Mount Airy

Horticulturists display giant basil plants and other potted herbs in the parking lot behind Mount Airy's old train station every Wednesday afternoon. Other local farmers offer a smattering of greenhouse-grown tomatoes, peas, green beans and beets. Beekeepers peddling wildflower honey and an egg lady also set up shop there. The recently resurrected Mount Airy Farmers' Market is part of the town's efforts to encourage more residents to shop and eat downtown. "The old historic Main Street is the heart of the town," said Ellie Bonde, who co-owns Blossom & Basket Boutique, which faces the new market site.

Developer Rob Scranton will go before the Mount Airy Planning Commission tomorrow to present a proposal to incorporate an adjacent property into the rebuilding of the Bohn Building, which was demolished recently after a three-alarm fire downtown. Scranton's redevelopment plan calls for a commercial plaza, set back from the Main Street sidewalk, combining the Bohn site and Scranton's neighboring property at 114 S. Main St., where he was scheduled to begin construction on a project just days after the Sept.

State police are investigating after an injured man, found inside a house where he doesn't live, reported that he had been assaulted and went inside the residence for help. Police received a 911 call about 1 p.m. yesterday reporting that a man was having trouble breathing in the 500 block of Deer Hollow Road in Mount Airy, police said. Troopers went to the house, found a shattered sliding door and a man inside who had cuts and bruises on his face, arms and legs. The man, 34, was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was hospitalized last night.

Some Mount Airy parents would like to see their local middle and high schools on the school system's newly proposed capital improvement plan, which the Board of Education is expected to vote on Wednesday. Both buildings are in need of modernization, parents say. "We moved to Carroll County on the assumption that our children would have the same opportunities as those in neighboring counties and the same opportunities as those within the same county," wrote Jennifer Seidel, who has a child at Parr's Ridge Elementary, in a letter to Carroll Superintendent Charles I. Ecker, the school board and the county commissioners.

He could have trekked out to the Pacific Northwest. Or perhaps a more far-flung locale, traveling about the globe with other students in Ghana, Bolivia and China. But to test his visions of renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and water conservation, ideas he sprouted as an Eagle Scout and nurtured during his two years of college, Tim Richards found himself returning to a safe zone that could prove the more uncomfortable place to change. The place was Mount Airy, where he was born and raised, where his parents and grandparents still live.

The Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce will hold a business card exchange from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at New Windsor State Bank, 1001 Twin Arch Road. Local business people, members and nonmembers, are invited to take their cards to the networking event. The chamber will hold its fifth annual membership drive and networking event from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 15 at Century Ford on Twin Arch Drive. Information: 301-829-5426. Free shredding available Saturday Torn2Shredz, an on-site document destruction company based in Mount Airy, will offer free shredding from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at its new office at 3860B Twin Arch Road.

Mount Airy will hold a ceremony at 7 p.m. today to remember the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The ceremony also will offer residents a chance to reflect on the fire Sept. 2 that destroyed several downtown buildings. The ceremony will be held at Patriot Park, Center and Main streets. Invited to participate are the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company, Maryland State Police resident troopers, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Marine Corps League and the local Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts.

Michael Paul Mooney, a former Mount Airy resident who briefly played professional football, died Friday of undetermined causes at his home in Westminster, Calif. He was 37. "He died in his sleep, and we are waiting for the results of an autopsy," his brother, William Craig Mooney of Ellicott City, said yesterday. Mr. Mooney was born in Baltimore and raised in Mount Airy. He was a 1987 graduate of South Carroll High School in Sykesville, where he was an offensive lineman in football and played on the basketball and tennis teams.

A Mount Airy man received a 10-year prison term yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court, after pleading guilty to sex offenses against three local girls.Robert Eugene Tibbits, 64, who had lived with his daughter in Mount Airy for about five years, might not survive the sentence, the judge and both attorneys said.According to statements at previous hearings, Tibbits has had open-heart surgery and needs a triple bypass. He has had three heart attacks, including one since his incarceration, said Tracy A. Gilmore, deputy state's attorney.

CONGRATULATIONS to Anne Marie Histon of Mount Airy for being crowned State Fire Prevention Queen last week during the Maryland State Fire Convention in Ocean City.Histon, a senior at South Carroll High School, reigned as the Miss Carroll County Fire Prevention Queen and has been involved with fire prevention activities for Mount Airy for the past year.The State Fire Prevention Queen competition and ceremony was held June 14. The daylong event included an orientation and interviews with judges.

