Finksburg

The Gamber and Community Fire Company has named Julianne Weidman, of Finksburg, as the winner of the 2012 Oscar Brothers Memorial Scholarship, which is jointly sponsored by the Brothers family and the Gamber fire company. The scholarship awards a total of $12,500 over four years. As part of the scholarship requirements, the winner must complete 40 hours of community service each year, and must maintain a 2.5 or better GPA in college. They also must reside in Gamber & Community Fire Company's first due district.

Army Pvt. David Pack graduated from basic infantry training at Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga. The 2012 graduate of Winters Mill High School is the son of James Pack, of Finksburg, and Mary Zufall, of Reisterstown. He is the grandson of Ethal Zufall, of Hampstead. Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

A 27-year-old Finksburg man was arrested Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of stabbing another man in the middle of E. Main Street in Westminster on Monday, according to Westminster police. Frank Anthony Douma Jr., of the 1600 block of Deer Park Road in Finksburg, was arrested about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday without incident at his girlfriend's apartment, which is in the same 200 block of E. Main Street where the stabbing occurred, said Lt. Patrick Bassler, a police spokesman. Police had first responded to the block about 5 p.m. Monday after reports of a fight between five or six people, and found Jack Hohn, 37, stabbed in his left side in front of a Pizza Boli's restaurant, Bassler said.

Residents of Carroll County 2nd Commissioner District -- those generally in Hampstead and Finksburg -- are invited to attend a question-and-answer meeting with Commissioner Haven Shoemaker on Wednesday, March 20. The meeting will be held in the large meeting room of the Finksburg Library, 2265 Old Westminster Pike, Finksburg. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm and end at about 9 p.m.

The body of a young man was found Wednesday morning in a wooded area alongside a road in Finksburg, police said. Westminster resident Caleb Lee Mott, 17, was last seen early Tuesday walking from a friend's house nearby where his body was found in the 2100 block of Sandymount Road, according to the Carroll County Sheriff's Office. There were no apparent signs of trauma to his body, police said. Mott's body, which was found about 11 a.m. Wednesday, has been taken to the State Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.

There's hardly a square inch of the 1,900-acre Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area that Johnny Johnsson hasn't walked, mapped or studied. That includes the scant remnants of several 19th-century chromium mines at Soldiers Delight in Owings Mills. Some of these mines once reached as deep as 200 feet beneath this chromium-bearing geological anomaly, known as a "serpentine barren. " Johnsson, a Finksburg resident who is an environmental engineer by profession - and a mining historian by avocation - has been a volunteer ranger and tour guide at Soldiers Delight, which is part of the Patapsco Valley State Park system, since 1990.

The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is reporting that the body of a Westminster teen was discovered Wednesday morning in Finksburg near Sandymount Road. At about 11 a.m., deputies responded to a wooded area along the 2100 block of Sandymount Road for a report of an unconscious male, believed to be deceased. Arriving deputies found a deceased white male, in his late teens to early 20s, lying a short distance from the roadway. Detectives have identified the body as that of 17-year-old Caleb Lee Mott, of Westminster.

Quick response by high school friends and a nearby kayaker likely saved the life of a 16-year-old Carrollton teen who was pulled from the swollen Patapsco River during the heavy rains of Sept. 7 at the village of Patapsco near Finksburg. Three teens - David Rugemer, Tyler Hartman and Abraham Ramos - had been floating on the river, but at the confluence of the Patapsco and Aspen Run, the current became intense. All three swimmers were pulled toward the south bridge across the river.

A 32-year-old Owings Mills woman was killed in a three-car collision on Route 140 in Finksburg on Tuesday afternoon, according to Maryland State Police. Ruchita Pandya was pronounced dead on the scene near the border of Baltimore and Carroll counties, police said. Police and emergency responders were called to the scene about 5:15 p.m., police said. An initial investigation showed a 2001 Toyota Tundra driven by William Mark Lehr, of Westminster, was traveling west when it crossed the center line and struck a 2007 Toyota Corolla being driven east by Pandya, police said.

