It was finally acquired in 1978 by the then-independent local publisher Patuxent Publishing Company with offices in the nearby city of Columbia, a futuristic planned town by nationally renowned developer James Rouse, along with several other local community weekly papers in Howard County and neighboring Baltimore County (using the Times nameplate) to the northeast in several suburban areas and surrounding Baltimore City in a horseshoe arc.

Between 1840 and the American Civil War (1861-1865), a succession of newspapers opened and closed in Ellicott Mills, serving the designated in 1838 as the Howard or Western District of Anne Arundel County until the separation and erection of Howard as a separate county in 1851 in the State of Maryland as authorized by the General Assembly of Maryland sitting in the state capital of Annapolis.

Besides his local interests close to home he later became the 45th Governor of Maryland, serving from 1904-1908, at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries and was also future banker, establishing the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, a banking and trust firm established in 1890 in Downtown Baltimore (with a landmark office at the northwest corner of the North Charles and West Lexington Streets) built in 1894 (reconstructed and expanded after damaged by Great Baltimore Fire of 1904) and also founder and publisher of The Daily Record, a daily business and legal newspaper in Baltimore.

Coincidentally, decades later would see The Sunpapers along with its later syndicate chain owner, the Tribune Company (of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times), would in turn also purchase and absorb the Howard County Times in a later merger with its last independent publisher, the Patuxent Publishing Company of Columbia, Maryland.

Shortly after he took total control as publisher, the Ellicott City Times put out a special issue of 80 pages packed thick with ads and congratulatory notices plus photos, illustrations, and descriptive historical articles for its centennial in March 1941.

As the new town grew quickly and additional surrounding villages were laid out, Orlinsky's paper served a larger market than the Times.

[10] The editor, Tom Graham, used the paper to encourage the growth of Columbia, promoting political candidates who supported the vision of Rouse and the project.

The Baltimore Sun Media Group purchased Patuxent Publishing Company, including the ancient Howard County Times and newer Columbia Flier, integrating the local papers into its growing stable of several daily papers in several regional county seats and towns of several other suburban weekly community newspapers.