Village Board

The Yoga Center of Columbia will continue to offer classes at Slayton House on Wilde Lake Village Green. "Baby and Me" is offered at 6:15 p.m. and "Adult Yoga" at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays. A six-week session is to begin Feb. 20. The cost is $90; $18 to drop in. "Senior Yoga" will be offered from noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursdays, Feb. 22 through March 27. The classes are slower paced and emphasize yogic breathing and stress reduction. The cost is $78 for six weeks or $15 to drop in. Columbia lien payers can request a 10 percent discount.

General Growth Properties Inc., the Chicago-based company that controls most of Columbia's downtown real estate, is holding private meetings with community groups to discuss downtown redevelopment. The company calls the meetings "listening sessions," and says they are part of its outreach as it formulates a plan for Town Center. But some who advocate openness in government are concerned that the meetings are closed to the public. "When we hear about this kind of private session, where the press and the public is not invited, it raises a red flag," said Alex Hekimian, an Oakland Mills resident who is president of the Alliance for a Better Columbia.

On June 22, 1967, The Sun reported the official dedication of Wilde Lake: "Rarely have so many dignitaries seemed so enthusiastic about walking through mud or standing under a hot sun while a flock of ducks was mercilessly maneuvered into position by sailboats for a dramatic gush of water jets." At the event, Columbia founder James W. Rouse called the dedication "truly a beginning, a peek under the tent. It is the removal of the guards from the gate for the first time." Forty years later, residents of Wile Lake village - named along with the lake for the president of the insurance company that provided Rouse with $25 million in financial backing - are proud of its status as the starting point for the planned community.

The power struggle between Columbia's two branches of government promises to heat up tonight when Columbia Council members and village leaders meet to debate their deteriorating relations and the future shape of local rule.Village leaders say they're extremely angry about what they view as the latest effort by the 10-member council to undermine them: an announcement that many village employees will no longer be eligible for the Columbia Association's employee benefits plan.At a strategy meeting Tuesday night at Linden Hall in Dorsey's Search, about 25 to 30 village representatives discussed hiring a lawyer to seek a restraining order against the council.

THE DAY began with a parade. The block-long procession, led by an honor guard from Cub Scout Packs 678 and 714, marched from Phelps Luck Elementary School down High Tor Hill to Tamar Drive, and into the village center parking lot.The 20th Long Reach Country Fair -- kicked off by the parade -- drew a large crowd Saturday to the village center.Visitors soaked in the sunshine, enjoyed music and games, bought crafts and sampled food.The weather was perfect, as usual. No one could recall a time when conditions were not ideal on the first Saturday after Labor Day, the traditional date for the fair.

Representatives from Columbia's villages came to a tentative agreement last night with members of the Columbia Council over their future relationship, putting to rest -- at least temporarily -- a power struggle between the two groups.About 50 village representatives and nine of the 10 council members met in the Columbia Association boardroom to discuss the council's controversial decision last week to remove Village Association employees from the CA benefits plan.After about two hours of discussion, the council -- an elected group that oversees CA -- agreed to help the villages make the transition to paying their employees benefits.

Bob Conors was suspicious. For several months, he had been asking the manager of Dorsey's Search Village in Columbia to explain unusually high expenses in her quarterly reports.Anne S. Darrin never provided convincing answers to Conors, a village board member.The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel offered to help her with a computer program to tabulate the village's books. After several delays, Conors found himself one afternoon in November 1997 at the computer in Darrin's office as the manager read off receipts and bills.

A member of the Howard County Planning Board lashed out last night at the Columbia Council during an otherwise placid hearing on the Columbia Association's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year.Joan C. Lancos, a former village board member and Columbia Council representative who was appointed to the Planning Board in 1992, criticized the council for what she called a lack of "direction," "vision" and "business experience."More than 50 residents and officials attended the meeting at Wilde Lake's Slayton House.

Columbia Association President Deborah O. McCarty hinted yesterday that the Columbia Council will not support a plan to give county police unrestricted enforcement authority on CA's 3,100 acres of privately owned open space.Members of the Columbia Council, the elected body that governs CA, resumed debate last night over whether officers should be allowed to enforce association rules and make arrests on association property -- for such things as drinking or gambling in public -- without a CA representative present.

A Columbia Council task force examining the relationship between the Columbia Association and the village boards last night hammered out the final details of the management contracts under which the villages operate.CA's general counsel, Shelby A. Tucker King, presented task force members with a list of changes proposed by village board members and managers who had reviewed a draft copy of the contract. Most of the changes sought were minor.Last night's meeting, which was attended by 11 village representatives, was relatively placid compared with earlier work sessions.

