Chimes

The phrase "eat, drink and be merry" could've been created with the Chimes' 2001 Hall of Fame celebration in mind. Food and wine galore greeted some 600 guests at a pre-performance dinner reception at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Then, the evening's main event, "Stand-Up For The Chimes" -- a show featuring comedians Carrot Top, Darrell Hammond and Rita Rudner -- had them rolling in the aisles. The lucky 200 at a post-show dessert reception also had a chance to chat with the three comics, and perhaps come away with an autograph or three.

While the Ravens front office contemplates Joe Flacco's agent's insistence that his client should be the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL, Flacco's teammates have a pretty good idea of where Flacco stands with the rest of his peers. “He deserves to get paid,” outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said as a guest on The NFL Network's “NFL Total Access” program Friday night. “Where he scales at, that's between our front office and his agent. But he definitely deserves it. The man has a championship ring and you reward your champion by paying him.” Wide receiver and return specialist Jacoby Jones appeared on the same program and voiced a similar opinion.

The Chimes agency rang in some 2,000 music lovers, and $325,000, at its fund-raising benefit at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The event featured a reception and a concert by opera star Jose Carreras.Even before the internationally renowned tenor took the stage, a buffet in the lobby hit the perfect pitch for opera aficionados such as Terry Perl, president and CEO of the Chimes; Eileen Levine, Elaine and Alvin Katz, Judith Martinak, and Susan and Gary Talles, event co-chairs; Allan Levine, the Chimes' board chair; Steve Kramer and James Phillips, board members; Hal Dahan, the evening's honoree; Dr. Cesar Castillo of St. Agnes HealthCare; Marc Winner, president of F. P. Winner Ltd.; Steve Gigliotti, VP and GM of WMAR-TV; Arlene Mandel, manager at the dental office of Feldman, Sachs & Fitzgerald; and Janice Altman, fitness-wear distributor.

The Baltimore Police Department on Thursday added to the growing wave of video valentines to the Ravens on the eve of the AFC championship game against the new England Patriots. Among the cast of hundreds: a mounted unit, a K-9 unit, homicide cops, the bigwigs and a group that seemed pretty conversant with hand-to-hand combat. Based on the production values, it appears only single digits of your tax dollars were at work here. So enjoy! Let us count the ways: 0:19: Pro-Ravens freestyle posturing underscored by coordinated pink lipstick.

THE CHIMES, a Baltimore-based nonprofit, has grown into a big business -- a $125-million-a-year business -- providing jobs and care for the disabled, largely via government contracts. It serves more than 5,000 people across the mid-Atlantic region and is one of the nation's largest providers of disabled janitors. And in the process, its top executives have been rewarded handsomely, including payments to its chief executive over the last three years totaling more than $1.5 million. Chimes CEO Terry A. Perl's compensation appears high in comparison with the leaders of similar organizations.

A sellout crowd packed the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall lobby for the Chimes' "Hall of Fame 10" night, sipping cocktails, browsing a dinner buffet and socializing. But the crackle of excitement in the air had more to do with what the night held next -- a concert by a 14-year-old Welsh singing sensation, Charlotte Church. The most frequently asked question overheard at the get-together? Forget "Hi, how are you?" Rather, it was "Have you heard her before?" Adjectives like "incredible," "unbelievable" and "fabulous" also seemed to get quite a conversational workout in this gathering.

YOU COULD SAY THAT THE CHIMES School's "2007 Hall of Fame" celebration was a family affair this year because it wasn't just former Maryland state senator Frank Kelly being honored, but also his wife, Janet, their four sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. And 22 -- almost all of them -- turned out at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall for the shindig. "We're celebrating generations...and we have three generations here with us," said Janet Kelly. "The whole theme of this evening is the generations of the Kellys supporting generations of people with disabilities, just as Chimes has for the last six decades," said Chimes president / CEO Terry Allen Perl.

FEDERAL authorities have launched a tax probe of Baltimore-based Chimes Inc. and have proposed sweeping governance standards, including executive salary limits, for Chimes and other nonprofit groups that get $2 billion annually from taxpayers to employ the disabled. The Internal Revenue Service has been looking over its records, the Chimes said last week. Chimes executives did not elaborate, and it was unclear whether the review is part of a national IRS investigation into executive compensation at charities and other nonprofits.

FROM SONGS can come love, strength, friendship and hope. From certain songs, like "One Little Candle," comes hope. There was a lot of hope the other day at Chizuk Amuno Congregation.Two choruses of 32 children, seven of them from the Chimes School for retarded children in Mount Washington, sang the song of hope to more than 100 students and teachers at the Solomon Schechter Day School at the congregation. And they sang it beautifully.Eight were soloists out front. Miriam Stewart from Schechter's fifth-grade chorus started with "One little candle burning bright."

The Chimes and Intervals, two nonprofit groups serving children and adults with mental retardation, have merged operations to provide better service and save operating costs.Under the sole leadership of Terry Allen Perl, president and chief executive officer of Chimes, the groups will work together to complement their experiences with different types of clients.The groups will keep their names and boards."We merged to enhance programs and services and to provide more cost-efficient administrative support," said Mary "Terry" Chapman, who was chief executive officer of Intervals and remains as its chief operating officer.

