Talks end over plan to use vacant hospital site for parking
Anne Arundel Medical Center, which relocated from its downtown Annapolis site this month, has ended negotiations with the city about the possible use of its vacant parking garage and parking lot during the legislative session this winter.
It's a move that Mayor Ellen O. Moyer - who fast-tracked legislation last week to allow the parking-starved city to operate the nearly 500-space parking facility, if the hospital agreed - described as "unreasonable."
Arthur Drea Jr., the attorney hired by the city to head the negotiations with the hospital, said that hospital officials cited legal and contractual issues yesterday that prevented them from allowing the garage to be used but would not elaborate or allow Drea to discuss the issues with hospital attorneys.
Previously, the hospital had said that liability concerns, as well as terms accompanying bonds on the parking garage, forbid its use. Hospital spokeswoman Mary Lou Baker said yesterday that AAMC had re-examined the issues with its attorneys "but the situation is unchanged."
The hospital property is slated to be developed by Virginia-based Madison Homes. The company's proposal is scheduled to go before the city planning commission next month, but demolition of the hospital structures, including the garage, is expected to be at least a year away.
Woman, 20, charged in fatal car accident
A Glen Burnie woman was charged with negligent manslaughter by automobile and related counts in connection with a traffic accident that killed a Pasadena teen-ager in June, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday.
The 11-count indictment accuses Jamie Lynn Newman, 20, of causing the accident June 30 that killed 15-year-old Christina Fisher. It alleges that Newman was driving while drunk when her car veered into the path of an oncoming car in which the girl was a passenger.
The teen-ager was a front-seat passenger in a car traveling south on Fort Smallwood Road near Chestnut Grove Road, police said after the accident. That car was struck by a car traveling north in the same lane, police said.
Newman, identified in court papers as a college student, is free on her own recognizance. Her lawyer, Peter S. O'Neill, said he would not discuss the case.
The maximum sentence for a conviction on the most serious charge, negligent manslaughter by automobile, is 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The woman also faces related criminal and traffic charges.
2 Davidsonville teens killed in car crash
Two Davidsonville teen-agers were killed in an early-morning accident on Governor's Bridge Road yesterday, Anne Arundel County police said.
Marcus Allen Foster, 16, of the 400 block of W. Central Ave., was driving west on Governor Bridge Road about 3 a.m. when he lost control of his Toyota Celica around a curve near Strawberry Run, police said. The car spun out of control, swerved off the road and hit a tree on the driver's side of the vehicle, accident investigators said.
Foster and a passenger in the rear seat, William Joseph Werner, 16, of the 3600 block of Riva Road, were pronounced dead on the scene. The front-seat passenger, Aaron Reid Carr, also 16, of the 3400 block of Riva Road, was not seriously injured, police said.
Gambrills man honored for house fire rescue
A Gambrills man who rescued his disabled father-in-law from a house fire was honored yesterday for his heroism by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
Thomas J. Dorr, 56, rescued 86-year-old Thomas Miller when the man's house caught fire Jan. 7. Miller, who has Parkinson's disease, apparently fell asleep in a living room chair while smoking, and when the chair caught fire he was unable to get to his wheelchair.
Dorr, a retired engineer, rushed to Miller's home, two doors away, entered the burning house and pulled the man to safety. Dorr was one of 24 to receive the Pittsburgh-based Hero Fund Commission's Carnegie Medal, awarded for risking one's life to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save others. In addition to the bronze medal, the award comes with a $3,500 grant.
Homeless man charged in string of robberies
A homeless man was being held yesterday after being charged in a string of robberies in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore.
Keith Gerald Smith, 39, of no fixed address, was charged with armed robberies of a gas station on Ritchie Highway in Pasadena on Dec. 11, another gas station in Arnold on Dec. 16 and a convenience store on Mountain Road in Pasadena on Dec. 17, police said. He was also charged with thefts from an Arnold grocery store, a Glen Burnie department store and a Pasadena craft and garden center this month.
Investigators from the county's robbery unit and Baltimore City robbery detectives worked together to arrest Smith, who was also wanted for violating his probation. Smith was arrested by county police Wednesday at a Glen Burnie house. Smith faces similar theft and robbery charges in Baltimore, police said.
