20070313 Community Rallies behind Bowling Brook

Community Rallies behind Bowling Brook

March 13th, 2007

Cross-posted from the Winchester Report

www.thewestminstereagle.com

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpID=978&NewsID=789755&CategoryID=18298&show=localnews&om=1

03/13/07
by Kevin Dayhoff
Respond to the Westminster Eagle about this story
Email this story to a friend

On March 2, Bowling Brook Preparatory Academy in Keymar announced that after 50 years in operation, it would close on March 9.

The closing comes in the wake of the death of one of the students on January 23.

Since the closing was announced, many Carroll Countians have rallied in support of the academy suggesting that it would be better to meaningfully address and correct what precipitated the tragedy than close the academy.

Delegate Donald Elliott said the day Bowling Brook closed “was a sad day and it is my hope that it will again be restored to a place in the juvenile services system.

“Over the years we have all had contact with the young men from Bowling Brook, it was always a very positive experience,” he said. “In fact, where other places have difficulty hosting a juvenile services facility, Bowling Brook has enjoyed the affection of the community.”

Delegate Nancy Stocksdale recounted many experiences in which the young men of Bowling Brook had left a positive impression upon her and the community. (She has circulating a letter about Bowling Brook. Please find it below.)

She said that she has been “grieving just as if it was my school.”

Delegate Stocksdale added that if this terrible incident had happened in another facility… she doubted that the state would’ve closed down the whole place. “You take care of the problem. You fix it. Instead of isolating a tragic instant from the rest of the good work of the institution (the state) choose to convict the entire school.”

Tom Welliver said, “I have worked closely with these young men on numerous occasions. They were well mannered, respectful - and assisted with tremendously positive attitudes.”

For many years, the Bowling Brook students helped with the Union Bridge town hall funding breakfasts. Perry Jones, former County Commissioner and former Union Bridge mayor said, “Union Bridge had a very positive experience with Bowling Brook and I share everyone’s hope that it is able to re-open in the future and its good work continues.”

Larry Collins, Carroll County Agriculture Center General Manager said, “The young men from Bowling Brook have been to the Ag Center many times and served in many different capacities… They have been excellent across the board. It would be a shame to lose such an important resource in our community.”

The Junior Woman’s Club of Westminster is circulating a letter which cites that Bowling Brook had “an 86 percent success rate. (Please find a copy of the letter below.)

Only 14 percent of the youth were arrested or referred back to the state agency within a year of their release. … The state average for group homes is 50 percent, but we have heard as low as 10 percent success rates. … We hate to see the success of the program overrun by this one failure.”

It is rare that a community rallies to have a juvenile facility in their own back yard. But all of us have a stake in saving young men for a productive future and in those efforts; Bowling Brook is part of the answer.

What is now necessary is for Maryland Juvenile Services Secretary Donald W. DeVore and Gov. Martin O’Malley to hear from Carroll County citizens who care about Bowling Brook and the future of the young men this facility worked so hard to help. Encourage them to take fresh look at re-opening Bowling Brook.

Please review the letters from the Delegate Nancy Stocksdale and the Junior Woman’s Club of Westminster and then find a moment of your time to write to: Governor Martin O’Malley, Office of the Governor, 100 State Circle, Annapolis, MD 21401-1925, and Maryland Juvenile Services Secretary Donald W. DeVore, One Center Plaza, 120 W. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.

####

From: Delegate Nancy Stocksdale

Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 3:30 PM

Subject: Bowling Brook Preparatory School

Dear Friends:

I am writing concerning the Bowling Brook Preparatory School which is located in Keymar, a rural area of Carroll County.

I am saddened by the loss of a student there, and I offer my sincerest sympathy to his mother. I do not know all the circumstances, but I have always believed in the school and its program. Unfortunately, the Public Defender, Nancy Forster, made a statement on the day of this tragic event that she was “closing this school down because it is not safe.” She then proceeded to remove all the Maryland students.

I have attended awards luncheons at Bowling Brook where I witnessed the tears of the mothers who were so proud of the positive changes they saw as they watched their sons receive awards for their accomplishments in the program. I have seen the many trophy cases displaying the trophies earned from the achievements of the sports teams, and I have seen the pride in the faces of the students as they moved up through the ranks and accepted greater responsibility as “thoroughbreds,” a designation for seniors.

I have had an interest in that school since I first went there in 1993 on a tour with Congressman Bartlett. As a retired teacher, I have a special interest in the educational program at Bowling Brook, and I learned that approximately 80% of the students there pass the GED test. I think this is a great accomplishment considering the fact that some students come there with a 3rd grade reading level. Professors from Carroll Community College teach on the Bowling Brook campus, and students have earned as many as 21 college credits. Other students take vocational classes at Frederick Community College learning trades such as bricklaying and landscaping.

