Public Hearing

At a public hearing last night, about 50 residents offered suggestions for the 2000 Howard County General Plan that will shape the county's future.The suggestions included improving information technology resources in schools and building more walking paths.The hearing at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City was conducted by the Planning Board, which will help draft the General Plan that shapes growth.Several residents complained about the rapid pace of growth in the county and said that the General Plan should not extend public sewer and water service in the rural western county.

The county commissioners will discuss possible changes to several Carroll laws, including the forest conservation ordinance, which requires developers to save trees.Commissioners Donald I. Dell and Robin Bartlett Frazier voted yesterday to hold a public hearing on the laws that govern forest conservation, private streets, parking and mobile home parks. Board President Julia Walsh Gouge was not present during the vote.The public hearing is expected to be held this winter. The commissioners will have the final say on what changes, if any, are made.

A crowd of racing fans let out whoops of joy as Anne Arundel County Council member John J. Klocko III cast the deciding vote last night in favor of a bill that would essentially open the door to a 54,800-seat stadium in Marley Neck.Officials with the Middle River Racing Association, the Timonium-based track developers, shook hands and breathed sighs of relief as the votes were cast in favor of the project at a public hearing Council Chairman Bert L. Rice, the Republican who represents Laurel-area residents who had opposed a racetrack site near their community, voted for the Marley Neck site during the vote at about 11 p.m.Voting against the bill were Councilman James DeGrange, a Glen Burnie Democrat, and Councilwoman Diane R. Evans, an Arnold Democrat.

Carroll Community Access TV Channel 19 is broadcasting a public hearing that was held May 7 on the fiscal 1999 county budget.The hearing will be aired through June 13 at 4: 30 p.m. Mondays, 9: 30 p.m. Wednesdays and noon Saturdays.The Board of County Commissioners held the hearing to take public comment on the proposed budget.Information: Marion Ware at Channel 19, 410-848-8988.PoliceWestminster: A Pennsylvania Avenue resident told police Monday that someone scratched her vehicle while it was parked in front of her home.

In Baltimore City2nd hearing on Canton site will be held MondayA second public hearing on the city's plans to develop an80-acre industrial park in Canton in Southeast Baltimore will be -- held at 5: 30 p.m. Monday at the offices of the Baltimore Development Corp., Suite 1600, 36 S. Charles St.The proposed Chesapeake Business Center would be on Boston Street between Conkling and Newkirk streets near Interstate 95 and would create up to 1,400 jobs. It would be built with a mix of federal, state, city and private funds, according to city officials.

Three members of Anne Arundel County Council introduced legislation last night that would throw a speed bump in the path of developers proposing a 61,600-seat auto racetrack in Pasadena.The bill proposed by 3rd District Councilwoman A. Shirley Murphy and two other Democrats would require Chesapeake Motorsports Development Corp. to appear before a public hearing before building on bay front land south of Key Bridge.Murphy's bill would reverse a much-criticized zoning law that the council rushed through in April to allow motor racing complexes as a "conditional use" on land zoned heavy industrial.

DAIRY farmers face a hard future. Their numbers are shrinking; demand for milk products is stagnant. Farm consolidation and production efficiencies are squeezing the little guy.So what's a poor 73-year-old Westminster dairyman with a few hundred acres to do?Go into politics, and feed at the public trough.Donald I. Dell, confirmed by Carroll voters last month for a third four-year term as a county commissioner, decided it was time to make hay while the sun shines.He and confederate Richard T. Yates voted Nov. 24 in a secret meeting, without public hearing or advance notification, to raise the per diem allowance of the new board of commissioners to $90 a day from the current $12. That stipend is in addition to $32,500 annual salaries for the part-time job, and reimbursements for meals and transportation.

NEW YORK -- After months of controversy on Capitol Hill, the debate over the television industry's on-air parental guidelines is moving today to the viewers for whom they were intended:Three hundred families from Peoria, Ill., the town that is synonymous with Middle American values and market research, will rate the ratings in a televised, "Oprah"-style congressional hearing.The families -- who agreed to watch television closely last week to prepare for the hearing -- will tell moderator Sander Vanocur and the members of a House subcommittee what they think of the 4-month-old ratings system and how it helps -- or does not help -- them to screen out potentially objectionable programming.

Sykesville officials are encouraging town residents to participate in a public hearing on the Main Street master plan at 7: 30 p.m. Monday.At the hearing, details of a report, prepared by Kann and Associates, will be released. The town paid the Baltimore consultants $16,000 to initiate the project that is designed to revitalize the downtown area.Before adopting the recommendations, municipal officials want comments and ideas from residents.In anticipation of a large crowd, officials have scheduled the meeting at Sykesville Middle School, 7301 Springfield Ave.Information: 410-795-8959.

