Clarksville

County residents expect a lot out from their local government, and we want our neighborhoods to thrive. I believe that the Howard County government is trying to improve my community. I don't always agree with the county, but that doesn't mean it is not working in our best interest, though it might not always be obvious. My neighbors and I talk a lot about what we think Clarksville will look like in the next five to 10 years, and we seem to circle back to one sentiment: We don't want Route 108 to grow and change without a plan.

As a child, Kathryn Manion used to sit on her father's lap late into the evenings and read with him. That, said her father, Jim Manion, didn't last long. "She quickly began to read on her own," he said, adding jokingly, "I guess we weren't reading fast enough. " Not nearly. Tuesday night in New York City, Washington College senior and Clarksville native Kathryn Manion received Washington College's Sophie Kerr Prize for her body of short stories and other creative work. At more than $58,000 this year, it is considered the most lucrative undergraduate literary award in the country.

These groups meet regularly. Baltimore Bead Society - Second Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. September-July. Howard County Center for the Arts, 8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City. 410-480-2711, 410-451-3622 or http://www.baltobead.org . Center of Light and Love - Second Sunday, 6-7 p.m. Owen Brown Community Center, 6800 Cradlerock Way, Columbia. 410-995-4647, centeroflightandlove@comcast.net or http://www.centeroflightandlove.org . Chavurah - Second Sunday and fourth Friday.

These groups meet regularly. Baltimore Bead Society - Second Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. September-July. Howard County Center for the Arts, 8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City. 410-480-2711, 410-451-3622 or http://www.baltobead.org . Center of Light and Love - Second Sunday, 6-7 p.m. Owen Brown Community Center, 6800 Cradlerock Way, Columbia. 410-995-4647, centeroflightandlove@comcast.net or http://www.centeroflightandlove.org . Chavurah - Second Sunday and fourth Friday.

Three more people have been arrested and charged in connection with a shooting in Clarksville on April 6, according to Howard County police. Patrick James Belt, 21, of the 16000 block of Frederick Road in Mount Airy faces attempted first-degree murder, assault, robbery and other charges. Stevie Ann Gribble, 19, of the same address, was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree assault. Diana Eileen Marker, 22, of the 5500 block of Hunting Horn Drive in Ellicott City was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted first-degree murder, attempted armed robbery and other charges.

Back in 1972, 13-year-old Kathleen Koch made a habit of scrutinizing every detail of her new bayside home in Mississippi each time her family pulled out of the driveway to go somewhere, attempting to commit its every feature to memory. The Clarksville resident said she adopted her anxiety-driven routine after seeing remnants of Hurricane Camille's wrath flung randomly about Bay St. Louis, a picturesque town on the upper Gulf Coast where her family had just moved. Three years earlier, the Category 5 storm had flattened much of the state's coastline.

FORGET ABOUT the gridlocked national electorate and the mandate-free presidency. Don't worry about Mike Mussina or the Middle East. Think about a real problem: Think about those forces now splitting the Clarksville Fire Department from its Ladies Auxiliary after 53 years. Is it legal to have a volunteer fire company without an auxiliary? Seems anti-American, seditious -- dumb, actually. The Ladies Auxiliary is as American as apple pie. It's as American as motherhood. Come to think of it, it is motherhood.

Toll Brothers Inc. has begun pre-construction sales at Clarksville Hunt in Clarksville, where the firm is building 160 traditional homes with Colonial, Federal, New England or provincial fronts.Public sewer and water, gas heat, cooking and hot water, 42-inch kitchen cabinets, crown molding and chair rails in living and dining rooms are some of the standard features in the Howard County community.One of the models to be built at Clarksville Hunt is the Richmond, a 2,850-square-foot home with a starting price of $323,975.

On Thursday, Aug 4. my wife and I joined about 200 other people for a hearing in the county's George Howard Building. The subject was a study and proposed land acquisition for a road spur from the west side of Route 108 in Clarksville to Auto Drive in Clarksville. The proposal is a very poor solution to a problem that may or may not exist. The impact of the proposal on businesses and property owners affected is intolerable. It is difficult to see how or why the Howard County planning people would waste their time and county funds on an unnecessary study to reach an unsatisfactory conclusion.

