Around Maryland

Walkers, nature lovers and student-athletes are about to gain another public park as the Baltimore Country Club prepares to sell its former golf course and tennis courts to a private neighborhood foundation. The newly named Hillside Park, 20 acres of sloping woods and lawn off the 4800 block of Falls Road, was once Baltimore’s premier private course. The fairways, greens and lawn tennis courts attracted a handful of top athletes, as well as the city’s business and social elite, for more than 70 years.

A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to take action to address the pollution, which can cause health and respiratory problems. “This is a hidden hazard,” Richard Trumka Jr., an agency commissioner, said in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

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?