Middletown

The children will get to play on new fields. The developer will build houses. Yet, trees will be preserved, and fewer cars will travel the rural roads. As part of a tentative agreement between a northern Baltimore County developer and a nearby community association, the Shelley's Fields athletic complex will be scaled back. And one of the most contentious aspects of the original plan, a large indoor arena, has been scrapped. The two sides unveiled the details of their settlement at a hearing before the county's deputy zoning commissioner yesterday.

Among the 114 schools competing in the Bull Run Invitational Cross Country Meet in Hereford yesterday, Middletown High was probably among the smallest.Which only lends credence to the adage that good things often come in small packages.Shunning both the small- and large-school races, Middletown opted for the elite, or seeded, girls race and won pretty much as it pleased, placing its five scorers among the first 18 finishers.Winning the race was freshman Emily Buzzell in a battle of attrition with Tenke Zoltani of Dulaney, who had forged into the lead before crumpling to the ground at about 2 1/2 miles with what appeared to be shin splints.

When the final horn sounded, Loch Raven's Meghan Keeny and Middletown's Lacey Gawler both dropped to the turf, drained, in front of their respective goals.Through 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime, the two sweeper backs helped ward off every challenge as Loch Raven and Middletown played to a 0-0 tie in the Class 2A girls soccer state final at UMBC yesterday.The tie gives the No. 11 Raiders (14-4-2) their third state title since 1993. Middletown (17-1-2), which lost to Centennial in the state final last season, earns its first title since 1990.

Craig Rauser and Chas Smith have met on opposite ends of the soccer field. Beginning this fall, they'll be college teammates.Smith, a midfielder for South Carroll, and Rauser, a Liberty goalkeeper, both signed letters-of-intent last month to play this fall for Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, W. Va.The two have been friends since they were 2 years old, when their mothers met at a meeting of the Child Study Association of Maryland, a statewide group that...

It's said that good teams make their own breaks. If that age-old adage is true, then the Howard Lions are on a plane all their own following last night's Class 2A state quarterfinal.Facing an unbeaten Middletown team that entered the game averaging 32 points a game, host Howard had just about every break go its way, taking advantage of numerous turnovers, one of which, a fumble, senior Louis Matthews returned 58 yards for the game's only score in a 6-0 win."I think both teams played good defense," said Howard coach Vince Parnell.

MIDDLETOWN -- The granite pillar on South Mountain is modest, as battle monuments go. No charging steeds, no heroic figures with swords. Just a simple 8-foot obelisk marking where a Union general was killed during an overlooked clash in the Civil War.On this "wild and lonely mountain," as one soldier described it, the tide shifted Sept. 14, 1862, in the fratricidal conflict, which nearly destroyed the nation. Union troops, who had known little but defeat and frustration until then, stopped the South's first invasion of the North in its tracks.

* July 10-11, 135th anniversary of the Battle of Monocacy near Frederick. Site opens at 10 a.m.; re-enactments begin at 1 p.m. Scenarios include the burning of the B&O Railroad blockhouse and the Monocacy bridge. Free. Sponsored by the U.S. Flag Service, 5741 Elmer Derr Road, Frederick 21703; 800-USA-FLAG, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. weekdays.* July 30-Aug. 1, Re-enactment of the First Battle of Manassas/Bull Run at Centreville, Va. Scenarios include Matthew Hill and Henry Hill. Sponsored by the Great American Civil War Society, 2449 Heidlersburg Road, Gettysburg, Pa. 17325; 717-528-8761.

Baltimore County has opened its highway department yards for residents to take tree debris from last week's ice storms.The yards will be open 6: 30 a.m. to 4: 30 p.m. Monday through Saturday until the end of the month.The locations are:Western area:Halethorpe, 1947 Brady Ave., off Washington Boulevard.Middletown: 20047 Middletown Road, 4 1/2 miles east of Interstate 83.Reisterstown: 8 Clarks Lane, off Nicodemus Road.Woodlawn: 7222 Windsor Mill Road.Central area:Cockeysville-Towson: 300 Galloway Ave., off York Road.

Her team having left the bases loaded the inning before in a scoreless game, Francis Scott Key sophomore Ashley Norris employed a most aggressive strategy yesterday after slapping a sharp single to center in the bottom of the seventh.Said Norris: "Keep on running until somebody says stop."The designated hitter never looked back, taking advantage of two errors to go all the way around and provide the host Eagles a dramatic 1-0 win over Middletown in a key Monocacy Valley Athletic League matchup.

Baltimore County residents may take tree debris from Hurricane Floyd to nine highway yards that will be open Monday through Saturday until Oct. 2, from 6: 30 a.m. to 4: 30 p.m.The yards are in three regions. In the central area, they are at Halethorpe, 1900 block of Washington Blvd.; Reisterstown, 8 Clarks Lane, off Nicodemus Road; and Woodlawn, in the 7200 block of Windsor Mill Road.In the northern area: White Hall, 19100 block of Graystone Road; Middletown, 20000 block of Middletown Road, about 4 1/2 miles west of Interstate 83.In the eastern area: Dundalk, 2200 Chesterwood Road, off Peninsula Expressway; Essex, the first block of Emala Ave., off Eastern Boulevard; Hydes, 5200 block of Hydes Road; and Perry Hall, 7800 block of Perry Road, off Ridge Road.

