Settling For A Mess: Havre de Grace Deals With Harford County To Mitigate Downtown Parking Woes

A midday agreement reached between Harford County and Havre de Grace Monday will ensure a portion of the city’s downtown parking lot will remain open to the public during the 18-month expansion of the adjacent water treatment.

While County Executive David Craig and Mayor Wayne Dougherty celebrated the agreement Monday with a joint press release, it seems Havre de Grace is conceding the most in what appears to be a lop-sided truce.

The crux of the settlement is that Havre de Grace will lift its stop work order on the project and allow work to proceed in exchange for the county’s help re-establishing a lane through the lot with some diagonal parking spaces.

But the city seems to be giving up a lot: Havre de Grace will not only lift the stop work order and sign off on all approvals and permits for the project, but must also pay for the costs of adding new parking, pay for the cost of the first two weeks worth of work delays, and make about half of nearby David Craig Park available for off-site storage and staging for the project. Oh and the city must also indemnify the county and hold it harmless for any damage caused by using the through-lane during the construction project. Continue reading Settling For A Mess: Havre de Grace Deals With Harford County To Mitigate Downtown Parking Woes

Support of an Elected School Board: A Letter to Mary-Dulany James

Dear Delegate James,

I am writing to express my disappointment in your sponsorship of HB 806. HB 806 would create an oligarchy to control Harford County’s voice in the appointment of our school board members. I believe that this bill is directly in opposition to what is best for good government, positive education decision-making, and the people of Harford County.

The greatest accomplishment this bill could achieve is the creation of additional bureaucracy. Your bill would give the power to special interest groups, chosen by a means unknown to the public, to choose dues-paying members of their clubs to sit on a government-created “commission.” The commission would then make, using the criteria it creates, a list of the individuals the collection of special-interest representatives believes should serve on the school board.

Continue reading Support of an Elected School Board: A Letter to Mary-Dulany James

The State of Harford County: What’s Your Take?

Harford County Executive David Craig delivered his 3rd State of the County Address on February 5th, 2008. Below is an embedded video of the address (windows media player required) and the text of the address.

Does Craig’s address give you a warm, fuzzy feeling?

Continue reading The State of Harford County: What’s Your Take?

What do we really get out of the Board of Education’s budget spending? Survey says…

It’s budget season in Harford County, when public hearings are held, pleas for funding are made and grumblings about taxes waft through the air. At one such hearing last Wednesday night, Harford County Public Schools were a hot topic. But don’t you wonder what the Board of Education does with its money? Let’s look at one example.

A few years back, the Board of Education approved a series of high school reforms known as Comprehensive Secondary School Reform (CSSRP). One of the core concepts behind reform was that students would be more engaged in school if they could take more electives, which also meant that students would spend less time in classes covering math, science, English and social studies.

The idea was that something had to be done to improve student achievement; and this was definitely something. Despite warnings from teachers, parents, students, a few brave administrators and a boatload of research, the Board of Education approved the change. In light of those same warnings however, the board promised an independent review by the end of the first year of implementation. Continue reading What do we really get out of the Board of Education’s budget spending? Survey says…

An Early Christmas for Howard Wayne Norman, Jr. - Harford’s Newest Delegate

Howard Wayne Norman, Jr., a Bel Air attorney and longtime GOP booster, was selected unanimously Saturday afternoon by the Harford County Republican Central Committee - a group in which he is a member - to fill the soon-to-be-vacant District 35A seat in the Maryland House of Delegates.

Norman’s nomination will be forwarded to Gov. Martin O’Malley upon the swearing in of current District 35A representative Del. Barry Glassman to the state senate seat of Bob Hooper. Hooper is expected to resign from his seat on Dec. 31 because of health issues. With Hooper’s resignation, Glassman has been nominated to ascend to his senate seat and now Norman has been picked to fill Glassman’s seat in the northern Harford County District 35A.

The Republican Central Committee convened a special session at 9 a.m. Saturday morning in the Harford County Council chambers in Bel Air during which 9 candidates for the District 35A seat were interviewed. Continue reading An Early Christmas for Howard Wayne Norman, Jr. - Harford’s Newest Delegate

Calling All Candidates: 8 Vie for Harford’s District 35A Seat in House of Delegates

So a bar owner, an attorney, a couple of real estate developers, a farmer, a firefighter and the politically-active wife of a prominent elected official all want the same job - it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but the real joke is that one of these people will be handed an enormous amount of power and control over the northern end of Harford County.

The Harford County Republican Central Committee released Friday the list of eight candidates who are vying to fill the District 35A seat in the House of Delegates, which is set to be vacated Dec. 31 when Del. Barry Glassman moves into the seat held by the resigning state senator Bob Hooper.

Hooper, who is resigning for health reasons, handpicked Glassman to be his successor and no other candidates submitted names challenging Glassman’s appointment by Gov. Martin O’Malley to become a senator. Unlike Hooper, however, Glassman didn’t leave an heir to his delegation seat - leading eight contestants to submit letters of consideration by Friday’s deadline.

But who are these people? Continue reading Calling All Candidates: 8 Vie for Harford’s District 35A Seat in House of Delegates

Men of Many Hats

We heard along with the rest of the world Wednesday morning that Harford County Executive David Craig had joined Team Rudy, signing on as Maryland co-chair of the Giuliani presidential campaign (http://www.joinrudy2008.com/article/pr/1007).

Craig joins his old buddy, ex-governor Bob Ehrlich and Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold as supporters of the 9-11 hero.

What I’m wondering is whether anyone saw or remembers the spoof-quality Fred Thompson for President video shot on Main Street in Bel Air this July featuring, among others, Craig’s boy-wonder Director of Human Resources, Scott Gibson.
Continue reading Men of Many Hats