Susquehanna

The Goucher men's lacrosse team advanced to the Landmark Conference tournament final for the third time in four years courtesy of a record-setting performance by Rory Averett. The junior attackman scored a game-high four goals to pace the top-seeded Gophers to an 11-3 dismantling of fourth-seeded Susquehanna before 285 at Gopher Stadium Wednesday. Goucher (11-5 overall and 4-1 in the Landmark) will play host to No. 2 seed Scranton (8-7, 3-2), which defeated No. 3 seed Catholic (11-5, 3-2)

At my son's parent/tot pre-school class earlier this week, we created lists of things we want to do this summer. The thinking is that if you write them down, putting pen (or pencil) to paper and put them somewhere for everyone to see, you're more apt to do them and less likely to ignore them. (I'm also somewhat copying colleague Marissa Gallo, who wrote a similar etc. column for today's Aegis .) So here's what I want to do this summer, some of these involve the kids, others they may not be so interested in. Take Henry fishing.

Twenty years is a long time to wait for a fish to find its way back home, but that is what happened with the shad of the Susquehanna River. Dams on the river, which feeds the Chesapeake from a watershed reaching all the way to Binghamton, N.Y., blocked access to the migratory foodfish's spawning ground early in this century. The worst effects of that ++ were not seen until 1980, when a harvest 91 percent smaller than formerly recorded prompted a ban on shad fishing.Maryland and Pennsylvania authorities had been struggling to convince Philadelphia Electric Co., principal owner of the Conowingo Dam, and other utilities farther up the Susquehanna to provide ways for the shad and herring, another migratory foodfish, to get past their dams.

When the Harford Tech Cobras and host-team Havre de Grace Warriors squared off Wednesday afternoon they had a combined Susquehanna (lower) Division record of 23-2. Seven innings later, the visiting Cobras walked away 8-3 winners, and with the victory grabbed a lower-division crown. The victory pushed Harford Tech to 13-4 overall and 13-1 in Susquehanna play, while Havre de Grace fell to 11-6 on the season and 11-2 against lower division foes. Harford Tech scored three times in the top of the first on four hits.

You've heard tales, recounted in The Sun, of hardy souls in Cecil, Harford and eastern Baltimore County who commute by car to metropolitan Washington -- how they have several alternative routes and keep their ears glued to traffic reports. Even with good advance planning, that daily commute is getting harder. "If you want to see the grass grow, be on the southbound John F. Kennedy highway early in the morning," says one motorist.The Susquehanna Flyer commuter train service that kicks off May 1 is not a panacea.

Having once mooched meals off author Susan Stranahan for most of a weeklong canoe trip, I know her camp kitchen to be superbly organized and stocked with a generous range of goodies.And so it is with her just-published book, "Susquehanna -- River of Dreams," an eminently readable, nicely researched tour de force that goes on my must-read list for anyone interested in knowing the Chesapeake Bay.Never mind that the book's subject is a river almost wholly contained in Pennsylvania and New York, beginning a few blocks from Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame, 448 miles and six days travel for a drop of rain flowing down to Havre de Grace.

The Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Sheldon Bair, will present "Music for the Season" at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at Fallston High School.In addition to seasonal favorites, the program will include Vivaldi's "Concerto in E Minor for Bassoon and Orchestra," featuring Judith Brand.The conclusion of the concert will be excerpts from Handel's "Messiah," with the Harford Choral Society joining the symphony.Proceeds will benefit Holy Family House.Information: 838-6465.

Mission: To restore, preserve and maintain the cultural history of the city of Havre de Grace and the former Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal, including the Lock House, Pivot Bridge, Canal Lock and Basin; and to interpret the history through educational programs and exhibits. In operation from 1840 to about 1900, the 45-mile Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal connected Havre de Grace with Wrightsville, Pa. Mule-drawn boats traveling the canal had to be raised 233 feet through 29 locks. Historical artifacts of Havre de Grace and the canal era are on display in the Lock House, which was restored and opened to the public as a museum in 1982.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- In March 1926 young Earl Hopkins, age 15, made his way to the new office the Boston engineering firm of Stone & Webster had just opened in the little village of Conowingo. The company was getting ready to build a dam, and Earl was one of its first hires. He earned $12 a week as an office boy.For residents of Harford and Cecil Counties that spring, the start of construction on the Conowingo Dam must have come as something of a relief. It had been assumed for more than 20 years that a hydroelectric plant would eventually be built in that part of the Susquehanna River's narrow valley one day, but until 1926 the project was all talk and no digging.

Maryland Natural Resources Police are investigating a boating accident that claimed the life of a 19-year-old Rising Sun man Sunday evening. Robert Lee Ambrose and two other adults were riding in a 14- foot jon boat, an open, flat-bottomed craft with a 20-horsepower outboard engine, near Garrett Island in the Susquehanna River. None of the three was wearing a life jacket when they were thrown from the boat shortly after 7 p.m., police said. With its motor still running, the unmanned boat circled the area.

