That's a lot of water for one customer
If the guy who's been beating back Baltimore's murder rate wants some decent water pressure when he takes his morning shower, who's gonna mind?
And yet, the question had to be asked when a $36,925 item "to install new water services" at a particular Southwest Baltimore address appeared on the city's Board of Estimates agenda: Um, isn't that police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld's house?
Indeed it is the house Bealefeld has been renting since May, spokesman Sterling Clifford told The Baltimore Sun's Annie Linskey. But Clifford said there's nothing fishy.
The improvements aren't for the commish but for all the new neighbors he's about to get.
The house, built in 1920, sits on 24 acres. Developer Richard Demmitt, who owns it, plans to put 200 condos and townhouses on or around the property. As part of the project, his company is having new water service installed.
What's on the agenda for today is a standard performance bond, issued to ensure completion of the work, Clifford said.
Connect the dots
Bill Cunningham, a planning commissioner and former city councilman, spent Friday night at the jazz club where former Councilman Ken Harris was killed nearly a week earlier. He was one of about 40 people from City Hall, the Police Department and state's attorney's office who showed up at the New Haven Lounge jazz club to show support for the owner, Keith Covington. Cunningham's daughter, Erin, who works in Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, helped rally the group via e-mail. "I was really proud of the whole group," Bill Cunningham said. "Excellent response." ... Maryland's federal judges host a lecture next month, and the featured speaker is a big-name lawyer - one known not for his own cases, but for commenting on other people's: Jeffrey Toobin, the CNN legal analyst and New Yorker staff writer. He'll speak Oct. 21 at the U.S. District Courthouse in Greenbelt.
