Partnership

Older adults, people with mental illnesses and low-income individuals in Howard County should see improved health care services over the next few years under a new $3 million partnership between the Horizon Foundation and Howard County General Hospital. After several years of planning, the Community Health Partnership officially took shape last week with a commitment of $950,000 over four years from Horizon -- the largest grant in that philanthropy's nine-year history -- and $2.1 million from the hospital.

Saying that historic properties give Baltimore's business district character, the Downtown Partnership is calling for the city to offer more incentives to owners to protect their buildings from demolition and to start talks about landmark status earlier, according to the nonprofit corporation's report released yesterday. The study, commissioned last year with financial support from the Abell Foundation, offers preliminary suggestions to guide elected leaders, planning officials and preservation activists.

For anyone trying to promote a thriving downtown commercial and residential district, homeless people present a dilemma. This week's effort by Baltimore's Downtown Partnership to remove trash and boxes accumulated by homeless people camped out near Guilford Avenue and the Jones Falls Expressway was regrettable. But the incident reinforces the fact that the homeless are still with us and underscores the critical need to deal with how and why they are on the streets. The partnership routinely picks up empty boxes and trash, frequently encountering and sometimes clashing with homeless people who populate busy downtown areas.

Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Greater Baltimore Medical Center announced yesterday an alliance that, among other things, puts Hopkins doctors in charge of cardiac care at the Towson hospital. The five-year partnership, in the works for the past year and half, includes a joint pediatric surgery project and calls for exploration into possible clinical practice partnerships and shared satellite health care centers. Cooperative research efforts that could help connect area residents with local clinical trials will also be discussed.

In a spirited discussion broadcast on a popular morning radio program, five Baltimore mayoral candidates squared off yesterday in the closest they have come to a debate, arguing - and at times sniping at one another - over crime, housing and education. A month out from the Sept. 11 Democratic primary election, the leading candidates faced one another on WOLB-AM's Larry Young Morning Show, and four of them - all but incumbent Mayor Sheila Dixon - vowed to significantly alter the way schools are governed.

The NAACP and an organization of black telecommunications workers will announce a partnership today aimed at encouraging African-Americans to vote and participate in the census.Under the joint venture, which has been in the works for several months, branches of the civil rights organization will team with branches of the Alliance of Black Telecommunications Employees, a New Jersey-based nonprofit."Every presidential election, we've had a registration drive. We emphasize that kind of involvement," said Rodney O. Buie, president of the alliance.

THE CITY-STATE "partnership" forged two years ago to operate Baltimore schools is still unique in a land of troubled urban education.Educators, politicians and journalists have been making the trip to Charm City to determine how we're doing under a system that has city and state sharing in the governance of Baltimore schools. While Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke actually gave up authority in the partnership agreement, the trend in other cities is in the opposite direction.In Detroit, Mayor Dennis Archer will take over city schools this summer under terms of legislation signed into law last week by Michigan Gov. John Engler.

One of the last places most Baltimore residents would recommend walking at 9 p.m. is in the shadows of downtown's Jones Falls Expressway.But that's exactly where Denise Perkins can be found once a week. In her stylish beret and full-length brown topcoat, Perkins joins a posse of workers -- including a psychiatrist, nurse and social service counselors -- seeking out the city's chronic homeless.As manager of the Downtown Partnership's public safety guides, Perkins and the platoon act as a MASH unit, trying to lure the city's needy off the streets the hard way: one person at a time.

WITH JUST two paid staff members and a budget filled mostly with voluntary donations, the Rev. Skip Long and his colleagues in Jobs Partnership have done an impressive job in Raleigh, N.C., over the past 27 months.Reaching from the inner city to the suburbs, they have organized about 100 churches to provide one-on-one mentors to guide welfare recipients, recovering addicts and others in need through a 12-week training course that uses biblical lessons to teach workplace skills. Then, with a network of participating businesses, they have found jobs for 300 of the program's graduates -- with 95 percent still working for the first company that hired them.

Partnerships needed to restore, maintain the city's playgroundsI applaud The Sun's strong call for removing the hazards on many of Baltimore's playgrounds ("Playground dangers loom over children," July 13) and commend its coverage of the opening of the newly renovated ABC playground in Southwest Baltimore ("Safer play is aim of park," July 11).Formerly a site of drug dealing, the ABC playground has been reclaimed by neighborhood residents and children. This playground renovation was the result of a partnership among the state's Hotspot Communities project, city agencies, the nonprofit Neighborhood Design Center and community residents.

