From Harford County Councilman Mike Perrone Jr.:
ANNOUNCING
The Edgewood Community Development Corporation
On Monday, September 21, at 7 pm. at the HCSO Southern Precinct, an organizational meeting will be held for the newly formed Edgewood Development Corporation. This was an initiative several concerned citizens and I started talking about in May.
There are positive and negative aspects to the fact that Edgewood and Joppatowne are not incorporated municipalities. The key negative I think is that no portion of the property tax revenue our communities generate is guaranteed to stay in our communities. We also don’t have the benefit of having City or Town Councils to develop working relationships with County Government, and – even though the origins of our communities date back to the early 1700s – the vast majority of District A was developed during the 1960’s and later. So we lack much of the generational family history which exists in other areas of the County.
I believe all of these reasons contribute to why our communities struggle to control our own destinies; because we lack the political clout that many other communities in Harford County have. The vexing question continues to be what we can do to overcome this problem.
Edgewood in particular has one characteristic that could be of benefit to it – the vast majority of the community is designated by the State as a “Sustainable Community”. With this designation comes the opportunity to apply for various State grants. Many of these grants, however, must be applied for by either a local government or by a Community Development Corporation. (It is worth noting every one of these grants are project-based, so the money won’t come in the absence of a specific project).
Harford County could apply for these grants, but the whole point of this undertaking is to maximize Edgewood’s ability to control its own destiny. So we came up the idea of creating this Community Development Corporation and structuring it so that its members and officers must either live, work, worship, or perform regular community service in Edgewood.
Because the officers of the Corporation would be elected by its members, I think this is the closest we can reasonably come to a governing body in Edgewood.
Nominations will be taken and elections will be held for the initial slate of officers at the September 21 meeting. The more people show up, and the more people are willing to serve as officers, the more representative of the community this Corporation will be!
I hope to see everyone on September 21.
Homeless Shelter Update
As many people are aware, an unofficial Community Input Meeting was held on Monday, August 24 (in advance of the rescheduled date) to discuss the possibility of constructing a homeless shelter on the site of the old Chase Manor Motel. Following the meeting, the developer decided to pull the plan.
One point which was brought up by more than one concerned citizen at the meeting was the feeling like this plan was already a “done deal”, and that the wishes of the community were being ignored. But in the end, the plan was pulled.
I will continue to stand behind the faith-based communities in Harford County and the Hope for the Homeless Alliance in their efforts to provide help to those in need, and hope a suitable site may be found in the future.
Community Advisory Board Meeting Schedule
Abingdon/Bel Air South/Emmorton Community Advisory Board
Meets the first Thursday of the month at the Abingdon Library at 6:30 pm. 2510 South Tollgate Road, Abingdon, MD.
Next Meeting Date: September 3, 2015
Edgewood Community Advisory Board
Meets the second Thursday of the month at the Southern Precinct of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office at 7:00 pm.
Next Meeting Date: September 10, 2015
Joppa/Joppatowne Community Advisory Board
Normally meets the first Monday of the Month at the Southern Precinct of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office at 7:00 pm. Since the first Monday in September is Labor Day, the Advisory Board will meet on the second Monday.
Next Meeting Date: September 14, 2015
Councilman Mike Perrone Jr.
Contact Information
Office Phone: 410-638-3521
Cell Phone: 443-752-2598
Email: DistrictA@HarfordCountyCouncil.com
Come talk to me the Second Sunday of each month (except during July and August) at the Joppatowne Flea Market from 2 pm to 4 pm.
Legislative Aide: Donna Blasdell
Office Phone: 410-638-4109 x1813
Please post a map defining the boundaries of the Edgewood CDC.
You claim that by Edgewood not being an incorporated town, that it lacks political clout. How does that explain why Fallston and other unincorporated sections of Harford County do not have all the social programs/problems that Edgewood has? Do they not have political clout? Sorry, but your explanation explains nothing. Why don’t we just put up a statue on Route 40 that reads “SEND US YOUR S#!^”
Fallston has a richer population, as does Forest Hill, and those families do have their problems, just they maybe have enough funds to handle them with fundraisers, auctions, galas, and can reach out to other folks with money to invest and like-minded goals.
There are so many privately funded programs that do a lot of good in those areas that you don’t see the problems. The tiny homes that were military housing are sold to families in Aberdeen, and are starter homes for those who cannot afford larger. In Edgewood, they are owned by corporations and rented at prices that don’t reflect the accommodations and eviction is quick to happen. If the owners all live elsewhere, and homes and apartments managed by distant offices are the norm in Edgewood, then life will be harder for homeowners and renters.
