Archive: Howard County
Howard County Zoning Challenge
The Maryland Court of Appeals could rule early next week in a closely-watched voters' challenge of a Howard County rezoning bill. Attorneys in the Howard case have learned from the clerk's office that the seven judges of Maryland's highest court may take up their recently filed motions after gathering in Annapolis on Tues., July 25. The high court is hurrying the matter along because citizen activists want the chance to get the zoning bill before voters on Nov. 7. The case involves a three-way face-off among citizens fighting the 2005 County Council bill, property owners who want the bill's rezonings for their land and the Howard Board of Elections. Critics of the bill charged that it was a vehicle for little-publicized, hastily added rezonings sanctioned by a majority of the council. The Board of Elections said last year that the activists, organized as Citizens for an Open Process for Everyone...
By Terry Neal | July 21, 2006; 08:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Comeback for Little Toot?
[Metro reporter Susan DeFord sent me this item] Little Toot the Tugboat will bring his sturdy, smiling freckled face back to Howard County and take up residence at an Ellicott City petting farm amid other storybook characters. Little Toot's return to Howard in the coming weeks by his current owner, Leonard "Bunk" Hartman of Essex, is the latest development in one of the most unusual grassroots efforts in Maryland. Volunteers, preservationists and businesses are conducting an increasingly ambitious salvage operation of a beloved and long-closed storybook theme park west of Ellicott City. Little Toot once carried visitors around a spring-fed pond in The Enchanted Forest, which opened along Route 40 in 1955 and entertained families from the Baltimore-Washington area with rides and children's characters until it closed in 1988. Portions of the park were developed for a shopping center, and the rest of the theme park was fenced off and...
By Terry Neal | April 21, 2006; 11:01 AM ET | Comments (2)
Howard Council Will Pick Rakes Replacement
With Monday's surprise resignation of Howard County's only African American council member, the next step will be picking his replacement in what could be a boon for anyone seeking the seat in November. The 69-year-old David A. Rakes (D-East Columbia) said in a letter to his colleagues Monday that he was stepping down because of persistent problems with his arthritic right hip. His departure, which takes effect Friday, could shift the balance of power on the five-member council, where Rakes at times would provide a key swing vote for the two-man Republican minority. In December, he provided the needed third vote for council member Christopher Merdon to become council chairman, helping boost the visibility of the Republican who expects to face fellow council member Ken Ulman (D) in the county executive's race in November....
By | March 29, 2006; 03:49 PM ET | Comments (1)