You may have seen the students competing in sports at our local schools or working for one of the many non-profit organizations in our communities. I know they have helped the Elmer Wolfe Elementary School, Westminster Fallfest, Union Bridge town breakfasts, Carroll Lutheran School consignment sale, and I am sure there are others. The students are always polite, well groomed, well mannered, and hard working.

They have been there for us and now I am asking that you help troubled youth who may benefit from Bowling Brook’s program by writing letters of support for the Bowling Brook Preparatory School to Governor Martin O’Malley at http://www.governor.maryland.gov/mail (telephone: 410-974-3901), and Donald DeVore, the Secretary of Juvenile Services at devored@djs.state.md.us (telephone: 410-230-3101).

I would appreciate it if you would ask as many people as you know, who are familiar with the school or who have attended functions where the Bowling Brook boys helped, to write letters or make phone calls. Although it may already be too late, Governor O’Malley will realize how we feel about the successful program. While many communities fight to keep juvenile facilities out of their neighborhoods, we need to fight to keep these good neighbors.

Thank you. I am grateful for your support.

Sincerely,

/s/

Nancy R. Stocksdale

####

Governor Martin O’Malley

Office of the Governor

100 State Circle

Annapolis, MD 21401-1925

March 8, 2007

Dear Governor,

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the importance of the Bowling Brook Preparatory School in our county. I am a resident of Carroll County and a member of the GFWC Junior Woman’s Club of Westminster. We are a part of an international non-profit volunteer organization called the General Federation of Women’s Clubs that serves the needs of our community.

Through our group’s events, we have had the experience to work on volunteer projects with the Bowling Brook students. It has always been a very positive experience working with these students. Every single one of them seemed eager to help, was extremely polite and greatly added to the efficiency of our event. Without their help – our work and time would be doubled. In our interactions with the students, they have shared their thoughts on the Bowling Brook program and how it has improved their lives.

In light of the serious issue that has occurred over the past few weeks at the school, our organization still strongly supports keeping this program open. There have been so many successes that have kept hundreds of young adults from returning to the penal system or a life of criminal behavior. On Oct 5, 2005, the Baltimore Sun quoted an 86 percent success rate. Only 14 percent of the youth were arrested or referred back to the state agency within a year of their release. They also said that the state average for group homes is 50 percent, but we have heard as low as 10 percent success rates. 80 percent of these boys are graduating from High School. We hate to see the success of the program overrun by this one failure.

Our hope is that you will see the positive impact Bowling Brook School has had on our community and reopen it with appropriate guidelines to protect the students in the program

Sincerely,

A member of GFWC Junior Woman’s Club of Westminster

Westminster, MD 21158

Copyright 1998-2007 MyWebPal.com. All rights reserved.
Contact us at webmaster@mywebpal.com
All other trademarks and Registered trademarks are property
of their respective owners.

20070314 Bowling Brook, a sad tale of several tragedies

Bowling Brook, a sad tale of several tragedies

“Bowling Brook: A Sad Tale”

http://www.thetentacle.com/author.cfm?MyAuthor=41

The Tentacle[1] - March 14, 2007 by Kevin Dayhoff (1335 words)

Last January 23 one of the very young men that Bowling Brook Preparatory Academy had tried so hard to mold into a lifetime of hope and future, Isaiah Simmons III, 17, died at the academy.

The death of the young man is tragic and our hearts and prayers go out to the young man’s family. The tragedy is exacerbated in that the young man who had expressed anger over an absent father now leaves behind a daughter who was 22 months old at the time of his death.

In published accounts, the mother of his child, a 10th grade student, “was having a hard time accepting Simmons' death.”

Mr. Simmons, who had only arrived at the academy two weeks earlier, ran afoul of the law after committing an armed robbery. Published accounts report that he had “used a box cutter to rob another juvenile of a cell phone.”

He died while being physically restrained after it is alleged that he threatened to shoot another student. In a January 27 Bowling Brook press release it was revealed, “When Isaiah became threatening, our staff responded for his safety and the safety of others. Isaiah's aggressive behavior continued over a period of time during which he was restrained humanely consistent with state-approved discipline policies and counseled throughout to de-escalate the crisis.”

A transcript of the 911 tape reveals a Bowling Brook employee saying, “It was the same thing we do all the time when we have an aggressive kid. I don't know what happened. He was in a restraint, and then he stopped responding.”

For many years Bowling Brook, which was founded in 1957, has accepted juvenile offenders into the academy. On January 23 there were 170 young men at the academy. 74 were guests of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services.

Bowling Brook had developed a reputation, not as much as a juvenile services facility but more like an elite private school that became a nationwide model for everything that could be done right in an effort to truly give young men a second chance and mold them into productive futures from an uncertain past.

In recent years, as the state has poured $737,000 into capital improvements for the facility, Bowling Brook Academy had come to be considered “a highly touted private residential treatment facility for aggressively adjudicated young men” according to the 2004 – 2005 annual report of the Office of the Independent Juvenile Justice Monitor.

