County Officials

Chad Shrodes got his wish when he was elected to the Harford County Council, but it cost him his job. While the Republican boasted that his experience as a county planner would help him as a councilman, conflict of interest rules prohibited him from holding both positions. So when he was sworn in at the beginning of the year as an elected official, he became temporarily unemployed. For the past three months, Shrodes has used the free time to delve into concerns lodged by residents in his district, which stretches from Jarrettsville to Dublin.

After operating under a six-month building moratorium because of a water shortage, Westminster officials said yesterday they expect to sign an agreement with the state next week that will allow a limited amount of development to move forward in the Carroll County seat. The agreement will allocate an additional 60,000 gallons a day to Westminster, allowing for some building permits to be approved, Mayor Thomas K. Ferguson said. "The agreement is really only the beginning," Ferguson said.

Army commanders will meet with Anne Arundel County officials in the coming weeks to discuss plans to have a private developer build a $700 million office complex at Fort Meade, a proposal that would transform the Army post but that would cost the county millions in tax revenue. One of the nation's largest real estate developers, Trammell Crow Co., has entered into exclusive negotiations with the Army to build at least 2 million square feet of office space to handle 10,000 defense contract workers drawn by base realignment and closure, or BRAC, and an expansion of the National Security Agency.

On a Thursday night in Towson, just up the road from one of the state's largest college campuses, the Greene Turtle tavern is slowly filling up. The incoming customers, clad in T-shirts and sandals, know the routine: They present their driver's licenses to show they are old enough to drink. But the doorman does more than just eyeball the date of birth. He inserts the cards into a gray device that resembles a machine used to swipe credit card charges. "People coming in with fake IDs, they're nervous as it is," said the doorman, Matt Gwin.

Baltimore County officials are applying stricter standards for the purchase of police dogs for a unit that has seen some dogs die of cancer. The tighter standards, based in part on recommendations from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, include a close review of the dogs' bloodlines, county officials said. The county plans to buy at least three dogs. A bidding process ended this month, but the county has not announced the results. The canine unit has 22 police dogs, according to the Baltimore County police union.

A bipartisan coalition on the Anne Arundel County Council is trying to overhaul the county executive's proposal for a storm-water restoration fund by requiring most residents and businesses to share the financial burden. Council Chairman Ronald C. Dillon Jr., a Republican, and Democrats Josh Cohen and Jamie Benoit on Monday night proposed a charge of $25 on homeowners of developed property and $100 on owners of improved commercial and industrial land. County Executive John R. Leopold's SMART fund would levy a fee on most future development.

A proposal to change Howard County's zoning laws to allow the Housing Commission to build more affordable-housing units on commercial land ran into a buzz saw of opposition at a Planning Board meeting from leaders of two prominent civic groups and a crowd of western Ellicott City residents. Their opposition last year doomed a similar project. The Planning Board will discuss the issue again Aug. 23. Affordable-housing advocates favor the bill, but most of the standing-room-only crowd of about 50 people at the meeting Thursday night at the George Howard Building were opposed.

Local activists opposed to the Carroll County Regional Airport expansion joined county officials in a tour of wooded areas near the airport where approximately 330 trees are designated to be cut down. The tour, requested by Westminster resident Rebekah Orenstein at a June meeting with county officials, brought about a dozen residents Thursday to the four parcels on which the trees stand. County officials said cutting the trees is necessary to allow pilots to see the airport's new 4-box precision approach path indicator (PAPI)

A recent audit by a corrections commission deemed the Harford County Detention Center to be in full compliance with state regulations, county officials said yesterday. The Maryland Commission on Correctional Standards conducted the audit Jan. 9-11, Lt. James Eyler, a spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office, said in a news release. The commission audits state, local and private adult correctional facilities. Audit visits typically last three or four days and include inmate and staff interviews.

For the beginning of the Yorkway Apartments demolition, Catherine Kates took a day off from work and got out her American flag. She has lived in a rowhouse near the complex for more than a decade, and several years ago had a backyard birthday party for her granddaughter. But she hasn't felt safe enough to sit on the porch or open her windows since. "I feel like I've been a prisoner," she said. "I had lost all hope." As the construction crane idled yesterday, the 55-year-old told a small crowd waiting for the first bricks to crumble, "As far as I'm concerned, today is Dundalk's Independence Day."

Earlier this year, the Baltimore County Health Department dispatched two 18-year-old police cadets to 80 local stores where cigarettes are sold. Want to guess how often the teenagers were asked to show some form of identification? A miserable four out of 10 times. When county officials surveyed stores close to county middle and high schools, the results weren't much better: ID was requested less than half the time. Whenever the sole female cadet purchased cigarettes from male store clerks, the results were even more troubling - not once was she asked to show her driver's license or any other form of identification.

