Athletic Fields

WINFIELD — The Board of County Commissioners this week approved purchase of a 9.16-acre tract in the Winfield area for a new park and athletic fields. The commissioners voted unanimously to buy the tract for $200,000 at its Dec. 6 meeting, tapping various Program Open Space resources for up to $190,000 of the cost, and other sources, including park impact fees, for the remainder. This 9.16-acre property is opposite Winfield Elementary School. Officials noted that the county continues to experience a need for park land and athletic fields in many areas, including Winfield.

An Anne Arundel County judge handed the Key School a victory Tuesday, allowing the 55-year-old Annapolis private school to go ahead with plans to turn the 70-acre Annapolis Golf Club into an outdoor campus for athletics. A request by residents of the surrounding Annapolis Roads community to block the proposed landscape of playing fields, tennis courts, parking lot and a maintenance facility was turned down by Circuit Judge Paul G. Goetzke. An appeal, however, is possible. "This is an important day for us," said Marcella Yedid, head of the school, noting that the school has been working with Anne Arundel County on the site plan.

An Anne Arundel County judge handed the Key School a victory Tuesday, allowing the 55-year-old Annapolis private school to go ahead with plans to turn the 70-acre Annapolis Golf Club into an outdoor campus for athletics. A request by residents of the surrounding Annapolis Roads community to block the proposed landscape of playing fields, tennis courts, parking lot and a maintenance facility was turned down by Circuit Judge Paul G. Goetzke. An appeal, however, is possible. "This is an important day for us," said Marcella Yedid, head of the school, noting that the school has been working with Anne Arundel County on the site plan.

Under Armour executive J. Scott Plank has left the Baltimore-based sports apparel company founded by his brother Kevin Plank, the company said Monday. Scott Plank's Sept. 7 retirement was first reported Friday by the Baltimore Business Journal. Plank, who served as Under Armour's executive vice president for business development, is starting War Horse LLC to focus on real estate development and community-based philanthropy, Diane Pelkey, an Under Armour spokeswoman, said in an email.

Taneytown officials have promised that plans for three badly needed athletic fields won't be jeopardized by a developer's request to extend a storm water management pond into a city park.The pond is designed to control runoff for a Food Lion supermarket and Wantz Chevrolet dealership being built on the 9.56-acre Wantz commercial property that adjoins the city-owned Taneytown Rod and Gun Park. Property owner Leonard Wantz Jr. is negotiating with city government to acquire about one-half acre of the 7.5 acres that the city has earmarked for ball fields.

When Crofton community leaders pushed and petitioned for new athletic fields three years ago, county officials told them the earliest they could start playing on them would be 1998.Now, it looks as if Crofton youngsters will be able to play on those fields a year ahead of schedule.In the last month, the county has bought 80 acres of land next to the Arundel Volunteer Fire Department on Davidsonville Road and hired Towson landscape architects Human and Rohde to design the master plan, said Jack Keene, planning and construction chief for the county Recreation and Parks department.

Crofton is in a "crisis" because there are not enough athletic fields to accommodate organized youth sports, civic association leaders say.But county officials say it may take four years to buy 108 acres off Route 424 and develop new fields.That's not good enough for community leaders."The year 1998 doesn't cut it," said Dorie Folstein, the president of the Crofton Athletic Council, the largest youth sports group in the special tax district. "We are turning kids away now."The dilemma Crofton faces is not new to the community, which has been fighting for more outdoor recreation areas for several years.

A Baltimore County family has donated the use of 65 acres in Green Spring Valley to Park School for athletic fields and a science and nature center. The land, part of a 125-acre farm owned by Lucille Sugar and her late husband, Gordon, a developer of custom homes, has been used for farming since before the Civil War, said their daughter, Susan Sugar Nathan, a local lawyer. The remaining acreage will continue to be leased for farming. Nathan, a Park School alumna and parent of two students there, said the idea of using the land for fields and a nature center came from her father five years ago. Gordon Sugar died two years ago. "My father loved and respected the land," Nathan said.

As football season was about to open this fall, vandals smashed through the gates and gouged tread marks into the fields of the Mount Airy Youth Athletic Association. It wasn't the first time an opening day for a sports league in Mount Airy had been threatened. In April, with baseball season about to begin, vandals took sledgehammers to the concrete dugouts. "This year has been the worst ever for vandalism," said Richard Gardner, athletic director for the athletic association, which uses the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company carnival grounds for its activities.

