County Roads

LAST WEEK'S column generated quite a few comments about bicycling in Howard County. Here's a sample of what you're saying. "While I do not live in Howard County, I drive and ride my bicycle on Howard County roads. I feel that the policy of resurfacing roads with tar and chips is short-sighted," said Catonsville resident Janet Goldstein. "This resurfacing method may last longer than asphalt, but the resulting road is hazardous: slippery, with piles of gravel. Though the ride is much more uncomfortable for cyclists than for drivers, autos as well as bicycles can be damaged by the inevitable small flying rocks.

Much of Maryland's westernmost county remained largely inaccessible on Wednesday afternoon, a result of superstorm Sandy's meeting a cold front and dumping more than 2 feet of heavy, wet snow on the region. About 80 percent of Garrett County residents - or about 24,000 people, according to recent census data - remained without power, and secondary roads remained "completely inaccessible," according to Brad Frantz, the county's emergency services coordinator. "This is as bad as I've seen it, and I've been in public safety for 38 years," Frantz said.

A Carroll County roads operations employee was killed on the job yesterday when a falling tree limb struck him on the head, state police said. Charles Edward Olinger Jr., 35, of Taneytown was hit on the head by a limb cut by another county worker while they were trimming trees in the area of Tyrone and Cross Section roads near Mayberry, said Cpl. Jeffrey Tanzola of the Westminster barracks. State police responded to the accident about 9:30 a.m. Olinger was taken to Carroll Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The term bridge to nowhere has become something of a politically charged euphemism for government waste, but it is rather appropriate for two recently completed Harford County roads projects, and could well be applied to a third that's in the works. A few years back, under a previous county executive, there was a proposal to build a bridge over a creek named Broad Run, in Creswell, so as to allow for a thoroughfare linking Wheel Road to Route 136. The project faced opposition from people who didn't want their neighborhood streets being turned into shortcuts.

State officials and the Washington Redskins reached an agreement yesterday under which the football team will pay workers the prevailing wage for state-funded highway construction on county roads at the team's new stadium in Prince George's County.The Redskins and state highway officials reached an agreement last month under which the team will pay prevailing wages on several projects on state roads near the stadium site."All state and county off-site infrastructure construction will require payment of prevailing wages," said Chuck Brown, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Transportation.

Carroll County's budget director understands the sticker shock some towns are experiencing at news that they will receive no dollars in highway revenue from the county for the first time in 20 years.But the explanation is logical -- in a "counterintuitive" way, said Steven D. Powell, director of management and budget. He emphasized that he wasn't defending the formula, merely explaining it.Shock erupted at a Westminster Common Council work session Monday when the city learned it would receive no money this year under the county roads levy.

On July 1, following years of political debate, a resolution passed last year by the Board of County commissioners and months of extensive planning and rehearsal, the Carroll County Sheriff's Office officially assumed its new role as the county's primary law enforcement agency. And by all accounts, few people outside the halls of law enforcement and county government even noticed. Which is exactly the sort of seamless transition that the Sheriff's Office and the county Office of Public Safety has been planning and hoping for. "Our workload has increased by about 60 percent in terms of the calls we take, and we were prepared for that," Sheriff Kenneth Tregoning said of the transition, which will take two years overall, culminating on July 1, 2013.

ISSUE: Minors soliciting money from motorists on Anne Arundel County roads could be fined $100 if the County Council approves a bill that has been drafted by Vice Chairwoman Cathleen M. Vitale, a Severna Park Republican. A violation of Vitale's proposed ban would be considered similar to a traffic infraction, and Vitale said she might consider revising the legislation to empower police officers to issue warnings. Citations for those 16 and older would be handled in District Court; violators under 16 would go to juvenile court.

LAST WEEK'S ISSUE -- Minors soliciting money from motorists on Anne Arundel County roads could be fined $100 if the County Council approves a bill that has been drafted by Vice Chairwoman Cathleen M. Vitale, a Severna Park Republican. A violation of Vitale's proposed ban would be considered similar to a traffic infraction, and Vitale said she might consider revising the legislation to empower police officers to issue warnings. Citations for those 16 and older would be handled in District Court; violators under 16 would go to juvenile court.

