Eastport

To the casual observer, the second annual festival to celebrate Annapolis' watermen meant live music and fresh crab cakes.But to the people whose job it is to land the catch of the day for area restaurants, the spring fling represented a new beginning for the fishing industry in Eastport."

The suspect in a shooting Sunday night that left an Eastport man hospitalized turned himself in to Annapolis police yesterday afternoon. Tavis Kerell Sellers, 22, of the first block of Bens Drive in Annapolis was served with an arrest warrant charging him with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and other charges, police said. He was being held yesterday in the Anne Arundel County jail in lieu of $350,000 bond. Travon Toronto Williams, 21, was shot once in the upper torso during a fight on Bens Drive, police said.

Reaffirming its commitment to the city's maritime heritage and Eastport's waterfront, the Annapolis City Council last night voted to lease the McNasby Oyster Co. building to a seafood-related business.In the resolution adopted 8-1, the aldermen agreed to continue lease negotiations with the Portland Lobster Co., an Annapolis-based seafood business and to look for other tenants if those discussions fail."This is what we wanted," said Peg Wallace, a member of the Eastport Historical Committee and one of about 20 Eastport residents who attended the meeting to ask the council to save the building at 723 2nd St.Ms.

WHEN ARTIST Cindy Fletcher-Holden goes to her regular job, she brings paint by the thimbleful. "I measure it in tablespoons," she explained.Working sometimes upside-down over a transom, she paints names on boats. Lots of boats, maybe 300 a season.She has switched gears, though, and just started her most prodigious job, not with tablespoons, but with 50 gallons of paint, creating a maritime mural on a blank, 17-by-90-foot wall.It's going up on the Hopkins Furniture warehouse at Fourth and Chesapeake, a site that's been called an eyesore for years.

Ann Shaw remembers a time when everyone in her neighborhood worked at McNasby's Oyster Co., walked to Mount Zion AME Church and shopped at community stores in each other's living rooms.That wasn't even 40 years ago, when Eastport was mostly home to watermen, tradesmen and employees of the Naval Academy. McNasby's is now the Maryland Watermen's Cooperative, Mount Zion has been renovated, and community stores have virtually disappeared, to be replaced by big supermarkets farther away.Ms. Shaw, 38, saw other changes in her community as new residents replaced old ones and contemporary two- and three-story homes replaced the modest frame houses she and TC her friends grew up in.Tomorrow, she and others will celebrate their community's 125th anniversary and mark the changes that have taken place since )

ANNAPOLIS resident Elizabeth Pollak is a woman of vision. The 82-year-old's dream is to build a community center for Eastport where all the disparate groups in the neighborhood can work toward reconciliation.A year ago, she sent out thousands of questionnaires to determine what kinds of services were needed. The initial response wasn't great, especially among lower-income groups, but she reports that progress since then has been "slow but sure.""The people who are really interested in what I'm trying to do are coming together and beginning to work together," she says.

Most Eastport residents have enthusiastically embraced a plan to preserve the historic character of their quaint Annapolis neighborhood, but some complain that they haven't been given much information about the zoning changes.The residents spoke at a City Council hearing Monday night. The plan was sponsored by Alderman Ellen O. Moyer, D-Ward 8, who ironed out details with the help of city planners during the last two years.The proposal is designed to save the 100-year-old working-class, maritime community bounded by Sixth Street and Horn Point, located just across Spa Creek from downtown Annapolis.

An Eastport woman drove herself to the hospital early yesterday after she was shot in the cheek, apparently in an botched robbery, Annapolis police said. Theresa Ann Pahl, 35, was listed in stable condition after surgery at 9 a.m. to remove the bullet, a hospital spokesman said. "She's doing well, considering she was shot," said Sgt. Greg Kirchner, a police spokesman. "She's very lucky." Detectives have been able to speak only briefly with Pahl about the incident, which occurred about midnight, he said.

A three-alarm fire at the Watergate Village Apartments in Eastport on Monday caused nearly $250,000 in damage, according to preliminary estimates. The fire, which started shortly after 10 a.m. at the six-floor building in the 700 block of Americana Drive, drew about 50 firefighters from Annapolis, Anne Arundel County and the Naval Academy, said Annapolis fire Battalion Chief Michael Lonergan. The fire started in a fifth-floor apartment, where plumbers were using a torch to fix a shower fixture.

THE BENEFIT street festival, Eastport-A-Rockin', runs from noon until dusk Saturday, with eight bands performing at the Back Creek end of Second Street. Proceeds will benefit area nonprofit groups.There will be plenty of food and beverages, activities for the kids, crafts and lots of fun. Volunteers will request a $5 donation for admission. Donations of canned food are welcome, too."Last year, we had almost 2,000 people attending," coordinator Jim Borchelt reports. "We were able to donate $8,000 to the charities.