As other state-run juvenile facilities were being closed, Bowling Brook, with the encouragement, aid, and support of the state, had grown to fill a needed gap as to where to treat juvenile offenders as their numbers exploded.

The numbers are mind-numbingly. Governor Martin O’Malley’s “Transition Committee for Juvenile Services Report,” issued on February 21, 2007 cites: “In 2005, the agency served 4,888 youth on probation, 1,681 in community-based aftercare, and over 2,400 in committed placements. The Department received over 53,000 intake referrals in 2005, but many youth were referred multiple times. The Committee strongly recommends that the new administration proceed quickly with making strategic, evidence-based reforms and that it avoid repeating the mistakes of past administrations by addressing problems proactively.”

These numbers have been increasing for many years. The Maryland General Assembly’s response, even after legislation was enacted in 2004 mandating regional facilities of no more than 48 juvenile offenders, was to overwhelmingly pass House Bill 1148 and Senate Bill 503 in 2005 exempting Bowling Brook from the 48 juvenile capacity limit.

The state’s reliance on Bowling Brook had become increasingly desperate after Maryland closed the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School on June 30, 2005 after a federal lawsuit accused the state of failing to protect juvenile offenders from physical violence. Over and over again, Bowling Brook stepped up to the plate to fill in the gaps.

After investigating the Hickey School and the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County for two years, the U. S. Justice Department had issued a scathing report in 2004. The report revealed that there was a “deeply disturbing degree of physical abuse" by staff and examples “in which staff members did not intervene in fights…” according to the Washington Post.

For many years and several administrations, Maryland has grappled with how to respond to what some consider an epidemic of youthful offenders. There has been legislation, reports, outside independent committees, joint legislative committees, public outcry, lawsuits, and an enormous amount of money spent.

However the governor’s transition committee which had examined the Department of Juvenile Services said in the second sentence of their report, “We discovered an agency that is dangerously dysfunctional, trapped in a cycle of reacting to scandals and deferring proactive reforms.”

But throughout all the years of hand wringing and the gnashing of teeth over what to do about an adequate and appropriate approach to saving youthful offenders and restoring them to productive lives; one institution was being heaped with praise – Bowling Brook.

In an October 5, 2005 Baltimore Sun article, “Susan B. Leviton, who heads the juvenile law clinic at the University of Maryland,” was quoted to say, “It's a fantastic program.”

The article noted that Stacey Gurian-Sherman, who heads an advocacy group for families of delinquents, calls Bowling Brook “a model residential facility, and it's right in our own backyard… The one drawback to Bowling Brook is there is only one of them… We need to be building more Bowling Brooks.”

At a time when Maryland continues to face a structural deficit, the article recited, “The cost of the nonprofit school is $41,000 a year per student – less than the $65,000 a year the state spends to keep a youth at Hickey.”

Yet, on March 2 another tragedy occurred when it was announced that the Bowling Brook would close. For many the decision to close the school is illogical at best. Why not meaningfully address and correct the factors that precipitated the tragedy but otherwise support the one very juvenile services facility in the state that is making a positive difference. The tragic death of this young man is situational problem – not systemic. Fix the problem.

This tragedy shocks everyone, but the reaction to a problem must never exacerbate the problem or exceed prudence. Ironically, the closure of Bowling Brook is now part of the problem. Closing Bowling Brook is certainly not “addressing problems proactively” with “strategic, evidence-based reforms.”

Within days of the announcement to close the academy, the governor announced the need to spend $6.8 million dollars to re-open the Victor Cullen juvenile facility – for 48 students. Spending $6.8M on Victor Cullen is not the answer. The answer is Bowling Brook.

Since the announcement that Bowling Brook was closing, public officials and private citizens alike have publicly touted Bowling Brook for the good work they have accomplished with hundreds – if not thousands - of young men over the last fifty years and how the academy has positively interwoven itself into the Carroll County community fabric.

A letter being circulated by the Junior Woman’s Club of Westminster says, “On Oct 5, 2005, the Baltimore Sun quoted an 86% success rate. Only 14% of the youth were arrested or referred back to the state agency within a year of their release… The state average for group homes is 50%, but we have heard as low as 10% success rates. 80% of these boys are graduating from High School. We hate to see the success of the program overrun by this one failure.”

It is rare that a community rallies to have a juvenile facility in our own back yard. But Bowling Brook is one of the rare examples of leadership and excellence in our world today.

This is the third Maryland administration in a row to get handed this mess. The solution is to not duplicate past mistakes, but build upon what has been done well. Bowling Brook has done it well and is part of the solution.

In a clearer light and with a fresh look, many hope that Governor O’Malley will reassess the decision to close the facility.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr AT org

####

[1] Each Article contained on this website is COPYRIGHTED by The Octopussm LLC. All rights reserved. No Part of this website and/or its contents may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems, without the expressed written permission of The Tentaclesm, and the individual authors. Pages may be printed for personal use, but may not be reproduced in any publication - electronic or printed - without the express written permission of The Tentaclesm; and the individual authors.

