Baltimore County Department

Elizabeth Z. "Betsy" Kahl, a longtime Towson community activist and grant manager for the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, was found dead Feb. 8 in her home in Towson's Burkleigh Square neighborhood. She was 73. Mrs. Kahl suffered a fatal heart attack in her sleep, according to a son, Christian H. Kahl II of Berlin, Worcester County. Elizabeth Zimmerman, the daughter of a Potomac Edison Co. accountant and a nurse, was born in Hagerstown and raised in Mercersburg, Pa. After graduating from Buchanan High School in Mercersburg in 1954, she earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1958 from Hood College.

Paul L. Ensor, a retired Baltimore County police officer, died Thursday from colon cancer at Sunflower Assisted-Living in Westminster. He was 95. The son of farmers, Paul LeRoy Ensor was born and raised in Sparks. He attended Baltimore County public schools. Mr. Ensor was working at Bendix Corp. when he joined the Baltimore County Police Department in 1952. He was assigned to the Garrison Precinct, where he drove the patrol wagon, family members said. He retired in 1975. The longtime Owings Mills resident, who had lived in Upperco for the last 22 years, enjoyed fishing, crabbing and gardening.

Roberta L. Nevitt, a retired social worker who had worked for the Baltimore County Department of Aging, died July 27 of cancer at the Hospice of the Piedmont in Charlottesville, Va. She was 64. Roberta Lee Nevitt was born in Atlanta and later moved with her family to Baltimore, where she grew up in Govans. She was a 1965 graduate of Eastern High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1968 from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and a master's in social work from the University of Maryland in 1973.

Over two years have passed since firefighter Mark Falkenhan was killed at an apartment fire on Dowling Circle in Towson. His death resulted, in part, from a collapse of the Incident Command System (ICS), when first-arriving units were faced with heavy fire and multiple rescues. ICS is a procedural policy for ensuring that command and control mechanisms are continually utilized during mitigation efforts at every incident. "Command" is assumed by the officer of the first-arriving unit and passed to the responding chief officer upon his or her arrival.

The Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks and the Orioles will hold the 41st annual Baseball Clinic of Stars on Saturday, Feb. 27, at the Lansdowne High School rec center. The clinic begins with a continental breakfast at 8 a.m. and will include an instructional clinic run by Orioles scout Jim Gilbert and staff, beginning at 9: 20. Tickets are $5 and are on sale at the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks regional offices. Contact the Southwest Area Office at 410-887-1071 for the nearest regional office.

* The Baltimore County Department of Aging will present information sessions at county senior centers this week on how senior citizens can manage and treat arthritis. The sessions are: 11 a.m. Monday at Seven Oaks; 11 a.m. Tuesday, Parkville; 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, Ateaze in Dundalk; 1 p.m. Thursday, Cockeysville; and 10 a.m. Friday, Bykota in Towson. Call 410-887-2594 or visit baltimorecountymd.gov/aging.

An article in The Sun Feb. 13 incorrectly identified the Highlands office park site under consideration for a new Sparks school as having previously been part of an adjacent, contaminated former Bausch & Lomb property.In fact, officials have found no indication of contamination on the proposed school site, although "there has been very little testing" there, according to J. James Dieter, director of the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management.The Sun regrets the errors.

Harford County Executive James M. Harkins has completed his administrative team with the appointments of the directors of economic development and public information. J. Thomas Sadowski, who worked 10 years in the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development, was named head of economic development. James L. Mason, a teacher in Harford school system for 26 years, was named head of public information. The appointments must be approved by the County Council. Pub Date: 1/06/99

Two of the five Baltimore County department heads fired last week by incoming executive Roger B. Hayden have been replaced, and Deputy Fire chief Elwood H. Banister is the new county fire chief.John E. Lutz, 44, who worked for Hayden for 15 years at Eastern Stainless Steel, is to be the new county director of Central Services, and Wayne R. Harman, 55, director of elementary instruction for the county schools, has been chosen director of Recreation and Parks.

Since the 1930s, warm weather and sunshine is a signal for many in Carroll and Baltimore counties to venture outdoors for biking, hiking fishing and boating trips in the Gunpowder River and Prettyboy watershed in the Hereford area. Spring has arrived just in time to help celebrate Prettyboy Reservoir Day this Saturday, April 27, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. This year the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, the Prettyboy Watershed Alliance, Carroll and Baltimore County have joined forces for the one-day event as a part Earth Day celebrations and Baltimore Green Week.

