Columbia Association

The three finalists for the post of Columbia Association president are scheduled to take part in a public forum from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m today at the Stonehouse, the Long Reach community center in Long Reach Village Center. At the event, conducted by the association's board of directors, candidates will answer residents' questions submitted in advance. No questions will be taken at the forum, officials said. The three candidates are vying to replace outgoing President Maggie J. Brown. Association officials say the selection could be made in the coming days, and the new president is expected to assume office May 1. The finalists are: * Rob Goldman, 59, vice president of sports and fitness for the Columbia Association.

Columbia is nothing if not organized, and three Howard County council members want to use that village structure to create a citywide revitalization committee to keep the four-decade old town spiffy. Two members, Mary Kay Sigaty and Calvin Ball, both Democrats, took a first step toward that goal yesterday with a meeting in the county council chambers involving eight of Columbia's 10 villages and a variety of county agencies and private business representatives. "This is a great opportunity to improve our constituent services.

Howard County residents can track the progress of snowplows by visiting the county's home page: www.howardcountymd.gov, and clicking on the snowflake icon. A snow-tracker map will show location of plows, untreated roads, salted roads and plowed roads. The maps are to be updated every 15 minutes. Each county snow vehicle is equipped with a global positioning device to allow residents to track its real-time progress during a storm. Residents can also call 410-313-2900 for information on maintenance efforts.

Public meeting set on `Vision' paper The Columbia Association's board of directors will hold a meeting at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 to hear comments from residents on "Downtown Columbia: A Community Vision," a document released Sept. 28 by Howard County Executive Ken Ulman. The document establishes a framework for the next 30 years of development in Columbia's Town Center and outlines a three-step implementation process The Columbia Association board plans to respond to the proposal and include comments from members of the community.

The Columbia Association is ready to draw people to Town Center this weekend with some new enticements: roller coasters, singing dinosaurs and 3,000 free cupcakes, all part of the revived Columbia City Fair. The City Fair also will have music, food, artists, vendors, information booths and family entertainment tonight through Sunday as part of the community's 40th birthday celebration. The fair is the latest in a series of summer events at the lakefront, which has already hosted Australian artists on stilts, two fireworks displays and Harry Potter (on a movie screen)

The Columbia Association board of directors plans to vote on a contract for association President Maggie J. Brown tomorrow night when it meets for the last time before two newly elected members take their seats. Tom O'Connor, the council chairman, said yesterday, "There will be an announcement on the contract." Before the open board meeting, a closed session has been announced to discuss personnel matters. O'Connor said he also expects a vote on which of several plans will be implemented to dredge Lake Kittamaqundi in Town Center and Lake Elkhorn in Owen Brown village.

Plans are taking shape for an expansive celebration of Columbia's 40th anniversary this summer with 40 days of activities that will include a new three-day celebration at the Town Center lakefront. The Columbia 40th Birthday Celebration Task Force has hired consultants to organize a City Fair, which will be sponsored by the Columbia Association from June 29 through July 1, said Barbara L. Russell, a Columbia Association board member from Oakland Mills and chairwoman of the task force. After considering several candidates, the committee chose TPC: The Party Connoisseur, an event-planning company in Bowie, and Signature Space LLC, a project management company in Silver Spring, which submitted a joint proposal.

Not quite a mayor and not a CEO either, Padraic "Pat" Kennedy held a job unlike any other as the first and longest-serving president of the Columbia Association. Kennedy, who was president of the association from 1972 to 1998, was honored yesterday with a scholarship fund created in his name by the Horizon Foundation. The award, pegged to Columbia's 40th anniversary, recognized Kennedy's longtime service to the planned community he led from its earliest days. "It was amazing," said Richard Krieg, president of the Horizon Foundation and the one who presented the award.

The Columbia Association board of directors will meet tomorrow behind closed doors to decide whether minutes taken during two closed sessions of the operations committee about the contract extension of President Maggie J. Brown are accurate. The closed session is scheduled an hour before the regularly scheduled monthly meeting. If the panel agrees on the accuracy of the minutes, its members will vote during the public meeting whether to release them. The operations committee has been holding closed and open meetings to prepare a contract offer for Brown.

Five of the seven Columbia Council seats to be filled in elections this weekend are being contested, with issues ranging from village revitalization and downtown development to the handling of contract negotiations with the association's president. Incumbents are facing challengers in Dorsey's Search, Hickory Ridge, Oakland Mills and Wilde Lake and two newcomers are vying in Kings Contrivance. Running unopposed are incumbent Henry F. Dagenais in Long Reach and newcomer Michael Cornell in River Hill, where incumbent Patrick von Schlag is not seeking re-election.