Dan Geraghty first picked up an electric guitar when he was 10 and now, at 17, he nearly always has his hands on one. Though just last spring he was a junior at River Hill High School, right now he and the other four band members of Hollywood Ending are contestants in "Next Big Thing," a Radio Disney talent competition that began its fourth season this month. "I've wanted to play music forever," said the Clarksville resident last week from aboard a tour bus traveling from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

Something smells funny in Clarksville. A few residents have complained of a nauseating, pungent odor from the area of Maryland 108 and Sheppard Lane to Howard County's health department, said spokeswoman Lisa DeHernandez. She said the department's community hygiene program conducted a search of the area Wednesday and found the source to be coming from fertilizer on a large farm. They received the same calls last year, she said. They expect rain to reduce the stench. In the meantime, DeHernandez said, the farmer will be asked to wet the perimeter areas of the property to help reduce the odor but, because agricultural properties are mostly exempt from nuisance codes, there's no requirement or enforcement measures that the department can take.

So far, only the "positives" of turf fields have been spun in the press. It is time for the Board of Education, the Howard County Council and the county executive's office to do a credible cost-benefit analysis of turf fields (including annual maintenance and replacement) versus maintaining the current fields. That is the only way to add credibility to this decision. Otherwise, we are making decisions based on generalities and suppositions, not fact. I sent a letter over a week ago offering to perform the analysis.

Waffles aren't just for breakfast. At least that's the position taken by Thomas Reboullet, Long Reach High School senior, varsity ice hockey player and co-founder of Thomas Waffles, a food truck business he started with his father, pastry chef Thierry; and sister, Julie, an eighth-grader at Mayfield Woods Middle School. The family sells waffles out of a truck parked in front of Kendall Hardware in Clarksville every Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reboullet, 17, came up with the idea earlier this year, when he decided he wanted to start a project that could raise some money for college.

Dan Geraghty first picked up an electric guitar when he was 10 and now, at 17, he nearly always has his hands on one. Though just last spring he was a junior at River Hill High School, right now he and the other four band members of Hollywood Ending are contestants in "Next Big Thing," a Radio Disney talent competition that began its fourth season this month. "I've wanted to play music forever," said the Clarksville resident last week from aboard a tour bus traveling from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

100 Years Ago Escapees return From the Woodbine social column: "Miss Mary Roth returned to the neighborhood after spending the summer with relatives in Wilmington, Delaware. Mrs. John M. DeLashautt and daughter, Miss Mildred DeLashmutt, have returned from their apartments in Baltimore after spending the summer near hear. " Today, it's usually "snowbirds" who avoid the harsh winter weather of the north by flocking to Florida for a few months.

The recently approved Clarksville traffic study is the second serious repudiation of County Executive Ken Ulman in a very short period. The other being the recent Board of Education denunciation of the "diversity" plan proposed to strong-arm minorities onto the school board. The latter is a most un-American proposal, highlighting Mr. Ulman's desperate and ham-handed attempt to lay the ground work for a run for governor. He's transparently trying to buy the primary votes of Baltimore and Prince George's County at the expense of Howard County citizens, who are not inclined to fabricate discrimination where it doesn't exist.

Is anyone else annoyed with the Columbia Association ads depicting CA President Phil Nelson as the spokesperson for the CA athletic facilities? As a six time a week user, I have never seen the man, except on the TV monitors, and none of my friends have seen him. Is his ego so large that he feels a need to portray himself as our gym spokesperson? Seems to me there are better real candidates for this ad campaign. Wayne Zimmerman Clarksville

I was disappointed in your recent editorial concerning the situation with school board member Allen Dyer. If the board does not care for the current law they should lobby Annapolis to change it; however, as long as it is on the books they do not have the option of willfully ignoring it. The board is not above the law. I think that if your publication did a better job of calling them out on this then Mr. Dyer would not have to. ...