Clarksville

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. ...

Returning from a monthlong break, the Howard County Council will begin discussing new legislation on Tuesday, including a bid to restrict the county's authority to seize private property through eminent domain. A bill introduced by Greg Fox, a Fulton Republican, would change the county charter to limit the county's ability to take land for nonpublic uses. It is in response to a continuing battle over where to put an access road for a county-owned property that was slated to be a mixed-use development before the developer backed out in July.

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.

The future of a Clarksville post office location remains unclear, despite an offer from Howard County of rent-free property at the Gateway school site on Route 108. Postal officials are evaluating the proposal, said Freda Sauter, spokeswoman for the Postal Service's Baltimore district, which includes most of Maryland. She could not give a time frame for when a decision would be made. Operations have been merged with the Ellicott City branch about 11 miles away. Howard County has offered a 7.8-acre parcel at 12240 Route 108, near Great Star Drive, under a zero-dollar ground lease for at least two years, according to a news release from County Executive Ken Ulman's office.

I only wish the media had come down the hall to the Board of Appeals hearing the same night they attended the Planning Board session on the Clarksville road project (" Board: Clarksville road project needs study News, Aug. 11). If they had, reporters would have seen the Board of Appeals's version of that old Abbott and Costello comedy routine, "Who's on First. " After seven nights of hearings on development in Turf Valley, the Board of Appeals needs to resolve their rules of procedure in order to be responsible to all parties and not waste taxpayer time and money.