Improvement Association

THE DOORS to Brooklyn Park High School may have closed in 1990, but alumni are working to ensure that their school is not forgotten: An alumni association is being formed to unite former BPHS students, faculty, staff and friends of the school.All are welcome to attend the association's meeting at 6: 30 p.m. Thursday at the Brooklyn Park library, 1 E. 11th Ave. The main business will be to finalize bylaws.Information: 410-789-7214 or 410-636-3269; or send e-mail to salut@erols.com.Church fashion showA Unity in the Spirit Fashion Show and Dinner will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at the Lloyd Keaser Center, 5757 Belle Grove Road.

LOCAL COMMUNITY associations will start 2000 by selecting officers to help make the new year a success. Some are keeping their familiar faces.The Brooklyn Heights Improvement Association -- leading an effort to improve the quality of life in the community -- will retain its officers. Joe Collini is president; Derrick Myers is vice president; Lyn Shifflett is secretary; and Amelia Collins is treasurer.Collini said that having the community designated an anti-crime HotSpot by the state last week is not the only initiative the association has been working on."

PRESERVING Sykesville history has become a goal for more than a few residents, but none more than Thelma C. Wimmer, who was honored at a reception Sunday at the Sykesville Gate House Museum of History."

Meade High article dismays faculty membersWe, members of the current faculty at Meade Senior High School, would like to respond to Kris Antonelli's article, "Battling school's negative image," in The Sun Sept. 26.We found it disappointing that no active faculty members' opinions were in the article.We are seriously concerned that people dwell on events of more than a decade ago.Why not publish an article showcasing our honor-roll students or National Merit Scholars or award-winning Math Club or superior yearbook and newspaper staff?

WHAT DO you like most about winter? My friend, Linda Abey, says the best thing about winter is that it's followed by spring.I have a difficult time finding much to like about winter, but at their January meeting North Glen Improvement Association members were undaunted by the dreary lack of color and the cold; they were busy answering to a higher authority. "We are here for the children," is their motto. I'd like to give you an idea of what they're about and pass along their invitation for you to get involved.

THE winter newsletter from the Ruxton-Riderwood-Lake Roland Improvement Association startled and delighted me. The lead headline announced: "Light Rail Station Opens March 1st." My exhilaration was based on three decades of hope for commuter service to my community, now finally and seemingly realized.As a television and later newspaper editorial writer, I had campaigned since 1959 for restoration of rail service to Ruxton, Riderwood and the corridor of the old Northern Central Railroad. In 1960, I wrote a half-hour television documentary promoting this.

A TIRELESS advocate for her community, Barbara Moeller is looking forward to her new role as president of the Glen Burnie Improvement Association. Elected Jan. 13, she says the position is an extension of her commitment to her home of 50 years.Moeller is a familiar figure to many in Glen Burnie because of her community activities.Each May, she can be found backstage at the annual recital for the Glen Burnie Recreation Association's dance program. In July, she's at the Big Glen Burnie Carnival every night, organizing, socializing, delighting in the tradition of the event.

The 4,242 residents of Lauraville now reside at one address: www.lauravillemd.com.Anyone interested in learning about this northeast Baltimore neighborhood can hop on the Information Highway, stop at the community's World Wide Web site and discover the advantages that this community, rooted in the early 20th century, offers."

For more than three years, the residents of Mount Washington have battled executives of USF&G Corp. over issues of development, expansion and -- in a case where Catholic nuns were evicted from a home they've kept in the neighborhood for nearly 100 years -- common courtesy."

A community column in Sunday's Anne Arundel editions of The Sun misspelled the name of Linthicum-Shipley Improvement Association Vice President Gerald Starr.The Sun regrets the error.CHECK IT OUT. Linthicum has a Web site. Steve Payor, a Linthicum resident who was active in the community in the '70s, brought his son-in-law, Rick Forgo, now of Linthicum, to Wednesday's meeting of the Linthicum-Shipley Improvement Association. Forgo, a Web page designer, presented his site, www.linthicumonline.

With a multitude of housing options, friendly neighbors and convenience to major thoroughfares, it's no wonder Carney remains a popular spot to call home. Just outside the Baltimore Beltway, the community of Carney, which shares a ZIP code with Parkville, offers its residents a comfortable, down-to-earth retreat. "It's a blend of the old and the new," said Meg O'Hare, president of the Carney Improvement Association. "It's a wonderful place to live." The improvement association's boundaries include Interstate 695 to the south, Old Harford Road to the west, the Big Gunpowder Falls to the north and Ferguson Avenue and Walther Boulevard to the east.