Recently fired Smithsburg police Chief Thomas Bowers will be allowed a public hearing to hear the reasons for his dismissal, which prompted a federal lawsuit and public outcry among the small Western Maryland town's citizens.Attorneys representing the town government of Smithsburg in Washington County agreed to the hearing in a conference call yesterday with Baltimore U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg. The hearing is tentatively planned for Nov. 25. Meanwhile, Bowers' firing stands and he will not be paid.

There wasn't much public in the public hearing held by the Maryland Transportation Authority last week in Beltsville on its proposed tolls on the just-around-the-corner Intercounty Connector. A couple of dozen folks who might actually be described as public - not media, not state officials or contractors - took seats in the sparsely occupied cafeteria at High Point High School. But only a handful actually approached the microphone to share their views with the members of the authority's board.

Four candidates have applied for the seat on the Anne Arundel County School Board vacated two weeks ago by Tricia Johnson, who was appointed to the County Council, according to the county's School Board Nominating Commission. The candidates are: Michael Leahy of Severna Park, whose term on the board recently expired; Andrew Pruski of Gambrills; Janet R. Pogar of Glen Burnie; and Paul Rudolph of Severna Park. The School Board Nominating Commission is scheduled to hold two public hearings next week, before forwarding nominees to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who will appoint a new board member to the at-large seat.

The Maryland Transit Administration held a public hearing Thursday night on its proposed Red Line - but not everybody could attend. There, outside the rear door of the Lithuanian Hall in West Baltimore, sat Bob Reuter in his wheelchair. Ahead of him was a concrete lip of as much as 4 inches, with a rickety piece of plywood impersonating an actual accommodation for the disabled. Beyond lay a ramp so steep Reuter compared it to a ski slope - and not one at the beginner level. "You would be taking your life into your hands," Reuter said.

Education, particularly for special-needs students, should be a spending priority as the county begins its 2009 budget deliberations, County Executive David R. Craig was told at a public hearing Wednesday. Craig, who is coping with state and federal cuts, and reduced revenues from a slumping housing market, asked residents how money should be spent. The majority of the more than 30 speakers at a public hearing Wednesday said that despite looming cuts, money for the Board of Education should be increased.

An article in Sunday's Anne Arundel County section on a school funding plan was unclear about the nature of a planned September meeting between the County Council and the school board. Plans call for the meeting to be a workshop, not a public hearing. The public may attend, but no member of the public will be allowed to testify. The Sun regrets the error.

School board to meet on land proposal The Howard County Board of Education will hold a public hearing on a proposal to acquire 41 acres at 2865 Marriottsville Road, Marriottsville, owned by St. John Baptist Church, in exchange for a 10-acre plot owned by the school system at Tamar Drive and Route 175 and a monetary amount to be determined. The hearing will be held during the evening session of the board's regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow. The evening session begins at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom at the Department of Education, 10910 Route 108, Ellicott City.

Baltimore City Councilman James B. Kraft called yesterday for a federal investigation into the death of Robert Lee Clay, a prominent local businessman and advocate for minority businesses who died of a bullet wound in his Reservoir Hill office last year. Kraft, chairman of the Council's Public Safety Subcommittee, said late last night during a public hearing on the issue that he would formally request the FBI to review the state medical examiner's ruling that Clay committed suicide on May 16, 2005.

Taking a rare step, the state Commission on Judicial Disabilities has issued a public reprimand to Baltimore Circuit Judge John N. Prevas, one of the longest-serving members of the bench. Also yesterday, the commission canceled a public hearing on Prince George's County District Judge Richard A. Palumbo, who retired last week amid controversy about his comments to a domestic violence victim who was later severely burned by a man from whom she had been seeking a protective order. The commission investigated and held a public hearing in June on the Prevas matter.

About 50 city residents voiced dissatisfaction yesterday with some aspects of the recent restructuring of Baltimore-area bus services during a public hearing with Maryland Transit Administration officials. Several people testified that cuts to Northwest Baltimore's M6 bus line, which was abolished in a first round of cuts but restored on a limited basis this spring, had resulted in lost jobs, difficulty in getting to doctor's appointments and supermarkets, and a general sense that the MTA does not appreciate the plight of the bus-riding public.

Last week's one-day special session of the General Assembly wiped out any chance that Maryland politics would take a summer vacation this year. The State House posturing and speechifying looks as if it will be no more than a prelude to the days to come. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a staunch opponent of the BGE rate-relief plan that lawmakers approved last week, will conduct a public hearing tomorrow during which he intends to spend up to five hours informing Marylanders about what he sees as the lesser-known and "very damaging" elements of the legislation.