Welcome to District 4—The Heart of Howard County

District 4 is comprised of all of the Columbia villages west of Rt. 29, as well as parts of Clarksville, Highland and Fulton. It is a diverse district with many distinct neighborhoods as well as farms, the Middle Patuxent River Environmental Area, major employers like the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and Howard County General Hospital, 17 schools, 3 fire stations, the Southern District Police Station, Howard Community College, the Central Library, Merriweather Post Pavilion and the Mall in Columbia’s Downtown. Most importantly, it has the most wonderful people living within its boundaries.

In our ongoing effort to keep residents informed, we will be using this site to share specifics about developing issues, neighborhood events and hopefully, useful information. We are here to listen to concerns and work with communities to help resolve problems, so don’t hesitate to contact us.

In addition, we are building an information distribution list. If you’d like to receive ongoing information pertaining to the district, please send me an email which includes your name, address, phone (if you’d like to share it) and topics of interest.

I want to thank you for your interest in the process to create the future of Downtown Columbia. I greatly value your thoughts and opinions and hope you will understand how important you are to this process. I hope we will hear from citizens of all ages and backgrounds as we continue planning our future.

What is it that YOU want included? What is important to YOU? Your voice is so important to this process. What is it that you want to have in Downtown Columbia that will make it fun and a place you’ll want to go to frequently? You have an opportunity to shape the future of our community!

The Revitalization Planning Committee consists of community, government, and business representatives who meet quarterly to address community revitalization issues. The committee structure facilitates communication and collaboration among government agencies and across sectors toward the common goal of strong, healthy, vibrant neighborhoods.

The Police Department will be implementing a new traffic safety program focused on high school students. The program is the Collision Avoidance Training (C.A.T.) for teenage drivers. C.A.T. is an advance two day defensive driving and vehicle control program

The driving skills addressed in the program are: evasive maneuvers, threshold/emergency braking, forward and reverse serpentine, cornering, backing, skid recovery, and off-road recovery.

The first official class will be November 13 & 14. Students must attend both sessions, have a valid driver’s license and must use their own vehicle. Friday (13th) session is the classroom portion from 6pm -10pm. The Saturday (14th ) session is the driving portion from 8am – 4pm. The training will take place at the James N. Robey Public Safety Training Center. The cost of the program $195. To register for the class please contact Ms. Carolyn Bennett @ 410.313.3750.
For additional information contact Sgt. Mark Shiplett @ 410.313.7546 or Ms. Carolyn Bennett @ 410.313.3750.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman is alerting county residents of unnecessary drinking water testing being offered by private water treatment companies. Such companies often go door-to-door, first offering free testing and then falsely claiming that the test results indicate that the water is unsafe or otherwise needs to be treated or “purified.” The company will then attempt to sell the homeowner water purification or treatment equipment or services that are not, in fact, necessary.

On June 12, 2009, all broadcast television stations in the United States will transition from an analog broadcast to a digital broadcast, impacting any television that is not directly connected to cable or satellite television. The Howard County Bureau of Environmental Services is asking residents who have decided NOT to continue using their analog TVs to recycle those TVs instead of throwing them away.

Howard County Government suggests two options for TV recycling:

• The Alpha Ridge Landfill Resident’s Convenience Area at 2350 Marriottsville Road is open to residents Monday through Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and accepts televisions, computers, keyboards, printers, scanners, laptops, VCRs, radios, cables and more for recycling. Residents are reminded that the County does not recycle electronics through the curbside recycling program.

• Best Buy’s Customer Take-Back Program allows customers to bring in their old TVs (32 inches or smaller) at no charge. Customers are limited to two televisions per person, per day and console TVs are not accepted.

The Bain Center

5470 Ruth Keeton Way
Columbia, Maryland 21044
PHONE: 410-313-7213
Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Provides fixed route bus service in Clarksville, Columbia, Ellicott City, North Laurel, Savage and Elkridge. Service is also available to BWI Airport, selected MARC stations, and industrial parks along the US 1 corridor in Howard County. Most routes operate Monday through Saturday, and selected routes offer Sunday services.

• If you see graffiti in progress or spot graffiti on a building, wall, fence, etc…call dispatch at 911 or 410-313-2200.
• You can also remain anonymous and call 410-313-STOP, to report graffiti vandals.

Graffiti vandals have no respect for private or public property. They use materials such as aerosol paint, broad-tipped markers, paint sticks, graffiti sticks, engraving devices and etching tools or any other implement capable of marking on and /or scarring glass, medal, concrete or wood. Removal of graffiti is costly expense for both public and private sectors. Graffiti hurts everyone in the community. It is vital and necessary for citizens to take a position against graffiti and report it. It’s imperative that graffiti is removed as soon as possible.

Parents:

1. Check backpacks for markers and/or spray paint, as well as sketch books, pieces of paper with graffiti on them or aerosol can caps or nozzles, white shoe polish and photographs of graffiti pieces or murals.

2. Check school papers for graffiti, internet web sites such a MySpace, or cell phones.

3. Check for graffiti markings or tags on bedroom walls or bedroom furniture.

The Howard County Office on Aging, through Maryland Access Point (MAP), is offering Reverse Mortgage Counseling to Maryland residents age 62 and older who are considering this as an option. The counseling, a collaborative effort with the National Council on Aging (NCOA) is targeted to seniors who may be able to pay for their everyday expenses but are struggling to cover the costs of health care, home repairs and modifications, increased property taxes and other unexpected expenses.

MAP of Howard County currently has four specialists who are trained Reverse Mortgage Counselors. Seniors who receive reverse mortgage counseling through MAP of Howard County will not be charged the counseling fee of $125 unless they choose to apply for a reverse mortgage and then secure a loan. When they do, the fee will become part of the closing costs.

The fee will be waived for seniors who are facing financial challenges such as foreclosure, and for those with modest incomes (under $20,000 for single homeowners, and under $30,000 for couples). To schedule a counseling session or learn more about the costs and features of a reverse mortgage, call MAP of Howard County’s toll free number: 1-800-506-5806.

MAP Specialists provide counseling by telephone to clients throughout the State of Maryland based on each individual’s needs and circumstances. They can also review with seniors the benefits and challenges of living at home and help homeowners find other benefit programs they may qualify for through the National Council on Aging’s BenefitsCheckUp.

Effective Memorial Day 2009, Howard County will implement a new “slide” schedule for trash, recycling and yard waste collection on the six major holidays: Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The “slide” schedule means that when one of the above major holidays falls on a weekday (Monday-Friday), ALL trash, recycling and yardwaste collection scheduled on or after the holiday that week will “slide” one day. In the past, people could put trash out on the day following a holiday but had to hold on to recycling and yardwaste until the following week.

For example, under this new system, if your regular collection day falls on Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day), trash, recycling and yard waste will be collected on Tuesday, May 26. Those scheduled for Tuesday will “slide” to Wednesday and so on through the week through Saturday.