Block busting was a scandal during the post WWII years, when unscrupulous real estate investors bought home at a discount after scaring the existing residents with rumors of poorer families of African descent and other minorities coming to town. Part of the devaluation of their homes was how seriously they took the rumors. Families lost out, because they were scared, and as their neighbors caved in and sold to these bad players, their homes lost value. Then, those same homes were marked up way beyond their rebuild value and sold at high interest rates to minority ethnic families who paid more than they should for homes they lost to the banks who then sold them to slumlords who could then charge more than they were worth to rent. Not to mention, some had ground rents that were used, when not paid, to take a home without a mortgage from the original owners. It is a financial jungle, and maybe I should panic and run, but that is not my way. Edgewood is a beautiful place, close to the water, to parks, to transport hubs, to farms and recreation. No reason not to buy and value my home here, and no reason to panic. All the more can be accomplished by discussing and meeting with players who will be funding projects, especially since I want my thoughts heard.
So are you coming to the meeting? Will you bring your ideas and plans? What can you bring to the table?
Social problems in Edgewood? lolz
I just saw a news article on a local TV station interviewing from the Harford Sheriff’s Office. It was something like 18 Heroin Deaths/+80 Overdoses, which I assume is OD of heroin and not OD of all things.
Believe me buddy, all that sh1t just isn’t in Edgewood. Half the student population in Harford County is going to be addicted to drugs if something isn’t done sooner or later.
A guy named Myrek tried to incorporate Edgewood about 15-20 years ago. There was great opposition to this because he wasn’t content with just Edgewood proper, he wanted to grab a lot of land in Joppa and Abingdon to expand his tax base. The people who were in these areas, as well as many Edgewood residents, reacted very negatively and turned up in large numbers at the council meeting to oppose him. If he had kept it as pure Edgewood, like between the railroad tracks and the bay, he might not have aroused that much opposition. So we would like to know Perrone’s proposed boundaries.
In addition, I wouldn’t trust anything proposed by Perrone after his tent city fiasco. This smells like a plot to get his homeless into Edgewood by incorporating and making his own rules. Keep an eye on this guy, he’s up to no good.
Although “tent city” sounds like something we understand, tensioned fabric architecture is not a tent city. I guess it is unfamiliar to many. There are some beautiful examples of buildings in this style, but they are not cheap, and they are very heavy, permanent structures that stand up well to hurricane force winds. I don’t think it was a good idea by the developers, and so they scrapped their plans. They had the right to propose their plan, and since they got their answer from the community, they decided against.
We already have homeless in our area. All cities, including the national capital, have homeless in greater numbers than we do. It is disturbing to see folks rolling shopping carts into the woods, but this is happening all over the world. I think you should bring your own solutions to the table at meetings, because we love to hear from you.
Yes, we already have homeless in our area but building a large structure such as was planned will be an invitation for more to come than are already here.
and Myrek was a Deputy Dog Flunky, fired for dishonesty…
same here; I heartily supported and voted for Perrone; now bot so sure of the guy. This whole thing smells the more that comes out. Is Perrone a Boehner/McConnell establish repub? If so we might as well have left Guthrie in there.
The State of Maryland already has a map, it’s the sustainable community designation he referred to, so go look it up.
According to the map on page 4 at
http://www.harfordcountymd.gov/weblink8/ElectronicFile.aspx?docid=5621267&dbid=0
they want to include the area along Philadelphia Road up to I-95. Not part of Edgewood in my book. The people there are going to rebel against having their property values dragged down by being part of Edgewood.
Most newcomers to the county already consider anything East of I95 to be Edgewood.
The bill you cite is from 2013, and was a proposal. The State still had to approve what the county proposed, so I would look for a State map to confirm. But it was probably approved and those folks are already in the pot so there’s not much to rebel against at this point.
At the end of the day, your house is sold by your zipcode.
Oh, no, is this Perrone another power-hungry type like that Myreck who tried to incorporate Edgewood — AND of course all of Joppa and Abingdon so he could suck the tax money from the only people in the area who actually pay taxes? Like Baltimore sucks taxes out of all the rest of Maryland.
We will have to organize against Perrone when he runs again. He wants to bring homeless up from Baltimore to ruin Harford County AND incorporate Edgewood and as much of the rest of the county as he can get? You all realize, don’t you, that anyone whose house is newly labeled “Edgewood” will lose HALF its market value immediately? Half the value. Gone. Sure hope none of you are underwater…….
are you kidding? realistically Edgewood Runs out to Box Hill and north to Belcamp. Notice the frantic attempts to label everything ‘Bel Air South’ to keep it all from being seen as ‘Edgewood North”? Edgewood exploded long ago and now the toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube. You can just see the greedy developers/investors salivating: “If dumping deadbeats on Edgewood is good, then moving more to Fallston/Abingdon/Belcamp is better!” Follow the money. Look at who’s getting fat as a hawg, and more importantly, who they contribute to. Remember, Obama is having the maps of ‘better’ neighborhoods divided into grids right now, with the intent of reducing de facto segregation by moving ‘clients’ in. Sound familiar? When they came for Dundalk, nobody listened. Now they’re coming to Forest Hill.
