Four busloads of prospective Harford County residents made the two-hour trek from New Jersey this weekend to tour the best of what the county has to offer.
Nearly 200 people took the four-hour bus tour of the three municipalities and all the residential developments, schools, parks and shopping centers in between Saturday, as Harford officials tried to coax them to follow their jobs when the Fort Monmouth, N.J., military base closes and many of its functions are moved to Aberdeen Proving Ground.
Many of the base employees and contractors had yet to make up their minds about the move ? polls done at Monmouth late last year indicated only 25 percent to 30 percent of the workers had said “yes” to Maryland, with about 50 percent still undecided. But others were impressed by the reception they got at Aberdeen?s Ripken Stadium, where tables full of brochures and information informed them of county public and private schools, parks and recreation, local real estate agents and commuter options.
“I would like to stay with my job, because to get up and start over would be too much at this stage in my life,” said Eddie Tejada, of Perth Amboy, N.J.
“I?m definitely moving,” said Steve Mancuso, of Shrewsbury, N.J. “Primarily it was just to keep the job, but I?m liking what I see so far.”
Rich Wallace, an Asbury Park-based subcontractor at Fort Monmouth, said he wanted to wait for more jobs to move to Maryland before making the final decision to move his family and business.
The tour covered the Water?s Edge Corporate Campus, where Proving Ground-related defense contractors are establishing and expanding offices; businesses in downtown Bel Air; Harford Mall, the “big box” retailers and shopping centers along Route 24; housing developments and schools such as Ring Factory Elementary and Patterson Mill Middle/High schools along Route 924; the museums and shops of downtown Havre de Grace; and concluded with a visit to model homes at Bulle Rock.
“They treated us like royalty,” said Phyllis Gordon, a secretary at Fort Monmouth who plans to move despite being nearly 70 so she can keep getting survivor benefits from her deceased husband.
Most of the people who attended were interested in Maryland?s taxes and home prices, which they said were lower compared with New Jersey.
“We?d be here tomorrow, if it were up to us,” said John Koskie, of Ocean County. “New Jersey?s getting ridiculous, price-wise.”
