THE PEOPLE UNITED!

Can never be defeated! Thanks to everybody who participated this morning. Our elected officials were interested in helping out, and the commuters had lots of great ideas! It sounds like some of the problems might actually get resolved! Isn't democracy great?

Here's Pat Willis' summary of what happened. Feel free to post your comments or version of events either as a comment below or as an email to aberdeenparking@gmail.com. Thanks again to everybody!

From Pat:

All - Today was the opportunity for you to voice your opinion on the parking situation and other things pertaining to the Aberdeen train station. Kim and the Queen of Aberdeen wanted to give you a brief update on what was discussed. Harford County Executive David Craig and Aberdeen Mayor Michael Bennett visited with the commuters who take the 6:58 and 8:37 a.m. trains. Also there were James Richardson, Director, Office of Economic Development (MARC), and Robert Thomas, Management Assistant Public and Media Affairs, Office of Government and Community Relations. Thanks for listening to us! And thanks for the donuts and coffee!

Here is a summary of what they said:

-Lighting on both sides of the track: This will be looked into.

-Northbound side parking: This issue will be taken to the Aberdeen City Council.

-Southbound side parking: The city will look at adding additional parking on the side of the road to include right at the edge of the corner near the gas station and possibly repaving the current parking.

-More train stops: MARC is looking into the possibility of reopening Elkton train station.

-Ticketing and Towing: The Mayor said he will discuss the situation with the Police Chief. Cars that are blocking traffic will still have to be ticketed and/or towed, but there could be some policy change for others.

-Pennsylvania commuters: No special accommodations will be made. (They're not paying Maryland taxes, after all.)

-The tunnel: It has surveillance cameras which are linked to the Aberdeen police department. The Mayor stated he will look in assuring that the tunnel is cleaner. He didn’t appear to think that was a difficult task.

-Fred’s e-mail was given to Mr. Craig.

-Jobie’s comment about tower parking was mentioned.