Swimming Pool

Hampstead officials are searching for a manager to operate the town swimming pool from Memorial Day to Labor Day.Applicants, who must have or be able to obtain state certification to operate a pool, should apply to Neil Ridgely, Town Manager, Hampstead Town Hall, 1034 S. Carroll St.Mr. Ridgely said repairs will be made this spring to the concession stand roof at the pool, which is on Sugar Maple Court.

I grew up in Baltimore, in a world where guns were, unambiguously, for deterring or killing people . Family lore says that back in the 1920s, my grandfather used a gun to scare off the Mafia - the Black Hand, as Sicilians of the time called it. While in other cities thugs collected protection money, Baltimore Mayor William Broening deputized Italian businessmen like my grandfather, giving them badges and guns to deter the bad guys. It turned out that, as my dad put it, mafiosi are businessmen.

Services for Kathryn K. McCoy, who retired as a cashier at a swimming pool at age 79, will be held at 11 a.m. today at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, 4711 Edmondson Ave.Mrs. McCoy, who was 88 and lived on North Chapelgate Lane, died Tuesday at Deaton Hospital after a long illness.She retired in 1981 as cashier at the Wilde Lake Village Pool in Columbia, a job she had held since 1964.Earlier, from 1943 until 1954, she had worked as a section supervisor or floorwalker at Hutzler's Howard Street store.

A young boy died Wednesday night after he was found unresponsive in a residential swimming pool in Brooklyn Park, according to the Anne Arundel police department. According to Anne Arundel County Police Lt. John McAndrew and fire department Lt. Cliff Kooser, emergency crews received a call around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday about a child, aged 3 or 4, who was found in a pool in the 600 block of Old Riverside Road. The child's identity has not been released. Paramedics attempted to revive the child on the scene and then transported him to Harbor Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead around 10:25 p.m., according to McAndrew.

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.

A 4-year-old Towson boy drowned last night after he fell or jumped into a swimming pool at the Northeast Baltimore home of an aunt, city police said.Police said the boy, Derek Emery of the first block of Comet Court, and relatives were leaving the above-ground pool in the 5500 block of Carter Ave. about 8: 30 p.m. when he apparently went back to the pool, which is connected to the house by a deck.Police said that when relatives heard a splashing sound, they first thought an older child was swimming.

EAST COLUMBIA swimming pool supervisor Ken Zachmann announces that the pools are filled, the pool schedule is printed and pool managers have been hired. Now, it's up to Mother Nature to help warm the water.The Stevens Forest pool, which is heated, had its "preview" opening last weekend. All pools open this weekend from noon until 7 p.m. and weekdays from 3: 30 p.m. until 7 p.m. A summer pool schedule is available at all pools.The days open vary.Many of the pool managers are familiar to their neighborhood swimmers because they have been managers, assistant managers or swim team coaches.

The county Board of Appeals has approved plans for a 50-meter swimming pool to be built in Columbia's Hickory Ridge village despite vocal opposition from some residents.The board's 3-2 decision, which was announced at a meeting Tuesday night, overturned the recommendations of the county Planning Board and Department of Planning and Zoning."All I can say is thank you to the board," said Jamie LeGoff, the Columbia Association swimming coach and former All-American swimmer who is seeking to build the pool.

An All-American swimmer who hopes to build a 50-meter swimming pool in Columbia found himself awash in opposition yesterday from several dozen area residents, county planning professionals and the Planning Board itself."

George and Timothy Grogan's plan to turn a closed swimming pool in Westminster's Middlebrooke subdivision into four single-family houses drew some 30 opponents to the city Planning Commission meeting last night.The commission is expected to vote at its March 11 meeting on a recommendation to the City Council, which will make the decision on whether to allow the planned conversion.Neighborhood residents said they had been told when they bought their homes that the pool and surrounding area would remain as community open space.

