Liberty Road

The thrust of The Sun's editorial and the approach of public officials for decades for improving Liberty Road and other secondary roads with aging retail areas has been to treat the problems as economic development issues ("Life on Liberty Road," May 23). The solutions have been to update failing areas with new buildings without dealing with the core problems. People need to be connected to their neighborhoods. Suburban Baltimore County communities were built around the love affair with the car. They became commuting communities.

A half-empty former shopping mall in Eldersburg will be remade as a Walmart-anchored plaza under plans announced Monday by owner Black Oak Associates. In a move long awaited by many in the community, the Owings Mills-based developer will spend $50 million to renovate Carrolltown Center into Eldersburg Commons, with new restaurants and home, fashion and beauty retailers. For a decade, Carrolltown Center has been a community sore spot. The interior of the small community mall was closed in 2005, and the property languished with a diminishing roster of tenants and an abandoned movie theater.

WHEN Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. designated Randallstown as a new community-based revitalization project last month, he set the bar high. Despite any number of such initiatives in the past, that area remains a textbook example of sprawl and congestion. Residents' expectations have been raised and dashed so many times in the past three decades that the only way for the county to restore its credibility is to finally do something about nightmarish Liberty Road traffic. The huge traffic volume is not surprising.

Sunday 4/7 Easter eggs An Easter egg hunt will be held April 7, at 10 a.m., at Winters Mill High School, 560 Gorsuch Road, Westminster. Face painting, crafts, magic tricks and more. Tickets are $10, with proceeds benefiting Carroll Hospice. 410-871-7220. Lake explore Hike the underdeveloped side of Piney Run Lake, 30 Martz Road, Sykesville, April 7, at 10 a.m. A water bottle and light snack will be provided. Cost is $7. 410-795-6043. Owl focus Learn about owls at Piney Run Park, 30 Martz Road, Sykesville, April 7, at 1 p.m. Dissect an owl pellet with tweezers, gloves and a magnifying glass.

The State Highway Administration has completed the first part of its project to improve the Baltimore Beltway and Liberty Road interchange. A newly widened exit ramp from southbound Interstate 695 to Liberty Road - also known as Route 26 - opened last week. Drivers can travel east or west on Liberty Road from the ramp. The modifications are part of a nearly two-year, $4.5 million SHA project to improve safety and traffic flow in the interchange, and it is scheduled to be completed next summer, according to the agency.

In more than 30 years in business on Liberty Road, Albert J. Craemer has been shot at, has seen his customers forced to lie on the floor while they were robbed at gunpoint and has seen his beauty shop, Salon Albert, vandalized repeatedly.Enough, he says, is enough."We are at war and we have to go on the offensive," he said. "We need police visibility. We need changes."Other Liberty Road merchants echoed his feelings at a meeting last week with James McKinney, assistant to County Executive Roger B. Hayden.

County and state officials will meet with South Carroll residents at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Freedom Center on Route 32.Helen Spinelli, county planner, will discuss projects to improve aesthetics on Liberty Road.Information: 781-6403.FIRE* Sykesville: Firefighters from Sykesville and Lisbon of Howard County responded to investigate the report of a fire alarm sounding in a building in the 700 block of Obrecht Road at 9:16 p.m. Monday. Units were out for 9 minutes.* Eldersburg: Sykesville firefighters responded to a call about electric wires down in the 5700 block of Strawbridge Terrace at 2:21 a.m. Sunday.

A 48-year-old man was in critical condition at Sinai Hospital last night after being shot in the chest by two men while walking on the 8000 block of Liberty Road in the Milford Mill section of Baltimore County, police said. The man, whose name and address were not immediately available, told police he did not recognize his attackers. The victim told investigators that a pair of men approached him around 9 p.m. and shot him for no apparent reason, police said. Police said they are still searching for the suspects and trying to determine a motive in the case.

It took countless protests, court hearings and passage of two new statutes, including an emergency state measure that prohibited patrons from bringing their own liquor to the controversial Body Talk nude bar. Finally, late last week the owner of the Rockdale strip-tease bar struck a deal, pledging to phase out nude dancers by July 10. After that, the premises of his "club" in the 8100 block of Liberty Road are to revert to a pool hall.This is a victory for the Liberty Road communities which fought Body Talk.