Potluck supper to celebrate city's vegetable gardeners 1 Baltimore will hold the 22nd annual potluck supper at War Memorial Plaza on North Gay Street today to celebrate the city's vegetable gardeners. More than 200 urban gardeners, who tend some of the 600 garden plots in the city, will attend the Farms and Community Gardens Supper, beginning at 3 p.m. with a tour of the City Hall vegetable gardens. The potluck supper begins at 5 p.m., serving locally produced hamburgers and sausage and salads and casseroles made from produce grown in the urban gardens.

Alan Paul Schwartzman, 77, of Middletown, passed away on Friday, July 24, 2009. Mr. Schwartzman is survived by three sons Josh Schwartzman of Baltimore, MD, Adam Schwartzman of Deep River, CT and Jesse Schwartzman of New York, NY, a daughter Jill Schwartzman of New York, NY and one grandchild, Hannah. A graveside service will be held on Wednesday, July 29th at 1:30 P.M. in Fountain Hill Cemetery, Deep River, CT. Messages of condolence may be sent to the family at www.doolittlefuneralservice.

Louise V. Snodgrass, a former mayor of Middletown, Frederick County, who later served several terms in the House of Delegates, died Thursday from breast cancer at her Dover, Del., home. She was 66. Mrs. Snodgrass' mother, Mary Frances Kramer, 91, who lived in Parkville, died six hours earlier Thursday at the Cromwell Center, a Towson nursing home, family members said. Louise Virginia Kramer was born in Baltimore and raised in Parkville. After graduating from Maryvale Preparatory School in Brooklandville in 1960, she attended nursing school.

Hundreds of mourners descended on the Frederick County town of Middletown on Friday to mark the deaths of a family of five killed last week in a murder-suicide. Just after 1 p.m., after a private funeral, cars streamed out of Holy Family Catholic Community's parking lot toward the cemetery at Zion Lutheran Church. At the front of the procession were three black hearses, carrying the bodies of Chris Wood, 34, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and their three young children, Chandler, 5, Gavin, 4, and Fiona, 2. They are to be buried together - mother and daughter in one coffin, the brothers in another and Wood alone in a third, according to Brenda Blank, a neighbor who attended the visitation Thursday.

Maintenance man shot at complex A maintenance man at a Pikesville apartment complex was shot in the head about 3 p.m. Monday, an incident that police said was witnessed by several middle school students as they left a nearby school. The man was taken to Northwest Hospital Center and was in grave condition, according to police. The shooting happened in the Owings Chase Apartments in the 4600 block of Old Court Road, police said. Police spokeswoman Sgt. Vickie Warehime said the suspect was involved in some kind of conflict before the shooting.

MIDDLETOWN -Something awful happened inside the yellow house on Washington Street, as the creaky wooden porch made clear all weekend. It was wrapped with tarps while police worked inside Saturday, sifting through a crime scene more horrid than anything they could recall. Two little boys in pajamas were dead in one bedroom, while their mother and 2-year-old sister lay dead in another. All had apparently been killed by the children's father, 34-year-old Christopher A. Wood, who had been killed by a shotgun blast, apparently self-inflicted.

MIDDLETOWN - A father killed his wife and three young children, then shot himself in an apparent murder-suicide that authorities are calling this quiet Frederick County community's "worst, most horrific event" in decades. Frederick County sheriff's deputies found the bodies in the family home after receiving a 911 call from a relative shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday. The father, identified as Christopher Alan Wood, 34, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. Wood's 33-year-old wife, Francis Billotti-Wood, and their three children were each shot once and also sustained "traumatic cut injuries," although authorities said autopsies would determine the exact cause of their deaths and how long they had been dead.

A proposed trash incinerator and a planned natural gas plant threaten to encroach on two Civil War battlefield sites in Western Maryland, a preservation group warned yesterday. The Washington-based Civil War Preservation Trust said recent developments have put the Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick and South Mountain near Middletown on its list of the nation's most endangered battlefields from that war. "In town after town, the irreplaceable battlefields that define those communities are being marred forever," said O. James Lighthizer, the trust's president.

The quarterback took the snap, rolled to his right and set to pass. From nowhere, a 300-pound lineman barreled into Rob Ambrose, shattering his hip and ending his playing days at Towson State. As it turned out, the lineman might have done Ambrose a favor that day at practice in 1992. Finished as a player, Ambrose turned to coaching, launching a career that has now brought him back to Towson University as head football coach. "Your alma mater is like your mother. When momma calls, you come home," Ambrose said yesterday at a news conference introducing him as the fourth head coach in Towson's 40-year football history.

Top-ranked River Hill won its fourth straight regional championship, beating visiting Frederick Douglass of Prince George's County, 21-6, last night in Class 2A South. Michael Campanaro scored all three River Hill touchdowns - two rushing and one receiving. The Hawks (12-0) will host No. 11 Century, a 47-0 winner over Middletown, at 7 p.m. Friday. No. 4 EASTERN TECH 35, EDMONDSON 6: : Darian Conners scored four touchdowns - three rushing and one receiving - to power the Mavericks (12-0)