THE PROBLEM: A fence around a Fells Point playground needed repair. THE BACKSTORY: This week's Watchdog stems from a bit of misunderstanding. Karen W. Schardt often walks her dog at Thames Street Park in Fells Point, and she took note of an unfinished fence around the playground. "Half of that fence has been missing since last summer," she said. In an e-mail to Watchdog, Schardt described the orange construction netting as unsightly and wondered why it had been left that way after renovation last year.

It was one of those slightly disorienting, out-of-context scenes, a business breakfast held in a failed nightclub. Developers, lawyers and other be-suited downtown execs helped themselves to coffee and pastries at a bar still lined with top-shelf vodkas and whiskeys, then hovered around the dance floor waiting not for the DJ but the mayor. Sheila Dixon's talk at the Downtown Partnership breakfast on Thursday seemed a mismatch of message and setting. Not that it didn't feature the expected bizspeak - the word "maximize" figured prominently - or applause lines about focusing on road repairs and public transit that were tailored to a crowd dominated by commuting 9-to-5'ers.

The broadcast partnership between Harry Kalas and former Phillie Richie Ashburn made all the difference for Kalas. If Harry was good enough for "Whitey" Ashburn, then he was OK with the city. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/toydept)

A new partnership between seven Rotary Clubs in Howard County and the school system will give every third-grader in the county a new dictionary, school officials said. The dictionaries have been distributed since the beginning of the school year to the 3,500 third-graders in the county, said school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan. Dictionaries also have been given to the Bridges Program, an after-school program for underachieving students. Under the partnership, which is scheduled to be formalized Wednesday, the seven clubs have agreed to purchase and distribute copies of A Student's Dictionary & Gazetteer.

The Chicago Cubs and Baltimore apparel maker Under Armour will continue their marketing partnership after the baseball franchise dropped its lawsuit involving a multimillion-dollar sponsorship agreement. Under Armour announced Tuesday that it will remain the only advertiser on the Wrigley Field outfield wall. Two years ago, Under Armour became the first sponsor to place advertisements on two 7-foot-by-12-foot doors set into the ballpark's ivy-covered left- and right-field walls. In January, the Cubs accused Under Armour of reneging on a promised $10.8 million, five-year sponsorship agreement after its profits declined.

Anti-disease partnership looks for Frederick site FREDERICK: The National Cancer Institute and Science Applications International Corp. have formed a partnership on disease research and are looking for a Frederick campus. SAIC-Frederick Public Affairs Director Frank Blanchard said the partnership needs about a 7.5-acre site near Fort Detrick. NCI and SAIC will work together on cancer research and treatment after the facility is commissioned in 2010. Blanchard said the partnership aims to provide faster cancer treatment at lower cost.

Southwest Airlines announced yesterday that it would link up with Canadian low-cost carrier WestJet, its first concrete step in launching the international service it has talked up for years. Selling seats on each other's planes by late 2009 under a so-called code-sharing arrangement will grant the two airlines access to new customers with little additional cost, provided the agreement gains regulatory approval from U.S. and Canadian authorities. Calgary-based WestJet, which modeled its operations and corporate culture on Southwest when it started up in 1996, offers service to 49 destinations in Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States.

The Baltimore and state school boards will host four hearings in coming days to hear public comment on the city-state partnership governing public education in Baltimore. The 1997 legislation that created the partnership - under which the governor and the mayor jointly appoint the city school board - requires an evaluation of the arrangement every five years. The hearings are part of that evaluation. They will be held: Tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the school system's professional development center, 2500 E. Northern Parkway, and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Edmondson-Westside High, 501 Athol Ave. Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Polytechnic Institute, 1400 W. Cold Spring Lane.

Northfield Elementary has joined Race Pace Bicycles in a partnership that will emphasize safety and good health at the Ellicott City school. "It promotes exercise, fitness, and it is environmental," said Nancy Holmwood, the school's Gifted-and-Talented Program resource teacher and business-partner liaison. Northfield approached Race Pace Bicycles at the request of the school's PTA, which noticed that many parents frequented the business, which has several stores in the area, including one in Ellicott City.

INDICATORS Tuesday -- October housing starts Wednesday -- October leading indicators, weekly jobless claims Events Tuesday Franchise seminar -- presented by Howard County Economic Development Authority, 8:30 a.m., Center for Business and Technology Development, 9250 Bendix Road North, Columbia. Cost is $59. To register, call Tasha Taylor at 410-313-6550 or e-mail: ttaylor@hceda.org Small business successes and failures -- lecture by John L. Herman, presented by Community College of Baltimore County, Dundalk, 11:15 a.m., in the student lounge, L-Building, 7200 Sollers Point Road, Dundalk.