20070313 Maryland’s Taney stained nation with Dred Scott ruling

“Frank Keegan: Maryland’s Taney stained nation with Dred Scott ruling”

March 13, 2007

In case you missed it - - I had until the other day, Baltimore Examiner editor Frank Keegan penned an informative opinion in the March 5^th, 2007 edition of the paper on Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney that is a great companion piece for the article that Kelsey Volkmann wrote the same day.

The two pieces can be found here:

“Frank Keegan: Maryland’s Taney stained nation with Dred Scott ruling”

Remembering the Dred Scott decision on its 150th anniversary

For other posts about Chief Justice Roger Taney and the Dred Scott decision – go here: Taney - Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney

####

20070312 They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

March 12th, 2007

This post out of the clear blue sky will make more sense when ya read: “20070309 My 2nd Grade Class picture.”

At times you might think that this is the theme song for Carroll County.

This a good post for those younger folks who are only aware of the “Counting Crows” version of the song…

Except for the story it tells, it was never my favorite Joni Mitchell song… I always liked her album “Blue” which is probably more a childhood dynamic than an affection for the songs on the album…

Speaking of childhood dynamics – this video is from January 1970:

Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Qgsn0U340

The YouTube post has the following information about Joni Mitchell:

(Which I just noticed is from Wikipedia.)

Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician and painter.

Initially working and busking in Western Canada and Toronto, she became associated with the burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City. She achieved her greatest fame in the early 1970s and was considered a key part of the Southern California folk rock scene.

Throughout the 1970s she expanded her musical horizons to include pop and jazz and became one of the most highly respected singer-songwriters of the late 20th century. Retrospective appraisals of Mitchell's work have often commented that her quality and influence render her the "female Bob Dylan", [1] [2] although Mitchell herself rejects that label.

Mitchell is also an accomplished artist. She has through photography or painting created the artwork for each of her albums and has described herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance." A blunt critic of the music industry, Mitchell has stopped recording and now focuses mainly on her visual art.

####

20070312 Happy Birthday Jack Kerouac March 12 1922

Happy Birthday Jack Kerouac

March 12, 1922

H/t: Biography.com

I’m not sure I know where my copy of “On the Road” is…

"… nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old…"

Of course one of the amusing things about Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” is that I had long understood that he did not know how to drive a car. Although Wikipedia says that he did not learn “to drive until 1956 (at age 34) and he never had a driver's license.”

Whatever.

Baltimore Colt fans will not be amused to know that Mr. Kerouac typed “On the Road” –

“on one long scroll of teletype paper, which Kerouac called "the roll."[1] The roll does exist — it was purchased in 2001 by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, for $2.4 million — and it was indeed typed in a blazing three weeks, with no margins, singlespaced, and no paragraph breaks.

But the myth of the story overlooks some of the finer points of the novel's composition. Much of the book was actually written as it happened, over the seven years of Kerouac's travels, in the tiny notebooks that he always carried with him and wrote in during his spare time.

The myth also overlooks the tedious organization and preparation that came before Kerouac's creative explosion, as well as the fact that Kerouac revised the novel several times before Malcolm Cowley of Viking Press agreed to publish it.

Owing to Irsay's ownership of the scroll, it was on display in sections at Indiana University's Lilly Library in mid-2003.

In January 2004, the roll began a 13-stop, four-year national tour of museums and libraries, starting at the Orange County History Centre in Orlando, Florida. From January through March 2006 it was on display at the San Francisco Public Library with the first 30 feet unrolled. It will spend three months on display at the New York Public Library in 2007, and in the spring of 2008 will be on view at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

_____

Of course, for those of us who are writers, we can understand, “He tended to write constantly, carrying a notebook with him everywhere.”

And – “At the time of his death in 1969, Kerouac's estate was worth little more than ninety-one dollars, but by 2004 had grown to an estimated $20 million.” Is an inspiration for all of us… In a perverse kind of way.

What none of us wants to emulate is that he died at age 47 from complications of a life of chronic alcoholism.

I had always heard about this quote from Truman Capote and found it in the Wikipedia entry…

“Some believed that at times Kerouac's writing technique did not produce lively or energetic prose. Truman Capote famously said about Kerouac's work,

‘That's not writing, it's typing.’”

Despite such criticism, it should be kept in mind that what Kerouac said about writing and how he wrote are sometimes seen to be separate. According to Carolyn Cassady and other people who knew him he rewrote and rewrote.”

_____

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."
—from On the Road, which demonstrates Kerouac's use of imagery in a beat style.

Writer, born in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. He studied at Columbia University (1940–2), and served in the merchant marine (1942–3) and the navy (1943). Later he studied at the New School for Social Research (1948–9). He lived with his mother in Lowell, held a variety of jobs, and traveled throughout the USA and...

