Brooklyn Park

On February 7, 2009, JOSEPH JOHN, of Brooklyn Park, formerly of South Baltimore, He is lovingly survived by 11 nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends at the family owned and operated MCCULLY-POLYNIAK FUNERAL HOME P.A., 3204 Mountain Road (Pasadena) on Monday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. where services will be held on Tuesday at 11 A.M. Interment Meadowridge Memorial Park. Contributions may be made in his memory to the Salem Lutheran Church (Randall Street and Battery Avenue)

North County High School will dedicate its new $6.5 million gymnasium Saturday in an event designed to bring students and generations of alumni together. Former principals of Andover, Brooklyn Park and North County high schools will join current school and administration officials at the 11:30 a.m. ribbon-cutting in the gym, which was completed in June. Attendees can look at memorabilia from Andover and Brooklyn Park, the two schools that merged to form North County in 1990. Also on display will be trophies and memorabilia that North County has acquired since it opened.

Norman Stumpf Jr., a bricklayer who went on to found his own general contracting business, died of cancer Tuesday at his Brooklyn Park home. He was 77. Born in Baltimore's Curtis Bay, he was raised in a section of the neighborhood, Car Shop Homes, where railroad passenger coaches were once built. He was a 1947 graduate of Southern High School. After service in the Army during the Korean War, he became a machinist at General Refractories and later trained as a bricklayer. He worked for Henry Knott Co. and Consolidated Masonry before establishing his own business.

MARK AVERY has good intentions in planning a nightclub for teen-agers in Brooklyn Park, the northern Anne Arundel County community where he was born and raised. The 28-year-old entrepreneur sounds sincere when he says he wants to give young people something positive to do.To be sure, the cry of "there's nothing to do" rings loudly from teen-agers, even in areas with a seemingly ample diversions. An alcohol-free nightclub for teen entertainment on weekend nights appeals to many young people and to parents concerned about harmful activities they might get into.

THE DOORS to Brooklyn Park High School may have closed in 1990, but alumni are working to ensure that their school is not forgotten: An alumni association is being formed to unite former BPHS students, faculty, staff and friends of the school.All are welcome to attend the association's meeting at 6: 30 p.m. Thursday at the Brooklyn Park library, 1 E. 11th Ave. The main business will be to finalize bylaws.Information: 410-789-7214 or 410-636-3269; or send e-mail to salut@erols.com.Church fashion showA Unity in the Spirit Fashion Show and Dinner will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at the Lloyd Keaser Center, 5757 Belle Grove Road.

The Brooklyn Park High School Alumni Association is planning an open house/homecoming for alumni in November 2000, to co- incide with the opening of the new Brooklyn Park Middle School and Chesapeake Center for the Creative Arts.The association's next meeting will be held at 6: 30 p.m. Tuesday at the Brooklyn Park library. Alumni and friends are welcome to attend and assist in the planning.Information: 410-636-3269 or 410-789-7214.Hearing to discuss appeal by developer is delayedThe Board of Appeals' hearing to discuss the appeal of a subdivision denial for a proposed Brooklyn Park project known as Camden Hills has been postponed.

A YEAR from now, the old Brooklyn Park High School will start a new life. It will be the new home of the Chesapeake Center for the Creative Arts, Brooklyn Park Middle School, the county Police Department's Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program and the Brooklyn Park Senior Nutrition Site.The center's staff plan to offer a wide range of arts education and culturally diverse performing and visual art programs.For Brooklyn Park residents, that means performances by symphonies, dance troupes, art exhibits and music, art and dance instruction for all ages will only be a short walk away.

TEACHERS AND administrators at Park Elementary School in Brooklyn Park had no clear guidelines to follow in 1997 when they suspended a sixth-grader for scribbling a message the boy claims was his private musing but which they judged to be a bomb threat.The Anne Arundel Public Schools' disciplinary policy does not define what constitutes a threat, so officials had to rely on their judgment.The closest thing to a standard for educators in deciding what is or is not a threat is the school system's policy on assault.

MARY WRIGHT, principal of St. John Christian Day School, is retiring this year after 34 years of service.Wright began her career at St. John's in 1965 as the school's sixth-grade teacher. Before that, she taught at Brooklyn Park Elementary School and in the Baltimore public schools."I taught for two years in the city, then left to have a child," says Wright. "Then I taught at Brooklyn Park and left again to have a child. After that, St. John's called, and I've been there ever since."She was made principal in 1974.

ONE OF the oldest and most urban communities in Anne Arundel County -- Brooklyn Park -- is undergoing a relative renaissance of development. Construction on the multipurpose building that will house Brooklyn Park Middle School, Chesapeake Center for the Creative Arts and county offices is nearing its midpoint; the water system is being given a much-needed upgrade; and redevelopment of the retail district is nearing completion.This week, there are two chances to learn more about the goings-on in Brooklyn Park:The Olde Brooklyn Park Alumni Association will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Brooklyn Park Elementary School, Morgan Road and 14th Avenue.

