County

New energy-efficient, single-family homes could soon fill the site of a demolished apartment complex in the heart of Dundalk. The Baltimore County Council is expected to review plans tonight for the 66-home, planned unit development of Yorkway that officials and community groups are hailing for its potential to revitalize and enhance the once-blighted area. "We are going from blocks of run-down homes that generated as many as 3,000 police calls a year," said Councilman John Olszewski Sr., who represents the district and will introduce the resolution tonight.

Joseph W. Rutter Jr., a former Anne Arundel planning officer-turned-developer who was cleared to work as a consultant on the county's once-a-decade growth plan, has sparked a renewed call to bolster the county's ethics rules. Many officials agree that Rutter, who stepped down in December after serving four years as the county's top planning official, followed procedure when he sought an opinion from the Ethics Commission about his potential involvement as a subcontractor on the initial phase of the General Development Plan.

If anyone can be a tiger and a pussycat at the same time, Ruth Watkins can. County transportation chief Carl Balser called her "a very sweet woman, yet one of our harsher critics," and Courtney Watson, County Council vice chairman, said she is "so kind-hearted, yet sharp and tenacious." Watkins, 83 and legally blind, is well-known for her staunch advocacy for seniors' issues in Howard County. When a speaker informed a meeting of Watkins' Low-Vision Group this week that the new operator of the county's bus system might not be able to provide charter service to the annual Possibilities Fair, sponsored by the National Federation for the Blind in Baltimore, Watkins spoke up. "Here, again, is an example of the county not considering seniors' needs," she told the small gathering, adding that participants might have difficulty attending the highly anticipated event Oct. 18. "Now, don't go throwing out the baby with the bathwater," said Karen Hull, county mental health coordinator, to Watkins' concern over this potential glitch.

Anne Arundel County took the final step toward acquiring control of the former Naval Academy Dairy Farm in Gambrills, with the County Council's approval of a 30-year lease with the U.S. Navy. Under the terms of the lease, which goes into effect Feb. 1, the county will pay $240,000 a year for the 857-acre property, which had been considered for a state horse farm, a recreational community center and a sand-and-gravel operation. "This is the best we could hope for at the dairy farm," Councilman Jamie Benoit, a Democrat who represents Gambrills, said on Monday before the 7-0 vote to approve the resolution.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced yesterday that he has retained the directors of seven county departments and has named Bob Francis, the acting director of Inspections, Permits and Licenses, as the agency's permanent leader. "This is my team," Ulman said in an announcement. "We took the time we felt was necessary to evaluate these positions and these directors, and I believe we have an incredibly good mix of steady senior leadership along with a few fresh faces with new ideas."

The Howard County Council unanimously confirmed yesterday the appointment of Kathleen C. Conway of Columbia as county cable television administrator.It was the final council meeting before the legislative body's August recess.In confirming Conway, the council brushed aside misgivings from a public advocate about hiring a longtime employee of Comcast Cablevision.Comcast services 60,000 customers in Howard and also holds the cable franchises in Baltimore and Harford counties.Bunny Riedel, executive director of the Alliance for Community Media, a Washington-based public advocacy group, appeared at the council's public hearing last week and questioned whether any longtime employee of Comcast could be a strong advocate for the public.

How many commissioners does it take to lead Carroll County?For the past 140 years, the answer to that question has been three. But a state delegate believes this once-rural county has grown so quickly and its problems have become so complicated that the Board of County Commissioners should be expanded to five members.Del. Donald B. Elliott, a Republican from New Windsor, said five commissioners -- each representing a district -- would better serve Carroll's growing population, foster more in-depth debate and perhaps save the county money.

Pinched between her supporters' demands for a large increase in school funding and debts left by the last administration, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens repeated yesterday her pledge not to raise taxes.Her determination to keep this campaign promise, however, is threatening to collide with the centerpiece of her election platform: that she would increase the county's financial support for the public schools.Six weeks into office, Owens the fiscal conservative is looking into the mirror and seeing her worst enemy: Owens, the liberal hero of the teachers union.

The lemon-yellow "Stop Work!" notice was nailed to a tree at the edge of a construction site near a glittering arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Behind it rose the half-built foundation of a house in a forest clearing ripped by construction workers.Anne Arundel County issued the warning of environmental law violations not to a developer who ignored the county's building code but to a county inspection supervisor whose job it is to make sure developers follow the rules.County officials say they have reprimanded inspector Bryan M. Lang and halted construction of his elaborate four-bedroom house with a cupola and wrap-around porch on Colony Road in Pasadena until he obtains a permit.

