As new school year starts, Edgemere speed camera is back!

It’s baaaaaack!

The much maligned, vandalized, disappearing, street-crossing, disappearing again, reappearing and disappearing yet once again speed camera in Edgemere has returned.

Local resident Kenneth Brulinski Jr. spied a crew reinstalling the camera early Monday morning, just in time for the beginning of a new school year. Brulinski posted on the Facebook page of a local Edgemere group a picture of the crew installing the mechanism, along with a warning to local drivers about the device's return.

The local speed camera has quite a history, beginning with an earlier design that was installed many years ago when the revenue-generating, speed-trap program was first initiated by county officials.

Cameras perched atop tall, skinny poles were installed on North Point Road in front of Sparrows Point Middle/High School. One camera pointed north and one was aimed southward. A driver traveling more than 12 miles faster than the posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour would trigger the camera and would find out only when the ticket and photo arrived in the mail.

At some point, at least one resident took matters into his own hands and decided to remove one of the offending cameras. If my memory serves me correctly, the crafty individual used a rope or chain and a pickup truck to pull down the pole.

Unbeknownst to the vandal/community hero — depending on your perspective — the camera had already been deactivated and was slated to be moved somewhere else. It seems as though there really wasn’t as much speeding in the area as originally suspected, and county officials (and/or representatives of the company that owns and operates the cameras) decided to move them to an area where they were needed more (roughly translated, they were moved to an area where they would generate more revenue).

The area was camera-free for a while until a newer, big-box camera was installed. Concrete pads were poured on both sides of North Point Road — one in the front lawn of the high school near the two original poles and one closer to the elementary school on the southbound side. While new pads were built for the new camera, the company did not remove the old pads or the one remaining pole from the original cameras.

Though two pads were built, only one camera came to town. It would sit on one side of the road for a while and then, in the dark of night, it would be moved to the other side. The moving back and forth from pad to pad went on for quite a while until one night, the camera was loaded into the back of a white van and taken away.

Well, that white van visited Edgemere again early Monday morning to return the camera to town. The Big-Brotheresque mechanical spy is now sitting on the concrete pad in front of the high school on the northbound side of the road.

Early Monday morning, a crew reinstalled a speed camera on the north side of North Point Road in front of Sparrows Point Middle/High School. Photo by Kenneth Brulinski Jr.

Traffic congestion makes it almost impossible to travel at speeds of 42 miles per hour or faster along that stretch, particularly when school is in session. But I guess it is possible so consider yourself warned. Thanks to the public service announcement from Mr. Brulinski, you now know the camera is back.

School starts Wednesday, so slow down, watch for pedestrians and make sure that camera never has to work while it’s back in town.

And don’t forget that cars traveling in both directions must stop for school buses that are loading or unloading students.

Because there’s a hefty fine for passing a bus while its red lights and stop sign are activated.