A Cecil Times Special Report Cecil County’s widespread drug abuse problems– linked to crime, child abuse, suicide and joblessness—will need a broad-based solution to address a culture of drug abuse that often spans generations of families, according to a new consultant’s study. And the problem has reached crisis proportions, with the county having the...
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Cecil County Councilor Diana Broomell (R-4), often a lightening rod for controversy both on the old county Commissioners board and the new County Council, told Cecil Times that she plans to run for re-election to her council seat in 2014, contrary to rampant local speculation that she would run for a newly redrawn state...
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ANALYSIS When one-term Perryville town commissioner Michael A. Dawson declared a few months ago that he would not seek re-election to the post he had only won by one vote, town officials and many residents breathed a sigh of relief. During his brief two-year tenure, Dawson created a whirlwind of controversy, with online attacks...
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Cecil County Executive Tari Moore has awarded nearly $400,000 in grants, derived from a local “impact” share of county revenues obtained from the Hollywood casino in Perryville, to a wide array of fire companies, veterans’ groups, social service and charities countywide. As overall revenues from the local casino continue to plummet—due to new competition...
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Cecil County Council President Robert Hodge (R-5) has long been dismayed that county-financed construction projects often use non-local subcontractors and services—from port-a-potties to cement—rather than pump some of those government dollars back into the local economy and wallets of Cecil County residents. So last week Hodge proposed a broad initiative to boost “good faith”...
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Cecil County Executive Tari Moore has appointed a 30-member task force to draft a long-range “strategic plan” to guide the county’s future, a requirement established by the county’s new Charter form of government. The Strategic Plan Advisory Network (SPAN) will be headed by Dr. Diane Lane, Vice President of Student Services and Institutional Effectiveness...
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Cecil County Councilor Alan McCarthy (R-1) on Tuesday proposed a draft bill to limit discharge of firearms in close proximity to homes as a way to prevent tragic but unintended consequences of shooting guns into the air in so-called “celebratory” firings—in response to the death several months ago of a child in Cecil County....
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Trash-talking is often par for the course in some of the rhetoric employed by at least one member of the Cecil County Council during the panel’s meetings, and Tuesday’s worksession was no exception. But at least some of the talk by another county official will turn trash into gold. Scott Flanigan, the county’s Director...
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An Appreciation In the tumultuous and often nasty world of recent Cecil County politics, there has always been one shining light, a beacon of fairness, impartiality and calm in the eye of the local political storm– Evelyn Potter, the director of the Cecil County Board of Elections for more than two decades. But it...
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A landmark Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday, finding that same-sex legally married couples must have equal rights to benefits under federal law, is expected to have little impact on Cecil County government employees, who already have spousal benefits, a county official said. Donna Nichols, Cecil County’s Director of Human Resources, told Cecil Times that...
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BALTIMORE—The Maryland Port Administration pulled out the big cranes, the big cargo ships, a modest motorboat for a putt-putt water tour and a great big goose-egg zero on a chart Tuesday to try to convince Cecil County officials of the need to resume dumping shipping channel dredge spoils at the Pearce Creek dumpsite in...
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Cecil County Executive Tari Moore has drafted proposals to restrict her own power, granted by the county Charter, to remove appointees to county boards and commissions, according to proposals discussed at a meeting of the county’s Ethics Commission in Elkton late Monday afternoon. A member of the ethics panel, Walter Rozanski, was removed by...
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When someone offers a ‘shout-out,’ in the current slang parlance, it is usually a good-natured verbal hello to a friend, while a ‘call-out’ is a throw-down-the-gauntlet challenge. But those distinctions were blurred Tuesday at a Cecil County Council worksession in Elkton when Councilor Diana Broomell (R-4) tried to call out the county attorney and...
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Michael W. Dawson, a longtime Perryville resident and former candidate for a state delegate’s seat, has filed as a Republican candidate for the Cecil County Council in District 4 for the 2014 election—looking to replace the controversial incumbent, Councilor Diana Broomell (R). Michael W. Dawson (MWD) – NOT to be confused with another local...
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To settle a lengthy and costly court case, Cecil County will reverse a 2011 decision by the old “Three Amigos” faction of the County Commissioners board to strip a Perryville property of its heavy industry zoning and downgrade it to the most restrictive agricultural designation. But Councilor Diana Broomell, who led the downzoning effort,...
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