Around Maryland

For more than 80 years, Bi-Rite, a family-owned grocery store on Bel Air Road, gave residents of Northeast Baltimore a place to buy affordable produce, send money and cash checks. But by the time a community health worker snapped a photo of the site where the store once stood for a report published Monday in the health policy journal, Health Affairs, all that remained of it was a towering red, white and blue sign.

The City of Annapolis revealed its highly anticipated design for a new City Dock Welcome Center Sept. 20, a project aimed at protecting the downtown area from frequent flooding. nThe proposed design was presented to the City Dock Action Committee to get feedback on the plans. The Welcome Center — which will cost about $59 million — would replace the current harbormaster’s office with a new two-story building that will consolidate many of the existing properties including the recently acquired Burtis House near the waterfront on Prince George’s Street.

October not only means leaves falling and cooler temperatures, it’s also time for fall immunizations, and drive-thru flu shot clinics are opening for Carroll County residents this week. Maggie Kunz, health planner with the Carroll County Health Department, noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends as many people as possible to get the flu shot this year, to reduce the number of hospitalizations from influenza infections.

The way vacancies are filled on the Talbot County Board of Education could change. At a Talbot County Council meeting Tuesday, members discussed council member Dave Stepp’s interest in requesting local state delegates to prefile a bill that would give the council the authority to fill Board of Education vacancies, rather than the governor.

The Prince George’s County Board of Education has approved the second phase of a school construction project funded through a mix of public-private funds. The vote Thursday night to move ahead comes a week after a similar vote failed. School board members conveyed a sense of urgency Thursday to approve the work.

Victims’ advocates urged adult survivors of sexual abuse by members of the clergy to come forward Thursday ahead of a landmark Maryland law going into effect Sunday. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, held a news conference outside of the Baltimore Basilica on Cathedral Street to discuss the Child Victims Act, the possibility of the Baltimore archdiocese declaring bankruptcy and the still-redacted names in the attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse within the archdiocese.

Food banks and pantries statewide, already straining to fill the gap from the end of COVID benefits, are bracing to meet additional demand if a government shutdown furloughs federal and military workers and federal nutrition programs run dry. “If people are without a paycheck and then they also need our services…it will be a strain on our organization, because we are already overwhelmed with people,” said Krista Pettit, director of One Mission Cambridge, a nonprofit group of churches providing food assistance and other services.

The Baltimore City Public Schools System failed to pay $5.1 million in employee benefit contributions over eight years, according to a Baltimore inspector general investigation. City employees who are not part of the state retirement and pension system, such as custodians, cafeteria workers, school police officers and administrative staff, must become members of the city’s retirement saving plan, according to the Thursday report.