Laurel brothers charged with attempted murder A pair of teenage brothers from Laurel have been charged in the attempted murder of a Washington taxi driver, who told police they had called him to give them a ride from the Greenbelt Metro station. Jeremiah Bridges, 17, and Justin Bridges, 16, of the 9200 block of Van Fleet Court, were also charged by Howard County police in the robbery and assault of Getachew Lima on Sept. 13. Lima reported that after driving the teens to their destination, they began choking and beating him. Police found Lima in his car in the 9100 block of Bourbon Court in Laurel.

A Mount Airy cabinetmaker and maintenance worker found dead Friday evening in his home along with his wife and two children shot them in their sleep before killing himself, state police said Saturday. Charles L. Dalton Sr., 38, shot his wife, Jennifer A. Dalton, 37, their son, Charles L. Dalton Jr., 14, and daughter, Emmaline E. Dalton, 7, each once in the head Thursday night or Friday morning with a .12-gauge shotgun, said state police spokesman Greg Shipley. Police found the children lying in their beds in separate bedrooms at the front of the house on Contour Road.

State police found four people dead Friday evening in what they described as a murder scene at a home in Frederick County. The bodies of a man, woman, boy and girl - all believed to be related - were discovered about 5:40 p.m. in a home in the 300 block of Contour Road in Mount Airy, said Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman. A friend who had not heard from the family in a few days went to the house to check on things Friday and saw a body through a window, then called 911, Shipley said.

Maryland has only a fraction of the wineries that Virginia has, but there are several trails that lead to the grapes, including the Chesapeake Wine Trail along the Eastern Shore and the Patuxent Wine Trail in southern Calvert County. We took a quick peek at a cluster along the Frederick Trail in Frederick County. Here are a few stops to make: Black Ankle Vineyards, 14463 Black Ankle Road, Mount Airy. This newcomer, which opened only last year, is building buzz for its dry, sophisticated wines, such as its red Crumbling Rock blend.

Francis Leo Hartman, a retired National Security Administration employee who had owned and operated a security consulting firm for the past decade, died Saturday of a heart attack at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The Mount Airy resident was 65. Mr. Hartman was born in Baltimore and raised in Brooklyn. He was a 1961 graduate of Brooklyn Park High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from what is now Towson University and held a master's degree from Central Michigan University. A physical security expert, Mr. Hartman worked at the NSA's Fort Meade headquarters for 35 years until retiring 10 years ago. At his death, Mr. Hartman was the owner and operator of Hartman Security Solutions in Mount Airy.

It's mid-May, and Maryland State Police Cpl. Daniel Pickett is reviewing crime stats for the first two weeks of the month in Mount Airy: eight arrests, one of them a juvenile; six stops for driving under the influence of alcohol; and six traffic accidents (two involving alcohol). His troopers responded to 346 calls, about 24 a day, eight per shift. They performed 21 criminal investigations, "everything from deaths all the way down to destruction of property." The trooper pauses, remembering he's talking to someone from Baltimore.

Comment puts teacher on leave A Howard County high school teacher has been put on paid administrative leave after making a racially insensitive comment to an African-American student, school officials said Thursday. The teacher, a world language instructor at Reservoir High School in Fulton, has been on leave since March 5, the day the incident occurred, according to school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan. The school system also filed a hate-bias incident report with the Howard County Police Department, police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said.

In Maryland, it is still possible to enjoy a ham made from homegrown hogs and smoked in a local meat-processing plant. Recently, I visited the Mount Airy Locker Co., run by Thomas Wagner on Main Street in Mount Airy, which transforms hogs to ham in about one week. At the beginning of the week, Wagner calls a Frederick County farmer and tells him how many of the animals to bring to the plant. After the white Yorkshire hogs, which on average are about 5 months old and weigh about 260 pounds, are processed, the meat cutters in the plant deliver the rear legs to Boe Smith.

Susan M. Smith, a retired administrative assistant who enjoyed collecting antiques, died Sunday of cancer at Howard County General Hospital. The longtime Mount Airy resident was 64. Susan Marie Gordon was born in Lebanon, Pa., and later moved to Towson with her family. She was a 1962 graduate of Towson High School. Mrs. Smith had worked as an administrative assistant with the Prince George's County Board of Education and, in the early 1970s, with Auerbach and Simmons, a Silver Spring law firm.

While millions of Americans sat before TV sets on Tuesday night watching presidential election results, Jennifer Seidel was in her kitchen with a laptop, fixated on the Carroll County Board of Elections Web site. The Mount Airy resident sought to know how she fared among three other candidates vying for two open spots on the county's school board, which meant she spent much of the evening repeatedly pressing the refresh button. Around midnight, Seidel got the news: She placed first in balloting with 37 percent of the vote.