Tall Trees

The Baltimore County Council was told last night to keep its hands off funds that Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger plans to spend next year on schools but to slash the $12 million budgeted to buy and demolish the Tall Trees apartment complex in Essex.About 200 people attended a public hearing on Ruppersberger's proposed $1.7 billion budget at Loch Raven High School. More than half of the 96 people who signed up to speak stressed the need for increased school spending.Ruppersberger's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 calls for $74 million in spending increases and pumps millions into school repairs, community centers and fire and police stations.

A 20-year-old Essex man was shot and killed in front of his house early yesterday, hours after hundreds of nearby residents took to the streets to declare war on crime, Baltimore County police said. Tynell C. Dorsey, of the first block of Mars Road in the Villages of Tall Trees apartment complex, was found shot in the head about 2:30 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A woman who heard the gunshots told police she believes that Dorsey was shot about 1:30 a.m., said Cpl. Vickie Warehime, a police spokeswoman.

Two large Essex apartment developments that are plagued by crime and poverty will be the first targets of Baltimore County's new blight-fighting Community Conservation Program.Problems at the Riverdale Village Apartments, where nearly half of the 1,100 units are vacant and many vandalized, and the nearby 828-unit Villages of Tall Trees were discussed yesterday at a top-level strategy meeting in Towson.The problems at Riverdale Village -- which a top county official suggested bulldozing yesterday -- are much the same as those documented in a 1983 Sun article.

Another evening of anger and emotion over plans to condemn private property in Baltimore County took place at Kenwood High School last night, where about 75 residents shouted down county officials trying to sell the plan. "Ruppersberger is a liar," yelled Middle River retiree Frank Schwarzman, referring to County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger. "This whole system is corrupt." Schwarzman, who lives in the Hawthorne neighborhood of Middle River, said the plan would force him to move from a home he has lived in and invested in for 25 years.

Officer Bill Goodman has been patrolling the Essex area on a bicycle for over a year, in all weather. When he can, he stops and talks with children and sometimes plays a quick game of catch.During one such game a few months ago, the Baltimore County police officer noticed several children from the Village of Tall Trees apartment complex talking about their bad grades. They didn't seem upset. Officer Goodman decided to issue a challenge: If they brought their grades up, he'd take all of them to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

Complaints were easy to find yesterday at the Riverdale Village Apartments: peeling paint, flooded and sewage-filled basements, vandalized and boarded units, drug trafficking and crime.Carlos Alford, a 24-year old vacuum cleaner salesman, has lived in the Essex-Middle River complex for a year. He smiled, struggled to find the words for his view of the place and then exclaimed: "It's, it's like the county projects!"But Baltimore County officials are hoping to change that. The 1,100-unit complex off the 1900 block of Eastern Blvd.

Question: In my very shady back yard, grass is very difficult to grow - tall trees, compacted soil, and slight slope. Since moss seems 'determined' to grow, how about accepting it, nurturing it, instead of grass? I realize the deeper roots of grass would be better to hold soil, but moss is better than bare ground, right? Answer: You're right. It's impossible to grow grass in shade. Grass is a prairie/meadow plant and demands 3-4 hours of direct sunlight a day. Moss is an acceptable ground cover, in fact moss is prized in some countries.

Borrowing a page from New York's mayor, Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III ordered his police department to cast a large net for criminals in Essex-Middle River, an area he calls the most crime-ridden section of the county.The catch this summer was impressive. But the long-term results could be even more critical, helping to determine the success of Ruppersberger's aggressive east-side revitalization strategy.After an intensive, three-month law enforcement operation, officials said yesterday that 150 people were arrested or presented criminal citations for violations ranging from public intoxication to murder.

The rope course at Fort Howard Park in Baltimore County is sort of like a mini-Outward Bound. Yesterday, 27 children from a high-crime area of the county took on the course.It was Officer Mike Burton's idea. He works the Essex area and patrols the Village of Tall Trees apartment complex, considered one of the worst crime areas in the county.At the beginning of the day, the children, who ranged in ages from 10 to 17 years, were a bunch of individuals clinging to their "tough guy, loner stance," said Mark Metzger, a county police youth counselor.

In Baltimore County Boy, 2, injured critically in fall from townhouse window TOWSON -- A 2-year-old boy fell from the second floor of a two-story townhouse in Essex yesterday and was in critical condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital last night, Baltimore County officials said. The boy, whose name was not released, was staying with his baby sitter at his home in the 1200 block of Sugarwood Circle. Officials said the boy was on the second floor when he leaned against the window screen and fell out, landing head-first on the sidewalk.