Trailer Park

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

This is in response to a letter Jessica Grant wrote about the homeless facility Howard County is trying to build in North Laurel in the opinion section of the Laurel Leader (Dec. 21). First of all we cannot compare the homeless men, women and children of this area to the homeless in Los Angeles and Florida.   Evidently she has never been around our homeless community. I tried it for three years, mostly in North Laurel. I have met some great people, also a few bad ones, but most of all we are like a big family that takes care of each other.   Don't get me wrong, it's a day-to-day struggle out there.

A 17-year-old from Laurel was arrested Tuesday and charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree attempted murder and nine other counts, including use of a handgun in commission of a felony, in connection with a shooting in a Howard County trailer park last month. Dwight Leo Dent II of the 14000 block of Shiloh Court was the fourth person arrested in an incident that took place April 7 at a trailer park on Alma Avenue. Dent and three others have been charged in the shooting of Arthur Thomas, who lived in the park, and Micheal Fitchett.

A fire at an Anne Arundel trailer park Wednesday morning killed one person and destroyed a double-wide mobile home, fire officials said. Firefighters responded to a call at 8:25 a.m. for a dwelling fire in the first block of Zona Street, in the Parkway Village mobile home park in Maryland City. The blaze took 40 firefighters from four departments 45 minutes to bring it under control, officials said. Firefighters found the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene and has not been identified, after the fire had been put out, officials said.

A fire at an Anne Arundel trailer park Wednesday morning killed one person and destroyed a double-wide mobile home, fire officials said. Firefighters responded to a call at 8:25 a.m. for a dwelling fire in the first block of Zona Street, in the Parkway Village mobile home park in Maryland City. The blaze took 40 firefighters from four departments 45 minutes to bring it under control, officials said. Firefighters found the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene and has not been identified, after the fire had been put out, officials said.

A Bel Air woman is suing the owner of an apparently defunct Edgewood trailer park, alleging that she lent him more than $30,000 in 1991 that he has not been repaid.Pamela Lynn Lord, the plaintiff, of the 900 block of Buckland Place, filed the civil lawsuit against John Phillip Seisman in Harford Circuit Court Friday.The lawsuit lists Mr. Seisman's address as unknown.In the lawsuit, Ms. Lord contends that Mr. Seisman agreed in November 1993 to pay her $25,000 as soon as he had sold the trailer park, Reeds at Bay View, located in Edgewood at 3001 Pulaski Highway.

Howard County police have charged a Guilford man with attempted first-degree murder in a July shooting in which a couple sleeping in their North Laurel mobile home were injured.Police arrested the man last week after a monthlong investigation into the incident in the first block of Cross St. at the Midway Trailer Park.Darrin Bernard Ridgeway, 27, of the 9500 block of Glen Oaks Lane, is being held on a $100,000 bond at the Howard County Detention Center, officials said.According to police, about 4: 50 a.m. July 22, someone fired three shotgun blasts through the wall of a mobile home at the Midway Trailer Park, striking Richard Morgan Kinney and Beth Ann Hanning in the legs.

A faulty hose apparently caused about 300 gallons of ammonia to vaporize and leak from a Laurel ice cream factory last night, resulting in the evacuation of 15 workers and about 60 nearby residents.Jack Sherman, general manager of the East Coast Ice Cream Novelties plant at 9090 Whiskey Bottom Road near U.S. 1, said the leak occurred while the ammonia was being transferred from one storage tank to another. "It was a temporary thing and it probably will not happen again for years and years to come," he said today.

The state's attorney for Carroll County has ruled that a Finksburg man who wounded two of three friends who tried to break into his home in May was justified in shooting them.Donald W. Talbert Sr., 37, acted within the law governing use of deadly force and will not be charged, State's Attorney Jerry F. Barnes said Friday.Barnes said he had reviewed police reports and interviewed Talbert, his wife, other witnesses and the victims, David W. Cole, 24, and Mark R. Krebs, 24.All lived in the trailer park in the 3200 block of Murray Road.

Compared with other parts of the nation, things are nice in Howard County: the schools, the murder rate, the parks with nicely groomed softball fields.You may want to add new trailer parks to the list.Under a proposed modification of mobile home zoning rules discussed last night by the County Council, developers of mobile-home neighborhoods -- who scorn the term trailer park -- could build curved roads and place small parks and open spaces between the structures.But the new concept may have a price -- as in higher costs for mobile or manufactured home units in a county where lower-priced dwellings already are in short supply.

