Swim Club

Mount Airy is working hard on places to play.With an increasing number of new residents, many with young children, a commitment to open space in its new developments and the results of a community survey ranking recreation facilities as the No. 1 need, the town is trying to increase the number of soccer fields, swimming pools and other recreation sites.Public and private projects are beginning to fill some of the voids in the town, which straddles two counties and serves many times more people than those who live within its boundaries.

HUNDREDS OF AREA swimming enthusiasts gathered at the Crofton Village Swim Club last Tuesday for the Crofton City Swim Meet.The Crofton Village Swim Club Dolphins (coached by Laura Blueford Koehler), the Crofton Country Club Crocodiles (coached by Shannon Murphy) and the Crofton Swim and Tennis Club Cats (coached by John Wagner) all belong to the Central Maryland Swim League. But each club competes in a different division. So this meet was planned as a way to let local swimmers join their friends from other pools in friendly competition.

The Mount Airy Planning and Zoning Commission cleared the way last night for a private swimming pool expected to open this summer.After a month's delay and considerable discussion about parking, the commission approved plans for the Nottingham Swim Club in Fields of Nottingham, a development east of town. The vote was 4-to-1, with member Wendy Peters abstaining.The club, with a swimming pool, children's wading pool and activity pool with fountains and waterfalls, is part of the 400-home Nottingham development, though it will accept members who live outside the neighborhood.

BALDWIN'S STATION in downtown Sykesville continues to win new fans with its fine cuisine and entertainment.The August issue of Baltimore Magazine named Baldwin's the best new restaurant in the metropolitan region for 1998. The restaurant was praised for its food, atmosphere, service and entertainment.The entertainment in particular has really helped to draw new customers. Concerts geared toward children have gained in popularity.Tom Vincent, a singer-songwriter and winner of a Parent's Choice Award for 1996, will present a concert from 10: 30 a.m. to 11: 30 a.m. Thursday at Baldwin's.

The developer of a 500-acre golf course community in Finksburg has abandoned plans to make a 24-room golf lodge and 200-seat banquet facility part of its amenities.Instead, it will provide a 400-member swim club that would include a pool house, swimming pool, wading pool, croquet court and two tennis courts.The county planning commission approved the site plan for the swim club by a 5-1 vote yesterday after requiring the developer to do a traffic study for the project.River Downs developer Richard A. Moore, president of Gaylord Brooks Investment Co. Inc., initially sought planning commission support for a zoning change that would have allowed him to build a golf lodge on the site.

ONCE AGAIN, you are completely overreacting," my sister noted. "It's not the end of the world."Excuse me? There was no overreaction. I was reacting perfectly to the news that I needed "Bifocals. You need bifocals. It's a normal part of aging," she stated from behind the safety of her single-vision lenses.I would have silenced her with a glare, but I was having trouble focusing on the near, the far, the almost near."At least they don't have that little line through the middle," she observed as she squinted directly into my eyes.

SWIMMERS, take your marks! For many area swimmers, summer really begins Saturday morning when the Central Maryland Swim League opens its 1998 season.On the opening weekend schedule, the CATS from the Crofton Swim and Tennis Club play host to the Tidal Wave of Chartridge Swim Club; the Navy Junior Seals will swim against the Waugh Chapel Seahorses at the swim club pool on Waugh Chapel Road; Crofton Country Club's Crocodiles meet the Cruisers from Country Club...

River Downs, a 500-acre golf course community in Finksburg, wants to make a 24-room golf lodge and banquet facility part of its amenities.To do that, the developer needs a change in county zoning law that would make a "golf and country club lodge" a conditional use in a conservation district.The lodge is needed to pay for a swim club, Westminster attorney John T. Maguire II told planning commission members yesterday.Maguire wanted the planning commission to recommend that the County Commissioners approve the zoning change.

A teen-ager shot and killed Thursday night on the steps of his Southeast Baltimore rowhouse was identified yesterday as Theophlius Thorpe, city police said.Investigators released few other details of the shooting, which .. occurred at 6 p.m. in the 200 block of N. Milton Ave. Police said the 16-year-old was sitting on his steps when a gunman walked up and shot at him several times, hitting him in the upper body.Police said yesterday they knew of no motive and had no suspects.Milford Mill Swim Club Inc. settled a lawsuit yesterday by agreeing to pay $375,000 to the family of a 16-year-old boy who drowned in 1995 in the club's pool.

A River Downs resident wants the County Commissioners to turn down a zoning request that, if approved, could put a conference center in the middle of his expensive neighborhood.Ken Strong told commissioners Donald I. Dell and Richard T. Yates, sitting as the county Zoning Board at a meeting last week, that he and "a number of residents" share the same concerns."We are fundamentally opposed to a hotel and banquet facility in the heart of our residential community," he said.Richard A. Moore, developer of the 500-acre golf course community in Finksburg, told the board that a 24-room golf lodge and 200-seat banquet facility would "round out the amenity package at River Downs."

