Dorsey Hall

Deborah O. McCarty's 5-year-old son started kindergarten Monday at Northfield Elementary School a mixture of jitters and excitement. Yesterday, McCarty began her first day as Columbia's new leader much the same way."I'm glad to be here," McCarty said as she sat in her relatively empty office at the Columbia Association. "Packing, moving everybody has been an ordeal. Everybody keeps asking me what I want to do first. I want to hear from other people. I want to listen to them, learn how things work."

For the second time in two months, a Capitol Heights man was sentenced in connection with a violent crime spree that gained the attention of police in several Maryland counties.Kenneth M. Hiligh, 23, was sentenced to 12 years in prison yesterday by Howard Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. Hiligh pleaded guilty to robbery with a deadly weapon in the Jan. 26, 1995, holdup of the Restaurant Park Exxon station in the 8300 block of Benson Drive in Columbia.The sentence will run concurrently with a 25-year term he received Feb. 20 after a jury convicted him in the armed robbery of Harry's Tiger Mart in the 7900 block of Washington Blvd.

Bob Kaufman moved to Columbia five years ago, buying into the new town's vision of people living in close-knit communities.It baffles the Dorsey Hall father of two that the Dunloggin Middle School area, where he lives, may be split into three separate school districts, just as his children and their friends reach high school age.Under a redistricting proposal scheduled for a vote by the school board on Thursday, more than 200 students from Dunloggin Middle...

Three teen-agers were arrested Tuesday after a destructive spree that left a trail of at least 41 damaged cars, mailboxes and trash cans through half-a-dozen Ellicott City neighborhoods early Tuesday morning.The arrests came about three hours after the midnight incidents when one of the victims followed the car the trio was riding in and phoned its New York license tag number to police, said county police spokesman Sgt. Steve Keller.According to police, the rampage began about 12:40 a.m. Tuesday, when trash cans were smashed with hammers.

The Howard County school board will have two alternatives to consider as it takes up high school redistricting this year.Associate Superintendent Maurice Kalin unveiled the alternatives last night to some 150 parents who went to Hammond High School to learn more about this year's redistricting proposals.Both alternatives would change the school board's tentative decision last year to transfer Dorsey Hall neighborhood students to River Hill High School, still under construction and expected to open in 1996.

The Howard County school board voted unanimously last night to shift four neighborhoods into the Wilde Lake High School district to bolster enrollment at Columbia's first high school.The board voted to redistrict nearly 300 Dorsey Hall neighborhood students to Wilde Lake and made final their decision last year to shift the Longfellow, Beaverbrook and Hobbit's Glen areas to the Wilde Lake district in the fall.Students in the four neighborhoods currently attend Centennial High School, which is 280 students over capacity.

The new year finds the Howard County Board of Education not much further beyond where it was at this time last year on the issue of school redistricting. Most significant is the unresolved controversy surrounding the proposed boundary changes for Wilde Lake and Centennial high schools.The board has chosen so far to handle the problem in piecemeal fashion, leaving the big question -- whether to redistrict the Dorsey Hall community of Columbia into Wilde Lake -- unanswered until this year. Whether that transfer goes forward as expected will test the mettle of the board in doing what is in the best interest of all students, regardless of the political fallout.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Howard County, is collecting used items for its annual Giant Yard Sale next month.Usable castoffs such as household items, small appliances, toys, sporting goods, books, furniture, glassware and clothes are welcome. Please call the MADD office for information about dropping off items.All donations are tax-deductible and all funds raised by the sale will remain in Howard County.Information: 465-5757.POLICE LOG* Ellicott City: 12500 block of Frederick Road: Someone entered an unlocked garage Wednesday and stole an electric boat motor.

Howard County school board member Deborah Kendig missed last year's redistricting vote because she was recovering from surgery.She made up for her absence Thursday night, voting to send students from the Dorsey Hall neighborhood to Wilde Lake High School this fall and chastising Dorsey Hall parents for submitting a proposal that would have kept their children at Centennial High School."

The new year finds the Howard County Board of Education advanced not much beyond where it was at this time last year on the issue of school redistricting. Most significant is the unresolved controversy surrounding the proposed boundary changes for Wilde Lake and Centennial high schools.The board has chosen so far to handle the problem in piecemeal fashion, leaving the big question -- whether to redistrict the Dorsey Hall community of Columbia into Wilde Lake -- unanswered until this year.

In a corner of a conference room in the historic Dorsey Hall manor house, Richard Talkin flipped a light switch on and off, then opened and closed wooden window blinds. His gaze was fixed on two oil paintings that collectively depict a leafless black tree against an expansive cloud-studded winter sky. The diptych is mounted on adjoining walls in the home's former dining room. First somber gray, then awash with a red-violet hue, and finally flooded with a cool-blue cast, the bold landscapes proved chameleon-like as Talkin altered the lighting.