An article in yesterday's Carroll County edition misidentified the driver who police said caused an accident on Liberty Road.According to police, Vera Bowman of Westminster failed to control her speed and ran into the back of the car carrying four teen-agers.The Sun regrets the error.Two South Carroll High School students were at Maryland Shock Trauma Center last night after being involved in an accident on Liberty Road while they were riding to school yesterday.A trauma center spokeswoman said Earl Smith, 15 of Woodbine was in critical but stable condition and Kara Dailey of New Windsor was in good condition.

A Jamaican woman received a life sentence Friday for murder in connection with the 2009 death of a man in a White Marsh apartment - after which officials say she and her co-conspirators dismembered the body and disposed of pieces in the Loch Raven and Liberty Road areas. Jean Brown, 43, of Jamaica, was sentenced by a U.S. District Judge. Federal investigators said she was one of the leaders of a group that obtained marijuana in Arizona and California and transported it to Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.

As of 8 a.m., on Interstate 695 in Baltimore County, one shoulder of the outer loop past Old Harford Road was closed due to a multiple vehicle crash. Also in Baltimore County, one westbound lane and shoulder of Liberty Road at Washington Avenue remained closed due to a utility problem, the state highway administration reported. As of 8 a.m., MTA reported no major delays to MARC service.

Maryland State Police are searching for two of three men they say robbed an Eldersburg bank Saturday morning. Employees of the Carroll Community Bank, 1321 Liberty Road, told police that three men entered the bank shortly after 11:30 a.m., displayed a gun and demanded money, police said. One robber fled in a red Dodge Durango on Barnett Avenue, while the others left in a blue four-door sedan, police said. Police apprehended a suspect in the red Dodge Durango after a brief pursuit.

As of 9 a.m. Friday, traffic was slow on Milford Mill Road near Liberty Road, due to an accident. Traffic was slow on Route 45 near Highview Street in Baltimore County, due to a utility problem. Accidents were slowing traffic on North Broadway near Orleans Street in Baltimore City and Violet Avenue near Annapolis Road in Baltimore City. Monument Street is closed between Wolfe Street and Patterson Park Avenue in East Baltimore, due to sinkhole repairs. Maryland Transit Administration bus 35 has been diverted.

A woman was killed after two cars collided Sunday morning in Eldersburg, Maryland State Police said. A Chrysler making a left turn from Liberty Road onto Georgetown Boulevard collided with a Nissan shortly before noon, police said. Myrtle Coghill, a passenger in the Chrysler, was taken to the Carroll Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead. The driver of that vehicle, Wallace Coghill, of Sykesville, was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

The Sykesville Town Council adopted a resolution this week stating its disapproval of the proposed state legislative redistricting plan, one that would place the town in a legislative delegate district split between Carroll and Howard counties. And in a Jan. 10 letter to Gov. Martin O'Malley, Mayor Michael Miller suggested the redistricting plan runs, "contrary to the state's Constitution" because it "does not give due regard to jurisdictional boundaries. " "The Town believes that … removing the southeastern part of Carroll County and moving it to a much larger district in Howard County, is inappropriate and will have a dramatically negative impact on the Town of Sykesville," Miller wrote.

With maps, designs and pictures, the State Highway Administration will show Eldersburg residents how the agency plans to improve Liberty Road in south Carroll.State and county officials will meet with residents at 7 p.m. today at Liberty High School to review planning studies of the congested corridor and discuss strategies for the future of the road, which is Route 26, a state highway. "We are asking the state to show us examples of what has been done in other places," said Steve Horn, county bureau chief of planning.

There was pizza, salad, mozzarella sticks and, to the delight of state Sen. Joe Getty, a full house at his Jan. 4 "town meeting," held at J&P Pizza, in Hampstead. "At the last town meeting in Manchester, we had 25 people," Getty said to the residents who gathered. "We've doubled that crowd. There is more here than I expected. " In his 90-minute presentation, Getty discussed a topic that will be front and center this week as the Maryland General Assembly convenes its 2012 session in Annapolis.