Recreational Facilities

RICHARD SOISSON, head of the county's Department of Recreation and Parks, delivered good news at Tuesday's meeting of Taneytown Area Recreation Council.The county has agreed to provide money to Taneytown for the purchase of 21 acres adjacent to Memorial Park.The acreage will allow for the addition of much-needed sports fields.Soisson said the county commissioners approved giving the city $321,000 for the property.It is unusual for the county to use its Project Open Space money for municipal acquisitions but such purchases might become more common.

Nearly 100 residents of an established Ellicott City neighborhood turned out last night to protest the development of a nearby 77-acre park into a sports complex that could include a roller rink and ball fields lighted at night.The Columbia Hills/Meadowbrook Farm Community Association came out in force to a Howard County Recreation and Parks public hearing on Meadowbrook Park, at the southeast corner of U.S. 29 and Route 100.The land, which the county has owned since 1984, consists of meadows, wetlands and a stream.

In a move that could help ease the shortage of recreational facilities in northwestern Baltimore County, a local developer said yesterday that ground would be broken this week for a 40,000-square-foot indoor sports arena in the Reisterstown area.The Owings Mills Sports Arena at 12400 Glynowings Drive is scheduled to open Jan. 23 for the second session of indoor winter soccer, developers say.The arena will feature two artificial-turf fields, a sports grill, a video arcade and an office for a sports medicine practitioner.

Catonsville residents seeking to build a community center in southwestern Baltimore County are searching for at least 5 acres that could accommodate a gymnasium, Olympic-size indoor pool, martial arts and dance studios, environmental center and skating rink.The Southwest Regional Community Center Inc. was turned down last week by the Department of Natural Resources for a proposed state-owned site near Rolling and Gun roads at Patapsco Valley State Park, a location also opposed by neighbors of the park.

BALTIMORE COUNTY is in a bind when it comes to parkland and open space.Some less-developed counties have stockpiled land for future public use. In Baltimore County, however, previous administrations failed to do this adequately. Today, there is a severe shortage of recreational facilities and open space in developed areas of the county, especially in the new communities of White Marsh, Owings Mills and still-to-be-built Honeygo. Meanwhile, land prices are bound to rise as growth areas are built out.County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger is trying to buy potential parkland.

THE MEASURE OF A MAYOR often boils down to the essential. Is trash picked up on time? Are streets cleared after a heavy snowfall? Do police and firefighters respond instantly to emergencies?We need a different yardstick to assess Padraic M. Kennedy, unofficial mayor of Howard County's planned community of Columbia for the past 25 years.Trash, snow-clearing and public safety are county functions. Mr. Kennedy's role has been to make sure another level of services is in place -- recreational amenities that add to the quality of life.

The County Council is likely to delay voting tonight on whether to form Anne Arundel's first private agency responsible for raising money for public recreation projects.Republican Diane L. Evans, who is chairwoman of the council, said she plans to introduce at least one amendment that would limit the Recreational Revenue Authority."I've been very concerned from the beginning about its open-ended nature," Evans said during a council work session Friday morning. "My preference would be that the bill focus on one or two recreational facilities."

A lengthy hearing with close to two dozen speakers delayed a County Council vote last night on a bill to create Anne Arundel's first private agency to raise money for recreational projects.The proposal had been the subject of intensive lobbying, and passage of a bill in the Maryland General Assembly last night allowing the county to create a revenue authority to control money raised for recreation programs.But after more than two hours of council members' questioning county officials about the proposal, and testimony from opponents, it appeared possible that the members would introduce several amendments on the bill to create the Recreational Revenue Authority -- which would require a new public hearing and put off a vote.

An article in Tuesday's edition of The Sun in Anne Arundel gave an incorrect date for a vote on the possible creation of a county recreation authority. The vote is to be held April 22.The Sun regrets the errors.The trend toward the privatization of government services has swept through the region's airports, parking garages and golf courses. Now it may redefine public recreation centers in Anne Arundel County.The County Council is to vote today on whether to set up a recreation authority that would have the power to build new golf courses, swimming pools and ice rinks.

IF LOCAL CHAMBERS of commerce in Anne Arundel are correct, establishing a county revenue authority would produce unfair competition for private owners of golf courses, ice rinks, indoor soccer arenas and other recreation facilities. This argument is disingenuous, and members of the County Council would be wise to ignore it.Actually, Anne Arundel County, like many jurisdictions, has been in the golf course business for years. It owns and operates the Eisenhower Golf Course in Crownsville. Public money also financed construction of the Arundel Olympic Swim Center near Annapolis and the Piney Orchard Ice Rink near Odenton.

