Around Maryland

Industry groups and clean-energy advocates have hailed a multimillion-dollar partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy, the states of Maryland and Massachusetts and leading research institutes to establish a center of excellence for offshore wind energy. The announcement comes as multiple states struggle to implement offshore wind projects and ensure that the clean energy transition is reliable and equitable.

The noon sky above the Chesapeake Bay shoreline in Annapolis was dull gray Thursday. The water was gray, too. Together, they stretched the flat five miles east toward the dreary gray smudge of Kent Island visible on the horizon. A tiny gray house stood behind the eroding shoreline. Maybe it was once white, but it isn’t much to look at now — a ramshackle collection of sagging rooflines, tilting chimneys, peeling paint and torn screens.

The Howard County chapter of Moms for Liberty wants sexually explicit books off school library shelves, and they’re enlisting the “mastermind” behind Carroll County’s successful book-ban campaign to help it do that. Howard’s chapter of the conservative parents group announced its campaign to challenge school books on its website in an advertisement for a Feb. 26 event featuring Jessica Garland, the vice chair of Carroll’s Moms for Liberty chapter, as the guest speaker.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Thursday announced more than $2.8 million in awards to public housing agencies and PBRA owners in Maryland as part of $128 million in grants through the 2023 Renewal and New Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Program. The FSS program is a voluntary initiative offered to families in HUD-assisted housing. Participants receive coaching, referrals to services, and establish a family escrow savings account.

The city of Frederick is looking for feedback from residents on designs for renovations to two parks in the city. The city’s Department of Parks and Recreation is conducting online surveys to gather information on the redesigns of Hill Street and Mullinix parks. The plan for improvements to Mullinix Park includes $500,000 for construction in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. There will be renovations and improvements to restrooms, paths and seating, landscaping, and playgrounds. New amenities will be added.

The Maryland Public Service Commission announced an upcoming second public hearing for a Wicomico County solar facility proposed by Porter Mill, LLC. The hearing will take place Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the Rockawalkin Community Hall at 6772 Rockawalkin Road. MPSC invites community members to comment on the proposal before Public Utility Law Judge Jennifer J. Grace. The first public hearing on the proposal was held Nov. 1, 2023.

Baltimore is close to finalizing the purchase of two hotels to be used as housing for the city’s homeless residents, ending a search that began nearly three years ago in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The $15.2 million deal, which is set to be considered by the Board of Estimates next week, would give the city control of two hotels, a Holiday Inn Express and a Sleep Inn, both of which are in the area of Gay and Front streets near the mouth of Interstate 83. The city is also purchasing a parking lot between the two hotels, which are catty-cornered from the city’s juvenile justice center.

Montgomery County legislators on the local and state level are pushing for greater protections for tenants nearly a year after a deadly fire at a downtown Silver Spring high-rise apartment complex claimed the life of a 25-year-old woman. On Jan. 24, state Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Dist. 20) introduced The Melanie Nicholle Diaz Fire Safety Act in the Maryland General Assembly. A complementary Senate bill is being sponsored by Sen. Will Smith (D-Dist. 20).

The expiration of federal funding will mean students in Anne Arundel County will not get to take Chromebooks home starting in the next academic year. The district released a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying grants from the Coronavirus Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund are expiring, the costs to repair damaged student devices are mounting.