Fort Meade

What began as a 9,000-acre development headache for Anne Arundel County -- the disposal of Fort Meade's surplus land -- has been whittled down to a minor annoyance. Last summer, local officials engineered the annexation of 7,600 acres of Fort Meade to the adjoining Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge. Now comes news that 400 acres of the remaining 1,400-acre parcel will be used for a landfill and pump station needed by the Army. Then there's the matter of Tipton Airfield, another 400 acres which the county wants, and will probably get, for use as a general aviation airfield.

Fort Meade will sponsor their annual Independence Day Celebration this year on July 4 with a parade at 9:30 a.m. and conclude with fireworks display over Burba Park at 9:30 p.m.All events are free and open to the public.Activities during the day include: a parade from Meade Senior High School on Clark Road along MacArthur Avenue and ends near McGlachlin Field; the Tour de Fort Meade "Cherry Bomb" Criterium Bike Races from 11:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., off Maryland 175 and Llewellyn Avenue; parachutists at 11 a.m.; carnival from 1 to 11 p.m. including: helicopter static display; American and foreign small-arms weapons display; trick bike and karate demonstrations; carnival rides; game and food vendors; roving clowns; magicians, mimes; giant animal characters, including the Oriole Bird and Uncle Sam; street actors; and jugglers.

Transformation has come at an increasingly rapid speed at Fort George G. Meade.This sprawling Army base, which not so long ago sat in the middle of an Anne Arundel County territory known primarily for truck farms, now finds itself in the center of one of the hottest growth zones in the new Washington-Baltimore consolidated metropolitan statistical area.Fort Meade is lucky to have a commander like Col. Kent D. Menser at a time like this, if reporter Peter Hermann's recent Sun interview is any guide.

Combining three Department of Defense media information schools at Fort Meade could cost taxpayers $36.1 million for a new, 232,000-square-foot building, renovations to old buildings and temporary classroom space for 950 students and teachers.This is the most expensive option for the consolidation and the one preferred by the Department of Defense.The information is contained in an environmental assessment the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released Tuesday. The report, which includes eight options for construction of the school and renovations of existing buildings, concludes that the school would have no detrimental environmental impact on the post.

Rough language and dirty stories have always been part of military culture, so it's not hard to believe the "concerned soldier" who claims that Col. Robert G. Morris III, the new commander at Fort George G. Meade, said some not-so-nice things during some recent speeches. Many 25-year military veterans have vocabularies that don't exactly belong in drawing rooms.The question is, how much should that matter? To Colonel Morris' many supporters, the brouhaha over his alleged profanity and lurid tales about Army nurses is just another case of political correctness run amok.

A county park in western Anne Arundel County is a great idea -- but not smack in the middle of 8,100 acres of wildlife refuge at Fort Meade. This is one of the last large, undisturbed old forests on the East Coast, the closest thing we have to a national park. Expose it to development, and you endanger a habitat that nurtures wildlife for an entire region.County Executive Robert R. Neall has had his eye on the Fort Meade land ever since the federal government declared it surplus two years ago, transferring it from the Army to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

I f it is true, as Napoleon said, that an army moves on its stomach, then some Army reservists at Fort Meade will soon be soldiering in style. Sgt. 1st Class James Duff, a food service specialist with the 200th Military Police Command, will be reporting for duty at Fort Meade this month. This is the mess-hall equivalent, I gather, of having Maryland sharpshooter Greivis Vasquez show up on your pickup basketball team. Duff is on a roll. Last week he managed a team of 12 that picked up a potful of medals - four gold, 11 silver and seven bronze - at the U.S. Army's Culinary Arts Competition at Fort Lee, Va. They finished fifth in a field of 12 teams.

The formal transfer of 8,100 acres of surplus land at Fort Meade to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has left two major issues unresolved: what to do with Tipton Army Airfield and whether Anne Arundel County will employ some of the acreage for recreational use. These raise the larger question of the county's role in one of the largest swath of open space in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.The future of Tipton is beset by uncertainty and opposition. The county isn't sure it wants to take on the financial responsibility of operating a private airport.

I read with great consternation the Jan. 12 editorial "Fort Meade expansion a boon, but traffic must be addressed. " Studies have concluded that building more roads simply increases traffic. What an excellent opportunity we have to build a light-rail running right down the middle of Route 32 from Columbia to Fort Meade. When I first moved to Howard County in 1986, that road was being expanded. I was dismayed to see that wide expanse of median left untouched. Coming from an area with great public transit, I thought a chance at making a real difference for future traffic was being missed.

More than 1,300 young, single soldiers, sailors and other service members drive to Fort Meade every work day because they don't live on post - can't, actually, because the barracks are full and other homes there are for families. The Army installation isn't about to get millions of dollars to build more housing, not with the defense budget falling. Instead, it's getting the Army's first privately developed garden apartments for the unmarried junior-enlisted crowd, with costs covered by the developer.