Town Commissioners

On Tuesday, Bel Air will elect three of five commissioners to serve on our Board of Town Commissioners. I am writing to request that Bel Air voters support my re-election to the board.Bel Air currently has the highest quality public services and the lowest tax rate of Harford County's three municipalities. This is largely due to the responsible management of Bel Air's town commissioners, who have:* Maintained a sound and disciplined approach to budgeting.* Encouraged orderly and harmonious growth to expand our tax base.

What will the Town of Bel Air be like in five years? Or in 10 years? A comprehensive plan adopted by the Board of Town Commissioners at the Jan. 22 town meeting tries to answer these questions by looking at where the town is today, how it is perceived by residents and where it wants to go in the future. One of the basic conclusions of "Sustainable Bel Air 2013-18" is that town residents, business owners and government officials should work to protect and enhance what many of them already consider Bel Air's social and economic advantages, while at the same time protecting and nurturing its environmental assets.

On Tuesday, voters in Bel Air go to the polls to select three candidates for the five-member Board of Town Commissioners.The seven men running include one elected incumbent and another who was appointed to the board to fill out an unexpired term. The polling place at town hall, 39 Hickory Ave., will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.Aside from Mike Burns' weekly column, the rest of today's page is devoted to letters from the seven candidates. HarfordSketchbook will return next Sunday.

Additional work will be done to stabilize the banks of Plumtree Run south of George Street in Bel Air under a contract addendum passed by the Board of Town Commissioners at the most recent town meeting. The addendum to the existing contract with Ecotone Inc., of Jarrettsville, will stabilize the stream bank in the area of the Plumtree Square condominiums, according to Public Works Director Randy Robertson. Ecotone is the company the town hired last summer to remove the nearly 50-year-old pipe that carried Plumtree Run under Plumtree Park, so the stream could be daylighted - that is, brought to its natural course above ground.

Voters in Bel Air will go to the polls Nov. 6 to pick representatives to the Board of Town Commissioners. The filing deadline was 7 p.m. Friday, with three of the five seats contested. Here are the names of the candidates who have filed: Terence O. Hanley (incumbent) Robert J. Reier (incumbent, appointed when Commissioner James V. McMahan was elected to the County Council) Edward Hopkins John W. Janowich Richard R. Davis Patrick T. Richards James Decker Incumbent Joan Morrisey Ward is not seeking re-election

The election of three Bel Air town commissioners will be held Tuesday with a crowded field of 11 candidates, including two incumbents.This is the second election in a row that has produced a large number of hopefuls for the four-year positions on the town board. Two years ago, seven candidates entered the race.All of this suggests a high level of civic awareness and involvement in the town of Bel Air, the Harford County seat. That's probably true in terms of public issues, although it is not reflected in voter turnout.

Because of a technicality in an earlier presentation, a development plan for Bel Air will be resubmitted tonight to the town commissioners -- a first step toward a vote -- and opponents are preparing to voice anew their objections.But opponents' fears that the plan would mean the widening of some roads are unfounded, and the source of another concern is a typographical error, according to Bel Air's planning director, Carol Deibel.The plan, which provides development guidelines for the next six years, must be resubmitted because the planning commission failed to attach a signed letter of endorsement in its first presentation, Mrs. Deibel said.

Supporters of a bill to create a district management authority for the promotion of downtown businesses, which was withdrawn by the Bel Air town commissioners, say the measure must be reconsidered.A condition that the state Department of Housing and Community Developmentimposed for a $15,000 grant was that the town's commissioners must vote on creation of the commercial district."As we understand it, that is one of the conditions," said Elizabeth Carven, the town's community development administrator.

Is Main Street property in Bel Air worth more than $2 million an acre? Based on what the Bel Air town commissioners are willing to pay for .44 of an acre that served as the Branch Bank and Trust building and its parking lot, a little more than $2 million an acre is as good a number as any. The town is poised to spend $1,032,400 for the land, apparently regarding the building as worthy only of being torn down to make way for more parking, at...

