Sun article, 31 December 1995

The Sun

1995: A year marked by its share of battles
Some issues resolved, others refuse to die
garbage still hot issue

by Howard Libit SUN STAFF The Baltimore Sun

December 31, 1995 Page(s): 1C
Edition: HOWARD SUN
Section: METRO
Length: 1637 words
Index Terms:
Howard County
Record Number: BSUN428799

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For Howard County, 1995 was not without its glitches.

It was the year in which even Howard's serious budget debate managed to strike a comic moment -- when the County Council chairman suggested the Fire
Department let the occasional house burn down so taxes wouldn't have to be raised.

It also was the year that a Howard police lieutenant stopped at a gas station, left his keys in the ignition of his Camaro bearing a Howard police union license plate --
and watched someone else drive it away.

It was the year that Rouse Co. officials had to change the name of their new retail development on Snowden River Parkway from Chalice -- because some
considered it sacrilegious.

And it was the year that teachers and students at Burleigh Manor Middle School tried to catapult a toilet across a baseball diamond. The toilet traveled zero feet.

In the simplest of terms, life went on as usual in Howard County. More than 1,700 couples filed for marriage licenses in 1995. More than 3,100 women delivered
babies at Howard County General Hospital. More than 750 people died, the state says, but so far it only has the tally through October.

In the political sphere, Republicans marked 1995 as the year they asserted their political muscle by wielding a sharp knife on the school system's budget. The
Republicans also turned up the heat on Democratic County Councilman C. Vernon Gray and his cellular phone bills.

But former council Chairman Charles C. Feaga learned that having the majority is no guarantee of victory. His first promise as chairman was to move the council's
elevated seats closer to the people -- but fellow Republicans balked because of its cost.

In Columbia, residents continued to struggle with democracy amid widespread apathy.

A movement to incorporate Columbia floundered, in large part because most Columbians simply didn't care. It didn't help that revered founder James W. Rouse --
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in September -- spoke out passionately against it.

Woeful voter participation in Columbia continued with barely 10 percent of the eligible voters turning out for last spring's village elections. Wilde Lake residents failed
in a one-person, one-vote drive, thus retaining property ownership as the basis for voter eligibility.

Meanwhile, problems in Columbia's Harper's Choice village grabbed notice. The village saw its main grocery store close. Columbia's reputation for tolerance was
damaged when a Harper's Choice photography shop owned by Russian Jewish immigrants was vandalized with seven large red swastikas.

As always in Columbia, recreation was an issue. Residents living along the new Fairway Hills Golf Course -- fearing that tipsy golfers would hit errant shots into their
back yards or windows -- unsuccessfully fought the Columbia Association's request for a liquor license.

Some Hickory Ridge residents found themselves missing a day's mail during the summer heat wave when a temporary postal carrier tossed her deliveries into the
woods rather than brave the 102-degree temperature.

Last summer's heat brought North Laurel residents some bad odors, when the Maryland-Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative violated environmental regulations.

Not heating up was Howard's economy.

While the county snagged a 110-employee company from Baltimore County -- Graphic Technology Inc.-- defense cutbacks forced the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory -- the county's largest private employer -- to lay off more than twice that number in May.

Head Sportswear Inc. also announced it was selling its Columbia headquarters, possibly for a move outside the county.

Retail remained strong

But Howard's retail market continued strong -- despite the closing of the Woodward & Lothrop store at The Mall in Columbia -- primarily because of the county's
central location.

Wal-Mart proceeded with plans to open an Ellicott City outlet. The former Chalice project -- now dubbed "Route 175 Commercial" -- will add more
warehouse-type stores to the Snowden River Parkway-Route 175 area, and developers will bring Route 100 and Route 29 the new Long Gate Shopping Center.

Howard's budget woes continued -- and may grow worse.

County Executive Charles I. Ecker announced plans to trim 12 percent from county government spending in the next three years, even as he spent more than $9,000
refurnishing his office.

The county did manage to jump onto the Internet, setting up its own home page on the World Wide Web.

