig and EOC staff.
The cash will go toward upgrading the communications system used by Harford ...Continue Reading
Three weeks ago, the Harford County Public Schools’ fiscal year 2011 budget picture was bad enough that two percent pay cuts for all staff were proposed.
On Monday night, the county Board of Education was told that cost increases were even worse than expected last month, and would require further “adjustments” to the proposed budget.
That information came during a board budget work session that saw more than 200 teachers and school staff pack the Board of Education’s meeting room at the A.A. Roberty Building in Bel Air beyond capacity to protest the pay cuts.
When HCPS Superintendent Robert Tomback first presented his proposed budget on Dec. 21, it included $11.4 million in increases to various items such as health care, increases which required other money including staff pay to be cut to maintain a flat overall budget.
On Monday night, however, those increases had ballooned to ...Continue Reading
Three prominent Bel Air retail locations have stood empty for the last several months, but the new year will bring new life to at least one of them.
A recent tip from Dagger reader “Vic” indicated that Mars Supermarkets would move into the former Super Fresh location in Bel Air Plaza, Midwest electronics retailer hhgregg would take over the one-time Circuit City building in Tollgate Marketplace, and a Whole Foods location would open in Giant’s former home in Tollgate Plaza. Don’t get excited yet—that’s not 100 percent true at the moment.
The tip was accurate on at least one count: an hhgregg representative confirmed that the company plans to open a new store at 680 Marketplace Drive, the former location of Circuit City, by early or mid-spring.
However, a Whole Foods spokeswoman flatly denied the rumor regarding the former Giant store, saying that “there are no current plans for a space in Bel ...Continue Reading
Rep. Frank Kratovil trails Andy Harris in a recent poll of likely First District voters in next year’s election–according to Harris, at least.
In a message to his mailing list Monday titled, “New Poll in First District Congressional Race Shows Kratovil in Serious Trouble – Andy Harris Already Has A Clear Lead,” Harris claimed to hold 52 percent of “likely voters” compared to 39 percent for Kratovil.
The poll was commissioned by Harris’ campaign and conducted by national Republican polling firm The Tarrance Group from Nov. 15 to Nov. 17. A total of 300 “likely voters” were surveyed.
“Frank Kratovil’s weakness in this district might seem startling but it is backed up by a poor image and a low re-elect score,” The Terrance Group wrote in a memo about the poll. “While Kratovil is well-known, only 43 percent of the voters hold a favorable image and 30 percent are unfavorable ...Continue Reading
The Greene Turtle on Main Street in Bel Air closed its doors Tuesday after the restaurant felt it was “unlikely” that a new lease agreement could be reached with its landlord.
In a statement to The Dagger, a company spokesman said the Greene Turtle parent company and its Bel Air franchise decided that they would be unable to reach a new lease agreement but hoped to find “a new home.”
“The Bel Air franchisees are committed to The Greene Turtle, having just opened another location in Aberdeen and signed a franchise agreement for Rehoboth Beach, [Del.], and are working closely with [the parent company] to reopen in Bel Air as early as possible,” spokesman Greg Pitkoff said in a statement.
Licensee Mike Venanzi of D&M GT of Aberdeen LLC did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon. That same LLC also owns the Greene Turtle on Beards Hill Road in Aberdeen, but ...Continue Reading
Nearly a week after Election Night, provisional and absentee ballots re-elected Town Commissioners David Carey and Robert Preston over challenger Greg Adolph.
Final results announced Monday afternoon at Bel Air Town Hall included five absentee ballots and two provisional ballots. From those, Preston collected four votes and Carey gained six votes, while Adolph added none. Preston finished with 418 votes, Carey with 417 votes, and Adolph with 410.
Challengers Ricky Davis and Dave Mitchell picked up two votes each Monday, to give them 356 and 32 votes respectively. Steven Testerman, who dropped his campaign last month, finished with 11.
After Tuesday’s election, eight provisional ballots remained uncounted. The ballots are given to voters whose registration status is unclear, and are later verified by elections officials.
But six of the ballots were rejected; one voter could not be found in any state or local registration lists and five were found to be ...Continue Reading
It’s going to be a very long weekend for three Bel Air Town Commissioner candidates.
Incumbents Robert Preston and David Carey led challenger Greg Adolph by a razor-thin margin in the results of Tuesday’s voting. Nothing will be settled until Monday, when provisional ballots are verified and the remaining absentee ballots are counted.
Currently, Preston leads the field with 414 votes, followed by Carey with 411 and Greg Adolph with 410. Ricky Davis received 356 votes, Dave Mitchell received 32 votes, and Steve Testerman received 11 votes.
Those results included the 866 votes cast on Tuesday as well as eight of 13 absentee ballots. Five absentee ballots have yet to be counted, and eight provisional ballots must be verified before being counted.
Town election officials will open the remaining absentee ballots and determine the validity of the provisional ballots on Monday at 2:30 p.m. at Bel Air Town Hall.
