Harbel

Appliance shipments hit all-time high in 1996Factory shipments of major home appliances reached an all-time yearly high in 1996, according to figures compiled by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.The industry shipped 55,133,100 units, exceeding by 3 percent the previous record of 53,493,000 established in 1994. Last year's figure was 5 percent higher than those for 1995.Records were established in five categories. Refrigerators led with 9,045,400, followed by clothes washers (7,128,800)

Going block by block, crews in bucket trucks are converting 70,000 city streetlights from sodium vapor lights to long-lasting, energy-saving LEDs. The bright side: Baltimore expects to reap an annual savings of $1.9 million on its electric bill and $275,000 in maintenance costs. Also, advocates say the lights produce less glare and are more focused, meaning less light pollution that drowns out the night stars and can disrupt ecosystems. The dimmer side: Critics say the new lights don't illuminate the area as well.

Unlike other college seniors who are sequestered in classrooms and labs taking final exams, a group of Goucher students took their big test on the road.As part of an innovative community-service class, 11 students created ways to infuse new life into the defunct Arcade Theater -- built in 1928 -- by turning the Hamilton movie theater and attached shops into a restaurant-entertainment complex, a center for the arts or a health and fitness club.Their proposals -- outlined last week for dozens of Hamilton residents and elected officials -- come as other old Baltimore theaters -- victims of age and changing trends in movie-going -- are being reborn.

DANDELION wine is some trouble to make, requiring several quarts of the yellow blossoms that become more difficult to find with the passing of each ChemLawn spring, followed by a lot of boiling, simmering, straining and waiting. The actual drinking does not take place until six months after you seal the wine in a cask. It all sounds quaint. But who in this high-speed, instant-oatmeal world has time for such an old-timey thing? We barely have time for nouveau things. We barely have time to watch Emeril cook.

Councilman Joseph T. "Jody" Landers, D-3rd, plans to announce his candidacy today for comptroller of Baltimore, a job held by Hyman A. Pressman since 1963.Along with the president of the City Council, the comptroller is one of two independent voices on the five-member, mayor-dominated Board of Estimates, which controls how the city's $1.3 billion operating budget is spent.Mr. Landers, 37, a former executive director of the HARBEL Community Organization Inc. and a licensed real estate agent, said he would use the comptroller's office to keep an eye on municipal spending and press for lower property taxes.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke will be sworn in today for a second term in economic conditions that are drastically different from four years ago. The recession has made it plain that the way Baltimore City's government traditionally has been run must change. Rethinking and remaking that government will be the biggest test -- and opportunity -- of the second Schmoke administration.The question is whether Mr. Schmoke has the political will to undertake the kinds of changes an inevitable downsizing involves without destroying the qualities that make Baltimore livable.

Speaking at a candidates forum in Northeast Baltimore yesterday, Mayor Sheila Dixon said her administration is prepared to unveil a plan that would significantly increase money available for school construction. Though short on details, Dixon said she will announce next week that the city intends to use tax increment financing -- a process typically reserved for large-scale developments -- to drum up money for school construction and renovation. "The city is getting ready to step up and not only help with new construction of the schools -- because the state has not picked up their responsibility -- but also in helping with capital improvements on our charter schools," Dixon said at the forum, organized by the HARBEL Community Organization.

They fought City Hall, and they won one, at least temporarily.As word that Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke had approved a decision yesterday afternoon to raze Hamilton Elementary-Middle School spread through the surrounding neighborhood, parents and community activists deluged City Hall and state legislators' offices with calls of protest.Their case for preserving the crumbling 69-year-old anchor of the Northeast Baltimore community proved persuasive enough to sway the mayor.By 6 p.m., two hours after backing Superintendent Walter G. Amprey's decision, Mr. Schmoke had agreed to instead consider a last-minute proposal to renovate the school instead of replacing it with a park and moving the 600 students to Northern Parkway Junior High.

Revitalization efforts to be honored Oct. 9Light Street Housing Corp., the Maryland Center for Community Development and the Washington Village Pigtown Neighborhood Planning Council will be honored for their revitalizing work in the Washington Village/Pigtown area.The three community organizations will be feted from 6: 30 p.m to 9 p.m. Oct. 9, when Tri-Churches Housing Inc. holds its 3rd Annual Awards Dinner in the upper hall of St. Jerome's Head Start Center, 765 W. Hamburg St.Diane Bell McKoy, chief executive officer and president of Empower Baltimore Management Corp.

Candidate forums scheduled by district Baltimore's League of Women Voters has scheduled candidate forums this month for each of the city's legislative districts. Candidates for the state Senate and the House of Delegates have been invited to the forums, and audience members will be permitted to ask questions. The forums include District 40: Thursday at Great Hall, Lovely Lane Methodist Church, 2200 St. Paul St. District 41: Friday at Forest Park Senior Center, 4801 Liberty Heights Ave. District 43: Wednesday at Good Samaritan Hospital, 5601 Loch Raven Blvd.