Eldersburg

For the past six years, the building at 6228 Sykesvillle Road (Route 32), in Eldersburg, once known as Nathan Henry's Restaurant, has stood empty. But it hasn't been forgotten. The nondenominational Journey Church Community has been planning to turn the site into the Ugly Mug, which organizers describe as a not-for-profit coffee/cafe/concert house for the community, especially young adults. After six years of fundraising, campaigns, setbacks and road blocks, proponents say the goal is still alive - and in fact may be close to reality.

Jeffrey L. Barnes, a farmer and owner of an Eldersburg Chevrolet dealership, died Monday of pancreatic cancer at his Finksburg home. He was 68. Jeffrey Lynn Barnes was born in Baltimore and raised in Winfield. He attended Westminster High School. After his 1964 marriage to Sylvia Ann Zepp, he went to work in sales at Duffy Used Cars, which was owned by his father-in-law. Mr. Barnes later took a job at Neel Chevrolet in Eldersburg, which he eventually purchased in 1983 and renamed Jeff Barnes Chevrolet Inc. "He'd work 70-hour weeks.

The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is reporting that an Eldersburg man in the 20s was threatened with a hammer and robbed of an iPhone in an early morning incident on Sunday, June 17. The incident occurred at about 2 a.m., according to the report. The sheriff's office said the victim had agreed to meet two people - a man and a woman - on Hodges Road, near the area where it comes to a dead end, in order to sell an Apple iPhone to them. But when everyone had arrived, one of the suspects pulled out a hammer and threatened the victim with it, and ordered him to hand over the phone and his money, the report said.

Faith Child Development Center's pre-kindergarten class celebrated its graduation ceremony May 16. Colorful graduation hats decorated the bulletin board and graduation streamers hung from the ceiling. But the mood was far from cheerful after the event, as the staff of the school shut its doors to students and their families for the last time. On May 11, Faith Lutheran Church announced that Faith Child Development Center, which has offered classes for ages 2 through pre-k for 12 years, would not reopen next school year.

"Don't assume this is a two-hankie book. It is not. You will cry, but you will also laugh. You will experience not only anger, but also gratification. And in the end, you will be uplifted. " - Eileen Rudnick, from her book, "The Glass Between Us" Eldersburg resident Eileen Rudnick is living proof that sometimes out of the worst, the best can come. The evening of Oct. 3, 2000 was just another mild Tuesday, another relatively uneventful day ... until the moment that everything changed for Rudnick, a wife, mother of two, grandmother of two and an accountant.

When Frank Spruill first looked into franchises more than 30 years ago, he found three options: fast food, automobiles or books. "It was a no brainer," Spruill laughed this past week, standing inside his Little Professor Book Center in Eldersburg. Soon after deciding to pursue the book market, he opened Little Professor in the Carrolltown Center in 1977, where it was located until six years ago, when it moved to its current location at Liberty Station Shopping Center on Liberty Road.

Weeks ago, when 5th District County Commissioner Doug Howard scheduled his April 30 meeting with Eldersburg residents, he assumed it would be the usual "get-together" where the commissioner gives updates on ongoing issues such as the county budget, funding for schools and the future of the beleaguered Carrolltown Center mall. But by the time this past week's meeting rolled around, a more pressing matter steam rolled other issues aside - namely the controversial proposal to build a 235-unit retirement facility on the 16-acre Ely property near the Oklahoma and Bennett roads in Eldersburg.

Just about the only excitement in the semi-rural residential neighborhood near the intersection of Oklahoma and Bennett roads, in Eldersburg, is provided by occasional errant motorists who misjudge the sharp downhill curve on Oklahoma where it approaches Bennett from the northeast and either end up in a ditch or in somebody's yard. But the billboard-sized banner that one homeowner recently put in his front yard - along with dozens of smaller signs that pepper Oklahoma Road - reveal that this neighborhood, where old and new residential subdivisions abut a few remaining farms and a stretch of the Liberty Reservoir watershed, is in the midst of a controversy.

Edward M. Budelis, a retired Baltimore County public school educator who established the work-study program at Catonsville High School, died Wednesday of a heart attack at Carroll Hospital Center. The longtime Eldersburg resident was 85. The son of a tailor and a homemaker, Edward M. Budelis was born in Baltimore and raised in Morrell Park. He attended the old St. Charles Seminary in Catonsville and graduated in 1944 from Calvert Hall College High School. He enlisted in the Army during World War II and served with an infantry unit in Europe.

A woman was killed after two cars collided Sunday morning in Eldersburg, Maryland State Police said. A Chrysler making a left turn from Liberty Road onto Georgetown Boulevard collided with a Nissan shortly before noon, police said. Myrtle Coghill, a passenger in the Chrysler, was taken to the Carroll Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead. The driver of that vehicle, Wallace Coghill, of Sykesville, was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.