Park Council

The celebration of New Year's Eve probably was invented by some poor soul who forgot to buy Christmas presents and needed to make it up to his relatives. So, a week later, he gave a party. The idea, like resolutions and white sales, caught on. And now, every year, people stay up past their bedtime to make noise and foster a headache, which is soothed the following day by the rhythmic motion of televised football.*If you have resolved to be more informed about your community, attend the Jan. 11 meeting of the Greater Severna Park Council.

Controlled deer hunts can take place in certain Baltimore County parks, but under tighter conditions than originally proposed, according to a bill approved Monday by the County Council. Seeking to frame the bill as part of a broader strategy to control the overflowing deer population, council members deleted some references to hunting from the bill in favor of "deer cooperator program. " County officials will also explore other methods of deer control including sterilization. The bill clearly states that it is not intended to allow open season in county parks — requiring any hunt to be conducted at night under the supervision of the state Department of Natural Resources.

THE GREATER Severna Park Council invites residents to its general meeting on the second Tuesday of each month at 7: 30 p.m. in the large meeting room of the Severna Park branch library.Former President Rick Zablocki will conduct the June 9 meeting for President Larry Masterson, who will resign as of that meeting to run for the County Council.The agenda includes a special election for president and a report on the council's review of the County Council budget."We're the only community umbrella group to do that," said Treasurer Al Johnson.

In a small place like Taneytown, officials sometimes find themselves in the unpopular position of saying no to friends. Last week, Mayor Henry C. Heine told his fellow Lions Club members that he couldn't continue the practice of the previous mayor to let the group use a pavilion for free at Taneytown Memorial Park. When every other group pays, it would be wrong to show favoritism to one, Heine said. Not happy with that answer, the Lions Club went to the City Council, which voted not to show favoritism: From now on, all civic groups in the city can use one pavilion free once a year for a family-style picnic.

Members of the Greater Severna Park Council expressed strong concern Tuesday that a site bordering the Shipley's Choice community is being considered for a new county detention center."

The Greater Severna Park Council is convening its first-ever planning retreat this month, and high on its list of topics will be the kind of commercial growth Severna Park residents want for their community.Council leaders, when they meet April 17 on the Eastern Shore, will base much of their discussion on the results of a survey commissioned by the council last year.The 930 questionnaires returned by area residents give council members "something other than our own perceptions" of what Severna Park should be like in the future, said Don Nataf, chairman of the council's public works committee.

Severna Park residents are trying to get Kinder Park back on the county's burner -- if only the back burner.Eleven years ago the county broke ground on the park, a 237-acre farm planned to include nature trails, picnic areas and pavilions.Money for big parks projects dried up in the 1980s, and the plansfor the Severna Park/Millersville park have never fully materialized.But the Greater Severna Park Council hopes to push the park backonto the county's agenda, said Pat Troy, council president.

An Annapolis man is asking the Greater Severna Park Council for helpin building a carwash along the east side of Ritchie Highway.Butthe council is waiting until next month to see impact studies and tore-examine its own principles before deciding whether to throw its political weight behind the plan.Clark Porter has asked the county for permission to more than double the size of the building now housing H. H. Bunker & Sons well-drilling operation.The Bunker property, south of Cypress Road at theheadwaters of Cypress Creek, is zoned for residential use but was allowed to retain its current use when the county passed its initial zoning ordinance.

Severna Park Council OKs Cattail Creek property saleAfter considerable lobbying by the Greater Severna Park Council, Anne Arundel County has agreed to buy 19 acres of property at the headwaters of Cattail Creek in Severna Park.The property, located between Ritchie Highway and the B & A Trail, is costing the county just over $1 million.The agreement with the owner, the Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad, also includes the county's purchase of an additional five acres for a scenic easement.The land, dubbed the Cattail Creek Recreation Area, is expected to be preserved as woodlands, with perhaps a few walking trails.

