Fort Garrison

Wearing jeans, a denim cowboy hat and a red bandanna around his neck, Brett Winkel was as ready as any cowboy to swing his partner through the nearest square dance."

Patapsco High School & Center for the Arts educator Sean McComb fondly recalls a high school English teacher who led him to see the world differently through books and a mentor from the student-run cable station who helped him host his own weekly sports show. On Monday, McComb, 29, was honored as Baltimore County's 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year for, among other things, being an example of one who inspires and supports his students. "The teachers that I had in 10th, 11th, 12th grade were the models, and what they did for me made me believe it was possible to do that for other people," said McComb, a Joppa resident who is an English teacher and coordinates a college-prep program, AVID.

An 11-year-old Baltimore County boy who was on safari in Botswana was killed Tuesday by a hyena that attacked him inside his tent, a U.S. State Department official said yesterday. Mark Garrity Shea of Brooklandville was traveling with his mother on their second visit to Botswana in two years when the attack occurred, said the official, who had few specifics about the incident. The boy, who was known as Garrit to his classmates, was a pupil at Fort Garrison Elementary School in Baltimore County.

County Executive Kevin Kamenetz on Tuesday reiterated a familiar theme in stating that his top priority for the 2013 General Assembly session, which opens tomorrow in Annapolis, will be funding for education. But Kamenetz also named legislation related to guns and ammunition among his priorities as well, saying such measures are directly connected to school safety concerns. In a statement on his legislative priorities, the executive noted his recent letter to state and federal legislators urging measures that would halt exceptions to national background checks and stop the sale of assault weapons and “high capacity” ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds.

Nathan "Reds" Scherr, a retired developer and former owner of the Baltimore Blast professional soccer team whose horse Aloma's Ruler won the 1982 Preakness Stakes, died of Parkinson's disease Friday at Cherrywood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Reisterstown. He was 80. Mr. Scherr, whose nickname comes from his full head of red hair, was born in Baltimore, the son of immigrant parents from Russia. He was raised on Oswego Avenue and graduated in 1941 from Polytechnic Institute. He earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1946 from Cornell University.

In 1692, the American frontier was about where Exit 21 is today on the Baltimore Beltway. Across the ocean, England and France were waging another of their periodic wars, this one known as King William's War, and both superpowers were inciting their Indian allies in the New World to raid each other's Colonial settlers. The Governor's Council of Maryland ordered the construction of three defensive forts. Three centuries later, one of those forts still stands on a third of an acre owned by Baltimore County on Garrison Farms Court, a quiet residential cul-de-sac off Stevenson Road, just outside the Beltway.

Freshman Baltimore County Councilman Kevin Kamenetz sat on a tiny chair for 80 minutes yesterday in the stifling media center at Fort Garrison Elementary School, eating humble pie.Facing 13 angry, but polite parents led by Principal Lois H. Balcer, the embarrassed young politician, whose district includes Pikesville and Randallstown, learned a painful political lesson:When you get 50 letters written by second-graders from one of zTC your home district's most...

With more than 75 percent of its schools showing improvement, Baltimore County is on target -- and on schedule -- to reach state achievement test standards, county officials say.2 Top elementary schools (with composite score):Riderwood (75.0)Fort Garrison (73.9)Summit Park (72.0)Pinewood (69.8)Top middle schools:Dumbarton (70.2)Cockeysville (68.7)Ridgely (66.0)Pikesville (61.1)Countywide scoresA table showing the percentage of students at Baltimore County elementary schools who achieved satisfactory scores in the tests.

While some parents urged the Baltimore County school board to adopt proposed boundaries for the new Woodholme Elementary School, a larger number turned out for a hearing on Woodholme last night to appeal to the board on other boundary issues. A majority of the approximately 50 people in the audience were there to urge the board to redistrict the housing developments of Long Meadow, Fields of Stevenson and Dumbarton Heights from Wellwood International Elementary School, which is slightly over capacity, to the slightly under-capacity Fort Garrison Elementary.

