CECIL COUNTY — The 2022 Fiscal Year budget was passed unanimously Tuesday evening at the County Administration Building. Cecil County Executive Danielle Hornberger’s proposed property tax cuts were included alongside
ELKTON â Supporters of the Cecil County Public Library, wearing shirts embroidered with âLove our Library, Fund our Library,â came out to the Public Budget Hearing at Elkton High School Thursday, to voice their opposition to County Executive Danielle Hornbergerâs proposed library operating budget cut.
Hornberger proposes a cut to the operating budget of 5.7% or $366,202. Her administration has said that the total budget is actually being increased by 12.7% or $818,798 when the increase in the debt service to pay for the new North East Library building is accounted for.
Many attendees disputed this framing of the FY 2022 budget and said operating budgets and capital budgets are separate funds that have nothing to do with each other.
NORTHEAST- After a dozen scissors cut a blue ribbon, the Cecil County Public Library celebrated the opening of their new North East branch on Saturday, April 24. The 43,000 square foot facility on 485 Mauldin Avenue will serve as the new library headquarters, with a 70,000 item collection. The library is designed to be a hub for the entire county, not just North East.
âThis space, especially the spaces that we ve designed for children, is really going to serve families throughout the entire county,â said Cecil County Public Library Director Morgan Miller. âWe have the sorts of spaces and learning features here that families would have to drive to Philly or Baltimore to go to, and instead, we will be able to bring that right here to the library.â
The Cecil County Public Library (CCPL) is going to cut back on their grand opening plans for the new North East branch as a result of an operating budget cut from County Executive Danielle Hornbergerâs proposed 2022 budget. Library Director Morgan Miller said that the cut represents an anomaly in the state.
âIn terms of other Maryland library systems, Iâm not hearing of any that have been cut,â said Miller at the board of library trustees meeting on April 8. âI have certainly heard of flat funding in other places including Harford County, but so far, I know that Cecil is probably the only one to receive a cut of this significance.â
ELKTON â Teenage years are typically spent having fun with friends, driving parents crazy and, for most, experiencing a first job. For lifelong Cecil County resident Linda Peterson-Singleton, that first job was working for the Elkton branch of the Cecil County Public Library and eventually being assigned to work on the Bookmobile.
It was the summer of 1963, and Peterson-Singleton was 15 years old. She had made it through freshman year at Elkton Senior High School and was ready to return to her 50-cents-per-hour job at the library that she had loved so much from the summer before (Minimum wage at the time was $1.15).