Severna Park Council to vote on Fishpaw's rezoning requestThe Greater Severna Park Council will vote tomorrow night on whether to oppose an Arnold liquor store's request for a rezoning classification.Fishpaw's, off Ritchie Highway south of Jones Station Road, has asked the county to reclassify two acres between the store and the Jones Station firehouse to the north from residential to a commercial use that would allow outside storage."We applied for a zoning change so we can do some renovations to our building, including changes in the parking lot," said Kim Lawson, one of the owners.

Baltimore officials plan to rescind pink slips delivered last week to 54 workers in the city's Department of Recreation and Parks after Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and the city council reached an agreement to add $2 million to the city budget that takes effect July 1.The budget supplement will include $1.8 million for recreation and parks, which will allow the city to avoid the layoffs and the closing of city recreation centers, a move strongly opposed by residents...

THE ASSOCIATION for Severna Park Improvement, Renewal and Enhancement Inc. (ASPIRE) has elected Sandy Burns, Jim Coulter, Kathleen Elmore and Dianna Richards to its board of trustees.Mildred Rund was elected trustee emeritus.Created to improve long-range planning for Greater Severna Park while protecting the region's past and present, ASPIRE was the brainchild of President Pat Troy, who began working with the Greater Severna Park Council and the Chamber of Commerce in to get the organization running.

THE GREATER Severna Park Council invites residents to its general meeting on the second Tuesday of each month at 7: 30 p.m. in the large meeting room of the Severna Park branch library.Former President Rick Zablocki will conduct the June 9 meeting for President Larry Masterson, who will resign as of that meeting to run for the County Council.The agenda includes a special election for president and a report on the council's review of the County Council budget."We're the only community umbrella group to do that," said Treasurer Al Johnson.

ONE OF Severna Park's greatest accomplishments is that it tricks its residents into thinking they live in a small town.Given that Greater Severna Park is divided into three divisions -- Millersville, Arnold and Severna Park -- this is no easy feat.Partly responsible for this feeling are Severna Park's origins as a quiet, rural community in the early 1900s, then gradually evolving, beginning in the mid-1960s, into a suburb of Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis.There are organizations whose primary purpose is to maintain and improve on the qualities that drew us to Severna Park -- its central location among three major job centers, a feeling of safety and that sense of community.

WHEN Carolyn Page, a 17-year-old senior at Severna Park High School, isn't playing varsity volleyball or attending Student Government Association or National Honor Society meetings, she's making history as the first student member of the Greater Severna Park Council."

Baltimore County has revived a controversial plan to provide fast-growing Owings Mills with its first major park by spending $5.3 million to buy a 241-acre tract just west of the new town.The plan, sidetracked in September by concern among residents and some County Council members, now has solid support, though some councilmen are still grumbling about the price.Council members say they are likely to approve the deal Monday, clearing the way for the county to take over the land, which had been zoned for a residential golf course community.

A partly completed housing complex for the elderly in Severna Park that is not expected to open until spring has drawn several dozen inquiries about room openings.Construction crews have erected turret-style roofs and exterior walls of the three-story, 137-suite Sunrise at Severna Park, adjacent to the Severna Park library on West McKinsey Road.Fifteen apartments in the 60-unit independent-living center have been reserved, and 47 people are on a priority list to rent the others, said Leslie L. Leppado, executive director of the complex, which is being built by Sunrise Assisted Living Inc. of Fairfax, Va.Two suites in the 77-unit assisted-living center have been reserved, and eight people are on a list for other units, she said.

The Howard County Council is considering a bill that -- in theory at least -- could bring the death of trailer parks in the eastern end of this affluent county.The bill would allow construction of traditional homes in areas now reserved for mobile and manufactured housing. The change takes up one line of a 94-page, highly technical bill changing zoning regulations.But Councilman C. Vernon Gray feared the impact the measure would have on those living in mobile and premanufactured homes. "The people who live in these parks have no protection," he said at last night's council meeting.