The top stories in Harford County in 2018

Power line battle

Resistance to Transource Energy's $320 million power line project proposed across northern Harford County continued in 2018, and both supporters and opponents will make their cases before energy regulators in 2019.

Transource is trying to build 45 miles of new power lines, known as the Independence Energy Connection, across parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Lines would be built between Franklin County, Pa., and Washington County, and between York County, Pa., and northern Harford, ending at the Conastone Substation in Norrisville.

The project aims to relieve congestion on the power grid, something the company says would save utility customers $600 million over 15 years. But it is also expected to take over land that has historically been used for agriculture, something Hogan in August urged power grid operator PJM Interconnection not to ignore. Hogan requested the project's footprint be rethought.

Transource officials say their proposal "best balances the need to reinforce the electric grid and the disturbance caused by the facilities."

Opponents to the project were heartened in October when experts told Pennsylvania Utility commission the project was unnecessary because demand on the region's power grid has declined since PJM began seeking proposals for the new transmission lines in 2014.

The debate will stretch into 2019.

Northern Harford County community leaders have been urging state legislators to pursue bills protecting property rights and constraining such massive energy projects. The General Assembly session runs from January through early April.

And both Maryland and Pennsylvania utility regulators will hold evidentiary hearings on the project early in the new year before considering whether to approve or deny it.

— Scott Dance

New medical complex

The University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health is continuing with its plans to close Harford Memorial Hospital and develop a new freestanding medical complex about five miles away in the city of Aberdeen that is expected to offer primary care doctors' offices, specialty services, emergency care and behavioral health treatment.

Much of the services will be offered on an outpatient basis or requiring brief overnight stays, reflecting an effort in the state and beyond to provide services in a more efficient, less costly manner — outside the walls of traditional hospitals but still tethered to those hospitals. The project is similar to models the university health system plans in Prince George's County and on the Eastern Shore.

For the cases that still require intensive or surgical care, Upper Chesapeake also plans to add capacity at it main hospital campus in Bel Air and will transport patients.

The move to close Harford after decades of service rankled some neighbors, who will now get services at one of the other locations. Hospital staff will also largely be split among the Aberdeen facilities and Bel Air hospital. Transitioning the Harford Memorial building was seen as impractical.

The three-pronged project — the hospital upgrade in Bel Air and a medical building and a behavioral health pavilion in Aberdeen — is expected to cost about $170 million to $180 million and requires approval from the Maryland Health Care Commission. Hospital officials expect the agency to consider the three applications by mid-2019.

The state agency said it is reviewing the information and seeking more information. If approved, construction is expected to take two years.

— Meredith Cohn

New school superintendent

In the middle of the year, Harford County saw a transition in school leadership as Barbara P. Canavan, who had led the system for five years retired. On July 1, Sean Bulson, 49, a former vice president with the University of North Carolina, took control of the mid-sized school system with 37,800 students.

A former Montgomery County public school administrator, Bulson was returning to Maryland after leaving to be superintendent of Wilson County Schools in North Carolina, a district with 12,000 students and 25 schools.

While the school system is one of the highest performing in central Maryland, Bulson faces a tough budget year, with rising health care and employee costs. In October, Bulson said he was considering a considering a hiring and spending freeze to close a $35 million budget gap. In December, Bulson outlined a proposal to cut 153 teaching and 26 administrative positions through attrition, as he attempted to trim the budget enough to make it acceptable to the county executive and council. Unless the county decides to fund schools at a higher level, students will have higher class sizes in the fall.

— Liz Bowie

Ripken Stadium dispute

A dispute between Aberdeen and the city's most famous family continued in 2018.

It centers on management of city-owned Ripken Stadium, where the minor-league baseball team owned by Cal and brother Bill Ripken plays its home games.

The IronBirds are the Orioles' Class A New York-Penn League short-season affiliate. The team name is a play on Hall of Famer Cal Ripken's "Iron Man" moniker, derived from surpassing Lou Gehrig's mark of 2,130 consecutive games played.

The issue dividing the parties is focused less on baseball season than on what happens at the stadium when there are no games.

In a suit filed in Harford County Circuit Court in October, Tufton Professional Baseball LLC — owned by the Ripkens — accused the city of not living up to its stadium commitments under an 18-year-old agreement.

The suit says Aberdeen has not adequately undertaken capital maintenance and improvements, as outlined in the agreement. It says the Ripkens' company, rather than the city, should legally have the right to manage non-baseball events at the stadium -- such things as charity fund-raisers and weddings that bring in revenue.

"Local governments are held to their contractual obligations just like private citizens," the suit says.

Cal Ripken Jr. was born in Aberdeen and remains a local icon. "Contracts are meant to be honored. Tufton has done its part. The City needs to do the same," said John Maroon, a spokesman for the Ripkens, in a statement.

Aberdeen Mayor Patrick McGrady said he was limited in what he could say because of the litigation.

"The city is committed to upholding the concession agreement as written and we look forward to getting clarification from the courts as to where we have disagreements with Tufton," McGrady said in an interview.

"I look forward to an amicable resolution. That's the goal," he said.

— Jeff Barker

Landfill turned pot of gold?

Owners of a would-be landfill in Harford County continue to earn $12,000 in interest each day that the county appeals a court order to pay the company a $45 million judgement.

Maryland Reclamation Associates had planned on building an 55-acre landfill to take debris from construction projects. The proposed dump, which sits next to a historic African-American church and gravesite, received initial county approvals three decades ago, but a change in government and rising community opposition to the project led to new laws that restricted where rubble dumps could be located.

The rubble would have been piled up in mounds six to seven stories high, then covered with earth, according to plans submitted to the county in 1989.

The site could not meet the new restrictions. Maryland Reclamation Associates, whose owner is Richard D. Schafer of Darlington, tried to get a variance to the new zoning laws, and then sued the county government when it was denied. Maryland Reclamation lost its legal petitions against the county until this year, when the company brought the case before a Baltimore City jury contending that its property was devalued and made worthless by the county through a "regulatory taking."

The jury agreed and awarded the company $45,420,076, million as compensation following a 10-day trial before retired Baltimore City Circuit Judge John Addison Howard.

The county is appealing the verdict, but had to post a bond for the judgment while the case is pending. The total amount of the bond was $49,962,083.60, according to court records.

The county's appellate brief to the Court of Special Appeals is due Dec. 21 and Maryland Reclamation's response is due Feb. 19, 2019. A hearing with oral arguments is scheduled for June.

"This case began in 1990 and the county has successfully defended every significant legal challenge brought by MRA," said Harford spokesperson Cindy Mumby. "The county anticipates that we will be successful on this challenge as well."

Maryland Reclamation's attorney in the civil case, Brett Ingerman, said the judgment was based on what the landfill would have been worth had it been in operation as a dump site, plus interest. The total amount now due is up to $48.5 million, Ingerman said.

— Catherine Rentz with Allan Vought and David Anderson