Read Full Biography Article

biography.com/search/article.do?id=9363719

There is another more comprehensive biography over at Wikipedia.

20070312 Chely Wright’s “Bumper of my SUV”

Chely Wright’s “Bumper of my SUV”

March12, 2007

H/t: Michelle Malkin – who has the rest of the story here: “Bumper of my SUV”

“Kudos to country singer Chely Wright, who performed in Iraq last week…”

[…]

A salute to our military

(More posts for Corp and Country… Military Marines)

I copied the lyrics from Michelle Malkin’s website:

Lyrics if you want to sing along:

I've got a bright red sticker on the back of my car,
Says: "United States Marines."
An' yesterday a lady in a mini-van,
Held up her middle finger at me.
Does she think she knows what I stand for,
Or the things that I believe?
Just by looking at a sticker for the US Marines,
On the bumper of my S.U.V.

See, my brother Chris, he's been in,
For more than 14 years now.
Our Dad was in the Navy during Vietnam,
Did his duty, then he got out.
And my Grandpa earned his Purple Heart,
On the beach of Normandy.
That's why I've got a sticker for the US Marines,
On the bumper of my S.U.V.

But that doesn't mean that I want war:
I'm not Republican or Democrat.
But I've gone all around this crazy world,
Just to try to better understand.
An' yes, I do have questions:
I get to ask them because I'm free.
That's why I've got a sticker for the US Marines,
On the bumper of my S.U.V.

'Cause I've been to Hiroshima,
An' I've been to the DMZ.
I've walked on the sand in Baghdad,
Still don't have all of the answers I need.
But I guess I wanna know where she's been,
Before she judges and gestures to me,
'Cause she don't like my sticker for the US Marines,
On the bumper of my S.U.V.

So I hope that lady in her mini-van,
Turns on her radio and hears this from me.
As she picks up her kids,
From their private school,
An' drives home safely on our city streets.
Or to the building where her church group meets:
Yeah, that's why I've got a sticker for the US Marines,
On the bumper of my S.U.V.

20070312 I’ll take bi-partisanship anyway I can get it

I’ll take bi-partisanship anyway I can get it.

March 12, 2007

What wonderful irony.

Not even Dorothy Parker could not have written this plot twist.

John Boehner's Favorite Smoke-Filled Room

####

20070312 It has been Monday all day

It has been Monday all day.

March 12, 2007

This picture is not mine. But oh I wish it were mine. It came in an e-mail earlier today and I think that it sums up perfectly that today was Monday – all day.

####

20070311 Does anybody know what time it is?

Does anybody know what time it is?

March 11^th, 2007

Chaos has ensued in my office as I have feebly struggled to change clocks on various and disparate pieces of electronic equipment. I have even had to resort to consulting the owner’s manual in some instances. Perish the thought.

Finally, I did what every intelligent man would do – ask my wife to help.

But for a while I felt as if I were in some sort of twilight zone – or on the set of “Dark Shadows.”

“Dark Shadows - Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MpDOzM0SWc

"Chicago" 1969

_____

Spring Forward A Bit Earlier This Year

Foxnews.Com Home > World

Saturday, March 10, 2007

WASHINGTON — A traditional rite of spring, setting the clocks forward, comes early this year.

Most of the nation switches to daylight saving time early Sunday morning. The change comes a few weeks earlier than it used to, thanks to a change in the law. Daylight time will last until Nov. 4 this year.

It's also a good time to put new batteries in warning devices such as smoke detectors and hazard warning radios.

Some parts of the country don't observe daylight saving time. Those include Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.

####

20070309 War Protesters Annoy David Obey of Wisconsin

War Protesters Annoy David Obey of Wisconsin

March 9^th, 2007

One thing that I have always admired about Congressman Obey is that he has always been consistent and I have always been under the impression that he acts on principle and votes his conscience and not empty politics.

Certainly I disagree with his position on the war in Iraq, but I sure admire him and think that we need more folks in Congress with his integrity.

Listen carefully to what he says in the video…

Congressman Obey meets Tina Richards

Congressman Obey meets Tina Richards (A Military Mom).

Produced by Tyler Westbrook Video Artist is Kathleen Gabel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAlkfYczY4c

_____

War Protesters Target Lawmakers' Offices

Thursday, March 08, 2007

By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer

Some opponents of the Iraq war are taking their protests straight to Congress _ staging "occupations" in lawmakers' offices on Capitol Hill and in their home communities.

[…]

During the occupations, the protesters sit, stand, sing, chant, pray, ring bells, and read letters from American troops sent home to their families.

The eight demonstrators at Emanuel's office on Thursday performed skits about the consequences of war, read names of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and told stories about Iraqi children hurt in the fighting. They were welcomed by a staffer into the lobby of the congressman's office.

