If these were crimes committed on random people I would be concerned. The Martin's homicide was between two employees & I have a feeling that they will discover the people involved in the Harvest Inn homicide had some sort of history. I think these crimes were personal not random.

Thanks, Donna. That's similar to what I heard from police too. And the crime stats tell the same story--homicides are not a common occurrence in Eldersburg or Carroll County.

I agree with Donna, there is more to the Harvest Inn story then what we are hearing. What struck me odd with this story, where was Carroll County's primary law enforcement agency? The Sheriff Department? Not one word about them being involved in this incident.

I'm more worried about traffic related injury than violent crime in our town. Citizens know one another, neighbors watch out for each other, and we have great parent participation with kids. Those are more telling characteristics of a community like Eldersburg than the coincidental happening of two sensational crime events in one week!

I agree with David! The traffic is horrible! Accidents on Liberty Road at least once a week near Walmart. People do not drive safe around here. All the soccer Moms in their SUV's and Minivans (Killer cars) have their cell phones to their ears. Where are the cops?

Sadly these events happen daily and occasionally will make their way to places like Eldersburg. The more the community grows, the more people fill the roads, stores, and homes. And thank you Amy.....I saw a bumper sticker "HANG UP AND DRIVE"! Where can I get one? Perhaps our Sykesville Police Department could distribute 2 stickers per family and every automobile in the community says the same thing! Talking and driving is a deadly combo. Everyone is in such a hurry? slow down...enjoy life and your families.

Our biggest traffic problem is due to Randallstown and Owings Mills coming out to shop in "the country" (not soccer Mom's as one would think), which used to be somewhat country before out of towners started coming to Eldersburg to shop. Curb this and you get rid of the traffic issue by a minimum of 50% and retarded driving by a minimum of 75%. The question is, how do you curb it?

You also cut down on crime when you limit the exposure to the higher crime rate areas such as Owings Mills and Randallstown.

I always thought the biggest traffic problem in Eldersburg was caused by parents who insist on driving their kids to and from school.

That is a common myth and it would mean that peak traffic would occur between 3pm and 4pm, and all of us know that isn't the case.

As for the morning, the biggest traffic issues there are the traffic coming into Eldersburg, I guess for work but I don't know.

I'd be interested if there is even a shred of scientific proof of your claims Brad, as I think they are a complete load of manure. While we may have the Big Lots and the Dollar General for awhile longer, until Black Oak rips down the mall, once the new Owings Mills Towne Center is complete, the folks you are complaining about will be lamenting your country butt coming to their town! :) Randallstown and Owings Mills are no more an impact on our traffic or safety as Westminster or Mt. Airy. Cell phones and electing dopes like Robin Frazier is what makes our roads so bad. We would have had the Boulevard District done long ago if she didn't turn away the 100% financing offer with a simple phone call in late 2001. Stop resisting diversity it's not the enemy...hate is!

Hey Brad. I guess you don't work outside the county like I do or you'd know that all the traffic in the morning is leaving Eldersburg, not coming in and yes, going eastbound into Baltimore County (and south down 32) not inbound into the county. Where do you pull your stats from...don't tell, me I know. With respect to safety, our roads suck because the state now has no money to do the road improvements that were fully funded and approved back in like 2001 when Frazier turned down their offer.

Hey, Brad, it's us good folks from Owings Mills that help the economy there by coming to shop. And OM's crime rate is not what you say. We have gotten a bad rap because of the mall but there's nothing much there to attract crime anymore. Thanx for picking on us, though!

Wait, I missed something...."outsiders" actually come to Eldersburg to shop? Why?! I agree with the previous poster, our community needs to do something about the cell phone talking/texting and driving issue! We need a massive hang up and drive campaign!

Thanks for all the comments on this everyone. The next time I interview the cops, I will ask them about the texting/talking and driving issue.

Lisa, please ask them to support a law, not on drivers, but for manufacturers to embed a chip that disables phones from texting while driving like they've had in Europe for years. This is the only way to ensure that we're not distracted and that less experienced drivers remain focused.

It's no more valid then my request for you to back up your counter claims. No party has a monopoly on facts, it was an example that was lost on you to show scientific statistical data was not necessary in this discussion. All in all, neither requests are needed, just basic "scientific" observation. Do you travel 26 in the morning? If you did, you wouldn't be arguing against the point of the volume of traffic coming into Eldersburg.
"Racial overtones" is another crutch used by liberals, which doesn't belong in this discussion either, same with fear mongering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_mongering , there is no need to bring red herrings into this discussion, you're better than that and I'll knock down any crutches anyway so why bother? I've encouraged everyone to make general observations with their own eyes, which is about as far from fear mongering as one could get. My observations are just that, observations but they are indeed accurate, don't take my word for it though ... watch the volume of cars entering Eldersburg in the morning on 26. It is of course smaller then the volume of cars exiting, but still quite high for a 'commuter town' as we are often referred to.

Cell phone impairment helps with driver awareness, but does not solve our traffic problem which is too much volume for our roads.

Well now we are getting down to where we actually differ in opinion. Although I agree that our roads cannot handle the traffic volume we have (obviously) I do not think the project Robin Frazier killed would have been an end all solution. The state keeps adding red lights and the road cannot get any wider, those are our biggest hurdles. The roads were very reasonable a few years before you moved here and still somewhat reasonable when you moved here. The census says the population of Eldersburg has grown an additional 2790 people from (about when you moved here) 2000 to 2010, but the traffic has grown exponentially more than that which points to outside traffic (simple deduction). It is not all from Baltimore County, but one obvious source of that is Randallstown and Owings Mills, I have many friends that will drive out to our Walmart from Owings Mills and Randallstown because it is "nicer" as they put it. As an example, there is a large amount of non Eldersburg residents that shop at our Walmart according to the census and this piles onto the traffic congestion, it isn't pretend invaders go there yourself and see. This goes back to my comments about shopping in the country.

No Brad. Actually it's the county that has approved the lights and cuts. Did it ever occur to you that the predominantly young families that moved here now have kids who are driving and as Carroll County is too stupid to include sustainable things like sidewalks and bike paths along our failed roads, we have no choice but to drive everywhere. Our retail footprint has grown significantly in the past 15 years, again because of zoning special exceptions (Walmart) and developer handouts. We've elected idiots like Frazier who don't understand long term planning or sustainability. They would rather gut our master plan than follow professional planning advice, because they think they know better. We suffer while the developers get their fees lowered. That's how it works now and prior to 2002 when Frazier was last Commissioner. We were the laughingstock then as we are again now.

Yes that did occur, but there were also kids graduating and going off to college or moving, etc. So that is most likely a wash, or close to it, albeit very hard to quantify. The children would have to be in the driving age and not go off to college to fit within the inclusion window, so I decided to omit that, but it could have a small small impact. Our retail footprint has more than tripled, again to cater to outsiders as our population has not grown to support all of that retail, I think this supports my previous comment. 26 is a state road, the county may request the lights be considered but the state maintains and controls that road. When they put up one of the idiotic lights I had to call SHA to complain because the county said it wasn't them. I don't care about being a laughingstock, I care about cutting down on traffic, so what's your suggestion, mine is to remove the retail. And what is the zoning exception Walmart got? Maybe they can be forced to close through that situation :)