Thurmont

For the first three innings of last night's Little League District II playoff game against host Thurmont, Westminster left-hander D.J. Boone was perfect on the mound.His Thurmont counterpart, Rusty Wood, also a lefty, was almost as impressive -- yielding only a walk and a hit batsman as the game remained scoreless into the fourth.While Westminster led at one point, Thurmont rallied and advanced with a 4-2 win.After both teams scored once in the fourth, Westminster took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth only to see Thurmont take charge with three runs after two outs in its portion of the inning.

Monsignor James Vincent Hobbs, former rector of the Basilica of the Assumption who during his tenure oversaw a two-year, $32 million restoration of the 200-year-old structure, died Monday of cardiac arrest at his Thurmont home. He was 81. James Vincent Hobbs was born and raised in Thurmont, where his father owned a grocery store and his mother was proprietor of a hardware store. He attended Frederick County public schools as an elementary school student before entering St. Anthony's parochial school in Emmitsburg.

Vernon Clarence Myers, a former service station owner and town commissioner in Thurmont, died of lung cancer Sept. 9 at his home there. He was 82. Born and raised in Westminster, Mr. Myers was a 1938 graduate of Westminster High School. During World War II, he served with the Marine Corps as a radar specialist. For more than 40 years until retiring in 1989, Mr. Myers was the owner and operator of Myers Shell Service Center in Thurmont. He was active from the 1950s until the 1980s with the Thurmont Little League, including a stint as president, and was responsible for its expansion to include minor, senior, T-ball and girls' softball leagues.

— A high-profile meeting of world leaders at Camp David drew only sparse protests Friday despite extensive security preparations by local officials. Frederick County closed public schools Friday and police said they felt obligated to "prepare for the worst," but ultimately only about 50 Occupy movement participants showed at a "People's Summit" held in a library in advance of the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting. By midday, fewer than half a dozen people picketed sidewalks in nearby Thurmont.

A 77-year-old Thurmont man was killed yesterday when he apparently drove his vehicle through a stop sign on Catoctin Furnace Road and was broadsided by another vehicle, state police in Frederick County said.James Austin Fraley Sr., 77, was traveling west on Catoctin Furnace Road at 2:18 p.m. when witnesses said he failed to halt at a stop sign at the intersection with Route 15. His car was hit by a car driven by James Andrew Gelwicks, 32, of Emmitsburg, police said.Mr. Fraley was pronounced dead at the scene.

The splendor of autumn is good reason for roadways to be packed with sightseers, and this week the road west leads to two colorful events.The Autumn Glory Festival in Oakland has celebrated the season for 24 years. This year's four-day event from Thursday through next Sunday is packed with activities from antique shows to concerts to turkey dinners. The annual Oktoberfest dinner at the Oakland Fire Hall kicks off the celebration on Thursday with German-style food and drink. After dinner there's the fireman's parade featuring bands, antique fire engines and drill teams, with participating fire companies coming from 200 miles around.

It wasn't the convincing kind of victory a manager would like to see against a weaker team with the playoffs fast approaching, but Westminster Elks manager Walt VonBussenius Sr. will take the 3-2 win over visiting Thurmont last night in Uniontown.With the win, the Elks improved to 21-13 and maintained at least a share of second place in the South Penn League as the regular season closes this weekend. New Oxford, which played Littlestown last night, also came into last night's action with a 20-13 record.

Mary Louise Gehr Freeze, owner of the popular Cozy Restaurant and Inn in Thurmont, died Thursday at Frederick Memorial Hospital of heart failure. She was 80.Sixty-two years ago, Mrs. Freeze began working at the Cozy, helping to build the small lunch counter into a 720-seat restaurant with a country inn and gift shops near Camp David.Through the years, Mrs. Freeze played hostess to a variety of celebrities, from television news personalities Barbara Walters and Sam Donaldson to British leader Winston Churchill, who stopped while on his way to the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains -- then called Shangri-La -- with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Kenneth C. Hamrick, a former Methodist minister who restored a 150-year-old chapel near Thurmont, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Smithsburg. He was 65. Born and educated in Washington, Mr. Hamrick graduated from American University in 1960 and Wesley Theological Seminary four years later. He served in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for 32 years, 27 of them at Thurmont United Methodist. He left the ministry in 1995. At the time of his death, he was working as a sales representative for a lighting company.