[…]

Occupations have been held at the offices of Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, and Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and David Obey of Wisconsin. All four Democrats voted against the 2002 measure authorizing the war.

Earlier this week, Obey was confronted outside his Capitol office by war opponents, prompting a heated exchange in which Obey shouted at one women who wanted him to vote against money for the war.

In a video posted on the Internet site YouTube, the Democratic lawmaker is seen pounding his fist repeatedly into the air, complaining loudly that Democrats don't have enough votes to cut off war funding and the protesters don't understand the debate in Congress.

"That makes no sense. It doesn't work that way," Obey says at one point.

Read the rest of the article here: War Protesters Target Lawmakers' Offices

####

20070308 Winchester Report: “A Sordid Saga.”

Winchester Report: “A Sordid Saga.”

“Union Mills reservoir and the pumpkin patch”

As appeared in my “Winchester Report” blog on the Westminster Eagle web site:

A sordid saga of communists, reservoirs, congressman, and pumpkins

Note: see also, “20070307 A sordid saga of communists, reservoirs, congressman, and pumpkins ” on “Soundtrack.”

By Kevin Dayhoff March 8th, 2007

Contrary to what is being circulated; the Union Mills reservoir project in Carroll County will add another layer of protection to the site of the “pumpkin papers,” and this national treasure is not threatened.

Recently the old Whittaker Chambers “pumpkin patch&...[Read full story]

_____

A sordid saga of communists, reservoirs, congressman, and pumpkins

03/08/07

By Kevin Dayhoff

Respond to this story

Email this story to a friend

Contrary to what is being circulated; the Union Mills reservoir project in Carroll County will add another layer of protection to the site of the “pumpkin papers,” and this national treasure is not threatened.

Recently the old Whittaker Chambers “pumpkin patch” farm just north of Westminster, in Carroll County Maryland has resurfaced in the news.

The Chambers’ Pipe Creek Farm was the scene of the “pumpkin papers” incident in which a former communist spy; Whittaker Chambers, defected to become a champion of the anti-communist cause at the beginnings of the cold war in 1948.

Mr. Chambers hid U.S. State Department documents in hollowed-out pumpkins on his Carroll County farm. Once he gave the documents to then- Congressman Richard Nixon, the entire issue of communists and communism in the United States gripped the nation for many years in what has become known as the “McCarthy era.”

The “pumpkin papers” named a local Baltimorean and Baltimore City High School and Johns Hopkins University graduate, Alger Hiss, as a communist spy.

The national, if not international story of intrigue, spies, and the beginnings of the cold war all took place in Carroll County with roles played by Carroll County and Baltimore citizens.

It is now almost 60 years later and intrigue and conspiracy continue to abound.

Since January, Carroll County officials have been plagued with persistent rumors and conspiracy theories, some of which have been published in local newspapers, that Carroll County wants to “seize” the old Chambers “pumpkin patch” farm. Good folks, good journalists and conspiratorialists alike have been “had” by this misinformation.

The misinformation seems to continue to grow legs and is about as far from the position of Carroll County officials as one could get. Carroll County is not trying to take the farm.

I attended what appears to be the genesis of the misinformation; the December 14th, 2006 “Public Hearing ~ Carroll County Water & Sewerage Master Plan.”

The public hearing was poorly attended except for a couple of gentleman who politely and eloquently expressed concern for their property which seemed to be involved in the proposed reservoir. Anyone can understand that. However, assurances were made by county officials that they were sensitive to the concerns of the citizens.

Somehow, from there, the alarm was quickly spread that the county was about to begin “seizing” land for the project even though that has not been the practice and policy of past commissioners and there seems to be no indication by the present Carroll County Board of Commissioners to go in that direction.

But, the casual reader and any person seriously interested in this aspect of our national history could read certain news accounts and walk away with the impression that the pumpkin patch will cease to exist as a result of the reservoir project. This is not true.

In the Internet age, where news is 24/seven, there is an epidemic of misinformation getting legs and if it is repeated often enough “it becomes true.”

Folks who have been “had” by the great “seizing” conspiracy are in good company - with ah, count them, 12 members of Congress who wrote to the Carroll County Board of Commissioners on January 12th, 2007.

They wrote, in part;

“We are writing to express our support for continued preservation of an important National Historic Landmark located within Carroll County, known as Pipe Creek Farm. All steps must be taken to preserve the integrity of this property, having served as the home of a great patriot and noted author, Whittaker Chambers.”

So far – so good. From what I am aware of the attitude of Carroll County officials, they are also interested in “preserve(ing) the integrity of this property.”

So what is the problem?

It’s in the next paragraph:

“We understand that the Carroll County Commissioners are considering a water plan that includes the creation of a Union Mills reservoir which, if completed, would destroy a significant portion of this national treasure…”

The letter is signed by Members of Congress, Ros-Lehtine, Bartlett, Gilchrest, Mario Diaz-Balart, Wolf, Wilson, King, Bordallo (from Guam,) Feeney, Boozman, McCotter and Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Well, it is true that the Commissioners are considering the creation of a Union Mills Reservoir. As has been considered since the mid 1970s when the City of Westminster first proposed the reservoir.

