Neighborhood NEWS
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Neighborhood NEWS RUXTON-RIDERWOOD-LAKE ROLAND AREA IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION WINTER • 2014-15 Annual Meeting Highlights INSIDE by Jessica Paffenbarger children’s play area. And…we got a sneak peak at the concept plan for the proposed Lake Roland Education This year we had a full course of delights at our an- Center to be located near nual meeting. Our appetizer was Silent Night 1814 the Ranger Station. a 40 minute Meet-and-Greet with PAGE 3 candidates for the Maryland Senate Many were surprised to H and House of Delegates. Our main learn that our 500 acre Closeting Old course was a presentation about park is over half the size New Year’s Robert E. Lee Park – Past, Present of Central Park and boasts Resolutions and Future. And dessert was a brief two National Register of PAGE 4 business meeting including the Historic Places Districts Treasurer’s report, a written update (Lake Roland Historic H of the Association’s business for District and Bare Hills Mary Kate Tells It the year, a goodbye and thank you Historic District)! The Like It Is to retiring Board members and a land for the Park was PAGE 6 vote to elect new and second-term acquired from The Balti- H members to the Board. more Gunpowder Company Home Sales of Maryland (formerly Patrick Jarosinski, RRLRAIA Jeffrey Budnitz and Elise Butler present “Robert E PAGE 7 Lee Park – Past, Present and Future” The Bellona Gunpowder President, opened with welcom- Photo courtesy John Baer Company) in the 1850s ing comments and introduced our H by the City of Baltimore Lake Roland host, Reverend Arianne Weeks, and flooded to create a lake as a reservoir for the Education Center Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd. Patrick City. Construction of the Lake Roland dam started continued by introducing our elected officials and PAGE 8 in 1858 and the reservoir was ready for business by other candidates for local offices including State 1860. By the early 1900s, however, the City wanted H Senators Bobby Zirkin and James Brochin. House of an improved supply of drinking water and by 1914 New Board Delegates representatives included Delegates Susan the Loch Raven Reservoir had been constructed and Members Aumann, Steve Lafferty, Dan Morhaim and Dana the City abandoned use of Lake PAGE 10 Stein. Additional candidates for Roland as a City water supply. At the House of Delegates included this point, the lake and surround- H Tim Robinson, Michael McAllister, Towson ing land was placed under the Chris West and Shelly Hettleman. WinterFest authority of Baltimore City Parks County Councilman David Marks Activities and Recreation. also attended as did Council- PAGE 12 woman Vicki Almond’s aide. By the 1990s, the Park had expe- rienced significant deterioration H Our main course was the pre- including erosion and run-off into Kids Corner sentation by Elise Butler and PAGE 15 the lake, neglected buildings, Jeffrey Budnitz, who are on the downed trees and crumbling side- boards of both RRLRAIA and H walks. And the Park had become Robert E Lee Park Nature Council Meet-and-Greet: Delegate Susan Aumann RRLRAIA a de facto off-leash dog park Committee (RELPNC). Their slideshow and with Board member Art Arthur Photo courtesy Jessica Paffenbarger as well as serving as home for Reports for talk featured the history of the a number of homeless residents 2013-2014 Park from the early 1800s to the hiding away in its depths. Efforts spearheaded by PAGE 16 recent past with historic pictures of the Park as well RRLRAIA and local residents, joined by elected of- as scenes showing the neglect in later years. The ficials, to get the City to make critical repairs in the H slideshow concluded showing the wonderful ameni- Topping the Table Park were to no avail. ties now available – improved trails, new bridge, With Style boardwalk from the Light Rail parking lot, new pa- Recognizing that a new game plan for the Park was PAGE 19 vilion, dog park and Acorn Hill, the recently-opened Continued on page 14 H Ruxton-Riderwood- Lake Roland President’s Letter Neighborhood NEWS Dear Neighbors, we continue to entertain traffic, zoning and Winter 2014-2015 My first year as President of the Board has enhancement projects as they arise. If you been a whirlwind. I have thoroughly enjoyed think your community needs this type of up- Table of Contents working on the goals of the Association with grade, or if you have a beautification idea you our Board members, County and State repre- would like to share, don’t hesitate to contact 1 Annual Meeting Highlights sentatives, other neighborhood associations, the office. 