Cecil County’s heroes of the storm told the County Commissioners Tuesday of their long hours to clear roads, assist power companies and help individual citizens trapped by Friday night’s sudden, severe thunderstorm and winds that left downed trees, power outages and damage through a wide swathe of southern Cecil County. And County Health Officer...
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The Cecil County commissioners had a dance party Tuesday, performing their version of the Charter Cha Cha as they tried out different steps before deciding to abandon the dance altogether. After tossing around various numbers, the usual 3-2 majority decided that no money should be set aside as a contingency for unforeseen expenses in...
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A concerted campaign by parents, teachers and students at North East High School scored a touchdown Tuesday when the Cecil County Commissioners threw in the flag on a contested play and agreed to pay for new metal bleachers to replaced rickety, splintery wooden seats at the school’s athletic field. After hearing from a long...
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The Cecil County Commissioners voted Tuesday to give a Rising Sun farm owner $1.45 million in return for agreeing not to allow development of the 483-acre tract, after several hours of often heated public comment led by members of the local tea party group that opposed “government control” of private property. Others objected to...
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The Cecil County Commissioners voted to use county funds to purchase development rights on a large Rising Sun farm Tuesday, after several hours of often heated public comment led by members of the local tea party group that opposed giving taxpayer money to a landowner when there is no imminent threat of development of...
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Cesar Milan, the “dog whisperer,” where are you when the Cecil County Commissioners need you? After a nearly two hour public hearing last week and hundreds of emails and phone calls from pet parents voicing concerns about a proposed new animal ordinance, the Commissioners clashed Tuesday as they attempted to re-write the proposal, yet...
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Cecil County public schools cracked the cost-cutting whip and saved $1.6 million on several school construction and renovation projects already approved and financed by county bonds. So now the schools want to apply a portion of those cost savings to two projects put on hold by the County Commissioners in the recently approved county...
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ANALYSIS After nearly two hours of testimony from 55 people at a public hearing Tuesday evening, the Cecil County Commissioners are set to finally make decisions on a three-year process to revise animal ordinances in the county—but they ruled out consideration of some of the most significant issues posed in the often difficult relationship...
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The vintage and vacant Buckworth Center in Elkton– that once housed the Cecil County jail and more recently hosted seniors’ programs– is being proposed for renovation as a 50-apartment housing for the elderly project. The non-profit developers would pay the county government $400,000 for the property, which has been for sale for years with...
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A Cecil Times Special Report The Cecil County Commissioners decided in a recent closed door meeting to turn down—on the usual 3-2 vote– a proposed new school of technology on the Elkton site of the vacant Basell property that already has science labs and could be bought and renovated for about one-third the cost...
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Cecil County Commissioners were asked Tuesday to support spending $100,000 to add sidewalks to a multi-million dollar construction project to upgrade Razor Strap Rd. in North East, in large part because a proposed subsidized housing development would let a Boys and Girls Club use its recreation center. It was the latest example of a...
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The Cecil County Commissioners Tuesday adopted operating and capital improvement budgets that will give property owners their second consecutive “Happy Meal” tax cut— yielding savings of about the cost of a family’s fast-food meal—while delaying many construction projects. But unlike last year’s contentious budget process, this year the County Commissioners were unanimous in their...
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A Cecil Times Special Report Valerie Falcioni, a new Cecil County Ethics Commission member appointed last December, is slated to take over the chairmanship of the panel this week, after two long-term members resigned recently. The three remaining members of the five-seat panel were all appointed last December. Falcioni is a longtime friend of...
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Cecil County taxpayers are getting a significant cost break on legal advertising of properties that are delinquent on their county property taxes, thanks to competition to the Cecil Whig. And County Commissioner Diana Broomell (R-4) gets a “pat on the back” for being technically and legally right on her contentious challenges on the issue....
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No bad deed goes unrewarded, at least in Cecil County politics. A few weeks ago, Robert Gorman was slinging mud at Circuit Court Judge Keith Baynes in the primary election contest in which Gorman’s longtime political pal, Del. Michael Smigiel, was running for a judicial seat. Smigiel lost overwhelmingly but now the Smipkin political...
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