Chapel

Bob Ward Homes has opened a model at Chapel Glen in Aberdeen, where prices start at just more than $100,000 for a single-family home on a quarter-acre lot. Gas heat and public water and sewer are standard features in the Harford County community.At $102,900 for 1,048 square feet, the Dover is the smallest and least-expensive home offered at Chapel Glen.This rancher has a 16-by-13-foot living room, foyer with guest closet, 13-by-12-foot kitchen, utility room, full hall bath, 13-by-13-foot master bedroom and 12-by-8-foot second bedroom.

County Executive Kevin Kamenetz deserves thanks for his leadership on the new school in Mays Chapel. It's disheartening to see baby boomers, most of whom benefited from public education (and a boom in school construction), refuse to support the needs of today's children. As the county grows, officials must choose between "infill" - building densely in existing neighborhoods and filling in greenspace within developed neighborhoods - or expanding into the outer suburbs. Infill is almost always the right choice, leading to stronger communities, reduced traffic congestion and preservation of greenspace farther out in the county.

Years after walking the aisles and kneeling in the pews of St. Michael's Chapel at the Hannah More Academy, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens and other alumnae returned there yesterday for the reopening of the restored Reisterstown landmark. For Owens and many others, the ceremony at St. Michael's meant more than the renovation of a landmark. Owens spoke about how the chapel was a fixture in her days at the Episcopal boarding school for girls. "This chapel was the heart of the school and meant so much to thousands of women," she said.

Residents of Dundalk and Mays Chapel say they plan to join forces for a Saturday rally to protest the sale of the North Point Government Center in Dundalk. Although they live on different ends of the county, residents in both communities are angry about land decisions made by county officials. Some Mays Chapel residents have fought to stop the county from building a new elementary school at a park. In Dundalk, some are fighting the planned sale of the North Point Government Center.

The Durand-Williams wedding came off at 1100 hours. Sharp.The first in a production line of 30 post-graduation ceremonies at the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis had no singing relatives, no poetry readings, no rose petals in the aisles yesterday. Just plenty of crossed swords, military music and guests named "sir.""My fiancee told me to get the earliest time I could," said Ensign Kyle P. Durand, 23, as he fidgeted in his dress white uniform minutes before the wedding. "I just really want to have her with me here.

On a hill above busy Wilkens Avenue, the granite and buff-brick church with its red-tiled dome and green-patinated cupola stands out among the buildings of Charlestown Retirement Community.Unknown to many of the thousands of motorists who pass, however, is that below the 68-foot-high dome is one of the area's best kept secrets: an architectural and artistic masterpiece, the Renaissance-style Chapel of Our Lady of the Angels."It's Baltimore's treasure of art, mosaics, marble and stained glass, unrivaled in this country -- and very few people know it's here," said the Rev. Leo J. Larrivee, 43, who came as a seminarian in 1969 to the Catonsville campus when it was still St. Charles College and Seminary.

God's Trucking Ministry hopes to rev up the spiritual energy in Jessup tomorrow, at an all-day gospel concert and dedication for the ministry's chapel that is expected to draw a crowd of 200 people.The gospel groups Hearts Afire, of Preston, and Brooklyn Boys, of Baltimore, are among the performers scheduled for the free event, which will run from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the truck trailer-turned-chapel on U.S. 1 behind Truckers Inn. The chapel dedication will be at 11:30 a.m."I'm really excited about it," said the ministry's chaplain, the Rev. James Brown.

Tucked behind tall trees on a quiet winding road on Rogers Avenue in Ellicott City is a spiritual epicenter for local Roman Catholics and other Christians.In this blue, isolated house known as Our Lady's Center, Catholics gather for midday Mass, seminary students purchase religious books, and worshipers come to pray and light candles."We're the only traditional Catholic gift shop and chapel in the area," said Veronica L. Henson, the center's manager. "A lot of people come down on their lunch hour.

LINDA WARD AND DAVE HOFFMANNLike so many brides before her, Linda Ward peered out the window of the upstairs dressing room at the Historic Little Wedding Chapel in Elkton and tried to catch a glimpse of her groom.Though Linda couldn't see him, a grinning David "Dave" Hoffmann was waiting in the tiny vestibule downstairs, crowded in with his family while the Rev. Frank T. Smith performed another couple's wedding ceremony.Dave and Linda were one of 13 couples Smith married on Valentine's Day. That's a far cry from the 22 couples he married on Valentine's Day 1998 ("but that was a Saturday," the minister says by way of explanation)

Surrounded by dozens of commercial 18-wheelers on the parking lot behind Truckers Inn in Jessup is a very eye-catching trailer.Large crosses decorate the exterior of the immobile trailer, and big lettering on the side announces: "God's Trucking Ministry" and "Chapel."Inside are eight wooden chairs grouped together and a lectern, where the Rev. James R. Brown often stands.The ordained minister uses the trailer-turned-chapel to counsel and uplift men and women truckers who are constantly on the road and need spiritual guidance and a friendly shoulder.

