Club Officials

A Baltimore County councilman said yesterday he is drafting legislation designed to prevent houses from being built at the Country Club of Maryland's golf course in Towson - at least temporarily. The proposed moratorium on development on 170 acres that includes the golf course would stop the private country club from building 56 duplex houses on 16 acres of its land. The councilman, Vincent J. Gardina, said he would use the time to help find money to preserve the property as open space through the purchase of the club's development rights.

Mazie Mullinix Leslie, a nurse and member of numerous local clubs, died May 15 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care of complications from kidney failure. She was 83 and lived in Towson. Mazie Mullinix grew up on her family's 350-acre farm near Damascus, where the family grew tobacco and ran timber and flour mills powered by the Patuxent River until they were wiped out by the Depression. There she learned self-reliance and acquired perspective that shaped her life - and she provided wonderful stories, said her daughter Sharon L. Bowyer of Baltimore.

I DON'T KNOW why, but every time I hear another troubling revelation about Sidney Ponson, I'm reminded of the way Steve Martin used to handle unruly fans when he was doing stand-up many years ago in Southern California. If somebody in the audience got too mouthy, Martin would drop a line that was - all at the same time - funny, condescending and razor sharp. "That's OK, son," he would say, "I remember when I had my first beer." It always got big laughs, and it usually had the desired effect, because the joke and the reaction of the crowd gently reminded the rowdy lout that he had reached the point where he was embarrassing himself and his friends.

For the past week, young soccer players by the hundreds, with their parents in tow, have found their way to Northrop Fields at Covenant Park. The parade each evening continues this week, as the Soccer Association of Columbia-Howard County exposes its full membership to the new 55-acre, $5 million complex. Children can't wait to run on one of the three synthetic-turf soccer fields - a first outdoors in Central Maryland - at the eight-field complex off Centennial Lane, near Centennial Park.

It appears that Prime Time has decided it's better late than never in joining the Ravens. Without citing sources, Fox Sports reported on its Web site last night that flamboyant cornerback Deion Sanders will end his three-year retirement and report to the Ravens on Wednesday. Ravens officials said they had not been notified of Sanders' decision as of last night. The team had hoped that Sanders would arrive on Monday, ease into drills for a few days and possibly play a few snaps in the Sept.

MARYLAND lawmakers get a chance to participate this week in the hoopla surrounding the 129th running of the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown scheduled for Saturday. All 188 legislators have received invitations for a Friday night party held by the Maryland Jockey Club. This year's version of the annual event will be held at the B&O warehouse at Camden Yards as the game between the Orioles and the Anaheim Angels gets under way. The Jockey Club has been in the midst of the intense debate in Annapolis over whether slot machine gambling should be legalized, and, if so, where the machines should be located.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Anne Arundel County NAACP are questioning the racial makeup and roles of black employees at Old South Country Club, a private southern county golf and tennis establishment with a membership that includes politicians and civic leaders. Club officials said yesterday that allegations laid out in letters to the club last week are insulting and factually incorrect. "I've never seen any signs that there's any discrimination whatsoever," said Mark Adams, president of the 375-member club.

The former president of a Columbia youth football club who deposited money meant for the club into his own account and kept about $5,000 when he reimbursed the organization a few months later pleaded guilty yesterday to felony theft and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Howard Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure said before imposing the sentence that Richard A. Valentine, 46, violated the trust of the 175 children who played football through the Columbia Bulldogs Association and the hardworking volunteer parents who made the now-defunct organization run. "This is a theft from the children of this program," said Leasure, who followed the recommendation of prosecutors and suspended all but three months of a five-year prison term.

Annapolis' Boys and Girls Club had expected to get $40,000 from the city's housing authority for providing programs to nearly 300 children this year -- but might not get it because the club didn't have a contract with the authority. In the past, the club and several other businesses had handshake deals with the authority, a federal agency that oversees the city's nearly 1,100 public housing units. But the new authority board and director, who took their positions during the summer, say they cannot honor the informal agreements.