Backed by the mayor, a Loyola College proposal to buy city-owned land to build athletic fields in the Woodberry area will be taken up by the Baltimore City Council, after years of meetings between neighbors and school officials produced no accords. When a City Council hearing is held -- no date has been set -- residents of four small communities near the proposed site, including Brick Hill and Greenspring Trails, will have a chance to voice views in a public forum. Representatives of an umbrella group, the Woodberry Planning Committee, said in interviews late last week that they feared noise, trash and light pollution, and a diminished amount of open space.

In September 1972, the world watched in disbelief as 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by the Palestinian terrorist organization "Black September" at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich. The story, and Israel's decade-long retaliation, have been captured in countless movies, books and miniseries. Germany had planned to show a new face to the world. The 1972 games were to be the antithesis of Hitler's Olympics. They were informally called "The Carefree Games. " As a result, security was decidedly lax. On Sept.

The County Council last week sent a letter to Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Joe Hairston asking him to change a policy that closes school athletic fields from use during school emergency closures — even if the emergencies don't affect the fields. In a letter to Hairston sent March 20, the council pointed to the days after Hurricane Irene, when the lack of power forced the cancellation of school for a week. "Even though the fields were free of debris, all outside activities were forced to stop because of this superintendent's rule," said the letter, which was signed by all seven members of the council.

There is something wrong with the U.S. We marvel at the increasing mental intelligence of people living in India and China, especially in the cyber field, and how they provide technical assistance to so many American companies. And we wonder, why? In the U.S., children grow up with denigrating terms as "geeks" or "nerds" to label such high-achievers while adulating stars on the athletic field who earn big bucks for performance on professional sports teams. There is nothing wrong with sports and the health benefits which accompany the activity.

WINFIELD — The Board of County Commissioners this week approved purchase of a 9.16-acre tract in the Winfield area for a new park and athletic fields. The commissioners voted unanimously to buy the tract for $200,000 at its Dec. 6 meeting, tapping various Program Open Space resources for up to $190,000 of the cost, and other sources, including park impact fees, for the remainder. This 9.16-acre property is opposite Winfield Elementary School. Officials noted that the county continues to experience a need for park land and athletic fields in many areas, including Winfield.

Over 50 years ago, Calvert Hall relocated from its cramped site on Cathedral and Mulberry Streets in Baltimore to a more spacious, 30 acre location in Towson. As both the school and the surrounding neighborhood developed, Calvert Hall has taken particular measures to assure harmony for all concerned. Each day, over 1,225 college-bound young men fully utilize our state-of-the-art facilities. Within the last three years alone, over $15 million has been invested on a variety of enhancements ranging from improved landscaping to building additions and renovations that help ensure that Calvert Hall is a safe and comfortable educational environment.

Much acclaim has been given "Friday Night Lights," from the 1990 book about a Texas town and its devotion to high school football to the movie and Emmy-winning TV series it spawned. Playing under the bright lights with hundreds or even thousands of excited local fans in attendance is something many high school athletes aspire to do — perhaps never more so than today, thanks in no small part to the legacy of Permian High School and its fictional counterpart, Dylan High. But not everyone is so thrilled by the prospect of lighted athletic fields.

The city of Annapolis wants to do a good thing: renovate land around Germantown Elementary into athletic fields for the community. Germantown parents want to do a good thing, too: raise money for their school by using the same land as a parking lot for special events.Mayor Dean L. Johnson is trying to figure out how to do both on the 34 acres to keep the school's PTA, the Citizens Advisory Committee, the community and visitors to the city happy."It's trying to get competing interests squeezed onto one small site," Johnson said.

Athletic fields will be split between both sides of a proposed park on Blandair in Columbia to balance the desires of preservationists, environmentalists, sports enthusiasts and the people who live near the property. Blandair, a 300-acre tract divided by Route 175, is in a densely populated area of the county - particularly its southern section, which abuts hundreds of townhouses. The north side, surrounded by single-family homes, is marked by a 19th-century mansion, many aged outbuildings and a swath of wetlands and woods.

Howard has become the first county in Maryland to completely ban smoking at its parks, but it will likely not be the last. "We will see counties all over the state doing this," County Executive Ken Ulman said following a news conference Wednesday at Centennial Park, where he signed the executive order that prohibits smoking at the county's 57 parks. Many other jurisdictions have already placed some restrictions on smokers outdoors, prohibiting smoking on playgrounds or athletic fields or during major events.

My dad spoke Kid — even Adult Kid. He knew that in challenging times, an "I'll be OK" from my brother or me really meant, "Stick with me. " Even when unsure of exactly what to do, he would just show up. I do not mean he would move in or plant on our couch — I mean that he would help us come up with a game plan, and then call every three hours even if just to say, "I love you. " In Kid, these calls translated into: "You are not alone. " He practiced the gospel of the "FUNdamentals," as he wrote the term he preached from our first lacrosse toss in the backyard and through his team dad years.