Darrah

RICHARDTON, N.D. -- For this, they pay him?Tom Fricke, long blond hair clipped back in a ponytail, is hanging out.He's hanging out with farmers, with a high school principal, with a manufacturing executive. He orders the 13-ounce prime rib when they do. He matches them, scoop for scoop, at the ice cream counter. He zips about town in his mini-sport-utility vehicle, gabbing with folks every chance he gets.And yes -- although even his parents don't believe it -- all this hanging out is work.

Halfway into Center Stage's monthlong rehearsal period for "O Pioneers!," a music theater piece adapted from Willa Cather's 1913 novel, director Stan Wojewodski Jr. brought the singers and actors together for the first time.As the singers began to intone the harmonies of "Transformation Song," which comes midway through the show, composer Kim D. Sherman walked across the back of the room, silently mouthing the words and clasping her hands, as if in prayer.It may have been an unconscious gesture, but it seemed appropriate.

Q: If you could ask Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger to improve your neighborhood, what would you ask him to do? Family oriented Ernest Baisden, president, Greater Parkville Community Council: Our No. 1 priority is to develop a program to preserve neighborhood open space. Many of the undeveloped parcels in our community are now targeted for development, and we would like to preserve them in the form of passive parks, open space or gardens. We are interested in forming a county-community partnership to create a land trust to preserve our neighborhood woodlands and open space.

Reminiscent of the classic Life magazine World War II photograph of a sailor returning from overseas into the outstretched arms of his sweetheart, 23-year-old Stephen McGettigan lifted Darrah Hall off the ground and gave her a big hug and kiss.Except Hall is not Navy Seaman McGettigan's girlfriend.She is a sixth-grade social studies teacher at Owen Brown Middle School who taught the seaman 15 years ago when he was in the third grade at Phelps Luck Elementary.After corresponding with McGettiganduring his sixth-month deployment to Saudi Arabia, the pupils at Owen Brown Middle gave him a hero's welcome home Wednesday.

New positionsUniversity of Baltimore named Terry Levy Willner assistant director for alumni services.The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore appointed Kate M. Sellers deputy director.McCormick & Co. Inc., the Hunt Valley-based producer of seasonings, flavorings and specialty foods, named Gayle D. Millard budget analyst, McCormick/Schilling division, and promoted Dorothy H. Powe to manager of financial analysis, International Group.Browne, Worrall & Johnson Inc. Architects in Baltimore promoted Paul N. Brown to director of construction services.

CAITLIN O'Connell draws on her mother's shared memories of life on Nebraska farm land to give dimension to her character of Alexandra Bergson in "O Pioneers!" currently at Center Stage.The play, a drama with music adapted by Darrah Cloud with music by Kim D. Sherman, recounts Willa Cather's novel about a young Swedish immigrant who inherits her father's failing Nebraska farm and becomes the head of the family. Through great physical hardships and at the sacrifice of her dreams, Alexandra wrenches a prosperous life from the dusty earth of the prairie.

Division III Goucher 2001 record: 13-3 Coach: Kyle Hannan (13-3, second season) Conference: Capital Athletic Top returning point-getter: Phil Anthony, senior A (36 goals, 31 assists). Also back: Ashley Tarran-Jones, junior A; Qadir Stern, junior M; Todd Litterbrant, junior M; T. Paul Powell, junior LSM; Mike Weed, junior D; John Hanley, sophomore D; Michael Amash, senior G. Key additions: Tim Pistel, junior A (transfer from Harford CC); Mike Medley, junior M (transfer from CCBC-Essex)

Twenty-six candidates filed to run for Baltimore mayor by last night's deadline, creating the largest field of contenders in at least 33 years. Vacancies for City Council president and four seats on the 19-member council spurred another 83 candidates to join a 10-week campaign sprint to the Sept. 14 primary election. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke will step down in December after 12 years, making this mayoral election the first without an incumbent in 28 years. "It looks pretty confusing," Matthew Crenson, a political science professor at the Johns Hopkins University, said of the mayoral ballot.

It was neither the best of years nor the worst of years, but it was a year when area theatergoers were able to see how glorious a grand-scale musical can be when almost everything goes right -- and how disastrous it can be when nearly nothing does.The glorious musical was Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg's retelling of Victor Hugo's epic novel "Les Miserables," which played the longest run in the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre's history -- nine weeks. Rarely has a touring production looked slicker and never, in my memory, has a show seemed more at home in the concrete confines of the Mechanic.

Ronald H. "Ron" Sanders, who successfully combined a career as a Baltimore County public school educator and restaurateur who owned and operated Sanders' Corner, died Wednesday of non- Hodgkin's lymphoma at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The longtime Timonium resident was 72. Born in Baltimore, the son of a businessman and a homemaker, Mr. Sanders was raised in West Arlington. After graduating from the Polytechnic Institute in 1956, he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1961 from Western Maryland College, and a master's degree in education and supervision in 1966 from Loyola College.