THURMONT -- You can almost see it now: A burly man wearing short shorts and a baseball cap jogs past the Cozy Restaurant and out toward McDonald's.He smiles and waves to the townsfolk, as four or five stone-faced men run in his wake.This could become a familiar scene in this sleepy Frederick County town once the gregarious Bill Clinton becomes president and begins spending weekends at Camp David."Everybody knows he's a people person," says the Rev. Kenneth C. Hamrick of the Thurmont United Methodist Church.

ON THE SITE... Sex offense, assault charges stem from officer's foot massage :  A Baltimore County police officer faces sex offense and assault charges after a fellow officer said he gave her a sexualized foot massage in March. Angry at 'Avengers' showing, man allegedly pulls theater fire alarm : Fire marshals and Harford County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to the Regal Cinemas in Abingdon Monday night after a customer became belligerent over the showing of "The Avengers" film.

In the little town of Thurmont (population not quite 6,200), the recession has taken a heavy toll on Main Street, but things are picking up as residents prepare for next month's G8 Summit at nearby Camp David. The Cozy Country Inn has been busy booking reservations, and Rocky's New York Pizza is scheduling extra employee shifts to prep more dough and sauce. The county sheriff's department is preparing contingency plans for large-scale protests and telling deputies to expect hours of overtime.

A Thurmont man whose Rottweiler died from heatstroke after being left chained to a stake in the July sun was sentenced Tuesday to 90 days in jail. Frederick County District Judge Janice Ambrose also ordered 24-year-old Michael Flemming to do 50 hours of community service, preferably at an animal shelter. - Associated Press

THURMONT - George Wireman called this town the Gateway to the Mountains when he wrote a local history of it in 1969, and it seems like ever since then, that's what everyone here has called it. "If you stand anywhere on Main Street and look west," Wireman, now 87, said, "it looks like the road is running right into the mountain." It runs past the Thurmont Bar & Grill, past the old gun shop that's now a cafe, past the hobby store with all its miniature trains and past the row of gracefully aging townhouses before it veers left and then straight up into Catoctin Mountain Park.

Julio Valcarcel III built a self-propelled machine, a remote-controlled robot and a wooden catapult for competitions yesterday at the Maryland State Science Olympiad at the Johns Hopkins University. He is 13. In an event dubbed "The Scrambler," the Thurmont Middle School eighth-grader and his seventh-grade teammate Morgan Smith launched the self-propelled device from a ramp toward a wall 9 meters away. It had to start and stop on its own, without cracking a raw egg attached to the contraption's nose (hence the name of the event)

WASHINGTON -- When summer sunlight hits, the museum-like White House can seem more confining than ever. So with temperatures high, President Bush is continuing a routine that has become a notable feature of his presidency: the weekend getaway to Camp David. Today, Bush is departing for his 124th visit as president to the secluded compound in the Catoctin Mountains. Since his inauguration, he has spent all or part of 386 days at Camp David, according to records kept by Mark Knoller of CBS News in Washington, considered an authoritative source on such statistics.

THURMONT -- A few years before he joined the Army, Erik W. Hayes helped his pastor place a 17-foot steeple on their church in Thurmont. The pair climbed scaffolding to the roof and had nearly maneuvered the cumbersome wooden steeple onto its platform when wind gusts blew through the Catoctin Mountains. The pastor feared they would fall, but Hayes insisted that they finish the job. "He said, `Brother Wade, if we slip, I will go first and you can fall on me so you won't get hurt,'" the Rev. Wade Sandridge said yesterday.

Thurmont--This is not good. Ten minutes after unloading the van, unfolding lawn chairs and lighting a table-top grill, rain drips, then cascades through the trees. Thunder and lightning follow.We're camping among the hardwoods of the Catoctin Mountains and a thunderstorm -- welcome at my parched lawn a short drive away -- is an uninvited guest during our retreat to Cunningham Falls State Park.Or is it?We're staying in one of four recently built log cabins at this popular state park in northern Frederick County.

On January 19, 2007, MATTHEW J. A Mass of Resurrection will be celebrated at 11 AM on Wednesday, January, 24 at St. Lukes Roman Catholic Church in Edgemere. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Angel Michalski College Fund, c/o Bank of America, 4 Main Street, Thurmont, MD, 21788.