It’s been another newsy year in Howard County. From the crackdown on paid house parties, the earthquake that rattled Columbia and Savage and the beloved Tersiguel’s serving its final meal after five decades, plenty happened across the county.

Here’s a refresher of some of Howard County’s top headlines in 2025.

Federal workforce

The effort by President Donald Trump’s second administration to reduce the federal workforce followed by the longest government shutdown in U.S. history strained many Howard County households in 2025.

An estimated 11% of county residents — roughly 1 in 10 — are federal employees.

Shortly after Trump tapped billionaire Elon Musk to head up a Department of Government Efficiency, many federal employees received a buyout offer in February with the subject line reading “a fork in the road.” Fearing for their jobs, hundreds of residents packed a forum and implored Howard County and state leaders to take action.

Officials stood up a series of job fairs that drew thousands of federal workers from not just Howard County but across Maryland. Offerings included professional headshots, mock interviews and tips for adapting their federal résumés to the private sector. Later in October, the county responded to the shutdown by extending certain financial and food assistance to federal workers.

Zoning fights

Land in Howard County is both valuable and finite, so perhaps it’s no surprise that some of the year’s biggest conflicts bubbled out of local zoning disputes.

Paid house parties across the region led Howard County Council to boost the penalties for such events at residential zoned properties — and raised tough questions about the county’s unsanctioned short-term rental industry.

W.R. Grace & Co., a chemical company with a history of environmental violations, got state approval to move forward with a pilot plastics recycling plant at its Columbia headquarters, despite fierce opposition from the surrounding community.

Neighbors faced off over a go-kart track that a homeowner built on his western Howard County property and over Manor Hill Brewing, the popular Ellicott City farm brewery.

Many of these disputes landed on the desks of the county’s hearing examiners and the five-member Board of Appeals, all of whom are appointed by the County Council.

In a closed session this past spring, the County Council did not renew one of its hearing examiners’ contracts. Then, three Board of Appeals members announced plans in November to resign over what they viewed as political interference and coercion by the County Council in high-profile cases.

In a closed-door meeting Monday, County Council took a series of votes that effectively allow all three Board of Appeals members to retain their seats in 2026, said Council Chair Opel Jones.

Inspector General interviews

Choosing from 58 applicants, Howard County’s seven-person search committee settled on hiring Kelly Madigan to be the jurisdiction’s first ever inspector general.

County residents voted to create the new office in 2024 and charged the watchdog with investigating waste, fraud and abuse.

Madigan already has experience building a local inspector general’s office from the ground up, which she did in neighboring Baltimore County, where she served as its first inspector general for about four years.

Some Baltimore County officials criticized Madigan and the county executive tried to replace her, but the county council balked.

She ultimately decided to leave, naming Jan. 2 as her last day before joining Howard County. She also appointed her deputy Steven Quisenberry as Baltimore County’s interim inspector general, a move that raised some eyebrows because he also served on the search committee in Howard.

Quisenberry and other members of the committee said he recused himself from any discussions concerning his boss.

School redistricting

Nearly 150 Howard County students are moving to new schools next August. School redistricting, a common occurrence in Howard, was at the forefront of families’ minds this year. The original plan was to move students out of both Bryant Woods and Centennial Lane elementary schools to relieve overcrowding. However, Centennial Lane parents and the community fiercely advocated for their students to not be moved, and they prevailed.

Lakefront library approved

Remember when Gov. Wes Moore joined Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and a slew of other elected officials and prominent county leaders to announce grand plans for a glassy $144 million library along Columbia’s lakefront? No? Probably because it happened almost a thousand days ago in 2023 and then plans hit standstill.

But it seems the pages are finally turning again on this ambitious project, as the County Council finally approved the new library earlier this month. Let’s see how plans advance in 2026.

More quiver than quake

A small earthquake surprised Columbia and Savage residents around dinner time in late October, lasting about 20 seconds.

No one was injured by the magnitude 2.5 earthquake, but it caused a substantial water main break at Howard Community College.

Still, it was much smaller than the magnitude 5.8 earthquake that was detected near Mineral, Virginia, in 2011. The quake was one of the most widely felt earthquakes in U.S. history and caused an estimated $200 million to $300 million in overall property damage.

The Columbia earthquake wasn’t the first time tremors have been detected in Howard County. According to the Maryland Geological Survey, earthquakes have originated over the years near Columbia’s Allview Estates as well as in Ellicott City, Fulton and Glenelg.

The epicenter of October’s quake was near Lake Elkhorn about 2.5 miles east of the Riverside community, which is south of Columbia near the intersection of state routes 29 and 32.

The intersection was the site of other, smaller seismic activities in 2001 and 2002.