Storm pummels Cecil County!

Heavy rain and wind slammed Cecil County on Thursday, leaving behind downed trees and wires and a lot of water.

Flood watches remained in effect overnight, although tornado watches posted Thursday had been canceled by the evening, according to the National Weather Service at Mount Holly, N.J.

Cecil County Public Schools closed early Thursday in anticipation of poor travel conditions. Middle and high school students were dismissed at noon, with elementary schoolers following at 1 p.m.

According to the State Highway Administration Delaware Ave. in Elkton was the only state road closed. However, in Port Deposit, several town streets were closed to traffic because of high water.

Nearly 3,000 Delmarva Power customers in the Rising Sun area lost power at 5:40 p.m. Scattered smaller outages were widespread.

Brown water rushed across Delaware Avenue in Elkton on Thursday, the result of at least 5 inches of rainfall earlier in the day.

With more rain expected overnight, Terry Wright, district engineer for the State Highway Administration, said the work done on the road weeks ago was keeping the flooding from getting worse.

“We’re going to knock the debris away from the bridge,” Wright said. Clearing that would make the Big Elk Creek flow more within its banks, he said.

The state spent $700,000 to raise the road a seven inches and improve drainage. Delaware Avenue has flooded hundreds of times when the creek rose over its banks. As he watched the water rush by, Wright said that road project had done its job.

“It won’t handle major, major flooding,” Wright said. “It was for nuisance flooding.”

He said it appeared that the water level on the road was lower than in other comparable storms due in part to the work completed in early September.

“I think the cleanup will be a lot easier. There’s not going to be as much silt,” he said.

Kerry Anne Abrams, mayor of Port Deposit, looked out her front door on High Street and studied the Susquehanna River.

“You can see the water pushing up river instead of going down,” she said. “Right now what’s hurting us is the surge from the bay.”

A lifetime resident of the town, Abrams takes high water events in stride.

“I’m sure the houses that get water in their basements have water in the basement. Water is lapping over the jetty. It’s not going to take much more for it to go over,” she said, adding that Marina Park was already disappearing. “There’s not much you can do.

“There’s no place for (the water) to go. The drains couldn’t handle it.”

Thursday’s events surrounding Rising Sun’s 150th Anniversary were canceled. Sharon Gregory, spokeswoman for the planning committee, said tonight’s fireworks and concert by Leon Smith and the Sticky Situation Band at Community of Rising Sun Fire Company are expected to continue as planned.

Richard Brooks, the county’s director of emergency operations, said storm surge is also creating flooding problems in Charlestown and Carpenter’s Point.

“One of the campgrounds in Charlestown is under water. They are moving campers and cars to higher ground,” he said.

Brooks opened the emergency operations center, expecting a second wave of flooding overnight.

“There will be another surge (of rain) around 8 p.m. with an additional couple of inches,” he said. When high tide returns around 3:30 a.m. there should be more high water.

The storm followed a long narrow path that carried it just west of Cecil County, Brooks said.

Janney, Sutton set for rematch in sheriff’s race

 

Democrat winner Chris Sutton in front of the tally board.

 

Incumbent Sheriff Barry A. Janney Sr. will square off against Chris Sutton in November’s election after each won his respective primary on Tuesday.

It will mark the second time that Sutton, a corporal in the sheriff’s office, will challenge his boss on a general election ballot. Sutton lost to Janney in 2006.

In Tuesday’s primary, Janney received 3,322 votes on the Republican ballot to defeat challengers Al Michael (932 votes) and Dan Slater (2,011 votes), who, like Sutton, also is a deputy.

“I’m very, very excited,” Janney said on Tuesday night, before adding, “I’m also a little upset over the low voter turnout. I hope more people turn out for the general election.”

Sutton, meanwhile, garnered 3,128 votes on the Democratic ballot to better fellow deputy, Skip DeWitt (1,855 votes) and William Gerczak (594 votes).

“Obviously, this is an honor. This is the first time I actually won the race because last time (2006 primary) I ran unopposed,” Sutton said. “This is a great feeling, and now I’m looking forward to running a good, clean campaign for the general election.”

Sutton also complimented all candidates who fell short.

“My hat goes off to all of them because I know how hard it is to campaign. They should hold their heads up,” Sutton said.

Janney, first elected in 2002, is seeking his third four-year term.

