Park Circle

Another chapter was written yesterday in the remarkable roller-coaster life story of Edward R. "Slim" Butler.Butler -- a teen-age murderer who later earned a master's degree and a measure of acclaim as the builder of the Palladium catering hall in Park Circle -- was sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison for bankruptcy fraud and money laundering in Baltimore.The 58-year-old entrepreneur and minister was convicted in December of illegally concealing $350,000 from creditors in his 1990 bankruptcy filing and laundering it through a variety of sources.

Leslie Legum, chairman of the board of the Park Circle Motor Co., developer and philanthropist, died Monday of heart failure at Boca Raton Community Hospital in Florida, where he had a vacation home. The Pikesville resident was 83."He really had three different careers," said a son, Jeffrey A. Legum, president of Park Circle. "He had one in auto sales, truck and car leasing, and land development."The Park Circle Motor Co., which sells General Motors automobiles, was founded by Leslie Legum's father, A. M. Legum, in 1921.

Sometimes the friends of Kurt L. Schmoke make trouble for him when they should simply shut up. It happens on Park Heights Avenue, in Northwest Baltimore, and in the city's Housing Department, too, and in an election year it does this mayor damage he doesn't need.In the 4300 block of Park Heights Ave., there once was a movie house called the Avalon Theatre, which closed and became radio station WSID, which later moved and left an empty shell, which has been rotting there for more than a decade.

President Clinton's ears perked up yesterday when he heard that Raymond V. Haysbert Sr., chairman of the Parks Sausage Co., was in the room with Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke."

More than 100 workers continued their strike yesterday against Parks Sausage Co., Baltimore's last remaining meatpacking operation, protesting contract concessions that the company said were necessary for survival."

An article in yesterday's Sun about the strike at the Parks Sausage Co. incorrectly described Parks as the only major meatpacker operating in Baltimore. A table of closed meatpacking plants that accompanied the story incorrectly included Saval Foods Corp. and the White Coffee Pot Commissary, which are still operating in Baltimore.The Sun regrets the errors.Managers and striking workers at Parks Sausage Co. agreed yesterday to meet with a federal mediator Monday in an attempt to end a dispute over the company's request for pay cuts and other contract concessions.

The driver of a stolen car was shot to death by a Baltimore police officer who had pursued the vehicle for several miles, until it hit several cars and ran onto a grassy embankment at Park Circle, authorities said.Two passengers had complied with the unidentified policeman's order to get out of the car with their hands in the air, but the driver remained in his seat, according to Agent Doug Price, a police spokesman.What happened in the next few seconds between the driver and the officer remained under investigation last night by homicide detectives, and Agent Price was unable to provide a detailed account of the shooting.

While elected officials in Washington talk theory, Steve Wasserman knows reality.For 10 years, Mr. Wasserman has been running his business -- Cindarn Plastics, with annual sales of $6 million -- in Baltimore's first enterprise zone. And he believes enterprise zones, though not a salvation, would be a good foundation in a federal program."Unless the federal government steps in to break the cycle, the cities will be abandoned," he says.Now 40, Mr. Wasserman, was a good candidate for moving into an enterprise zone.

Judy DuValLanguages instructorServices for Judy DuVal, who once taught roller skating at the old Carlin's Park in Baltimore and later taught English and German in University of Maryland programs overseas, will be held at 1 p.m. today in the Post Chapel at Fort Myer, Va., adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery.Mrs. DuVal, who was 66, died Friday of cancer at a hospital in West Chester, Pa., where she had lived since January.She was a resident of Germany before that and taught in overseas programs of both the University of Maryland and Temple University.

Burton Monroe remembers back a dozen years, back to when there were assaults, sometimes shootings, in Northwest Baltimore's Park Circle Industrial Park. Coming to work there was "like walking into the Wild West."No more. Today, the desolate buildings that attracted muggers have been reborn as a thriving business center.Ten years ago, Maryland designated the Park Circle Industrial Park a state enterprise zone. Since then, businesses have been claiming tax breaks for moving and building there.

Change may be coming to Baltimore - in a roundabout sort of way. The Dixon administration is asking Congress to help pay for five new traffic circles to replace conventional intersections in some of the city's most heavily traveled corridors - a plan that would bring Baltimore in line with the state and surrounding counties. The $22.8 million roundabout request is part of $294.8 million in earmarks the city is seeking in the multiyear federal transportation spending bill up for renewal this fall.

