Fort Howard

Preservation law saved Locust Point What do the obituary of Baltimore legend Ann Shirley Doda ("She stood up for Locust Point," Oct. 12) and the article about the reuse of Fort Howard ("Former fort to house vets," Oct. 12) in Friday's Sun have in common? The underlying federal law that made the U.S. Department of Transportation build a tunnel for Interstate 95 instead of a bridge over Fort McHenry and made the Department of Veterans Affairs think about alternatives to demolition at Fort Howard.

A scenic patch of waterfront in southeastern Baltimore County is where the British disembarked during the War of 1812, where injured U.S. military veterans were later nursed to health and, more recently, where scenes for a George Clooney movie were shot. Now, Fort Howard is undergoing another transformation: retirement housing for military veterans. Department of Veterans Affairs officials say it is the first time such a large piece of department-owned land will be used for housing for veterans.

When students from the local high school want to volunteer their weekends at a haunted house, even if they already have nearly 200 hours of community service, you know it's a success. Such is the case at the Haunted Dungeons at Fort Howard Park.Dedication is obvious as dozens of local residents show up at the park gate to volunteer their time. Some are wearing costumes, others are talking of slimy maggots in jars, and a few plain-clothed people are just looking to help."Most of our adults started off as kids working [here]

To assist a growing population of older military veterans, the state Board of Public Works could take the first step today toward building a multimillion-dollar veterans home on the sprawling grounds of Fort Howard Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore County.A Silver Spring consulting firm has submitted a bid of $57,909 for a 90-day feasibility study to explore constructing a second facility in Maryland to treat and care for ex-military personnel in a retirement setting.If approved, the retirement home would sit on a stunning site overlooking a river and the Chesapeake Bay -- a tree-shaded tract named in honor of a dashing hero of the Revolutionary War that includes a facility nearly shuttered because of shifting medical needs.

The wind-whipped rain carried Joseph Conway back in time as he stood among the crowd yesterday at Fort Howard VA Medical Center.The ex-Army paratrooper joined more than 75 veterans and federal workers in the rain to protest what most admit is a fait accompli -- the demolition of the historic hospital on the Chesapeake Bay, which would be decided on as early as next year. "They have their minds made up to tear the hospital down, but I've received good care here, and since I live in Baltimore, it's been convenient," said Conway, a hospital patient who was wounded three times while serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam.

KEEPING the Fort Howard VA Medical Center open hasn't made sense for decades. It's a crumbling, 57-year-old giant of a hospital in need of $23 million in repairs. Even then, this hospital by the bay would hold just 85 veterans.It makes far more sense to consolidate medical services for veterans at more modern VA health centers. Indeed, shuttering Fort Howard over several years will save nearly $10 million a year that could be redirected into other medical programs for Maryland veterans.Only 73 hospital beds at Fort Howard are occupied; it used to contain 245. It is located so far away from population centers that no public transportation is available.

Opening night of Baltimore County's Fantasy of Lights display at Fort Howard Park drew scant turnout, but the volunteers operating the show for the first time hope Thanksgiving's poor attendance isn't the precursor for the 40-night run."I'm not worried yet," said Greg Kirkpatrick, 51, past president of the Edgemere-Sparrows Point Recreation Council and administrator of the light show."I can't see how it could be a bust. The county set it up for nothing, the volunteers don't cost us, and the only cost is the heat in the [refreshment and entertainment]

Baltimore County's second Festival of Lights holiday light show lost an estimated $7,300 and saw attendance drop by 40 percent in its most recent display -- and county officials say it has to do better next time.To explore ways to increase attendance, county recreation Director John F. Weber III plans a brainstorming session March 27 for operators of 10 charitable light shows from Texas to Virginia, including Columbia's Symphony of Lights, which also lost attendance this year."We're very concerned about this drop in attendance," Weber said of the Festival of Lights, at Fort Howard Park in Edgemere.

Two masked men -- one with a silver-plated revolver -- robbed the Fantasy of Lights holiday light show at Fort Howard Park in Edgemere on Saturday and escaped with $6,999, Baltimore County police said yesterday.Most of the money came from the show's gate receipts for Saturday night, and the rest was personal cash from two workers, police said.Police said that shortly before 11 p.m., two men wearing masks and dressed in black entered the office, handcuffed the manager and a female part-time employee, bound their feet with duct tapeand took money from the safe and from the two workers.