According to Janney, he has been successful in raising salaries of deputies, helping the office move to its new headquarters on Chesapeake Boulevard and overseeing the department as it started investigating traffic accidents on county roads to lessen the burden on Maryland State Police.

Meanwhile, in his campaign, Sutton maintained that crime has been increasing in the county and the sheriff’s office needs to step up anti-drug enforcement, opining that drugs are the root of most of the county’s crime.

He has advocated for a street-level crime unit and crime scene technician to collect evidence at serious crime scenes.

Michael, who served 25 years with the state police and 24 years with the Delaware Air National Guard, was forced to resign as Rising Sun’s police chief in 2008 after three years on the job.

Michael planned to crack down on illegal drugs and establish substations in the western and southern parts of the county.

Slater, a patrol deputy in the sheriff’s office, said he would focus on implementing stronger drug enforcement in the county and also update the office’s equipment.

During his campaign, DeWitt, who joined the sheriff’s office in 1991, said he would spend one day per week at the Cecil County Detention Center. He would also put desk sergeants on the road and assign clerical staff to handle their desk duties.

Gerczak, who spent 27 years as a Baltimore City police officer, said the county is starting to face the same sort of problems as the city.

During his campaign, Gerczak said he would use intelligence to locate problem areas and then use “rapid deployment” of deputies to clean up the areas.

Primary election Tuesday

Cecil and Harford Counties to vote in key race Tuesday

Primary election day is Tuesday in Harford and Cecil counties, where there are enough interesting local contests to draw the attention of voters who might normally be tempted to stay home and wait for November.

In Western Cecil, including Perryville and Port Deposit, the primaries for the area’s county commissioner and House of Delegate seats have nearly full draws, even though veteran incumbents are seeking re-election in both.

In Southeastern Harford, two incumbent delegates have challengers in both parties, while Havre de Grace’s David Craig is expected to cement his hold on another term as county executive.

Races for the Republican Central Committees in both counties feature efforts by members of the Tea Party movement to capture control of local party leadership.

There’s a hotly fought race in Harford for the Republican nomination for sheriff, while Cecil Sheriff Barry Janney Sr. has a primary battle before he can try to secure another term in November.

Cecil County has 59,337 registered voters for the primary — 26,770 registered Democratic and 24,832 registered Republican. There are also 13,907 registered as something other than the two major parties. The county has 19 polling sites.

In Harford County, Tuesday marks the first county election in history in which the number of registered Republican voters is higher than registered Democrats.

There are 148,368 people registered in Harford County — 62,470 Republicans and 62,154 Democrats, a difference of 316. Another 22,231 Harford voters are unaffiliated, and 1,513 either belong to one of Maryland’s three recognized third parties — Constitutional, Liberty and Green — or are registered as “other.”

There are 73 voting locations for the primary in Harford, including seven new ones: Joppatowne Elementary, Edgewood Recreation and Community Center, Highlands School, Ring Factory Elementary, Meadowvale Elementary, Havre de Grace Middle and Roye-Williams Elementary.

Polls in both counties are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Early voting was available for the first time in this election. Polling places in Elkton and Bel Air were open last Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

State Board of Elections figures showed just over 1,000 people had voted early in Cecil through Wednesday evening.

Harford elections figures said they had more than 3,200 early voters as of noon Thursday, with eight hours still to go before early voting for the primary ended.

Harford races

In the Harford County executive race, which is historic in not offering up any Democratic candidates for the first time, incumbent David Craig has two challengers in Tuesday’s Republican primary: former council president Rob Wagner and Fred Silva.

Craig’s campaign has raised nearly $600,000 — tens of thousands of dollars more than his two challengers put together.

Wagner has garnered some support from the local Tea Party movement, while Silva, who has had no previous political success, is not considered a serious player.

It’s expected the winner between Craig and Wagner on Tuesday will be the next county executive come November.

Though Constitution Party candidate Mark Fisher will be on the Nov. 2 general election ballot for county executive, he’s given a scant chance of winning.

There are no primary contests for the two county council seats representing the Aberdeen and Havre de Grace areas.

District E Aberdeen area Councilman Dick Slutzky, a Republican, does not have any opponent in his bid for a third time.

In Havre de Grace area District F, neither incumbent Democrat Mary Ann Lisanti nor Republican challenger Sheryl Davis-Kohl has primary opposition. They’ll meet in the general election.

Cecil races

Four candidates are running in the staggered-term race for the District 4 seat on the board of county commissioners.

There are seven voting locations for residents in District 4, which are available online at www.ccgov.org.