Man dies at Shock Trauma after Park Circle shooting A man was shot and killed last night in the Park Circle neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore, police said. No arrest had been made and police knew of no motive. The name of the victim was being withheld pending notification of family members, police said. Northwestern District officers responding to a report of a man shot in the 3400 block of Park Heights Ave. just north of Park Circle shortly before 7:30 p.m. found the victim lying on the ground and bleeding from a bullet wound in the face and another in the back, police said.

The problem: An abandoned Ford Explorer has sat on a Park Circle median for at least two months. The backstory: Parking is tight along the 3400 block of Hilldale Place just north of Druid Hill Park, but resident Lillian Moore knew the red Ford Explorer had to go. Hilldale and Cotwood Place form a circle around a grassy median where two months ago Moore noticed the SUV - with its front fender wrapped around a tree. Since then, someone either pushed or pulled the Explorer to the top of the hilly median, but there it has sat with its dented fender but without license plates or other identifying information.

Royal Parker has finally retired. The man who practically invented local television now lives on Park Heights Avenue with his wife, Phyllis. This past January, he stepped down from his duties as a Baltimore liquor board inspector. Parker, who was born Royal Pollokoff, joined the staff of the old WAAM television station in 1951 and invented a children's television character, Mister Poplolly. When Westinghouse bought the station and started calling it WJZ, he became Big Pud and wore a Popeye-like sailor's hat. He occasionally filled into for teen dance legend Buddy Deane.

William A. Peck, an advertising agency creative director who wrote many well-known commercial slogans as well as eight unpublished mystery novels, died of a cerebral aneurysm Monday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Homeland resident was 68. Born in Grafton, Pa., Mr. Peck was raised in San Antonio, where he began working as program director for an AM radio station, KTSA. In the early 1960s, he moved to Chicago to become program director at WYNR, then the city's sole African-American broadcasting station, and managed it during the civil rights movement of the mid-1960s.

Rose R. Suit, a former "Towerette" who served up sizzling hamburgers, crispy french fries, generous wedges of pie and cups of coffee to several generations of White Tower customers, died of liver cancer Saturday at Hammonds Lane Nursing Center in Brooklyn Park. She was 81. She was born Rose C. Giles in Baltimore and raised in Woodlawn, where she attended Baltimore County public schools. Mrs. Suit began her career in 1952 at White Tower No. 8 on Howard Street, across from the old Greyhound bus terminal.

SOON WE CAN forget Park Heights Avenue again. The war will arrive any minute now, and slot machines and Pimlico Race Course and the ruins of Park Heights just outside the track will seem like civic afterthoughts once more. The war will take away many things, including memory. For a few ticks of the clock, as the thinkers in Annapolis wrestled with the financial blessings of slot machines, they hinted at big money that might spill from Pimlico's proposed new gambling venture into Lower Park Heights, that stretch of battered and abandoned housing, liquor outlets, bail bond operations, check-cashing businesses and, not to be overlooked, lottery outlets running from Northern Parkway down to Park Circle.

SIX YEARS ago, in a moment that will live in the annals of self-induced depression, I took a walk along lower Park Heights Avenue and started computing the decay of a community. I should have brought an adding machine. In the nine blocks above Park Circle, there were 42 abandoned, boarded-up dwellings. As everybody knows, you put one boarded-up house in a neighborhood, it's an eyesore. You leave it there, it becomes emblematic: of neglect, of breakdown, of a place where nobody wants to live.

On a cold morning at 6:45, Vanessa Jones stands alone under the canopy of the Park Circle social services center on Reisterstown Road, her cigarette providing the only light in a relentless rain. The office doesn't open until 8 a.m. But Jones is here, more than an hour early, so that she'll have a chance of getting out by 10:30 - maybe. So begins a daily dance at social services offices around the city. In these days of welfare reform, of boasts that the rolls are down and employment is high, a Muscovite reality still prevails in these places, where the poor seek help purchasing food, covering medical care and supporting their kids.

Another chapter was written yesterday in the remarkable roller-coaster life story of Edward R. "Slim" Butler.Butler -- a teen-age murderer who later earned a master's degree and a measure of acclaim as the builder of the Palladium catering hall in Park Circle -- was sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison for bankruptcy fraud and money laundering in Baltimore.The 58-year-old entrepreneur and minister was convicted in December of illegally concealing $350,000 from creditors in his 1990 bankruptcy filing and laundering it through a variety of sources.