Deer Creek

SHA completes project to restore wetlands The State Highway Administration recently completed a $764,000 environmental project to restore more than six acres of forested wetlands at the Magness Farm in northern Harford County to help improve water quality from highway runoff as well as provide a vital habitat for native wildlife. The project was part of Gov. Martin O'Malley's "Maryland: Smart, Green & Growing" environmental initiative. "The planting of more than 1,600 trees and restoration of wetlands will help provide a natural filter to reduce the impact of contaminated water due to highway runoff," O'Malley said.

Originally known as Deer Creek, the Harford County neighborhood of Darlington did not get its current name until the mid-1700s, after Quakers built a meeting house there and named the area in honor of Darlington, England. Today, Darlington is a quiet, rural community nestled along rolling country roads with a preserved village center. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 as a designated historic district, the historic area includes 2,500 acres and 81 buildings with several architectural styles, including Victorian, art deco and Colonial.

On the wall maps in the county's land preservation office, the color green marks the nearly 45,000 acres that are permanently safeguarded from development. "I want to make my map greener," said William D. Amoss, manager of the county's agricultural and historic preservation program. "The more options we have for preservation, the better it is for landowners." Now the County Council has given the program another option. By designating the Deer Creek Valley as a priority preservation area, the council has made it easier for the county to create a belt of preserved land that could extend from the Susquehanna River across northern Harford and into Baltimore County.

Shelter plans upset neighbors Mayor Sheila Dixon's goal to end homelessness is creating headaches for neighborhoods that have played host to homeless shelters in recent months. When the city set up a winter shelter in Baltimore's Greenmount West neighborhood last year, some residents worried that it might dampen revitalization efforts. There were similar concerns in Butchers Hill and Edmondson Heights, where two homeless shelters opened. Test scores rise statewide Statewide test scores for African-Americans and low-income children rose significantly this year and are moving closer to parity with other students, according to data released by state education officials.

An air-conditioned, spacious dining hall and conference center with a fully equipped, commercial kitchen, a newly graded playing field and an Olympic-sized pool are making the Harford County 4-H Camp a cool place to pass the summer. With a name befitting its setting, Deer Creek Overlook, the newest amenity and centerpiece of the camp in Forest Hill, is providing club members with a year-round activity center and a source of revenue for the entire facility. The 12,000-square-foot multi-purpose center, which opened last month, will be formally dedicated at 2 p.m. today and is already becoming a popular spot for receptions, business conferences and social gatherings.

Deer Creek will be increasingly stressed by population growth in the next two decades, much of it caused by expansion at Aberdeen Proving Ground because of BRAC, according to a new regional study. The communities that rely on Deer Creek should develop additional water sources, the study by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission said. The Deer Creek watershed, a 171-square-mile area that begins in York County, Pa., and continues through Harford County to the Susquehanna River, includes a 73-mile stream that supplies about 50,000 people with water.

Jenna Hertzog dragged her high school friends from a slumber party to a planting party yesterday at a community conservation project near Harford County's municipal landfill in Street. Helping 200 other volunteers plant 900 seedlings along Deer Creek meant extra credit in biology for the 15-year-old Forest Hill girl and "a totally awesome experience giving back to nature and putting oxygen into the air," she said. If only she and her friends had dressed for the chilly March weather and the mud. With temperatures barely in the 40s, many volunteers wore wool-lined hiking shoes or sturdy rubber boots.

On January 13, 2008, BERNARD CALVIN HARKINS of Forest Hill, MD. Close friend of Martha Lee Grafton; loving brother of Gerald M. Harkins, Franklin P. Harkins and Willis W. Harkins. Services will be held at the family owned McComas Funeral Home, P.A., Bel Air, MD on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 11 A.M. Interment will be in Deer Creek United Methodist Church Cemetery in Forest Hill, MD. Friends may call at the funeral home in Bel Air on Tuesday, January 15 from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M. Those who desire may contribute to Deer Creek United Methodist Church, 2729 Chestnut Hill Road, Forest Hill, MD 21050.

The prolonged dry spell and lower stream levels have forced suppliers of water to Bel Air and Edgewood Arsenal to switch from their systems to the county's in the past few weeks, while the supplier for Aberdeen Proving Ground plans to make the change as soon as tomorrow. More customers means the county must provide an additional 4.5 million gallons of water a day from its treatment plants. Customers will probably not notice any difference in taste or pressure, nor will they see spikes on their water bills, officials said.

Opponents of a long-planned expansion at Harford's only government-operated landfill have argued for nearly a year that the project will hurt the environment, their health and property values, but they have based their appeal to the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings solely on water issues. They have asked an administrative law judge to withhold a permit to expand the Harford Waste Disposal Center in Street, saying a larger landfill will degrade residential wells and Deer Creek, a nearby water source for thousands of county residents.