Village Officials

Leaders in four Columbia villages are worried about the fate of their community shopping centers because the Rouse Co. has requested paperwork normally needed for a sale. Rouse has asked for "certificates of compliance" for the village centers it owns in Long Reach, Oakland Mills, Wilde Lake and Harper's Choice, village officials said yesterday. The certificates, which confirm that properties meet local architectural standards, are needed before a sale or refinancing can take place. Alton J. Scavo, a Rouse senior vice president, said this week that the centers had not been sold.

The chairman of the Long Reach Village Board has abruptly quit the panel that oversees Columbia's largest village. Henry F. Dagenais, who served on the board for six years and was chairman for five, declined to say yesterday why he stepped down. "It's a personal thing," said Dagenais, 70, a decorated Army colonel who served in Korea and Vietnam. "It's just time to go, time to move on." Dagenais said that in a resignation letter sent to village officials Wednesday, he "gave a little bit of a reason, but that's between me and the board and the village manager."

A $10 million renovation project is about to begin at one of Columbia's village shopping centers, while local officials are stepping up their efforts to fill the vacant supermarket space in another. Giant Food Inc. is expanding its 39,000-square-foot store in Owen Brown to 60,000 square feet - a project that has existed in various forms for more than two years. Company officials will break ground Saturday and construction will begin in earnest early next month. "We are really excited that this day has finally arrived," said Columbia Councilwoman Pearl Atkinson Stewart of Owen Brown.

Yard-of-the-month awards are supposed to be a pat on the back for homeowners who keep their places extra spiffy. In Columbia, the honor can feel more like a slap on the wrist. When officials in Kings Contrivance set out to recognize some of its suburban showplaces, they discovered that all the nominees had skirted the village's strict housing rules. One nominee had hung a baby swing from a tree without permission. Another had illicitly installed a brass kick plate on the front door, as well as a fountain, trellis and birdbath.

Residents of Oakland Mills village are hoping that Exxon Mobil Corp.'s decision to remove underground gasoline storage tanks at the closed gas station on Stevens Forest Road means new life is imminent for what resident Barbara Russell called "a boarded-up eyesore." The giant oil corporation confirmed Friday that the station's underground tanks will be removed before a Feb. 8 deadline set by state environmental officials. Company spokeswoman Betsy Eaton would not reveal Exxon Mobil's plans for the station.

The Columbia Council's proposed $51.7 million budget drew mostly praise, and a few suggestions, at a public meeting last night. Representatives of Columbia's 10 villages said they were pleased the draft included funds to hire extra workers to maintain the town's open space, which many of them said had not been kept up to the town's standards last year. Village officials urged the council to include money for salary increases for village employees. A compensation study is expected to recommend raises when it comes out this month.

Feeling stung by a recent Sun series that described white flight from older Columbia neighborhoods, Long Reach officials are considering hiring a public relations company to promote a more positive - and they say more accurate - image of their village. Members of the Long Reach Village Board said at a meeting Tuesday night that the three-part series unfairly focused on Long Reach and one of its cul-de-sacs. They acknowledged that Yellowrose Court has had problems with drugs and other crime but said that was not representative of the village or Columbia as a whole.

Giant supermarket has scrapped plans to build a grocery store at Owen Brown Village Center and wants to renovate and expand its existing store instead. Officials with Giant Food Services Realty presented plans for the $12 million project at a village board meeting Tuesday. The plan would enlarge the 39,000-square- foot store to 60,000 square feet. The village board previously had approved a plan, unveiled by Giant in February, to build a supermarket next to the tennis courts and convert its existing building into space for shops.

There is growing support among Columbia Council members to restore village workers who were abruptly stricken from the Columbia Association employee rolls more than a year and a half ago, Councilman Adam Rich said yesterday. But village officials - who have complained about reductions in their health benefits and the sudden and secretive manner in which the change was implemented - would lose some autonomy under the new arrangement, he said. If the Columbia Association takes back bookkeeping, human resources and other functions from the villages, it also would assume the power to hire, fire and set policy for the villages, Rich said.