Program Open Space, Maryland's nationally recognized effort to create outdoor recreational opportunities and preserve untouched lands, has been spending money on the indoors - including golf-course building renovations, community centers and an indoor aquatic center. Call it Program Enclosed Space. State auditors criticized the longstanding practice in a report yesterday on the Department of Natural Resources and said that the General Assembly's counsel advised them that the use of open-space funding for indoor recreational facilities doesn't appear to be within the law. Agency officials told auditors that they believed the indoor projects qualified for funding because the facilities accommodate recreational activities, such as swimming, that are typically done outdoors.

For a fairly new community, having existed only since 1967, Columbia has developed quite the reputation. Known best for its streets, which are named after the works of famous writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mark Twain and J.R.R. Tolkien, the area is increasingly becoming known for its unique design that incorporates 10 independent village centers. Columbia is located southwest of Baltimore City in the central region of Howard County. Bordered by Baltimore, Carroll, Montgomery, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties, Columbia lies conveniently between the Baltimore and Washington Metropolitan areas.

Finding fields and gyms for its members has become increasingly frustrating for the Savage Boys and Girls Club. "We're maxed out," said Thomas K. Lawler, president of the 2,400-player youth group, explaining why time on parkland, public school fields and in gyms in the Savage-North Laurel area is at a premium. "They tell us, `You're lucky to get what you've got,' " Lawler said, referring to officials who schedule the fields and gyms. And Lawler, a bank vice president, expects the situation to get more frustrating as youngsters from two new large developments, Emerson and Maple Lawn Farms, start joining the club.

A health club slated to open in Columbia's Gateway Commerce Center that will rival the size of the Columbia Association gyms is causing concerns about the financial implications for the community's recreational facilities, a major source of income for the homeowners association. Life Time Fitness, a growing health and fitness company that typically operates 150,000- square-foot facilities, has a contract to open a gym off Robert Fulton Drive late next year or in early 2006, said Dennis W. Miller, a Rouse Co. vice president and Columbia's general manager.

In a Columbia Council election that determined the power balance of the 10-member group, a key race - Harper's Choice - was decided by two votes yesterday. In one of three contested races, Harper's Choice incumbent Wolfger Schneider narrowly beat Kathleen Larson, 277-275, in a victory for the Alliance for a Better Columbia, a citizens watchdog group . "I think my opponent ran a very strong campaign, and I'm happy to have survived it," said Schneider, who won his second two-year term. In Hickory Ridge, residents favored incumbent Miles Coffman over Fred Franklin-Campbell, 31, an adjunct history professor at Howard Community College, 189-118 . Town Center candidate Jud Malone will be the only newcomer on the council.

A telephone survey shows that the Columbia Association may have rebounded from a period of tumultuous leadership, with slightly more than half of the town's residents responding that they're getting their money's worth from the liens they pay. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research interviewed 807 adults and found that 52 percent of Columbia residents are satisfied with the quality of the homeowners association's services that are partially funded by assessment fees....

CATERHAM, England - From its imposing Victorian main building surrounded by lush green playing fields to its students dressed in sober dark uniforms and sensible shoes, the Caterham School is the very picture of a British boarding school. Listen closely, though, to hear the sound of change, for amid the chattering of posh English accents can be heard German, Russian and other languages from the East and beyond. The co-educational student body is a mini-United Nations. Still, administrators at the 200-year-old school tucked in suburban London want to add a few more brash accents to the mix. They want more Americans, and they want them now. They're so eager, in fact, they're about to take part in a high-profile British boarding school recruiting trip to Washington, D.C. "We feel it's a good product that we have to offer, and we'd like people to take part in it," says Rob Davey, Caterham's headmaster.

MORE THAN a decade ago, a citizens group was formed in Columbia that lobbied for change in the city's spending priorities and residential fees. "We were able to get the pool rates to come down very dramatically. We were able to get the assessment rates reduced," says Alex Hekimian, who founded the group, the Alliance for a Better Columbia (ABC), in 1987. In recent years, ABC, which once had more than 100 members, went dormant. Today, the group is back. "Given the turmoil of the last year and a half at CA [the Columbia Association]

Nearly 100 residents of an established Ellicott City neighborhood turned out last night to protest the development of a nearby 77-acre park into a sports complex that could include a roller rink and ball fields lighted at night.The Columbia Hills/Meadowbrook Farm Community Association came out in force to a Howard County Recreation and Parks public hearing on Meadowbrook Park, at the southeast corner of U.S. 29 and Route 100.The land, which the county has owned since 1984, consists of meadows, wetlands and a stream.

RICHARD SOISSON, head of the county's Department of Recreation and Parks, delivered good news at Tuesday's meeting of Taneytown Area Recreation Council.The county has agreed to provide money to Taneytown for the purchase of 21 acres adjacent to Memorial Park.The acreage will allow for the addition of much-needed sports fields.Soisson said the county commissioners approved giving the city $321,000 for the property.It is unusual for the county to use its Project Open Space money for municipal acquisitions but such purchases might become more common.