Zach Teal is just 17, but his love for books led him to write one of his own and to volunteer more than 250 hours at the Finksburg branch of the Carroll County Public Library. "Two hundred and fifty hours is quite unusual for our teen volunteers," said Heather Owings, who was volunteer coordinator at the library and now works at the North Carroll branch. Zach logged those hours over the course of three years, performing such tasks as making crafts for story times, signing in reading program participants, even wearing a mouse costume for a reading of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

The mood among the small group residents who attended an informational meeting on Finksburg's long-stalled Corridor Plan, held at Sandymount United Methodist Church on Jan. 14, was one of weariness and polite skepticism. "I'm astounded at all the people here tonight, because a lot of us have just been beaten down," said longtime Finksburg resident and former county employee Neil Ridgely. "I've been associated with this plan for 10 years," Ridgely added. "We have been going through this for a long, long time.

A 32-year-old Owings Mills woman was killed in a three-car collision on Route 140 in Finksburg on Tuesday afternoon, according to Maryland State Police. Ruchita Pandya was pronounced dead on the scene near the border of Baltimore and Carroll counties, police said. Police and emergency responders were called to the scene about 5:15 p.m., police said. An initial investigation showed a 2001 Toyota Tundra driven by William Mark Lehr, of Westminster, was traveling west when it crossed the center line and struck a 2007 Toyota Corolla being driven east by Pandya, police said.

There's hardly a square inch of the 1,900-acre Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area that Johnny Johnsson hasn't walked, mapped or studied. That includes the scant remnants of several 19th-century chromium mines at Soldiers Delight in Owings Mills. Some of these mines once reached as deep as 200 feet beneath this chromium-bearing geological anomaly, known as a "serpentine barren. " Johnsson, a Finksburg resident who is an environmental engineer by profession - and a mining historian by avocation - has been a volunteer ranger and tour guide at Soldiers Delight, which is part of the Patapsco Valley State Park system, since 1990.

Carroll County is launching the Special Olympics Young Athletes Program, which helps children ages 2 to 7 build and develop motor and foundational skills through play activities, and a session will be held Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Finksburg Library, Old Westminster Pike, Finksburg. Young Athletes is designed for children with intellectual, developmental and related disabilities, but is open to family members and friends who are also under 8 years of age. For more information, contact Anna Curtis, Young Athletes program coach, at youareSOCRspecial@gmail.com or 410-207-2094.

Two upcoming events — both of them outside Carroll County — will benefit the Finksburg-based Misfits Animal Sanctuary. Misfits works to provide a sanctuary for abused and neglected animals, finding homes through adoption and connecting people to animals through educational programs. On Sept. 15, the Timber Ridge Pet Resort, at 17110 Ridge Road, Upperco, will host a Responsible Pet Ownership Day on Saturday, Sept. 15, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pets and owners are invited, and activities will include agility trials, a pet parade of rescued animals and a Halloween pet costume contest.

The Gamber and Community Fire Company has named Julianne Weidman, of Finksburg, as the winner of the 2012 Oscar Brothers Memorial Scholarship, which is jointly sponsored by the Brothers family and the Gamber fire company. The scholarship awards a total of $12,500 over four years. As part of the scholarship requirements, the winner must complete 40 hours of community service each year, and must maintain a 2.5 or better GPA in college. They also must reside in Gamber & Community Fire Company's first due district.

Two petitioners are seeking approval from the Carroll Planning and Zoning Commission to rezone land in the Finksburg area near Route 140 and the Baltimore County line.James and Carla Uhler, of Reisterstown, Baltimore County, have requested that about five acres designated conservation be rezoned to industrial. The property is on the north side of Route 140, just northeast of the intersection with Route 91.A similar request submitted by the Uhlers was rejected in 1983 by the planning commission, said planner Steve Horn at Tuesday's monthly meeting.

The death of a Westminster man Monday in an industrial accident at a Finksburg business remains under investigation by state safety officials but appears to have been caused by the employee's error, state police said yesterday. David Alan Harvilak II, 31, of the 100 block of E. Main St. was pronounced dead after his left arm became ensnared about 3: 30 p.m. in machinery used to wrap plastic on 15-foot rolls of a laminate, police said. He was trying to remove debris from the machine when he was pulled in and pinned by a 10,000-pound roll of the product at Congoleum Corp.

Nettie V. Freeman, a retired telephone operator who was also an accomplished seamstress, died Saturday of complications from dementia at Golden Living, a Westminster nursing home. She was 89. Nettie Virginia Russell was born and raised in Baltimore. She was a 1941 graduate of Forest Park High School and worked before her marriage as a telephone operator for Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. She was married in 1943 to Richard E. Freeman Jr., an accountant who worked for C.R. Daniels Co., manufacturers of canvas products.