Havre de Grace Council proposes making Bayview one-way

The Havre de Grace City Council introduced a resolution Monday night that would make Bayview Drive one-way southbound.

The entrance to the apartments on the corner of Bayview and Route 155 would also temporarily be made one-way to prevent vehicles from entering onto Route 155 during construction on that road.

After State Highway Administration embarked on a project to add a left turn to Route 155, the city found the sight distance from Bayview onto Route 155 would be too dangerous.

Councilman Fred Cullum said residents originally seemed to be leaning toward closing the street at Route 155, but since the last work session and public hearing on the topic, a survey that was done showed almost everyone was in favor of making it one way instead.

"Everyone opted to have it as a one-way street only," he said. "Personally I think that's still a dangerous situation but that's what the citizens have indicated they wanted, so I agreed to try it and we'll see what happens."

The city council also introduced an ordinance setting fairly steep fines for various parking violations.

The proposed fines include $125 for inappropriately parking in handicapped parking, $100 for vehicles on curbs or sidewalks, $100 for imitating signs or signals, $100 for displaying or repairing vehicles on streets, and fines ranging from $25 to $50 for a number of other violations.

Council president Bill Martin explained the parking situation downtown will change, as the higher fines will allow enforcement officers to have "a little more teeth," he said.

"We did increase the parking in the downtown business district from two-hour to three-hour parking," he noted. "Hopefully with this new ordinance parking will be enforced fairly and consistently."

Cullum agreed the council needed to address the fine situation.

"Our fines are all over the place, and most of them weren't enforceable because they weren't high enough with the MVA [Motor Vehicle Administration], and that's the only way you can have enough leverage to collect a ticket," he said.

Councilman Randy Craig clarified that no new violations are being created, just the fines are being elevated.

Councilwoman Barbara Wagner said she is concerned that parking be enforced very fairly. She and her husband have a business downtown.

"I just don't want anyone to feel targeted," she said.

During the public hearing, her husband, George Wagner, said there is two-hour parking on South Union and residential-only parking.

George Wagner said the enforcement is not fair, and residents uptown are being treated differently from those downtown.

"The enforcement is a big thing," he said. "It's being spotty when the tires and stuff are being checked off."

Also at Monday's city council meeting, Kevin Racine presented the 2011 system map for Maryland Transit Administration services, which Racine said he hopes will let people know that the map does exist and Havre de Grace is part of the Baltimore-area system map.

"When you look at it, you can see it will be consistent with Fort Meade down to Annapolis even down to the Pentagon and so forth," he said, explaining he just talked to a young man who wanted to go to trucking school in west Baltimore and Racine directed him to the map so he could attend the college.

Former mayor Dr. Gunther Hirsch thanked the council again for holding the dedication ceremony last Wednesday re-naming the City Hall complex in honor of him. Monday marked the first meeting of the mayor and city council in the newly renamed Mayor Gunther Hirsch Government Center.

George DeHority, finance director, said because of a state error, the homestead property tax credit on residents' tax bills was inadvertently changed to 10 percent, when it should have been 5 percent. Those incorrect bills went out to about 1,000 homeowners.

The homestead credit is a cap on property assessments, so the lower the cap, the less assessments can increase in a given year.

"What this means is some tax bills will be slightly lower," DeHority said. "We anticipate getting the corrected file this week and we will get the revised bills out before the first of the month, 60 days before [they have to be paid]."

"We certainly do apologize to the citizens and are doing everything we can to make sure the damage is minimal," he said, adding that if a resident paid the higher bill, any difference will be refunded by the city.

Cullum said it is important for people to recycle because the city does not have to pay a tipping fee for the service.

"If you don't recycle, now's the time to start because you save the city, yourself, a lot of money, and do a lot of good for the ecology as well," he said.

Craig agreed, saying, "The tipping fee [charged at the incinerators or landfills to dispose of the city's trash] is a big expense for us, and recycling does make a difference."