St.Mary’sRykenHighSchoolattemptstorezone28-acresoflandsurroundingitscampussoitcaneventuallybuildan

Thursday, August 2, 2007 • St. Mary’s County, Maryland

Op.-Ed ..........Page A - 4Obits .............Page A - 8Navy News ...Page A - 9Community...Page B - 4Police ............Page B - 7Classifieds.....Page B - 9

For Continual News Updates

Visit:

somd.com

Local Weather

FridayPartly Cloudy

92°

PRSTD STD

US Postage Paid

Permit No. 145

Waldorf, MD

Childrens Day B-4

Swim Meet B-1

Inside

Established 2006 • Volume 2 • Issue 31 • FREE

SaturdayPartly Cloudy

92°

SundayPartly Cloudy

91°

ThursdaySunny 92°

By Adam RossStaff Writer

A mistake made 22 years ago by St. Mary’s Coun-ty’s Department of Land Use and Growth Management that improperly zoned the land surrounding St. Mary’s Ryken High School is slowing the school’s plans to im-prove athletic fields, according to Denis D. Canavan, di-rector of LUGM.

“Issues have been paramount now for two years,” said Canavan to the St. Mary’s Board of County Com-missioners at last week’s meeting, “but now we have a clear avenue to correct the mistake.”

In 1985, planners in LUGM zoned Ryken’s 28-acre campus as a Resource Conservation Area (RCA) in ac-cordance with 1984’s critical area law. What planners didn’t take into account was that Ryken was an institu-tion on property already connected to a sewer.

Under its current RCA zoning, Ryken is unable

to build new athletic fields to improve its athletics department.

“Ryken is at a point where they want to start deal-ing with their long range plans,” said Jeffrey Jackman, a senior planner with LUGM who sat in on a meeting at Ryken. “They’ll know better what they have to work with and design for future needs if they have an [Intense-ly Developed Area] classification.”

However, Mary Joy Hurlburt, president of Ryken said the school’s main motivation to get the land rezoned was to then request annexation into the town of Leon-ardtown. When asked why the annexation was desired, Hurlburt said “it is where we get our water and sewer from.”

If the rezoning classification and annexation are both granted, Hurlburt said the school will begin planning for a new athletic complex.

“We’re not even there,” added Hurlburt.

County Owns Up To Their Mistake on Ryken Zoning


Chess in St. Mary’s schools isn’t a completely new concept, but with funding from the state and loads of research suggesting that chess is a gateway to greater learning capacity, the community is working to en-courage more checkmates.

Students Pawn Basketball Shoes for Chess BoardsRook Takes Knight, Students Go Crazy


Maryland’s volunteer rescue squads are almost always forced to grovel, plead, sweat and work for money that provides oxygen to the county’s emergency man-agement services.

So when Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin announced Thursday a $52,106 grant award to the Hollywood Volunteer Rescue Squad Co. #79 (HVRS), the rescue work-ers were elated.

“All of our funding is through donation, begging or whatever,” said Robert Brookins, a Maryland certi-fied first responder, ambulance driver and president of the Hol-lywood Auxiliary. “For us to be chosen is a good thing.”

Brookins and company were just a day removed from the good news, and looking for-ward to the fitness equipment, medical evaluations and new blood borne pathogen resistant gloves and boots that the grant money would purchase.

“This means physical machinery and the renova-tions of a room to set that up,” Brookins said. “Everybody will be screened to ensure they are healthy when responding to help other people.”

For the third straight year, Brookins and his grant writing team submitted the operations and maintenance grants, which faced stiff competition from ap-proximately 23,000 rival appli-cations across the state.

Super Boost for Rescue Squad

By Guy LeonardStaff Writer

Farmers can add possibly toxic levels of nitrates in corn to their worries this sea-son on top of the drought that has withered much of their grain crop and forced them to feed hay to livestock.

Officials with the Maryland Coopera-tive Extension, an arm of the School of Ag-riculture and Natural Resources from the University of Maryland, say that corn and other crops cut down for animal feed that were stressed by the recent drought could cause illness in livestock if eaten.

“If we cut that corn down and feed it to the cattle, the levels of nitrates could be so high that it can be toxic to the cattle,” said Ben Beale, extension educator. “It can kill them or cause stunted growth.”

Cases of livestock suffering from ni-trate poisoning are not common, Beale said, but farmers should take advantage of free testing of their felled grain offered by the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

Farmers concerned about the safety of their grain can get the testing through the cooperative extension office, Beale said.

Drought Could Make Animal Feed ToxicO’Malley Seeks Federal Funds For Beleaguered Farmers

By Guy LeonardStaff Writer

The St. Mary’s County Health Department is warning county resi-dents about food that is being recalled for possibly being contaminated with botulism.

The food products come from the Castleberry Food Company in Augusta, Ga. and include 10-ounce cans of Cas-tleberry’s Hot Dog Chili Sauce, Austex Hot Dog Chili Sauce, and Kroger Hot Dog Chili Sauce with labels denoting the “best buy” range from April 30, 2009 through May 22, 2009.

The recall warning also includes about 80 other products types from Castleberry that may also be contami-nated according to one health official.

“There are a number of products ranging from chili sauce without beans

Health Department Issues Recall Warning For Contaminated Food


In last November’s election, St. Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron promised to tackle a systemic drug problem trickling its way deeper into the county, and now is poised to put the department’s money where his mouth is, even if somebody has to suffer.

As of Tuesday, Cameron received approval from the Board of County Commissioners to promote a Sergeant from within the sheriff’s department to a Lieutenant, charging that person with the duty of reorganizing and strength-ening the vice narcotics unit.

The promotion will cost $17,000 and likely complicate the department’s next budget cycle further than already predicted.

“I think we have a problem over the sheriff’s office with budgetary [mat-ters],” Commissioner Daniel H. Raley (D- Great Mills) said. “If the sheriff came in during the next budget and did not ask for one new initiative or one new personnel, his budget is still going up significantly.”

Commission President Francis Jack Russell (D- Piney Point) also expressed concern over the cost, adding that the promotion should have been part of the fiscal year 2007 budget cycle that con-cluded in June.

“I like Commissioner Russell would have preferred to done this at the budget hearings,” Raley added, “and looked at priorities.”

Cameron has aggressively fol-lowed his campaign promises, but the first budgetary implications of doing so appears ready to cast a dark cloud over the department. Raley warned Cam-eron that he would likely be before the commissioners in four or five months to request additional appropriations for overtime pay.

“Traditionally we kind of move monies around [to support that],” Raley

Sheriff Sacrifices Overtime Pay for Campaign Promise

See Rescue page B-5

See Contaminated page A-5

See Zoning page A-7

See Drought page A-7

See Chess page A-9

See Sheriff page A-5

St. Mary’s Ryken High School attempts to rezone 28-acres of land surrounding its campus so it can eventually build an athletic complex.

Photo by Adam Ross

Students test their chess savvy against teacher Janine Craven at the 21st Century/Boys and Girls Club After School Program at George Washington Carver Elementary School in February of 2006.

Photo Courtesy of St. Mary’s County Public Schools

SectionA-� The County Times Thursday,August�,�007

Burnt Mill Trucking240-925-9721

Daryl Huber

• Materials conveyed up to 60ft• Basements and crawl spaces• Into trenches and drain tile

• Over fences & other difficult areas• Many types of aggregate

• Topsoil, fill dirt, and more

Save Time &Money

AmyKaperStaffWriter

The River Concert, heldon Friday, July 27th, broughtin hundreds of viewers for a

nightoffreepiratethemedor-chestralmusic.

The River Concert issponsoredbySt.Mary’sCol-lege and runs for five week-ends every summer. This isitsninthyearrunning.

Thedirectorforthisyear’sselection was Jeffrey Silber-schlag,themusicaldirectoratthecollege.

Siberschlag himself puttogether the entire musicalprogram, including choosingthe theme and all the per-formedsongs.

The theme for this par-ticular concert was “Swash-buckling Under the Stars.” The selections featured wereDebussy’s “La Mer,” Berber’s “Concerto for Piano,” Gersh-win’s “I Got Rhythm Varia-tions,” Korngold’s “Robin Hood Suite” and “Overture to Captain Blood,” Waxman’s “Anne of the Indes,” Debney’s “Cut Throat Island,” and an-other of Korngold’s, the “Sea

Hawk Orchestra.”The orchestra was com-

posed of approximately 100 instrumentalistsfromalloverMaryland. Some were fromthe Kennedy Center, some from the Baltimore orchestra, andevensomefromthemili-tary band. A few memberswereattendeesandfacultyofSt.Mary’sCollege.

The orchestra practicedtheirpiecestogetherforeightweeks, twice a week at Bowie State University and at St. Mary’sCollegetheFridaybe-foretheperformance.

The series takes nearly a whole year to complete. Bar-bara Bershon, the director for the entire event, said, “We take a short breather in Au-gustbutafterthat,it’sstraightto work again preparing the next year’s event.”

Hundreds of volunteersare needed to make this event possible. Several businessesand even individuals givethe money needed to createthe event. “We have so many fantastic people giving theirmoneytous,weowealottotheir support,” said Bershon.

Between the sponsors, thevolunteers,thesoundandlightingtechnicians,andeventhe food vendors, the RiverConcert takes a lot of work, but according to Bershon, it’s wellworth it tobring“beau-tifulmusictotheresidentsofSt. Mary’s County.”

St. Mary’s College willhold this event next year as well. Information canbeob-tainedontheirwebsitewww.riverconcertseries.com orthrough Barbara Bershon, 240-895-4107.

St.Mary’sCollegeProvidesFreeMusicalEvent

ByGuyLeonardStaffWriter

Officials with State’s At-torney Richard Fritz’s office say theyarewaitingonare-port from theDepartmentofJuvenileServicestodeterminewhether a 16-year-old from Valley Lee should be tried in adult court for allegedly try-ing to hire an assassin to kill his parents back in June.

Pending that report theOffice of the Public Defender has made a motion with theCircuitCourttohaveCoryJ.RydertriedinJuvenileCourt.

John Getz, supervisor of

the public defender’s office here in St. Mary’s filed the motion July 13.

Getz’s motion states that Ryder has “not been sub-jectedtoanytreatmentavail-ableunder the jurisdictionoftheJuvenileCourt.Therearemany avenues of treatmentthat could be explored with-in the [juvenile justice sys-tem] to help rehabilitate thedefendant.”

“He is still a juvenile,” Getz said of one reason to not try him as an adult. “We hope to prevail.”

Assistant States Attor-

ney Joseph Stanalonis madethemotionJuly24toopposemovingRyder’s trial to juve-nilecourt,accordingtocourtrecordsinSt.Mary’sCountyCircuitCourt.

Court documents statethatRyderwillbeupfortrialin December, with proceed-ingssettolastfourdays.

The state’s motion thatwould keep Ryder in the adult justice systemstated that theseverity of Ryder’s allegedcrimes meant he should betriedasanadult.

Ryder is currentlycharged with two counts of

attempted first-degree murder andtwocountsofsolicitationofmurder.

The solicitation countswereaddedonceRyder’scasecametotheSt.Mary’sCountyCircuitCourtforreview.

