Civic Works

Police have arrested one man and were seeking another in a shooting and robbery that left a tap dancer paralyzed.Detective Corey Alston said John C. Rogers, 30, of the 600 block of Pitcher St. was arrested Thursday on a warrant charging him with robbing and shooting James Branford Pace, 27, of New York, a dancer in "Jolson: The Musical" at the Lyric Theatre.Alston said Pace had walked from the theater and was outside the Tremont Plaza Hotel at St. Paul Place and Saratoga Street about 11: 30 p.m. Nov. 27 when two men, one with a handgun, robbed him of $20 and a backpack.

BOWLEYS QUARTERS -- Miami Beach park's swimming area -- closed July 7 because of high bacteria counts in the water -- will remain closed through the Labor Day holiday, the traditional last day for the swimming season.Ian Forrest, Department of Environment bureau chief for the county's Waste Management and Community Service division, said continued testing of the water remains uneven. "Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad," he said.County officials plan to discuss what can be done during the off-season about ducks thought to be the source of the contamination, he said.

EVEN IN neighborhoods ravaged by the drug trade and hard times, there are remnants of community. Not everyone can pick up and move when times get tough.But how do neighborhoods bring back the spirit that makes a difference between a block of strangers living side by side and a community that takes pride in its appearance, watches out for its people and becomes an anchor against instability and the erosion of values, both financial and human?''We were communities for many years till drugs pulled us apart,'' says Beverly Thomas, a long-time leader in her Park Heights community.

Armed with hammers and construction helmets and wearing their signature red T-shirts, seven youths from inner-city Baltimore set out yesterday to make a neighborhood a little safer and to work toward a successful future.Members of Civic Works, a city program for training youths, they were in Reservoir Hill boarding up their 500th vacant home.The sounds of electric drills and the pounding of hammers attracted the attention of curious children and adults who watched from upstairs windows and front stoops as the youths climbed ladders and carried plywood outside the house at 708 Newington Ave.Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III also watched.

Just north of busy 25th and Barclay streets, an oasis awaits weary city residents. Brilliant forsythia blooms, apple blossoms sweeten the air and 200 tulips offer a burst of springtime color.The corner, once the site of a blighted and vacant city-owned house, is being transformed into a peaceful park, thanks to the collaboration of local residents, businesses and a corps of young adults. They're making good on a pledge to beautify the area and establish a monument to leisure on a city street beset by crime and grime.

When university founder Johns Hopkins couldn't sleep, historians say, he didn't take it lying down. The 19th-century merchant, philanthropist and insomniac moved away from the noise and bustle of the city to what was then quiet countryside -- a summer estate he called Clifton.Now, with less than two months to go before the 200th anniversary of Hopkins' birth on May 19, 1795, his beloved Italianate villa is about to be restored with help from AmeriCorps, President Bill Clinton's youth service initiative.

Fritzgerald Gray's year as an AmeriCorps worker changed his life."I was just hanging on the streets with my friends and I got into a little trouble," Mr. Gray, 25, says quietly, recalling a drug arrest in his days before AmeriCorps, President Clinton's program to stimulate volunteerism and give young adults a chance to earn tuition or work off college loans. "If it wasn't for this program, I'd probably be incarcerated."Mr. Gray is an AmeriCorps success story. Just over a year ago, he was among the thousands participating in a huge AmeriCorps swearing-in ceremony led by Mr. Clinton.

When Louise Holmes saw a flier in her mailbox saying Civic Works staffers would help Baltimore County seniors with errands and home repairs, she called the news a "godsend."Suffering from diabetes and a recent foot injury, Ms. Holmes, 65, didn't have transportation to a doctor's appointment. She called the number on the flier.A dozen workers from Baltimore County Civic Works -- almost the whole crew -- showed up at her Woodmoor home last week. Three piled out of a 15-passenger van and held her firmly by the arm as she walked gingerly from her house.

Antione Harris, 18, started back on the road to becoming an architectural engineer yesterday by doing jumping jacks in the crisp morning air in front of City Hall.Mr. Harris, who dropped out of Northern High School more than a year ago but has since completed his GED, is looking forward to college. And he plans to pay for it by doing community work around Baltimore as part of AmeriCorps, the national service program starting around the nation this fall.He and 47 other recruits in a Baltimore branch of the national program were sworn in and issued uniforms this week in orientation sessions that frequently invoked the youth work programs of the New Deal era.For the next 11 months, he and other participants in Civic Works will begin the day with a 7:45 a.m. workout on the City Hall plaza.

WASHINGTON -- As 10 young people from Baltimore looked on, President Clinton signed his national service bill into law yesterday, fulfilling one of his most popular campaign pledges with a rare bipartisan victory.Holding pens used by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt to create the Peace Corps and the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, Mr. Clinton declared that national service "will help us strengthen the cords that bind us together as a people" and also help Americans remember "that what each of us can become is to some extent determined by whether all of us can become what God meant us to be."

Nonprofit offers free tips on saving energy You can save money by making your home energy-efficient. And now you can get help with that, too. The nonprofit Civic Works will do the job for free for low- to moderate-income residents in the neighborhoods of Belair-Edison, Harwood, Waverly and Coldstream Homestead Montebello. As part of "Project Lightbulb," the group will replace 15 incandescent light bulbs in your home with compact fluorescent lights that use 25 percent less electricity.

