Churchville

Step right up, step right up. Watch three rings of circus entertainment by Sterling and Reid Bros. today at the Big M Bash Field in Churchville. There'll be trampoline artists, tumblers, bungee divers, flying trapeze artists, jugglers, contortionists, a human cannonball and a slew of clowns. Want to see animal stunts? Elephants, tigers (including white tigers) and horses will perform. Goats will ride ponies, geese will race donkeys, and cows will sing. Before the show and during intermission, circus-goers are invited to the "Old-Fashioned Side Show" to see Iggy and Ziggy, the two-headed pig; Tripod, the three-legged duck; and 12 other attractions.

Searching for some good old-fashioned family fun that doesn't involve a video game? If so, you should check out Churchville Golf Range. This family-run recreation center, on Churchville Road, has two miniature golf courses, a driving range, nine softball and baseball batting cages, a golf pro shop and an arcade for those who still want their video game fix. Joyce and Ken Rizer purchased, renovated and expanded this Churchville gem from Joyce's...

A break in a 10-inch, privately owned pipe left about 72 homes and several businesses in the Churchville area of Harford County without running water Wednesday and yesterday, county officials said.Four food service businesses in the Campus Hills Shopping Center were ordered closed by the Health Department until water service could be restored.The break in the pipe was repaired early Thursday morning, according to Woody Williams of the Environmental Water Quality Division of the Health Department.

Editor: The recent Aegis article about the current mayor of Aberdeen, Mike Bennett, traveling to Georgia and giving an inaccurate report on the fiscal picture of what the Ripken Stadium has cost the city of Aberdeen illustrates perfectly why this citizen is so frustrated with politicians today. It would be most refreshing to hear truth out of the mouth of a politician, instead of endless political calculation and spin. Mike Bennett doesn't deserve another term in office because, in my opinion, once a politician forsakes trust, then that person has no business being in office.

The Harford County school system will push ahead with plans to renovate the 64-year-old Churchville Elementary School after Gov. Parris N. Glendening unexpectedly supported the project this month.State backing, in the form of approval for planning, is the first step toward receiving state funding for a construction project.An architect and a committee of administrators, teachers and parents will have to work together quickly to have a detailed plan for the renovation ready for the state Interagency Committee on School Construction by September, when applications for state funds for construction are due.Superintendent Ray R. Keech said the work should be completed by then, so that the county won't have to wait a year to apply for state construction funds.

A Churchville woman was injured on Wednesday when she grabbed on to a car traveling on Fallston Road and was dragged by the vehicle for about 25 feet, state police at the Benson Barracks reported.Candella R. Hudson, 44, was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center at University Hospital in Baltimore. Her condition could not be determined.Police said Hudson attempted to enter a 1990 Buick Riviera driven by William L. Hudson, 45, of Bel Air, while the car was stopped at a traffic light at the Pleasantville Road intersection.

Stepping into Ye Old Curiosity Shop is like climbing into grandmother's attic to search for treasures.The roof might be sagging, the floor creaking and the paint peeling on the 100-year-old, run-down clapboard cottage at Aldino and Churchville roads in Churchville, but once inside, any collector's heartbeat will quicken at the sight of thousands of relics jammed into the 1,600-square-foot space.Hidden in a dusty corner next to a 1960s cardboard "Mr. Peanut" advertisement is a rare 1870s stained-glass window with a pine-pegged frame for a bargain $495.

Driving along Route 22 in Churchville can seem like a dreamy, nostalgic trip back through time.Pull into the Big M Drive-In Restaurant and receive 1950s-style service, then go to the adjoining Bel Air Drive-In theater for anight of movies at one of only two drive-ins remaining in the state.When a movie isn't showing at the popular Harford County gathering spot, people will bring their vintage cars to the Big M to show off to others and see what other people have. Since 1969, Robert Wagner, owner of both the restaurant and the theater, also has donated the use of the grounds to charitable organizations on Sundays throughout the year for fund-raisers.

Paul Hines, who was known as the "Buffalo Man" because of a bison herd he kept on his Churchville farm, died of cancer Oct. 13 at his residence. He was 77. Born in Omaha, Neb., and raised in Alliance, he served in the Army during the Korean War and retired after 20 years as a Signal Corps photo officer and instructor. He moved to Maryland in 1968 and worked part-time as a postal carrier in Bel Air and a clerk in Churchville. Family members said Mr. Hines raised bison for 25 years on the 60-acre Cedarvale Farm, which had been in his wife's family since the mid-1860s.

