Community Members

The Columbia Association is seeking community members to serve on its Aquatics Master Plan Task Force. The master plan, still in its preliminary stages, will determine the future of Columbia's 23 indoor and four outdoor pools, as well as an indoor hot water therapy pool, over the next 10 to 20 years. Members of the task force will review and discuss alternatives, recommendations and priorities for the pools. For more information on the plan, visit columbiaassociation.org/aquaticsmasterplan, and to apply for the task force, visit columbiaassociation.org/aquaticsmasterplan/application.pdf.

I want to express my gratitude to the members of the CA Board of Directors, to CA President Phil Nelson, and to all of the CA team members who have worked so hard this year on behalf of our community. It has been an eventful and transformative year, and it has truly been an honor to serve the Kings Contrivance community and Columbia residents for the past four years, this year as chair of the CA Board of Directors. At a personal level, I am so grateful for the many messages of support and concern I received from community members following surgery for a fractured elbow and other injuries sustained while traveling recently with Del. Liz Bobo in India.

A group of about 200 eastern Baltimore County residents and business leaders has approved a plan to build a community with homes, including senior housing, on the spot where the Kingsley Park apartments are being demolished. The blueprint for the new village includes up to 86 units for a three-story senior housing facility, 73 single-family detached homes and 43 townhouses with a range of prices. A developer would be required to adhere to the plan, which is designed to foster a sense of connection among neighbors, with landscaped common areas and walking trails.

A LGBT community center in Baltimore's Mid-Town Belvedere neighborhood will be opening an information and resources center to the public on April 1. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Maryland (GLCCB) will use its new Welcome, Information and Drop-In Center to offer support services, community resources and city information to a variety of local groups, the organization said. The space will include a computer lab, Wi-Fi and free bookstore featuring LGBT-themed books at its Baltimore location.

Malique Pratt, a fifth-grader at Shady Side Elementary School, had the assignment of learning about the old movie theater and car dealership up the road. "I found out it was open for 74 years and it's still around," he said. "But I didn't know how much money they made or how many cars they sold or how many movies they had." Still, Malique's contribution is a valuable part of a display that opens today at the Captain Salem Avery House Museum. Shady Side's Got History! will feature a quilt and drawings by the children and the premiere of a DVD of songs and interviews with residents.

Hoping to build a better relationship with community members, Baltimore's Police Department is starting a Citizens Police Academy -- a comprehensive 10-week course on how officers do their jobs.Classes for 20 invited participants start in January with an overview and history of the department, which celebrates its 200th anniversary next year. But participants will quickly learn about such issues as ethics, how officers decide when to use deadly force and how the department polices itself.

THE MOUNT AIRY Food Pantry has been serving the needs of community members for years. Now the pantry needs help from the community to continue its worthwhile efforts. The food pantry is a program of Mount Airy NET, an organization dedicated to providing emergency supplies and relief to community members, and offering an opportunity for people to volunteer their time and efforts to help their neighbors. Over the years the pantry has teamed with area schools, churches, businesses and service groups to collect canned, boxed and dried food.

Dave Cool said one of the hardest decisions of his life was resolving to support the megamall Arundel Mills in his community. "Do we leave the trees here? Do we have the mall?" said Cool, of Elkridge. "It was painful." But Cool, a stay-at-home dad, said the realization that the mall, the largest in Maryland, would bring thousands of jobs to his community factored heavily in his decision. Yesterday, Cool was celebrating the development with community members and elected officials from Anne Arundel County who got a sneak preview of the 1.6 million-square-foot shopping center during a community appreciation party.

Four of the five school board members say they feel threatened by the tactics of Black Student Achievement Program advocates.Black community members came to last Tuesday's budget hearing to protest Superintendent Michael E. Hickey's proposal to eliminate one of three BSAP staff positions from the 1992-1993 operating budget.Before the hearing, about 10 black parents and children picketed outside the Department of Education. Later, while advocates spoke, others displayed signs protesting cuts in the program, including a signthat read, "We are watching you."

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens has vetoed a County Council decision to change the zoning of a commercial bus lot on Broadneck Road. Owens said in a statement yesterday that the council's decision to change the lot's zoning from residential to industrial for Chesapeake Charter Inc. was "inappropriate" for the property. Members of a committee of Broadneck residents and the county planning staff had recommended residential zoning. A majority of council members voted last week to change the zoning for John Lonergan's bus lot. A number of community members said they endorsed the zoning change because Lonergan had agreed to limit the number of buses he stored at the site.

