Heritage Area

Fire auxiliary plans bridal event The New Windsor Fire Company auxiliary is seeking wedding-related vendors for its Bridal Extravaganza Jan. 13 at Windsor Station fire hall. Interested vendors should call 410-635-2756 or 410-635-6179 by Oct. 1. Reverse 911 includes cell, Internet phones Carroll County's nearly two-year-old Reverse 911 system has been expanded to include residents and businesses who depend primarily on cellular or Internet-based telephones. The system had been programmed with the numbers of all land telephone lines in the county to quickly and automatically notify residents in an emergency.

Lack of funding may throw a monkey wrench into Carroll County's plans to tap into the lucrative heritage tourism market, officials said yesterday.Local leaders have joined a regional effort to become a state-certified Civil War Heritage Area, though no famous battles were fought in Carroll.They are touting a skirmish in Westminster and the movement of Civil War troops through the county in a bid for state recognition. Carroll is joined in the effort by Washington and Frederick counties, the sites of well-known clashes between Confederate and Union troops.

A group of community and business leaders has developed an ambitious plan to turn South Anne Arundel County into a vacation destination.The Annapolis, London Town and South County Heritage Area Steering Committee presented a proposal last week to use state and local money to promote and preserve area cultural heritage sites. The plan could bring in $70 million in tourist revenue and create 1,000 jobs after five years, the committee estimates."This is another way of planning the future of our county," said Ann M. Fligsten, a committee member.

At a heated meeting last night on whether to turn the Patapsco Valley into a certified heritage area, a group of environmentalists and concerned citizens formally demanded that Patapsco Valley State Park be removed from plans for a trail network linking the natural, cultural and historic resources of the valley.After almost two hours of arguing, shouting and pleading, the two sides resolved nothing. Heritage area supporters said the Maryland Department of Natural Resources will have the final say on whether to include the park in the plans, but opponents said that was just an excuse to avoid the issue.

The citizens of Oella did it.In sharp contrast to a chaotic Greater Oella Community Association meeting in May, residents of the historic mill town across the Patapsco River from Ellicott City managed last night to hold a civil information-gathering meeting about the proposed Patapsco Heritage Greenway.Jay Patel, president of the community association, said at 9: 30 p.m. that no vote would be taken on whether to support the greenway until a future meeting, probably in late summer or the fall.

Ensuring that the historically rich land that hugs the Chesapeake Bay from Sandy Point southward will continue to delight residents and the visitors who are arriving in increasing numbers has become the task of a committee pursuing new state money.It will have to be a delicate balance, organizers say.At stake are the pastoral views and narrow, winding roads of the countryside and the historic city blocks of Annapolis that bustle as a seat of government. Rampant tourism could kill the very thing attracting people to the area.

DWELLING ON HISTORY can be good business, particularly in a county with as many historical sites as Anne Arundel.The County Council's decision to apply to the state government for a "heritage area" designation should help focus thinking and policy-making on ways to boost the county's growing tourism industry.The county would like to have an area stretching south from Sandy Point State Park along the Chesapeake Bay through Annapolis to the county line designated as the "Annapolis and London Town Heritage Area."

Oella -- a tiny, historic mill town on the Patapsco River where some stone structures predate the War of 1812 -- may soon vault into the 1990s for good, with the help of state taxpayers.The Maryland Heritage Areas Authority has formally recognized Oella and its rustic surroundings as a heritage area, making it eligible for public funding that could help chart a formal course for the southwestern Baltimore County community.Among the possibilities that could emerge from an Oella master plan being developed: a system of hiking trails, a picnic area and a museum that would feature Oella's rich legacy of millwork.

Anne Arundel County may soon be history.The County Council voted last night to apply to the state for a special "heritage area" designation that could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants and tax credits to encourage tourism.The money could be used to build a regional history museum in Annapolis, create an archaeology learning center in London Town, or encourage owners of historic shops to restore their buildings, said Donna Ware, a historic site planner for the county."If we want to make tourism more successful in the county, this is something we must do," Ware said before the council voted 7-0 in favor of the proposal.

Baltimore's tourism industry and historic communities are joining forces in hopes of creating something like New Orleans' French Quarter in the city that will coax Inner Harbor-bound tourists to visit the area's other attractions.The Planning Commission recommended approval yesterday of the first step of the plan to combine Baltimore's cultural, economic and architectural history in an area that persuades tourists to stay longer and spend more.Tourism and historic community leaders are going after a share of millions of dollars newly earmarked by the state to turn historic and recreational areas into strong tourist attractions, an idea called Heritage Tourism.

Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County is accepting applications for two grants. The Maryland Heritage Areas Authority matching grants of up to $100,000 are available through Four Rivers for projects that include historical, cultural and natural resources and have a heritage tourism component. Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations and local jurisdictions. Application packages are available at www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net. The Four Rivers Heritage Area office in the Arundel Center, 44 Calvert St. in Annapolis, must receive the completed application package with 15 copies by March 7. MHAA awards will be announced in July.

Jeffrey Buchheit, a former assistant director of the American Association of Museums, has begun work as director of the Baltimore City Heritage Area, an arm of the mayor's office that promotes the city's cultural heritage. He replaced Bill Pencek, a preservation expert who left last year to join the state government. Buchheit, 39, has 15 years of experience in museums, including administration, governance, exhibit design, volunteer management and collections management. Before joining the museum association in 2000, he was executive director of the Historical Electronics Museum in Baltimore.

Fire auxiliary plans bridal event The New Windsor Fire Company auxiliary is seeking wedding-related vendors for its Bridal Extravaganza Jan. 13 at Windsor Station fire hall. Interested vendors should call 410-635-2756 or 410-635-6179 by Oct. 1. Reverse 911 includes cell, Internet phones Carroll County's nearly two-year-old Reverse 911 system has been expanded to include residents and businesses who depend primarily on cellular or Internet-based telephones. The system had been programmed with the numbers of all land telephone lines in the county to quickly and automatically notify residents in an emergency.

City officials screened a new documentary yesterday on the efforts of Baltimoreans in the 1960s and 1970s to stop an interstate from cutting through and destroying many of the Inner Harbor's historic neighborhoods. Road Wars, an 11-minute movie, was produced by the city's Heritage Area program and the Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications, and made in part with a grant from the development company Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski introduced the film yesterday at a ceremony at the Inner Harbor visitors center.

Hoping to pique the interest of some of the millions of tourists who each year visit Anne Arundel County, the Galesville Heritage Society has published a brochure highlighting some of the maritime community's top historical and cultural attractions. The four-color brochure lists 23 heritage tour sites within the waterfront community in southern Anne Arundel, including many that date to the 1800s. The West River Market, at 1000 Main St., is one of the sites along the tour. It opened in the mid-1800s as a general store and has been converted into an art gallery and antiques shop.

When Thurgood Marshall was growing up in Baltimore, his high school principal punished him by sending him to the basement and requiring that he memorize portions of the Constitution. "Before I left that school," Marshall later recalled, according to biographer Juan Williams, "I knew the whole thing by heart." The formative years of Marshall, the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court, would be retold in an interpretive center that may be created to breathe life into another public school Marshall attended, P.S. 103 at 1315 Division St. in Upton.

Residents of Ellicott City want to know more about the plans of the Friends of the Patapsco Valley and Heritage Greenway Inc. before that group seeks state certification of an effort to develop tourist and recreational opportunities in the Patapsco river valley. Members of the Ellicott City Residents Association, an umbrella group of homeowners and residents organizations, want the group "to get the plan out in the public so people can make an informed decision," said Daniel Murray, its president.

A group of community and business leaders has developed an ambitious plan to turn South Anne Arundel County into a vacation destination.The Annapolis, London Town and South County Heritage Area Steering Committee presented a proposal last week to use state and local money to promote and preserve area cultural heritage sites. The plan could bring in $70 million in tourist revenue and create 1,000 jobs after five years, the committee estimates."This is another way of planning the future of our county," said Ann M. Fligsten, a committee member.

The citizens of Oella did it.In sharp contrast to a chaotic Greater Oella Community Association meeting in May, residents of the historic mill town across the Patapsco River from Ellicott City managed last night to hold a civil information-gathering meeting about the proposed Patapsco Heritage Greenway.Jay Patel, president of the community association, said at 9: 30 p.m. that no vote would be taken on whether to support the greenway until a future meeting, probably in late summer or the fall.

At a heated meeting last night on whether to turn the Patapsco Valley into a certified heritage area, a group of environmentalists and concerned citizens formally demanded that Patapsco Valley State Park be removed from plans for a trail network linking the natural, cultural and historic resources of the valley.After almost two hours of arguing, shouting and pleading, the two sides resolved nothing. Heritage area supporters said the Maryland Department of Natural Resources will have the final say on whether to include the park in the plans, but opponents said that was just an excuse to avoid the issue.