Cecil County, MD Balt or PHI Territory? (Baltimore, Elkton: relocating, job)

[tberg224]

I'm curious, when driving up I-95 through Maryland Cecil County looks very rural and seems closer in milage and culture to Baltimore in most spots, but some it's closer to PHI and I notice on NFL gamedays they get the Eagles not the Ravens.

I wanted to know is this country suburban Baltimore, suburban PHI, rural, and who does it affiliate with or does it vary by where in the county you live?

[hokiejane]

For what it's worth, most of the people I know who live in Cecil County now are orginally from the Philly or Wilmington area. None are from Baltimore.

[tberg224]

So it's more metro PHI than BAL, what stations do you get, which teams are covered in the newspaper and on TV and are more popular?
Is it rural?
Thanks.

[hokiejane]

I actually don't live in Cecil County. I live one county to the southwest...Harford County.

Cecil County is mostly rural with small towns here and there. The entire population of the county is about 86,000, and there are five high schools county-wide.

My friend who lives in Chesapeake City there gets all the major Philly and B'more TV stations on cable. He can watch both Eagles and Ravens games, and obviously gets news coverage based on which stations he watches.

I think Wilmington only has a PBS station, but I would assume their newspaper would likely cover Philly sports due to proximity. Cecil County has a newspaper called the Cecil Whig, but I think they focus on mainly local sports. http://www.cecilwhig.com/

[mom23boys]

Hokiejane I really appreciate your views. We are relocating to MD as part of BRAC from Ft. Monmouth in either 2009 or 2010. Our situation is that we will have 3 boys in all 3 levels of the school system-elem, middle, and h.s. I teach and will also be looking for a job. I know Cecil Co. has it's issues, but so do other places. My oldest is high honor roll and in regions honor band. Can you advise?

[CHIP72]

Cecil County is officially part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area; my understanding is the eastern part of the county, where Elkton (the county seat and largest town) is located, is strongly tied into the Wilmington-Newark area and by extension the Philadelphia area. Western Cecil County may be tied in more with Baltimore, but I don't know that for sure.

I know from seeing the Baltimore Sun TV guides a few years back that most cable systems in Cecil County get both the Philadelphia and Baltimore over-the-air channels on their cable systems. However, I believe the Philadelphia sports channel, CSN Philadelphia, is NOT available in Cecil County. The main reason for that is Cecil County is in the Baltimore TV market.

I've read the Cecil Whig the 2 or 3 times I've been in Elkton or western Cecil County, and my impression is they cover the Orioles more than the Phillies in baseball but the Eagles more than the Ravens in football.

Living-wise I'd say most of the county is fairly rural but the area in and around Elkton is becoming more suburbanized.

[doreen moran]

Cecil County is sort of stuck in the middle. We are 45 minutes to philly and 45 minutes to Baltimore.. DC 2 1/2 hours NYC 2 1/2 hours.. It is the best place to be if you want to be close to the City but sleep in the Country and raise your kids in the quiet countryside. I love the commutibility from this County to everywhere! As for football I am a New England transplant but still like the Eagles better than the Ravens!

[doreen moran]

When do you think your coming to
Cecil County? There are a lot of Teaching positions in Cecil and also the Schools aren't that bad as long as you are an involved parent. I am from Connecticut and it was quite a shock coming here very different but you make your own life and enjoy this beautiful area.

[dwade266]

I hear the schools are great, they have good facilities, resources, infrastructure, teachers, etc. but sometimes its a few kids -small minority-that give the schools a bad rep.

The schools are big enough to have a wide variety of choices, so kids can get into trouble if they're into it, but they can also easily avoid it.

Having said that, my kids attend private school in the next county - partly because of our lack of knowledge of the area, and (at the time - in the early 1990s) a rash of drug busts and ODs in the middle school, and also due to the fact that both my husband and worked in the next county, and there were limited childcare options (again, in the 1990s) in Cecil County.

My take on Cecil County is that there is a small but visible population of rednecks that make a bad name for the entire county. I am an outsider (only lived here 15 years) but my neighbors and all the people I know are good honest hardworking people. Unfortunately, reading the CECIL WHIG you only get the bad news.

There seems to be limited job opportunities in Cecil County - other than those in the farming or horse related business, all those that I know work in nearby Delaware. The only major name employer in Cecil County is W. L .Gore.