Ten years ago, a woman who wanted her children to live in a drug-free environment, and who called police on those who would have it otherwise, was killed when a man tied to the local drug trade kicked in the front door of her home in Oliver and set it ablaze. At an event Tuesday night marking the deaths of Angela Dawson, her husband and five children in the fire, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the message being sent that night in 2002 was clear: that community members "should keep your mouth shut, that you shouldn't speak out, that you can't win. " Rawlings-Blake's message to the more than 100 community members gathered at the event outside the Dawson Family Safe Haven Center, which was built in the ashes of the Dawson's destroyed home, was just the opposite, she said.

They sit hunched over a single needlepoint canvas that is bathed in astoundingly bright light, fingers flying. "Where am I? My needle is under here," Joy Wiley of Lothian says to herself as she stops to examine her work while feeling around beneath the canvas for her dangling yarn and needle. "We hate these tails," says Sheryn Blocher of Crownsville with a sigh, glaring at what look like weeds standing up from the canvas. She will imperceptibly secure the base of each wisp of yarn, or tail, before trimming it away.

He has frequent lapses of memory, the result of a brain aneurysm he suffered as a teen in 1972. He struggled for years to keep jobs at BWI, at a discount store and in an industrial park. And finally, after his mother died in a Baltimore County nursing home, Fred Schaefle of Glen Burnie lost the condo in which he'd been living and ended up in a tent. "There's so much you don't appreciate until you don't have it," says the rangy, bearded 58-year-old with a shake of the head. "For example, indoor plumbing or a place to warm your food.

CrossFit Laurel is teaming with Mammograms In Action, a Southern California-based nonprofit, to host a unique athletic competition. Barbells for Boobs - Amazing "Grace" will help raise funds in the fight against breast cancer, both locally and nationwide. CrossFit athletes from throughout the area will meet Sunday, Oct. 23 at 10 a.m., in the workout room at 701 Montgomery St. to compete in a "Grace" workout, with ground to overhead weightlifting movement. Residents are invited to join in the fundraiser.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold says he's considering using his seldom-used veto power to prevent controversial zoning changes in some of the county's most rural areas likely to be approved by the County Council on Monday night. The threat of veto follows the passage of several amendments to the proposed rezoning bill for southern Anne Arundel and the Annapolis area, parts of which county planning officials have publicly criticized for veering too sharply from accepted zoning principles.

Listings are accepted on a space-available basis. Deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday prior to date of publication at the latest. To submit volunteer items, mail to Volunteers, Patuxent Publishing Co. Editorial, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21278; email hccalendar@patuxent.com ; fax 410-332-6336; or call 410-332-6497. Third Annual WomenFest — Hosted by the Howard County Office on Aging, Department of Citizen Services. Seeking vendors and exhibitors for Sept. 15 event.

The Baltimore County Council is weighing proposals to give its members a greater role in County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s planned program to encourage the revitalization of older neighborhoods The proposed amendments to a bill detailing Smith's "renaissance" plan would give council members a say over financial incentives offered to developers and allow them to limit what can be built on land that would be designated for the program. The amendments also would more narrowly define which community members would be allowed to take part in a process designed to bypass zoning and development review procedures in favor of community meetings with developers.

The three finalists for the office of president of the Columbia Association will participate in a public forum at 1 p.m. Sunday at Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts at Wilde Lake High School, 5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia. Each of the candidates - Gregory Fehrenbach, Michael Letcher and Theodore Staton - will have about an hour to make a statement to the community and answer questions. Community members can submit written questions for the moderator to pose. Comment cards will be provided for those who attend to share their reactions to the candidates with Columbia Council members.

The Columbia Association is seeking community members to serve on its Aquatics Master Plan Task Force. The master plan, still in its preliminary stages, will determine the future of Columbia's 23 indoor and four outdoor pools, as well as an indoor hot water therapy pool, over the next 10 to 20 years. Members of the task force will review and discuss alternatives, recommendations and priorities for the pools. For more information on the plan, visit columbiaassociation.org/aquaticsmasterplan, and to apply for the task force, visit columbiaassociation.org/aquaticsmasterplan/application.pdf.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has selected a panel of law enforcement experts, including two respected former police chiefs and a former U.S. attorney for Maryland, to review last month's police shooting outside a Baltimore club that killed a veteran officer and a 22-year-old man. Officials say the independent review board will issue a comprehensive report on the circumstances that led to the agency's first fatal police-on-police shooting in...