Baltimore County officials and Gov. Martin O'Malley took a big step Thursday toward improving the county's outdated public-safety radio network by unveiling a new digital transmission tower in Woodlawn. The tower is part of a $57 million project to replace the network by late 2011. In all, 10 new digital towers will be built around the county, and eight existing analog towers will be upgraded. County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said that the project "will further improve our first responders' ability to communicate with each other, with relevant county agencies as well as with our partners at the state and throughout the region."

Clarksville man charged in burglary and jewel theft 1 A Clarksville man has been charged by Howard County police with burglarizing a neighbor's home last Sunday and stealing jewelry worth about $30,000. Michael Edward Macon, 23, of the 11800 block of Shepard's Crossing was charged with three counts of burglary and two counts of theft. Police were called to a home in the 11800 block of Shepard's Crossing, where the victims said they had been robbed. There were no signs of forced entry, and police say the suspect might have known the security code to enter the garage.

Howard County's recession-battered development industry shut down Friday, potentially stranding more than 20 projects because the independent agency that reviews erosion and sediment plans ran out of money to pay two workers. But later in the day, the Howard County Soil Conservation officials said they have a plan to avert a crisis and would have one plan reviewer working on Monday. "It's going to come about," said Bill Barnes, a county farmer who is chairman of the district's governing board of supervisors.

Suspecting that a pawnshop outside Annapolis was helping to fence stolen goods, officers raided it this week, seizing dozens of new items that were believed to have been stolen from area businesses, Anne Arundel County police said. The county also shut down the Trading Depot, at 2020A West St., for operating without needed permits and licenses, police said. Among the items seized Wednesday were housewares and hair-growth products, power tools and purses, diet aids and art supplies. Police said many were designer and brand-name goods, including more than 200 Vera Bradley purses and Oil of Olay products.

The Orioles are awaiting three governmental approvals in Florida this afternoon that would secure them a new spring training home for the next 30 years. The Orioles and Sarasota County officials have reached a tentative agreement that would relocate the club's spring training headquarters from Fort Lauderdale, in the southeastern part of Florida, to Sarasota on the state's western coast, starting in February. As part of the potential deal, $31.2 million in state grant money and a county tourism tax would be used to fully renovate 22-year-old Ed Smith Stadium, which hosted the Cincinnati Reds from 1998 to 2009, and dilapidated Twin Lakes Park, the Orioles' current minor league complex.

State and local officials are looking to buy a 190-acre waterfront farm in eastern Baltimore County from a developer, even though the partly wooded spread on Back River scored poorly on a rating system the state uses to rank potential purchases for parkland. No deal has been reached, and no one would reveal what price has been discussed with developer Mark C. Sapperstein, who says he has spent at least $6 million to buy and improve the land. But county officials, who paid Sapperstein more than the appraised value of another property two years ago, say they would be "very interested" in acquiring Bauer's Farm to preserve it from development and to expand public access to the river and Chesapeake Bay. "Anytime Baltimore County could preserve a couple hundred acres of prime waterfront property and add it to the county's park inventory, that would always get our interest," said Don Mohler, spokesman for County Executive James T. Smith Jr. The farm, with nearly a mile of shoreline, adjoins 1,360-acre North Point State Park, which has a wading beach, fishing pier and hiking trails.

When government action does substantial harm to private property, the perpetrator's obligation to its victims is clear - undo the damage or, if that's not possible, make the victim whole. Such is the case with the Schneider family of Essex, whose seven-bedroom house on 1.4 acres of waterfront land was irreparably harmed by the construction of a Baltimore County sewer line. The conflict between the county and the Schneiders has been long and contentious. As District Court Judge Norman R. Stone III observed, the case (now on the verge of outright eviction)

An Essex family staved off eviction Monday when a District Court judge declined Baltimore County's request that he order the family off the property. Judge Norman R. Stone III told an attorney representing the county that the issues involved in the case were too complex for easy resolution and that county officials had not proved they were entitled to remove James M. Schneider, his wife and their children from their home without helping them relocate. "I wish I could put a stake through the heart of this case," Stone said, "but I can't."

The Meade boys track and field team was stripped of its state, regional and county championships by the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association on Monday as punishment for the use of an ineligible athlete in the fourth marking period this spring. MPSSAA executive director Ned Sparks confirmed Monday night that Meade reported the violation itself to Anne Arundel County officials last week. The county released a statement Monday saying Meade used a player who was ruled academically ineligible when report cards were issued for the third marking period April 3, and the Mustangs must forfeit any competitions the athlete participated in after that date.