Post edited 1:42 pm – July 2, 2009 by Cindy

Councilman Dion Guthrie Reports

July, 2009

Fallston Library

            After weeks of meetings and public hearings, the Harford County Public Library Board of Trustees has reached the decision to keep the Fallston Library open.  Their proposed budget cuts do, however, include large reductions in staffing, hours, and materials.  The follow-up public meeting was held on Thursday, June 25^th.

Tollgate Yard Trim Drop-off Site Closing

            The Harford County Department of Public Works has announced that the Tollgate Yard Trim Drop-off Site located at 703 N. Tollgate Road will be closing all operations on July 1, 2009 until further notice.  The closure was necessary in order to meet a final budget cut which was made to all County departments by most of the County Council.  Residents will be able to drop off yard trim at the Scarboro Waste Disposal Center at 3135 Scarboro Road in Street.

Budget News

            The budget has been completed.  As you all probably know by now, I was the only one who voted against the budget and my main reason was because Council President Boniface introduced amendments to cut every budget in the County an additional 5% without realizing what that would do to each individual department.  If we are “going down that road”, we need to take up that process at least two months prior to the deadline date in order to have an opportunity to interview each department head and find out exactly what a 5% cut meant to their department since earlier this year they had already been cut 5% by the County Executive.  I cannot, in all good conscience and representing my constituents the way they should be represented, to just “willy nilly” cut the budget in this fashion without realizing what we are doing.

            The County is laying off 35 people which is a result of these budget cuts and these are the kinds of things we have to know ahead of time before we make such decisions.

APFO

            The Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, which keeps our schools under control for overcrowding, has been allowed by the rest of the Council to increase the percent of overcrowding from 105% to 110% of capacity.  They will go into effect July 1, 2009.  The rest of the Council felt it necessary to increase this overcrowding capacity; however, the only school in the entire County that will be affected by this increase is Magnolia Elementary.  That will release over 500 homes within a couple block area of both Magnolia Elementary and Magnolia Middle School to be built.  I guess they felt it was “not in my district”.

Comprehensive Rezoning

            The Council is now looking at the legislation regarding the comprehensive rezoning requests.  The schedule for the Council’s work sessions and hearings is as follows:

July 14, 2009, 2:00 p.m., Council Chambers – Work Session

July 16, 2009, 6:30 p.m., Aberdeen High School – Public Hearing

July 21, 2009, 6:30 p.m., Patterson Mill High School, Public Hearing

July 23, 2009, 6:30 p.m., North Harford High School – Public Hearing

August 4, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Council Chambers – Amendments to Comp. Rezoning Bill

August 11, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Council Chambers – Final Passage

Washington Court Update

            We have had several meetings on the Washington Court project and we are concerned about getting a construction road cut through from Washington Court to Trimble Road.  Eventually that will be a normal road that will come in and out of Washington Court when it is fully developed.  In the interim I am pushing for a construction road that will take all of the trucks in and out of the Washington Court site without going on to Edgewood Road, which right now cannot take any more traffic.  The demolishing of these approximately 28 buildings will require a lot of trucks going in and out of there to remove the debris.