Bagby

A man was arrested yesterday in South Baltimore and charged with robbing a police officer of her service handgun on Monday.Sgt. Michael Wingler said two men were robbing the McDonald's restaurant in the 700 block of Washington Blvd. about 10 p.m. when they spotted Officer Helena Mills. The robbers went outside and one of them pulled a handgun and took Mills' gun. They drove off in a late-model Ford pickup truck that was traced to a residence in the 2800 block of Joseph Ave. in Westport, Wingler said.

Within weeks, there may be good news for residents and visitors who have cursed the shortage of convenient parking in Little Italy.Developer John Chapman, of Little Italy Parking Associates, hopes to seek city approval within a few weeks for a privately financed, five-level parking garage at President and Pratt streets. The $6 million garage will sit on a lot that is two-thirds owned by the city.The facility would be in addition to a city-owned garage at Bank Street and Central Avenue, which is scheduled to be completed in September.

BYE, BYE, Bagby.By year's end, if all goes according to plan, the old furniture company showroom at Fleet and Exeter streets will be transformed into downtown Baltimore's newest office complex.The $12 million conversion is the latest project of Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, a local construction and development firm that has led the effort to recycle the American Can Co. complex on Boston Street and other city landmarks, and Sylvan Learning Systems."We've moving forward," developer C. William Struever said yesterday.

The Maryland Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by the owner of the Bagby building, who sought $5 million in damages from the Little Italy Community Organization and two Little Italy residents for opposing his development plans.One Thousand Fleet Limited Partnership, which owns the Bagby building and is headed by Baltimore developer Patrick Turner, had sued LICO and Little Italy residents John Guerriero and Richard Ingrao, alleging malicious use of process and abuse of process.

With the help of the Anne Arundel Genealogical Society, we've learned more about that 165-year-old gravestone discovered last week in some brush along Ritchie Highway in Arnold. Seems the man whose name is inscribed on the stone, Elijah Redmond, was an Arundel landowner (probably a farmer) who had slaves and willed their freedom from his grave, though with conditions.It's all in court records in Annapolis. Redmond's extensive will was probated in December 1831, the same month he died at age 70, with many prominent early Arundel landowners listed among witnesses.

Consensus is not a favorite word in Little Italy these days.Warring neighborhood leaders can't even agree on whether they have a president for a community group that represents 500 people in this historic enclave east of downtown.A controversy, brewing for months over unpaid legal bills and a $5 million lawsuit, erupted this month when three officers of the Little Italy Community Organization resigned.The group's president, Roy Eppard, insists he's still in power."I know I'm still president," said Eppard, who was elected in September 1994 to a two-year term.

A project to convert a Little Italy warehouse into apartments, which upset community residents because some units would house low-income tenants, has been scuttled because the developer did not get state and federal financing, according to officials involved.In the planning stages for over two years, the $5.6 million project by developer Patrick Turner would have turned the old Bagby Furniture Co. warehouse at Exeter and Fleet streets into 57 loft apartments, of which 10 were to be for low-income tenants.

If everything had gone as planned, there would already be apartments in the old Bagby Furniture Co. building near Little Italy. Instead the 93-year-old warehouse sits idle while the neighborhood and the developer argue over who said what to whom. It's time to move on so this project can be completed and enhance the community.Henrietta Corp. developer Patrick Turner announced the renovation plans for the Bagby building in 1993. He said the seven efficiencies, 16 one-bedroom and 33 two-bedroom apartments would be rented at prices ranging from $600 to $1,200 a month.

A Baltimore Circuit judge dismissed yesterday four lawsuits filed by a Little Italy community organization seeking to block a developer from converting a vacant warehouse into apartments that will include subsidized housing.Judge Richard T. Rombro ruled that the Little Italy Community Organization and Richard Ingrao, a former president of LICO, did not have the proper standing to sue the mayor and City Council to block building permits for the renovation project.Residents object to developer Patrick Turner's plan to renovate the old Bagby Furniture Co. warehouse, at Exeter and Fleet streets in Little Italy, into 57 units, with 10 apartments set aside for low- to moderate-income residents.

Frances Boone BagbyLongtime RealtorFrances Boone Bagby, who had been active in the real estate business and in many organizations, died after a stroke Wednesday at Broadmead, the Cockeysville retirement community.Mrs. Bagby, who was 87, retired about a decade ago after many years with Russell T. Baker & Co., during 1975 PHOTOwhich she became a life member of the Realtors' Million Dollar Club.She was born Frances Boone in Greensboro, N.C., and educated there. She was proud of being a descendant of Daniel Boone.