Residents may care more about garbage than anything else: Hundreds turned up at meetings to oppose a still-undecided proposal to charge households an annual fee
of $100 to remove a bag of trash each week.

County schools continued to feel the impact of the budget cuts, while teachers, students and parents grew more concerned about crowded classrooms and deferrals
of new textbook purchases. But Howard pupils again posted the highest scores in Maryland exams.

The Howard school board wrangled with the county government over funding issues and even publicly opposed a zoning request for the first time, saying limits had
to be placed on residential growth in areas where schools are packed with pupils. But the board rejected the idea of year-round education, deciding that crowding
wasn't bad enough to justify that.

President Clinton stopped by Mayfield Woods Middle School to praise Howard's efforts to curb youth substance abuse -- the first presidential visit to the county in
nearly two decades. Just a week later, new data showed that Howard students continue to use drugs and alcohol at alarming rates -- like their peers nationwide.

At Atholton High School, the wrestling coach was fired after he pulled down the sweat pants of a cheerleader. A pair of Atholton students earned the school more
positive recognition by capturing the top prize at the prestigious International Science and Engineering Fair.

School board Chairwoman Susan Cook announced she will not seek a board seat again next year, prompting five people to file for next year's campaign.

Mr. Gray -- the County Council's senior Democrat -- looked beyond 1996 to 1998, launching the race for county executive with a $250-a-ticket fund-raiser.

The local race likely to generate the most interest in the coming year is the campaign for Circuit Court judgeships.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening appointed Donna Hill Staton and Diane O. Leasure to fill two open judgeships -- the county's first black and first female Circuit judges.

But their selection immediately divided Howard's legal community, prompting District Judge Lenore R. Gelfman and Columbia attorney Jonathan Scott Smith to
challenge the new judges in what may be a bitter race to the March primary vote. Pikesville attorney Jay Fred Cohen, a longtime Columbia resident, also has entered
the fray.

Drama in courts

Howard's courtrooms saw two high-profile murder cases in 1995.

Daniel Scott Harney -- arrested in North Carolina in January after he was featured on the "America's Most Wanted" television show -- was convicted of killing his
estranged wife and wounding her boyfriend. He was sentenced to life in prison in October.

Curtis Jamison, 30 -- already in prison for having sex with two underage girls -- was convicted of murdering 15-year-old Tara Allison Gladden of Columbia to stop
her from pressing criminal charges against him for their sexual relationship.

In another violent incident, armed robbers wounded two employees at a Scan furniture outlet, prompting the chain to stop accepting cash payments.

In general, crime rose in Howard in 1995, with large increases in robberies, burglaries and thefts. Homes whose owners left garage openers in their cars were a
common target.

But despite four homicides -- including a December murder-suicide tied to a dispute over a parking space -- violent crime declined, at least through the first nine
months.

Howard police conducted a nine-month investigation of county massage parlors, arresting nine women but prompting some criticism because undercover officers had
sexual contact with massage technicians.

In a separate incident, police Sgt. Thomas M. Martin resigned from the force in December after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in his police
cruiser.

Other noteworthy events included:

* WJZ-TV anchorman and longtime Columbia resident Al Sanders died of lung cancer May 5. His $750,000 dream house in Columbia's Hobbit's Glen
neighborhood is empty and for sale.

* Developer and former Howard Commissioner Norman E. Moxley Sr. died of complications from a stroke Nov. 15. Mr. Moxley's most ambitious project was the
development in 1961 of Ellicott City's Normandy Shopping Center, the county's first shopping center.

* Jean F. Moon -- a civic leader and general manager of Patuxent Publishing Co.-- was dismissed in August by her longtime partner after 23 years at the suburban
weekly newspaper chain. On a related note, an attempt to start a daily newspaper just for Columbia folded in January -- little more than three months after it began.

Caption:

PHOTO

Caption: Sparring partners: After a radio debate in January on the issue of incorporating Columbia, community founder James W. Rouse (left) and Rabbi Martin
Siegel got into a heated exchange outside the studio.

Credit: GARO LACHINIAN: SUN STAFF