Liberty Reservoir

Anglers who have been targeting rockfish on the Chesapeake Bay during the fall season might consider a change of venue this weekend, because the big stripers are hitting at Liberty Reservoir and Ocean City, while most of the bay catches have been rockfish in the 18- to 24-inch range.At Liberty Reservoir above Baltimore, over the past 12 days, 28 freshwater stripers of more than 15 pounds have been checked in at Old Reisterstown Bait and Tackle, including five that exceeded 30 pounds.Jerry Sauter of Catonsville checked in a 40-pounder last Thursday and a 39-pounder Friday.

Edward Henry Schneider Jr., a retired Baltimore City engineer and founder of a Lutheran congregation, died of a stroke Tuesday at Carroll Hospice's Dove House in Westminster. The Sykesville resident was 93. Born in Baltimore and raised in Gardenville, he attended Hamilton Junior High School and was a 1935 Polytechnic Institute graduate. He worked at the Locke Insulator Co. in South Baltimore while earning his civil engineering degree at the Johns Hopkins University. During World War II, he was assigned to a post classified as secret.

After a heated discussion with fellow Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge, Donald I. Dell and Robin Bartlett Frazier signed yesterday a version of the Liberty Reservoir Watershed Management Agreement that they revised. Dell and Frazier deleted the words "and Carroll County" from one paragraph in the nearly 20-year-old pact so that it reads: "In Baltimore County, conservation and agriculture zoning of the reservoir watershed should be maintained and not reduced." "Our name is out, but Baltimore County can decide for itself," Frazier said.

Carroll County officials are insisting on changes to a 17-year-old agreement designed to preserve the Liberty Reservoir -- source of drinking water for 1.6 million people in metropolitan Baltimore -- and its watershed.Citing a need to dramatically increase industry in the growing county, local officials announced plans in June to rezone more than 600 acres of conservation land -- most of it within the watershed of the 42-billion-gallon body of water.But officials in Baltimore and Baltimore County say they will oppose any change to the Baltimore Reservoir Watershed Management Agreement that governs land use in the 160-square-mile watershed.

More than 10 percent of Carroll County's population is under a water emergency before summer begins, and the treatment plant that supplies their water is "stressed to the limit," county officials say.In the midst of last week's hot, dry weather, about 18,000 residents who live in South Carroll and get water from nearby Liberty Reservoir were ordered not to water their gardens, wash their cars or fill kiddie pools.County commissioners have been negotiating for a year with Baltimore, which owns the reservoir, to buy more water.

Having pulled the plug on the proposed water treatment plant at Piney Run Reservoir while signaling their intention to sign a deal to protect land near Liberty Reservoir, county officials received assurances yesterday that they will be able to move ahead on two key elements of a plan to provide water for South Carroll. State officials said that they would allow the county to tap wells at Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville - an offer that the previous board of commissioners rebuffed in its rush to draw water from Piney Run Reservoir.

To debunk what she calls the "unfounded fears" surrounding a proposed water treatment plant at Piney Run Reservoir in Sykesville, Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier has taken the unusual step of posting information about the project on the county's Web site. By moving the issue to the Internet, Frazier said she hopes she has created "another avenue to get the facts out" and allay the public's anxiety about making the reservoir a water supply source, a use for which it was built 30 years ago. "We want to use every avenue we have," Frazier said, noting she also plans to publish a brochure detailing the history of Piney Run and plans for the $13 million project.

FireSykesville: Firefighters from Liberty Road in Baltimore County assisted Sykesville at 9: 48 p.m. Monday, responding to a fire on Liberty Road near Liberty Reservoir. Units were out 20 minutes.Pub Date: 5/07/97

FireGamber: Firefighters responded at 3: 48 p.m. Friday to a brush fire on Route 32 at Morgan Run Bridge over Liberty Reservoir. Units were out one hour.Pub Date: 10/14/97