Around Maryland

As part of Mercy Health Services/Mercy Medical Center’s ongoing efforts to expand health care services throughout Maryland, the Baltimore-based health care provider has opened Mercy Personal Physicians at Ellicott City, and several Mercy digestive health, liver, obesity and GI cancer specialists will see patients in Fredericksburg. Located at 3290 N. Ridge Road, Suite 220, 2nd floor, Mercy Personal Physicians at Ellicott City features primary care, specialized physician care and a variety of diagnostic and laboratory services.

A crowd of nearly 500 visitors gathered last week to celebrate the opening of the newly renovated East Columbia 50+ Center, which, at 29,000 square feet, is seven times larger than the previous center. First built in 1994, the center was approximately 3,800 square feet inside the East Columbia Library, according to a county spokesperson. Plans to renovate and expand the center began in 2014, with construction beginning in December 2021. It was completed shortly before the grand opening March 7.

A statewide bill that would extend more protections to Maryland households facing foreclosures and evictions due to tax sale has generated backlash from more than two dozen community groups that say the bill as written could backfire. The bill, introduced at the request of the state housing department, advanced Tuesday out of the Maryland House of Delegates and has been referred to the state Senate for review.

Federal Community Project Funding totaling $16 million signed into law by President Joe Biden last week includes $1 million for renovations to the Carver Center in Cumberland and $500,000 for a new engine tanker for Lonaconing’s Good Will Fire Co., U.S. Rep. David Trone announced. “My job is to ensure communities across the country are equipped to serve and provide vital resources,” Trone, who represents counties including Allegany and Garrett, said via news release.

Baltimore’s Inner Harbor hasn’t always been the public space we recognize today, but the city and its residents have always been connected to the water. Here’s how the harbor transformed from an industrial hub a century ago to the beloved attraction developers want to revitalize.

Hagerstown Police recently expanded the hours of its Watch Center, a downtown Hagerstown office in which civilian employees monitor surveillance cameras to assist residents and police officers. The topic of the Watch Center came up during the mayor and City Council’s State of the City address on Tuesday at The Maryland Theatre. During the video presentation, it was noted that about 35% of calls for police service are handled by the Watch Center.

School buses are nothing new in Maryland. What is new, however, is a rapid rise in the use of electric school buses – a rise that is expected to continue. Increasingly, state authorities are concerned that the pollution from traditional buses is a danger, in particular to the 650,000 thousand children who ride to school on diesel-powered fuel every day that needs to be curtailed. Two years ago, the state set goals of trimming greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2031.

This Women’s History Month, the Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum in Baltimore is in the national spotlight. Experts and USA Today readers voted and ranked the museum No. 4 among the 10 best free museums in the nation. It’s a museum that celebrates the stories of several influential women, including the museum’s namesake Lillie Carroll Jackson. “Oftentimes, we hear about what men have done,” said Iris Leigh Barnes, the associate director and curator of the Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum.

Baltimore City forced people without housing out of a public park in the Homewood neighborhood last week. Signs up for around three weeks in the Wyman Park Dell indicated that the city would require people to move Wednesday morning, but bulldozers and tractors were on-site two days earlier, March 4. City Councilwoman Odette Ramos, who represents the area, said people first started moving into the park sometime during the coronavirus pandemic, which began in March 2020, and the encampment continued as a moratorium on evictions was lifted in April 2021.