Civic Groups

The Powhattan Beach Improvement Association is inviting neighboring civic associations to discuss issues concerning the Solley Road corridor at a general meeting at the Powhattan Beach Fire Hall, Monday, Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m.County officials including Councilman Carl "Dutch" Holland, R-Pasadena, and representatives from the Office of Planning and Zoning, Public Works and Utilities Department have agreed to attend to answer questions about the planned widening of Solley Road,new sewer projects and any other issues of general concern.

As traffic officer Bobby Brown began his weekday afternoon shift at Pratt and Light streets, he was quickly drawn into the dangerous dance involving pedestrians and motorists. A motorist didn't see three pedestrians as he made a sharp left-hand turn, but stopped just in time. Another driver skidded to avoid hitting a woman holding a baby who tried to dart across six lanes of traffic - against the light. Brown's whistle was put to the test, as one of Baltimore's most seasoned traffic officers worked hard to bring order to one of the city's busiest intersections.

Shoppers, start your engines.From the 10 a.m. starting gun Tuesday to the final flag at 10 p.m., record-shattering bargains and entertainment will be featured at Macy's "Benefit Shopping Day." Non-profit civic groups, many of which are in Severna Park, will earn as much as $8 for each person attending the Marley Station mall event.Cancer Resource & Support Center Inc., Chrysalis House, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, Hospice of the Chesapeake Auxiliary, Kiwanis Club and the YWCA will receive $5 for each ticket they sell.

An influential civic group with strong ties to City Hall and Baltimore boardrooms is proposing a significant change in the region's long-term transit plans by urging policymakers to jump a proposed Lutherville-to-Columbia line ahead of one serving Northeast Baltimore and White Marsh. The Central Maryland Transportation Alliance made that recommendation as part of a report it released Wednesday promoting the concept of mixed-use development around existing transit hubs and future stations on the proposed east-west Red Line.

Helen Haskell Gibson, a frequent volunteer for civic groups, died Thursday at Broadmead, a retirement community in Cockeysville. She was 95. From 1971 to 1973, Mrs. Gibson was president of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Maryland, a civic and patriotic group. She also volunteered for the American Red Cross, and she was an active member of St. David's Church in Baltimore, said her son, Bruce Lloyd of Santa Clara, Calif. Born Helen Haskell McPherson in Baltimore, she graduated from Roland Park Country School in 1925.

As one East Baltimore neighborhood grapples with a surge of poor families brought there by a city-run federal housing program, civic groups and government officials are calling it part of a growing citywide problem.Residents of a one square-mile community north of Patterson Park near John Hopkins Medical Center have been overrun by 736 fanukues bearubg $600-a-month rent certificates from the city Housing Authority in the past five years.As a result, the neighborhood of 10,000 rowhouses has seen an explosion of violent crime, plummeting real estate values and a rush of real estate speculators seeking to buy out residents so they can convert their homes to apartments and cash in on the above-market rents offered by the city.

Concerned that Anne Arundel County's upcoming once-a-decade review of its overall land-use plan may give little weight to community input, a wide range of civic groups have formed a coalition to share resources and advocate broad principles regarding growth. The county has revamped the system it used 10 years ago to map out the General Development Plan, which allowed residents and businesses to play a key role in shaping their neighborhoods but took far longer than expected. This time around, the area planning committees have been abolished, and residents are being asked to send their comments through e-mail.

The Rouse Co.'s preliminary plan for its Columbia-style development in North Laurel is not drawing the same kind of praise that accompanied James Rouse's vision for Columbia three decades ago."It's looking like any other development. It's very generic," says Greg Fries, who chairs the Southern Howard Land Use Committee, an umbrella organization of at least a dozen civic groups that is fighting the proposed village. "You expect something more innovative from Rouse."The initial sketch of what Rouse would do on the 517-acre tract -- the so-called preliminary development plan (PDP)

Just what is a lawn fete anyway? Nobody seems quite sure, but one thing is clear -- civic groups can now have them on Sundays.The County Council approved legislation Monday allowing non-profit organizations to sponsor lawn fetes, carnivals and other special events seven days a week, but killed an administration proposal to attach stringent rules.Civic groups complained the county was raining on their parades, while an irate Councilman Edward Middlebrooks, D-Glen Burnie, attacked the regulations as "off base" and a symbol of the worst in government bureaucracy.