Incumbent Wayne Tome Sr., a Democrat from Port Deposit, is seeking a second term. He is opposed in the Democratic primary by retired Cecil Schools superintendent Carl Roberts of Perryville.

In the Republican primary, Diana Broomall, of Perryville, is running against Mike Dawson from Rising Sun for the nomination.

In the Democratic primary for sheriff, Robert Skip Dewitt, of Chesapeake City, is up against William Gerczak, of Rising Sun, and Chris Sutton, of Elkton.

The incumbent sheriff, Janney, is opposed in the Republican primary by Al Michael and Dan Slater.

Legislative races

There is a race for the Democratic nomination for State Senate in District 34, which covers Western Cecil County and the Route 40 corridor of Harford County including Havre de Grace and Aberdeen. Former senator Art Helton is pitted against Rovall Washington.

Awaiting the Democratic nominee is three-term Sen. Nancy Jacobs, who has no opponent in the GOP primary and is very popular in the Cecil portion of the district.

In the race for two House of Delegates seats in District 34A in Harford, incumbent Democrats Mary-Dulany James and Dan Riley have a single challenger from their party, Marla Posey-Moss.

The four-way GOP 34A primary involves Patrick McGrady, Randolph Craig, John Paff Jr. and Glen Glass.

In District 34B on the Cecil side of the Susquehanna, incumbent Democrat David Rudolph is seeking a fifth term. He’s opposed in the primary by Joe Janusz.

Republican Theodore Patterson doesn’t have primary opposition.

Michael Dawson, a member of the Constitution Party, will compete in the general election against Patterson and the winner of the Rudolph-Janusz race.

Cecil hasn’t forgotten Sept. 11 attacks

Several events are planned in Cecil County on Saturday to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Upper Chesapeake Community Band will honor Cecil County’s emergency responders with a 6 p.m. concert, “Remembering 9/11,” at Hart’s Church Amphitheater in Elk Neck.

The concert will include patriotic songs and well-known classical arrangements from John Philip Sousa to Rodgers and Hammerstein. It also will feature a special tribute to all county emergency responders, including firefighters, police agencies and emergency medical organizations and others.

A proclamation from the county commissioners will be read, said Hank Passi, one of the concert’s organizers.

This year’s event will be the fourth time the amphitheater has hosted a concert in remembrance of the attacks.

“It’s important that we don’t forget the sacrifices made that day,” Passi said. “This is the unofficial 9/11 remembrance concert of Cecil County.”

The 638-seat amphitheater, adjacent to Hart’s United Methodist Church, was barely a month old when the attacks occurred.

Ten days after the attacks, the Upper Chesapeake Community Band preformed a special “Healing of America” concert that drew more than 300 people.

The 16-year-old Upper Chesapeake Community Band is a volunteer community concert and marching band that plays a variety of music, including marches, show tunes, novelty pieces, patriotic numbers and classical favorites.

Members of the community band range from teenagers to senior citizens, all of whom are volunteers.

Admission to the Sept. 11 concert is free, but contributions will be accepted.

The Community Fire Company of Perryville also will hold a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday in the company firehouse. Participants and apparatus from all county fire companies have been invited to attend the event.

The ceremony will include a guest speaker, bagpipes, a band, and a color guard memorial. Light refreshments will be provided after the ceremony.

The North East United Methodist Church also will be hosting a special 9/11 memorial service starting at 7 p.m. That service is slated feature a survivor of the attacks as a special guest speaker, according to organizers.

Firefighters bow their heads during a Sept. 11, 2008ceremony at Perryville Fire Hall.

N.J. seeks suspension of doctor’s license in Elkton abortion

Dr. Steven Chase Brigham

Authorities in New Jersey are seeking to suspend or revoke the medical license of a doctor accused of ferrying patients to Maryland to complete late-term abortions.

Dr. Steven Brigham has already been cited for practicing medicine without a license in Maryland. On Wednesday, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office filed a complaint accusing him of illegally performing late-term abortions.

Brigham was not authorized to abort fetuses older than 14 weeks in New Jersey. Maryland law does not specifically restrict second-trimester abortions.

New Jersey authorities accuse Brigham of initiating abortions for three patients in Voorhees, N.J., then leading them in a caravan toElkton, where the procedures were concluded. Documents show another physician botched the abortion of one of those patients, forcing her to undergo emergency surgery.

