Walkway

The flagpole and the lone dogwood gracing the front of the Sykesville Town House are about to have the company of blooms, shrubs and wildlife.The town recently won a Maryland 2000 grant for nearly $5,000. It will use the grant to pay for designing and landscaping a native garden in the front yard of the municipal seat."It is more than enough to get us started," said Councilwoman Jeannie Nichols. "We are also counting on donations."The garden will be filled with plants indigenous to Maryland, those that can survive dry summers and snowy winters and those that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

- The beeping and rumbling of backhoes shoveling sand and debris replaced the howl of Hurricane Sandy's winds as cleanup from the storm began Tuesday, though higher than normal tides continued to threaten some areas with further damage. The storm's impact was evident across the resort town, with some lingering floodwaters along Assawoman Bay and sand, seaweed and pieces of wood littering the ground from which water already receded. Beaches eroded significantly, narrowed to only a few dozen yards in some areas.

Howard County hopes this weekend's Wine in the Woods will siphon off a portion of the wine festival tourism market like a spout hammered into a wooden cask.Organizers say the inaugural event could become an annual affair that will rival or even surpass the popular Maryland Wine Festival that drew 23,000 people last fall in Westminster.The festival's sponsor, the county Department of Recreation and Parks, has budgeted about $100,000 for the two-day event.Joanne Moroney, who is co-chairwoman for the festival, said at least 10,000 people are expected to attend.

Even after a week of relatively benign weather, I find it hard to avoid thinking about the spate of terrible storms that have clobbered this region since the beginning of the year.I would like to think that the worst of the winter weather is behind us, but my wife keeps reminding me that historically the storms ** that drop the most snow always seem to come in late February and March.She remembers these types of things. I try to blot them out of my memory. Despite my best efforts, I am having great difficulty forgetting the five storms that pummeled us this year.

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD James Harmon says he likes being part of a team. That group appeal was one of the aspects that drew him into the Cub Scouts when he was 10. After moving through the various ranks of Scouting, he recently achieved the Boy Scouts' highest honor. Jim, a junior at Glen Burnie High School, will receive his Eagle Scout award during a spring ceremony. For his final project, he laid a stone walkway and outlined a garden area at Lake Waterford Park in Pasadena. The 1,200-square-foot area was completed with assistance from area businesses, which donated stone, and members of Troop 474, who donated the elbow grease.

This is how the New World looked to little Barbara Grella when she landed at the foot of Broadway from Poland in November of 1952."It was market day, a Friday, the markets were wooden sheds then and a lot of the stalls were on the outside," said Ms. Grella, 44, who grew up to own a saloon not far from the market. "It was crowded and I remember rabbits hanging and big hams, and live chickens in cages."With her mother, Helen Ziemiecki, the youngster was delivered to the end-of-the-line from Locust Point on the old Samuel Taggart steam ferry that docked alongside the Broadway Recreation Pier, the last leg of a voyage from New York by way of Germany by way of Poland.

Howard County public school officials plan a study of the pathways used by many students who walk to school, the final recommendation of the outgoing members of a citizens' committee that has wrestled with walking route issues for two years."

The snowstorm of the decade is long over, but with its effects lingering on sidewalks, Anne Arundel County public schools were closed for the third straight day today.In anticipation of various mixtures of rain and snow forecast for the rest of the week by the National Weather Service, school officials also decided yesterday that schools would open two hours late Thursday and Friday."It's a pedestrian issue now," Jane Doyle, a spokeswoman for the school system, said yesterday. "We have 20,000 walkers who have to walk one-quarter to one-half mile to school.

Lombard Street between Market Place and President Street will be closed from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. today and tomorrow to allow for removal of a pedestrian bridge linking two buildings on the downtown campus of Baltimore City Community College. The Department of Public Works said traffic on westbound Lombard Street will detour north onto President Street, west on Fayette Street and south on Guilford Avenue/South Street before picking up Lombard again. Northbound Market Place traffic will detour west onto Water Street, south on South Street and west again onto Lombard.

SCHOOL GRADUATES invariably take a little something in memories when they leave. Now, at Glen Burnie High School, there is an opportunity to give a little something back. Former students, their parents, teachers and school staff are invited to add a message - perhaps memorializing their role in the school's history - by purchasing a personalized brick for a new walkway. The walkway is part of a continuing campus beautification project, which has been supported by donations from the school community and area residents and businesses - notable among them a $30,000 gift from Tate Dodge.