As taken from the pages of The Aegis dated Thursday, May 3, 1962: Construction finally got underway on the Harford County side of the Susquehanna River on the Northeastern Expressway bridge across the river north of Havre de Grace. Gov. J. Millard Tawes was on hand for a ceremony at the river's edge where a 3,000 pound piling was lowered into the water symbolizing the start of work on the 42 mile section of expressway. The bridge was expected to take 18 months to complete and the entire expressway, now known as I-95, was slated to open in the fall of 1963.

To avoid becoming the first defending Landmark Conference Tournament champion to fail to qualify for the postseason, Scranton (8-5 overall and 2-3 in the league) must defeat Catholic (9-4, 3-2) on Saturday to create a three-way tie with Susquehanna (8-7, 3-3) for third and fourth place. At that point, the conference would refer to its tiebreaking procedures to determine which two of the three teams would move onto the tournament. But Royals coach Jim Rogalski is fully cognizant of the arduous path that awaits his team.

Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway 12th annual River Sweep, a volunteer shoreline and roadside clean-up in honor of Earth Day, will take place in Havre de Grace, Perryville, Port Deposit and on Garrett Island on Saturday April 21. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., with the cleanup from 9 a.m. to noon, rain or shine. Volunteers will meet at 8:30 in one of the five locations for registration: Tydings Park, Havre de Grace; Community Park or the boat launch on River Road in Perryville; or Marina Park or Octoraro Creek in Port Deposit.

Uh oh, beware dear readers, It's Friday the 13th! Take care from black cats, broken mirrors and walking under ladders. A bargain! The Boy Scout Troop 967 spaghetti dinner and bake sale will be Saturday, 4 to 7 p.m. at the Havre de Grace United Methodist Church, Congress and Union avenues. Adults $7, seniors $6, children $4. Eat in or carry out. The Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace at the Lock House reopens Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m., for the season. Free admission. Contact 410-939-5780 or lockhousemuseum@gmail.com /www.thelockhousemuseum.org.

Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway's 12th annual River Sweep, a volunteer shoreline and roadside clean-up in honor of Earth Day, will take place in Havre de Grace, Perryville, Port Deposit and on Garrett Island on Saturday, April 21. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., with the clean-up taking place from 9 a.m. to noon, rain or shine. Volunteers will meet at 8:30 a.m. in one of five locations for registration: Tydings Park, Havre de Grace; Community Park, Perryville; Boat Launch (River Road)

The Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra continues its 35th anniversary season on St. Patrick's Day with a "Ghosts and Witches" concert. Sheldon Bair, SSO founder and music director, noted that guest artists from Canada will be featured, and hinted that the concert may conclude with "a little something special for St. Patrick's Day. " The music begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 17, at Bel Air High School at 100 Heighe St. Come early, at 6:30, for...

The Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra will open its 18th season at 8 p.m. Oct. 29 at the John Carroll High School in Bel Air with a performance of "Struggle . . . and Hope."Sheldon Bair will conduct the program, which celebrates the tenacity and courage of the human spirit in the face of adversity.The concert will open with "Fanfare for American Heroes," written by black composer William Grant Still in 1944.Beethoven's "Fidelio" overture and a cello concerto written by John Davison and performed by prize-winning cellist Evelyn Elsing will be featured.

Field notes from the third annual Susquehanna Sojourn, held each June to promote awareness of where the river comes from and where it goes.*So this is death; nothing rude, just an absence of life, and quite lovely -- water clear as air moving over pale rock below, gleaming pewter as it slides away toward the Chesapeake between plushy green mountains of Penn's great woods.The water is so crystalline because for nearly a hundred miles the river is acid-dead, devoid even of plankton upon which to build a food web. It is the legacy of King Coal, gouged by the million-tons from deep within these old hills.

The Edgewood Rams (17-3 overall, 12-0 Chesapeake ) wrapped up their upper division schedule with a 63-47 road win over the C. Milton Wright Mustangs (10-9 overall, 7-5 Chesapeake) on Friday. Troy Anderson and Van Rolle led the Rams in scoring with 12 points apiece, while Detrick Matthews had 10 points in the victory. Mychal Stefanides had 17 points for CMW, and teammate Will Hazelton had 13 points. The Rams will take on Patterson Mill for the UCBAC championship Wednesday at Harford Tech.

Tolls for multi-axle vehicles - those with more than two axles including trailers being towed - on the I-95 Tydings and Route 40 Hatem bridges will both increase and decrease effective at 12:01 a.m. Sunday when the next phase of the statewide toll increases takes effect. The multiple-axle vehicle tolls on the three Baltimore Harbor crossings - Harbor and Ft. McHenry tunnels and Francis Scott Key Bridge - and the Bay Bridge will increase across the board; however, that won't be the case with the two Susquehanna River bridges, where reductions will occur for 3-axle and 4-axle vehicles, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority, or MdTA, which operates the state's toll bridges and tunnels.