Thanks for reporting on the real ownership of the 20 acres at the proposed Mays Chapel Elementary School site ("Mays Chapel school groundbreaking disrupted by protesters," April 26). Contrary to County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's claim that the Baltimore County School System owns all 20-plus acres at this site and thus has the right to use it for a school, the BPCS owns only 10 acres; the other 10 acres are owned by Baltimore County Department of Parks and Recreation. The parks department's open space program requires reasonable use of the space by all citizens.

Navy coach Cindy Timchal isn't shy about her desire to have the Midshipmen once again host the Patriot League women's lacrosse tournament. "It would be huge," Timchal said. "That was the goal from the beginning. We hosted it last year, and we just want to host it again. " A win Sunday in the regular-season finale at American would give No. 12 Navy (14-1) top seed in the tournament, which is scheduled to begin next Friday. The Eagles (7-8) also enter the game 5-0 in the conference.

Thanks to Amy Carroll for her insensitive approach to denying the comforts of parks and the beauty of nature to the "grays," as she calls us senior citizens ("Mays Chapel residents sue county school board over land transaction," March 28). As for the schoolchildren, only a handful actually live in the immediate area. The majority will be bused in or driven to school by a parent. The added traffic, not to mention pollution, noise and otherwise, will only lead to the further deterioration of aging lungs.

Your readers should know that not all residents of Mays Chapel are opposed to the new school construction ("Mays Chapel residents sue county, school board over land transaction," March 28). Since when did traffic or property values trump educating the children who are our best natural resources? Welcome their young innocence and eagerness to learn! It will be a welcome change from "gray. " Amy Carroll, Timonium Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

A group of residents has sued Baltimore County and the local school board over plans to build a 700-seat elementary school at the Mays Chapel Park, saying officials skirted county real estate laws. The lawsuit, filed this month in Baltimore County Circuit Court, asks a judge to declare that a County Council resolution authorizing the county and school board to exchange land for the school site was illegal. The county owned 10 acres of the site, while the school system owned the other 10 acres.

The traffic impact study for Mays Chapel Elementary School that was published on the Baltimore County Public Schools web site Feb. 20 is seriously flawed ("Balto. Co. eschews facts in Mays Chapel Elementary decision," Feb. 19). Cullane Court, which is featured prominently in the study maps, has 11 residences. However, the study's maps failed to include Straffan Drive, a road bordering the school between Cullane Court and Roundwood Road. There are 110 residences on Straffan Drive, and the rear of most of them abut the current deeded open space park, where the county plans to build the school.

MIAMI, Okla. -- In 30 minutes or less, you can:Order a pizza and get it delivered.Have the oil changed in your car.And in Miami, Okla., you can get married -- in 29 minutes flat. Blood test, marriage license and wedding.Kim Pruitt and Harold "Dean" West rolled into Miami, a town of 13,000 in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, at 9:30 a.m. on March 10. They were married and back in their black Ford Bronco before 10 a.m., heading home to Lebanon, Mo.Instant coffee, fast food, eyeglasses in an hour, QuikTrip, Kwik Shop -- a reflection of the times.

In East Baltimore, the Chapel NDP Apartments, 173 units of low-income housing near the Johns Hopkins medical complex, are being torn down to make way for upscale housing and a commercial district. Over the past few decades, many people called Chapel Apartments home, celebrating birthdays, graduations and weddings, while drugs and crime became a problem in the area in recent years. As the demolition of the complex neared, some residents resisted their impending eviction. The new $80 million development project will include townhouses, apartments, shops and offices.

Paul Lang's piece on the selection of Mays Chapel for an elementary school was very much on the mark ("Mays Chapel Park wrong site for school" Feb 14). Instead of providing a comparative analysis of any substance, the Board of Education offers anecdotes, hyperbole and a "preliminary assessment" so cursory and flawed that it does not recognize the presence of public utilities at the other site it says it evaluated. It is an assessment so incomplete that it does not address costs to mitigate traffic issues, the costs of razing seven acres of mature trees or the comparative value to the local communities of the open space that will be lost.

On Feb. 5, the Baltimore County Board of Education approved a proposal to build a 700-seat elementary school on the current site of Mays Chapel Park in Timonium. This decision is the culmination of a long process in which the board, county executive and County Council went through the motions of a fair deliberative process, with input from the residents of the surrounding community. In fact, this was a charade designed to reach a preordained conclusion. The issue of the proposed school was placed on the agenda of the regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting.