Safe Haven

Sharon Dick's backyard isn't much bigger than a playground sandbox, but every inch of it is dedicated to feeding her tenants: a couple of thousand frogs, maybe a million bees, plus enough drop-in birds, butterflies and bats to challenge the best census taker. "I don't think of it as a garden," said the Lutherville naturalist. "I think of it more as a pantry." There are bird feeders in evidence, certainly. But less obvious is the food masquerading as flowers, shrubs and trees. There is milkweed for the migrating monarch butterflies.

Carroll County might attract businesses fleeing from urban centers after the attacks Sept. 11 on New York and Washington, said economic development director Jack Lyburn in a presentation on the county's development performance in the past year. More than a month after the attacks, it remains too early to identify changing trends in business movement, but workers and businesses seem more interested in "safe havens" such as Carroll, Lyburn said. In more concrete news, he told the county commissioners that companies invested about $68 million in new or renovated Carroll locations and created about 5,300 jobs for the county in fiscal 2001.

State officials want to see a developer's bid to build a new Safe Haven homeless shelter in Westminster before giving Carroll County a $465,400 grant for the project. The state has essentially promised the grant money, provided the county receives a viable bid and passes it to the Board of Public Works, said Jolene Sullivan, Carroll's director of citizen services, during a meeting with commissioners yesterday. Sullivan said state officials have told her the grant approval would take about two months after the board receives a copy of the winning bid. The county has just started advertising the project, she said.

Carroll County commissioners expect Maryland officials to act soon on a request for a $465,400 state grant to relocate the Safe Haven homeless shelter in Westminster. "We're hoping to hear something by the end of March, but that's not set in stone," Jolene Sullivan, Carroll's director of citizen services, told the commissioners yesterday. State funding would come from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Larry Moore, head of construction for that department, visited the proposed site last week.

Carroll County commissioners agreed yesterday to move forward with plans to build a homeless shelter in Westminster. State and county officials are expected to share equally the cost of the 33-bed facility, which will be built on Stoner Avenue near the Safe Haven homeless shelter. The project is expected to cost about $930,800. "We're very happy to be moving forward," said Jolene Sullivan, county director of citizen services. "We hope to have the new shelter open in October or November 2001."

The Westminster Common Council approved last night giving the county $60,000 to help finance the construction of Safe Haven's proposed homeless shelter in Westminster. The gift was in response to last week's determination by county commissioners that county taxpayers would have to pay for $123,302 in extra costs for the $877,250 project, and ordered county staff to pare costs and seek in-kind donations. The actual shortfall is $148,000, which includes the cost of constructing a parking lot, according to Jolene Sullivan, director for the department for citizen services for Carroll County.

Although the county commissioners have agreed to help finance construction of a homeless shelter in Westminster, they have asked Safe Haven officials to seek in-kind donations to make the project a reality. Faced with $123,302 in unexpected expenses, the commissioners have directed county staff to pare costs. The three-member board agreed unanimously to put off applying for a state grant until changes are made. "Perhaps we could use some of the equipment we currently have or get equipment from other facilities, instead of buying everything new," said Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge.

POOLESVILLE -- This is no way to start a story. There is no medal or certificate of appreciation attached to the iron gate at mailbox No. 15200. There's nothing to reward a Baltimore traveler for actually finding the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in this ruralsville known as Poolesville.But we enter, and a dirt road dirties our plucky Volvo (once, a woman got her Mercedes stuck in a cornfield as she searched for Poplar Spring). The road finally empties before barns and barn-like things and animals.

Up on 'The Hill' at St. Vincent's, a new generation of children orphaned by abuse and neglect find a safe place to rage and to heal. Story by Rob Hiassen, photography by Perry Thorsvik.Fred is dead, although with an iguana it's sometimes hard to tell. But Fred the iguana is truly dead, and his passing requires a proper burial.In a few moments, everyone will gather behind the green dumpster at St. Vincent's Center. Its pastor, Father Ray Chase, will preside. He will find the right words. The 12 boys of Martin Luther King House, one of six cottages at the center, will join him at the grave site.

Although the county commissioners rescued Safe Haven from its financial woes in May, shelter officials are still in need of donations to cover the cost of round-the-clock security.Safe Haven, which is in the Shoemaker House near Carroll County General Hospital in Westminster, has 25 beds and serves homeless people with mental illness, substance abuse and addiction problems.Human Services Programs of Carroll County Inc., a nonprofit corporation that operates Safe Haven and several homeless programs under contract with the county, has recommended the shelter have 24-hour security.