Across from the precisely manicured lawns of Fort Meade stands a row of boarded-up businesses, tattoo shops, an adult bookstore and some faded bars. Once a bunch of bustling bars and arcades earned the area across from the military base the nickname Boomtown. But while nearby communities have blossomed in recent decades, Boomtown has fallen into decay. The shooting of four men, two fatally, early Sunday morning in a parking lot here is only more evidence, neighbors say, that many businesses and abandoned properties have become magnets for criminals.

The words "tight-knit" can be overused when describing a community, but not in Relay, where neighbors have formed their own book and card-playing clubs. Residents get together in the Baltimore suburb for the "Victorian Tea" in the spring and for community day in the fall. They take turns as hosts of the monthly covered-dish dinner. Faith Hermann borrowed an egg recently from her neighbor, who in turn took some butter. She has lived in her 1911 home for the past 20 years. "I like being in Relay because of the people," said Hermann, who lives with her husband, William, and enjoys sitting on her home's wraparound porch.

Bill Lagna doesn't feel he's leading a coup. As the first president of a community group created in the wake of a divisive plan to build condominiums at a weathered marina in Bowleys Quarters, Lagna says the goal is to unify residents on the eastern Baltimore County peninsula. "The intent of the group is to try to come up with acceptable developments that will fit in with the general theme of the existing neighborhood," says Lagna, president of the new Bowleys Quarters Community Association.

For months, many residents of Northwest Baltimore's Mount Washington neighborhood have been fighting a city plan for a hiking and biking trail to run across nearby Northern Parkway. Some say it's unsafe and bad for the environment. Others say it's too far away to benefit the community. But now -- after countless meetings, petitions and letters -- dozens of the residents think they've found a new route for the trail, and city officials say they will consider the proposal before moving to the next phase of planning for the huge project.

A secluded pocket of green hills and trees just outside of the northern boundary line of Baltimore, Ruxton is a conveniently located and surprisingly rural neighborhood. Once an industrially driven town that supported Bellona Powder Supply -- which provided 20 percent of the country's gunpowder during the War of 1812, according to the Ruxton-Riderwood-Lake Roland Area Improvement Association -- the area is now almost entirely residential. Ruxton, a neighborhood rooted in tradition, is a wholesome place to raise a family, said Fran Anderson, the association's president.

City expands Healthy Neighborhoods program Baltimore officials yesterday announced a significant expansion of the Healthy Neighborhoods initiative, a Baltimore program that provides low-interest loans for residents in certain neighborhoods to purchase or renovate homes. "Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, and Healthy Neighborhoods ensures that these communities receive the resources necessary to thrive," said City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake. Until recently, residents in 10 city neighborhoods were eligible for the program.

Charles E. McKeldin, a retired pharmaceutical salesman and woodcarver, died of complications from diabetes Aug. 30 at Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson. The former longtime Northeast Baltimore resident was 89. Mr. McKeldin, a nephew of the former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, was born in the city and raised on Cleveland and Carroll streets. During World War II, he worked as a riveter and machinist at Bethlehem Steel's Fairfield shipyard building Liberty ships while attending night classes at Polytechnic Institute.

A Severna Park community association has apparently thwarted a couple's efforts to build a bridge and pier - the equivalent length of two football fields - from their home onto the Severn River. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Philip T. Caroom ruled this month that Paul and Joan Gunby do not have the legal right to build onto Sullivan Cove from their house on 2.2 acres along the river. The couple had received a license from the Maryland Department of the Environment. In rejecting the couple's bid, Caroom sided with the Olde Severna Park Improvement Association, which said it was given control of the water rights around the cove in the 1920s as part of the original development plan.

Community leaders in Baltimore County are strongly criticizing a proposal by the Community College of Baltimore County to lease land on its Essex campus to a private developer for a senior housing complex, and a college official said widespread resistance to the idea may hurt its chances for approval. In letters, officials with several community associations and at least one county councilman have expressed concerns about the proposal. And the attentions of CCBC's board of trustees will soon have to turn toward the search for a replacement for Chancellor Irving Pressley McPhail, who announced this week that he plans to leave his job in June, said Francis X. Kelly, a former state senator who chairs the trustee board.