It looks like an updated scene from the movie American Graffiti. Instead of Studebakers, SUVs are crowded onto a field. The movie soundtrack is heard on simultaneous AM and FM broadcasts, rather than speakers hanging from car windows. And the stars of the double feature are Will Smith and Jackie Chan, not Elvis Presley and John Wayne. But much about the Bel Air Drive-In in Churchville has remained the same since it opened 51 years ago. It's a place where, on a given summer evening, people in more than 400 vehicles can watch a movie on a huge outdoor screen.

HAMILTON: Jamie Hamilton, of Churchville, a 2011 graduate of McDonogh School, has been accepted to the University of Miami in the fall, where he will pursue a career in Industrial Engineering. He is the son of Jimmy and Kris Hamilton, of Churchville and grandson of Sue and Harold Petty, of Darlington, and Jim and Rose Hamilton, of Churchville.

Beginning Sunday evening, Aug. 7, the Maryland State Highway Administration will begin a pavement repair and resurfacing work on Route 22 in the heart of Churchville. The work will go on weeknights, weather permitting, until late September, the SHA said in a news release. The work area roughly runs along Route (Churchville Road) between Route 136 (Calvary Road) and Route 155 (Level Road), an area which is normally congested during the daytime.. According to the SHA news release, there will be overnight temporary lane closures, lane shifts, changing traffic patterns and flagging operations along sections of Route 22 from Sunday through Thursday between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. the next morning.

From the pages of the Havre de Grace Record dated Thursday morning, July 20, 1961: The long-running Chief J. Earl Walker era in the Havre de Grace Police Department began 50 years ago this week. Chief Walker, as he was known to generations, was appointed by Mayor James Vancherie and confirmed by the Havre de Grace City Council, settling a tumultuous time in the city that began in early May with Vancherie's election as mayor. In other front page news, Mayor Vancherie appointed a five-person committee of G. Arnold Paffenbach, William P. Dietz, Louis H. Miller, Kathryn Asher and Charles M. Moore to begin planning for the city to honor the late Sen. Millard E. Tydings by renaming the City Park to Tydings Memorial Park and a statue of the man Vancherie called a "war hero and a statesman.

The Scarboro Hills Disc Golf Club (SHDGC), along with the Churchville Recreation Council, will host a grand opening and ribbon cutting of the "Churchville 6" Disc Golf Course on Saturday at the grounds of the Churchville Recreation Center. The "Churchville 6" is beginner/practice course designed, funded and installed by SHDGC members. The SHDGC and its members are focused on teaching the great sport of disc golf to people of all ages, and are particularly focused on teaching the sport to families and children.

Maurice W. Barrett Sr., a retired vice president of sales for a Baltimore paper company who had been a World War II Navy pilot, died July 2 of complications from Parkinson's disease at his Churchville home. He was 91. The son of a streetcar motorman and a homemaker, Mr. Barrett was born and raised in Catonsville. After graduating in 1938 from Catonsville High School, he went to work for Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. Mr. Barrett enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and completed flight school at the naval air station in Pensacola, Fla. Commissioned an ensign, he was sent to the Pacific as an F6F Hellcat fighter pilot aboard aircraft carriers.

James Grieve Smith, a retired Harford County educator and coach who was also a highly decorated World War II veteran, died Jan. 1 at Citizens Care Center in Havre de Grace. The longtime Churchville resident was 85. Mr. Smith, the son of English and Scottish immigrant parents who were estate caretakers, was born in Camden, N.J., and raised in Rosemont, Pa. After graduating from Radnor High School in Pennsylvania, he enlisted in the Army. He served in Europe with the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

On a balmy fall day, too beautiful for grief, Maryland buried its second sailor from the USS Cole. Engineman Fireman Joshua L. Parlett of Churchville - one of 17 crew members killed in the terrorist attack Oct. 12 on the Navy destroyer in Yemen - was laid to rest yesterday in a cemetery near his home. With a 21-gun salute and a lone bugler playing "Taps," sailors, friends and family bid a tearful farewell to the 19-year-old who died for his country. A police motorcade led the funeral procession through Harford County's winding country roads to the burial site at Harford Memorial Gardens in Churchville.

Dustin Lynch was collecting donations for the local fire department on a drill field about 300 yards from Norris Hall at Virginia Tech early Monday, unaware of the tragedy occurring inside the engineering building. The typical weekday morning scene of students scurrying to and from classes changed instantly, said Lynch, a sophomore from Harford County. It was the start of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, as Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old student, killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself.

A 50-year-old Churchville man died Thursday after his car struck a utility pole in Bel Air, police said. Stephen Michael Wright of the 3400 block of McCommons Road in Churchville was pronounced dead at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, after driving a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee off Wheel Road into a utility pole shortly before 7 p.m., Harford County police said. Police said Wright was traveling south in the 500 block of Wheel Road when the passenger side of the Jeep went off the road before hitting a utility pole on the right side of the road.