As I wrote on February 28th, 2007 in my Westminster Eagle column titled, “Recalling when B's Coffee Shoppe was all abuzz:”

In line with expanding the city's water supplies, in the mid-1970s, plans were made for Westminster to build another reservoir, this one to be located on Big Pipe Creek in Union Mills.

When the $5 million dollar reservoir was presented to the public, the public rose up in arms saying the city did not need the water and that the project was a waste of ratepayer money.

By September 1976, the project was shelved.

History, of course, has proven that the council was correct in pursuing the project and we would be in a lot different position today if it had been allowed to go forward.

However, fast forwarding to today, the waters of the proposed reservoir will hardly come within a mile of the present day unmarked location of the “pumpkin patch” which now rests in an otherwise nondescript field.

The Carroll County officials who are in a decision making role in this matter are keenly, and personally, interested in preserving the integrity of the site of the “pumpkin papers” – so it is simply baffling as to how this matter got all wound around the axles of misinformation.

Why didn’t the gang of 12 Congressmen contact Carroll County officials before they sent the letter? Every member of Congress who did contact Carroll County officials did NOT send a letter.

Unfortunately another one of the Congressman who has been “had” in this saga was Congressman Roscoe Bartlett who wrote to the Carroll County Board of Commissioners on January 3rd, 2007.

Congressman Bartlett wrote in part:

“It is my hope that the Commissioners of Carroll County will value, even treasure, this very special farm, that you will do all in your power to keep it whole, and protect its integrity for this and future generations to study and know.”

And here lies the really bizarre part of the story. Contrary to what is being circulated, the Union Mills reservoir project will add another layer of historic protection to the site of the “pumpkin papers,” which is already in agricultural preservation -- and preserve the site in perpetuity.

This is a good thing. The county wants a watershed protection easement which will concurrently give the site addition historic protection.

Click Here to See a PDF of a County Map Depicting the Historic Chambers Farm in Relation to the Proposed Union Mills Reservoir

The “lake” area of the Union Mills reservoir will only encompass approximately 325 acres. The balance of the 2,200 acres needed by the County that surround the “lake” are for the purposes of watershed protection. The county commissioners have reported that the county already owns 1500 acres of the needed watershed protection area – to be preserved in perpetuity.

Nevertheless, in situations like the Chambers Pipe Creek Farm, where the county can get a watershed protection easement on the property, rather than purchasing it, this is a good thing.

This watershed protection will add an additional layer of protection for the historic “pumpkin papers” site, which again, is almost a mile from the waterline.

In a response to Congressman Bartlett’s January 3rd, 2007 letter, which he penned in addition to the gang of twelve Congressmen’s January 12, 2007 letter, the Carroll County Board of Commissioners wrote on January 18th, 2007:

“With regard to the Pipe Creek Farm specifically, Carroll County has no intention of negatively impacting the field identified as the location of the famed “pumpkin patch” and has designed the reservoir in a way that minimizes impacts on the balance of the farm. Indeed, the impact anticipated by the planned reservoir… is limited to the northeastern edge of the farm where the Pipe Creek stream crosses the property.

The Pipe Creek farm is already protected from future residential development by easement sold to the Maryland Agricultural land Preservation Foundation (MALPF) in 2001. Carroll County has no interest in acquiring Pipe Creek Farm land for the purpose of constructing the reservoir beyond… the ‘normal pool level.’ We estimate this direct impact on the Pipe Creek farm to equal roughly 15.5 acres. The balance of the farm, approximately 346.5 acres, remains undisturbed and under the full control and ownership of its present owner…”

On a final note, the Union Mills reservoir was needed and should have been built in the 1970s. The need for water in Carroll County has been a basic health, safety, and welfare concern for public officials in Carroll County since the terrible drought of 2002.

To not go forward with the Union Mills reservoir would be an abrogation of one of the basic responsibilities of elected officials to Carroll County’s citizens. NIMBYism and misinformation cannot prevail.

In their January 18th, 2007 letter, the Carroll County Board of commissioners wrote:

“The need for a surface water supply for communities in northern Carroll County is real. We also believe that protecting and preserving nationally recognized sites of historic significance and irreplaceable farmland is equally important to our local, state and national well being.

Our reservoir concept, with minimal impact to the Pipe Creek Farm, satisfies both of these fundamental principles of government: protecting our past while planning for our future.”

####

20070309 My 2nd Grade Class picture

My 2^nd Grade Class picture

March 9^th, 2007

A few months back my wife and I had dinner with my 2^nd grade teacher, Mrs. Griffin. I borrowed our 2^nd grade class picture from her and I need to return it so I just got around to scanning it in this evening.

