Route 32

The River Hill Community Association is holding a "Helping Our Heroes" donation drive. Donations will be accepted at Claret Hall and distributed to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Prepaid phone cards, electric shavers, clothing, digital video discs and other items are needed. The River Hill Community Association is working with the Soldier Family Assistance Center to collect the items. Information: Mary Harris, 410-531-1749. The community association's breakfast/lunch with Santa will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. (breakfast)

The Clarksville Rotary Club will sponsor a fundraiser, "Baubles & Bling and Holiday Things" from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at a new restaurant, scheduled to open soon, The Fat Duck of Highland. The event will benefit Howard County General Hospital's pediatric ward. The event will feature wine-tasting with 21 different wines, jewelry and hors d'oeuvres by chef Brian Boston of The Milton Inn, who will open The Fat Duck. Tickets are $50. Information or to purchase tickets: Ashley Kreh, of Wilhide's Flowers, 410-465-3434.

The State Highway Administration has opened three roundabouts and two new ramps and removed two traffic signals along Route 32. Traffic signals have been removed along Route 32 at Pfefferkorn and Ten Oaks roads. Motorists traveling along Route 32 can now use the ramps and roundabouts to access Burntwoods, Pfefferkorn and Ten Oaks roads. A new Burntwoods Road bridge over Route 32 is also open to traffic.

Candles spark fire that destroys Pasadena home 1 Candles lit during a power outage sparked a fire that destroyed a Pasadena home Thursday night, Anne Arundel County fire officials said. With Tropical Storm Hanna heading toward the area today, Fire Chief David L. Stokes is warning residents about the danger of using candles for lighting. If candles are used, they should not be left unattended, said Battalion Chief Matthew Tobia. The fire, which caused $90,000 damage to the bungalow in the 600 block of Tebbston Road, happened about 9:45 p.m. Thursday, Tobia said.

The move by the Ken Ulman-led Baltimore Regional Transportation Board to designate $340 million in future state transportation funding for mass transit projects has raised the ire of some politicians. The board recently changed its long-range plan, known as Transportation Outlook 2035, to create more funding for mass transit projects. The shift away from highways came after transit advocacy groups complained that the plan tilted too heavily toward road projects. But last week, officials who represent Howard's rural areas decried the change, saying it was unfair for their constituents to pay gasoline taxes to fund mass transit that they rarely use. "It sounds like some Marylanders are going to get a free ride at the expense of others," fumed Del. Warren E. Miller, a western county Republican who says gasoline tax money ought to go exclusively to highways.

Fort Monmouth workers due to start move to Md. Some of the first Fort Monmouth, N.J., employees to be transferred to a Maryland installation, taking over the fort's responsibilities, are scheduled to move this summer. The Press of Atlantic City reported that by Friday, 221 Fort Monmouth workers had applied for the 200 jobs that will be transferred this summer to Aberdeen Proving Ground. Fort Monmouth is to close by 2011. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission voted in 2005 to shutter the 1,100-acre Army research and development installation.

The Glenwood branch library, 2350 Route 97, Cooksville, will sponsor a meeting of the Glenwood Writers' Group at 7 p.m. Feb. 26. Aspiring authors can help each other craft their prose and find outlets for publication. Participants are encouraged to bring a fiction or nonfiction writing sample of up to 1,000 words to share. Information: 410-313-5577. Winter Arts Show in Cooksville The Glenwood Community Center, 2400 Route 97, Cooksville, will hold a Winter Arts Show from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Environmental concerns, traffic-flow issues and potential damage to historically significant sites are among the concerns neighbors are raising to a proposed 264-unit housing development along the Middle Patuxent River at the edge of west Columbia. Recent evidence indicates that the site of the proposed Riverdale project is near caves that might have been used by Harriett Tubman, the runaway slave who led hundreds of slaves to freedom, said Bridget Mugane, president of the Howard County Citizens Association.

Readers of my last column agreed enthusiastically that Interstate 95 south of Washington takes the crown as the worst traffic nightmare in the Mid-Atlantic states during peak holiday travel. Quite a few of them offered the same alternate route: a pleasant jaunt through Southern Maryland via U.S. 301, crossing into Virginia on the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge. Among the readers who recommended such a strategy were Ann Heether and Ted Lingelbach of Parkville. "We agree that I-495 and I-95 South in Northern Virginia are a Nightmare," they wrote.

A motorist was killed last night when his car struck the side of a bridge on the northbound Baltimore-Washington Parkway at Route 32, U.S. Park Police said. Battalion Chief Matt Tobia of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department said details were not available; emergency crews were trying to remove the unidentified motorist from the vehicle after the 10 p.m. accident. The accident closed the parkway's northbound off-ramp at Route 32 East, Tobia said.