Howard County officials have scheduled three two-hour public meetings in November to explain the county's new health care access plan to residents and answer questions. All the sessions will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The first session is Nov. 6 at Linden Hall, the Dorsey Hall community center, 4765 Dorsey Hall Drive. The second is Nov. 13 in western Howard at the Glenwood Community Center on Route 97. The third is Nov. 14 at the Savage Volunteer Fire Station, 8925 Lincoln St., Savage.

Developers planning subdivisions in eastern Howard County or projects that require conditional-use permission must meet with neighbors before submitting plans to the county. The next meetings are: Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Mildenberg, Boender & Associates, 5072 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite 202, Ellicott City, about a proposal for two units on 1 acre at the Reeley property, 8626 Ridge Road. Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the RRIG Corp. property, 4053 Old Columbia Pike, Ellicott City, about a proposal for one unit on 1.05 acres at that site.

Developers planning subdivisions in eastern Howard County or projects that require conditional-use permission must meet with neighbors before submitting plans to the county. The next meetings are: Today at 5:30 p.m. at Land Design & Development, 8000 Main St., Ellicott City, about a proposal for 15 units on 8 acres for Stone Manor Section 3, 4394-4398 New Cut Road. Monday at 6 p.m. at Fisher, Collins & Carter Inc., 10272 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, about a proposal for two units on 1.046 acres on the Yaw property, 4973 Ilchester Road.

Developers planning subdivisions in eastern Howard County or projects that require conditional-use permission must meet with neighbors before submitting plans to the county. The next meetings are all scheduled Monday: At 5:30 p.m. at Mildenberg, Boender & Associates, 5072 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite 202, Ellicott City, about a proposal for two units on 1.09 acres on the Welk II property, 10128 Owen Brown Road. At 6 p.m. at Mildenberg, Boender & Associates, 5072 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite 202, Ellicott City, about a proposal for four units on 2.31 acres at Cedar Woods, 5067 Landing Road.

Sixty Dorsey's Search residents heeded the call for a town meeting last night about proposals that would allow apartments and offices in their Columbia village on land without Columbia's strict covenants. It was a testing of the waters to see how people felt about an idea that comes on the heels of plans for a retail center at Old Annapolis and Columbia roads -- which residents shot out of the water. This time, people had more questions than opinions, but they seemed to harbor reservations about the idea of crowds of extra neighbors moving in on these outparcels, some of the many islands around which the planned town grew.

Developers planning subdivisions in eastern Howard County and landowners planning projects that require conditional-use permission must meet with neighbors before submitting plans to the county. The next scheduled meetings are: Thursday at 4 p.m. at Mildenberg, Boender & Associates Inc., 5072 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite 202, Ellicott City, about the Moore Property II on Mission Road, where four units are proposed on 2.19 acres. Thursday at 7 p.m. at Friendship Baptist Church, 1391 Sykesville Road, Sykesville, about a conditional-use request for Friendship Baptist Preschool.

Developers planning subdivisions in eastern Howard County and landowners planning projects that require "conditional-use" permission must meet with neighbors before submitting plans to the county. The next scheduled meetings are: 4 p.m. Monday at LDE Inc., 9250 Rumsey Road, Suite 106, Columbia, about Bonnie Ridge on Hooks Lane, a proposed subdivision of nine units on 3.7 acres. 5 p.m. Tuesday at Mildenberg, Boender & Associates Inc., 5072 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite 202, Ellicott City, about the Arief Property, 9830 Old Annapolis Road, a proposed subdivision of two units on 0.9 acres.

Developers planning subdivisions in eastern Howard County must meet with neighbors before submitting plans to the county. The next scheduled meetings are: 10:30 a.m. Monday at Mildenberg, Boender & Associates, 5072 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite 202, Ellicott City. The meeting will focus on the Parthemos property, 3730 Chatham Road, a 1.3-acre site and a proposed development of four homes. 3 p.m. Monday at Mildenberg, Boender & Associates, 5072 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite 202, Ellicott City. The meeting will focus on Summer Haven, 6255 Winters Lane, a 7.5-acre property and a proposed development of 16 homes.

A clogged sewer pipe under Route 100 at the Long Gate exit in Ellicott City spilled 40,000 gallons of effluent Saturday, according to Robert M. Beringer, chief of the county's Bureau of Utilities. Residents of Brampton Hills subdivision, north of the highway, smelled sewage and called the fire department Saturday afternoon, Beringer said. A county crew of five worked from 5 p.m. through the night, using a "high velocity jet flusher," which finally cleared the line at 9 a.m. Sunday. Beringer said the effluent rose 10 feet from the underground 8-inch-wide pipe, overflowing a manhole and leaking into a stream that flows toward Dorsey Hall and eventually flows into the Little Patuxent River.