Elkridge

Rosina D. Squires, a retired Montgomery Ward catalog worker who liked to garden, died Wednesday of vascular dementia at Ellicott City Rehabilitation Center. The longtime Elkridge resident was 87. The daughter of an immigrant Italian construction worker and a seamstress, Rosina Delores DePinto was born in Baltimore and raised on High Street in Little Italy. She attended a business school, family members said, where she studied to be a secretary. She later worked for 15 years in the mail order department of the old Montgomery Ward store on Monroe Street until retiring in the early 1980s.

The Elkridge teenager shot by Howard County police a week ago died over the weekend, Howard County police said. Police described the incident that took place last Monday afternoon as a standoff, saying that Jeffrey Dustin Nichols, 19, refused to drop a handgun. Officers, called to Elkridge for reports of shots fired, followed Nichols along railroad tracks to an area behind an industrial park 7400 block of Hi Tech Drive, where he again refused to drop the weapon and was shot eight times.

Howard County police shot a man Monday near railroad tracks by an Elkridge industrial park after he refused to drop his handgun, police said. Police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn identified the man Monday night as Jeffrey Dustin Nichols, 19, of the 6600 block of Grouse Road in Elkridge. He was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was listed in critical condition, she said in an email. Police said they were called about a man firing shots in the Hanover area around 3 p.m. Police followed him from the area near Loudon and Melrose avenues to an industrial park in the 7400 block of Hi Tech Road.

  Amanda O'Brien and Collin Smith   Bruce and Debbie O'Brien, of Ellicott City, announce the engagement of their daughter Amanda Michele O'Brien, to Collin Smith, son of Jeffrey and Jeanette Smith, of Catonsville. The bride-to-be is a 2008 graduate of Howard High School and is pursuing a degree in early childhood education. She is currently employed as a teacher at a daycare facility in Elkridge. The future groom is a 2008 graduate from Arcadia University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in print communications.

Can you say gerrymander? After attending many of the Howard County Council redistricting meetings a few things became clear. The citizens of Howard County specifically wanted a few things. They wanted neighborhoods and especially communities kept together, they wanted the least amount of people moved, Elkridge wanted a conversation about a map that would put all of Elkridge into one district, and the citizens did not want any party gerrymandering. Three maps were designed.

Laura and James Calabrese, of Laurel, announce the birth of their son, Anthony James Calabrese, on Sept. 25, 2011, at 9:26 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces. He has a brother named Dominic, and his maternal grandparents are Raeann and Larry Katzbeck, of Elkridge. Staci and John Lawall Jr., of Elkridge, announce the birth of their daughter, Braelynn Nicole Lawall, on Aug. 1, 2011, at 10:44 p.m. She weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces. Her grandparents are Marty Golden, of Jim Thorpe, Pa.; Kathy Doody, of New Market; and Sue and Chad Millinix, of Laurel.

A 30-year-old Columbia man died Saturday after he lost control of his motorcycle and slammed into the rear of a tractor-trailer parked on Brookdale Road in Elkridge, according to Howard County police. The victim was not wearing a helmet and was not licensed to drive the vehicle, police said. The accident occurred shortly before 1 p.m. near Brookdale Road and Route 1, police said. Police said the motorcyclist, Juan Carlos Calderon Mejia, was taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma, where he died of his injuries.

The commission charged with making a recommendation on how current County Council districts should be realigned ought to reject the more radical of the three proposed plans, which would lump the entirety of the Route 1 corridor into one district. While it's entirely healthy and appropriate to consider distinct alternatives, this is one that the commission would do well to dismiss rapidly. Both proponents and detractors point to the importance of revitalization efforts in the county's easternmost sliver.

Howard County officials have agreed to purchase Belmont, the historic 18th-century estate in Elkridge, for just over half the cost paid by owner Howard Community College. The county reached an agreement Sept. 7 with Howard Community College at a price of nearly $2.7 million for the 81-acre property. But, because the county previously provided about $2.6 million to the school to help it purchase Belmont, Howard will now only pay the difference of $89,000, said Kevin Enright, a county spokesman.