Patuxent River

Closings listed for the holiday Howard County government offices, courts, the animal shelter, library branches and the landfill will be closed in observance of the Memorial Day holiday Monday. Library branches will also be closed Sunday. There will be no recycling or trash service Monday. Trash will be collected Tuesday for Monday and Tuesday routes; recycling for Monday routes will be collected June 2. Parking regulations and fees will remain in effect. The 911 center, police and fire departments are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

State Highway Administration officials have answered concerns of homeowners and lawmakers about a proposed residential development by calling for new information and studies related to traffic flow. SHA is asking Dale Thompson Builders Inc., developer of the Riverdale project, to do additional studies, and will do some of the work through its own agency. The 30-acre condo and townhouse development is proposed for the Route 32 and Cedar Lane along the Middle Patuxent River at the edge of west Columbia.

Thursday was a good day to go fishing. OK, maybe not like a day in April. Or May. But squeezing in a couple of hours between Wednesday's blow and Friday's wet snow beat sitting around the mothership all day. An ultralight rod and a beat-up old Ugly Stick practically dance into the back seat. A fanny pack filled with lures and other musts join them. Johnny Cash in the dash completes the preparations. First up, a little spot not far from home on Northwest Branch. The trail that runs along the water's edge east and west of Route 29 is part of the Rachel Carson Greenway that will someday stretch 23 miles from upper Montgomery County into Prince George's.

The owner of Laurel Park wants to fill in 4 acres of wetlands in the Patuxent River watershed as part of a multimillion-dollar redevelopment to modernize the floundering thoroughbred racetrack. The nontidal wetlands that would be filled in are near Route 198, said Walter Lynch, the project's lead architect. That is where a swath of heavily wooded wetlands buffers the racetrack complex from the state highway, near the line between Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. Lynch said Laurel Park's parent owner, Magna Entertainment Corp.

UPPER MARLBORO -- The bad news is that the Patuxent River is in deep trouble, struggling against a tide of pollution and sediment that has turned this once-fertile river into a mucky brown mess. The good news: Scientists, legislators and local activists have a better understanding of what ails the river and what they can do to fix it. The Patuxent Riverkeeper, an advocacy group, released a report yesterday outlining a dozen major problems that are causing the river to slowly die and recommending a plan of action to stem the decline.

PARADE TIME Drop by Key Highway on Sunday for the Columbus Day Parade, which features a float competition, mounted police, Marine and high school bands, mini-cars, an antique firetruck, scooters, unicyclists, jugglers, clowns, stilt walkers, dancers and color guards. Miss Little Italy and Christopher Columbus impersonator Don Castronova will also participate. .................... Catch the 117th annual Columbus Day Parade from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The parade starts at Key Highway and Light Street, turns right onto Light Street, right onto Pratt Street, right onto Exeter Street, left onto Bank Street and ends at Central Avenue in Little Italy, where there will be an Italian Festival the rest of the afternoon.

While Crofton residents expressed jubilation two months ago when Wal-Mart announced it would scrap its plan to build a store along the Route 3 corridor, the property owner and developer didn't necessarily scrap his plan to bring in a big-box retailer. William D. Berkshire has pressed ahead on seeking key state approvals to build on the forested 20-acre parcel within the 121,000-square-foot Wal-Mart footprint, all the while talking with several suitors on a variety of projects. County lawmakers and civic leaders say another big-box store could be in the offing.

LEXINGTON PARK -- Military base realignment has been a bonanza for Southern Maryland, boosting incomes and lowering unemployment in a rural region known largely for tobacco farming. But more than a decade after thousands of new military and civilian workers transferred to work on and around Patuxent River Naval Air Station, traffic still clogs the two-lane bridge over the Patuxent that many commuters use, despite hundreds of millions spent by government on road improvements. Housing prices also have climbed beyond the reach of many St. Mary's County residents.

After 20 years, the annual Bernie Fowler show has become a parody of itself. Skinny stick of a man, amazingly boyish at 83 in his denim overalls and straw hat with a little American flag stuck in the brim, holding hands with his wife, Betty, and a group of state and local dignitaries as they march 70 or so abreast into the unappealingly brown water of the Patuxent River at Broomes Island to see how far they get before their white sneakers disappear....