Ryder could face life inprisonifconvicted.

Stanalonissaidthatwith-out the report from the De-partmentofJuvenileServicesdetailing Ryder’s conditionandtheseverityofthecrime,he automatically put in themotionopposingthemovetojuvenilecourt.

He said that if the re-port recommends that Ry-derbe tried in juvenilecourthis office could agree to that proposal.

“While Mr. Ryder didn’t succeedinhavinghisparentsmurdered he did take a pret-ty substantial towards that,” Stanalonis said. “Based on what I know now I wouldn’t have a problem recommend-ingthathestayinadultcourt.

“But we’ll wait for

the report to make that determination.”

According to chargingdocuments, Bureau of Crimi-nal Investigators allege thatRyder, attempted to hire oneoftheirundercoveroperativesto kill both of his parents June 2;investigatorsallegethatRy-der made statements earlierthathewantedtohireacon-tract killer and investigators saytheylearnedofthisfroma confidential source.

Investigatorsconductedacovert operation at a Lexing-ton Park motel and the under-cover operative met up withRydertheretodiscusstheal-legeddeal.

ChargingdocumentsstatethatRyderandtheundercoveroperative started a conversa-tionabouttheallegedschemeand a formal agreement wasallegedlymadeatRyder’sre-quest tohave theundercoveroperative kill Ryder’s parents.

Ryderandtheundercoverofficer also reached an agree-ment,chargingdocumentsal-

lege,astothemethodofpay-ment for the contract killings ofhismotherandstepfather.

When asked how he wanted the murders to goahead, Ryder allegedly said:“Two bullets is all it takes.”

Once the agreement was made, charging documentsstate, other undercover of-ficers who were conducting video and audio surveillanceof the meeting placed Ryderunderarrest.

The case stunned thecommunityandgarneredna-tional media attention for abrieftime.

Before the alleged inci-dent, investigators said thatRyder had moved out of hisparents house because disci-plinaryissuesandcourtpaperstatedthathehadquitschoolasofAprilthisyear.

Ryderisstillbeingheldindetentionpendinghistrial.

JuvenileAccusedOfMurder-for-hireCouldBeTriedAsAnAdult


Investigators with thecounty’s Bureau of Criminal Investigationshavearrestedamantheybelievewasrespon-sible for breaking into and stealing valuable items fromthesamehousetwiceinJuly.

Lt. Rick Burris, BCI commander, said increasedburglariesinthecountywereto be expected because of the rapidlyincreasingpopulation,but this type of crime wasunique.

“It’suncommonforaresi-dence to be burglarized again,” Burris said. “It’s unusual.”

Burris said investigators hadno indication thatChris-topher Leon Watson, 18, of Lexington Park, their suspect in thedual burglary,was in-volved in any other burglar-ies that have occurred in thecounty but would look into othercasestoseeifthereareconnections to Watson.

According to chargingdocuments, Watson allegedly broke into the victim’s Lex-ington Park home for the first time on July 12 and stole jew-elry, cash and a video gameplaysystemaswellasgamesthatwerewiththesystem.

That alleged crime,charging documents read,was worth about $3,000.

The charging documentsfurther allege that Watson again stole the same kind of items from the victim’s resi-

dence,includinga.22caliberhandgun, during the July 26 incidentallvaluedatlessthan$500.

Burris said Watson was oneoftheirleadsuspectsinthefirst burglary investigation.

“We’d developed him as a suspect in the July 12 inci-dentandthenwhendetectiveswent to arrest him on July 26 they were able to determinethat he had already burglar-izedthesamehomethatsameday,” Burris said, adding that investigators were unsurewhy Watson allegedly chose thatparticularhome.

Charging documents al-lege that an anonymous wit-ness who came into posses-sionofsomeofthereportedlystolenitemshadcontactedpo-liceregardingtheburglaryofJuly 12 just a few days after it occurredwithinformation.

When investigators went to Watson’s home to interview him about the first burglary, charging documents read,Watson admitted to the first burglarybygoingthroughthewoods to thevictim’snearbyhome, cut the power to theirhouse and entered by break-ing the screening on one ofthewindows.

Investigatorsallegeinthecharging documents that Wat-sonhadhandedoversomeofthereportedlypurloineditemsandthathehadsoldorgivenawayothers.

When the items were returned to the police sta-

PoliceArrestManForBurglarizingSameHouseTwice

tion and the victim came toclaim them, they informedinvestigators that their homehad again been burglarized,according to charging docu-ments, and investigators gotan admission to the secondcrime from Watson.

Police report that Watson usedthesamemethodtogainentrytothevictim’shome.

Chargingdocumentsreadthat investigators had beguntheir interview with Watson about 10 minutes after he re-turned from allegedly bur-glarizingthevictim’shome.

A search warrant re-vealed, charging documentsallege, more items at Watson’s home that matched the de-scription of the items stolenfromthevictim’shome.

Watson is being held without bail and faces a maxi-mum sentence of 20 years for each of the two counts of first degree burglary against himas well as a maximum sen-tence of 15 years or $25,000 for theft in an amount morethan $500.

The “River Concert” orchestra performed for an audience of hundreds. Photo By Amy Kaper

Thursday, August 2, 2007 The County Times Section A - �


The Lexington Park Li-brary has been transformed, reinvented and rebuilt under the watchful eye of Janice Hummel, the branch’s chief who has worked tirelessly for 20 years to ensure the library’s stability long after her retirement this month.

Hummel arrived to the branch in 1988 as a part-time reference librarian. It took her just two years to advance to branch chief, a position she would hold for 17 years.

Over two decades, as the world evolved technological-ly and the nature of education broadened, Hummel stood at the forefront, piecing togeth-er a library the community could be proud of.

In fact, Hummel believes the three years it took to con-struct and organize the build-ing the library occupies to-day as her most “memorable achievement.”

“Coordinating that ac-tivity and trying to open the doors and have everything ready…” said Hummel, who couldn’t help but release a tired sigh when thinking about the arduous battle she and her staff went through in opening the library. “I re-member going home one day when we were in the process and thinking, ‘I made 100 decisions today.’”

Hummel laid the ground-work out, literally, but it is perhaps the work she did later that will be the most celebrated; a list so extensive Hummel dared not name those achievements without the aid of a self-crafted list.

Sitting at a round wood table located comfortably in-side of her office, Hummel peered down at two sheets of white computer paper, keenly moving through a list of programs, activities and construction projects she had a hand in. She took her time when reading those achieve-ments, a modest approach to highlight quality over quantity.

She read off six crown-ing achievements includ-ing: Indexing the old Saint Mary’s Beacon newspa-per published from 1852 to 1980; starting up Lexington Park Library’s coffee bar, the Library Café; and imple-menting the branch’s art gal-lery exhibit.

After the six, she pushed the paper to the side and said “I think that’s enough, any more and it gets boring.” For her, that may be true, but for the thousands of people who continually benefit from the free services she has worked unremittingly to offer, the smiles, laughs and “thank yous” will probably never get old.

“I’ll miss interacting with people,” Hummel fires off when asked what she will miss the most about the li-brary; the first question she answered without the slight-est hesitation, “And listening to their wonderful compli-ments and comments.”

That job will now be left to Terri Tresp, Hummel’s anxiously overwhelmed replacement. Just before Hummel’s interview, she was finishing up a train-ing session with Tresp, who comes from Ann Arundel County. Tresp stood straight up, feet firmly planted, and rotated her head 180 degrees across the library, appearing to take in the enormity of her new role.

Hummel offered to answer any questions she might have, and Tresp let out a slight laugh, suggesting there wasn’t enough time in the day to answer questions whose likely only answers come from experience.

After all, one lesson learned from Hummel’s ca-reer is that the pride and admiration earned in one’s work often comes from building a new path, just as long as it leads to the same place. And according to Hummel’s distinguished col-leagues, she didn’t just build

the path, she helped mold the place it leads to.

“Janice is one of those unique librarians who not only understands the minu-tia of our library business, but she also constantly kept focused on connecting with the many facets of a library’s community to ensure that the library services reflected the needs and wants our diverse residents,” said Kathleen Reif, director of St. Mary’s County Library. “Janice cre-ated a community’s library, not a librarian’s library. It is this legacy that we will work hard to maintain.”

From Hummel’s two successful grant applica-tions, which fitted the library in 2003 with equipment and furniture for a computer lab, and in 2004 with a NASA exhibit, her achievements are still felt in St. Mary’s County.

Commissioner Daniel H. Raley of Great Mills said the district “was a better place because of her.”

Now, as the book on

her career that started at the University of Maryland with a master’s in library sci-ence comes to a close, Hum-mel said she is looking for-ward to travel-ing and work-ing on hobbies. She has been married for 32 years, has two daughters and nine more days until retire-ment: just con-sult the wall outside her office, where c o w o r k e r s have installed a countdown. And it is not because they want to see her go.

Lexington Park Branch Chief Calls It A Career

Janice Hummel, Lexington Park branch chief shows off the extensive children’s section she helped build over her 20-year career with St. Mary’s County.

Photo by Adam Ross

SectionA-� The County Times Thursday,August2,2007

EveryonewholivesinSt.Mary’s County knows thatillegal drug distribution anduse in our community is acrimethatmustbeaddressed.Mostpeoplehavebeenpain-fully aware of the increasein drug related activities forsome time. Illegaldrugsaretherootofmostcrimesinourcountytodayanditistimeourcommunity stagesa “warondrugs”.

SheriffTimothyCameronhas promised to do just that.Through his many years inlawenforcementCameronhasseen first hand the growth in illegaldrugsand thedamageithascausedinthepast,andjustasimportant,thethreatitposes upon the youth of ourcommunityintothefuture.

SheriffCameronhasalsoheardfromthecitizens.Dur-inghiscampaignforelection,Cameronheardfromthecom-

munity their concerns aboutillegaldrugs,andvowedtodosomethingabouttheproblem.Cameron has shown steadyprogress

focusing his departmentinorder to achievebetter re-sults based upon strategicplanning.Heisnowreadytodeliver to thecommunitythetroopsreadytobattlethedrugbadguys.

There is much at stakehere and every communityleader should get behind theSheriff in his efforts. Weshouldexpectresultsaswell.It’snot justagameofsittingon the side lines and rootingtheteamon,weneedtogivethe Sheriff the resources heneeds to fight the battle and the Sheriff should provideupdatesonprogress,showheand his department can andarewinning thebattle. Thisisapriority;givehimsupport

anddemandresults.Unfortunately, on Tues-

daytheBoardofCountyCom-missionersexpressedconcernregardingtheSheriff’sefforts.When Sheriff Cameron re-quested to use funds alreadyallocated to the sheriff’s de-partment tocreateaLieuten-antpositiontoleadtheeffortsof a reconstituted narcoticsunit, several commissionersexpressedreservation.

Commissioners RaleyandRussellexpresseddoubts,withRussellvotingagainstthe“warondrugs”.Commission-er Raley was concerned thatthere were budget problemslooming in the Sheriff’s office andthoseproblemswouldbedifficult to deal with during nextyearsbudgetprocess.

