Saturday, March 30, 2013
The fee will be constant for three years.
Two months after Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced the creation of a new stormwater management fee, the County Council approved a fee that property owners will see on their tax bill beginning in July. This new fee will help satisfy a 2012 state mandate that requires larger jurisdictions to collect money to develop a stormwater management program. The county commissioners set the rate at $15 per 500 square feet of impervious surface for three years. That means the owner of a home with 2,640 square feet of impervious surface would pay $75 per year. A larger home with, for instance, a longer, impervious driveway totaling 12,540 square feet, would pay $375 per year. As for the rate three years from now, stormwater manager Jim …
Sunday, March 10, 2013
The County Council is working on how to adapt a state law requiring stormwater fees for property owners to the county.
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Sunday, March 10
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Residents testified Tuesday night about their experiences with power outages.
While many of the people testifying about BGE’s reliability in Howard County were familiar faces at Tuesday’s public hearing, some new perspectives came to the forefront, too; particularly the business perspective. “Our business is to help small businesses solve technical problems,” Kristy Mumma said of the Columbia-based company Stewart Technologies, Inc. “But we’re having technical problems of our own due to frequent, unexplained outages.” About 20 people signed up to testify – all in favor of CR134, which would create a resolution on behalf of the County Council, asking the Public Service Commission to initiate a second investigation into BGE’s reliability in Howard County in neighborhoods not mentioned in the investigation currently …
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Formal notification period mandatory for zoning changes.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The pros and cons of term limits for members of the County Council was a topic of discussion at Monday's public hearing.
Members of the public debated the finer points of term limits at Monday night’s Howard County Council meeting during a discussion on legislation that would ask voters to change the current council term limits from three 4-year terms to four 4-year terms. The argument hinged on two issues: Council member Calvin Ball began discussion of the legislation he submitted by saying that two-thirds of Maryland jurisdictions don’t use term limits for their council. The legislation, if approved, would put the issue before voters as a charter amendment. Alice Giles, the co-president of the League of Women Voters of Howard County, said her group supported Ball’s legislation during the meeting at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City. “We …
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Lehman introduces redistricting map to District 1 residents.
Prince George’s County residents in District 1 got a peek this week into what will likely become boundary lines for their political district. According to federal law, redrawing district lines occurs every 10 years in accordance with U.S. Census data. The nine districts in Prince George’s County must be equal in population and not change more or less than 5 percent in population, according to law. Councilwoman Mary A. Lehman (D-Dist.1) of Laurel, who held a meeting for residents, said District 1 would likely see the least amount of change because it mostly abuts other jurisdictions such as Howard, Montgomery and Anne Arundel counties. Still, a group of residents from College Park, Laurel, Beltsville, Calverton and Adelphi said they feared …
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
A summer initiative to cut down crime draws mixed response from council.
Councilman Obie Patterson described residents in his district as “prisoners in their own homes.” Councilwoman Andrea Harrison wanted to know what could be done to keep prostitutes plaguing a neighborhood behind bars and Chairwoman Ingrid Turner wondered how crime could be going down while murder rates were up. Virtually no other topic in Prince George’s County draws as much public ire as crime, particularly in the wake of a homicide spree earlier this year. On Tuesday, officials from the Prince George’s County Police Department and State Attorney’s Office presented to the county council an initiative to aggressively target crime in residential neighborhoods in hopes of countering what has become a traditional summer crime spike. The …
Peter Edelen
5:56 am on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Scary stories last night. Kudos to the County Council on moving on this. BGE needs to be held accountable. more ›