Howard County's newly adopted process for redeveloping Columbia's village centers has begun for Wilde Lake, the town's most distressed commercial hub. Geoffrey Glazer, vice president for development at Kimco Realty, the firm that owns the Wilde Lake center and five others, gave village board members a letter Monday night officially starting what could be a months-long process of determining what to do with the half-empty center. "We spend two years putting legislation together to start the process.

Political heat is building over three bills involving religion, higher builders' fees and the future of Columbia's village centers as the Howard County Council heads for its annual August recess. All three bills are due for a final work session Monday and a vote Thursday, though most council members favor delaying a vote on the village center bill until Sept. 4 to give residents more time to study amendments. "Based on feedback from village members, I'm leaning very strongly toward extending its life and voting in early September," Council Chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty said about the village center bill.

The Wilde Lake Village Board unanimously voted to expand the size of the board to six members for the 2009-10 term and to appoint Terry Kuhn to the 2009-2010 village board. This appointment was effective May 4. Library events The east Columbia library, 6600 Cradlerock Way, will host the Good Reads book club to discuss The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay, at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Participants in the Morning Books with Coffee book club will discuss The Maytrees, by Annie Dillard, at 10 a.m. May 27. The Anime Club, a monthly get-together for anime fans ages 13 to 18, will meet from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. May 28. Registration begins Thursday.

The next important election in Howard County is less than a month away, though no public offices are at stake. The members of the Columbia Association board of directors may not draw salaries, but they, along with incoming CA President Phil Nelson, could play a vital role in plans to remake central Columbia and its aging village centers. Each of the 10 villages has one seat on the board, and half could elect new board members when the two days of voting end April 25. Three villages - Owen Brown, Town Center and Harper's Choice - have no board contest this spring, while incumbents in Oakland Mills and River Hill are running unopposed.

The Central library, 10375 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, will hold two 30-minute workshops at 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 30 to explore civility concepts for children ages 4 to 7 with stories, songs and a craft. Registration begins Dec. 23 online and at the library. Information: 410-313-7860, or www.hclibrary.org. Book discussion The American Association of University Women will meet at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 10 at Clyde's Restaurant in Columbia. The group will discuss the book We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, by Cokie Roberts.

The American Association of University Women will meet at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 10 at Clyde's Restaurant in Columbia. The group will discuss the book We Are Our Mothers' Daughters by Cokie Roberts. Current and prospective members are invited to attend. Information: jenniferingram@comcast.net or 410-740-4276. Army Field Band The U.S. Army Field Band will perform a saxophone recital at 3 p.m. today in the ballroom of Historic Oakland, 5430 Vantage Point Road, Columbia. The program is free, but seats should be reserved: 410-730-4744.

Book on Columbia to be discussed, signed The authors of Oh, You Must Live in Columbia will be discussing, selling and signing copies of their book at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the central library, 10375 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. Missy Burke, Robin Emrich and Barbara Kellner will talk about the origins of street names and will share stories of their research, the people they met, and the stories that continue to unfold about living at unique addresses. The book, published by Columbia Archives, will be available for sale at the event.

The Hickory Ridge Community Association will hold a Holiday Craft Shop from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. today at Hawthorn Center, 6175 Sunny Spring. Admission is free. Information: 410-730-7327. Traffic study Marty Wells of Wells and Associates will discuss the traffic study of General Growth Properties' General Plan for downtown Columbia at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Town Center Community Association's village board meeting. Meetings, which are open to the public, are held at Historic Oakland, 5430 Vantage Point Road, Columbia.

In March, Kimco Reality Corp. announced a plan to raze and rebuild much of the Wilde Lake Village Center, adding 500 apartments. The Village Board, residents, and other interested parties expressed many concerns. On Aug. 4, Kimco presented the same plan at a Village Board meeting and received many of the same objections. The plan is based on demolishing the present commercial buildings. This would displace the present tenants and jeopardize their livelihoods. The needs of the local residents are being dismissed.

A discussion this week between Wilde Lake residents and officials of the firm that wants to redevelop Columbia's oldest village center sounded more like a verbal tug-of-war than progress toward consensus. Kimco Realty Corp. officials first announced in March a $40 million plan to raze and rebuild much of Wilde Lake Village Center, adding 500 apartments. But residents are pushing an alternative plan designed by Columbia's original chief architect, Robert Tennenbaum, which they say would maintain the center's original character.