Parks Department

As Anne Arundel County's recreation and parks director for 7 1/2 years, Dennis Callahan says he's become a fan of the cheerleaders who attend numerous recreation events. But he says it's bothered him that while the parents always watched intently, many others didn't seem to pay attention. "I thought it was just about time that we recognize these athletes for what they are - athletes," Callahan said. Callahan pushed for the county Recreation and Parks Department to categorize cheerleading as a sport, and he was a driving force of the partnership between the county and the Anne Arundel Youth Cheerleading Association.

Harry G. Coulter, a retired Baltimore County Recreation and Parks official, died of cancer Feb. 24 at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Timonium resident was 76. Born and raised in Norfolk, Mass., he earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from Arnold College in Bridgeport, Conn., in 1952. After service in the Navy during the Korean War, he earned a master's degree in recreation and parks management from Boston University in 1957. He had been parks and recreation superintendent in Gorham, N.H., and Auburn, Maine, before moving to Maryland in 1962 and joining the Baltimore County Recreation and Parks department, where he retired in 1992 as an assistant director.

THE EHRLICH administration stepped back from using its version of the nuclear option when it said it wouldn't answer the legislature's probe into GOP personnel practices by exposing all the friends and relatives that Democrats have hired. But that didn't stop one Anne Arundel Republican from working on some freelance fission. William P. Davis, a retired federal worker from Odenton, sent the Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation and Parks a request for records on its deputy director, Michael E. Busch, who is better known as the speaker of the House of Delegates and thorn in the side of Annapolis Republicans.

SEATED ON a bench in Druid Hill Park on a recent glorious spring weekday afternoon, Connie A. Brown spots an illegal dirt biker off in the distance and frets about the time that will have to be spent repairing the ground that is being torn up. Not far away, he sees a young pit bull being allowed to run freely by its owner. "Dogs off-leash - that's a big problem," he says. "They scare people. They intimidate people." He surveys the area around him, with nary a soda can nor scrap of paper in sight.

Nearly 40 years after it became a county park, the Patapsco Female Institute might be getting a face-lift. The Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks unveiled a plan last week for $1 million worth of improvements over three years at the historic park in Ellicott City, which includes the restored shell of a 19th- century girls' school. Supporters say a scarcity of parking spaces and portable toilets, and lack of areas protected from the weather, have hindered the site's ability to hold programs and attract visitors.

The first phrase of a long-awaited public park in Middle River will include a community center, baseball diamond and walking trails, all part of Baltimore County's efforts to revitalize waterfront communities. The Department of Recreation and Parks will begin this week seeking design concepts for the 13,000-square-foot meeting center at the Village of Tall Trees Park, where a dilapidated and crime-ridden apartment complex once stood. When completed, the 50-acre park will be between two new housing developments, WaterView and Hopewell Pointe.

A dispute over field use and maintenance between the Baltimore City Schools athletics department and the city's Department of Recreation and Parks left some baseball and softball teams without use of their home fields earlier this week. Athletic directors and some coaches at Carver, Southern, Digital Harbor and Samuel L. Banks, which rely in varying degrees on recreation and parks fields during the spring, were told Monday or Tuesday that they could no longer practice or play on those fields.

Clarence E. Downs III, a longtime employee at the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks who was responsible for the care and maintenance of the city's trees, died Christmas night in a fire that destroyed his home in Lansdowne. He was 48. Known as Buddy to his family and co-workers in the forestry division of the Bureau of Parks, Mr. Downs went to work for the city when he was 18 years old. He rose through the ranks and became the third-in-command of the forestry division. He supervised a staff of approximately 40 employees and was responsible for the care of the city's 399,000 trees.

Matt House, 18, of Annapolis dropped down the quarter pipe yesterday on his skateboard, kick-flipped over the hip of the pyramid then did a nose grind on a wooden box. Translated from the language of skateboarding, that means he performed a series of tricks at Annapolis Recreation and Parks Department's skateboard park on its opening day. While the baseball field and tennis courts were vacant on the sunny but chilly fall afternoon, more than 60 skateboarders...

Matt House, 18, of Annapolis dropped down the quarter pipe yesterday on his skateboard, kick-flipped over the hip of the pyramid then did a nose grind on a wooden box. Translated from the language of skateboarding, that means he performed a series of tricks at Annapolis Recreation and Parks Department's skateboard park on its opening day. While the baseball field and tennis courts were vacant on the sunny but chilly fall afternoon, more than 60 skateboarders...