Much of Maryland's westernmost county remained largely inaccessible on Wednesday afternoon, a result of superstorm Sandy's meeting a cold front and dumping more than 2 feet of heavy, wet snow on the region. About 80 percent of Garrett County residents - or about 24,000 people, according to recent census data - remained without power, and secondary roads remained "completely inaccessible," according to Brad Frantz, the county's emergency services coordinator. "This is as bad as I've seen it, and I've been in public safety for 38 years," Frantz said.

Route 140 was closed in both directions near Bethel Road in Carroll County for a little over an hour this afternoon as crews worked to clean up diesel fuel leaking from a tanker that overturned, according to the Maryland State Highway Administration. The tanker overturned near a Royal Farms store between Westminster and Sykesville around 12:30 p.m. The road reopened before 2 p.m., but the tanker remains overturned in the Royal Farms parking lot, according to highway officials.

On July 1, following years of political debate, a resolution passed last year by the Board of County commissioners and months of extensive planning and rehearsal, the Carroll County Sheriff's Office officially assumed its new role as the county's primary law enforcement agency. And by all accounts, few people outside the halls of law enforcement and county government even noticed. Which is exactly the sort of seamless transition that the Sheriff's Office and the county Office of Public Safety has been planning and hoping for. "Our workload has increased by about 60 percent in terms of the calls we take, and we were prepared for that," Sheriff Kenneth Tregoning said of the transition, which will take two years overall, culminating on July 1, 2013.

Howard County traffic engineering chief Diane Schwarzman's old one-speed bike rarely gets out of her Ellicott City garage, but lately she's using a borrowed, more sophisticated two-wheeler to pedal along Columbia's streets and pathways with a few professional colleagues. "The street is the same," she said about the experience of riding a bicycle where she normally drives a car, "but you realize the characteristics of the paved surface." The officials said riding bikes themselves helps them plan for altering streets to make them safer for cyclists.

It might look like a fabulous huge toy, but operating a truck to plow snow-covered streets and salt slippery roads is not child's play. "You've got to take it seriously. Somebody can get hurt," said Anne Arundel County public works employee Dereck Hopkins, who has 30 years' experience. Plowing and salting is not a matter of sitting back and driving on cruise control while pushing a bunch of buttons. It's a workout, Hopkins said during an early plow-and-salt run in between storms Tuesday.

Anne Arundel County School Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell has presented the school board with plans to redistrict schools in the South County and Mountain Road areas of the county, attempting to disrupt as few community schools as possible and remedy many of the area's overcrowding issues using magnet schools. Maxwell's recommendations for the South County closely mirror those of a committee made up of community leaders and parents who studied the issue there. However, Maxwell largely veered from the panel's recommendations for the Mountain Road corridor, choosing to keep most students in their current home districts and feeder system, with hopes that he can solve some of the area's space problems with magnet schools and programs that would attract voluntary student transfers.

Drivers who hot-foot it through Howard County got a one-year reprieve when speed-camera legislation failed in the final days of last spring's General Assembly session, but state Sen. James N. Robey is gearing up for a second try. The measure leads a modest list of 11 local bills that are to be the subject of a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 25 at school board headquarters on Route 108. Five of the measures are bond bills requesting state funds for...

Baltimore, Washington and Maryland's northern counties fell into the "sweet spot" of yesterday's Alberta clipper snowstorm, which surprised commuters with an unexpected traffic nightmare and delighted school kids with the season's first all-day snow and early dismissals. There was little accumulation on major highways, but the morning commute wheezed to a crawl anyway as motorists slipped on melting snow and icy overpasses. Weather-related collisions jammed corridor after corridor, as half-hour commutes became two-hour ordeals.

Disaster response to be discussed Anne Arundel Medical Center will hold a breakfast Tuesday for local clergy to discuss ways faith-based communities can work together in times of a natural disaster, pandemic or terrorist attack. Topics of discussion will include how the need for personal hygiene and infection control could affect long-standing worship practices, and how communities of faith can provide support to the elderly, the ill and those who are isolated. The clergy also will discuss how to deal with issues such as vaccine shortages, high rates of absenteeism, illness, death, and spiritual and psychological stress.