ELLICOTT CITY, MD – Howard County Executive Calvin Ball last night announced that the State of Howard County is strong, and that through impactful investments for innovative community progress, Howard County is on the road towards a “bolder, brighter future.” During his annual State of the County address, Ball provided updates on meeting the requirements of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future and HoCo Climate Forward 2024. He also announced significant plans for keeping the community safe and healthy, expanding amenities in East Columbia, Elkridge and North Laurel, and taking major steps to strengthen the County’s infrastructure and economy.
Full text of his speech can be found here.
“Howard County is a national model as one of the best places to live, work, play, grow, and thrive because of our impactful investments that produce innovative community progress,” said Ball. “We innovate. We lead. Every effort, investment, and achievement we celebrate is not just a goal for tomorrow. It’s our reality that we create today. The work we do is for your families, your neighbors, and the generations of Howard Countians to come. The bridges we build connect us, and the partnerships we forge strengthen us.”
Ready and Successful Students: To build on our community progress and meet the requirements of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, Ball established the Blueprint Resources Planning Workgroup last year. One area of opportunity the Workgroup recommended to fully reach community progress, is the need for accessible and affordable childcare. Building upon the Faulkner Ridge renovation project and the reopening of Howard Community College’s (HCC) Children’s Learning Center, Ball announced three new investments to create even more community progress on childcare. First, Ball shared the County will soon be breaking ground on a new childcare facility on US 1 that will serve the Elkridge, Jessup and North Laurel areas. In partnership with the Community Action Council, the County’s $2 million investment will result in a 5,000 square foot facility with the capacity to care for nearly 80 children.
Ball has also directed $300,000 in funding to expand the County’s Office of Children and Families pilot program. This additional funding will enable more family-based childcare providers to enter the market and provide critical care to families. Additionally, Ball shared that in November, the Howard County Economic Development Authority (EDA) will begin accepting applications for its new $1.1 million grant program designed to help childcare businesses with capital needs and expansion.
In his speech, Ball highlighted work to improve educator recruitment and retention in Howard County public schools. This past summer, nearly 150 Howard County educators were awarded nearly $1,600 each through a first-of-its-kind student loan repayment assistance program in Maryland to help pay down their student loan debt faster.
Impactful Investments to Tackle Mental Health Challenges: Too many young people struggle with mental health challenges and that is why Ball’s administration remains committed to creating more impactful investments to help county youth thrive. Such investments include Howard County’s Strategies to Reach an Inclusive Vision and Equitable Solutions program (HoCo STRIVES), which has provided more than 500 young people with behavioral health services since Fiscal Year 2020.
To build on the success of his Youth Engagement Programming (YEP!) initiative, Ball also announced a $500,000 investment to build on the program’s success, which empowers community organizations to develop after-school programs for young people.
Safe and Engaged Communities: While Howard County is known as home to one of the safest cities in America, it does not mean the county is immune to crime. Last night, Ball announced an increase in the reward to $30,000 for information leading to the arrest of The Mall in Columbia July 27th shooting suspect.
Additionally, as Howard County continues to grow, so does the need for expanding our public safety facilities. In response, Ball also announced that with the recent approval from the Maryland State Department of Education on the transfer of land, the County will soon have a brand-new North Columbia Fire Station. Located adjacent to the Applied Research Lab and Homewood campus, this new station will bolster response times countywide and be the County’s first station to feature classrooms where aspiring students can learn more about a career in firefighting or EMS care.
Finally, as next week marks the one-year anniversary since the conflict in Gaza and Israel began, following the vicious attack on innocent civilians by Hamas, Ball shared he has allocated an additional $250,000 in funding to help nonprofit organizations deter potential acts of violence and hate crimes and remain safe during these difficult times.
Thriving and Healthy Residents: As Ball’s administration remains committed to eliminating health disparities across our county, he announced the launch of the Community Health Workers program. With targeted outreach in Columbia, Elkridge, Jessup, Laurel, and Savage, this program focuses on prevention and other interventions that will help residents proactively, while also reducing emergency room visits and wait times.
Additionally, building on his administration’s impactful investments in critical health resources, Ball shared that the County’s Department of Corrections is opening a new Mental Health Unit within the Howard County Detention Center. As behavioral healthcare management can lower rates of recidivism, this new unit will create a sound pathway for reentry into our community upon release. He also shared that Corrections has established a partnership with HCC to teach classes – a GED program, Life Skills Education Employment Program and English as a Second Language – available to those who are incarcerated.
Howard County has only one hospital, which is experiencing increasing r patient volumes in its emergency room. To help make community progress, Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center’s new 7,000 square foot Behavioral Health Unit with 24 beds is set to open this fall. Additionally, Hopkins will match the County’s $15 million in funding to expand observation beds in its emergency room.
North Laurel, East Columbia and Elkridge: The success of our impactful investments made towards improving our parks, libraries and widely utilized community spaces, is largely due to the input from our residents. This past summer, the County broke ground on the long-awaited North Laurel pool, which is slated to open next fall.
Additionally, home to the East Columbia Park, East Columbia 50+ Center, and Howard County Library System East Columbia branch, the new East Columbia Campus will feature a reimagined park, that includes facilities advocated for by its community members.
Finally, the Elkridge community has long advocated for a community center, a high school, indoor track and more amenities for its community. Having committed $15 million for the site acquisition for High School 14 in Elkridge, Ball shared that the County is actively exploring land acquisition and plans. Additionally, to bring the County’s vision for an Elkridge Civic District to life, the County is purchasing more than 25 acres of land for a new Elkridge Community Center. Phase one of this project will construct a center approximately 65,000 square feet in size that will feature an athletic center, meeting space, gymnasium, early childcare learning rooms, activity rooms and space for a future pool addition.
