Mary Pivar knows she might sound a little silly, but she is really concerned about median strips. She wants the beds of concrete and grass in Columbia's Wilde Lake village to be manicured, not looking like their current "bedraggled" state.
The strips should resemble The Mall in Columbia's landscaping, she said, where "the grass is all edged, and it looks like nobody has ever walked on it."
As a member of the Wilde Lake Revitalization Committee, Pivar will have a chance to make her case to county and business officials.
She is among about 50 village residents who are hitting the streets, taking notes on damaged infrastructure - cracked sidewalks, graffiti, broken streets lights - in an attempt to preserve their aging village.
The concerns may appear small, but the challenges the committee has tackled in the past, small and large - including replacing deteriorating power cables and building sidewalks - have helped shape perceptions of Columbia's oldest village, said Bernice Kish, the village manager.
"The little things add up to the general view of the village," she said. "If the residents live right there, it's a big thing to them."
The revitalization committee wants to survey the entire 35-year-old village, excluding private property. Interested residents packed a meeting room recently to learn about the effort.
"Wilde Lake is the historic district of Columbia," Kish told the crowd. "And we're going to be the best village Columbia has ever had because we're going to keep [the revitalization] up, and we're going to make it work."
The last time residents surveyed the village's infrastructure was in 1995, after Howard County Councilwoman Mary C. Lorsung formed a Columbia revitalization planning committee. Residents, senior county representatives and business officials meet quarterly to address concerns in the participating villages - Wilde Lake, Hickory Ridge, Harper's Choice, Town Center - and the Beaverbrook subdivision near Columbia.
Vince Marando, chairman of the Wilde Lake Revitalization Committee, said he does not know of any major problem areas in the village, but residents might bring some to light. The committee's survey results will be given to the Columbia revitalization group at its Nov. 20 meeting.
The Columbia committee has become a campaign issue for the candidates running for Lorsung's seat.
Republican candidate Joan Lancos said the committee empowers residents to take responsibility in their neighborhoods.
"If you have people who are
actively paying attention to their neighborhood, they are much more likely to report crime and say, 'I'm taking pride in my neighborhood,'" she said.
Democratic candidate Kenneth S. Ulman said if he were elected, he would quickly take care of small maintenance needs.
He also wants to creatively approach revitalization, such as offering tax incentives for remodeling older homes.
"Mary Lorsung has done a great job making people feel like there's a process in place in which they can see improvement in their community," he said.
"I look forward to taking the models that are put in place to the next level and being very proactive."
Community interest
After seven years, Marando said, it was time to re-survey the area while taking the opportunity to build on the interest in revitalization from the council candidates.
"It got a good boost from the campaign for County Council," Marando said. "We're expecting the two candidates to carry this forward."
Marando said he was surprised by the large attendance at the information meeting. Although, the heightened concern is typical for the village of 6,000, he said.
"This is the best embodiment of Columbia," Marando said.
"It really works like it was supposed to, with a lot of commitment and a lot of activists. There are many people who were here from the beginning who are buying into the culture of a new town and making it happen."
Pivar joined the committee to make sure that Wilde Lake, which she calls the "core of Columbia," does not have a failing infrastructure.
"It's important to me that the neighborhood retain the ambiance of graciousness that it had in the beginning," she said. "I also do not want to see Columbia go the way of most cities, where new is considered valuable and old is allowed to deteriorate."
After the village's survey results are turned over to the Columbia revitalization planning committee, Kish said, residents could see changes within weeks for small repairs, such as replacing light bulbs, to years for large projects, such as installing new light posts.
Since its formation, the Wilde Lake Revitalization Committee has implemented a number of improvements, including renovating the Faulkner Ridge community center, fixing an erosion problem on Placid Lake Court and repairing a deteriorating retaining wall in the Beechen Hills townhouse community.
Pooling resources
Gail Hare, an assistant to Lorsung, said the 8-by-40-foot retaining wall, made of railroad ties, was an example of how village members of the larger Columbia revitalization committee can pool their resources.
The town house community could not do it alone, she said. Last year, county officials used county crews and funds set aside for revitalization to fix the wall.
The Beechen Hills association is partially reimbursing the county, paying $15,000 over five years.
The Wilde Lake Village Board also contributed $2,400.
"If everyone does a little bit, it all works out," Hare said.
An effort in the aging Bryant Square neighborhood has been under way for about three years, repairing housing and infrastructure and improving lighting and landscaping.
This summer, the Wilde Lake committee also helped get 4,000 feet of underground deteriorating Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. cable replaced along Governor Warfield Parkway and Twin Rivers Road. That project should be completed by the end of this month.
Frustrated residents brought their concerns to the village board, Marando said.
To sustain its momentum on revitalization, Wilde Lake village has put $2,500 in its budget for projects.
Those small efforts, Marando said, help residents respect their property and preserve "the dream" of Columbia.
"If you don't see graffiti," he said, "you start to have pride, and you start to build on that."