Martha Viola Langenfelder, who owned and managed a Perry Hall trailer park, died of unknown causes in her sleep Tuesday at the Heron Point Retirement Community in Chestertown. The former Baltimore County resident was 96. Born in Raspeburg in Baltimore County, she was the daughter of farmers Henry and Anuska Ann Langenfelder. She attended Rosedale Elementary School and began working on the family farm after graduating from the eighth grade. In 1936, she married a distant cousin, Conrad John Langenfelder, whom she met at a church event.

For the nearly 100 residents of Dundalk Mobile Court who went without power for a week, the return of electricity couldn't come on soon enough — and everybody had a plan for what to do when it did. Dolores Moakley, 70, a retired home health care nurse, couldn't wait to wash up in comfort. "The first thing I'm going to do is take a warm shower. I'm tired of a week's worth of cold showers," she said, standing in the yard of the mobile home where she has lived for the past 12 years The people at the trailer park were among the last people to have their power restored in the Baltimore area.

The pink flamingo-shaped lights decorating the balcony rail of a mobile home in Florida signal the level of taste on display in “The Great American Trailer Park Musical.” This 2005 off-Broadway musical indulges in lowbrow satire, but the music and lyrics by David Nehls and book by Betsy Kelso are highly skillful in conveying  lowly material. If the production at the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre immediately gets into the show’s trashy spirit, it’s surely because four of the cast members (Maribeth Eckenrode, Kristen Zwobot, Karina Ferry and R. Brett Rohrer)

A 17-year-old from Laurel was arrested Tuesday and charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree attempted murder and nine other counts, including use of a handgun in commission of a felony, in connection with a shooting in a Howard County trailer park last month. Dwight Leo Dent II of the 14000 block of Shiloh Court was the fourth person arrested in an incident that took place April 7 at a trailer park on Alma Avenue. Dent and three others have been charged in the shooting of Arthur Thomas, who lived in the park, and Micheal Fitchett.

A rare spasm of violence in Howard County late Tuesday and early Wednesday sent five shooting victims to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Investigators believe the three shootings - two in Laurel, one in Clarksville - that took place within a five-hour span were not related. They were the second, third and fourth shootings in the county this year. "We had a very unfortunate night last night," county Police Chief William McMahon told reporters in Ellicott City.

A rare spasm of violence in Howard County late Tuesday and early Wednesday sent five shooting victims to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Investigators believe the three shootings – two in Laurel, one in Clarksville – that took place within a five-hour span were not related to each other. They were only the second, third and fourth shootings in the county this year. "We had a very unfortunate night last night," county Police Chief William McMahon told reporters in Ellicott City.

Residents of a trailer park south of Mount Airy - upset that their community is being eyed for a possible employment campus zone - filled the meeting room of the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission yesterday to voice their opposition. It was not supposed to be a public hearing, merely a work session for county planning staff to outline proposals for a new Mount Airy and Environs Community Comprehensive Plan. But planning commission Chairman Edward M. Beard allowed the residents to speak and began the meeting early, as the room began to fill early with nearly 100 Carroll County residents.

Jessup Improvement Association members say if you've seen one trailer park, you haven't necessarily seen them all.One community, located off Clark Road, east of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and north of Route 175, is a model example of what a trailer park should be. The improvement association says a planned expansion is just fine.The community, Holiday Mobile Estates, is nearing county approvalto add 91 trailers to the 400 already parked on its 95 acres.Butthe association says another trailer park, located near Sellner Road, west of the Parkway and south of Route 175, is a prime example of run-down housing with leaking sewer pipes and shouldn't be allowed to expand.

The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre went dark today for the first time in the troupe's 45-year history. The six-week closure will enable the venerable community theater to undergo a $10,000 renovation. When the theater reopens Oct. 7, the backstage area will contain dressing rooms, a kitchenette, a costume shop, prop storage, a carpentry area and a green room. "The backstage isn't going to be any larger, but it will be better organized, with designated areas for everything," says Fuzz Roark, the Spotlighters' executive director.