Three years ago, James Becker was doing what many vigorous 15-year-old boys do - playing baseball, basketball and soccer. He swam competitively and whacked forehands for his school's tennis team. Now he is severely disabled, must use a wheelchair and is under the constant care of his mother. His speech is little more than a series of guttural noises. The accident that reduced James to such circumstances occurred at the Woodcroft Swim Club in Parkville on July 29, 2006, when, his family's lawyer says, he almost drowned.

Thomas G. Ward, an insurance company executive and former president of the Towson Business Association, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Thursday at Holly Hill Manor in Towson. He was 72. Mr. Ward grew up in Stoneleigh and graduated from Towson High School in 1955. After being stationed in Germany with the Army, he met Joan I. Artka at a neighborhood bowling alley and fell in love at first sight, said a daughter, Stacey Lynn Munsell of Lutherville. The couple married in 1962, she said, with a reception at Peerce's Plantation.

Amanda Koss has grown accustomed to almost daily phone calls from people seeking a public swimming pool in Harford County. They ask where they can go if they just want to swim outdoors for the day with their family. She tells them Pennsylvania. "At least three or four times a week, more when it's really hot outside, people call me looking for public swimming pools," said Koss, who has managed the private North Harford Swim Club in Jarrettsville the past three years. "I tell them the closest one that I know is Shanbergers Pool in Fawn Grove."

Devotees will tell you that Padonia Swim Club is more than just a place to go swimming. For some, it is where they got their first job, sent their kids to day camp, paddled on the pond, sparked summer romances, got married and sipped cocktails at the cabana bar. So when the 49-year-old club announced that it was selling the Cockeysville property to a church and shutting down operations - albeit in fall 2010 at the earliest - the news hit members like...

Criminals did time in jailhouses at the corner of Towsontown Boulevard and Bosley Avenue as far back as the mid-19th century. At least two were hanged on the property. Now Towson-area community leaders have their eyes on the land as a spot for fun and relaxation. Some favor a park with a gazebo and benches. Others see it as a good site for indoor basketball courts. And one group thinks it would be a good place for a swim club. "If you build it, people will walk to it," said Mike Ertel, president of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations and a committee member of Towson Swim Center, the organization that would run a members-only pool at the site.

Residents of Kings Contrivance village are invited to celebrate the village's 30th birthday and Columbia's 40th birthday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. June 10 with a family picnic at Amherst House, 7251 Eden Brook Drive. Participants can take a picnic dinner and a blanket. Drinks, dessert, entertainment and crafts for children are planned. The event, which has a medieval theme, will feature medieval-style singers and an activity in which children can decorate crowns and coats of arms. Information or registration: 410-381-9600.

The Annapolis Swim Club's athletes keep busy throughout the winter, training and competing on a regular basis. But now that summer's here, the ASC people are busy. They have shifted their training to the outdoor pools in the area and are preparing for some big summer competitions, starting this week in Florida. Coach Ken DeGruchy is taking 26 swimmers to Fort Lauderdale for the Florida International Age Group championships at the Swimming Hall of Fame starting tomorrow. The club also will come to Baltimore and travel to Buffalo, N.Y., for another competition later in the summer.

Huddled under a beach umbrella, Ivy Davy savored the sliver of shade she had claimed for herself as she watched her daughter's swim competition yesterday. Every now and then, she wandered closer to poolside to cheer for her daughter, Kaydra Davy-Coore, 11 - and, if she was lucky, to catch a splash as the swimmers dived into the water. Surviving on the sweltering sidelines involved a bit of ingenuity for the estimated 1,500 parents, coaches and spectators cheering on more than 800 swimmers.

THIS IS THE summer of Michael Phelps. It may be two weeks before the 19-year-old from Rodgers Forge launches his bid for seven gold medals in the Olympics, yet his presence already looms large -- and not just in television ads. Today is the final day of the summer swim team season, and you can bet his name will be invoked at pools across the state. For these youngsters, being "like Mike" has little to do with anybody named Jordan. On the last Saturday of July, the best swimmers in each of the Central Maryland Swim League's nine divisions compete head-to-head in divisional championships.

Nobody knows for certain what lies near the storm drain at the base of the Admiral Heights Swim Club in Annapolis -- and that uncertainty is holding up a $500,000 drain renovation project intended to prevent runoff and flooding. About half of the funding is from a state grant that expires Jan. 12, and some fear that the city and pool officials will not reach an agreement in time. "I'm in panic mode," said Evan Belaga, president of the nonprofit Weems Creek Conservancy, which worked to secure some of the grants.