On November 8, 2009, AGNES V., formerly of Brooklyn Park, beloved wife of the late Francis H. Ward, loving mother of Ron Ward and his wife Charlotte, Jack Ward and his wife Sandy and Tom Ward; beloved grandmother of Nikki, Lori and Lauren and two great-grandchildren, Jared and Preston. The family will receive friends at the family owned and operated MCCULLY-POLYNIAK FUNERAL HOME, P.A., 237 E. Patapsco Avenue (Brooklyn) on Thursday from 7 to 9 P.M., where prayers will be held on Friday at 11 A.M. Interment Cedar Hill Cemetery.

On October 31, 2009, Francis Neal Cutchins Memorial Services will be held on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 10:30 A.M. in the Chapel at Charlestown Retirement Community, 711 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, Maryland 21228. Inurnment private. In lieu of flowers memorial donations in Neal's memory may be made to the Charlestown Benevolent Care Fund, 711 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD 21228 or the Brooklyn Heights United Methodist Church, 110 Townsend Blvd., Brooklyn Park, MD 21225.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys squared off Wednesday in opening statements in the double first-degree murder trial of a Baltimore man in what police said was an ambush outside an Odenton bar last year. Prosecutors hope to see Russell Kelscoe Harden, 26, sentenced to life without parole. But his lawyers said he was not involved in the shootings Nov. 16 that took the lives of two Annapolis men and injured two more. Shortly before the shootings, Harden was placed on house arrest for failing to comply with the terms of his release on a federal gun conviction in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

Sunday BUTCHERS HILL HOUSE TOUR: The tour runs from noon to 5 p.m. and begins at Patterson Park's White House at East Lombard Street and South Patterson Park Avenue. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 the day of. Call 410-522-6773. JEWISH HISTORY BIKE TOUR: Get fit, learn some history and enjoy the great outdoors all at the same time. The bike tour rides through South Baltimore, East Baltimore and Bolton Hill to uncover remaining Jewish sites. The trip leaves from the Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St., at 10 a.m. Riders must be at least 12 years old. Tickets are $20. To register, call 410-732-6400.

Anne Arundel County police seized suspected cocaine and marijuana and charged eight people in the second recent investigation into illegal drug use in the Brooklyn Park-Glen Burnie area. Police said Friday that they conducted the two-month investigation based on complaints from residents. The searches were at residences in the 4900 block of Brookwood Road in Brooklyn Park; the 5300 block of Patrick Henry Drive in Brooklyn Park; the 5300 block of Wasena Ave. in Brooklyn Park; the 900 block of Langley Road in Glen Burnie; and the 100 block of Main Ave. S.E. in Glen Burnie, police said.

As detectives continue to search for burglars who vandalized a Brooklyn Park hair salon with racist messages and symbols, the shop's owner said she expects not to reopen for two months. Investigators from the Anne Arundel County Fire Department were there Monday, asked by county police to identify what may be gasoline or other flammable liquid used to soak the Heavenly Hands Unisex Salon over the weekend. "Everything is so saturated. The chairs are saturated with the gasoline," owner Sharanda Brown said Monday, noting it would take at least a week to begin figuring out what in the salon is too soaked or fume-laden to be salvaged.

On February 7, 2009, JOSEPH JOHN, of Brooklyn Park, formerly of South Baltimore, He is lovingly survived by 11 nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends at the family owned and operated MCCULLY-POLYNIAK FUNERAL HOME P.A., 3204 Mountain Road (Pasadena) on Monday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. where services will be held on Tuesday at 11 A.M. Interment Meadowridge Memorial Park. Contributions may be made in his memory to the Salem Lutheran Church (Randall Street and Battery Avenue)

On January 30, 2009 JEANNE W. FERRERIA, 76, survived by three children Linda Reyes, Laura Checkes and John Ferreria, Jr.; six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Services will be held Thursday ,February 5 at 11 a.m. at the Brooklyn Heights United Methodist Church, 110 Townsend Avenue, Brooklyn Park, MD. For information call 410-789-3650.

For editors, reporters and photographers, Sunday, January 29, 1956, was a daylong trifecta of major breaking news stories. First, they scrambled to cover the death of H.L. Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore, who had been discovered dead in bed in his Hollins Street home. His physician estimated that the elderly newspaperman and author had died sometime between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. That same morning, at 12:01 a.m., some 2,000 Baltimore Transit Co. motormen and bus drivers, were joined by maintenance workers, began returning their streetcars and buses to car barns and went on strike.

T homas Hal Gomer, a retired Brooklyn Park High School educator, artist and drama coach, died Nov. 27 of heart failure at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The Linthicum resident was 77. Dr. Gomer was born and raised in Bowling Green, Ky. After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees from Western Kentucky University, he enlisted in the Army, serving as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. In 1956, he joined the faculty of the old Brooklyn Park High School as an art teacher, and later added teaching drama and directing high school theatrical productions to his duties.