Around Maryland

Frederick County is expected to use more than $1.8 million in federal funding for equipment for its emergency operations center and a crisis stabilization center, and for the next few phase of the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad Trail, according to a press release Monday. The funding is part of the omnibus spending bill for the federal Fiscal Year 2023 that President Joe Biden signed in December.

Baltimore County became the latest Maryland jurisdiction to announce it’s planning to create a resilience authority to address the impacts of climate change. Such authorities have already been established in Anne Arundel and Charles counties, though those aren’t the only places to consider the idea. Resilience authorities are quasi-government agencies that can seek grants, issue bonds and even levy fees to carry out climate-related projects that otherwise might compete against other targets for county dollars.

A month after the Maryland Lottery stopped televising lottery drawings, gamblers are still buying tickets and the lottery expects to save up to $900,000 a year with its new system. Beginning on Dec. 19, a random number generator began choosing winners for the Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Bonus Match 5 and Multi-Match drawings. Before the switch to the computer system, an air-powered machine spat out numbered balls that were read by TV announcers.

Seven months after chief auditor Andrea Barr sued the Baltimore County Public Schools Board of Education for wrongful termination, the parties have reached a settlement. The board will pay Barr $115,000 in damages and attorney fees. The parties also signed a new employment contract for Barr, who will be earning a $213,397 annual salary as chief auditor.

The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration has begun a $39.8 million project to repair bridge decks and parapets on 10 bridges at the I-95 interchange with I-695 in the Arbutus area of southwestern Baltimore County. The project will improve interstate highway safety and ride quality at the interchange by installing latex modified concrete overlays on the bridge decks and replacing existing concrete parapets and bridge deck overhangs, the department said in a news release.

On the same day that the Prince George’s County school CEO announced she’s retiring, there’s talk that a search for the next school chief will start as soon as this month. In Prince George’s County, the school CEO-the equivalent to a superintendent—is appointed by the County Executive—in this case Angela Alsobrooks. But given that Goldson referred to “current acrimony” on the board, the question arises who would want to step in while the school board remains tangled in a dispute over the status of its chair Juanita Miller?

Old Town in central Baltimore, one of the three original settlements in the downtown area of the city, has seen better days. The neighborhood has a pedestrian mall that now has decaying buildings, giving it the feel of a ghost town. Yet Erin MacDonald, who works for the Old Town Mall Merchants Association, believes there are a lot of misconceptions about the neighborhood.

Anne Arundel residents voiced concerns Tuesday about plans to construct an office building near Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis. They argued at the first County Council meeting of the year that the Earl Conservation Center, an office space slated to be built for the Chesapeake Conservancy and other environmental groups on a 5-acre parcel abutting the park, will disrupt views of the South River.