Columbia Council

The Columbia Council will consider two new social programs tonight -- one that would integrate people with mental retardation into Columbia activities and another creating a forum for residents 45 and older to pursue similar cultural and intellectual interests.The "social integration" program is being developed by the Howard County Association for Retarded Citizens and the Columbia Association. Under the proposal, groups of about six to eight ARC clients would make weekly trips to Columbia for activities at pools, athletic clubs and other facilities managed by the Columbia Association and to visit village shopping centers.

The Columbia Council tonight likely will approve a controversial $1 million purchase of about 5 acres in a former East Columbia industrial park, including one contaminated parcel tentatively slated for a recreational vehicle storage yard.The council -- the nonprofit Columbia Association's board of directors -- agreed to buy two parcels in the old General Electric Co. manufacturing park off Snowden River Parkway from the Rouse Co. last spring, contingent upon an environmental consultant's study.

The Columbia Association's (CA) governing body last night began to sort out a series of proposals designed to examine purchasing problems uncovered recently at the huge homeowners' association.The governing body -- the 10-member Columbia Council -- discussed hiring auditors and purchasing consultants, or a combination the two. Council members will try to finalize their plans over the next two weeks."It's now clear that a more thorough and independent investigation by a team of professionals that report directly to the new council is necessary," said Alex Hekimian, a council member from Oakland Mills village.

The Columbia Council has pledged to support the Oakland Mills community in its protest of a proposed methadone clinic that is scheduled to open in the village. In a resolution the 10-member council unanimously approved Thursday night, the council voiced its opposition to a methadone facility opening in an Oakland Mills residential area or any similar site in Columbia. "It's all of Columbia, not just the Village of Oakland Mills," council Chairman Miles Coffman told a group of about a dozen Oakland Mills residents at the council meeting.

Give it to John Hansen. By stepping down as chairman of the Columbia Council, he showed integrity and guts. Too bad councilwoman Gail Bailey doesn't follow Mr. Hansen's lead.In elections held recently in the Long Reach village of Columbia, Mrs. Bailey lost to Roy T. Lyons when the popular vote was tallied.Only after two apartment owners -- voting based on how many tenants they have -- cast ballots did Mrs. Bailey overtake Mr. Lyons' total to capture re-election.While the Long Reach village covenants may allow such voting, it strikes us and many other Columbians as patently undemocratic.

The Columbia Council focused on ways to pare the Columbia Association's proposed $30.2 million operating budget for 1993-1994 during last night's work session.But after 90 minutes of the expected two-hour session, council members had made no cuts.The council turned down two proposals by Councilman Charles Ahalt that would have resulted in significant trims. Mr. Ahalt submitted a package of six specific cuts, almost half of them in personnel costs, that would trim $1.5 million from the proposed operating budget.

The Columbia Council wants to get tough on crime -- or at least find some way to reduce it.The council, which serves as the Columbia Association's board of directors, established a public safety committee last night to take up the problems of juvenile crime, vandalism and more serious offenses, and security issues including the safety of the city's pathways.One goal of the committee is to involve teen-agers in cleaning up damage caused by vandalism, in developing ways to address the problem of crimes by their peers and in suggesting productive outlets for their energy.

During a work session last night on next year's proposed budget, the Columbia Council narrowly approved construction of 18-hole golf course, ending months of intense controversy over the proposal.The 5-3 vote, with one abstention, was a straw vote and is not binding. Decisions in work sessions on the proposed $30.2 million operating budget and the $10.1 million capital budget are not binding until the council takes a final vote, scheduled for March 1.After the final vote, the budgets take effect May 1.The swing votes in last night's straw vote on the $5.2 million project were council member Karen Kuecker and Chairman John Hansen.

The Baltimore metropolitan area has long been targeted as one of the golf-course poor regions of the country, based on population and available facilities.This is especially true in the public sector, where the five city-owned and three Baltimore County-owned courses are played to the limit. It is also reflected in data showing at least half the play in southern York County, Pa., comes from the Baltimore area.This is true, too, for two newer layouts, Queenstowne Harbor on the Eastern Shore and Geneva Farm in Harford County.

The two candidates for Columbia Council from Wilde Lake village are both Columbia pioneers who say they want to further the idealistic goals developer James Rouse established for the New Town.They share some similar goals but have different perspectives.Councilwoman Norma Rose, 60, who is running for her third consecutive one-year term and also served on the board in the mid-1970s, moved to Columbia in 1968, impressed by the concept of a community with a "superior environment and facilities" where everyone could become involved.