WhileRaley is right, theproblem is he and the othercommissioners created theproblem. Former Sheriff

DaveZylakwasgivenablankcheck to spend at an alarm-ing increase. In fact, from2003totoday,thesheriff’sof-fice spending increased from $15.6 million to $26.7 mil-lionperyear.Anincreaseinspending of 70% in just five yearswhilethecounty’spop-ulationincreasedbylessthan15%during thesameperiod.ZylakwasrecentlyappointedbythisBoardofCommission-erstoheadtheDepartmentofPublicSafety.

During the four years ofbudget approvals with Zylakas sheriff only one commis-sioner objected to this levelof spending increases, lead-ing that commissioner to bethelonenovotetwice,votingagainst the 2006 final budget andagainstthe2007proposedbudget.Thatonecommission-erisnolongerontheboardashedidnotseekre-electionas

commissioner.The commissionerswere

constantly warned year afteryear that spending increasessuchasthiscouldnotbesus-tained in future years, creat-inganagencywhich taxpay-ers could not afford to fundwithouttaxincreases.

Thebiggerproblemwiththe out of control growth inspendingwas the lackof ac-countability. Crime contin-ued to grow, programs werecutbacksuchasthe“DARE”programwhichprovidedanti-drugawarenesstoelementaryschool students, and no planwas ever presented to showhow more money would bespenttoproduceasafercom-munity. In fact,duringonebudget session, the formerSheriffwasaskedwhetherornot adding five new deputies to his force would result in five more deputies on the street,

the formerSheriff respondedthat he could not guaranteethat.

While the commis-sioners are faced with signifi-cantbudgetchallenges in theupcoming years, this Sheriffcannotbeblamedforthemis-takes of the past. Both thecommissioners and theSher-iffwillhavetoworktogetherto find solutions to the budget probleminthefuture.Inthemeantime, theSheriff shouldbe encouraged to refocus hisdepartment and his expendi-turestobettermeetthecom-munitiesneeds.

The plan to attacktheproblemofillegaldrugsisonethecommunitywantsandneeds,weapplaudtheSheriffforhisstrategyandaction,weawaitpositiveresults.

On Saturday, June9th more than one thousandpeople walked through thedoors of the Charlotte HallLibrary to celebrate 25yearsofcommunityservice.Manymorepeoplebrowsed the in-formational tables outside,shoppedthefarmer’smarket,andwalked theThreeNotchTrailtotheSt.Mary’sCountyWelcome Center, NorthernSenior Center and Historic

Charlotte Hall. It was trulya Charlotte Hall communitycelebration.

Iwouldliketothankthe following for their helpwith the planning and orga-nizing: MarieNoelle Laut-ieri,EleanorRitchie,CynthiaWright, Teri Wilson, KathyBailey, Carolyn Laray, JimSwift, Dan Donahue, DonnaSasscer, Fred Shroyer, Mari-lynLash,MaryFoley,andthe

CharlotteHallLibrarystaff. Thank you goes to

the following organizationsand volunteers for partici-pating: Dr. JaniceWalthour,Dr. JosephRoyGuyther, JoeDunn, Carol Moody, HenryFowler, The Wright Family,Southern Maryland Decora-tive Painters, Christmas inApril St. Mary’s County,Association of SouthernMaryland Beekeepers, Fifth

District Homemakers Club,Farm Life Festival, Mechan-icsvilleOptimists,7:30Club,St. Mary’s County Sheriff’sDepartment, MechanicsvilleVolunteer Fire Department,ChapticoChargers4-HClub,St.Mary’sCountyHealthDe-partment, Friends of ThreeNotchTrail,St.Mary’sCoun-tyWelcomeCenter,NorthernSenior Center, Saint Anne’sAnglican Catholic Church,Charlotte Hall Veteran’sHome, St. Mary’s CountyDepartment of Economic &CommunityDevelopment,St.Mary’s County Recreation,Parks&CommunityServic-es, Department of Land Use&GrowthManagement.

Thank you to the

following local businesses,organization and individu-als for their sponsorship:Apple Basket Antiques,BuddsCreekMotocrossPark,Charlotte Hall Car Wash,Charlotte Hall Radio Shack,County First Bank, CountyWide Pool Service, DunkirkSupply, Dr. Garner Morgan,DDS, 84 Lumber, Friendsof theSt.Mary’sCountyLi-brary, Long & Foster Real-tors, M&T Bank, Margaret& Rich Thaler, MercantileSouthernMarylandBank,Mr.Tire, Northern Senior Cen-terCouncil,Nancy’sGuys&GalsHairSalon,Pat’sCornerAntiques,Rita’sWaterIce,St.Mary’s County DepartmentofAging,SeymourNewAuto

Parts,SchoenbauerFurnitureService, Inc., Shear Image,Sounds of the Boardwalk,SouthernMarylandRegionalLibrary, Southern MarylandStatuary,SouthernTireAutoService,TidewaterVeterinaryHospital,TrueValue,UniqueChic,WentworthNurseryInc,andWintersChiropractic.

If anyone has beenomitted, please forgive me.Thanks to all who partici-pated and attended our 25thBirthdaycelebration!

MaryAnneBowmanBranchManagerCharlotteHallBranchSt.Mary’sCountyLibrary301-884-2211x1006

Editorial&Opinion

P.O.Box250•Hollywood,Maryland20636

News, advertising, circulation, classifieds: 301-373-4125

JamesManningMcKay-Publisher

Tobie Pulliam - Office [email protected]

AdamRoss-GovernmentCorrespondent..............adamross@countytimes.net

AndrewKnowlton-SportsCorrespondent...... [email protected]

GuyLeonard-CommunityCorrespondent................guyleonard@countytimes.net

EileenMcDonald-AdvertisingRep...............eileenmcdonald@countytimes.net


Investigators with St.Mary’s County Bureau ofCriminal Investigation saythatamilitarymanisalleg-edly responsible for stab-bing another after an alter-cation at a party July 27 inGreatMills.

Thesuspectinthestab-bing, Alex E. Serrano, 21,ofLexingtonPark,hasbeencharged with first and sec-onddegreeassaultandfacesa maximum sentence of 25

years for the first count and a possible 10 years for thesecond.

The accused is a fire-armsinstructoratthePatux-entRiverNavalAirStation,according to informationfromBCI,andtheEmergen-cyServicesTeamperformedthearrest.

John Romer, public af-fairs officer for the naval airstation,saidSerranoisagunner’smate3rdclassandworks at the indoor firing rangeonbase.

“We used the tactical

team because of the natureof thecrime,”saidLt.RickBurris, commander of BCI.“Hewas taken intocustodywithoutincident.”

According to police re-ports,thesuspectandtheal-legedvictim,JoshuaWoode,got into a fight at a private party on Bective Way inGreatMills.

Thechargingdocumentsagainst Serrano allege thatwitnesses of the fight said hewas the aggressor in thealtercation.

Woode went to St.

Mary’s Hospital Center fortreatmentofastabwoundinhisbacknearthekidneythathadtobestapledshut.

In the charging docu-ments, investigators saidSerranoadmittedtopickingup a knife during the alter-cation and punched Woodewhile the knife was in hishand.

Burrissaidinvestigatorswerestilltryingtoascertainhow the fight started.

“It’s really unclear,”Burris said. “Theywere ar-guing but we haven’t got-

ten a clear reason for thealtercation. Witnesses havegiven several reasons butwehaven’tmadeadetermi-nationyet.”

Thestabbingtookplacearound3:15a.m.,policere-ports read, and the tacticalteamarrestedSerranoathishomeatabout9:30a.m.thatsameday.

Cliff Everton, specialagent in charge of the Na-val Criminal InvestigativeService branch at Pax Riv-er, said itwasunclearwhatchargesSerranowould face

fromthemilitaryasaresultoftheincident.

“Right now it’s St.Mary’s purview,” EvertontoldTheCountyTimes.“Ittook place in town and thecommandwillhavetomakeadecisionlaterastowhattodowithhim.”

Everton said NCISwas assisting BCI in itsinvestigation.

Serrano was assigned a100 percent $20,000 bondto be released from the St.Mary’s County detentioncenter. His next court ap-pearance is scheduled forAug.24.

PaxRiverSailorArrestedInStabbing

CharlotteHallLibraryCelebrated25YearswithCommunitySupport

ByAdamRossStaffWriter

St.Mary’sCountypumpsall of its water from threeaquifers located deep belowthe earth’s surface, one ofwhich may be facing extinc-tion sooner than county offi-cialsexpectedifa2002reportfrom the Maryland Depart-ment of Natural ResourcesonthewatersupplyfromtheAquiaprovesfactual.

According to the report,water levels in the Aquiareached a critically low levelin2000,andshouldnolongerbedrawnfrom.IftheAquiaweretodryup,itcouldnotberesurrected.

The four-page 2002 re-

portwasunexplainablyover-looked when the same teamput together its 2005 Mary-land Geological Survey Tri-County Report, according toJohnB.Wheeler,chairmanoftheSt.Mary’sCommissiononthe Environment and WaterPolicyTaskForce.

“I don’t know why itwasn’tcitedandneitherdoesthe Maryland Geographicalsurvey…,” Wheeler said infrontoftheSt.Mary’sBoardof County CommissionersTuesday.“ThereportsaidtheAquia has reached its maxi-mum allowable yield, mean-ing tous thatnobody shouldbe pumping anymore wateroutoftheaquifer.”

That conclusion however

wasnotpartofthetaskforce’s2005 report, endorsed bythe commissioners in 2006,whichsaidtheAquiacouldbetapped for another 23 years,even with a population in-creaseof67,000.The2005re-port furtherconcluded that itwouldbeinthebestinterestofSt.Mary’stotapthePatapscoaquifer forallmajorsubdivi-sions,thussavingwaterlevelsoftheAquiaandPineyPoint/Nanjemoyfornewhomeown-ersandsmallsubdivisions.

While the original con-tentsofthe2002reportwerefocusedonAquia’swaterlev-elsforAnneArundelCounty,Wheelersaiditscontentshasimplications for St. Mary’sCountyaswell.

“The problem we see isourcountywaterpolicyenvi-sionsthecontinueduseoftheAquia, with no intention tostop using [it]… Alternativesourcesmustbeexplored,”headded.

The task force is plan-ning to recheck the systemand identify the conflicts between the 2002 and 2005reports, Wheeler said. Butin the meantime, St. Mary’swill continue to pull fromthe Aquia, which accordingto data released in 1994 hadreceded by 120 feet in somepartsofLexingtonPark.

The report given to thecommissionersTuesdaytitled“2007UpdateonAPotentialWaterSupplyProblem,”drew

noclearanswersbutdidcallfortheexplorationofalterna-tivesourcesandanaquiferre-chargearea.

Commissioner LawrenceJarboe (R- Golden Beach)asked citizens to cut theirwater consumption, whichis at approximately 60 gal-lons a day per capita in St.Mary’s County, according todatagatheredbyWheelerandMETCOM.

“Theproblemisn’tpeoplein the future,” Jarboe added,“it’s thepeopletoday,weareallusingtoomuchwater.”

Aquifers are not under-ground rivers – a commonpublic misconception – butratheracollectionofsandandgavel that when dewatered

packtogetherwithirrevocabledamagetotheaquifer,accord-ing to METCOM DirectorSteven L. King. Therefore,if the tri-county area werewrong, the impact would belasting.

