North Beach to receive animal control services

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008

At their meeting Tuesday, Aug. 5, the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to include the independent municipality in the sweeping new ordinance enacted this year, per the request of the North Beach Town Council.

Animal Control officers had been excluded from the town by the new ordinance, although emergency situations involving animals were handled by the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office.

County Animal Control officers will only enforce county and state animal laws — enforcement of municipal laws, including North Beach’s ban on pit bulls, will remain up to town hall, said County Attorney Emanuel Demedis.

Chesapeake Beach, which has yet to come to an agreement with the county on the new ordinance, is still without animal control services. County commissioners criticized Chesapeake Beach Mayor Gerald Donovan and the town council for wanting to adopt portions, but not all, of the county ordinance.

‘‘Towns shouldn’t be cherry-picking what they want and what they don’t want. It’s a clear and cohesive ordinance,” said Commissioner Linda Kelley (R), who championed the new law.

Kelley also accused the Chesapeake Beach government of trying to evade public participation.

‘‘It’s also my understanding that the town council did not see this thing [the ordinance] until 10 o’clock [p.m.], when it was dropped in their laps by the mayor, who said, ‘I want to be exempt from this, this and this,’” Kelley said. ‘‘... I think it was designed to bypass public input over there, and I think that’s important.”

In other business, thecommissioners:

* Heard a presentation on from the Calvert Library on the One Maryland⁄One Book Community Reading Project;

* Reappointed Jeffrey Bagarus and Keven Zinn and appointed Michael Benton to the Economic Development Authority;

* Appointed Tammy McCourt to the Other Post-Employment Benefits Trust Fund Board of Trustees as a representative of the Calvert County Board of Education;

* Authorized a public hearing on a proposed agreement between the county and developer John Gott to allow him to develop land near West Dares Beach Road in exchange for his building affordable housing and extending the road;

* Approved a covenant to be attached to land for the Calvert County Indoor Aquatic Center in Prince Frederick as a condition of using $1.9 million in state Program Open Space funds for the project;

* Approved $34,800 from the Fire and Rescue Commission Contingency Fund to replace the engine in the St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad’s Tanker 7.