Three weeks ago, physician Steven Brigham led a car caravan of patients from his Voorhees abortion clinic to his facility in Elkton, Md. After one of the patients was critically injured during her surgery there, Brigham put the semiconscious, bleeding woman into the back of a rented Chevrolet Malibu and drove her to a nearby hospital emergency room rather than call an ambulance.

Those details are contained in documents issued over the last 10 days by the Maryland Board of Physicians and Elkton police. The two agencies have launched a wide-ranging investigation into Brigham’s long-troubled abortion business, which he conducts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

On Aug. 25, the Maryland Board of Physicians ordered Brigham, 54, to stop performing abortions in that state, where he has never been licensed to practice medicine. By then police had raided Brigham’s Elkton facility – from which they said they removed 35 “late-term fetuses and fetal parts” – as well as the Voorhees headquarters of his chain of 15 clinics, which does business as American Women’s Services.

Maryland authorities seek missing medical records, and are looking into Brigham’s habit of sending late-term patients across state lines after initiating their abortions in Voorhees.

Brigham’s four New Jersey clinics cannot provide abortions after the first trimester (14 weeks of pregnancy) because they do not meet state safety requirements for such risky outpatient surgeries. Brigham has for years performed the first phase of such abortions there – the insertion of absorbent rods that dilate the patient’s cervix over a day or more – and sent them to a facility in another state for the surgery. New Jersey law doesn’t address whether inserting dilators constitutes abortion.

Brigham did not return a phone message left Thursday at his Voorhees condominium.

Maryland’s action is just the latest problem for the doctor, whose medical license has been revoked, relinquished, or temporarily suspended in five states over the last 18 years.

In July, the Pennsylvania Department of Health revoked Brigham’s permission to own clinics in the state because he had repeatedly employed unlicensed caregivers; he is appealing that decision. Brigham himself cannot perform medical procedures in Pennsylvania because of a confidential 1992 agreement in which he agreed to give up his license.

Brigham also had $234,536 in federal tax liens against him in April for failing to pay payroll taxes from 2002 to 2006.

Maryland regulators are investigating not only Brigham, but also two physicians he employed, the documents show.

On Tuesday, the board suspended the Maryland license of George Shepard Jr., a Delaware obstetrician-gynecologist hired in 2009 as a part-time medical director of Brigham’s four Maryland clinics. The board has charged Shepard with unprofessional conduct and with helping Brigham flout credentialing requirements.

Shepard’s lawyer, Jason Allison of Elkton, said, “We are reviewing the allegations and . . . are confident that Dr. Shepard’s license will be reinstated.”

On Tuesday, the Maryland board also suspended the license it granted less than two months ago to Nicola I. Riley, a family physician who in late July began flying “from her home in Utah every other week to Maryland to perform abortions.” Riley did not return a call left with her mother in Utah.

It was Riley who mishandled the abortion on Aug. 13, according to the medical board documents. They provide this account:

On Aug. 12, an 18-year-old woman, 21 weeks pregnant, signed abortion consent forms at Brigham’s Voorhees facility, at 1 Alpha Ave. Brigham then inserted the absorbent rods that widen the cervix.

On Aug. 13, the patient returned to the Voorhees clinic, with “the understanding that she would be provided transportation to Philadelphia” for the surgical phase of the abortion.

Instead, “Dr. Brigham . . . instructed [her] and the other women who were scheduled to complete abortions to form a line of cars and follow the lead car to a location where the abortion would be performed.”

In Elkton, Riley gave the patient anesthesia under Brigham’s direction and began the surgery, but cut through the patient’s uterus into the bowel and vagina.

Riley informed the patient’s mother and boyfriend of the complications, but refused to call for an ambulance. Riley “originally contemplated taking [the patient] by wheelchair to the hospital, which was about two blocks away.”

Brigham drove Riley and the patient to the hospital, where the two abortion doctors dodged questions “about who they were, what had happened, and from where they had come.”

The patient’s injuries were so complex that she had to be flown by helicopter to Johns Hopkins Hospital while Riley “returned to the Elkton office . . . to perform another abortion.”

A few days later, the patient complained to the Elkton police; they raided the clinic on Aug. 17, looking for the patient’s medical record. Although that couldn’t be found, police discovered frozen aborted fetuses and medical-waste records showing fetal ages up to 36 weeks. (A pregnancy is considered full-term at 38 weeks.)

On Aug. 20, Elkton police searched Brigham’s Voorhees office for medical records that would explain the fetuses.

