Around Maryland

Joined by county and state leaders, the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health (UM UCH), a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), Jan. 5 held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the patient bed tower at UM Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air, a project that is part of UM UCH’s transformation of health care delivery in Harford County.

Frederick County Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Dyson on Monday released a $992 million recommended budget for fiscal year 2025, an increase of more than $81 million from the current spending plan. Dyson’s recommended budget totals $991.6 million. It includes a $38.2 million pool for salary increases, which would equate to an average raise of 7% for employees across the system.

Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers presented her proposed $2.58 billion operating budget for the fiscal year 2025, a 2.2% increase compared with the previous year. Rogers’ first budget request as superintendent comes as Maryland prepares for a slowing economy and federal coronavirus pandemic funding is set to expire this year.

The Maryland Energy Administration today announced the opening of the Fiscal Year 2024 funding round for its state-wide Maryland Smart Energy Communities Programs, which provide grants to Maryland communities and organizations to help with the costs of planning and installing clean energy projects. These projects will lead to reduced energy consumption, greater cost savings, enhanced community investment, more robust economic development, and expanded engagement by local leaders in clean energy.

Ocean City’s police chief reports seasonal recruitment for the department remains “sluggish,” but noted there will be two more testing opportunities in the coming weeks.During Monday’s meeting of the Ocean City Police Commission, Police Chief Ross Buzzuro provided members with a report on the police department’s seasonal recruitment efforts.

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad officials said ticket sales for 2023 marked an all-time high for ridership with roughly 75,000 people boarding the attraction. However, with the good news came a little bad. Railroad officials announced recently that Maryland Thunder, the massive steam locomotive No. 1309, will be down for repairs for the first half of 2024.

There are nights when Christopher Vucci doesn’t get much sleep, worried that a drunk driver might crash a car into his house again. Vucci wasn’t living in the house on 28th Street last year — his late uncle was — when a car careened into the home, but he dealt with the consequences long after the wreck. It took months to get the rowhome’s glass-paned sunroom rebuilt; as they waited on Baltimore Gas and Electric, the broken gas hookup forced Vucci and his partner to start the winter without working heat.

It’s a new year and time to consider new paths Baltimore could take over the next decade. The West Baltimore MARC rail station, at the western end of the Franklin-Mulberry corridor, the so-called Highway to Nowhere, is one such starting place. There’s now money to replace the 151-year former Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel under West Baltimore, which has been renamed in honor of Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist who escaped from slavery in Maryland.

The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has been the focus of FBI manhunts for three years, with people from around the country being arrested. More than 1,265 defendants have been charged by the U.S. Department of Justice. Thirty-five have been found in Maryland, according to the George Washington University’s Capitol Hill Siege Legal Tracker.