Hillendale

Talk about an identity crisis. For years, people in Loch Raven thought they lived in no man's land.Wedged between Towson and Parkville, Loch Raven residents watched as government dollars poured into those communities while their neighborhoods were swamped by crime, blight and budget cuts that closed their library and senior center.It would have been easy to ignore it, many residents say, and even easier to move. But they stayed. And in a series of victories that residents view as an example for other aging neighborhoods, they managed to turn life around in their community.

Baltimore County fire investigators were set to return today to the scene of a fire at Pleasant Plains Shopping Center in Hillendale to seek the cause of a blaze that destroyed a popular bingo hall early yesterday.The fire, reported yesterday at 1: 15 a.m., caused an estimated $1 million in damage to the hall and three other businesses, according to the county Fire Department.The bingo hall was closed when the fire broke out and no injuries were reported among the 100 firefighters who battled the blaze for nearly two hours.

Jane Hoen Holter, who owned and operated Betty Blue Gift Shops for about 40 years, died Friday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center of a stroke that followed a fall last week at her longtime Cedarcroft home. She was 82.Before she sold her gift-and-card stores in 1976, Mrs. Holter ran shops on Greenmount Avenue and at the Northwood and the Hillendale shopping centers.Born in Baltimore, the former Jane Hoen was a 1934 graduate of Mount St. Agnes High School and studied for two years at Strayer Business College.

Baltimore County Fire Department will participate in the "Coats for Kids" campaign by distributing coats to needy children and their families.Coats donated to area dry cleaners have been cleaned and will be distributed by the Maryland National Guard during Thanksgiving week at these locations:4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Monday, Woodlawn Fire Station, 7223 Windsor Mill Road.4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Nov. 24, Dundalk Fire Station, 2815 Sollers Point Road, Dundalk.4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Nov. 25, Essex Fire Station, 800 Myrth Ave., Essex.

TOWSON -- An Essex man was charged with murder in the death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son, police said yesterday.Gary Allen Deese, 31, of the 300 block of Farwind Drive is #F accused of causing the death of Kyle Gary Faust on Feb. 8. The child was taken to Franklin Square Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.An autopsy, followed by additional tests, determined that the child had died of blunt-force trauma to the head, according to charging documents. Deese was charged Wednesday and taken the Baltimore County Detention Center.

An Eastpoint man sideswiped a police car and then led a parade of county and state police cruisers on a 20-minute chase yesterday that ended with his arrest and the arrest of a second suspect.The 22-year-old driver, whose name was withheld pending charges this morning, hit a Baltimore County police car on Holabird Avenue about 2:30 p.m. Trailed by several Baltimore County police cars, he drove through Dundalk, into the city and then took Eastern Avenue to Interstate 695, where he was JTC pursued by a dozen cruisers according to county police spokesman Bill Toohey.

Dorothy K. Huffman, 68, science teacherDorothy K. Huffman, a retired science teacher, died Sunday of coronary failure at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Timonium resident was 68.When her children entered what now is Towson University, she enrolled there, too, and earned a bachelor's degree in 1975 and a master's degree in 1979, both in education. She also was a member of Beta Beta Beta, the biological honor society.Beginning in the early 1980s, she taught biology and science in high schools in the city and Baltimore County.

Baltimore County police, firefighters and state environmental officials went door-to-door early today in the Hillendale neighborhood to warn residents about dangerous fumes after more than 4,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from an underground gas station tank at Loch Raven Boulevard and Taylor Avenue.Police said the leaking fuel was traced to the Pleasant Plains Amoco station about 12: 48 a.m., and police were dispatched to the scene to detour traffic and assist in warning residents.Police said none of the leaking fuel found its way onto the street, but that an unknown amount apparently found its way into storm drains under the street.

Hillendale remains largely the same, even though a new generation of homeowners is finding it the perfect place for pleasant neighbors, excellent schools and access to public transportation, recreation and shopping.In the mid-1950s, Hillendale was considered the outer suburbs, even though it was just over the city line. When the Hillendale Country Club closed, 748 brick rowhouses went up in its place, beckoning middle-class families who wanted a two- or three-bedroom brick house along open streets where residents had larger front and back yards than were possible in city rowhousing.

A man arrested Sunday after barricading himself in a motel room in Timonium has been charged in five bank robberies and a convenience store holdup, Baltimore County police said yesterday.Alan P. Malstrom, 32, of the 2700 block of Glendale Road in the Hillendale area was initially charged with the Nov. 20 robbery of the First National Bank branch in the 7900 block of Harford Road.Based on interviews with Malstrom and with witnesses, police charged Malstrom in the Oct. 5 holdup of a High's store in the 8700 block of Satyr Hill Road.