John Harbaugh's decision to fire offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and promote quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell to that position was shocking in terms of the timing, but it wasn't unprecedented in the NFL this season. The Philadelphia Eagles dismissed defensive coordinator Juan Castillo two days after the team fell to 3-3, and the Tennessee Titans did the same with offensive coordinator Chris Palmer one day after that squad dropped to 4-7. Making a change at coordinator wasn't even unheard of among the Ravens.

John D. Danko stops in mid-conversation to note the sound ringing through the house. The small brass bell chimes from behind the face of the grandfather clock in the foyer, perhaps the same sound people would have heard in their homes while waiting for word from the battlegrounds of the War of 1812. "Back in those days, this is what they heard," says Danko, after the clock has chimed nine times on the hour. Then there's only the tick-tick-tick of the seconds as two weights and a pendulum wrought in cast iron keep the time using technology that dates to the days of the Battle of North Point and Fort McHenry's defense of Baltimore harbor.

There is undoubtedly an unpleasant knee-jerk reaction whenever you hear someone criticize an organization whose sole purpose is to provide humanitarian assistance to people in most need. We generally feel better about living in a community that supports nonprofits and their activities. So when representatives of The Chimes, a Dixon Hill-located nonprofit, announced at a community association meeting their desire to install an array of ground-mounted solar panels on their property, the opposition to their plan may seem harsh and unwarranted ("Mount Washington residents criticize plan to build solar panels," Jan. 3)

A proposal to build solar panels on a historic property in Mount Washington has drawn criticism from neighbors who believe it will be an eyesore for some nearby houses. The Chimes, a Baltimore-based nonprofit, plans to put solar panels in a grassy area between two Victorian houses it owns in the Dixon Hill neighborhood of Mount Washington. The panels would produce electricity for the residences on the property. "The plan is to put a small ground-mounted system between two of the buildings," said Martin S. Lampner, the president and CEO of The Chimes.

It took two weeks -- and two Ravens victories -- but coach John Harbaugh has finally been peppered with a hard-hitting question about Joe Flacco's facial hair. Flacco and tight end Dennis Pitta first sported Fu Manchu mustaches during the win over the San Francisco 49ers and the Ravens are now 2-0 with them sporting the look. “I'm superstitious about not being superstitious,” Harbaugh said Monday at his weekly press conference, a day removed from Sunday's 24-10 win over the Cleveland Browns.

Baltimore celebrities will take their best shot at comedy, all in the name of giving back. The first Chimes Charity Chuckle seeks to raise funds for the Chimes, a Baltimore-based nonprofit group that provides services for the disabled, on Oct. 29 at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. "We're looking to provide the town with a good night out," said Marty Lampner, president and CEO of Chimes. "I think we'll have a very good time and it will be a lot of fun. " When Lampner took over as president and CEO last year, organizers decided to put a fresh face on the annual Chimes fundraising event that for the past 20 years consisted mostly of concerts or dinner-dance receptions.

At 2 p.m. on Friday, the chimes in the tower of the historic Harford County Courthouse rang out just once. At 3 o'clock, they tolled only twice. Had a time warp mysteriously descended upon the county seat? In fact, county facilities workers got a jump on adjusting the chimes in the 1858 building on Courtland Place, in advance of the end of daylight-saving time, which expired at 2 a.m. today. No one was up at that early hour fiddling with the chimes because other chores needed to be done over the weekend by county workers, mainly electrical maintenance work at county buildings.

Eight people suffered minor injuries when a bus carrying developmentally disabled adults collided with a small white GEO Spectrum, flipped over and slammed into a utility pole near the Bonnie View Golf Course in Baltimore County.The driver of the Spectrum, Aleksander Ushbrenko, 20, of the 6900 block of Ten Timbers Lane, Summit Park, was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he was listed in fair and stable condition last night.No one on the bus -- a driver, an attendant and five passengers -- was seriously injured.

The Ravens and New York Jets will meet Sunday night at M&T Bank Stadium, an affair that will be nationally televised on NBC. As with all Sunday night broadcasts, NBC emailed a couple thoughts from Sunday Night Football analysts Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison. Dungy, the Super Bowl-winning coach with the Indianapolis Colts, opined that with identical 2-1 records, both teams will be primed for this showdown. “The Ravens had an emotional letdown going to Tennessee [on Sept.

The workers who clean Oriole Park at Camden Yards - and who fought a successful campaign last year for higher wages - have voted to unionize, AFSCME Maryland said yesterday. The union, the state affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the cleaners voted 64 to 13 to join. About 130 were eligible to vote. AFSCME hailed the results, tallied early yesterday morning, as a victory for "contingent workers" with no set schedule. They are employed by Chimes DC, which is an arm of Baltimore nonprofit Chimes International and has a contract with the Maryland Stadium Authority.