“Weneedtorampuptheurgencyhere,”saidSt.Mary’sCounty Administrator JohnSavich, who is planning tosendoutletterstoDysonandtheentirestatedelegation.

Land Use and GrowthManagement Director De-nisD.CanavanremindedtheBBOC that house bill 1141“requires every jurisdictionto preparewater resource el-ements”initscomprehensiveplanby2009.

ReportConcludesThreatToCounty’sWaterSupply

CommissionersCreatedBudgetProblemsForSheriff’sDepartment,NotCurrentSheriff


The funding rewarded a long and taxing process for the unit’s grant writing com-mittee, who attended grant-writing workshops and spent countless hours preparing the application.

In a written statement posted on the unit’s website, EMT Sarah Lacey said the “countless hours huddled around a laptop preparing the FEMA Assistance for Fire-fighters Grant Application” had finally paid off.

The grant funding is part of a program set up through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s As-sistance to Firefighters Grant

Program (AFGP). For years, the grant was limited to only fire departments, but in the past three years has been opened up to non-affiliated EMS units.

“First responders are our true heroes, protecting our homes, our businesses and our communities,” said Mikulski, who serves on the Homeland Security Ap-propriations Subcommittee that funds the AFGP. “I’m grateful for the sacrifices they make everyday.”

The grant covers 95 per-cent of the proposed changes HVRS plans to implement, 15 percent more than non-rural units who have a higher tax base and must fund larger portions of such an initiative.

In sum, HVRS will have to come up with approxi-

mately $2,200 to fill the unit’s grant needs, Brookins said.

A representative from Mikulski’s office notified the unit of the award July 25, and statements were later released by both Mikulski and Cardin.

“Firefighter grants repre-sent a major effort by the Fed-eral government to ensure that our nation’s first responders have the equipment and train-ing they need to do the job,” Cardin said in the release.

AFGP grants fund fire-fighting equipment, personal protection equipment, train-ing, firefighting vehicles, fire-fighter/fire responder safety projects, and staffing recruit-ment and retention. Mary-land fire departments and fire service organizations have received approximately $48.3 million through the AFGP.

RescueContinued from page A-�

to chicken and beef stew,” said Daryl Calvano, director of Environmental Health of the recalled products. “I have sanitarians [inspectors] in their regular inspections look-ing for the products.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the warning and product recall last week.

According to informa-tion from the county health department the FDA has not traced any of the recalled products to St. Mary’s Coun-ty, but Dr. William Icenhower, the county’s chief health offi-cer, is concerned for the pub-lic health because of the sheer volume shipped of the prod-ucts in question.

The county health depart-ment warned that anyone in possession of these recalled products should throw them

away immediately; if the “best by” dates are not readable they should also be thrown out the health department advised.

The same information from the county health de-partment stated that the re-called products are being found on shelves in smaller grocery stores, dollar stores, independent food stores, drug store chains and convenience stores.

Icenhower is also con-cerned that the recalled prod-ucts might make it into local food pantries inadvertently as donations.

Botulism can be fatal, ac-cording to the county health department, and symptoms can show up from six hours to two weeks after eating the contaminated food.

Those symptoms can in-clude doubled or blurred vi-

sion, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth and muscle weak-ness that moves progressively downward throughout the body.

The muscle weakness af-fects the shoulders first, the county health department stated, moving to the upper arms, lower arms, thighs, calves and so on.

Botulism poisoning can also paralyze the muscles re-sponsible for allowing a per-son to breath and can be fatal.

The county health depart-ment warns that anyone who shows these symptoms, or who has consumed the recalled products should get medical treatment immediately.

For more information about the recall visit the FDA Web site at www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/castleber-ry.html#recall.

Residents can also call the health department at 301-475-4330 for more information.

ContaminatedContinued from page A-�

NEWSPAPERADVERTISINGgets snipped... gets saved... gets sales!

Advertise Your Business In A

Community-Based Newspaper That

Reaches Over 11,000 household

weekly!

(301)-373-4125Call Us Today To Start Making

Your Advertising Campaign A Success.

Professional Sales Team•Creative Ad Designs• Competitive Rates

said. “We could have a tough time with that now.”

Cameron said he was aware that his crime fighting initiatives, namely strengthen-ing the narcotics unit, would render shortfalls elsewhere.

“We’ve discussed and un-derstand the short-term impli-cations,” Cameron said of the overtime pay, “and we know that’s a factor.”

Promoting a sergeant is only the first step in Camer-on’s vision for a powerful nar-cotics unit aimed at tackling the drug rings that have grown with the county’s population.

There are currently seven personnel working in the nar-cotics unit, adding the lieuten-ant would make eight, and if the plan is followed, Cameron would bring on the ninth of-ficer by the end of the school year, he said.

“My scope is to make the vice narcotics unit self-contained,” Cameron added. “The more people that know the more chance information will be leaked out.”

By adding to the unit, Cameron can shut off the administrative flow from the rest of the department, which will greatly enhance the unit’s ability to keep intelligence and busts on an uninterrupted streamline.

The new lieutenant will have considerable administra-tive tasks, but will also have the opportunity to help on the street level, a factor that swayed Raley to authorize the promotion.

Russell however voted against the measure, saying it was a “worthy cause,” but he would like to see Camer-on’s plan play out in a budget session.

Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D- Leonard-town) voted for the promotion, and said that because drug use

is a significant problem in the county, Cameron would need additional help.

“I watched recently sur-veillance on a couple of op-erations,” Mattingly added. “The operations went down, but you have to keep picking at them, you can’t solve them overnight because there back up and running as soon as you shut them down.”

The commissioners re-cently approved the hiring of four additional sheriff’s depu-ties to be filled over fiscal year 2007. Those hires would likely be completed by Octo-ber or November of 2007, ac-cording to Erin Shoemaker, fiscal manager of the sheriff’s department.

SheriffContinued from page A-�

The Hollywood Volunteer Rescue Squad will receive a grant to update equipment and health initiatives in the department.

Photo by Adam Ross


Route 246 & Great Mills Rd.Lexington Park, MD 20653

301-862-7702

Wildewood Shopping CenterCalifornia, MD 20619

301-866-5702

Route 5 & Mohawk DriveCharlotte Hall, MD 20622301-884-5636

Route 245Hollywood, MD 20636

301-475-2531

The Shops at Breton BayLeonardtown, MD 20650301-997-1828 Local

Tomatoes On Sale!

AmyKaperStaffWriter

Lastweekend,thetheatertroupe “Summerstock” per-formedtheGershwinmusicalcomedy“CrazyForYou.”

The play was original-ly written under the name“GirlCrazy”inthe1930sbyGeorge and Ira Gershwin. Itwasadaptedintothemodernversion by playwright KenLudwig.“CrazyForYou”fea-turesseveraldifferentGersh-

win songs, some from “GirlCrazy” and some from vari-ous other Gershwin showsandmovies.Ludwig’sversionwonaTonyAwardin1992.

Theplay is set induringthe Great Depression. It fol-lows the lifeofBobbyChild(playedby2007Leonardtowngraduate Bradley Silvestro),thesonofawell-to-dobank-er.Child’sdreaminlifeis todance,buthismother(playedby 21 year-old Tessa Silves-tro) has other plans for him.

Whensheaskshim to traveltoDeadrock,Nevadatoclaima small theater that failed tomakeitspayments,Childre-luctantly agrees, wanting toescapefromthepressuresofNewYorkCityandhisobses-sive ex-fiancée Irene Roth, played by Chopticon seniorHannielSindelar.

After arriving in Ne-vada,Childmeetsthetheaterowner’sdaughter,PollyBaker(21 year-old Jenna Riehl), and immediatelyfallsinlovewith

her.Inadesperateattempttowin her heart, Child imper-sonates famous theater own-er Bela Zangler (played byLeonardtownseniorMatthewVirts)andcalls inNewYorkdancers to assist him in put-tingonashowthatwillraisemoney tokeep the theater inbusiness.

DirectorBethanyWallacehasdirectedthelasttwoshowsat Summerstock. When thepreviousdirectorgaveupherpost after moving two years

ago,shereferred23year-old,music education major Wal-lace to the post.Wallace feltprivilegedtobeable toworkwithsuchtalentedcastsinhershows. “Every cast memberwas very unique. They allbrought something differenttotheshow,”shesaid.

According to Wallace,the cast was also extremelydedicated. Many of the castmembers were on summervacation, but still managedto showup for the fourhourrehearsals that took place five daysaweek.

Themost impressive ad-dition to the showhad to bethe tap dancing. The entirecasttapdancedatleastonce.Aftercastingwasdone,everysinglememberofthecastwasrequiredtogothroughasortof“dancebootcamp”tolearnbasic tap steps. They hadfour,two-hoursessionstoen-sure that everyone could tapduringfullcompanynumberssuch as “I Got Rhythm.”

A specific set of tap danc-ers,the“NewYorkGirls,”par-ticularly added to the upbeatcadence of the show. Thesedancers included, Renee Gar-rison, Laina Locket, JamieSzewczyk, Emily Frangen-berg, Chelsea Hines, AlexModerski and Alissa Bailey.Theyhadnumeroustapnum-bers, including “I Can’t BeBothered Now” and “NiceWorkIfYouCanGetIt.”

A few improvements,however,wouldprobablyhaveadded to the play’s enjoy-ment. Scene changes were abitdraggedout.Feetcouldbeseenrunningbehindthecur-tain several timesduring thelengthoftheshow.Occasion-ally, one could also hear thefullcompanysingingoff-key.

Overall, the play wasworthseeing.Ithadsolidac-tors and actresses, phenom-enal dancers, and wonderfulcasting choices. For a smallSt. Mary’s County troupe,Summerstock knows how toput on a pretty professionalshow.

Watch out for Summer-stock’snextshow,“Seussical,”beingperformedJuly2008.

SummerstockPerforms“CrazyForYou”

Picture Courtesy Of Bethany Wallace

Call us today to start making your

advertising campaign a success.

(301) 373-4125

Advertise Your

Business in a Newspaper

That Reaches 11,000 households countywide

weekly!

Professional Sales Team!

Creative Ad Designs!

Competitive Rates!

Thursday, August 2, 2007 The County Times Section A - 7

Photo by Adam Ross

Ramblings of a Country Girl

Odd News

Ah, The Carnival

Terri Bartz Bowles

Yea! It’s carnival time! I feel like Snoopy doing the happy dance at supper time! How great is it to live in a place where the volunteer fire departments and rescue

squads still put on a carnival every summer? It’s pretty darn great, that’s what. In St. Mary’s County, carnivals are a tradition and part of what makes the county the great place that it is. It’s the little things that are really the trea-

sures of day-to-day life and long-standing events like the firemen’s carnivals are one of those things.

There aren’t as many as there used to be. They’ve dwindled down over the years for various reasons and we’re

down to three. Mechanics-ville, my hometown, has al-ways had the first carnival of the season. When it’s time for the Mechanicsville carnival, we’re all ready; it’s been so long since carnival time the year before, we’re longing for

things to get started. Next is Hollywood, home of awesome French fries, and then Ridge always rounds things out by giving us our last taste of car-nivals for one more summer. See, if you are ‘from around here’, you know what order the carnivals happen. It’s just part of the county scene, what makes the county, well - the county.

