Campus Living

Preservation Maryland, the state's oldest preservation organization, awarded more than $85,000 worth of grants this spring to help fund four preservation projects. They are:* Union Square Association: A $25,000 loan and a $3,000 grant to help launch efforts to save a row of derelict buildings on West Baltimore Street at the gateway to the Union Square historic district.* Historic Easton Inc.: a $25,000 loan to assist with the restoration of the fire-damaged Easton Railroad Station, which will become the new home of Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage Inc.* Somerset County Historical Trust: guarantee of a one-year bridge loan to aid in acquiring Brittingham House, a long-vacant, early-19th century dwelling in the Princess Anne National Register Historic District.

New positionsRadcliffe is programs chief for Lear Siegler ServicesLear Siegler Services has appointed Harry Q. Radcliffe director of federal programs for the Annapolis-based aircraft and vehicle logistics, transportation and maintenance management firm. He is responsible for management oversight and program development for fixed-price services. The Bethesda resident formerly was a general manager with Lockheed Martin Corp. and served as a pilot in the Marine Corps.Kanarek is media director for Baltimore Co. collegesCommunity College of Baltimore County named Harold Kanarek director of media relations.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore and Mercy Medical Center plan a continuing-care retirement community in Timonium, a complex that could become one of the largest in the state.Mercy Ridge, a joint venture to be built on the grounds of theCardinal Shehan Center/Stella Maris, would include 257 one- and two-bedroom apartments and 30 assisted-living units in its first phase.Expansion could add at least 400 apartments if marketing studies show a need, Mercy spokesman Dan Collins said yesterday.The proposal -- announced by officials including Cardinal William H. Keeler -- coincides with Mercy's expected $23.5 million purchase Monday of 140 acres that the archdiocese owns in Timonium.

Salary cap another form of collusionWhen is collusion not collusion? When it gets written into a labor agreement.Years ago, the owners of major league baseball teams were convicted of collusion for secretly agreeing to hold down the salaries of players. This resulted in fines and penalties of about $250 million.It was an expensive and painful lesson, but what did the owners learn? They learned that collusion was terrific, except that they would have to find a better way to do it.The proposed "salary cap" is a thinly veiled attempt to legitimize a practice for which the owners already have been convicted.

Yesterday was a great day for sailing -- even at landlocked Oak Crest Retirement Community in Parkville.But instead of manning life-size crafts, the senior skippers maneuvered 2 1/2 -foot sailboats by remote control while standing on the grassy shores of a 1 1/2 -acre muddy pond."

THERE'S AN ELECTION looming, and candidates are raising money aggressively across Maryland.No, not the election for mayor in Baltimore this fall or the presidential election next year. For most state and local politicians, the big dance comes in 2002.More than three years before the election, a host of candidates are intently raising money this spring and summer. Banned by law from raising money during the General Assembly session that ended in April, dozens of candidates are looking to build up an early bankroll.

THE FIRST GUY in line wore a woolen cap in the stifling humidity and said he hadn't worked in maybe two years. He wasn't entirely certain about dates. The guy behind him shivered and twitched in the heat and the muggy rain, as if tiny time bombs were bursting inside of him. They'd been standing here since 7. Now it was 9 o'clock, still an hour and a half from mealtime.A few feet away was a guy in a Northrop Grumman cap, out of work for three years, next to an unemployed construction worker and a homeless ex-truck driver and an ex-bricklayer standing in front of a woman in a silky skirt sitting on a piece of cardboard on the ground that offered her slim protection from the rain water rolling down this alley between Charles and Cathedral streets where hundreds lined up for food, as they do every day, outside Our Daily Bread.

When a group of Anne Arundel County residents started a nonprofit in the early 1970s to help those with mental and physical health problems, a contest was held to find the perfect name. The winner was Bello Machre, the Gaelic phrase meaning "home of my heart." "When you see how lives are really changed by people caring for people," said Bob Ireland, executive director of Bello Machre, "the name takes on real meaning." Bello Machre's mission is to provide comfortable, secure homes for developmentally disabled persons and to give them a chance, while living with a trained residence manager, to experience life to its fullest.

Maryland Institute College of Art officials say the college's new deluxe apartment complex will help students make the transition from their freshman dormitory to off-campus living. There could be a problem: The students who moved last week into the building that once housed the Hospital for the Women of Maryland may never want to leave. And why should they? The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff House, as the 115-year-old building on West Lafayette Avenue in Bolton Hill is now known, is full of the premium features and whimsical frills one would expect in a refurbished Soho loft.