Around Maryland

A residential compost pilot program in Frederick has diverted about 550,000 pounds of organic waste from being sent to a landfill, city officials said Tuesday. The pilot, which is just under 2 years old, includes 1,164 households participating in the free compost collection program through Key City Compost. The total amount of diverted waste is 574,670 pounds as of the end of April.

The City of Salisbury announced a partnership with Salisbury University to train youth transportation ambassadors ahead of the 2024-2025 school year. The City says ambassadors will primarily be part-time and temporary staff focused on youth outreach. The transportation safety program will teach safe practices for walking, riding bikes, using scooters and other forms of micro-mobility, according to a press release.

Baltimore County plans to hire a pair of law firms to help it with the complicated legal wrangling that already has begun following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The county wants to partner with Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. and Bekman, Marder, Hopper, Malarkey & Perlin LLC, the county said in a news release. Baltimore County Council will consider the proposal at a work session Tuesday and is expected to vote next week.

City residents and shop owners expressed relief Tuesday as Howard County’s flood mitigation efforts successfully averted severe flooding the night before. County officials said they planned and prepared Monday for flooding on Main Street, but fortunately, there wasn’t any. Shop owners, like those at the Stone House Collective, braced themselves for the worst as the storm drenched the historic area with about 2 inches of rainwater in two hours.

The Maryland Department of Health and Baltimore County are seeking a new county health officer, two months after they said the former health officer was “no longer” in his role. According to a job description that the state published last month for the dual role of county health officer and director of the county Department of Health & Human Services, the position pays between $172,519 and $331,705 a year. Seventeen people have applied so far, according to state health department spokesperson Chase Cook.

Officials of the troubled Parkway Theatre unveiled an ambitious plan Tuesday night that will include reinventing the 1915 movie palace as an incubator for emerging filmmakers and for the gaming industry — a plan made possible in part by a seven-figure gift from the Johns Hopkins University. Scot Spencer, chairman of the board of directors told more than 300 people in the Parkway’s audience that the university has “completely forgiven” a $1.7 million bridge loan it made to the institution in 2017 that was scheduled to come due June 30.

The Frederick County Board of Education is considering another round of changes to the Frederick County Public Schools budget that could eliminate the remaining $6 million deficit for fiscal year 2025. The school system is proposing to resolve the budget deficit — which has already come down roughly $47 million — through measures such as further increasing sports and facilities usage fees and removing funding for a planned upgrade of the online Individualized Education Program (IEP) system.

Crews working to restore the federal channel of debris from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge need more time before shipping traffic can be fully restored. The end of May had been the goal of state and federal officials, but a Friday news release says that work will conclude by June 10.