Kevin Kamenetz, who will be sworn in as Baltimore County executive on Monday, wasn't quite there with Al Gore at the creation of the Internet. But he was an early adopter.

So early, in fact, that Kamenetz made news in April 1996 when he had the County Council create a Web page, something so widely unknown at the time that the Woodlawn Villager newspaper had to explain what the heck it was.

"Kevin Kamentz [sic], Chairman of the Baltimore County Council, has announced that the Council has established a home page on the World Wide Web, an information retrieval system for the computer network known as the Internet," the article began.

Kamenetz came across the article recently as he prepared to vacate his County Council office.

"I'm cleaning out my desk after 16 years, and I'm finding all sorts of things," he said.

That Kamenetz understood the Internet before most of us suggests he'll make good on his campaign pledge to improve the county's use of technology.

But there are limits to his skills as a tech seer.

"I only wish I bought stock in the Internet 15 years ago," he said. "Then I really would have been a smart guy."