It's been almost two weeks since Anthony "Tony" J. Meoli received the American Red Cross Northeastern District's second annual Business Community Service Award. But the Bel Air resident still isn't sure exactly what he did to earn the honor."I guess it was not only my business involvement, but my involvement with the schools and education," he said. "I wasn't aware of their involvement with the schools and their education programs -- you know they do all kinds of education."Those education programs, along with other service and community projects, were the main reason that Red Cross selected Meoli this year for the award, said Wayne E. Wigglesworth, the Red Cross Northeastern District director.

For sale: 226 acres in rural northern Baltimore County, site of countless campfire songs, hikes in the woods and silly games. Amenities include a swimming pool, tree swings and cabins without plumbing. Land cannot be developed, but property comes with established and caring staff, and an obstacle course. The Monkton property isn't actually listed with a broker, but the four civic organizations that have owned it for more than 50 years are looking to sell it. And while the children's camp that has operated for years at the site will carry on for at least one more summer, it is unclear what might happen after that.

Concerned that Anne Arundel County's upcoming once-a-decade review of its overall land-use plan may give little weight to community input, a wide range of civic groups have formed a coalition to share resources and advocate broad principles regarding growth. The county has revamped the system it used 10 years ago to map out the General Development Plan, which allowed residents and businesses to play a key role in shaping their neighborhoods but took far longer than expected. This time around, the area planning committees have been abolished, and residents are being asked to send their comments through e-mail.

The North Laurel Civic Association is to meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the media center at Murray Hill Middle School, 9989 Winter Sun Road. Howard County Councilwoman Jen Terrasa will be available to answer questions. Vidia Dhanraj, outreach coordinator for the North Laurel-Savage Multiservice Center in the Whiskey Bottom Shopping Center, will provide an overview of the services available to residents at the center. Light refreshments will be served. Information: Pam Peseux, 301-776-6509.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Hundreds of Zimbabwe's riot police officers violently crushed yesterday an attempt by protesters to hold what they called a prayer meeting in one of the capital's largest slums to express opposition to President Robert G. Mugabe's rule. Beatrice Mtetwa, a civil rights lawyer in Harare, the capital, said at least 35 people had been arrested, including the leaders of the two rival political factions that oppose Mugabe's governing party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

Alice K. Willard, a homemaker who was active in many civic and philanthropic organizations, died in her sleep Wednesday at Brightwood retirement community in Lutherville. The former longtime Cross Keys resident was 97. She was born and raised Alice Mae Kistler in Tulsa, Okla., and graduated from National Park Seminary, a junior college, in Forest Glen, Montgomery County. She earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1929 from the University of Oklahoma, and a master's degree in the subject from the University of Tulsa.

From the heat of August to the chill of February, Larry Foster walks along the intersection of Ritchie Highway and Marley Glen carrying bins of Tootsie Rolls. He knocks on car doors and, as the drivers roll down their windows, he hands out candy and they hand him change. Foster and other members of the Glen Burnie council of the Knights of Columbus donate the money to special education schools and nearby churches. Last year, they donated $13,000 to the Ruth Parker Eason School in Millersville.

Bus loads of Brooklyn Park residents renewed their fight last week against an absentee landowner who wants to build town houses on one ofthe neighborhood's few remaining open lots.Several hundred people trekked to the Arundel Center in Annapolis last Wednesday to protest a rezoning appeal by Georgia Clift, who owns 11.3 acres on Ballman Avenue. Clift hopes to upgrade the zoning to develop a large town-house community.A fourth-generation descendant of Henry Ballman, who came to northern Anne Arundel County in 1851 and carved out an estate, Clift has been living in New Hampshire since 1983.

Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner has dismissed two lawsuits that tried to stop the city of Annapolis from annexing 103.6 acres on the Annapolis Neck peninsula to allow the construction of a 200-home subdivision.County officials and two civic groups had argued that the annexation would illegally create an "island" of county land, off Bywater Road on the southwestern edge of the city, bordered on three sides by city land and on the fourth by a tributary of Chesapeake Bay.Lerner ruled that the state law that would prohibit such annexations applies only to cases in which the county land is bordered on all four sides by "real property."

The North Laurel Civic Association will hold a general membership meeting at 7 p.m. Oct. 21 at Laurel Woods Elementary School. Discussion will focus on "Creating Safer and Better Neighborhoods: Ideas to Empower Residents." Police Officer Rocco Sovero and Donna Thewes, Howard Police Department community liaison and treasurer of the civic association, will discuss programs and resources that can help communities and individuals preserve existing assets and improve their neighborhoods. Information: Karen Harvie, 301-725-7521.