The cashier who said she was a holdup victim Saturday night at the Festival of Lights holiday display at Fort Howard was charged yesterday with conspiracy in the crime, in which her son also has been charged.The accusation against Karen Ballman, 42, of the first block of Floral Place in Middle River brought to four the number of people charged in the incident, which netted the robbers nearly $7,000.Arrested and charged Monday were Ballman's son, Thomas Allen Harvey, 24, also of the first block of Floral Place, and Kenneth Bowman, 22, who was picked up near his home in the 800 block of Wilson Point Road.

Prison construction moves state backward, not forward As community members, how can we be comfortable with the state, already in budget crisis mode, preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on new detention centers and more prison beds, when decades of research from criminal justice analysts to local law enforcement show that prevention and early intervention using less costly community-based services are better for public safety? ("Catching Up," August 20) How can we be comfortable with our elected state officials proclaiming that prisons are a "good investment" because they will produce jobs in construction and hiring of state employees?

Walter Pasciak, 84, was so eager to move to a proposed $180 million waterfront retirement community for veterans in eastern Baltimore County that he paid $5,000 to be given "priority consideration" on the waiting list. "The location is great, and all the facilities would have been there," said Pasciak, a World War II veteran. Now he doesn't know whether he'll see the money again. On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs terminated its contract with Federal Development LLC, a Washington-based company that had been selected to redevelop Fort Howard Hospital and other buildings at the one-time Army base on the North Point peninsula.

After years of delays in getting Fort Howard redeveloped as a retirement community for veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday scrapped those plans and said it will seek a new partner for the project. Fort Howard Senior Housing Association had signed a 75-year lease with the VA in 2004 to build what would have been the nation's largest continuing-care community for veterans. But the project, Bayside at Fort Howard, had become enmeshed in disputes over building permits, zoning regulations and taxes.

The plans are as ambitious as the $100 million price tag would suggest: a sprawling retirement village for military veterans on the site of a former Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in eastern Baltimore County. With 1,300 residential units, Bayside at Fort Howard would be one of the largest continuing-care facilities for veterans in the country. But months before the original move-in date for the first residents, the project is in danger of falling apart. Crews recently stopped renovating the old brick hospital and long-shuttered military quarters on the North Point peninsula campus.

Preservation law saved Locust Point What do the obituary of Baltimore legend Ann Shirley Doda ("She stood up for Locust Point," Oct. 12) and the article about the reuse of Fort Howard ("Former fort to house vets," Oct. 12) in Friday's Sun have in common? The underlying federal law that made the U.S. Department of Transportation build a tunnel for Interstate 95 instead of a bridge over Fort McHenry and made the Department of Veterans Affairs think about alternatives to demolition at Fort Howard.

A scenic patch of waterfront in southeastern Baltimore County is where the British disembarked during the War of 1812, where injured U.S. military veterans were later nursed to health and, more recently, where scenes for a George Clooney movie were shot. Now, Fort Howard is undergoing another transformation: retirement housing for military veterans. Department of Veterans Affairs officials say it is the first time such a large piece of department-owned land will be used for housing for veterans.

Construction begins on retirement center Construction is under way on a multimillion-dollar retirement community at the closed Fort Howard Veterans Affairs Medical Center in eastern Baltimore County. The retirement community, largely geared toward veterans, will feature 10 new buildings, including independent living and assisted living and skilled nursing care, officials said at a ceremony yesterday. A VA outpatient clinic, veterans museum, and wellness center are also scheduled to be built at the 94-acre site.

After a 10-year hiatus, Buzz Chriest and his Dundalk-based Captain Aisquith's Sharp Shooters were back in full force yesterday - re-enactors nearly 200 strong re-imagining the area's key role in the War of 1812, delaying the redcoats' advance on the North Point Peninsula. "Ten years ago, they thought they could do this without a re-enactment," Chriest, 67, said of the once-annual Defenders' Day celebration, which had vanished after 1996 from Fort Howard Park in Edgemere. "The public comes for the fireworks and the Sturm und Drang [storm and stress]

A four-alarm fire that destroyed a cabinet manufacturer's building in Dundalk is estimated to have caused $1 million in damage, county fire officials said. The investigation was continuing yesterday into the cause of the fire Thursday at the Harvey Henry & Sons building in the 8000 block of Stansbury Road, officials said. The fire, fueled by glue and other combustibles, raced through the company's single-story, 150-foot-long concrete building, leaving dozens without jobs. No injuries were reported.

A four-alarm fire that destroyed a cabinet manufacturer's building in Dundalk is estimated to have caused $1 million in damages, county fire officials said. The investigation was continuing yesterday into the cause of the fire Thursday at the Harvey Henry & Sons building in the 8000 block of Stansbury Road, officials said. The fire, fueled by glue and other combustibles, raced through the company's single-story, 150-foot-long concrete building, leaving dozens without jobs. No injuries were reported.