Bel Air

Editor: What a great idea! The banner idea, no doubt will be a heart-warming experience for both veterans and their families, as well as the public. However, there will be very deserving men and women who will not be on a banner, because a relative, mother and father, son or daughter, cannot afford to pay the $200. This letter is to thank those veterans. They know what they did, and maybe next year someone will find a way to get all of their names flying in the wind over Main Street in Bel Air. Robert M. Dillow Baldwin

An employee at a scaffolding company next to the railroad tracks in Rosedale was one of the first people to see the train leave its tracks after it rammed into a truck last month. "There's just a train wreck in front of us and it's on fire," the man said, in one of more than 40 recorded 911 calls released Friday by Baltimore County police. "There's just like a fire and it's nasty. " "Did the train derail?" the dispatcher asked. "What type of train is it?" The questions would continue in 911 calls from Bel Air to Baltimore City, dozens of them, for nearly an hour.

Harford County is hardly Tinsel Town. The closest places to Bel Air named Hollywood are in St. Mary's County on Maryland's very lower Western Shore and in Carbon County, Pa., not too far from Scranton, backdrop for the hit TV series "The Office. " Yet Bel Air, for the third year in a row, will be the scene of a film festival come the weekend of Oct. 21-23, and it will feature fare found at the Sundance Film Festival and other venues that specialize in celluloid offerings of a more cerebral timbre than the typical summer smashes and seasonal blockbusters.

The detour for Moores Mill Road in Bel Air between Broadway (Route 1) and the Southampton Circle went into place as scheduled on Wednesday. That stretch Moores Mill will be closed to through traffic for at least 10 months, as the county straightens, widens and repaves the road, a $2.1 million project. Bob Thomas, spokesman for county government, said the next couple of weeks will involve setting up by the contractor, after which actual construction work will begin. Comer Construction of Forest Hill is the contractor.

Bel Air voters have five very good candidates to choose from when they go to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 8, to pick three people to serve on the town board for the next four years. These are the people who will be making decisions about such things as trash collection, street paving, parking, police and public safety administration and property tax rates, to name a few. Their actions have a real and substantial impact on the roughly 10,000 people who live in the Bel Air town limits.

Editor: I wanted to take an opportunity to provide some comments in summary of the recent Town of Bel Air election. First, I must express my gratitude once again to the voters of Bel Air. This campaign was yet another rewarding experience for me as a candidate. I always enjoy knocking on doors and hearing feedback from voters; this truly is a great town in which we live. I am pleased to see two outstanding incumbents remain in office and am delighted that a very well qualified challenger is joining the board.

Editor: I find it very disturbing that the Town of Bel Air is paying nearly $1.3 million to create 33-metered parking spaces [Bel Air Building Passing into History, The Aegis Jan. 11, 2012]. That is the cost for purchasing and subsequently demolishing the old BB&T Building that abuts the Harford County Sheriff's Office in Bel Air. In total, this amounts to just under $38,900 per parking spot. How many years does the lot have to be in use to even break even? Will the meters be in use 24/7 or will this result in free nighttime parking for those establishments adjacent to the property?

When the wrecking ball comes to finish off the Victorian-style building which sits on the northwest corner of Routes 22 and 543 outside Bel Air, there will be those who may curse the man who owns the property.Henry Boyer of Churchville bought the 1 1/4-acre property about 14 years ago from Dr. Willard Hudson, at the time a well-known doctor in the county.Then , recalls Boyer, the good doctor was glad to be rid of the building. It needed work, time and money. "It was dilapidated, really," says Boyer.

Mary Paige McGuirk, the mother of 15 children who nurtured others while running a dairy operation, died of heart failure Saturday at her Bel Air farm. She was 88. Mary Paige was born in Bellport, N.Y., and raised in New York City. She was a 1938 Brearley School graduate and attended Bryn Mawr College in suburban Philadelphia. In 1941, she married William E. McGuirk. In 1954, she, her husband and their expanding family moved to Marylea Farm in Bel Air. Mrs. McGuirk raised not only her own 15 children, but also many others.

A woman was rescued from her vehicle after it ran off the road and turned over in Bel Air Monday afternoon. Shortly before 1:30 p.m., fire and EMS rescue crews were called to the scene on Route 22 in front of John Carroll High School. The vehicle, an SUV or minivan, had left the roadway, hit a curb and rolled over on its side, trapping the unidentified driver inside, according to rescue personnel at the scene. No one else was in the vehicle, nor were any other vehicles involved in the accident, rescue personnel said.

A Bel Air woman was injured in a crash after suffering from a medical emergency while driving on Tollgate Road. The accident happened around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday on Tollgate Road near Emerald Drive. Elizabeth Korah, 60, who lives on Ambridge Road, was heading west on Tollgate when police believe she suffered a medical emergency, Edward Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office, said. Witnesses told deputies it looked like Korah was slowly trying to pull to the side of the road before she hit the tree.