What about those of us who aren’t deadbeats and live in Edgewood? How about we focus on trying to improve the area (I love your metaphor, btw), instead of worrying about them “coming” for other areas? I say let them “come.” Bet the county won’t sit on its heels and do nothing for those parts of the county more well-to-do than Edgewood and Joppatowne are perceived to be. And then we’ll have a point proven about how they may say “they” (David Craig & his cronies) work for this community, and yet do nothing.
If I am highly suspicious by nature, I may discount out-of-hand any proposal made by someone who did something I considered objectionable or underhanded. If I tend to lump people into groups of “trustworthy or not”, and especially if I disagree with their premise, I may decide that everything proposed by them is the fruit of nefarious plots against me or define all their actions as “fruit of a poisoned tree”. This means I would have closed my mind to any new information. If I was like this, I would never listen or participate, except to oppose and to spread distrust of this person among people I know personally or shout out to the community at large to influence the group opinion.
If I insist that nothing good will come of change, that any change must come from evil intentions, and anyone associated with this will be, by definition, evil and my enemy. I would be a polarizing and negatively charged actor in public discussions and that will be noted by the community. Over time, I may isolate myself from any action because I never feel comfortable with new information and cannot process more facts that push me out of my comfort zone, which would be to stay the course I have always followed and fight like my life depended on stopping anything that seems to threaten it.
That is not how I am, and I am willing to listen and ask questions that are intelligent and relevant, and I am prepared to consider that some of my previous assumptions may have been wrong. Like the common assumption that Thomas Crapper invented the siphon flush toilet – but Joseph Adamson, Sir Thomas Harrington, Joseph Brama and others actually patented and furthered the development of the flush toilet we use today in the United States. Thomas Crapper expanded his plumbing business and improved it, and successfully promoted his “Thomas Crapper siphon flush toilet” which is where we get the term “the Crapper”. Not everything should be flushed down the toilet, as young children learn.
Phebe and Pavel, are you in Edgewood or Joppa? I see you are not happy with Councilman Perrone, and maybe want to oppose the Development Council. Thanks for the link to the map. Who did this map? Not our current council? So, it follows, that if you are against something, then what are you for? Is it happening, how will you make it happen for you? If you are determined to make something happen, then will you be running for office? Will you actually be doing something, forming a plan, proposing a better solution, or backing your proposal with information that we can all see and hear? That goes whether you want to listen to Councilman Perrone or not. Will you bring something to the meeting that we can see and hear? I remember the Harford dog and pony show from years back that was created by some contractor out of Pennsylvania, that cost over 370K of tax money, showing Edgewood as cute as some European burg, with bicycle paths to shopping, and refurbished buildings for business and apartments in a town center. This went nowhere, since they needed $3mil commitments from the community to match outside funds, if memory serves. Those plans should be still stored at the county offices. Especially since we all paid for them. This was done when Councilman Perrone was still a student.
What I would bring to the meeting would be a negative. I believe that the law-abiding, tax-paying residents of Harford County have the right to live their lives in the manner for which they moved to Harford County. The elitists view these people as irrelevant and barriers to their grand schemes; when they see a decent neighborhood, they want to establish a half-way house for recently released sex offenders or a methadone clinic. Hell with the rabble whose lives they’ll disrupt with their plans, they’re just there to shut up and pay taxes to support these things.
No, I will not be running for office. To run for office requires lying, cheating, and stealing. That’s not what I’m about.
Nice that Mr. Perrone want to start letting everyone know whats going on in the Edgewood Area after he was behind trying to sneak in a homeless settlement.
Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining.
The small minded Harford County republicans think giving a one way ticket out of town is the solution to our homeless problem, but federal rules prohibit the county from doing just that. the county must pay for overnight stays for those homeless and asking for assistance. The shelter as it stands does not provide a safe environment for families with children, disabled, elderly or those with special needs. the county spends hundreds of thousands of $$$ yearly that could well go to provide safe, sanitary and private space for families in distress 24 hours a day during winter months and provide the case management to transition folks out to other types of housing assistance. I think finding 3 separate places in each of the municipalities would be the fairest option since everyone wants it someplace else.