Who on earth rides around in a camouflaged golf cart?
We spotted this golf cart in front of the Sykesville Apartments and didn’t quite know what to make of it. Is there a golf course hidden over there? Is there some reason to try to blend in to the scenery while golfing? Does it serve some other, perhaps nefarious, purpose?
Someone please explain.
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The state police finally got the guy they believe walked into the Sykesville Quick Stop on January 6 and pounded the clerk with a baseball bat. All for some scratch-off lottery tickets.
Apparently the suspect had been hiding in an apartment complex in New Windsor with a friend.
They’re charging Darrell Webb, 21, with armed robbery, first degree assault, second degree assault and theft. He’ll face similar charges from the Sykesville Police Department for another very similar incident just days earlier.
The young man who suffered the assault is out of the hospital and recuperating.
Although they’re calling Webb a resident of Sykesville, he actually lives on the 1800 block of Amanda Lane, which is a good way north of Eldersburg on route 91 heading up towards Finksburg. Mr. Webb’s probably going to pay a heavy price for nothing more than some worthless pieces of paper. Had he actually won, the police would no doubt have collected him before he collected any winnings.
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Well, the county commissioners are finally getting around to some of the things they talked about most during last year’s campaign, issues like the waste-to-energy incinerator and the possible expansion of the airport. Apparently, the Carroll County Times thinks it’s about time.
And blasted them, not for delaying on these matters, but on another matter. Secrecy. The main point being that despite upcoming public hearings, if the past year is any indicator, they’ll still make up their own minds, and do it behind closed doors without much concern for public input.
The Times writes under the headline “Board Excludes Public.”
Public input and openness is something that continues to elude this board, which has, in a single year in office, raised the bar to record heights on government secrecy. Early on, the state’s Open Meetings Compliance Board found the board in violation of the law for illegally closing some meetings. Later, the board admitted that it had discussed the makeup of a redistricting committee via email exchanges, something the Compliance Board noted was not illegal, but which deprived citizens the opportunity to be a part of their government.
The board has also raised the costs associated with open records requests, and despite the county attorney advising them that redacting certain information from Public Information Act requests such as addresses and emails was likely illegal, Commissioner Richard Rothschild said it didn’t matter, and if someone had a problem with the practice they should file a lawsuit.
How’s that for open government? You don’t like what we’re doing, sue us.
The Times continues:
If the board’s pattern holds, public input will mean little, decisions about these and other projects will be made in secret, either behind closed doors or via secret email exchanges, and then the board will announce what it intends to do. In most cases, the decisions likely will have been made far prior to any public meetings, and the meetings will be for nothing more than show, or to fulfill in the most minimal way possible their legal obligations.
This board has demonstrated repeatedly that it does not want public input. It has demonstrated that it does not want to be held accountable, and that it does not want to provide the public with records and documents that by law belong to the people. In that environment, residents should not get their hopes up too much about the value of their input during these planned meetings on important issues.
Of course, a lot of people don’t like the Carroll County Times, but with no organized opposition, the commissioners seem to assume they can do whatever they want. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, and the Carroll County Times looks determined not to let it happen.
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Well this stinks. Someone walked into the Quick Stop (formerly Highs) in Sykesville this morning, yelled at the clerk, and then started hitting him with a baseball bat.
All for some lottery tickets.
The police found the poor clerk suffering from multiple blows to the body and head, and the Sykesville Freedom District Fire Department rushed him by ambulance to the Carroll Hospital Center with non-life threatening injuries.
The clerk, who’s only 21, was in the store by himself when the guy broke in with his bat. Someone else, described by the police only as “an alert citizen,” actually tackled the bat man, but wasn’t able to hold onto him.
State police issued a warrant for Darrell L. Webb Jr., 21, of the 1800 block of Amanda Lane in Sykesville for armed robbery, first degree assault, and theft. (The Carroll County Times has an article with a photo of Webb.)
Police say he escaped in a dark blue 2006 Chrysler Sebring with Maryland tags 8AK5106 and “an undetermined amount of Maryland Lottery scratch off tickets.”
Amazingly, Webb threatened the same clerk with the same bat a couple days ago, but failed to steal anything.
If you’ve got any information, please contact state police at 410-386-3000.
