Howard County Executive Calvin Ball announced on Oct. 21 a fundraiser to bring back one of Ellicott City’s long-missing emblems. To promote the fundraiser, Ball made the announcement on Oct. 21, also known as “Back to the Future Day” referencing the 1985 film that features townspeople trying to save their own clock tower. Ball started the Oct. 21 news conference by stepping out of the driver’s seat of a DeLorean, the vehicle used as a time machine in the film. The Ellicott City clock was destroyed twice during the historic floods of 2016 and 2018. The original clock on Railroad Plaza, in front of the Baltimore & Ohio Station Museum, was gifted to the county by the Kiwanis Club in 2001 to celebrate the sesquicentennial of Howard County. (Courtesy of Howard County government)