Speed Cameras

"Regarding the person who has blossom end rot on their tomatoes, try working some garden lime into the soil around the plants. Any tomatoes that already have the rot, pick and toss. Good luck. " - Smithsburg "I would like to comment how well Allegheny Power responded to all the trouble out around Breathedsville in this morning's storm. And I cannot say any good for another phone company. ... I have a friend that's phones all went out and they told her she wouldn't get it in until the 18th of August.

Last week's question: Some members of Washington County's General Assembly delegation say they feel that cameras that detect speeding in construction and school zones are an invasion of privacy and "un-American. " Do you agree? o Yes. If the police aren't there, speeders shouldn't be ticketed. - 12 votes (17 percent) o No. The police can't be everywhere that scofflaws are. - 13 votes (19 percent) o Yes. The Founding Fathers would not have approved.- 6 votes (9 percent)

The Hagerstown City Council gave final approval Tuesday night to two ordinances to allow the use of speed cameras in city school zones. The five-member council passed both measures 4-1, with Councilman Forrest W. Easton voting against them. The ordinances will allow cameras to be set up in designated school zones to ticket motorists who drive 12 mph or more over the speed limit. City and police officials have said the cameras will increase safety for children and reduce police workload.

Funkstown officials are considering traffic cameras to catch speeders after the issue of drivers speeding through town, particularly on Baltimore Street, came up during Monday night's Town Council meeting. Mayor Paul N. Crampton Jr. asked Town Clerk/Treasurer Brenda Haynes to find out more about speed cameras and whether the town would receive the revenue from them. “It's like a racetrack through here,” Donald Knodle, who lives on West Baltimore Street, said of traffic between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. It's also “terrible” in the evenings, he said.

In the Maryland General Assembly session just passed, it wasn't the multi-billion dollar budget that caused the most controversy, but some smaller bills that could potentially affect citizens every day. The first, the speed-camera bill, would authorize placing monitoring cameras near schools and in highway work zones. The second, known as the "Fair Share" bill, would require all state workers to pay union dues, whether or not they're union members. The speed-camera bill mandates that those whose vehicles are traveling more than 12 miles above the posted limit be mailed a $40 ticket.

A reader inquired about the operation of speed cameras near Smithsburg schools. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., resident Elizabeth Farmer, who frequently drives through the school zone on her way to work in Washington County, had questions related to the signs notifying motorists about the cameras and the posted speed limit. Signs placed a short distance away from the schools along North Main Street show that the school zone speed limit of 20 mph is photo-enforced between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

A speed camera that is to be set up around Smithsburg's three public schools on North Main Street could be operational by next month, according to Smithsburg Police Chief George Knight. The speed camera will operate from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, said Smithsburg Council member Donnie Souders. Town officials started contemplating putting a speed camera in the area of Smithsburg High School, Smithsburg Elementary School and Smithsburg Middle School after Knight said there has been a problem with speeding near the schools.

Speed cameras that were installed to monitor school zones in Hagerstown have generated nearly $1 million in revenue over eight months. City spokeswoman Erin Wolfe said speeding tickets issued as a result of the cameras amounted to about $979,606 in total earnings from April 2012, when the first cameras were installed, to November 2012. Of the amount raised from the 11 cameras that monitor 10 school zones in Hagerstown, the city through November received about $587,764, or roughly 60 percent of the money taken in from the tickets, Wolfe said.