Standing with a crowd on the porch of the Clifton Mansion in Northeast Baltimore recently to celebrate the 95th birthday of Samuel Hopkins, a descendant of one of Baltimore's great philanthropists, Johns Hopkins, it was hard not to reflect on what philanthropy and service have meant to Baltimore - and on what they still mean to the future of our city and its residents. "Johns Hopkins made a positive difference in the lives of countless people, but most importantly, he left a profound and lasting legacy to the city he made his home," was the way Sam said it. Sam Hopkins' death Wednesday ended a lifetime of civic involvement.

As temperatures plummet and fuel prices soar, many Maryland residents are dreading the coming winter months. But 300 low- to moderate- income homes in Northeast Baltimore are getting a boost from Project Light Bulb, an energy-efficiency initiative undertaken by the urban service corps Civic Works. The three-month pilot program, which began last week, has pledged to provide energy-conserving devices to residents of the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello and Belair-Edison neighborhoods who are struggling with their utilities bills.

Taste for wine wasn't watered down by rain Never let it be said that we Baltimoreans let it rain on our parades. Or parties, either. The Foundation Fighting Blindness' "First Annual 'Blind' Wine Tasting" was a big success despite what has lately become the usual daily drenching. The foundation's Allie Laban-Baker says the party, held at the American Visionary Art Mu-seum, was even better than the group had anticipated. Some 250 folks mingled in AVAM's sculpture barn and an adjoining tent.

The first Baltimore class in a new job training program graduates today -- eight novice environmentalists who now can tell you the meaning of "phytoremediation" in a heartbeat. (For the record: It means the use of plants to clean up contaminated soil or groundwater.) The free, eight-week pilot program taught at Civic Works, a nonprofit organization based in Clifton Park, used field trips, classroom studies and practical demonstrations to train the students in techniques for reclaiming idle, contaminated industrial sites known as brownfields.

Before railroad magnate Johns Hopkins died on Christmas Eve 1873, he stipulated in his will that his sprawling country estate, with its Italian-style villa and gardens populated by 100 statues, should be transformed into a university bearing his name. After his death, however, his trustees aborted Hopkins' dreams for his beloved summer home, called Clifton Mansion. Concerned that the 500-acre estate was too distant from the center of Baltimore, the trustees chose instead to start the Johns Hopkins University downtown on Howard Street, later moving it north to Homewood.

Word is that Baltimore's going to be Rockin' this summer -- as in Chris Rock. The funny man has been spotted scouting locations around town for the flick he's allegedly planning to direct and star in, Head of State. While no one's going official on this yet, the talk is that shooting on the Dreamworks film is set to start in Charm City around midsummer. Sounds like Rock is settling in for a stay. He showed up unannounced at B-more's Improv a week and a half ago, and did an impromptu 40 minutes of standup.

There's nothing quite like dining on the front lawn of a grand old house, reveling in a summery evening, and relaxing after an afternoon golf game. That's what Civic Works offered 200 supporters at its second-annual "Spring Swing -- Golf Tournament and Dinner Auction" at Clifton Mansion. As guests supped and socialized, the sounds of songbirds mingled in the background with 1940s swing music, recalling an earlier era. In the crowd: Dana Gans and Randy LeFaivre, event co-chairs; Marc Bunting and Stuart Brooks, event committee members; Dana Stein, Civic Works president and executive director; Tony Hawkins, Civic Works board chair; city Councilwoman Helen Holton, Mimi Roeder Vaughan, Tricia Ellis and Fred Struever, board members; Bev Thomas, Baltimore community activist; Rob Bostick, BGE marketing and energy services manager; Paul Ellis, ReVisions Foundation executive director; Diane Gordy, state administrator; Chuck Goldsborough, Team Lexus league driver; Steve Hazan, Bank of America vice president; Terry McDonnell, general sales manager for Carroll County Foods; Sibyl Kane, AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer; and Tony Pagnotti, WMAR-TV personality.

Police have arrested one man and were seeking another in a shooting and robbery that left a tap dancer paralyzed.Detective Corey Alston said John C. Rogers, 30, of the 600 block of Pitcher St. was arrested Thursday on a warrant charging him with robbing and shooting James Branford Pace, 27, of New York, a dancer in "Jolson: The Musical" at the Lyric Theatre.Alston said Pace had walked from the theater and was outside the Tremont Plaza Hotel at St. Paul Place and Saratoga Street about 11: 30 p.m. Nov. 27 when two men, one with a handgun, robbed him of $20 and a backpack.

EVEN IN neighborhoods ravaged by the drug trade and hard times, there are remnants of community. Not everyone can pick up and move when times get tough.But how do neighborhoods bring back the spirit that makes a difference between a block of strangers living side by side and a community that takes pride in its appearance, watches out for its people and becomes an anchor against instability and the erosion of values, both financial and human?''We were communities for many years till drugs pulled us apart,'' says Beverly Thomas, a long-time leader in her Park Heights community.