Around Maryland

Beginning this week, water customers in Baltimore City will see a 25% break on their bills for September, Mayor Brandon Scott said Tuesday. The discount will apply to Baltimore residents’ September monthly bills, excluding the $5 Bay Restoration Fund fee. That fee funds wastewater treatment improvements that prevent pollution from leaking into the Chesapeake Bay. Scott first announced the discount in early September, after E. coli bacteria were detected in Baltimore’s water and a boil water advisory was issued Labor Day for a large swath of West Baltimore and part of Baltimore County. When the advisory was lifted, city officials advised residents to flush their pipes and water-using appliances as a precaution.

Children with physical disabilities often require special, and sometimes expensive, bicycle features in order to ride. At a recent event in Westminster, nine volunteers worked to bring the joy of cycling to five Carroll County kids by creating specialized bikes for them. The crew working with Volunteers for Medical Engineering crafted the custom bikes Friday at TownMall of Westminster. “We bring people together as a team so they can use their skills in order to help people with disabilities,” Volunteers for Medical Engineering Program Director Angela Tyler said. Bicycle modifications include flattened pedals, easy-grip handlebars and seat modifications such as harnesses and seat belts. Children in need of adaptive bikes are evaluated and measured by occupational and physical therapists so each bike can be fully customized to their needs.

Grammy nominated pianist and composer Marc-André Hamelin will perform Saturday at UMBC as part of the Candlelight Concert Society’s 50th concert season. Hamelin, nominated for 11 Grammy awards, has been called “a performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” by The New York Times. “He is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant pianists of today,” Irina Kaplan Lande, Candlelight’s artistic director, said. “It is an incredible opportunity to see him perform live.” Hamelin will perform Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, commonly known as the “Hammerklavier Sonata.” Other works Hamelin will present include selections by Gabriel Fauré and the Maryland premiere of a composition by Hamelin. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. at UMBC’s Linehan Hall.

Just a few days after his resignation from Prince George’s County Council, Todd Turner has been confirmed as the new director of the Maryland-county’s Office of Ethics and Accountability. Turner resigned on Saturday to avoid any conflicts of interest associated with the nomination to the office. “I want to thank County Executive Alsobrooks, those who spoke on my behalf and my former County Council colleagues for their support and confidence in me today in confirming my nomination to be the next Executive Director of the Office of Ethics and Accountability,” Turner said in a statement.

Immigration lawyer Alexandra Ribe started noticing recently that the court dates of many of her clients’ cases were suddenly being moved up — oftentimes without official mailed notice from the courts. One such case involved a woman from El Salvador who had come to the United States seeking asylum after refusing to follow the orders of gang members to kill a child, said Ribe, an immigration attorney who represents clients in Maryland and Virginia and serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law.

Months after three Baltimore firefighters died in a vacant rowhouse fire, the Baltimore Fire Department launched a program Monday to mark hundreds of unstable vacant buildings as unsafe to enter. Fire Chief Niles Ford, along with city officials including Mayor Brandon Scott, led firefighters in attaching 12×12 red reflective square signs to unsafe vacant properties in Mount Clare, the neighborhood where Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and firefighter/paramedic Kenny Lacayo died fighting a Jan. 24 fire in a three-story vacant home on Stricker Street.