Villages

LEESBURG, Va. -- Standing near stone pillars that flank the entrance to a 1,000-acre horse farm, Bruce DeAtley tries to imagine the future of these Loudoun County pastures, hayfields and woods just 35 miles from Washington."

Facing the first fiscal year in which the Columbia Association will have a spendable surplus, the Columbia Council last night heard the financial wishes of the planned community's 10 villages during the annual unveiling of pre-budget requests.At least two villages -- Dorsey's Search and Harper's Choice -- have suggested using the projected fiscal year 2000 surplus to reduce the rate of assessment for the lien fee, a kind of property "tax" on Columbia homeowners, as well as lower the cost of the Package Plan, a membership package that provides residents admission to certain community pools and health clubs.

All five incumbents recaptured their seats yesterday on the Columbia Council, including those in four contested village races. Board Chairman Tom O'Connor, a three-term member from Dorsey's Search, and Barbara L. Russell of Oakland Mills, who faced her first challenge in six years and sought her eighth term, prevailed, as did Miles Coffman, a seven-year incumbent representing Hickory Ridge. Philip W. Kirsch of Wilde Lake defeated his opponent in a rematch from last year, and Henry F. Dagenais, the Long Reach incumbent, ran unopposed.

VOCIN, Yugoslavia -- When Serbian irregulars withdrew last weekend from this picturesque hillside village 80 miles east of Zagreb, they left behind a vista of death and destruction.Drunken men in uniform, backed by at least one tank, moved methodically through this community of 2,000, blasting Croatian houses, killing civilians, and blowing to pieces the 550-year-old Roman Catholic Church at the town center, witnesses say.Now that the Serbian occupiers have gone, the local Croatian authorities counting the bodies at a makeshift morgue said that the toll in Vocin and two smaller nearby villages had reached 43, with many of the victims women and the elderly.

Pity the poor political candidate in Howard County, where the state, county and all 10 Columbia villages have different rules for how long political signs can be displayed, where they can be placed and how big they can be. And while politicians elsewhere consider it to be a smart campaign tactic to plaster signs on every available surface, candidates in squeaky-clean Howard County shudder at the thought. "It doesn't look good if the candidate ignores the rules," said Jane Parrish, Hickory Ridge village manager.

An ad-hoc citizens' commission that was pilloried at a public hearing two weeks ago for suggesting alternatives to the current zoning in western Howard County voted Wednesday to drop one of the alternativesfrom its recommendation to the County Council.The Rural Land UseStudy Commission voted, 4-3, to recommend that the county not develop small villages in rural areas as a means of saving land.The commission unanimously endorsed "in principle" two other alternatives to three-acre zoning -- clustered developments and hamlets.

THESSALONIKI, Greece - For the first time since the Greek Civil War ended more than 50 years ago, ethnic Macedonian refugees have been allowed back to their former homes and villages in Greece. From Aug. 10 until this week, the refugees have been allowed to visit for 20 days. But the attempt at righting the wrongs of the past, while improving relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as Greece calls its northern neighbor, has not gone smoothly. Many of the would-be homecomers were turned back at the border.

BAGHDAD -- The death toll from five synchronized suicide bombings in a remote northern border area rose above 250 yesterday, making the attack on the reclusive Yazidi religious sect the deadliest single act of terrorism in Iraq since the war began more than four years ago. Rescuers, police and townspeople pulled scores of bodies from the rubble of three villages destroyed by the Tuesday night blasts in Nineveh province. The attack occurred in an impoverished region where Yazidis have taken refuge from hostile neighbors who consider them heretics or devil worshipers.

Columbia residents in five villages will go to the polls this week in an election that could determine the future of the Columbia Association and the fate of its president. The leadership of President Deborah O. McCarty has become the central issue of the Columbia Council contests, with a number of candidates calling for her resignation and for greater openness on the council. The 10-member council governs the Columbia Association, which operates much like a municipal government, providing services and facilities for the city's 87,000 residents.

Cooke's Hope, once an early American settlement, aims to offer those seeking refuge on the Eastern Shore an upscale neighborhood with an old-fashioned flair. A stone marker in front of the 15-year-old community shows that Lord Baron of Baltimore gave these lush acres to Maj. Miles Cooke, a London mariner, in 1659. Through the centuries, Cooke's Hope, as it became known, was more than 1,000 acres of farmland and rolling hills. Cooke's Hope developer Dick Firth said the land's owners, the Hunter family of Easton and the Fisher family of Chicago, tried to preserve that ancestral feel of Cooke's Hope when they laid out development plans in the mid-1980s.