Annapolis' only public swimming pool, closed Monday to repair a leak amid predictions of the current heat wave, has reopened, city officials said Wednesday. Officials said the fire department assisted in refilling the outdoor pool in Truxtun Park. The pool is used for summer camp, other programs and by the public. andrea.siegel@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

After several months of debate, the Howard County Council agreed on a tax-relief measure for nonprofit swim clubs. The council voted Monday in favor of a bill sponsored by Councilwoman Courtney Watson, an Ellicott City Democrat, that allows pools to sell their development rights to builders to use elsewhere. Such transactions lower the pools' property taxes and also generate income. Several swim clubs approached the council last year for help, saying their pools faced mounting debt because of high property taxes, coupled with increased expenses.

Columbia joke: A young man was asking a young woman out for a date. She kept refusing him with all sort of excuses. He finally asked her, "Will you ever go out with me?" and she answered, "Yes, when they close the River Hill swimming pool. " During more then the first three decades of our town, the Columbia Association's management, in a policy of Divide and Rule, kept playing village against village and neighborhood against neighborhood, by favoring one over another with perks like modernizations and upgrades to facilities like swimming pools.

Swim club property taxes and rural zoning matters are among the pieces of legislation being discussed by the Howard County Council this month. County Councilwoman Courtney Watson is again pursuing a measure to aid six county nonprofit swim clubs whose operators say they are faced with high property taxes compared to pools operated by homeowners associations and the Columbia Association. Community swim club owners have argued that most of their pools face mounting debt because of high property taxes, as well as increased expenses to make much-needed improvements.

Play is like education of the body, character or mind … The further removed play is from reality, the greater its educational value. For it does not teach facts, but rather develops aptitudes. - Roger Caillois Baltimore City officials are poor-mouthing again over the issue of play areas for children. When the weather becomes hot, they try to close or cut the hours of swimming pools. With colder and shorter days approaching, they threaten to shut down numerous neighborhood recreation centers.

Every once in a while, a bar comes along that you know is going to be an instant hit. Though it's only been open less than a month, I'm willing to bet the new Tiki Barge is going to go down as one of the best things to happen to Baltimore's nightlife scene this summer. The Tiki Barge is just that: a barge with a swimming pool, palm trees and two bars, floating at the end of a pier in Harborview Marine Center, just off Key Highway in South Baltimore. It sounds random, but once you see it, you get it. Every waterside neighborhood could use a Tiki Barge.

By a narrow margin, Sykesville voters supported a $500,000 project to build a town swimming pool. The issue was the only matter in question on the ballot yesterday, with three candidates contending for three available seats on the Town Council. The question for voters was whether the estimated cost of $500,000 - equivalent to nearly 20 percent of the annual budget for the town of 4,500 - was too expensive for the sake of summer recreation. The vote was an "advisory referendum." however, and town officials are not bound by the result - approval by a margin of 168-137, or 55 percent in favor.

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. - No one took much notice of Rebekah Maclang Brower during her short life, or afterward. She died at 30, deemed insane and incurable, and was buried in the fields outside what was, in 1852, the Ulster County Poorhouse. Today, children play near her headstone, and parents spread their beach towels on the ground over dozens of other people buried here. The poorhouse graveyard, it turns out, is now the county fairground and swimming pool. The burial ground's existence was no secret in the 1970s, when the decrepit house, by then the County Home for the elderly poor, was closed to make way for a public recreation complex.

The family of a 23-year-old Baltimore County woman who drowned in a swimming pool in 2005 filed a $100 million lawsuit yesterday against the apartment complex and pool management company, alleging that unqualified lifeguards with just one week's training were on duty. Cassandra Blake drowned in the pool at Cedar Towers Apartments in the 3700 block of Twin Lakes Court in Windsor Mill. Blake's family is suing that complex along with the American Pool Management Inc., American Pool Enterprises Inc., Westminster Management and Doug Kusher Co. Blake was not a resident of apartment complex but had a friend who lived there, according to the suit filed in Baltimore Circuit Court.