Baltimore Sun

Search the Baltimore County community newspaper archives

>> Click here to search for stories published AFTER 2011

>> Use this search box to find stories published prior to 2011.

Note: All Words is a more strict search. Implied operator is "AND."
Ex: Charles Dickens"

news

home

Voting for council, mayor takes place Tuesday in HdG

By Rachel Konopacki

Posted 5/01/09

It’s time to make your vote count in Havre de Grace.

Havre de Grace residents will head to the polls Tuesday to cast their vote for three seats on the city council.

Mayor Wayne Dougherty’s name will also be on the ballot, but Dougherty has no opposition as he seeks a second, two-year term.

The city’s 7,868 registered voters will be able to vote at the polls on Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

The polls will be at St. Patrick Hall in the 600 block of Pennington Avenue.

There are about 1,500 more eligible voters this year than in 2007, when Dougherty eked out a 45-vote victory over then councilman Gary Wasielewski in a four-man race that also included councilman Fred Cullum and incumbent mayor John Correri.

The 28 percent turnout among 6,382 voters two years ago probably won’t be duplicated this year because of the lack of a contested mayor’s race and a relatively small number of city council candidates.

Council members Barbara Ferguson and Randy Craig are seeking re-election. Also running for the three seats are Mitch Shank and Brenda Guldenzopf. City council members serve two year terms.

The other council member whose term is up this year, Joe Kochenderfer, decided not to seek re-election.

Craig, an executive with Erickson Construction, was elected to his first term two years ago.

Ferguson, an information technology specialist at Aberdeen Proving Ground, is completing her second term.

Guldenzopf is director of the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum. She has not sought public office.

Shank, a longtime community activist in Havre de Grace, is a former member of the Harford County Council.

Voters in Perryville and Port Deposit will go to the polls May 12 for their municipal elections.

In Perryville, town commissioners Gary Tennis and James Hansen are running for re-election and are opposed by Michelle Linkey and George Hornbarger.

Tennis and Hansen are completing two year terms they were elected to in 2007. Tennis had previously served on the Port Deposit Town Council before moving to Perryville.

Hornbarger, a water and wastewater operator and 911 operator in Cecil County, has also been a member of the Community Fire Company of Perryville since 1987 and has held several positions in the organization.

There are 2,636 voters eligible to vote in Perryville, where turnouts tend to fall between 10 to 15 percent, sometimes lower.

In 2007, barely 200 people bothered to vote, as Hansen won his seat by just four votes. Last year, with Mayor Jim Eberhardt and popular commissioner Barbara Brown on the ballot, 303 people voted.

The polls upstairs at Perryville Town Hall will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on May 12.

In Port Deposit, the election will also take place on May 12.

Port Deposit’s 372 voters will be able to vote at Water Witch Fire Department on North Main Street from noon until 8 p.m.

Town council members Robert Kuhs, William Harrington and John Leeds are running for re-election and don’t have any opposition for four-year terms.

Kuhs, owns and operates Chesapeake Life Counsel, an insurance agency, in Elkton with his wife. He said he expects to have another office open soon in Aberdeen.

Harrington is the senior associate director of athletics at Johns Hopkins University and also serves as the treasurer of the Bainbridge Development Corporation.

Leeds was appointed to the town council in September 2007 following the death of Guy Palmeri, who had been elected in 2005. Leeds was the only person to apply for the vacancy.