Once complete, the new Elkridge Community Center will also house the new Elkridge 50+ Center. This 12,000 square foot, state of the art space will help meet the needs for this community’s 50+ residents. The relocation of the Elkridge 50+ Center will help free up 9,000 square feet of space at the Howard County Library System’s Elkridge branch, allowing the branch to expand its footprint.
Expanding Accessing Housing Opportunities: Thriving communities are also bolstered by diverse and accessible housing options. Building on the County’s Opportunities for Wealth-Building Now (OWN!) initiative, which helps county residents gain access to affordable homeownership, Ball announced the allocation of $1 million to establish a foreclosure prevention program which will launch this month.
Ball also shared significant progress on the county’s Housing Opportunities Meant for Everyone (HOME) initiative, a comprehensive approach to promote housing affordability and stability in the County. Through HOME investments of more than $2 million, the County has partnered with Bridges to Housing Stability to provide housing resources to more than 100 HCPSS students and family members experiencing homelessness. Through work with Columbia Housing Center, the County has also provided housing support and resources to approximately 40 HCC students and their families in need of housing.
Additionally, Ball announced an impactful investment of $1 million dollars to Grassroots Crisis Intervention to expand capacity at its Emergency Shelter. This investment will allow Grassroots to create space for more than 25 new beds, helping more residents gain access to case management support and resources to put them on a pathway to stable housing.
Clean and Sustainable Environment: Ball also shared the giant leaps the County has made implementing its groundbreaking HoCo Climate Forward 2024 annual report. Thus far, the County has:
- Achieved a 23 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, reflecting more than a third of the way toward its ambitious 2030 target;
- Expanded publicly available Electric Vehicle charging stations, installing more than 100 on County property for community use; and
- Grown the county’s tree canopy, including through a new partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources that will plant nearly 33,000 trees across 82 acres of state-owned land in Howard County.
During his address, Ball also announced the County is expanding access to its community gardens with a new location off Montgomery Road this spring. This garden will provide up to 100 plots, 25 of which will be ADA accessible using raised beds.
Progress in Historic Ellicott City: Ball highlighted progress being made on the implementation of his Ellicott City Safe and Sound Plan. In addition to the now operational H-7 and Quaker Mills flood mitigation ponds, the County recently broke ground on the H-4 Pond. Once complete, these three ponds will hold more than 13 million gallons of water during severe weather events.
This past summer, the Safe and Sound Plan reached a major milestone with the groundbreaking of the transformational North Tunnel project – the largest public works initiative in Howard County’s history. Crews have already begun construction preparing the mining shaft site for the arrival of ‘Rocky,” the tunnel boring machine that will arrive next year.
Finally, Ball highlighted that renovation work has begun to transform Howard County’s historic Circuit Courthouse into a premier Center for Art, Culture, and History. Once renovations are completed, this 80,000 square foot space will be transformed into a mecca for the arts, a cultural hub for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, headquarters to the Roving Radish program and a vibrant ecosystem that supports budding culinary entrepreneurs.
Reliable and Accessible Infrastructure: As Ball touched on in his address, access to sidewalks, bike lanes and multimodal infrastructure help make our community a safer, healthier and more connected place to live for all. This year alone, record investment in Complete Streets infrastructure has helped bring to fruition more than a dozen multimodal transportation projects, totaling nearly two miles of new sidewalks and more than five miles of new bike lanes. Additionally, in August, the County released a new Neighborhood Traffic Calming Policy and unveiled an additional $500,000 investment for the implementation of this new policy.
Ball further announced a new pilot micro transit program – set to launch next month, that will serve the Route One corridor in Elkridge and Jessup. By strengthening Howard County’s public transportation system, the program will help better connect Howard County residents with jobs, services and amenities.
Strong and Prosperous Businesses: Building a prosperous economy requires impactful investments that fuel community progress, such as the creation of a Master Plan for Columbia Gateway and the transformation of the Columbia Flier building into “The Source.”
The Gateway Master Plan will transform this 1,000-acre office park into the next frontier for major redevelopment, positioning it to become a premiere innovation district and reinforcing Howard County as an attractive place for companies to invest, move and expand.
The Columbia Flier building will be reimagined into a vital community resource and home to “The Source.” This roughly 65,000 square foot multi-use community and recreation center will meet the needs of our young people.
Innovative and Efficient Government: Howard County Government continues to lead the way with innovative and efficient policies to better serve residents, businesses and visitors. We know that Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is our future and that is has the power to transform local government by enhancing both service delivery and operational efficiency. As the County embraces this new technology, its committed to doing so safely and responsibly to maximize its benefits for our community with the release a new internal AI governance and policy.
In his speech, Ball also highlighted the expansion of Wi-Fi access across Howard County to increase our connectivity. Residents and visitors to Howard County can now utilize free public Wi-Fi at all 23 Columbia Association pools, the Howard County Fairgrounds and starting next month, Rockburn Branch Park in Elkridge as well. The free Wi-Fi at the Columbia Lakefront has also been upgraded to enhance the latest in wireless performance technology. Ball also shared that Howard County is now the only jurisdiction in Maryland that provides internet to its entire school system, all library branches, and every community and 50+ center.
Finally, Ball emphasized his administration’s commitment to building a world-class cybersecurity infrastructure armed with the latest in protective technologies. To become leaders on the state, regional, national and global stage, Ball pledged to continue to work with economic development leaders and cybersecurity industry partners to expand our reach, internationally.
