Around Maryland

On Thursday, officials broke ground on the extension of the runway at Salisbury Regional Airport, a project expected to bring new flights to the region and boost the local economy. Supporters of the project, including county and airport officials, say it will lead to economic growth throughout Wicomico County and across the Eastern Shore. U.S. Senator Ben Cardin announced that $18.5 million in federal funding had been secured for the project.

Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida, pounding cities with ferocious winds and rain, and whipping up a barrage of tornadoes. It caused at least four deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit. The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine announced the launch of a new training program to address the urgent physician shortages on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The University of Maryland School of Medicine announced on Wednesday that they are launching a new training program in ‘Rural Health’ for medical students.

Starting this weekend, Montgomery County residents can drop off decomposing jack-o-lanterns and other food scraps in bins at three local farmers markets thanks to a new composting program offered by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Proposed legislation born out of Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater’s data center workgroup could change the approval process for new data center projects. It also could require developers of lots previously approved for critical digital infrastructure (CDI) use to seek a new zoning designation before expanding.

Whatever destruction Hurricane Milton brings, there will be big decisions ahead about how to rebuild and even what places might need to be abandoned. Some damage predictions already exceed $200 billion in combined losses for Milton and Hurricane Helene, which crashed into the Southeast 13 days ago. Officials in Ellicott City are offering words of encouragement to battered communities in Florida and North Carolina as they hold their historic Maryland community as an example of the recovery that’s possible in the future.

Affordable housing, small business revitalization and food insecurity took center stage in Carroll County this week, with a two-day visit from Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day. Day continued his initiative to tour counties across the state with stops in Carroll County on Tuesday and Wednesday. Day, along with his senior staff, spent Tuesday touring the City of Westminster, and Wednesday visiting Taneytown and other parts of the county.