Route 40

The Howard County Planning Board -- vowing not to "turn Montgomery Road into another Route 40" -- has rejected two proposals that would have paved the way for two restaurants and an office building.The five-member board voted unanimously Wednesday night to recommend denial of proposals to rezone property across from Long Gate Center on Route 103 -- known locally as Montgomery Road -- from residential to business."We already have a Route 40," said Robert Geiger, who chairs the panel. "To turn Montgomery Road into another Route 40 doesn't make sense."

Republican James M. Harkins defeated Democrat Arthur H. Helton last night in the race for Harford County executive, a campaign in which candidates argued over who could best manage development in the burgeoning suburban county.In an area where Democrats once outnumbered Republicans 2-to-1, Harkins becomes the first Republican executive. The 44-year-old deputy sheriff and former state delegate won with 52 percent of the vote, compared with Helton's 48 percent.Harkins and Helton, a 60-year-old businessman and former state senator, battled to succeed Democrat Eileen M. Rehrmann, who ran for the Democratic nomination for governor but dropped out of the race shortly before the primary.

With the Orioles in Cleveland, the weather top-down perfect, the gas cheap, the time now, The Fan's fancy turned to one thing:Road trip!Four-hundred eighty miles and 27 McDonald's later, The Fan now has only one thing on her mind:Southwest Airlines.It seemed like a good idea at the time. The freedom of the open road, the spontaneity of the moment, the blue highways and the small towns that span the two cities competing for the American League pennant. The Fan felt like a part of history as she headed westward Saturday morning: Without brave explorers such as herself to push the boundaries, there would have been no Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, no Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, no Route 40 linking these two areas.

FROM ITS BERTH in the Inner Harbor, the passenger steamer City of Norfolk departed every summer evening at 6: 30 for the VTC overnight excursion to Norfolk via Old Point Comfort. Down there where Harborplace is today was a colorful, bustling scene: milling crowds, honking trucks, clanging streetcars, shouting stevedores.The stately, all-white, three-decker carried about 80 people on the two-day pleasure cruise. Some were business people, but most were families, and there was always a smattering of honeymooners.

Police logEllicott City: 8500 block of Timber Hill Court: A silver, four-door 1987 Acura Legend with Maryland license plates CDB-431 was stolen between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 5:13 a.m. Wednesday.Ellicott City: 4700 block of Manor Lane: A thief entered through an unlocked basement door and stole a copper pipe and tools on Tuesday night or early Wednesday.Ellicott City: 8600 block of Route 40: Someone took a 1993 Isuzu Amigo, a 1988 Honda CRX and keys from O'Donnell Honda between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

A man who first asked a teller to change a $20 bill robbed the Bradford Federal Savings Bank on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City at 10: 37 a.m. yesterday, Howard County police said.After asking for the change, the man ordered the teller to put money in a plastic bag he was carrying. He fled with an undetermined amount of money, driving west on U.S. 40 in a small red vehicle.The robber was described as a 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9 white male weighing 145 pounds with light brown short hair and a goatee. He was wearing a dark-colored White Sox baseball cap, a tan sweater and blue jeans.

The SeriesWith the election year as a backdrop, Sun reporters visited cities and towns along U.S. 40, the road once known as "The Main Street of America," asking hundreds of people about their hopes and fears, seeking their insights, most of all listening.HEBER CITY, Utah -- "Here, it just seems " Kenra Stephenson pauses, searching for the right word to describe her life in this scenic, sun-baked valley. "It just seems good."And so it does. Neighborhood kids romp and squeal on the trampoline in the back yard of the new $164,000 house the Stephensons and their three boys recently moved into.

About the traffic on Route 140 around Westminster that began last week to squeeze into a single snail-paced lane -- get used to it. Construction crews from Genstar Inc. have started work on a $3 million contract that iounty seat. Workers also will patch the concrete surface of Route 140 from the intersection of Route 31 to Sandymount Road, and patch and resurface with asphalt from Sandymount Road to Route 91. Crews have begun installing the sensors.As the patching work begins on Route 140, State Highway Administration (SHA)

On St. John's Lane in Ellicott City, beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.A local neighborhood association and more than 450 signers of a petition delivered to the Board of Appeals last night found nothing stylish about Susanne Myrtue's proposed two-chair, home-based beauty parlor.The parlor is unneeded and unwanted, said Ann Jones Koch, representing the North St. John's Lane Community Association."Our back yard is the Route 40 commercial corridor," she said. "We have car repair shops, grocery stores, carpet stores, surplus stores, fast-food stores, the odd itinerant massage parlor and associated services, doctors, dentists, dry-cleaners, churches."

Howard County police are investigating robberies at two Ellicott City convenience stores Saturday night, but they do not believe the robberies are related.In the first incident, a man in the High's store in the 10100 block of Route 40 reached into an open cash register, took the cash and then fled. He was last seen driving eastbound on nearby Frederick Road about 6:15 p.m., police said.The man was described as a black male, 30 to 40 years old, about 6 feet 2 inches tall and about 150 pounds.

The Harford County Development Advisory Committee serves as a forum for the review of subdivision and site plans submitted to the Department of Planning and Zoning by those seeking building permits. The committee will review the following proposals at 9 a.m. Wednesday (in the second-floor conference room of the Harford County government building, 220 S. Main St., Bel Air: Churchville Recreation Complex Exp. With Library/Activity Center: Location : South side of Level Road (Route 155), east of Glenville Road.

Lesson on tolls goes unheeded Regarding your article on new toll lanes for I-95: Back when Kennedy Highway (I-95) was built about 47 years ago, there was a local toll on the on-and-off ramps all along I-95. Local commuters screamed. Even if they were only going a short distance they had to pay coming or going. So the poorer local commuters took Route 40, Route 7 and Route 1. As traffic increased over the years and the roads deteriorated with no toll to repair them, some light bulbs started to go off realizing their mistake.

The $56 million reconstruction of the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge across the Susquehanna River, which begins June 9, will disrupt traffic along the Route 40 corridor during the next three years. The entire deck on the nearly 1.5-mile span between Havre de Grace and Perryville will be replaced for the first time in its 70-year history. Crews will also repair substructure concrete piers, install a permanent concrete barrier in the center for the length of the bridge and widen the lanes slightly, by restructuring existing barrier walls.

The Harford County Development Advisory Committee serves as a forum for the review of subdivision and site plans submitted to the Department of Planning and Zoning by those seeking building permits. The committee will review the following proposals at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the second-floor conference room of the Harford County government building, 220 S. Main St., Bel Air: 1600 Dooley Road Location: Northwest corner of Dooley Road and Pylesville Road (Route 165). Developer: 1600 Dooley Road LLC/CNA.

The Harford County Development Advisory Committee serves as a forum for the review of subdivision and site plans submitted to the Department of Planning and Zoning by those seeking building permits. The committee will review the following proposals at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the second-floor conference room of the Harford County government building, 220 S. Main St., Bel Air: Brenda T. Hince Location: Southwest corner of Coen Road and Old Rocks Road. Developer: Brenda T. Hince/Highland Survey Associates Inc. Description: Create one residential lot, 16.378 acres.

It seems that speed is a sore spot with many readers. Quite a few wrote in to support the suggestion in this space two weeks ago that folks who drive at triple-digit speeds on public roads deserve a more severe response than a traffic ticket. One was Steve Weigman of Baltimore. "My daughter was hit and killed by someone speeding, and the woman wasn't [given] as much as a ticket. Maryland seems to only care if you kill someone if [you] are under the influence or holding a gun," Weigman writes.

The bodies of two women recently found in Harford County were identified by police yesterday. Maryland State Police said a body found near Route 40 in Havre de Grace on Wednesday was Lillian Abramowicz Phelps, 43, of Cecil County. Police, who said she was identified through dental records, are treating the death as a homicide. Troopers responded to Oakington Road near Route 40 about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday after a 911 report of a body. Phelps was reported missing June 9 and was last seen on May 30. Also yesterday, the Harford County sheriff's office said a badly decomposed body found in a field in Perryman has been identified as Shiela Ann Turner, 42, of Aberdeen.

U.S. 40, the aged, ugly duckling highway that handles a truckload of the traffic passing through the most commercial section of Harford County, is in line for a facelift. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has designated $8 million from the transportation funding package passed this year by the General Assembly to be used for a safety and beautification upgrade of a two-mile stretch of 65-year-old road in Edgewood. Some of the money will be used to eliminate the Jersey barriers that divide the eastbound and westbound lanes.

On Sunday, February 29, 2004, SALLY PEARL COBBS; beloved wife of Jacob E. Cobbs, Sr.; devoted mother of Jewel Marie Hill, Carolyn Cobbs Speller, Patricia Ferguson, Jacob E. Cobbs, Jr., David A. Cobbs and Marilyn C. Brummett; dear mother-in-law of Louis Robert Hill, Olvin Ferguson and Nicola Cobbs; loving grandmother of 10 grandchildren and one great-grandson; cherished aunt of Clinton Patterson. A Memorial Service will be celebrated on Saturday, March 2, 2004 at 2 P.M., at the William C. Brown Community Funeral Home, P.A., 321 S. Philadelphia Blvd.

On December 16, 2003, ELMER P. JENNINGS, beloved husband ofMontee Jennings. On Monday friends may call at the VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICE (Route 40) 5151 Baltimore National Pike from 4 to 8 P.M. On Tuesday, Mr. Jennings will lie in state at Sweet Hope Baptist Church, 3925 Dolfield Avenue where the family will receive friends from 10 to 10:30 A. M with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 233-2400.