The county authorized yesterday $40 million in industrial revenue bonds to help Episcopal Ministries to the Aging build a corporate headquarters in Sykesville.The loan will help EMA, the parent company of Fairhaven Retirement Community and Copper Ridge, consolidate its debt. Repayment rests solely with EMA, and the county incurs no financial obligation."People who invest in these bonds look solely to the user for repayment," said Don Bradfield, EMA executive vice president and general counsel.

All Baltimore mourned the death of a 20-year-old Johns Hopkins University student recently struck and killed by a truck witnesses saw driven erratically earlier in the day. The sadness is likely to turn to outrage at the news that police have charged a man with a long history of drunken-driving convictions in the incident. The death of Miriam Frankl need not be in vain if it spurs lawmakers to make it far more difficult for intoxicated drivers to get behind the wheel. The campaign against drunken driving has taken many forms, from lowering blood-alcohol levels to funding sobriety checkpoints.

Instead of the rutted, hilly and sometimes-dangerous half-mile private road Shirley Collier and her 19 rural neighbors have lived with for three decades, they now have a smooth, paved pathway to their secluded homes off Henryton Road in Marriottsville. "We love it," Collier said Wednesday morning as neighbors gathered at a row of mailboxes atop their long drive to celebrate the new surface and thank Howard County Executive Ken Ulman and public works director James Irvin. Ulman first heard about the community's problem July 8 at his annual town hall meeting.

An Annapolis-area Democrat and business executive announced Thursday that she is exploring a run for Anne Arundel County Executive. Joanna Conti, who said she has run businesses in five different industries and a nonprofit, has formed an exploratory committee for a possible run against County Executive John R. Leopold in the 2010 election, Conti said in an interview. Leopold, a Republican, is seeking re-election. Conti, who moved to Maryland in 2006 from Colorado, is a virtual unknown in local political circles.

Divorced and working two jobs to support herself and two college-age children, Karen Towson never thought of herself as the lucky one. But the 52-year-old Columbia resident and part-time school custodian won the right to buy a renovated four-bedroom house in Columbia for $199,000 from Harkins Builders in a drawing conducted by county housing officials. She'll also receive $5,000 in cash, if she can get a mortgage within 60 days. "To not have to pay rent anymore ... that's exciting," she said, smiling yet tearful after being chosen Tuesday from among six finalists at the county's Columbia offices.

In yet another partnership between Maryland government and goats, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold said that the munching power of a herd of 40 goats will be employed to help clear invasive vines and plants from a half-acre site at Hancock's Resolution Park in Pasadena. Monday's announcement came two months after the State Highway Administration enlisted another group of goats on a similar mission in Carroll County to protect the habitat of the bog turtle. The goats, on loan at no cost to the county from Garden Farms in Davidsonville, are scheduled to graze on overgrown bittersweet, honeysuckle and poison ivy plants for two days later this summer.

The cliche about a silver lining for every dark cloud couldn't be truer for Howard County's lagging Agricultural Land Preservation Program. The recession has county coffers bleeding revenues as development and home sales grind along at a slow pace. But what is bad news for developers and landowners is making the county's top price of $40,000 an acre look much more tempting. Although attracting only three takers since 2002, even after the county doubled the top price it would pay for preservation land to $40,000 an acre in 2006, program administrator Joy Levy said 15 to 20 county landowners are lining up for the program now, since the recession stopped developers' thirst for land.

A plan to allow builders to sell up to 20 percent of condominiums in designated senior communities to younger people was defeated in a unanimous County Council vote that came after strong opposition from older residents. The bill was requested by Brantly Development Group as a way to attract more buyers during the recession. But council members sided with county planners and scores of older residents who protested that they bought the specially zoned units because they were restricted for seniors.

The county has received $386,000 in federal grant money to buy two buses for Fort Meade and MARC rail commuters. The federal stimulus funds will be used to buy two ultra-low-sulfur diesel-powered buses, which will provide service to Fort Meade, the surrounding communities and nearby MARC stations, the county has announced. The buses are to operate during peak hours Monday through Friday. The funds will also cover the purchase of radios, GPS devices, fare boxes, wheelchair ramps and bike racks, according to the county.

The county will cut Sunday hours at the Millersville Landfill and Glen Burnie and Millersville convenience centers, in an effort to save money in overtime expenses and fuel. The county expects to save more than $425,000, County Executive John R. Leopold announced last week. "Tough fiscal times dictate that we take every action possible to trim expenses without eliminating essential services," Leopold said in a statement. "While this may cause some inconvenience, it saves money and also decreases harmful vehicle emissions."

Howard County announced yesterday that it has received a $35.5 million state grant to help pay for a $100 million county project to upgrade the county's Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant in Savage. The goal of the project is to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into the Patuxent River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay, officials said. James M. Irvin, the county public works director, said the grant from the state Department of the Environment is double the anticipated amount and will enable the county to free up more local funding for other water and sewer projects.