Harford County

Editor: Harford County was a wonderful place to have grown-up, riding ponies, attending Harford Horse Show Association Shows, and moreover, enjoying country living. The country living which I experienced was one of cooperation, where I never heard a chorus of extremist political views.  However, and sadly,  Harford County has come to be known by State Stakeholders as having political representation which holds beliefs which are far to the right on the political spectrum. The Harford County Delegation in general in known to hold these extreme, right-wing beliefs.

Harford County's fire and EMS service is a mess. As one Old-Timer used to say, "Rome wasn't built in a day. " Nor was the mess that fire and EMS service has become. Let's get this straight before we go any further: This is not an attack on the men and women who have dedicated their lives to helping their fellow Harford County residents at their times of greatest need. The service they continue to provide in the face of daunting challenges is terrific. Some of our colleagues, family members, friends and neighbors are and have been volunteers in the fire and EMS service.

A trained weather spotter reported a funnel cloud sighting in Roland Park on Saturday afternoon, while severe wind damage occurred in Harford County as storms passed through the region, according to the National Weather Service. The funnel cloud sighting was reported at 4:24 p.m. along Lake Avenue near Roland Avenue. No tornado has been confirmed, and the weather service has not received any reports of damage that appeared to have been caused by a tornado, said Brian Lasorsa, a meteorologist in the weather service's Baltimore/Washington forecast office.

The gas tax increase Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law Thursday will pay for weekend MARC service between Baltimore and D.C., roads and bridges throughout the state and construction on the Red and Purple lines to begin as soon as 2015. The first phase of the tax increase - 4 cents per gallon - will arrive in July, but officials already decided how to spend an $1.2 billion it will generate over the next six years. The tax is expected to increase at least three more times until July 2016, bringing the total tax increase to as much as 19.5 cents per gallon, according to state estimates released Thursday.  Here is the list of 10 projects officials announced immediately after the gas tax bill was signed:  $100 million to add weekend service to the MARC Penn line beginning this winter, two more round-trips on the Camden line during the week by next spring and new locomotives this summer.

The good news is that, in seven years of umpiring amateur baseball games in the Baltimore area, Frank Handley has had to give the thumb to only five adults. The bad news is he had to do it again a couple of weeks ago. But we're going to turn a negative into a positive today. We're going to get the message out - a reminder, really - that parents need to keep the ugly under control and set a good example for children. And parents who see and hear another behaving badly need to speak up. The story comes to us from Nancy Turner, who was so upset at what she saw during a Baltimore County recreational baseball tournament that she wrote me a detailed email about it. The game, on a Sunday morning in May, was for 11- and 12-year-olds.

From the street, Rumsey Island's single-family homes and townhouses look like those in most other communities throughout the state. But venturing into the backyards of this southern Harford County hamlet reveals a powerboater's paradise.About half of the 500 homes on the island have piers for mooring their powerboats in the Joppatowne Canal. From the canal, whose manmade fingers run conveniently between the back yards of many homes, homeowners can reach the Gunpowder River and the Chesapeake Bay.The combination of affordable housing and waterfront access, especially in Harford County where a great deal of waterfront is owned by the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, has been a powerful stimulant for the area's housing market, real estate agents say.Prices range from $100,000 to $180,000 for a quarter-acre to half-acre parcel, including between 30 feet and 75 feet of waterfront and a pier.

Several Amish building companies from Pennsylvania have quietly brought their barn-raising skills to Maryland, where homeowners are discovering the charm that timber-frame additions can bring to a house.The Amish builders' post-and-beam construction techniques, finely tuned through generations of building barns, offer an alternative for homeowners who want something different from the studs, nails and drywall of traditional framing."It's part of a very old tradition of building," says Chuck Dougherty, a building designer in Leola, Pa., who specializes in timber-frame structures and who has worked with Amish builders.

Candy Myers has joined the Bel Air office of Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., at 590 Baltimore Pike in Bel Air. Myers, a Realtor since 2001, joins the Long & Foster team from Coldwell Banker. "I transferred to Long & Foster because they sell more real estate than any other broker in the region," Myers said. "The Long & Foster Bel Air office is number one in Harford County and full of experienced agents who are thriving in the real estate industry. I understand that in order for my business to continue to prosper and grow, I need to place my business in an environment where I can continue to learn from the best the industry has to offer.

After less than a year on the job, Larry Tolliver is calling it quits as chief of the troubled Anne Arundel County Police Department. Tolliver, 67, said his resignation — or "return to retirement," as he called it — will take effect May 21. "I am resigning today because the department needs a chief who can focus solely on the department's mission, something that is challenging to do in the current environment," Tolliver wrote in a statement...

Carroll County officials acknowledge that the county has a gang problem that has involved the Crips, the Bloods, MS-13 and Vatos Locos. Gang incidents have been largely intertwined with expanding illegal drug operations in the county during the last few years, officials said. "They're very much interrelated," said Jennifer L. Darby, a senior assistant state's attorney for the county. "Not every drug dealer is a gang member; not every gang member is a drug dealer. But they do go hand in hand."