What’s so much fun about the carnivals? Pretty much everything. There are rides, of course, and my personal fa-vorite is the carousel. There are games to play and prizes to win. There are raffles for both prizes and cash, in addi-tion to two bicycles being giv-en away, usually each night. And there’s bingo – I do love to play bingo. It’s cheap and fun and you can sit there for as long as you want, listening to the sounds of the carnival, catching a breeze and eating your fries, hoping you’ll be the next one to call out “Bingo”!

Of course, you’re going to run into folks you know at the carnival because all fun and reasonable people are go-ing to the carnival for at least one night during the course of it. You chat with old friends, see how big their kids have gotten, catch up on the news. You’re gonna hit the beer stand and get your 10 oz. Bud-weiser. From comments I’ve

received from non-natives, it would seem that not all car-nivals have a beer stand but again, that’s part just part of St. Mary’s County. You have to have a beer stand and you have to sell 10 oz. cans.

The absolute best part of the carnival, though, is the food. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but there’s a law that requires all carnival attendees to have at least one slice of carnival pizza. It’s not authentic New York pizza or anything like that; it tastes different from every other kind of pizza and you can only get it during the carnivals. It is called ‘carnival pizza’ be-cause that’s what it is and it is a unique taste sensation. You also should have French fries. Other requirements in-clude sno-cones or ice cream, and cotton candy. There are burgers and dogs and nachos and all that stuff, so just go for dinner and then graze for a couple of hours. Just don’t miss going to a carnival this summer. I don’t need to en-courage the natives, we al-ready know that going to the carnival is a summer require-ment. I do want to encourage the rest of you, though. Go, eat, play, ride and enjoy a little slice of the kind of event that builds a community, makes it last and makes it a worthwhile place to live.

BUENOS AIRES- In the small city of Villa Mercedes, which is in central Argentina, a blackout in a major hospi-tal last Saturday almost cost Leonardo Molina, 29, his life. Molina was undergoing emergency appendix surgery when a total blackout left his surgeons in the complete dark. One of Molina’s relatives apparently went and got a couple cell phones from people in order to provide some light from the screens. The generator was supposedly malfunctioning and could not provide its required emergency power. Witnesses say the power was out for almost an hour, but a hospital representative say it was only a maximum of 20 minutes. Needless to say, the surgeons did finish the operation safely and effectively. What a scare!

CHARLESTON, Ill.- Note to college applicants: make sure you send your applications in neat envelopes and pack-ages with well-written hand writing if you don’t want to be a suspected bomb threat! The Eastern Illinois University campus was evacuated last Friday because a mail carrier noticed a package addressed to the university’s admissions office in sloppy writing, with no return address. The pack-age became suspicious because there were misspellings, and there was tape all over the outside. Police notified the bomb squad who then x-rayed and examined the package before finding out it contained only an application to the school. Now the question is, since it is just an innocent applica-tion, will this incident affect the person’s chance of getting into the school? Most likely not, according to a university spokeswoman.

MINOT, N.D.- How disappointing would it be to lose out on $1,000 because you forgot a punctuation mark?! Sur-prisingly, that actually did happen to Kevin Taylor, 30, of Minneapolis. The North Dakota State Fair was holding a text messaging contest when it was down to the last two competitors, Taylor and Beth Brevik, 32, of Minot. Dur-ing the sudden death round, Taylor was first to put down his phone, but when the judges verified his answer, they re-vealed that he had forgotten the exclamation point at the end of his phrase. So, he had to settle for $200 while Brevik got the grand prize of $1,000. As for Brevik, she’s thankful for her luck.

The rezoning process is not a given, however, as Ryken’s application will un-dergo careful analysis and scrutiny by Land Use and Growth Management, the Planning Commission and the general public.

However, LUGM is likely in support of rezoning all 28 acres as IDA, Jackman said.

“I do think we have a pre-liminary recommendation,” Jackman told The County Times. “We’re supportive of correcting the mapping area, but I’m not sure if it’s a por-

tion of the property or all the property.”

Planners are also consid-ering a Limited Development Area (LDA) classification, which would be less accom-modating to the needs of Ryken. However, because of the demand to preserve criti-cal areas and limit rainwater runoff, Ryken will likely be evaluated from those stand-points as well.

Jackman said a growth allocation program started in 1990 would likely be used to rezone the 28 acres. That program was designed to al-low up to 15 percent, or 1100 to 1200 acres of land classi-fied RCA, to be converted to

another category. Jackman was unsure of

how much growth allocation has been used in program’s 17-year existence, but said it was a “relatively small amount.”

“In 1990, when we were putting the program togeth-er, it was thought that there would be a greater [demand] for landowners in a position of low density,” said Jackman. “But there hasn’t.”

Commissioner Daniel H. Raley was concerned that if growth allocation was levied, it might go unused, a similar situation the town of Leon-ardtown found itself in years ago. Raley wanted to know if the commissioners awarded

the growth allocation and it wasn’t needed, could they get it back. Last Tuesday, Cana-van told the commissioners he was unsure if they could get the growth allocation back and would look into it. Cana-van has since not returned re-peated phone calls from The County Times for an update.

According to Jackman, this effort has been ongoing for about a year.

“We had a hearing last fall,” Jackman added, “but the issue stalled.”

The next step is a public hearing to be held August 13th at 6:30 p.m. in the St. Mary’s County Governmen-tal Center.

ZoningContinued from page A-�

Mechanicsville28967 Route 5 South

1-800-794-0693301-884-2513

Fax: 301-884-5382

The DeluxeBed by Tempur-Pedic™Therapy and comfort, perfectly balanced.

“We’ve never had a large animal die off that I know of,” Beale said. “But it’s always something we need to be cau-tious of.”

The recent drought and intense heat have ruined many farmers’ crops of corn and sorghum, and farmers have started to cut down those plants that are unfit for hu-man consumption and giving it to their livestock, especially since the drought has dried up many pastures that farm-ers normally use for livestock grazing.

The decrease in feed stocks for farm animals has forced some farmers to use hay or some of the livestock feed they had saved up for the winter now. That means a feed deficit and more costs to farmers, Beale said, along with the possibility that some of the corn they want to use could be toxic.

“It can be a double blow,”

Beale said. “Right now [ni-trate levels] are low to aver-age… but as time goes on there’ll be crops with [high nitrate levels.”

Farmers can combat the toxic effects of nitrates in their grain feed stocks by mixing the feed with other types with low nitrate contents or placing any nitrate rich feed in a silo.

By sitting in a silo, the nitrates in the grain will be eliminated by a slow fermen-tation process, Beale said.

“It effectively brings the nitrate load down to safe lev-els,” he added.

Farmers who may have the most concerns are the ones that cut down feed plants from fields that use a large amount or manure or nitrogen based fertilizer.

Plants may also absorb high levels of nitrates after a drought breaking rain when they quickly take in a large amount of water that is satu-rated with the nitrates, Beale said.

The drought has become such a problem that during his visit to Southern Maryland,

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said he has asked the federal government to declare the re-gion a disaster area and make emergency funds available to farmers to help cover their losses.

“Working with the State Farm Service Agency and the Maryland Department of Agriculture, we estimate that farmers in Maryland have lost between 30 and 60 percent of their crop,” O’Malley said in a statement. “By requesting this disaster designation we hope to provide some relief to our local farmers.”

Amy Farrell, executive director of the St. Mary’s County branch of the Farm Service Agency, said any re-lief from the federal govern-ment would have to wait until after August 10 at the earliest, when her group would submit another report of actual crop losses required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to enact the disaster relief.

“Right now we’re gather-ing data for the report,” Farrell said. “[Federal aid] doesn’t happen quickly.”

Sporadic rains from July 26 to July 29 would be helpful said one farmer, but farmers needed much more rain fall to have any hope of salvaging their soybean crop.

“I guess it helped some, but it’s a little late,” said Cali-fornia-based farmer Raymond Norris. “It could help with the soybeans, but at this point you’d be lucky to get half of a crop.”

The recent spotty rains could also help alleviate the plight of farmers look-ing to feed their livestock in pastures.

“It’ll definitely help them, if they got it,” Norris said. “They really need that water.”

Norris said a break in the drought would help get the fall wheat crop off to a good start.

“Maybe we can get a good wheat crop planted, maybe that’ll help with some of the losses,” Norris said.

DroughtContinued from page A-�

St. Mary's City

DATE LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

Fri. Aug. 3 ----------- 5:29 a.m. 11:52 a.m. 5:58 p.m.

Sat. Aug. 4 12:38 a.m. 6:22 a.m. 12:36 p.m. 6:50 p.m.

Sun. Aug. 5 1:38 a.m. 7:21 a.m. 1:26 p.m. 7:47 p.m.

Mon. Aug. 6 2:41 a.m. 8:25 a.m. 2:23 p.m. 8:49 p.m.

Tue. Aug. 7 3:46 a.m. 9:33 a.m. 3:29 p.m. 9:54 p.m.

Wed. Aug. 8 4:49 a.m. 10:39 a.m. 4:37 p.m. 10:59 p.m.

Thu. Aug. 9 5:49 a.m. 11:40 a.m. 5:43 p.m. -----------

LOCATION HIGH LOW

Breton Bay "-17 min." "-12 min."

Bushwood Wharf "+45 min." "+45 min."

Colton's Point "+50 min." "+25 min."

Point Lookout "-41 min." "-19 min."

Piney Point "+9 min." "-8 min."

Wicomico Beach "+58 min." "+63 min."

Solomons Island "+8 min." "+16 min."

Tide Report


JamesThomasBeavers,74

James Thomas Beavers,74,ofAvenue,Md.diedJuly26, 2007 in St. Mary’s Hos-pital, Leonardtown, Md. ofcomplicationsfromleukemia.

Born Dec. 14, 1932 inWashington,DC,hewas theson of the late John EdwardBeavers and Pauline Emma(Regan)Beavers.

Mr. Beavers graduatedfrom Chamberlain TechnicalSchoolin1950.HeservedintheU.S.ArmyMedicCoreinthe early 1950s, and workedas a plumber and excavator.Heenjoyedhorseracing,base-ball,andwasamemberoftheAmericanLegion.HemarriedJoanneElizabethBeavers onOctober16,1954.

Heissurvivedbyhiswifeof52years,JoanneElizabethBeaversofAvenue,M.d.,threechildren, James Patrick Bea-vers,Sr.ofSt.Leonard,Md.,Jeanette Elizabeth Hatchellof Chesapeake Beach, Md.andJasonEdwardBeaversofPort Republic, Md., brother,Richard Cornelius Beaversof Edgewater, Md. and sixgrandchildren, Crystal RoseGarten, Megan Wyatt Bea-vers, James Patrick Beavers,Jr., Shane Robert Beavers,JessicaElizabethBeavers,andWyattChristopherBeavers.

Inadditiontohisparents,he is preceded in death byhis sisters, Elizabeth Gaschand Eileen Pauline Beaversand brothers, William “Al”Beavers, John Edward Bea-vers, Jr., and Stanley PatrickBeavers.

