Parks Department

When she planted crocus bulbs in Mount Vernon Place, Amanda Johnson was looking forward to seeing them bloom in spring - "just a few little flowers to give me hope every morning as I walk to work," she said. This week though, and through March 29, what Johnson and other residents who live along the park's four grassy squares are seeing is a 7-foot-tall chain-link fence, spray-painted gold, that has essentially shut down the park. The gold fence - a work the artist says is intended to increase public appreciation for the park - is the first phase of an outdoor exhibit that will be on display through late May. But since the weekend, when the fence closed off access to what is considered one of the more scenic spots in Baltimore, many nearby residents and other frequent users of the park have complained that public art should not take priority over public access.

The cinder block dugouts are decrepit and the backstop is ragged at the old baseball diamond in Galesville, but giants once ran the bases in this southern Anne Arundel County town. Not just giants but Elite Giants, as in the old Negro Leagues team of the 1930s and 1940s. They and other legendary clubs from era of segregated baseball — such as the Homestead Grays and Newark Eagles — were annual visitors to play exhibitions at the home of the Galesville Hot Sox. Scores of local residents turned out Sunday to remember those days and celebrate the preservation of a vibrant part of Anne Arundel's African-American history at a first-pitch ceremony marking the county's acquisition of the Hot Sox Field at Wilson Park.

As thousands of late-night revelers partied to thumping electronic dance music in the graffiti-marked remains of an old fort in Baltimore last month, some overdosed on drugs or became overwhelmed by the heat, according to a report by the city fire marshal. While the overnight Starscape festival at Fort Armistead Park stretched into the early-morning hours, emergency medical crews from the city and Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties struggled to keep up with calls for help from the venue, responding to the park "continuously" for 12 hours, the report says.

The Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation and Parks was recently awarded the Maryland Recreation and Parks/American Society of Landscape Architects Park and Recreation Landscape Site Award for the landscape design of Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis.The department received a commemorative plaque, which will be displayed at the Quiet Waters Park Visitors Center.

Councilman Carl Stokes called Friday for the city's comptroller to audit the Department of Recreation and Parks and to report the findings to the City Council in 90 to 120 days. Stokes was joined at the Ambrose Kennedy Pool and Playground, one of the city's pools set to close this summer season, by Councilman James B. Kraft and Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke. Stokes said he is convinced that there is "hidden money" in the parks department that could allow some recreation centers and pools set to close this summer to remain open.

County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann has named Joseph Pfaff, a 29-year veteran of the Baltimore County Recreation and Parks Department, as director of Harford County's Department of Parks and Recreation.Mr. Pfaff, who is superintendent of regional maintenance in the Baltimore County system, will replace Robert Staab, who resigned recently as Harford's director after less than two years to join the administration of Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III."We are pleased to welcome a person with such a diversified background in parks and recreation," Mrs. Rehrmann said Thursday in announcing Mr. Pfaff's appointment.

About 25 people protested the city's anticipated overhaul of the Department of Recreation and Parks yesterday, while parks officials called on employees to pull together during the department's budget crisis.Though Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has pledged to continue operating all 58 of the city's recreation centers through the summer, protesters said they feared services would be drastically reduced in the fall.The city budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 calls on recreation and parks to cut its budget by $5.4 million.

The 24,500-square-foot brick building with green trim and tinted windows has just what the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks needs: lots of space.After many years of tending to business in its Ellicott City headquarters and three branch offices around the county, the 25-year-old department has moved its headquarters and branches to one building at 7120 Oakland Mills Road in the Guilford community of East Columbia."We think we can deliver a better service by having everyone under the same roof," said Gary J. Arthur, the acting director of recreation and parks.

The state has given the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks about $950,500 to renovate an Ellicott City recreation center and to buy land for a proposed county park along the Middle Patuxent River.The state Board of Public Works approved the funds Wednesday for the Roger Carter Neighborhood Center and the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area, a 1,100-acre parcel bounded by Harper's Choice village and Routes 108 and 32.The money comes from Program Open Space, a program administered by the state Department of Natural Resources that helps local jurisdictions buy parkland and develop recreation areas.