Magothy River

Unconvinced that a local nonprofit can come up with enough money to buy his island on the Magothy River, the owner has resurrected plans to build a house on it. David L. Clickner Sr., who bought Dobbins Island in 2004, last week presented preliminary information at a required public meeting on how he'd put in a septic system and road. He didn't provide details on the house, but in 2005, Clickner submitted plans to build a home in the range of more than 4,500 square feet. Clickner said that he put his plans on hold for more than a year, since spring 2006, to give the Magothy River Association time to raise money to buy the island.

John Rush Crunkleton Jr., a retired bedding company executive who loved the sea and its sailing ships, died of multiple organ failure Tuesday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 89. Mr. Crunkleton was born in Baltimore and raised in Homeland and at a summer home on the Magothy River. He was a 1936 graduate of Polytechnic Institute. He attended the Johns Hopkins University until enlisting in the naval reserve in 1940. "He was sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as a member of the naval cavalry.

The U.S. General Services Administration has put the Point No Point Lighthouse up for sale, giving any average citizen with at least a few thousand dollars the chance to own a piece of Chesapeake Bay history. The century-old lighthouse in Southern Maryland is about five nautical miles from Point Lookout and 15 nautical miles south of Solomons Island. The structure is 30 feet around and about 52 feet high, with the keeper's quarters, fuel storage area and lantern room all in one place.

Linda Lee Bernady, a retired advertising sales assistant for The Baltimore Sun, died of a heart attack Monday at Harbor Hospital. The Brooklyn Park resident was 64. Born Linda Lee Pitz in Colver, Pa., where she was raised, she moved to the Baltimore to attend the St. Agnes Hospital School of Nursing. She joined The Sun in 1968 and worked there until she retired in late 2005. "She was an excellent cook and baker, and spoiled us all," said Carol Longdon, a former co-worker. "She was always thinking of someone else."

To the protectors of the Magothy River, the 200-foot-long pier jutting out from Dobbins Island is the equivalent of a finger poking them in the eye. Island owner David L. Clickner Sr. recently constructed the pier for the boats he hopes to dock at the house he hopes to build. Environmentalists are questioning why the state and Anne Arundel County would give Clickner permission to build a pier while they are appealing the zoning variances that allowed its construction. "We thought it was irresponsible for construction to move forward when the [variances are]

Environmental groups attempting to block the construction of a lavish home on a private island in the Magothy River have until July to find the money to purchase the island, its owner said yesterday. David L. Clickner Sr., who owns Dobbins Island, a 7-acre island near the mouth of the river, said he agreed to postpone a two-day hearing before the Board of Appeals scheduled to begin today, at the request of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The Annapolis-based foundation, which has opposed the project along with the Magothy River Association, said it has several experts who are unavailable to testify this week, Clickner said.

Anne Arundel County is not expected to start dredging Mill Creek until late 2009, nearly four years after 3 million gallons of sewage and sediment were dumped into the waterway. County officials will share with residents at a meeting tonight their plan to deal with the aftereffects of the spill and chronic urban runoff, which has raised the creek bed and narrowed the entranceway for boats into the Magothy River. The Department of Public Works will present a year's worth of monitoring studies and discuss progress in obtaining dredging permits to excavate the sand and sediment.

Anne Arundel County's lawsuit against a builder who constructed an island home in the Magothy River without permits will not be dropped, County Executive John R. Leopold said yesterday, despite a recent ruling by the Board of Appeals to allow the builder to keep his home. Leopold said the matter regarding Daryl C. Wagner "has been a black eye for the county. It's my intent to do everything in my power to ensure that this does not reoccur." Leopold's comments came a day after the seven-member appeals board granted retroactive variances, letting Wagner keep his glistening white home of more than 5,000 square feet on Little Island, near Pasadena.

Mary Graul spent more than a week cutting and fitting pieces for a 2 1/2 -foot-tall replica of a Chesapeake Bay lighthouse. She fashioned railings, windows, stairs, doors and a flashing light. And just about everything is edible. The lighthouse is one of more than 300 items entered in design contests for this year's Kennedy Krieger Festival of Trees, which opens a three-day run today at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. The trees, wreaths and gingerbread pieces are sold to help raise money for Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.

For someone who just took the helm of Magothy River Middle School, Christopher Mirenzi has a vivid memory of when it opened in 1974 - the colors, the carpeting, the open classrooms. To this day, he speaks of its principal back then with the highest respect. That man was his father, Joseph Mirenzi. "At no point in time did I ever think I would be a principal in the school he was at," said Christopher Mirenzi, who has been in Anne Arundel public schools for 24 years, most recently as assistant principal at Arundel Middle School.