This picture was taken in March 1961 at East End Elementary School, in Westminster, Carroll County Maryland. At the time, East End was located at the corner of Green Street and Center Street in Westminster in the old Westminster High School which had been built in 1898. East End School closed quite a number of years ago.

The picture above depicts the school as it looked in 1908.

The old 1898 high school, in which East End was located, had moved in 1936 to the building on Longwell Avenue in Westminster. That building ceased to be high school in 1971. I was in the last graduating class.

When I attended East End, I lived about two blocks away at the corner of Washington Road and Green Street and walked to school every day – the source of many great memories to this day.

Schools located in the community are a wonderful thing and it makes me sad that so often they are now located on huge tracks of land in the middle of a cornfield outside of town.

In 1961 my family lived in an apartment in back of Samios Food Market.

The picture above is from the 1930s when it was then Ensor’s. Samios Food Market and the apartment where we lived was made into a Joni Mitchell song many years ago; “they tore down paradise and made it into a parking lot…

Across the street was the old Newark Shoe Factory which opened in late May 1925. When I lived on Green Street, it was the Westminster Shoe Factory and many folks in the neighborhood walked there to work.

Community markets, schools, and community employment were some of the main reasons for the quality of life that was Westminster when I was growing up in town.

Nowadays, schools located right in town are a thing of the past and community markets and employment are near impossible with this thing we call progress, err, Euclidean Zoning which most often will not allow the overlay of residences, markets and stores and work places. The again, perhaps it is not progress at all.

The corner of Green Street and Washington Road was essentially the site of Corbit’s Charge, a Civil War engagement on June 29^th, 1863 in the days just before the Battle of Gettysburg – which is one of the reasons for my continual fascination with that aspect of Westminster history – and history in general.

Someday – I’ll have an extra minute to sit down and keyboard all the names in the March 1961 photograph…

Meanwhile, enjoy the photos of a Westminster long ago, when we really had a wonderful quality of life and sense of community.

Oh – we still have a great quality of life in Westminster; it’s just different these days.

####

Dayhoff personal, History Westminster 1920s, Westminster File Ensor's Grocery, Westminster File Samios Grocery, Westminster File Green St E, Westminster Planning Zoning, Carroll Co Schools History, Carroll Co Schools Westminster H S, Carroll Co Schools East End ES, History Westminster, History Westminster old photos, Westminster File Newark Shoe Factory, Westminster File Westminster Shoe Factory, Urban planning Euclidean Zoning, Music Mitchell Joni, Dayhoff photo gallery

Carroll ‘unprepared’ to attract new jobs by Kelsey Volkmann

Carroll ‘unprepared’ to attract new jobs by Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner Mar 2, 2007

Carroll County - Carroll “is wholly unprepared to take advantage” of opportunities to attract new jobs, a new study reveals.

“Despite its size, location [and] educated and affluent population, Carroll’s economic performance is still that of a rural residential suburb,” according to a report from consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff, an international planning firm that built New York City’s first subway.

“Carroll’s current inventory of zoned industrial land is in the wrong places, too broken up and outside existing sewer and water services areas.”

Consultants presented their findings Thursday to the Economic Development Commission. The county hired them to:

» Evaluate the obstacles blocking new businesses from moving in.

» Offer suggestions on breaking Carroll from its status as a bedroom community.

» Help update the Pathways Plan, or road map for growth.

Land prices and the build-out of neighboring jurisdictions will push development here, consultants found, but Carroll has a “sparse network of state roads,” and 90 percent of its commercial parcels are five acres or smaller.

Consultants recommended that Carroll create more types of industrial and commercial zoning. Carroll has five basic kinds, while most nearby counties have between eight and 11.

This prevents Carroll from offering more mixed-use options where, for example, a factory sits next to offices, county spokeswoman Vivian Laxton said. The more businesses Carroll fosters, she said, the less of a tax burden residents will have to shoulder.

If officials don’t change their zoning, they will perpetuate tax-base imbalances, lose potential employment lands to houses and increase rush-hour traffic, the study shows.

All economic development hinges on Carroll finding more water sources in the face of looming shortages, County Planning Director Steve Horn said.
Meeting water and sewer demands for 2030 will cost $153 million, according to the study.

Tax bases

Commercial and industrial assessable tax bases by county

» Baltimore: 19 percent

» Howard: 18 percent

» Harford: 14 percent

» Carroll: 12 percent

Source: Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation

(Parsons Brinckerhoff used counties closest to Carroll for comparison)

Percentage of commuters who work outside county

» Carroll: 51.7 percent

» Howard: 51.6 percent

» Harford: 44.6 percent

» Baltimore: 29.5 percent

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

20070302 Carroll unprepared to attract new jobs kvbe

Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/)
Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/

Kevin Dayhoff: www.westgov.net Westminster Maryland Online www.westminstermarylandonline.net http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/