Harford County has had many big-time sports moments in its glorious history. Perhaps none were bigger, however, than the one that happened 30 years ago this week. That's when Harford County's own Deputed Testamony won the 1983 Preakness, bringing home the second of the three jewels of the Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing contested each year. The Triple Crown, for horse racing novices, is the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, the Preakness down the road at Pimlico in Baltimore on the third Saturday in May and the Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., on Long Island three Saturdays later.

The good news is that, in seven years of umpiring amateur baseball games in the Baltimore area, Frank Handley has had to give the thumb to only five adults. The bad news is he had to do it again a couple of weeks ago. But we're going to turn a negative into a positive today. We're going to get the message out - a reminder, really - that parents need to keep the ugly under control and set a good example for children. And parents who see and hear another behaving badly need to speak up. The story comes to us from Nancy Turner, who was so upset at what she saw during a Baltimore County recreational baseball tournament that she wrote me a detailed email about it. The game, on a Sunday morning in May, was for 11- and 12-year-olds.

It's been cause for celebration for some in the Joppa area for a couple of weeks, or least since the Harford County government announced that it had abandoned its controversial plans to build a trash transfer station in the community. At the most recent Joppa Community Council meeting, there were congratulations all around after the county government announced it had reached an agreement with Baltimore County to allow Harford County trash to be taken to White Marsh. That agreement eliminates the need for a trash transfer station to be built on the former 22-acre Plecker property on Route 7 near its intersection with Route 152. Harford County Councilman Dion Guthrie received the most praise from the group for the work he did on behalf of his home community to fight the proposal.

Days before last November's election, Gov. Martin O'Malley used his cellphone to call Jim Murren, the chief executive of MGM Resorts International in Las Vegas. The two talked for 11 minutes that Sunday. Not surprisingly, the topic was the Nov. 6 referendum in which voters would decide whether to allow expanded casino gambling, according to O'Malley spokeswoman Raquel Guillory, who didn't provide details of the conversation. Maryland voters approved the O'Malley-backed measure. MGM had a lot riding on the outcome.

A Whiteford man was killed in a single vehicle accident in northern Harford County early Friday morning, Maryland State Police at the Bel Air Barrack said. The accident occurred in the 2900 block of Dublin Road (Route 440) near Poplar Road at 12:03 a.m., according to the duty officer at the Bel Air Barrack. The vehicle ran off the road and hit a tree. Harford Fire Blog on Facebook reported the victim was in grave condition when paramedics arrived on the scene. The victim, identified as Charles Garland Jr. of Whiteford, was taken by Darlington Volunteer Fire Company ambulance to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air, where he was pronounced dead, the duty officer said.

With some exceptions, any illness can strike anyone at any time. One of the more dangerous to emerge in recent decades is Lyme disease. Harford County, as many of us know either first-hand or because of someone we know, is not immune from the tick-borne disease. The revelation last week that Harford County Council President Billy Boniface has contracted the sickness is yet another reminder. Lyme disease is treatable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it can also be debilitating.

Editor: Thank you, Harford County, for joining Oak Grove Baptist Church in our third annual Women's Conference held on April 13. With nearly 150 in attendance, we enjoyed the lavish account by DeeDee Jonrowe of her life on the Iditarod Trail over the past 31 years as a musher in Alaska. DeeDee is the foremost female dog musher competing in the world today and a breast cancer survivor. Her accounts of the life lessons learned on the Iditarod Trail have bolstered her desire to honor God in her racing and daily life.

Welcome to Drug City, akaHarford County,Maryland. Maybe that's what the signs should say on either end of I-95, Route 40 and Route 1 in our county, now that the federal Office of Drug Control Police has added Harford to the agency's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas list. As much as some of us may hate to admit it, such a designation was long overdue, unwelcome as it may be. Surely, everyone even remotely familiar with Harford County knows we have a pretty darn bad drug-related crime problem.

The Harford Ballet Company, resident company of the Dance Conservatory of Maryland, is headlining its spring production with "Beauty and the Beast. " Featuring local Harford County students, the performances will take place June 8 at 6 p.m. and June 9 at 1 p.m. at Bel Air High School. The performance will open with Harford Ballet Company, joined by students from the Dance Conservatory of Maryland, in a mixed bill performance featuring DCM's recreational dance forms. Harford Ballet Company will also be presenting the world premier of "Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Local resident Maura Schmidt McCarthy is opening a new wellness office, Remedy Wellness. Remedy Wellness is a new wellness office that offers an environment like no other in Harford County. It is an earth-friendly, toxin-free, gorgeous space that offers customized massages and skincare. McCarthy and her team take customer service to a whole new level in their comfortable, quiet space, allowing true healing to begin. Wellness grand opening is Memorial Day Weekend offering champagne and lite fare and free seated massage sessions (must call or email to schedule)