The officers “found only two medical records related to the fetuses,” board documents say.

Staff from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office were on hand for the search, spokesman Paul Loriquet said. He added that he believed New Jersey’s Board of Medicine, which oversees physicians, would take action soon.

The Maryland board moved against Brigham, Shepard, and Riley after a Johns Hopkins physician filed a complaint. The physician expressed concerns that patients were being put at risk by “being transported across state lines to complete medical care,” board documents say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ2EvILbUQk – WJZ reports

The Examiner spotlights Cecil County Sheriff candidate Al Michael

~ By Chuck DeSocio

Cecil County Sheriff candidate Al Michael

The Examiner recently had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Alan Michael who is a candidate for Cecil County Sherriff. This race has a packed field with 5 candidates currently on the ballot. The current sheriff is Barry Janney and he is the incumbent in this race.

Mr. Michael was very informed of the issues and of criminal justice in general and it was a pleasure to speak with him. Mr. Michael has been a Cecil County resident for 33 years. He has been married to his wife for twenty eight years and has three children.

There is no doubt that his qualifications and experience qualify him to be Sheriff. Mr. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Wilmington University in Criminal Justice. He served his country in the United States Air Force from 1971-1974. In 1977 he joined the Maryland State Police where he served as a First Sergeant/Detective Sergeant before retiring with 25 1/2 years of active service years in 2002. During this time he also served in the Delaware Air National Guard from 1978-2002, retiring as a Chief Master Sergeant. He has also been on the adjunct staff at Cecil College since 1980 as an instructor  for all law enforcement related courses.

Mr. Michael then moved on to serve as an investigator in the States Attoney’s Office before becoming the Chief of Police for the town of Rising Sun where he served until 2008. He currently works as a Detective Lieutenant for the Department of Public Safety and CorrectionalServices in the Internal Investigation Unit.

“I am entering this race because I know that I am highly qualified to be your Sheriff in Cecil County” says Michael. “As your Sheriff I would be keenly aware of and be involved in all the inner workings of the Sheriff’s Department.” My qualifications and [the] experience that I would bring to the office of Sheriff would benefit Cecil County. I intend to lead the Department into the future and raise the quality of law enforcement in Cecil County.” he continued.

When asked about the increasing trend of violent crime in the county he stressed the need for more manpower. “In comparison to other counties in the state we are behind in the number of officers we utilize. Harford County for example, has 300 sworn deputies and 150 correctional officers and, although they have a higher population, we are far behind them” he said. “This is mainly due to budgetary shortfalls. Police work is like a business in that there has to be a proper budget in place to fund it which is why I would be a strong advocate in lobbying county officials for a budget increase” he said.

When asked for his thoughts on the contributing factors to the high increase of violent crime in Cecil county (a nearly 12% uptick), he attributed it to two factors: drugs and the poor economy. “Drugs are prevalent all over the county. Most of the crimes in the county whether it be theft, burglary or violence are drug related” he said. “Education and training are also crucial factors in combating the drug problem” says Michael. We need to not only have more deputies out on patrols but we need to have better trained deputies so they are more knowledgeable in the latest techniques.”

Communication is also an important factor in fighting local crime according to Mr. Michael. “Overall cooperation between state, county and local jurisdictions is just not where it should be and information is not flowing between agencies as it should” he says “I have personal friends in all of the local law enforcement agencies and it would be a priority of mine to use these relationships to build a strong county wide network of agencies to assist the drug task force in getting narcotics off county streets” he said.

When asked about gang violence he points out that gang activity is not to the point where it is out of control in Cecil County yet but he advocates for a strong proactive approach. “We need to get ahead of this because we could find ourselves in a situation similar to Harford County where certain areas like Edgewood are becoming focal points for gang activity” he said. “If we don’t get on top of the drug problem in this county we will find ourselves in a very similar situation where gangs will begin to move in more and more and set up shop. This is why we need more manpower now before it’s too late”

While The Examiner will not endorse any candidate we strongly encourage readers to take a closer look at this candidate. Mr. Alan Michael is well informed with fresh ideas and has extensive experience in law enforcement making him fully qualified to lead the counties’ law enforcement efforts.

We have reached out to all the candidates in the race for Sheriff and will report further as they make themselves available. The Cecil County Examiner aims to provide fair and balanced coverage of this election to residents and we thank Mr. Alan Michael for making himself available for our questions.