The family receivedfriendsSunday,July29,2007from 1-5 p.m. in the Brinsfield FuneralHomeChapel,Leon-ardtown, Md.. Prayers wererecited at 3 p.m. A Mass ofChristianBurialwascelebrat-edonMonday,July30,2007at 10 a.m. in Sacred HeartCatholic Church, Bushwood,Md..FatherEarlywillbethecelebrant.IntermentfollowedinChesapeakeHighlandMe-morialPark,inPortRepublic,Md.

Memorial contributionsmaybemadetotheAmericanCancer Society, St. Mary’sCounty - Unit 350, P.O. Box1032, Lexington Park, MD20653 and/or OPIS of St.Mary’s,P.O.Box527,Leon-ardtown,MD20650.

Arrangements by theBrinsfield Funeral Home, P.A. inLeonardtown,Md.

BurnellBennings,�6

BurnellBennings,86, of Me-c h a n i c s -ville, Md.formerly ofRiverdale,Md. diedJuly 28,2007 in St.Mary’sHospital.

Born April 11, 1921 inPrattsville, Ark. he was thesonofthelateRubyYatesandLeonard Homer Bennings.He was preceded in deathby his wife Lorraine ChaseBennings whom he marriedin 1943 inWashington,D.C.He is survived by his chil-dren: Barbara Bennings andBurnell B. Bennings both ofMechanicsville,Md.andJohnBenningsofEldersburg,Md.;siblings:CharlesBenningsofRedding,Calif.,CarsonBen-ningsofMcKinleyville,Calif.andGloriaDeereofMalvern,Ark.; four grandchildren andfour great grandchildren. Hewas also preceded in deathby his daughter: June MarieCourtney; siblings: BobbyBennings and GermaineLivingston.

Mr. Bennings attendedCentral High School, hemovedtoSt.Mary’sCountyin2001.Heworkedasafacilitymanager for the U.S. Cham-berofCommercefor11yearsuntil his retirement in 1981.He also served in the U.S.Navyfor36yearsfrom1940– 1976 during WWI wherehewasstationedintheSouthPacific and the Atlantic. He

wasamemberoftheKnightsofColumbus andhe enjoyedgardening,woodworkingandlatchhooking.

The family receivedfriendsonWednesday,August1,2007from5–8p.m.intheMattingley-Gardiner FuneralHome, Pa., Leonardtown,Md.,wherePrayerswill saidat7p.m..AMassofChristianBurial will be celebrated onThursday,August 2, 2007 at10 a.m. in St. John’s Catho-lic Church, Hollywood, Md.with Fr. Raymond Schmidtofficiating. Interment will fol-low inCedarHillCemetery,4111 Pennsylvania Avenue,Suitland, MD 20746. Pall-bearers will be Justin Davis,DavidKnutson,DavidKnut-son,Jr.,BobHicksandRandyCarroll. Contributions maybemade to St. John’sBuild-ing Fund, 43927 St. John’sRoad,Hollywood,MD20636and/or Hollywood VolunteerRescue Squad, P.O. Box 79,Hollywood, MD 20636. Ar-rangements provided by theMattingley-Gardiner FuneralHome,P.A.

RubyMarieGray,7�,

R u b yMarieGray,78, of Lex-i n g t o nPark, Md.died July26, 2007 atSt. Mary’sHo s p i t a l .Born July26,1929inFloyd,Va.shewasthedaughterof the late JohnE.andAlmedaE.SowersAl-derman. She was the lovingwifeofthelateLloydA.Graywhom she married in Julyof 1947 inMt. ZionChurch,LaurelGrove,Md.Sheissur-vived by her sonsLloydEd-ward Gray, Gary Dale Grayand David Alan Gray, all ofLexingtonPark,Md,,hersis-ters; Gertha May Aldridgeof Floyd, Va., Freeda OnedaGragan of Loveville, Md. aswellasfourgrandchildrenandtwo great-grandchildren. Shewasprecededindeathbyhersiblings; Edgar Ellis Alder-man,Elizabeth JuneSowers,William Henry Alderman,Lula Alice Alderman, HazelLouise Alderman and SelvaJean Alderman. The familyreceived friends on Monday,July 30, 2007 from 5-8 p.m.in Mattingley-Gardiner Fu-neral Home, Leonardtown,Md.. A Funeral Service washeldonTuesday,July31,2007at10a.m. in theMattingley-GardinerFuneralHomeCha-pelwithRev. SheldonReeseofficiating. Interment will follow in Charles MemorialGardens, Leonardtown, Md..Contributions may be madeto Lexington Park VolunteerRescueSquad,P.O.Box339,Lexington Park, MD 20653.Arrangements provided bythe Mattingley-Gardiner Fu-neralHome,P.A.

RobertHartshorn,7�

RobertHartshorn, 78, ofHollywood, Md. died June17,2007inSt.Mary’sHospi-tal, Leonardtown, Md., fromcomplicationsduetoadebili-tatingstrokesufferedinApril2006.

Born Aug. 3, 1928 inKensington,Md.,hewas thesonofthelateGeorgeErnestand Essie Johnstone (Mc-Cutcheon)Hartshorn.

Mr.Hartshorngraduatedfrom Dartmouth College in1950, with a BA in History.HeservedintheUnitedStatesAir Force. He continued hiseducation at Northrop Insti-tuteofTechnologyinCalifor-niaandearnedaBSinElec-tronic Engineering. In 1966he moved his family to St.Mary’sCountyandbeganhiscareeratPatuxentRiverNavalAirTestCenter. He retiredafter 25 years of dedicatedservice to our country as anElectronicEngineeratNATC,Department of ElectronicWarfareandReconnaissance.

His passions were avia-tion, history, genealogy andworkingonhissmallfarm.

He passed away on Fa-ther’sdaytobewithhisHeav-enly Father. We love you,Dad, and will miss you, butweknowwe’llmeetagain.

He is survived by hisloving wife, Mary D. Harts-horn and daughters, Susan-nahLynchandSarah“Sally”Brown both of Hollywood,Md.andBethBeardallofHal-tonHills,Ontario,theirspous-es,sixgrandchildrenandtwobrothers, William HartshornandEldenHartshorn.

The family will receivefriends on Friday, August3,2007from5-8p.m. in theBrinsfield Funeral Home Chapel, Leonardtown, Md.;where a Memorial Servicewill be conducted at 7 p.m.Inurnmentwillbeprivate.

In lieu of flowers, me-morial contributions maybe made to HOSPICE of St.Mary’s, Inc., P.O. Box 625,Leonardtown, MD 20650and/or CareNet PregnancyCenterofSouthernMaryland, P.O. Box 31, Lexington Park, MD 20653.

Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A. in Leonardtown, MD.

JohnKauffmanHostetler,73

JohnKauffmanHostetler,73,ofCharlotteHall,Md.diedJuly31,2007athisresidence.Born June 28, 1934 in Bel-leville,Pa.hewasthesonofthe lateElizabethF. andRu-fus J.Hostetler. For arrange-ment details please visit ourwebsiteatwww.mgfh.com.Afullobituarywillappearatalaterdate.

KevinAllenJaros,16

K e v i nAllen Jaros,16, of Lau-rel,Md.,andformerly ofHollywood,Md. andLusby, Md.died July26, 2007 atChildren’sHospital.BornJune12,1991inLeonardtown,Md.hewasthesonofEdwardandDebbie Grilli Jr. of Laurel,Md..Heissurvivedbyhissib-lings Tina Mathis, MatthewMathis, Edward Grilli IIIandAdamGrilli, all ofLau-rel,Md..Kevinwasastudentat Ruth Parker Eason HighSchool,Millersville,Md..Thefamily received friends onTuesday,July31,2007from5-8p.m.inMattingley-GardinerFuneralHome,Leonardtown,Md.whereprayersweresaidat7p.m.ledbyPastorClydePhillips. A Funeral Servicewill be held on Wednesday,August1,2007at10:00a.m.in the Mattingley-GardinerFuneral Home Chapel withPastor Phillip Schol officiat-ing. Interment will follow inCharles Memorial Gardens,Leonardtown, Md.. Pallbear-erswill be Jerry Jaros, JesseLong, Matthew Mathis andRobbieRussellArrangementsprovided by the Mattingley-GardinerFuneralHome,Pa..

WilliamBenjamin“Billy”Johnson,Jr.,50

W i l -liam Benja-min “Billy”Johnson, Jr.,50,ofHolly-wood, Md.died sud-denly, July26, 2007 inWashingtonHospital Center. Born June27,1957inLeonardtown,Md.hewasthesonofLillianMa-ria Johnson ofLeonardtown,Md. and the late WilliamBenjaminJohnson,Sr. Billywasoneofakindandyou’llnever find a better man. He was friendly to everyone hemet andwouldgoout of hisway for anyone who neededanything.Heenjoyedplayingcards, taking trips to Dover,readingthenewspaper,watch-ingwesternmoviesandmostimportantly spending time

with his grandchildren. Hewas always a devoted singlefather and is survivedbyhisthreelovingchildren,WilliamBenjaminJohnson,IIIandhiswifeTheresa,JenniferReneeJohnson and her companionJoey Bean, Heather MarieBrooks and her husband Jo-sephandhisson-in-lawJustinLeeSmith all ofHollywood,Md.. He is also survivedbyseven grandchildren who hereferredtoas“PopPop’sBa-bies”,BaileyMichelleSmith,LailaMarieBrooks,HannahNicole Smith, William Ben-jamin Johnson, IV, TravisChristopher Johnson, AlyssaAnne Bean and Baby GirlBrooksdueinSeptember.Inaddition to his children andgrandchildren,heissurvivedby his Mother, Lillian Ma-ria Johnson ofLeonardtown,Md., his sister Gloria Abelland her husband Jackie ofHollywood,Md., JoyceDen-nisandherhusbandRogerofMt.Pleasant,MIhisbrotherWalter Johnson and his wifeJoyce ofCalifornia,Md., hissisterCarolynMcMahonandher husbandTommyofBak-ersville,N.C.,hissisterMaryVaughan and her husbandSteveofLexingtonPark,Md.,his brother Donald JohnsonandhiswifeTheresaofLeon-ardtown,Md.hisbrotherMi-chael Johnson and his wifeCharlene of Leonardtown,Md. his sister Debbie FultonandherhusbandMarkofHol-lywood,Md.andmanyniecesand nephews. He was pre-ceded in death by his fatherWilliam Benjamin Johnson,Sr., his sister Dottie Johnsonand his niece Julie Dennis.Hewasa lifelongSt.Mary’sCounty resident where heworkedforJohnsonPlumbing.Thefamilyreceivedfriendsinthe Mattingley-Gardiner Fu-neralHomeonMonday,July30,2007from5–8p.m.withprayers being said at 7 p.m..A Mass of Christian Burialwas celebrated in St. John’sCatholicChurch,Hollywood,Md.onTuesday,July31,2007at10a.m.withFr.RaymondSchmidt officiating. Interment willfollowinCharlesMemo-rial Gardens, LeonardtownMd..PallbearerswillbeTomGuy, Mark Fulton, BrandonJohnson, Justin Smith, BrentGuy and James Vaughan.Honorary Pallbearers willbe Donald Johnson, MichaelJohnsonandallofhisgrand-children. Arrangements pro-videdbytheMattingley-Gar-dinerFuneralHome,Pa.

