Battle of the Bulge

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When Howard County General Hospital became part of the JohnsHopkins Health System fifteen years ago, included the deal was theestablishment of a foundation “to improve health and wellness in Howard County.”The Horizon Foundation now doles out approximately $4 million annually to a varietyof initiatives to advance this goal. Sitting at the top of this foundation isNikki Highsmith Vernick.
Nikki joined the Horizon Foundation about a year ago andsoon began focusing her efforts on childhood obesity. According to Nikki, overtwenty thousand HoCo children are dangerously overweight. To draw attention tothe foundations efforts to promote healthy snacking, they recently staged an event at Burleigh Middle School dumping 9.6tons of white sand in the schools parking lot to dramatize “the amount of sugarthe school’s students would consume if each drank one 12-ounce soda a day for ayear.”
The same day, HoCo Exec Ken Ulman announced that he wasbanning the sale of sugary drinks on county property, a move that immediatelybought criticism from State Senator Allan Kittleman saying that “is not afunction of government to determine what you should and should not drink.”
In our podcast yesterday Nikki offered a defense of theexecs ban pointing out that since we are paying for county employees healthcarewe have a responsibility to promote healthy snacking in their workplace.
In our news recap we discussed Ken’s state of the countyaddress, Symphony Woods Inner Arbor plan, and the legislation to allow HoCopublic library employees to form a union.
We also briefly discussed the new parking system in Ellicott City which debuts next week. Paul told how hegot a ticket last week on Main Street, despite assurances from the client he was visiting thatparking was still free. Paul’s offense was that he parked twelve inches overthe marked lines. That little indiscretion cost him thirty five bucks, meters or not.
You can listen to the 83^rd episode of “and thenthere’s that…” here.