Around Maryland

Harmer’s Town Art Center, Inc., is one step closer to its goal of becoming a first-of-its-kind regional art facility and art incubator in Havre de Grace after receiving $3.35 million in federal funding to begin rehabbing a vacated Market Street space. The nonprofit arts center aims to renovate a 34,000-square-foot space at 119 and 123 Market St., which will become its new home.

Fifth-grade teacher Melissa Carpenter works a 10-hour day on average during the week, and her job sometimes requires her to put in hours on weekends, too. “I feel like teaching is one of those jobs where we go to work to do more work — to do work after work,” said Carpenter, who teaches at William B. Wade Elementary School in Waldorf, in Charles County. Carpenter’s long hours are far from unique among Maryland’s educators, as the state and nation grapple with a teacher shortage.

Every Tuesday evening, Hannah Choi jumps online to join two-dozen high school students for lessons in advocacy. They are all interns with BIPOC [biracial, indigenous, people of color] Montgomery County Green New Deal, a program created by the nonprofit National Institute for Peer Support, which organizes the weekly training workshops. It’s here where Choi and her peers learn to strategize to advance the environmental and social change they want to see.

In June 2022, a month after human monkeypox cases began spreading around the world, Baltimore City Health Department workers looked to scale up their inventory of test kits, informational handouts and vaccine supplies to prevent the infectious disease from gaining a foothold in the city. Within a month, the World Health Organization would declare the spread of the disease a global public-health emergency, and President Joe Biden’s administration followed suit a month later.

At rush hour in Baltimore, downtown can feel like one big parking lot. Thousands of vehicles flow into the city center from Interstate 95 to the south and Interstate 83 to the north, leading to traffic jams along the roads near the Inner Harbor. So when developer P. David Bramble proposed reducing Pratt Street’s four travel lanes to two and eliminating the Light Street spur as part of his reimagining of Harborplace, many wondered: Where will the traffic go?

Spring break is here, and Baltimore City officials are taking steps to provide safe activities for students and their families. For the second year in a row, Spring Break Skate will offer a pop-up roller rink in downtown Baltimore. Downtown Partnerships president Shelonda Stokes said it promises to be a great time for all.

Hagerstown Regional Airport Fire Department Station 35 has acquired a 2004 Crimson Spartan Unit. This highly specialized vehicle features a wide array of on-board rescue tools and equipment. Known as "Unit 35," this truck is expected to enhance HGR’s ability to respond in a timely manner to on-airport fires and medical emergencies, aircraft incidents/accidents, airport area-motor vehicle accidents along with mass -casualty events affecting the local community.

The Allegany County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved $345,000 for the Infill Development Incentive Program in collaboration with the city of Cumberland. The mayor and City Council on Tuesday discussed the agreement to sell several lots for $1 each to TeaBow Residential LLC, based in Washington, D.C., to increase housing stock in the municipality.