MaryDawsonPopp,�4

M a r yD a w s o nPopp, 84 ofSolomons,MD diedon June27, 2007 inHermitageA s s i s t e dLiving Center, Solomons,Md.. She had Alzheimer’sdisease.

Born April 18, 1923 inChicago, Ill., she was thedaughter of the late JosephDawsonandCharlotte(Brad-ley)Dawson.

She was educated atAquinasDominicanCatholicHighSchool.Aftertwoyearsofsecretarialschool,shewenttoworkattheNavalWarCol-legeinChicagowhereshemether husbandWalter, a careerNavyman.

Maryandherfamilylivedin St. Mary’s County since1957 when her late husband,Walter,retiredfromtheNavyandwenttoworkatPatuxentRiver Naval Air Test Cen-ter. They loved living inSt.Mary’s County, where theymadegreat friends andwereactive in the religious, civic,and social activities of thecounty.

Although Mary was pri-marilyahousewifeandmoth-er, she worked for a numberof years as office manager for Dr.LeeGeorge,aclosefriendand dentist in Leonardtown,Md.. ShewasalsoanactivememberofImmaculateHeartofMaryCatholicChurch,the

B.P.O.E. Elks lodge in Lex-ington Park, MD, and theNavy Wives Club. Whileher children were attendingCatholicschoolsinthecoun-ty,Marywasanactiveparentvolunteer.

After Mary and Walterretiredin1980theypurchasedasecondhomeinIndialantic,FL and became “snowbirds”spendingthewinterinsunnyFlorida. During their retire-ment years, Mary pursuedher love of travel, and sheand her husband took manywonderful vacations aroundthe world. As their healthbegantofail,MaryandWal-ter moved to the HermitageAssisted Living Center inSolomonswhereWalter diedin2002. Theyweremarriedfor57years.Marystayedonat the Hermitage where shecould still be close to manyfamiliarfriends.

She is survived by herchildren, John Popp and hiswife, Joyce of Greensboro,N.C.,NancyMercureandherhusband, Jim of Reston, Va.andLarryPoppandhiswife,Louise of Salt Lake City,Utah, nine grandchildren,Michaelandhiswife,Dawn,Kelly and her husband, Joel,Aimee, Ryan, Jeremy, Dan,Amanda, Julia and Lauren,and five great-grandchildren, Adam, Devin, Coreena, Jer-emy,andMaria.

Inadditiontoherparentsandherhusband,Maryispre-cededindeathbyherbrother,JosephDawson.

The family will receivefriends on Monday, August6,2007from6-8p.m. in theBrinsfield Funeral Home Chapel, Leonardtown, Md..Prayers will be recited at 7p.m. A Funeral service wasconducted on Tuesday, Au-gust7,2007at10a.m.inthefuneralhome. Intermentwillfollow in Arlington NationalCemetery,Arlington,Va..

Serving as pallbear-erswillbeJohnPopp,LarryPopp, Jim Mercure, MichaelPopp,RyanSides,andJeremySides.

Memorial contributionsmaybemadetotheAlzheim-er’s Association, SouthernMaryland Office, P.O. Box 1889,LaPlata,MD20646.

Condolences to the fam-ily may be made to www.brinsfieldfuneral.com.

PennyMichelleBrooksSimms,46

Pe n n yM i c h e l l eB r o o k sSimms, 46,of Lexing-ton Park,Md. diedJuly 28,2007 in St.Mary’sHos-pital,Leonardtown,Md..

Born Feb. 28, 1961 inLeonardtown, Md., she wasthedaughterofthelateLouisMarshall and Rose RebeccaDysonBrooks.

ShegrewupinParkHall,MDandattendedGreatMillsHighSchool.ShecompletedBlades Beauty Academy in2000. OnJune25,1988shewasunitedinmarriagetothelateClarenceEdwardSimms,Sr.Onechild,DesmondMa-nilitowasborntothisunion.Penny was employed withthefederalgovernmentfor21years. She last worked as aManagement/ProgramAssis-tantwith theNavalAirWar-fareCenter,AircraftDivision,PatuxentRiver,Md..

She received her earlyChristiantrainingatParkHallTrueHolinessChurchinParkHall,Md.,formerlyHouseofGodGatesofHeavenMission#2,undertheleadershipofthelateBishopJohnClifton.Itisthere where she first accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as herpersonalSavior.LaterinherChristian walk, she joinedOasis of Victory ChristianChurch International undertheleadershipofPastorJamesSpence,Jr.

Penny was a wonderfulmother,daughter,godmother,sister,andspecialfriend.She

was a fun loving and veryoutspokenperson.Youneverhad to wonder how she feltabout anything because shewould always tell you. Herfamily and friends will missher. Penny stood the test oftime during her battle withcancer and she never com-plained. It was her faith inGodthatkepthergoing.YetGod gave her strength to gojustalittlefarther.Andtoday,wesubmitandbowinhumblesubmissiontotheperfectwillofGod.

She is survived by herson, Desmond Manilito ofLexington Park, Md., ninesisters, Clara Collins, LoisTaylor,DeborahNewkirk,allofLexingtonPark,Md.,Con-stance Brooks of Park Hall,Md.,AudreyHill ofLexing-tonPark,Md.,FaithCampbellofParkHall,Md.,KarenDa-vis of Capital Heights, Md.,Rachel Brooks of LexingtonPark,Md.andCandyCarrollofParkHall,Md.,fourbroth-ers,LouisBrooks,Jr.,HardinBrooks, both of Park Hall,Md., Delroy Brooks of An-napolis,Md.andEric“Tony”Brooks of California, Md.,twouncles,RobertandHen-dersonBrooks,nephew,KeithBrooks,affectionatelyknownas “little brother”, three spe-cial sisters, Agnes, Angela,and Anita Brooks, godchil-dren,DerrickCarroll,TalishaCampbell,MarquisHill,Sher-manKnottandJaylaMorgan,andahostofnieces,nephews,relativesandfriends.

Inadditiontoherparentsandhusband,sheisprecededindeathbytwobrothers,Mar-shallandRandyBrooks.

The family will receivefriends Friday, August 3,2007 from5-8p.m. inOasisof Victory Christian ChurchInternational,LexingtonPark,MD.Prayerswillberecitedat7p.m.AFuneralServicewillbe conducted on Saturday,August4,2007at10:30a.m.inthechurch.PastorJamesO.Spence, Jr. will conduct theservice.Intermentwillfollowin Park Hall True HolinessChurchCemetery,ParkHall,Md..

Serving as pallbearerswillbeEricBrooks,Jr.,KeithBrooks, Reginald Brown III,TyrikCampbell,DeWittTay-lor,andRodneyTaylor.Serv-ing as honorary pallbearerswill be Randy Brooks, Jr.,Troy Brooks, Juwan Carroll,William Fenwick, BrandonLivingston,andDwight“DJ”Taylor,Jr.

Arrangements by theBrinsfield Funeral Home, P.A. inLeonardtown,MD.

EthelArdeneWilson,79

E t h e lA r d e n eWilson, 79,of Leonar-dtown, Md.died July28, 2007 inSt. Mary’sN u r s i n gC e n t e r ,Leonardtown,Md..

Born March 18, 1928 inBeaverton,Ore., shewas thedaughterofthelateLeoCarlDrone and Anna Cecelia(Carlson)Drone.

Ardene,asshewasknownthroughoutherlife,workedfortheAirForceSystemsCom-mandonAndrewsAirForceBase, MD for several years.She retired from the FederalAviation Administration inWashington,D.C.inAprilof1987.

She is survived by twodaughters,MichelleD.Blockof Bluffton, SC and MarshaA. Dyson of Leonardtown,Md.,oneson,JeffreyL.Wil-sonofNorthBeach,Md.,sis-ter,DorothyL.TobinofNewBerlin,WI,brother,EdwardF.DroneofChilton,WI,twosis-ters-in-law,MarionL.BarnettofWhittier,Calif.andAudrieL.WilsonofEauClaire,WI,sixgrandchildren,KyleH.Ta-borofRockville,Md.,JoanneD. Patane of Frankfurt, Ger-many,CarlS.DysonofLeon-ardtown,Md.,NealC.Dyson

Obituaries

SeeObitspageA-10


Navy News

St. Mary’s County Pub-lic Schools, in conjunction with the Institute of Human Growth and Development and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maryland, will ini-tiate and expand seven chess programs this fall that are part of its Chesapeake Chess Project.

Students at George Wash-ington Carver, Lexington Park, Green Holly and Park Hall elementary schools; Spring Ridge Middle School and Great Mills High School will be afforded the oppor-tunity to learn and cultivate their understanding of the game, and then compete in countywide tournaments to gauge achievement.

For years, the implemen-tation of chess into school curriculums has been care-fully studied and widely con-sidered beneficial to students who regularly show increased problem solving, math and reasoning skills from playing the game.

“A lot of research says kids that learn chess are helped academically,” said Mark Smith, coordinator for special programs at St. Mary’s Coun-ty Public Schools, “because

they are presented a series of problems and they have to evaluate and make decisions. Practicing those skills helps in ways of learning.”

Smith is one of many who believe the values of chess are far reaching in today’s educa-tional system, which also co-incides with the views held by Maryland’s political leaders.

In 2006, the Maryland General Assembly appropri-ated $255,000 to the Mary-land State Department of Ed-ucation for chess in schools. State officials awarded 24 pro-grams across the state with up to $10,000 in grant funding to support their chess initiatives.

While the money was seen as a positive step to-wards enhancing students’ access to the game around the state, according to Renee Cottman-Reyes, an education specialist for MSDE, the state didn’t’ go as far as others have in the past. New Jersey passed a bill legitimizing chess as a unit of instruction within the elementary school curriculum in 1992.

Meanwhile, Cottman-Reyes said MSDE received 33 proposals, and due to the qual-ity of most of them, MSDE funded four more proposals than it initially planned.

St. Mary’s County’s pro-posal was strong enough to

land it $10,000, which was used to aid and expand a pre-viously developed program that has received support from a variety of organizations and local management boards around the county.

As part of the project ab-stract submitted to the state, SMCPS wrote “a key feature of the program is that it serves all three levels of schools: el-ementary, middle and high. This allows the program to build a cadre of chess players who increase their skills year after year…”

The county’s program will encompass 105 students at six schools and a seventh location known as the Global Village After School Program put out by the Institute for Human Growth and Develop-ment. The program will be strictly an after school activ-ity except at Great Mills High School.

“Most programs only fund one school,” Smith said, “but we can stretch it because we have a lot of infrastructure already in place.”

Smith added that the school board hopes to eventu-ally grow the program so that it is in every school within the St. Mary’s system.

Five site leaders from the Boys and Girls Clubs will work in the program’s schools

and organize the activities. In addition, a staff member or community leader will be hired by each school to run the program. According to Smith, the person hired will receive either an hourly rate or stipend, but does not have to be an expert chess player.