Since the 1930s, warm weather and sunshine is a signal for many in Carroll and Baltimore counties to venture outdoors for biking, hiking fishing and boating trips in the Gunpowder River and Prettyboy watershed in the Hereford area. Spring has arrived just in time to help celebrate Prettyboy Reservoir Day this Saturday, April 27, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. This year the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, the Prettyboy Watershed Alliance, Carroll and Baltimore County have joined forces for the one-day event as a part Earth Day celebrations and Baltimore Green Week.

Baltimore County officials say a sewer overflow that discharged an estimated 16,800 gallons of waste into a tributary of White Marsh Run was discovered this past week. County health department officials said the tributary flows to the Bird River, and that said the overflow resulted from a vandalized eight-inch sewer line. County utility crews contained the overflow with a pump, but officials said that due to it occurring in a wooded area, between Gunpowder Crossing Lane and Pulaski Highway, the overflow went undetected for two weeks.

Anne G. Karlsen, a registered nurse who had worked for the Baltimore County Health Department, died Jan. 25 of heart failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care. She was 86. Anne Bradford Grafflin was born in Baltimore and spent her early years on Wilson Street in Bolton Hill, before moving in 1934 to the Dixon Hill neighborhood in Mount Washington. After graduating from Western High School in 1945, she attended Baltimore Business College and later that year went to work as a mail sorter in the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's downtown freight office.

Roberta L. Nevitt, a retired social worker who had worked for the Baltimore County Department of Aging, died July 27 of cancer at the Hospice of the Piedmont in Charlottesville, Va. She was 64. Roberta Lee Nevitt was born in Atlanta and later moved with her family to Baltimore, where she grew up in Govans. She was a 1965 graduate of Eastern High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1968 from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and a master's in social work from the University of Maryland in 1973.

Del. Steve DeBoy, who represents Arbutus, Lansdowne and part of Catonsville in District 12A, has been named to the board of directors for the Baltimore Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. Barry Williams, a Lansdowne High graduate who is now director of the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks, will preside as chairman of the 86-member Scouts board for a second term. Williams is the nephew of Margaret Williams, a black Cowdensville resident who sued to gain entrance to all-white Catonsville High School in 1936.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced Tuesday the formal consolidation of two community planning and support offices in county government that will now fall under one director - Andrea Van Arsdale, who was named as the county's director of planning in April. Kamenetz said the merger combines the former Office of Community Conservation with the Office of Planning, while eliminating one director and one senior staff level position through attrition. The new agency will be known simply as the Department of Planning.

Baltimore County officials say a sewer overflow that discharged an estimated 16,800 gallons of waste into a tributary of White Marsh Run was discovered this past week. County health department officials said the tributary flows to the Bird River, and that said the overflow resulted from a vandalized eight-inch sewer line. County utility crews contained the overflow with a pump, but officials said that due to it occurring in a wooded area, between Gunpowder Crossing Lane and Pulaski Highway, the overflow went undetected for two weeks.

Del. Steve DeBoy, who represents Arbutus, Lansdowne and part of Catonsville in District 12A, has been named to the board of directors for the Baltimore Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. Barry Williams, a Lansdowne High graduate who is now director of the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks, will preside as chairman of the 86-member Scouts board for a second term. Williams is the nephew of Margaret Williams, a black Cowdensville resident who sued to gain entrance to all-white Catonsville High School in 1936.

Elizabeth Z. "Betsy" Kahl, a longtime Towson community activist and grant manager for the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, was found dead Feb. 8 in her home in Towson's Burkleigh Square neighborhood. She was 73. Mrs. Kahl suffered a fatal heart attack in her sleep, according to a son, Christian H. Kahl II of Berlin, Worcester County. Elizabeth Zimmerman, the daughter of a Potomac Edison Co. accountant and a nurse, was born in Hagerstown and raised in Mercersburg, Pa. After graduating from Buchanan High School in Mercersburg in 1954, she earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1958 from Hood College.

Salary: $79,000 Age: 45 Years on the job: 8 How he got started: From high school, Colt Bracken went into his family's plumbing and heating business. After his father died, he decided to make a change and took entrance exams to become a Baltimore County police officer. He was accepted into the police academy and graduated in 1993. He's always worked out of the Towson Precinct, first as a patrolman and since a promotion in 2001 as a detective.