Cecil County Sheriff’s deputies have no riot gear to protect them in violent crowd situations and are so short-staffed that the agency could not respond to a request for help from the embattled Baltimore City Police Department during the past week, Sheriff Scott Adams told the Cecil County Council in Elkton on Thursday. “We...
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NEWS ANALYSIS Cecil County Executive Tari Moore’s new proposed budget would boost her own office’s spending by 3.2 percent while cutting the County Council’s current budget by 4.2 percent, especially in accounts that could enable the Council to hire independent advisers to review or challenge her policies. In addition, county employees have a “Cadillac”...
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News Analysis Cecil County’s landfill operations have been racking up expenses faster than fees paid by trash dumpers, despite rate increases last year and previous efforts by County Executive Tari Moore to make trash services pay for themselves. In her new budget, Moore proposes more fee boosts to make landfill operations begin to stand...
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News Analysis Cecil County Executive Tari Moore’s proposed budget would boost fees and taxes on many aspects of local residents’ daily lives, from buying a new home to living in a “manufactured” house, to playing a video game or a jukebox. Some of the proposed fee hikes are modest, affect rather obscure services and...
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Cecil County’s Drug Court program is getting about a third of its participants off drugs and working to turn their lives around, but the culture of drugs in the county and plea bargains by prosecutors are an uphill struggle, Circuit Court Judge Keith Baynes told the County Council on Tuesday. Baynes, who serves as...
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A CECIL TIMES Special Report Cecil County Executive Tari Moore cut nearly $1 million from the Fiscal 2016 budget proposed by Sheriff Scott Adams, who is looking to reorganize operations to better address the county’s crime and illegal drug problems. But the budget setback could undermine or delay some of the changes he wants...
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Cecil County Executive Tari Moore proposed a Fiscal 2016 budget on Wednesday 4/1/15 that would increase property taxes, raise fees for dumping trash at the landfill, and boost public school spending for many, but not all, of the schools’ requests. The budget proposal would yet again tap the county’s “unassigned fund balance” reserves, which...
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Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams is advancing multiple new anti-drug initiatives, seeking grants to pay for them, and using new federal resources to go after drug traffickers, the newly installed Sheriff told the County Council this week. Adams, who won an overwhelming victory in the November general election and took office last December 1,...
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The heroin and drug abuse crisis plaguing Cecil County and Maryland will require money, commitment by state and local governments and involvement of medical experts and families affected by drug abuse, local officials and area residents told a new state task force in Elkton on Tuesday. Cecil County Executive Tari Moore claimed credit for...
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Carrie L. Taylor, the former treasurer of the Cecil County Republican Central Committee and a protégé of the old ‘Smipkin” GOP political machine, has been indicted by a grand jury on three counts of theft, embezzlement and perjury involving the elected party committee’s finances. If convicted, she could face up to 25 years in...
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US Rep. Andy Harris (R-1) brought his anti-marijuana campaign to Cecil County this week, challenging the medicinal merits of pot for seriously ill patients and calling the state’s new medical marijuana program a stalking-horse for full legalization for recreational use. And while condemning the recent implementation of a voter referendum to legalize marijuana in...
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A CECIL TIMES SPECIAL REPORT A high-tech medical marijuana farm could be located in Cecil County under a proposal from a Howard County businessman presented to county officials, including local health and law enforcement leaders. A possible site is owned by Cecil County Council President Robert Hodge (R-5). Carey Millstein, who has operated a...
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NEWS ANALYSIS Del. Kevin Hornberger (R-35A) has withdrawn a controversial bill that would have authorized a four-year nursing degree to be offered by the two-year Cecil College, after college officials and members of the Cecil County Council criticized the freshman delegate for storming ahead with his bill without adequate consultation or understanding of fiscal...
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Members of the Cecil County Council fired shots across the budget bow on Tuesday, warning the County Executive that they expect stronger cost-cutting steps in her new budget to prevent a recurrence of more than $1.4 million in over-budget expenses this year. At issue before the council members at a worksession in Elkton was...
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Gov. Hogan’s ‘Green Bag’ Appointments Bypass Cecil on Key Posts New Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently announced hundreds of appointments to various state boards and commissions as part of the annual “Green Bag” list of appointees sent to the General Assembly—but Cecil County came up short in any but the most local and required...
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