Dasher

Howard County officials have come up with a plan for building Headstart classrooms next to Dasher Green Elementary / Owen Brown Middle School in Columbia that they believe will satisfy local critics. The seven-classroom Head- start building would not be attached to the school, but would be set on a grassy plot nearby. "There will be no play area lost, traffic flow is not disturbed and [school] renovations were not hampered," said County Councilman Guy J. Guzzone, a North Laurel / Savage Democrat working on the project.

Plans to build a seven-classroom building for the federal Head Start program as an addition to a Columbia school ran into opposition from a small but determined group of Owen Brown parents last night. About 20 parents active at the combined Dasher Green Elementary/ Owen Brown Middle schools said they have no objection to the building as long as it's constructed someplace else. Their neighborhood school is crowded, they said, and putting 100 more children onto the property will only worsen that.

IN THE dispute between Howard County Executive James N. Robey and the county school board, both sides have their points as always. But now, Mr. Robey knows just how pressing are the demands in county schools. Wisely, he has visited a number of them, most recently Dasher Green Elementary. Taken on a tour by the school's principle, Friedel U. Warner, Mr. Robey saw a school built for 415 students housing 453. Even closets are used for instruction, Mr. Warner told him. Teachers, administrators and students are making the best of things.

"Is this a famous math class?" Haley Payne 8, wanted to know as a stream of adults wearing suits -- trailed by a photographer -- strode into her Dasher Green Elementary school classroom. Principal Friedel U. Warner led Howard County executive James N. Robey, other school officials, a reporter and photographer on a tour of the youngster's crowded, 24-year-old school. Haley's math class isn't famous, but big things are in the works for Dasher Green and Owen Brown Middle School, which share a building on Cradlerock Way in Columbia.

Two small fires at Columbia's Dasher Green Elementary School forced cleanup crews to work through the Labor Day weekend but did not affect the school's reopening yesterday, according to school and fire officials.No one was injured in the two fires, which caused an estimated $5,500 in damage to school buildings, said Robert B. Thomas, deputy state fire marshal."All indications at this point are that the fires are juvenile activity," Thomas said.Said Friedel Warner, principal at Dasher Green: "Apparently it was vandalism.

An Ellicott City company is building a 1,000-foot access road between two electrical towers near the Village of Owen Brown, paving the way for work to start this summer on a 23-home development.The two-lane road off of Oakland Mills Road will be named Dasher Court and will lead to a cul-de-sac in the planned Dasher Green community, said James R. Moxley III, vice president of Security Development Group Inc., the road's builder."It isn't the first time a road has been built under transmission lines," said Mr. Moxley, who said he does not expect the electrical towers to pose safety hazards to the community.

Police logOwen Brown: 6700 block of Cradlerock Way: A rear window at Dasher Green Elementary School was smashed shortly after midnight Friday, setting off an alarm. Police arrested a 13-year-old and 14-year-old running from the scene and later released them into parental custody.Pub Date: 3/25/96

Avon cosmetics saleswoman Ada Dasher has reversed her company's famed door-to-door approach. She doesn't call on her customers: They call on her.Two years ago, the 84-year-old Ellicott City resident -- who has been selling Avon products for 41 years and is the oldest of 313 representatives in her district -- stopped driving because of her arthritis.Rather than switch their allegiance to another Avon representative, Mrs. Dasher's clients -- 30 of them, most of whom have been with her for more than 20 years -- started picking up their own orders.

When Dasher Green Elementary School students visit the new senior center in the East Columbia Library next door, they will see patches of their school history.At the grand opening of the East Columbia Senior Center on Dec. 12, 25 of the schools' fourth-graders presented the seniors with a 13-panel green quilt they designed when they were third-graders in the school's gifted and talented program. The county requires that third-graders learn historical research, so the Dasher Green students researched the history of their school and designed the quilt.

Ryan Eckell of Columbia likes to read books, especially Civil War books, and sometimes writes his own. Reading them aloud is a different story.Unnerved by the thought of sitting before an audience on "Authors' Day," the 10-year-old could not read his latest work last week. So he allowed his Dasher Green Elementary School special-education teacher, Alaina Beth-Young, to read his six-page untitled book about Christmas at his "Nana's."As his teacher read, Ryan sat beside her with his right hand partially covering his face.