George Howard

TOMORROW Board of Elections Will meet at 4 p.m. in the Elections Office, 8900 Route 100 Parkway, Columbia. Board of Zoning Appeals The hearing examiner will hear Case BA 534-D (Villas Associates LLC, continuation) at 10 a.m. in the Ellicott Room, George Howard Building, 3430 Court House Drive, Ellicott City. Commission on Aging Will meet at 7 p.m. in Ellicott City Senior Center, 9401 Frederick Road, Ellicott City. TUESDAY Mental Health Authority Will meet at 5:30 p.m. at 8775 Cloudleap Court, in Long Reach Village Center, Columbia.

Meeting set tonight on dealing with natural disasters Howard County's Office of Emergency Management is revising its Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan, which is designed to reduce or eliminate potential damage or loss of life as a result of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, severe winter weather or other natural disasters. A plan is a prerequisite for a jurisdiction to receive federal disaster mitigation funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The public can review and comment on the draft plan at a meeting at 7 p.m. today in the Tyson Room of the George Howard Building, 3430 Court House Drive, Ellicott City.

A broken water valve in an underground pipe on U.S. 40 at Rogers Avenue in Ellicott City affected operations in Howard County's George Howard Building yesterday, and repairs will disrupt traffic tomorrow night, county officials said. James M. Irvin, the county public works director, said county workers tried to repair the valve early yesterday but postponed the job after finding it would be more complex than first thought. As a result, the valve bringing water down Rogers Avenue to the county government complex was closed to stop water leakage, and rerouting the flow caused another blockage to the George Howard Building.

A County Council work session and a meeting of the public transportation board scheduled for yesterday were not held because of inclement weather. The work session to discuss pending legislation, including comprehensive rezoning, was postponed until 4:30 p.m. tomorrow at in the George Howard Building. The transportation board, which was to hear details of a plan to cut transit services and increase wait times because of a budget error, was rescheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.

Tonight's meeting of the county's Public Transportation Board is the last opportunity for people to comment on Howard Transit's proposed bus routes to provide service to senior facilities in Ellicott City and job sites along the U.S. 1 corridor. The new "silver" and "purple" lines are expected to begin operation early next year or as soon as new buses can be delivered, said Ray Ambrose, transit administrator for Corridor Transportation Corp., an arm of the Baltimore-Washington Chamber of Commerce that operates the Howard bus service.

The Rev. Roland L. Howard Sr., president of the Howard County Board of Elections Supervisors and founder of Banneker Christian Community Church in Columbia, died yesterday at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore a month after suffering a heart attack during a tense daylong count of absentee ballots. He was 76. A lifelong resident of Elkridge, where he grew up in a four-room log cabin overlooking Deep Run stream, Mr. Howard was remembered yesterday as a tireless community activist and voting rights champion.

The Rev. Roland L. Howard Sr., president of the Howard County Board of Election Supervisors and founder of Banneker Christian Community Church in Columbia, died yesterday at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore a month after suffering a heart attack during a tense daylong count of absentee ballots. He was 76. A lifelong resident of Elkridge, where he grew up in a four-room log cabin overlooking Deep Run stream, Mr. Howard was remembered yesterday as a tireless community activist and voting rights champion.