There were tears and laughter—much, much laughter—as Cecil County residents gathered on Tuesday to say farewell to Nelson Bolender and celebrate the life and legacy of the county’s premiere educator and government leader. Bolender, the former principal of North East and Elkton high schools and the two-term president of the Cecil County Board of...
Read more »

A nominee for the new Animal Control Oversight panel was cited for two violations of animal laws in 2011, documents obtained by Cecil Times show. But the documents also show departures from usual protocols for handling a non-emergency, anonymous complaint regarding cats and there are questions about the timing and intensity of an investigation...
Read more »

AN APPRECIATION Nelson Bolender was a forgiving man. From misbehaving teenagers who ran afoul of the principal of Elkton High to critics or foes in Cecil County politics, Nelson Bolender practiced the often lost art of being able to disagree without being disagreeable. He took some bold and at times controversial steps during his...
Read more »

BULLETIN: Our heart is broken. Nelson Bolender, the former President of the Cecil County Commissioners, former Elkton High principal, and all around leader and gentleman of Cecil County, has died. We are saddened and stunned that Cecil County has lost one of the most important leaders in recent county history. He was totally honest,...
Read more »

The Cecil County Council has hired James E. Massey, Jr., a former Harford County Council manager and ex-director of that county’s election board –who was fired after an inquiry into voter registration rolls– as the new Cecil County Council manager. Massey has more than 35 years experience in local government, including more than two...
Read more »

Cecil County Executive Tari Moore selected five people to serve on a new animal control oversight panel and submitted their names Tuesday to the County Council. None of the appointees has current evident ties to A Buddy for Life, Inc., the Delaware animal rescue group that assumed county animal control duties last month under...
Read more »

BULLETIN: Cecil County Executive Tari Moore has selected five people to serve on a new animal control oversight panel and submitted their names to the County Council, which has to confirm the nominations. Council members submitted a list of their own preferred nominees to Moore, who was not bound by that list. However, she...
Read more »

The US Army Corps of Engineers told the Cecil County Council and County Executive Tari Moore on Monday that the agency plans to install a “liner” or “slurry” wall to contain existing contamination of groundwater from their Pearce’s Creek dump site in Earleville. But the federal agency will not provide money to clean up...
Read more »

The new Cecil County Executive plans no tax boosts in her upcoming budget, despite a largely bleak economic outlook and rising costs passed on to the county by the state of Maryland, aides told the County Council Tuesday. But left unsaid was the reality that the only way to achieve that goal would be...
Read more »

A Cecil Times Special Report A new comprehensive study by a federal agency proves what Earleville residents have known for decades: the US Army Corps of Engineers’ dumping of shipping channel dredge spoil in Cecil County has poisoned many homes’ drinking water wells—including hugely elevated levels of arsenic, heavy metals, and sulfates. But the...
Read more »

It was a night for crowing a bit about the unanimous success of the five local candidates endorsed for election last year by the Cecil Business Leaders organization but organizers of the group were not resting on their laurels Thursday evening as they urged Cecil County citizens to get involved in re-designing the local...
Read more »

A new study of sewer user fees is being drafted as part of the new Cecil County budget process and the county’s public works director warned Tuesday that the fees paid by current and future users of the Seneca Point treatment plant will have to rise to offset some of the costs of a...
Read more »

It was the new math on the Cecil County Council: Two members plus one new appointee equaled three majority votes to make many stalled decisions. But Two Amigos– after losing one of their past allies– had a hard time accepting the new calculus Tuesday and resorted to some of the most vicious, personal attacks...
Read more »

Joyce Bowlsbey, a longtime community volunteer who chaired the citizens’ panel that drafted the Cecil County Charter approved by voters in 2010, was appointed to the vacant District 2 County Council seat Tuesday by County Executive Tari Moore. But Del. Michael Smigiel, whose political allies lost majority control of the Council in the aftermath...
Read more »

The new Cecil County Council continued its 2-2 stalemate Tuesday as Cecil County Executive Tari Moore held off on appointing a successor to her old District 2 seat and asked for approval of a special legal counsel to represent the county in possible court challenges to her appointment. The County Council, in its first...
Read more »