“If they are just familiar with the game that is good,” Smith added. “But even if they aren’t we will have some materials available that make it pretty easy to learn the game. It’s just as important to us to hire someone able to motivate kids and structure the program.”

Six local tournaments are planned for next year, which will include four “in house tournaments” and two countywide tournaments be-tween local schools that will be hosted by Great Mills High School.

Smith said he has also been in discussion with super-intendents from other counties and hopes that in the next year or two they can set up state-wide tournaments.

“We want chess to be something that kids are ex-cited about,” Smith said, “in the same way they are inter-ested in basketball or [physi-cal] sports.”

ChessContinued from page A-�

Amy KaperStaff Writer

The Department of the Navy (DON) has recently put a new anti-tamper office, with the technical warrant holder now located at Pax.

The responsibility for anti-tamper (AT) work was changed at first to NAVAIR from the office of the Assis-tant Secretary of the Navy in 2005. The first year was de-veloping policy and processes and bringing the company into complete operation.

The (AT) director, Don Traeger, said, “We are now fully engaged, even though there are still some Navy programs unaware of the change.”

The aim of the depart-ment, according to Traeger, is to prevent, or at least delay, in-filtration by unwanted sources outside of the Navy.

The Navy’s main concern “reverse engineering.” Re-verse engineering is a process in which an individual or a team takes something (e.g. a mechanical device, an elec-

tronic component, a software program) apart and analyzes its workings in detail.

The “reverse engineers” then usually to try to make a new device or program that does the same thing, with-out exactly copying anything from the original so as to not infringe on a copyright set down by the inventors.

There are many commer-cial reverse engineering ven-dors; software and firmware tools; even workshops on re-verse engineering techniques.

“We want to make it more

difficult if the system falls into unauthorized hands, either on the battlefield or through for-eign military sales,” he ex-plained. “Anti-tamper is de-signed to make it difficult to open the systems and obtain critical program information and technology.”

Anti-tamper implementa-tion is a Department of De-fense requirement, with each service department having their own technical author-ity. Each of the Navy’s system commands, the United States Marine Corps, NAVAIR, NAVSEA and SPAWAR, have their own technical warrant holder responsible for endors-ing their program AT plans. With the apprehension of an endorsement, the plans then go to the Navy’s AT office at Patuxent River where funding

issues, technical processes and collaboration efforts are discussed.

The AT Technical War-rant Holder responsible for AT execution across the DON at that level is Darrell Cole. “One of the main reasons our office was formed was to align anti-tamper within sys-tems engineering,” said Cole. “Now we are able to integrate anti-tamper into the engineer-ing and engineering review processes, as well as oversee multiple procedures and im-prove partnering efforts.”

Cole then forwards those plans to RDML Steven East-burg, Commander, Naval Air Warfare System, Air-craft Division, with bhis rec-ommendations for the final endorsement.

“Anti-tamper is not a sil-

ver bullet and it isn’t a substi-tute for other security prac-tices,” he said. “It is simply the last line of defense.” said Traeger.

The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) is offering a Program Manager Intro-duction to Anti-Tamper class (CLE 022) discussing DOD critical technology and how AT fits within the spectrum of DOD activities on protecting Critical Program Information. For more information go to http://www.dau.mil/.

Excerpts of this article were taken from a NAVAIR press release written by Vicki Falcón.

New Anti-tamper Office At Pax Now In Full Swing

Amy KaperStaff Writer

On July 3, the presidential helicopter VH-71 was tested and successfully completed its maiden flight. This achieve-ment signified a momentous milestone in the development of the United States’ Presiden-tial aircraft.

The designated Test Vehi-

cle #2 (TV-2) was assembled and prepared at an Agus-taWestland facility in Yeovil, UK. It is the first test aircraft built principally for the VH-71 Presidential Helicopters Program.

During the 40-minute flight, AgustaWestland Chief Test Pilot Don Maclaine and Senior Test Pilot Dick True-man performed general air-

craft handling checks, tested flight characteristics at vary-ing speeds up to 135 knots, and evaluated the on-board avionics systems.

“Seeing our first VH-71 test vehicle flying is an im-portant stepping stone and an exciting event for the entire program, the culmination of a tremendous amount of work by the Government and In-

dustry team,” said Doug Isleib, U.S. Navy pro-gram manager, Presiden-tial Helicopters Program. “We all should be proud of this accomplishment as we look forward to the day when these he-licopters are landing on

the South Lawn of the White House.”

Before TV-2 is delivered to the test facility at Pax River this fall for structural testing, the aircraft will complete ini-tial shake-down flying and embark on flight trials to test the newly integrated avionics systems and aircraft systems.

The VH-71 industry team

will build a fleet of “Marine One” helicopters in two incre-ments. Four test aircrafts and five pilot production VH-71 aircrafts comprising the In-crement 1 phase are to be de-livered through 2009.

Increment 1 will satisfy the pressing need for an air system with enhanced perfor-mance. Increment 2 will see a significant increase in aircraft performance, and will feature technical enhancements de-signed to give command and control capability while in flight.

Aircraft final assembly will be by Bell Helicopter in Texas with missionization by

Lockheed Martin Systems In-tegration in NY.

When completed, the “Marine One” will be the world’s most technologically advanced helicopter that safe-ly and reliably transports the president and vice president of the United States, heads of state and other official parties both at home and abroad with mobile “Oval Office in the sky” capabilities. These “Oval Office in the sky” capabilities feature tools for presidential support.

Initial Operational Capa-bility of the Presidential he-licopter is scheduled for late 2009.

Presidential Test Helicopter Completes Maiden Flight

Studies show playing chess enhances students’ cognitive abilities to prob-lem solving and reason.

Photo Courtesy of St. Mary’s County Public Schools

SectionA-10 The County Times Thursday,August2,2007

Hughesville Center

15260 Prince Fredrick Rd

301-274-2900Transportation to:

Mechanicsville Elem.White Marsh

MechanicsvilleCenter

(Formally TLC)

Rt 235

301-274-2900(6 weeks- 5 years)

CaliforniaCenter

22789 Three Notch Rd

301-274-2900Serving The Following Schools:

Carver, Green Holly, Greenview Knolls

New Center Opening!

Aug 18 10-3pm

California, Md

ImagiNations Early Learning Center

At Our Hughesville and Mechanicsville Locations.

* Before & After Care

* Abeka Curriculum*Awesome Summer Program* Breakfast

* Afternoon Snacks* Spanish* Math * Phonics

We Provide:

We believe in preparing our children for entering the Public School System.

(6 weeks - 12 years old) (6 weeks - 12 years old)Now enrolling every Tuesday from 4pm - 7pm

Before & After care only, a few slots left.

(Few Slots Left)

To retain the appearance of your new Tile follow these handy tips!

Helpful Hints

Custom Ceramic Tile to make your house beautiful is usually hard to find. Well congratulations! You just found us.

• Sweep or vacuum to remove dust prior to cleaning.• Use a no rinse cleaner on floor and wall tiles, never use products that contain bleach, acid or ammonia. They can discolor your grout.• Contrary to most beliefs; sealing grouts is not always neces-sary. Most grouts contain “sealer” ingredients already.• Making sure the right cleaner is used, mops are clean and water is frequently changed should help grouts stay clean.• Good door mats at exterior doors are recommended. • We are always here for any questions you may have, regarding floor care.

I have what you expect in a Realtor* Commitment * Dedication * Trust *

I will work hard for you!!

Buying, Building, Renting, or Selling

If you are looking for a Realtor, let me put my commitment & dedication to work for you. I work hard for those that put the trust in me to assist with their Real Estate transactions. I have been with the Hollywood VFD for over 15 years and a lifelong resident of St. Mary’s County. I have been self employed for the past 15 years. Your referrals are also greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!!

Jimmy Hayden, Realtor

301-863-2400 ext. 241 office 240-925-1928 cellEmail: [email protected]

ofWaynesville,Mo.,KristenR.DysonofWashington,DCand Paul J. Patane of Min-netonka, Minn., four niecesandtwonephews.

Inadditiontoherparents,Ardene is preceded in deathby her husband, Lloyd Ells-worth Wilson who died onDecember24,2004.

The family will receivefriends on Wednesday, Au-gust1,2007from6-8p.m.inthe Brinsfield Funeral Home Chapel, Leonardtown, MD.Intermentwillbeprivate.

Memorial contributionsmaybemadetoAlzheimer’sAssociation, Southern Mary-land Office, P.O. Box 1889, LaPlata,MD20646.

Arrangements by theBrinsfield Funeral Home, P.A. inLeonardtown,MD.

MaryJeanWood,66

Mary JeanWood, 66, ofMechanicsville,Md.diedJuly

25, 2007in PrinceG e o r g e ’sG e n e r a lH o s p i t a l , Cheve r ly,Md.

B o r nAug. 1,1940 in

Leonardtown, Md., she wasthedaughterofMaryVirginiaGattonandthelateJosephEl-merGrove.

A lifelong residentofSt.Mary’s County, Mrs. WooddroveaschoolbusfortheSt.Mary’sCountyschoolsfor18years.She alsowas a home-maker.Inhersparetimesheenjoyed sewing and canninghervegetables.

Inadditiontohermother,she is survived by her hus-band, Alfred Wood of Me-chanicsville, Md., her six children,BrendaLeeManizeand her husband, James ofNewportNews,Va.,ThomasC. Wood of Eastern Shore,Md., Joseph Harry Wood and hiswife,CherylofMechanic-sville,Md.,RobertLeeWood

andhiswife,LisaofMechan-icsville,Md.,JasonMcKinleyWoodandhiswife,SandraofMechanicsville, Md., LorettaLynn Wood of Hollywood, Md.,sister,LouiseThompsonofClements,Md.,half-broth-er, Jay Gatton of Hollywood, Md., 11 grandchildren andfive great-grandchildren.

In addition to her father,sheisprecededindeathbyhersister,PatriciaAnnLahocki.

The family receivedfriends Friday, July 27, 2007 from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.in Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home Chapel, Charlotte Hall, Md., where a Funeral Service was conducted on Saturday,July28,2007at10a.m.Rev-erendTomCampbellofGos-pel Light Baptist Church inMechanicsville,Md.willcon-duct the service. Intermentwill follow in Mount ZionChurchCemetery,Mechanic-sville,Md.

Condolences to the fam-ilymaybeleftatwww.brins-fieldfuneral.com.

ObitsContinued from page A-�

Martin O’Malley with SMECO officials and local legislators outside the Cooperative’s Hughesville headquarters. From left: Maryland Del. John Bohanan, SMECO Director Gilbert Bowling, Maryland Del. Sally Jameson, SMECO Director W. Rayner Blair III, SMECO President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Slater, O’Malley, SMECO Director Richard A. Winkler, SMECO Board Chairman Daniel W. Dyer, and SMECO Directors W. Michael Phipps, James A. Richards, and J. Douglas Frederick.

Photo Courtesy of SMECO

St.Mary’sRykenHighSchoolattemptstorezone28-acresoflandsurroundingitscampussoitcaneventuallybuildan

Documents

page b

president of ryken

marys county

marys ryken high school

marys schools isnt

new athletic fields

new athletic complex

new blood