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Rona Kobell

Rona

Rona Kobell previously worked at The Baltimore Sun, the Chesapeake Bay Journal, and Chesapeake Quarterly, where she was primarily an environmental reporter and editor. Rona has also taught at many regional universities and is currently teaching environmental justice reporting at Loyola University Maryland. She’s also the producer of the award-winning film Eroding History. She’s a regional reporter at The Banner focused on Baltimore County.

Latest content by Rona Kobell

Baltimore County Councilman Pat Young has introduced legislation that could change how the council expands, and if it does.
Not so fast: Two Baltimore County councilmen take aim at plan to redraw district maps
Baltimore County Councilman Pat Young is trying to change a recently passed law that will put a referendum on the fall ballot to expand the council for the first time since 1956.
Sep 11, 2024
Joseph W. Dixon
Baltimore County executive nominates first Black fire chief
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. has nominated Joseph W. Dixon, the former chief of Gainesville, Florida, to lead the county Fire Department. He would be the county’s first Black fire chief.
Sep 10, 2024
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. speaks at a press conference announcing the creation of a new county park at the site of the former C.P. Crane power plant, a source of pollution in the Bowley's Quarters area for decades. With him are U.S Sen Chris Van Hollen and Senaca Park Improvement Association President Tara Gebhardt
Once a polluter, C.P. Crane will become a waterfront park in Baltimore County
Neighbors entered the normally locked gates surrounding the C.P Crane plant site to hear that their efforts paid off. C.P. Crane will become a waterfront park.
Updated Sep 9, 2024
Baltimore County middle school students sit in class on the first day of school.
School lockdowns happen all the time. This one felt different.
School lockdowns happen all the time but one reporter almost ignored the text messages from her daughter: “Mom. Something is happening.”
Sep 7, 2024
this is a protest truck.
Baltimore County lawmakers demand ‘answers and transparency’ on proposed 70-mile power line
State senators and delegates from Baltimore County have become the latest to criticize grid operator PJM over the proposed 70-mile transmission line.
Sep 5, 2024
Baltimore County Council has no women members, despite the success of female politicians statewide. Kathleen Beadell, Nancy Goldring, and Vicki Almond are looking to change that. (photos by Kaitlin Newman, Wesley Lapointe, and Ulysses Muñoz)
Baltimore County is big and diverse. Its council is all male and very white.
Baltimore County is among the state's most diverse, but its council is all male and almost all white. Can that change?
Sep 4, 2024
The C.P. Crane Power Plant in eastern Baltimore County before it was demolished.
A power plant used to burn coal there. Now it’s set to become a new Baltimore County park.
Baltimore County plans to spend $10 million in state open space money to turn 85 acres in the eastern part of the county into a new waterfront park. The site until recently was home to the Charles P. Crane Generating Station, a power plant that burned coal.
Sep 3, 2024
Kevin McDonough, left, and Leah Biddinger speak with neighbors who dislike living next to an abandoned house on Margaret Avenue.
‘Code enforcement odd couple’ take on Baltimore County building violations
Two East Side community activists, Leah Biddinger and Kevin McDonough, work together to identify potential code violations in their community and alert Baltimore County officials.
Sep 1, 2024
Two black and white yard signs, one that reads "save suburbia, no new light rail, no TOD, no apartments" and the other "no apartments, no compromise" are staked into the grass in front of a suburban street with cars and single family homes in the background.
Baltimore County Council sides with residents on key zoning decisions
Those seeking zoning changes in Baltimore County through a quadrennial process learned the fate of their proposals on Tuesday night. The County Council wrapped up work its Comprehensive Zoning Map Process.
Aug 28, 2024
James Blum stands in front of his office and the Boring post office, just across the railroad tracks from the Boring fire hall. He and his family are trying to preserve the community's rural character. A zoning vote on Aug. 27 could change the fire hall into an industrial site, which he has been fighting for years.
In Baltimore County, it only takes one council member to rezone land for more (or less) development
The Baltimore County Council on Tuesday will adopt a comprehensive zoning map, something it does every four years. But critics say the process is anything but democratic, with individual council members deferring to one another on decisions in their respective districts. Some say this has put too much power in the hands of each council member.
Aug 23, 2024
Maps displaying the plans for future electrical grid enhancements at an earlier public information session held by the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project in Westminster. The company planning to build the transmission line held a meeting in Baltimore County last night and is holding another in Westminster tonight.
Baltimore County residents fume over 70-mile power line
More than 200 northern Baltimore County residents packed into Hereford High School’s auditorium to oppose a $424 million transmission line that would cut through pristine farmland and prized horse country to power both residential growth in Maryland and data center development in Virginia.
Aug 22, 2024
M. Gordon “Reds” Wolman found this stool after Hurricane Agnes in 1972. He used it to sit by the streams as his students gathered information for their research.
Wolman Run reflects values of its namesake
A stream in Oregon Ridge has been named after “Reds” Wolman, the famed Johns Hopkins scientist who would have turned 100 this week.
Aug 21, 2024
Perry Hall Mansion in Baltimore County, as seen in May 2024.
Deal to sell historic Perry Hall Mansion falls through
Months after the Baltimore County Council approved a plan to sell the historic Perry Hall Mansion for $5,000, a local businessman has advised the county that the proposed sale is no longer feasible. He cited community concerns about any restoration and reuse of the structure.
Aug 20, 2024
Baltimore County Inspector General Kelly Madigan speaks during a press conference in December 2020. Madigan launched 22 investigations during the most recently completed budget year, and fielded 277 complaints.
Abuse, fraud and dumping among 277 complaints to Baltimore County’s watchdog
Baltimore County’s inspector general received 277 complaints in the most recently completed budget year, on matters ranging from misusing county computer systems to submitting fraudulent timesheets.
Aug 13, 2024
Johnny Olszewski, Baltimore County Executive, speaks at a press conference announcing a package of foundational legislative reforms to expand access to new housing opportunities as well as address community concerns in Baltimore County.
Baltimore County Council approves pathway for affordable housing in school overcrowding bill
The council approved two amendments that County Executive Johnny Olzewski Jr.’s administration had requested.
Aug 6, 2024

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