Howard County Executive Calvin Ball, a Democrat, unveiled a massive public works project in May that could cost as much as $140 million to ease future flooding in Ellicott City. The project, which would not fully prevent flooding, includes razing four buildings on lower Main Street to widen the Tiber River channel and boring a large tunnel parallel to Main Street to divert floodwater cascading into the steep-sided valley on the upper end. His flood mitigation plan was included as part of the preliminary watershed master plan presentation last week.