Baltimore County school district officials last night unveiled two sets of proposed boundaries for the new Woodholme Elementary School, scheduled to open this fall to relieve crowding at New Town Elementary School. Under both proposals, Woodholme would draw children from New Town, Milbrook and Owings Mills elementary schools. The only difference between the two proposals is that one would move some children from Owings Mills Elementary to Fort Garrison Elementary, and move the area around the Owings Mills mall from the New Town attendance area to the Woodholme attendance area.

Riderwood Elementary School is one of 10 Baltimore County Public School slated to receive $1,000 in a grant from Patient First, a health care company that operates centers around the county. Through the donation, 10 BCPS elementary schools located near Patient First facilities will each receive $1,000. The company has announced that an additional contribution will be made in the spring when it opens a new facility in Towson. Currently, Patient First operates a facility in Lutherville, and Riderwood Elementary School will use the donation to purchase books for the school's library, according to school officials.

Fort Garrison Elementary School, located at 3310 Woodvalley Drive in Pikesville, is closing at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1 due to a water main break.

While some parents urged the Baltimore County school board to adopt proposed boundaries for the new Woodholme Elementary School, a larger number turned out for a hearing on Woodholme last night to appeal to the board on other boundary issues. A majority of the approximately 50 people in the audience were there to urge the board to redistrict the housing developments of Long Meadow, Fields of Stevenson and Dumbarton Heights from Wellwood International Elementary School, which is slightly over capacity, to the slightly under-capacity Fort Garrison Elementary.

Baltimore County school district officials last night unveiled two sets of proposed boundaries for the new Woodholme Elementary School, scheduled to open this fall to relieve crowding at New Town Elementary School. Under both proposals, Woodholme would draw children from New Town, Milbrook and Owings Mills elementary schools. The only difference between the two proposals is that one would move some children from Owings Mills Elementary to Fort Garrison Elementary, and move the area around the Owings Mills mall from the New Town attendance area to the Woodholme attendance area.

In Baltimore City Two teenagers sentenced for Jan. murder of man, 52 Two Baltimore 16-year-olds were sentenced to 15-year prison sentences this week for their roles in the murder of a 52-year-old man during an attempted robbery, the city state's attorney's office announced yesterday. Cory Barnes of the 2600 block of Quantico Ave. and Christopher Wallace of the 4900 block of Litchfield Ave. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and were sentenced Monday in the stabbing death of Joseph Harvey Jr. He was attacked on Jan. 2 in the 5200 block of Park Heights Ave. When the teenagers, along with two other youths, tried to rob Harvey, he told them he had no money.

Nathan "Reds" Scherr, a retired developer and former owner of the Baltimore Blast professional soccer team whose horse Aloma's Ruler won the 1982 Preakness Stakes, died of Parkinson's disease Friday at Cherrywood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Reisterstown. He was 80. Mr. Scherr, whose nickname comes from his full head of red hair, was born in Baltimore, the son of immigrant parents from Russia. He was raised on Oswego Avenue and graduated in 1941 from Polytechnic Institute. He earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1946 from Cornell University.

Kirk Dreier sits on a wooden stool, hacking away at a log that will eventually become a bowl. The 44-year-old "living historian" uses an adz to shape the wood. He has made most of the furniture and other wooden implements in Fort Garrison, a 300-year-old stone structure in the middle of a residential Pikesville neighborhood, using such Colonial-era tools. Dreier, a park naturalist and director of the Oregon Ridge Nature Center, has been arranging presentations about the fort -- the oldest standing fort in Maryland -- since the late 1980s as part of Oregon Ridge's special-events program.

Kirk Dreier sits on a wooden stool, hacking away at a log that will eventually become a bowl. The 44-year-old "living historian" uses an adz to shape the wood. He has made most of the furniture and other wooden implements in Fort Garrison, a 300-year-old stone structure in the middle of a residential Pikesville neighborhood, using such Colonial-era tools. Dreier, a park naturalist and director of the Oregon Ridge Nature Center, has been arranging presentations about the fort -- the oldest standing fort in Maryland -- since the late 1980s as part of Oregon Ridge's special-events program.