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So what are you going to do this year? Sykesville Online won a Mobbie last year. Big deal, this year we want a Pulitzer.
How about you? Remember, life is a journey. So click the little button that makes this full screen and think about the coming year.
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Yeah, yeah, black Friday, blah, blah, but here in Sykesville, Maryland it was warm, beautiful and blue. Tell me you didn’t go shopping.
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I interviewed Brian Rayford of Sykesville today, and we’ll be having a story about him soon on our main site. If you don’t know Brian, he’s the man, well the whole team, behind M5Signs. But this isn’t about Brian, this about Winter. It’s coming, And Brian has some beautiful reminders.
This is leaving Sykesville.
This is entering town.
And this is the sad and lonely Pattersons, the fence that surrounds them almost covered by the great snowmageddon.
When it snows, some people shovel, some people stay inside, Brian takes pictures. (Okay, he snowboards, too, but that’s another story.)
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Well, we won. We don’t know what it is. We didn’t know we were in the running. We didn’t promote ourselves in any way, but we won. A Mobbie that is. Best blog in Carroll County I believe.
I’m not sure how excited to be. I heard our prize is 50,000. At first I thought that might be money, but alas, it’s ad impressions on the Baltimore Sun’s website. I think. We’re still trying to figure it out so that we know whether we should be really excited.
Oh wow, there’s a party, too. Maybe I should rent a tux.
“Jack, how did you guys do it?”
“Well, Jack, we’re the only blog in Carroll County.”
“Brilliant, Jack. You think you can do it again next year?”
“Probably, unless someone else starts a blog.”
Actually, there was another blog. Macaroni Kid in Westminster. Now that is a nice blog. Pink and pretty and extremely well done. So we can take some pride in the fact that we inadvertently beat a worthy competitor and wish them better luck next year.
Now that we’re Mobbie winners, we’re going to have to up our game.
P.S. It turns out we missed the party. It was on the fifteenth. They didn’t tell us. Carroll County gets no respect.
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It doesn’t take much reading between the lines of this letter in the Carroll County Times to realize that Ross Dangel is not happy. And without Ross Dangel, no one would be talking about a Freedom Trail. And it’s possible no one will be talking about a Freedom Trail a year from now, either, because there won’t be one. Or will there?
First, the letter. Dangel writes:
How would you feel if you had put over a thousand hours into a charitable community enterprise only to have the government call you uninformed concerning process and blame you for a problem they created?
Welcome to the events that transpired at last Thursday night’s Freedom community trails meeting, hosted by County Commissioner Doug Howard.
About 80 people turned out to hear about plans for a new Freedom Trail, but in a political effort to save face and look concerned about trails, the county decided to let me take the fall for their plan to use Eldersburg Estates for a community trail head. They even pretended that they had never approved of such a plan, and neglected to inform residents that I had proposed something completely different on the only occasions I ever produced alignments.
This is probably not the end of the discussion, or of the hard feelings, particularly between District 5 Commissioner Doug Howard and District 5 super-citizen Ross Dangel. But more importantly, is it the beginning of the end of the trail?
Dangel doesn’t think so. When I contacted him about his letter and what it meant, he pointed out that the trail is already almost there, then reiterated the position he takes in his letter to the CC Times:
The trail is still 90% there and the concept isn’t going anywhere, it’s just not connected. In an effort to look like he (Howard) is listening to residents wanting trails, he’s pissed off the only person that’s been doing anything about building them. The BoCC has done nothing on trails for almost 10 months, not to mention the last 30 years, and now they say they have a plan, but they really don’t and they would like to co-opt mine, but tell me I’m an idiot in the process.
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Well, if you’ve been following the story of the dog that attacked some other dogs over at Warfield, here’s an update. First, I’ll mention that the dog in question is not the dog that attacked our dog, Barkley, as I suspected and wrote in a previous post.
Second, Christine Johnson, who originally reported the attacks, posted this on our Facebook page.
FYI the owner contacted me tonight (exactly one week after the attack). She willingly gave me her address (on Jennifer Road) and understands that I will be reporting her to Animal Control. She said she will reimburse my dog’s medical expenses, although it will likely be installments (no matter).
Of course this doesn’t mean that the dog is “off the streets” since Animal Control may merely issue her a warning. Reports can be filed during normal business hours (M-F) so i will call on Monday 10/31.
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