Around Maryland

Prince George’s County will let its COVID-19 state of emergency expire on Wednesday at 5 p.m., County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said. The county lifted its indoor mask mandate on Feb. 28. Since Feb. 7, the county has reported fewer than 100 new cases per day, Alsobrook’s office said. As of March 7, the positivity rate is 1.7%, and the weekly case rate per 100,000 residents is 28.37.

The director of Carroll County’s budget office told commissioners Tuesday that the financial outlook for the county is “remarkably better” than it was one year ago. The Board of Carroll County Commissioners got a look at plans for the fiscal 2023 operating budget Tuesday, as county staff prepares for the upcoming budget cycle. The county’s fiscal year begins July 1. Current revenue projections will set the stage for the commissioners’ budget discussions and decisions in the coming months.

All students were evacuated from the Carroll County Career and Technology Center in Westminster early Tuesday morning and were sent back to their home schools for the day following a minor fire inside the Culinary Arts program area of the building. There were no injuries and a school system spokesperson said it was too early to assess the damages to the school.

Baltimore boxing champion Gervonta Davis has agreed to fight Rolando Romero in late spring in a matchup that was originally scheduled for the end of last year before a sexual assault allegation against Romero forced Davis to seek a different opponent. Though the date for the fight has not been formally announced, a source with knowledge of negotiations said it will be in late May or June.

Since the HCPSS Board of Education voted to lift the universal indoor masking requirement Feb. 24, face masks are now optional in county public schools. Parents shared varied opinions about the lifting of the mask requirement. Becky McGill-Wilkinson, of Columbia, is the mother of a preschooler and a first grader at Swansfield Elementary School in Columbia. She said she thinks the school system should have waited to lift the mask requirement until children of all ages can be vaccinated.

An explosion and fire that destroyed a Maryland apartment building last week was accidental and caused by a maintenance worker who cut a gas line instead of a waste pipe, an official said Monday. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services Chief Scott Goldstein said his department cannot say what specifically ignited the fire in which 14 people were hospitalized. Goldstein said his department is wrapping up the investigation at the site.

Federal money will now be used to replace a 60-year-old highway bridge that connects Dundalk to Tradepoint Atlantic in addition to fixing or replacing hundreds of other bridges in Maryland. Inspectors declared the Baltimore County bridge that carries Maryland Route 157/Peninsula Expressway structurally deficient, which means it won’t be able to handle the weight load of daily traffic much longer. Officials cite the bridge’s age, rust and crumbling state and said replacement is a priority because of what the bridge connects.

The Frederick County Council is the only governing body in the county that still prohibits public attendance, though members hope to reopen meetings for the first time in two years beginning in April. All other municipal governments in the county have already reopened to the public or announced plans to, as have governing bodies in neighboring counties.