Bel Air 9U Travel Baseball won the championship for the 9U-B Division of the Stars and Strikes Tournament hosted by The Elkridge Youth Organization in May. Bel Air played games at Howard High School. Bel Air's wins came over Elkridge All Stars, 14-5; WHC Renegades, 10-8; UMAC, 20-5 (semifinal); and 6-5 over the Catonsville Cubs in the championship. Pictured, bottom row from left, are Collin Roach, Jonathan Klein, Aaron Coogan and Connor Kragh; middle row from left, Daniel Rodier, JJ Jimenez, Britan Nastalski, Aiden Laurentius, Dyllon Barrett and Kevin Winn; and top row from left, coaches Ed Rodier, Ed Coogan, Ken Laurentius and head coach Darrell Barrett.

The Bel Air Independence Day Committee is eagerly seeking floats, marching units, antique cars and comic/novelty acts to join the area's Fourth of July celebration. Local businesses and organizations can be part of the fun as well, with their own entry appearing in front of tens of thousands lining the parade route through downtown Bel Air. "Our parade is an annual tradition for thousands of local residents, and we work hard to make sure the parade is a terrific, fun-filled event for all involved," parade chairman Michael Blum said.

Harford County Public Library and the Harford County Department of Community Services were presented with a Special Preservation Award by the Harford County Historic Preservation Commission for their partnership in bringing Journey Stories to Harford County. The award was given during a May 10 ceremony at the Liriodendron Mansion in Bel Air. Journey Stories was a Smithsonian Exhibition that ran May 19 through July 6, 2012 at the Abingdon library and also featured additional exhibitions and several notable authors and speakers appearing around the county.

Bel Air High School graduate Xuan Bui said she was really excited to learn she was selected as a recipient of a Jimmy Rane Foundation scholarship. It felt like her hard work of finding and completing scholarship applications had paid off, especially because the competition for scholarships has always seemed daunting to her. Biu plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology; however, she has yet to declare a major. She says that 10 years from now, she hopes to have a job related to math or science.

"The Fabulous Flea Market" returns to the historic Liriodendron Mansion and vendors are needed. Sizing down, moving on or just interested in selling treasures - there is reserve space on the porches or lawns, space is limited. The event will be held July 20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Gordon Street, Bel Air. To reserve a space, call 410-838-3942 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Admission is free, ample parking and refreshments are available. Added attraction and outstanding authentic American Indian Exhibit.

Santa and Mrs. Claus will help Bel Air open the final rush to Christmas as the featured guests in the town's 23rd annual Christmas Parade. The holiday parade and Christmas tree lighting will be held from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2, in Downtown Bel Air. It all starts with a concert on Main Street by the Patrick Redmond Band on Main Street. The parade, which goes from Churchville Road to Lee Street, begins at 3:30 p.m. with marching bands from Bel Air, C. Milton Wright, John Carroll, Joppatowne, Patterson Mill, Fallston and Edgewood high schools performing.

A small group associated with the Occupy social and economic protests on New York's Wall Street is expected to stop in Bel Air late this week or over the weekend, the town's police chief said Tuesday evening. The Occupy movement has also staged a camp-in a few blocks from Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Calling itself Occupy the Highway: The 99% March on Washington, the group expected in Harford County set out from New York on foot with the intention of walking to Washington, D.C., where it plans to arrive by Nov. 23, according to website occupywallst.org/article/occupy-highway-99-march-washington . The arrival date is set to coincide with the day Congressional committees are expected to take up an extension of the so-called Bush tax cuts, which the Occupy movement claims benefit only 1 percent of the U.S. population.

The Harford County executive heads the executive branch of the county's government. Elected every four years, the county executive leads a Cabinet composed of directors, departments and agencies, including Public Works, Treasury, Planning and Zoning, Community Services, Economic Development, and Parks and Recreation. The seven-member Harford County Council operates as the legislative branch. Six council members are elected every four years, one from each of the county's six voting districts.

New Covenant Christian School kindergartner Logan Cavey, 6, recites a portion of the Gettysburg Address to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett on Memorial Day at the monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield, commemorating the delivery in November 1863 of President Abraham Lincoln's famous battlefield address. Corbett and Logan crossed paths as the governor was waiting to participate in the official 3 p.m. battlefield memorial service. Logan was visiting the Gettysburg Battlefield with his parents, Scott and Becky Cavey, of Bel Air. A ministry of New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Abingdon, New Covenant Christian School is a preschool through 12th grade classical school with campuses in Bel Air and Abingdon.