Courtney Watson recalled how she often went to Symphony Woods on family outings while growing up in Howard County. As a teenager, she went for concerts or to listen in on shows at Merriweather Post Pavilion. But as an adult, she couldn't recall having taken her family there. That could change. During a presentation Wednesday night by the Columbia Association, Watson and other County Council members seemed receptive to a plan to revitalize Symphony Woods by turning it into a family-friendly destination and cultural center over the next five years.

Auditions Red Branch Theatre Company will hold auditions for its production of "A Spell of Cold Weather" by Charles Way, from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, with a possible call-back from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Auditions will be composed of cold readings from the script, but participants should also be prepared to sing a capella and a portion of a holiday song. Actors are welcome, though not required, to present a short monologue from their repertoire. Call 410-997-9352 to make an appointment or send an e-mail with the subject "A Spell of Cold Weather - Audition Appointment" to dramalearningcenter@yahoo.

Ann Geddes doesn't want a "fair and balanced" workout. But the 49-year-old worker for a nonprofit agency is having no luck getting the channel changed in front of her favorite rowing machine at a Columbia gym. The television happens to be tuned permanently to Fox News. Geddes, a liberal Democrat and former legislative aide to a Howard County delegate, said she can't stomach the conservative lineup that appears nightly as she gets her exercise. Even though the sound is off, the words scrolling across the bottom of the screen infuriate her. "It makes my blood pressure go up," she said.

The first major dredging of sediment since Lake Elkhorn was built in the mid-1970s has been delayed at least a month, Columbia Association officials say. The $5.2 million project to remove 60,000 cubic yards of silt from Columbia's largest lake was to have begun by late August, but CA contract administrator Diana Kelley said Tuesday night at the Owen Brown Community Center that none of the four bids submitted in July were acceptable and that a new round...

'Prepare for Success' needs supplies Program sponsored by the Community Action Council of Howard County raises funds to purchase backpacks and collects donations of school supplies from around the county. Donors will be able to drop off pencils, paper, scissors, rulers, crayons, notebooks and other supplies Monday through Aug. 28 at boxes throughout the county, including the Columbia Village Centers, all library branches, Columbia Association gyms, the George Howard Building and the Columbia Gateway Building.

Howard County is planning a slightly shorter Fourth of July celebration at Columbia's lakefront this year. The celebration will officially begin at 5 p.m. rather than 2 p.m. to help save money, though the $60,000 menu of entertainment and fireworks is going forward, mostly at county government expense. County Executive Ken Ulman said he and his staff discussed whether to make larger cuts this year due to the recession, but rejected the idea. "It's the Fourth of July. It's important for the county.

When the Howard County Council begins taking public testimony Monday night on a bill that would create a new way to redevelop Columbia village centers, a somewhat-reluctant Columbia Association board of directors will be ready. After a nearly five-hour, two-part meeting that lasted until 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, the board adopted a slightly altered version of its December position. Still, some expressed concern that the county is rushing things, or that adopting a new redevelopment zoning process would give developers an advantage, while others said the problem is immediate and needs attention now. Columbia resident Joel Broida noted that Kimco, which owns the half-vacant Wilde Lake Village Center and four others, has given up its plan to demolish it in favor of 500 apartments and a retail center.

I've been thinking about all the wasted green space. ... It should be used for open vegetable gardens," announced Bob Spongberg, after shuffling through his index cards of discussion ideas. "This is my current shtick." Spongberg, 82, fell silent for a moment and glanced around the room at the 17 other senior citizens who had assembled at Florence Bain Senior Center in Harper's Choice on a recent Monday morning. With name cards displayed and chairs pulled up to four tables set at right angles, the setting for the Current Events Group appears more formal than it actually is. The structure of these meetings - which have been held weekly for more than 15 years - calls for no strict rules of order, except there is a facilitator and no one shows disrespect for another person's opinion.

The Columbia Association has launched its fifth annual "Get Active Howard County," a 10-week effort to encourage Howard County residents to be more active by incorporating 30 minutes of physical activity into their day, at least five days a week. The program is free and open to anyone living or working in Howard County. To register: GetActiveHowardCounty.org. Participants can pick up a paper log at any Howard County library branch or any of the 10 village centers. The program runs through June 7. Information: Carol Wasser, 410-715-5523 or Carol.

Baltimore police officer charged 1 A city police officer was charged with disturbing the public peace Friday night, after an incident in which he refused to cooperate with detectives who questioned why his car was parked in a permit-parking-only police parking lot. Officer Everett Milton Walker, 28, and another man were approached by two detectives about 2 a.m. at the entrance of the Baltimore police lot in the first block of S. Frederick St., according...