Community Service

In 1,000 hours, a driver could cruise from Washington to Los Angeles and back about a dozen times. A sports fan could indulge in more than 330 pro-football games on TV. And Martha Stewart could help atone for running afoul of the law as a volunteer for a New York organization that helps disadvantaged women become entrepreneurs. Stewart hopes to join the list of celebrities who have worked off their legal troubles in the company of the sick or disadvantaged. Stewart's attorneys offered a detailed plan for her to serve 1,000 hours, in 20-hour weekly increments, at a center that offers financial advice and loans to low-income women called the Women's Venture Fund.

Fresh out of federal prison, Baltimore's former police commissioner Edward T. Norris still has three years of supervised release and hundreds of hours of community service left to complete as a result of his conviction on public corruption and tax charges. But he would rather not do it in Maryland, preferring instead to comply with those portions of his sentence in Florida where he and his family now live. Last week, federal prosecutors filed court papers arguing that Norris did not deserve that luxury and should perform the community service in the city he defrauded.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court sent a strong hint yesterday that high school students in Maryland and other states cannot complain that their rights are violated if they are forced to do community service -- without pay -- to graduate.In one of hundreds of orders it issued in its first formal sitting of a new term, the court rebuffed a constitutional challenge from Bethlehem, Pa., to community service -- a duty imposed now in scores of school districts throughout the country.In Maryland, high school students across the state must do 75 hours of community service as a condition for graduation.

A Westminster man, who could have been sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined $250,000 for manufacturing explosive devices, was granted probation before judgment yesterday.Mark J. Bauerlien, 38, of the first block of Ward Ave. pleaded guilty, placing himself at the mercy of Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr.To impress Bauerlien with the seriousness of the charges, Burns ordered the defendant to perform 250 hours of community service within 18 months and placed the self-employed carpenter on five years' probation.

Only 1 percent of Howard County high school juniors are in danger of failing to fulfill their 40 hours of community service required for graduation next year, Howard County school officials reported last week.While 38 percent of the Class of 1997 has not officially completed the requirement, almost all of those students have made specific arrangements to perform their service, Margaret Foster, a student service coordinator for the county, told the Howard County school board at the board's meeting Thursday.

People sentenced for drunken driving or other infractions once again have a place to go for the community service part of their court-ordered penance. A new, state-funded alternative sentencing program began operating Tuesday from the Serenity Center, a volunteer-run 12-step program already serving recovering alcohol and drug abusers in a small, unpretentious building next to the Talbott Springs swimming pool on Basket Ring Road in Columbia's Oakland Mills. Using an existing $85,000 state grant, the program will get help from the county detention center staff and from state parole and probation officers to screen candidates for the program referred for community service by county judges.

Anne Arundel's Republican delegates are trying to get county public school students out of performing the 75 hours of community service required for graduation in Maryland.Their bill, introduced in the House last week, would allow the Anne Arundel school board to lift the requirement. Efforts in previous years to end the requirement statewide have failed.The requirement, known as service learning, takes up class time as students do such things as scrape gum off desks, said Del. James E. Rzepkowski, one of the sponsors.

Employees from 17 Baltimore companies took time off from making a buck this year to help low-income students, the homeless and other needy neighbors. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke took time off from running the city yesterday to pay them a tip of the hat.Companies ranging from AT&T and Lucent Technologies to Klug Uniforms "have demonstrated outstanding community leadership and service and have made a commitment to improving the lives of our citizens," Schmoke told...

*Reynaldo Grant, 35, of Columbia, regional planner:The proposal might have some merit, but it all depends on what type of programs they have in mind for the students. It would be particularly helpful ifthe community service was tied directly into the student's career interests. On the surface, the idea has potential. But it sounds controversial, making teen-agers do it against their will.

Anne Bencivenga sounds almost apologetic. The 21-year-old Loyola College student realizes that she's different from a lot of people her age, but she also wants to avoid seeming impressed with herself.So, when asked why she plans to work for the Peace Corps after graduating this month, rather than join her peers in the rat race for big bucks, she takes several beats, looking for words with the right mix of accuracy and humility."It may sound funny," she finally says, "but this is something I've always wanted to do. If you look at the world and you look at us in the United States, you can see that we have so much more in comparison, even though we have a lot of suffering here as well.