Neighbors say no to crisis center at former Tubman High
More than 60 neighbors and alumni of the former Harriet Tubman High School in Columbia packed a nearby church last week to say - almost unanimously - that their symbol of segregation and community history should not be transformed into a crisis support center.
For months, a coalition of nonprofit groups has been frustrated in its attempts to find suitable space under one roof to serve battered women, victims of sexual assault and people in need of shelter. Proposals in Ellicott City, Long Reach and Kings Contrivance were fiercely opposed.
This time, the dominating factor was not a concern for safety, although some residents had serious worries, but the site itself. The 54-year-old school, the first in Howard County to offer 12th grade for African-American students, is the only black high school still standing in the county.
School board critic sues regarding open meetings
School board critic Allen R. Dyer gave Howard Circuit Judge James B. Dudley more than 1,300 pieces of e-mail last week that he thinks will show that the county Board of Education was illegally conducting official business using private electronic messages instead of in a public forum.
Dyer's suit against the school board alleges that the board violated open-meetings and public records laws by holding regularly scheduled closed meetings, improperly releasing the minutes from open meetings and discussing official business by e-mail.
The former board candidate and frequent school system watchdog filed his original suit in November 2000 after learning about the board's biweekly 3 p.m. closed meetings that were not listed on the on the board's published agenda.
New senior center opens in Ellicott City
A new Howard County senior service center officially opened in Ellicott City last week. It is expected to provide seniors with a home away from home for recreation, health services and education.
Although the 12,500-square- foot center will provide lots to do, many seniors said the primary draw would be social. Most of the services will be free, with the exception of some classes and trips.
Slain girls' mother seeks to bar use of marital assets
Naoko Nakajima asked a Howard County Circuit Court judge to prevent her husband, Robert Emmett Filippi, from using their marital assets to defend himself against charges that he strangled their two young daughters. "Clearly, assets accumulated during a marriage should not be used in the criminal defense of someone accused of killing the children from that marriage," Nakajima's attorney, William G. Salmond, said in an interview.
Filippi had been seeking a divorce from Nakajima before the homicides. Filippi's lawyer said that his client's current situation might make it difficult to address any divorce-related matters. Last week, court officials expressed concern about Filippi's mental competence, and a District Court judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he can assist in his defense.
Chamber of Commerce assessing its problems
The Howard County Chamber of Commerce is used to helping point business owners in the right direction, but now the chamber is looking for guidance, and answers likely won't come quickly.
The board of directors is scheduled to have a retreat this week to evaluate itself, plan for the next 18 months and discuss the problems the group has faced in the past several months - the sudden resignation of its president and chief executive officer, and financial instability that left the group wondering if it would have to move its headquarters from its space in Columbia's Town Center.
Radio testing results appear to be positive
The biggest problem anyone encountered during two weeks of field tests for Howard County's new 800-megahertz communications system was one angry dog - pretty good, considering six teams tested 500 locations throughout the county.
The new system uses eight towers and one building around the county and state-of-the-art digital radios to provide significantly improved coverage for police, fire and rescue units that have long been hampered by lost signals and blind spots. Five towers, each 350 feet or higher, were built for the project.
Motorola is to submit a technical report to the county by early this week, but Victoria Goodman, the county's public information director, said the initial results seem positive.
Fund-raiser for athlete far exceeds initial goal
Students, teachers and coaches at Oakland Mills High School hoped they could play basketball, paint faces, auction Orioles' tickets and bake enough brownies to raise $25,000 for Rayna DuBose, the 18-year- old freshman at Virginia Tech University who is recovering from meningitis and amputation of her hands and feet.
At a recent school fair-turned-fund-raiser, hundreds of members of the Oakland Mills community helped make the $25,000 goal, and added nearly another $25,000.