NEWS ANALYSIS Many years ago, a crusty, elderly Vermont senator had a solution to end the long Vietnam war: “Declare victory and leave.” But both sides in a war between the town of Rising Sun and the Cecil County government–over town plans for a major expansion of water service to rural areas, to defray...
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A CECIL TIMES Special Report NEWS ANALYSIS It almost seems like ancient history in the long battle over opioid drug abuse in Cecil County to see newly disclosed federal statistics on the flood of painkiller pills from 2006-2012, when more than 36 million pills were dispensed in the county—or enough to supply 51 pills...
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NEWS ANALYSIS “I don’t care too much for money/Money can’t buy me love.”–The Beatles The Cecil County Council voted Tuesday evening (6/4/2019) to approve County Executive Alan McCarthy’s proposed Fiscal 2020 budget, but not before some grandstanding and the political equivalent of tapping on a calculator with dead batteries. Sometimes, even if the numbers...
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NEWS ANALYSIS In less than an hour on Tuesday (5/28/2019), the County Council reviewed the complex Fiscal 2020 budget proposed by the County Executive, with few questions, no spending cut proposals and just one advocate of raiding “fund balance” reserve accounts to lower the property tax rate by slightly over a penny—a move that...
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As the Cecil County Council moves into the final stages of its review of the new Fiscal 2020 budget, county school officials told Councilors they still face budget shortfalls despite nearly $4 million in newly confirmed state aid that boosts school spending by even more than the educators asked for. But higher than expected...
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NEWS ANALYSIS Cecil County will have a new, non-local Health Officer with impressive educational credentials and experience in public health issues, taking over an agency that has struggled to address the drug crisis even as a new state report shows the county again has the second-worst opioid overdose death rate in Maryland. Cecil County...
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NEWS ANALYSIS The Cecil County Council has approved a $140,000 budget boost in the current fiscal year to cover overspending by the county’s Animal Services agency, despite questions about a massive intake of cats under a policy that is not consistent with county or state laws. And new calls for review of county animal...
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A CECIL TIMES Special Report Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams has signed an agreement with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to co-operate with ICE to identify and turn over Detention Center inmates who are being sought as illegal immigrants. But the county is not participating in a separate federal program that would...
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A CECIL TIMES Special Report NEWS ANALYSIS Cecil County’s Animal Services agency is overspending its current Fiscal 2019 budget and is asking for an infusion of $140,000 immediately, drawn from a county fiscal reserve fund that is supposed to be off-limits for current spending. In addition, the agency is seeking a 41.7 percent operating...
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Cecil County Public Schools (CCPS) will get about a $4.8 million windfall from new state aid, designed to be a “downpayment” on new educational improvement initiatives recommended by the state Kirwan Commission, in its new Fiscal 2020 budget—undercutting school advocates’ claims that students would suffer because the County Executive did not give schools everything...
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A CECIL TIMES Special Report A recent political “robocall,” purporting to be a poll of voter sentiment in the 2020 Cecil County Executive race, pushed negative messages about the incumbent in an apparent effort to influence listeners’ votes and potentially float trial balloons for further negative messages. But the call could run afoul of...
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Cecil County Executive Alan McCarthy unveiled his new Fiscal 2020 budget plan on Friday (3/29/2019), freezing property and income tax rates at current levels and boosting school spending by $2.44 million, or 3.6 percent above the state-mandated local aid for the schools. The budget, McCarthy’s third since taking office, continues his stated policy of...
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There was anger in the air, and some gallows humor, as about 100 southern Cecil County area residents gathered in Cecilton Wednesday evening (3/20/2019) to question state and local officials on efforts to counteract the invasion of heavy trucks, and speeding cars, in the Warwick and Cecilton areas as drivers trying to avoid newly...
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Delaware is considering coming up with money to repair southern Cecil County roads damaged by trucks that have clogged local rural roads while evading new tolls on Route 301 near the state line and Middletown, DE, according to a letter released by Cecil County Executive Alan McCarthy. McCarthy said Friday (3/15/2019) that he spoke...
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WILL SPACE ALIENS CAPTURE RISING SUN? Cecil County politics is known for the wild and weird, from the many misadventures of the “Three Amigos” on the County Commissioners board to a nose-biting incident at a polling place on election day. Just when you thought that, several years into Charter government, things had changed for...
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