2 President’s Letter the businesses within our community and, Another dimension of enhancement and 3 Silent Night 1814 most importantly, our community members. beautification is sustaining our community’s 4 Closeting Old New Year’s Resolutions In late September, we hosted our Annual environment. We continue to organize the 5 Thank You, 2014 Patrons! Meeting along with a Meet-and-Greet with our quarterly street and stream clean-ups. This fall we held our second Shredder Day to which 5 Roland Run Flood Insurance State Senate and House of Delegates candi- Rate Map Correction Requested dates since many of our members will be new we added an electronics recycling collection. We also participated in the Fall Towson Clean- 6 Mary Kate Tells It Like It Is to District 11 this election year. We enjoyed up Day where Towson University students 7 Home Sales an enlightening presentation about Robert volunteered to help some members of our 8 Lake Roland Education Center E. Lee Park - Past, Present and Future given community with weeding, leaf clean-up, tree 10 New Board Members by Board members Elise Butler trimming and a host of other 12 Towson WinterFest and Jeffrey Budnitz, inspiring Activities us all to spend more time tak- chores. The Greater Ruxton 13 Easy Pumpkin Bread Pudding ing part in all of its beauty and Area Foundation, under the With Warm Caramel Sauce activities. If you can’t make it leadership of Joe Coale, con- 15 Kids Corner out to the Park in person, you tinues to beautify roadways 16 RRLRAIA Committee Reports can view great photos in the throughout Ruxton. for 2013-2014 new RRLRAIA directory (which An important focus of our 18 BGE Plans Improved Reliability for Ruxton Areas will be sent to all members) 2010 Community Plan is showing scenes and structures ensuring the safety of our 19 Topping the Table With Style from both the Park and Lake roads; the new traffic light at Roland. Clarkview Road on Falls Road will add greatly to the safety Board of Governors As you can see from our of travel along this corridor. President – Patrick Jarosinski Committee accomplishments 1st Vice President – Jessica Paffenbarger summary (page 16), our Board In November, we hosted our 2nd Vice President – Laura Shmerler members have been very pro- second annual Happy Hour for Treasurer – Linda Murphy ductive this year. During the Annual Meeting the Bare Hills business com- Secretary – Tracy Miller munity. You can read about two long-standing Gina Adams we reluctantly said goodbye to several outgo- Cynthia Allen ing Board members whose contributions will small businesses in Bare Hills on pages 4 and Art Arthur be sorely missed and voted in six new Board 19. We are pleased that so many establish- John Baer ments, both large and small, conduct business Shannon Brown members whose varied expertise and interests Thomas Brown will surely inspire us once more (page 10). within our community. It is with great plea- Jeffrey Budnitz sure that we welcome our newest one, The Elise Butler This upcoming year is already proving to be Perfect Gourmet, located in the Riderwood Kelley Keener very busy. With the County, the State and Station Center. Susan Law BGE, we are helping to plan and adminis- Mary Brown McKenna ter a handful of new projects requested by Though we say this every year we really do Courtney Middelton look forward to December’s Holiday Party in Paddy Morton community members. The proposed projects Michael Muldowney include new curbing at various locations the Woods. This outdoor annual event enter- Clark Parriott throughout our community, pruning of vines tains both young and old. While the bonfire Shannon Putman warms up our holiday hands and hearts, it is Anne Rouse that hang into and over streets, new electric Carlton Sexton infrastructure to improve reliability for sec- the visit from Santa on his fiery red ‘sleigh’ Justin Wiggs tions of our community, repaving some roads that never fails to delight. Hope to see you there or just in the neighborhood. Executive Director and enhancing storm water drainage along Bellona Avenue from Charles Street (at the Patrick Jarosinski Peggy Squitieri Beltway) south to the post office. In addition, Newsletter Committee: Neighborhood NEWS is published three times a year by The Ruxton-Riderwood-Lake Roland Area Jessica Paffenbarger, Editor Nancy Horst Graphic Production: Improvement Association, Inc., P.O. Box 204, Riderwood, MD 21139, tel: 410-494-7757. Laura Shmerler, Advertising Bliss McCord DesignConcept.com Shannon Putman Deadlines for copy, including announcements and calendar items, are February 1st for Spring issue, John Baer Printing: Nettie Washburn July 1st for Fall issue and October 1st for Winter issue. Advertisers contact: [email protected]. Barbara Guarnieri MtRoyalPtg.com 2 Other American Christians, especially in the South, chose to adapt English holiday traditions to plainer colonial ways. For example, Silent Night 1814 Southern colonists decorated their church sanctuaries with greens and used sprigs of aromatic herbs to perfume the air.