Russell O. Poole, a longtime Homestead Village resident, is Bel Air's newest town commissioner.The 56-year-old independent real estate broker, sworn in at Monday's town commissioners meeting, succeeds Patrick Goles, who resigned last month after nearly eight years on the commission.The other four board members selected Mr. Poole to fill the remainder of Mr. Goles' four-year term, which ends next March.Mr. Goles, who recently moved to Churchville, resigned Oct. 31 because of a stipulation that commissioners must live in Bel Air.Mr.

James Francis "Shirt-sleeves" O'Neill, a retired lawyer who had served as mayor of Bel Air in the early 1970s, died of cancer Monday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 86. "Jim was a character, spontaneous, funny and off the wall sometimes but not all the time," said Todd Holden, a former Aegis reporter and photographer who was a longtime friend. "He used to ride a minibike when gas went through the roof, and always had a Red Baron white scarf around his neck as he made his way around town," said Mr. Holden.

The recent action by the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners to join a mutual emergency agreement with other communities is a reasonable effort at coming up with an administrative framework to account for doing something that already happens. As a practical matter, in times of emergency like blizzards, floods and tropical storms, various governments are fairly generous in offering assistance to each other for things like snow removal, directing traffic, helping with evacuations, providing shelter for displaced people and the like.

The Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners approved a new Flood Mitigation Plan Tuesday that town officials say should save some property owners money on their insurance in the future. At their 40-minute town meeting, the commissioners also approved a paving contract for Winding Alley in Howard Park and set some new parking limits in the downtown area. Also approved were two changes involving stop signs, including the removal of the stop at Kenmore Avenue and Heighe Street, which was rendered unnecessary by new traffic patterns associated with the new Bel Air High School building.

Perryville's rich history is the focus of a new "Images of America" book, thanks to town commissioner Alan Fox. The book filled with historical photos and the stories behind them was released Jan. 16 after nearly a year of planning and work. Fox, a longtime Perryville resident, was interested in pursuing the project when Arcadia Publishing, the company responsible for the book series, contacted the town to find a prospective writer. "[I] wanted to give it a try," he said, especially given his interest in local history.

Is Main Street property in Bel Air worth more than $2 million an acre? Based on what the Bel Air town commissioners are willing to pay for .44 of an acre that served as the Branch Bank and Trust building and its parking lot, a little more than $2 million an acre is as good a number as any. The town is poised to spend $1,032,400 for the land, apparently regarding the building as worthy only of being torn down to make way for more parking, at...

We have had the fear put in us that the economy is in dire straits. Since the alarm was first raised by a very conservative administration and is being re-sounded by a much more progressive one, we should all suspect that there really is a problem here - if the losses in our investments, home values and diminished work prospects were not enough evidence already. What I wonder, when I try to understand the government's response to this great adjustment, is: What is it we are trying to get back to?

Proposals to extend a busy state road through Bel Air and make the conversion of homes to business uses more difficult ran into opposition last night at a hearing on the town's comprehensive development plan."

Florio N. "Fran" Franetovich, a retired attorney who helped write the Harford County charter and was a former Bel Air town commissioner, died of cancer Monday at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 80. A native of Union City, N.J., he was the son of immigrant Croatian parents, telling his children that he was born in the back of his uncle's barbershop. He served in the Army from 1945 to 1946 and left military service as a staff sergeant. He earned an accounting degree at Upsala College in East Orange, N.J., and while working at the Effanbee Doll Co., he met his future wife, the former Kathleen Henemier.

Voters in Bel Air will go to the polls Nov. 6 to pick representatives to the Board of Town Commissioners. The filing deadline was 7 p.m. Friday, with three of the five seats contested. Here are the names of the candidates who have filed: Terence O. Hanley (incumbent) Robert J. Reier (incumbent, appointed when Commissioner James V. McMahan was elected to the County Council) Edward Hopkins John W. Janowich Richard R. Davis Patrick T. Richards James Decker Incumbent Joan Morrisey Ward is not seeking re-election