Owen Brown

A Baltimore man acquitted of attempted murder in a shooting that shocked Columbia residents in September 1998 was indicted yesterday in separate robberies at the Owen Brown Village Center last year. A Howard County grand jury indicted Robert J. Manning, 19, on robbery, assault and theft charges in a holdup Oct. 28 of a woman in the village center parking lot. He also was indicted on the same charges in a robbery Nov. 1 of a restaurant in the center. Manning was acquitted last March in the shooting of John Gordon Jackson, who was wounded outside the Fall River Terrace apartment complex about 2 a.m. Sept.

The Roy Rogers restaurant in Columbia's Owen Brown village that closed last month will re-open as a McDonald's by September, a spokeswoman for McDonald's Corp. said yesterday.The Owen Brown Roy Rogers -- the third closed in Columbia since McDonald's bought some 180 stores in the fast-food chain last summer -- is the only one to be converted to a McDonald's so far, said Karen Witbeck of McDonald's.Meanwhile, another former Roy's location -- on Lynx Lane in Wilde Lake village -- was sold to Kentucky Fried Chicken early this month and is scheduled to reopen as a fried chicken outlet in September, said Jean Litterst Vezeau of KFC.Witbeck said the Roy Rogers restaurants in Wilde Lake and Oakland Mills were closed because of slow sales, and McDonald's put both up for sale.

As the Village of Owen Brown begins its 21st year, the Owen Brown Village Board is planning a yearlong birthday celebration with a program each month.January's event will be an open house from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 23 at the Owen Brown Community Center, 6800 Cradlerock Way. Everyone, especially Owen Brown residents, is invited to tour the center and meet the board and community center staff. There will be refreshments.Information: 410-381-0202*Del. Virginia M. Thomas, Charles Middlebrooks of the Department of Economic and Employment Development and Steve Collison, Manager of Professional Outplacement Assistance Center, will speak at a support group meeting for unemployed Howard Countians at 11:30 am. Thursday at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Route 108 and Old Montgomery Road.

OWEN BROWN resident Carrie B. MacMillan has strong feminist instincts, says her daughter Marjorie Hever. In her day, she just didn't act on them. Her day was the early 20th century. MacMillan is 106 years old and lives with Hever, 69, and her husband, Robert, 70, in Owen Brown village. "We attribute her longevity to her genes and her love of walking," Hever said. "Her mother and siblings lived into their late 90s. But she added to the luck of the draw by walking every day until she broke her hip at 102."

OWEN BROWN resident Valencia Moody says she might be a doctor when she grows up - or a lawyer, or a model, or a fashion designer or a dancer. That sounds like a typical response from a 13-year-old, until she mentions that she'd also like to teach Braille to blind children. Valencia is nearly blind. She wasn't blind at birth, explained her mother, Corinne. At 17 months, Valencia developed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which caused inflammation in her joints. Her condition seemed to respond well to the prescribed steroid treatment, but at Valencia's physical checkup at age 3, a terrible discovery was made.

The county will install flashing signals at the intersection of Owen Brown and Martin roads, the site of several accidents since traffic patterns were changed about nine months ago.Motorists traveling on Owen Brown Road will have flashing red lights and those on Martin Road will have flashing yellow lights."

The Owen Brown Middle School pupils who come each month to visit senior citizens at nearby Owen Brown Place bring hugs, prizes for bingo games and memories."

By early next year, customers may be rounded up for a new steakhouse in Columbia's Owen Brown village.The Howard County Planning and Zoning Board unanimously approved a petition from BH Robb IV Limited Partnership yesterday morning to recommend construction of the Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon in the Columbia Corporate Park.County planners said the restaurant, which would be built near the Marriott Courtyard hotel and a group of office buildings on Stanford Boulevard, would be visible from Route 175.The petition drew no opposition.

Howard County police charged two teens with robbery Friday afternoon after two Columbia boys were stopped near an Owen Brown convenience store, threatened and robbed of their money.The two victims, both 11, were uninjured, police said.The status of offenders charged as juveniles -- including the 13- and 14-year-old robbery suspects in this case -- is kept private by state rules, but most of them are released into the custody of their parents until legal hearings.The incident began about 4 p.m. Friday when three teens approached the two boys as they walked from a High's store in the 6800 block of Cradlerock Way in Columbia's Owen Brown village, police said.

Renovations of the Owen Brown Village Center are scheduled to get under way as early as next year.Officials at Giant Food -- which operates the center through its GFS Realty subsidiary and has a supermarket there -- said yesterday they plan to abandon the center's somewhat enclosed structure for a more open style, similar to a strip mall.They have proposed moving the Chevy Chase Bank building now at the front of the center to a vacant storefront and removing the dark-brown awnings that cover some of the center's storefront windows.