Sex offender fired from stage roleA former Glenwood Middle School teacher has been barred from performing a leading role in a Maryland Arts Festival production at Towson University after officials learned last week that he is evading arrest in Howard County.

University officials have mailed Klaude Krannebitter a letter notifying him that his contract with them is terminated, according to spokeswoman Sedonia Martin.

Martin said the letter went out June 1, the day after the Howard County Times reported that Howard County sheriff's deputies have been looking for Krannebitter, who was to start serving a six-month jail sentence in March for a drunken-driving offense and for having sex with a 15-year-old boy.

Before Krannebitter was cut from the cast of "Some Enchanted Evening," sheriff's deputies had planned to apprehend him at a rehearsal for the musical, said chief deputy Scott Mergenthaler.

Rehearsals were to begin June 4, Martin said. Performances are scheduled for June 23 to 28. The show will go on, Martin said.

Mergenthaler said the sheriff's department is looking into fresh leads that have trickled in over the past week.

"We've been working every lead that we've had," he said.

Krannebitter's last known address is on Charing Cross Road in Baltimore, but deputies said they have not seen him there despite their repeated visits.

The sheriff's department learned Krannebitter, 37, was in the cast of the festival show from a reporter for the Howard County Times after the newspaper received promotional materials listing Krannebitter as a performer. The publicity packet included photos of Krannebitter with the rest of the cast.

There is also a warrant out for Krannebitter's arrest in Baltimore for failing to appear at hearings stemming from a drunken-driving charge there earlier this year, said Walter Balint, Krannebitter's attorney.

_ Jennifer Vick

Board of Appeals says `no' to day-care center

The county Board of Appeals has voted to deny a request for a zoning exception for a 200-student day-care center in Ellicott City.

The Ellicott City-based SDC Group proposed the project, called Tutor Time, on a 2 1/2-acre site across from Hollifield Station Elementary School, at the corner of Rogers Avenue and Patapsco Valley Drive.

Opponents argued that parking was inadequate, that pedestrian traffic would be threatened by motorists and that the proposed 10,000-square-foot building was out of scale with others nearby.

They also argued that, with a school already at the entrance to Hollifield Station, the added burden on the neighborhood would be too great.

The May 31 Appeals Board vote of 3-2, which isn't binding until a decision is signed, came after a 2-2 deadlock May 15. Board chairman Robert Sharps, who was not present May 15, was the deciding vote the second time around.

Linda Dombrowski, a Hollifield Station resident and a leader of the opposition, said she was not surprised by the outcome.

"I always believed the board was reasonable," she said, noting that opponents provided Appeals Board members with objective evidence in support of a "no" vote.

Dombrowski said residents would be willing to talk with SDC officials about their next move.

Rob Moxley, a vice president with SDC, said his firm will not decide whether to appeal until the decision has been signed.

"We're always willing to talk to the community about projects," he said, adding that the Ryland Group, which owns the Hollifield Station site, would have to be involved.

_ Michael Cody

State seeks input on Route 29 upgrade plan

State Highway Administration officials have scheduled a June 13 public meeting on plans to ease congestion on Route 29 near its intersection with Route 100.

Route 100, which previously connected Route 29 to Route 104, was extended to Interstate 95 in fall 1998. Since then, traffic has backed up regularly on a 3-mile stretch of Route 29 between Route 100 and Interstate 70, near Ellicott City.

Howard County is bearing about $4 million of the $20.6 million cost for various projects on Route 29. The state is paying the rest.

The proposed work includes:

* an extra "inside" lane on northbound Route 29 between Route 100 and Route 40, allowing through traffic to stay to the left and giving cars from westbound Route 100 more room to merge;

* a left-hand exit from northbound Route 29 to westbound I-70, complementing the right-hand ramp in use today;

* a third through lane on southbound Route 29 from Route 40 past Route 100;

* a second lane on the approach and ramp from southbound Route 29 to eastbound Route 100.

All of Route 29 between Route 100 and Rogers Avenue (north of I-70) would be resurfaced and _ pending votes by affected residents _ noise barriers could be installed on Route 29 near St. John's Lane and Old Columbia Road, highway administration spokesman Dave Buck said.

Officials hope to put the project out to bid in the fall, begin construction next spring and complete work by the summer of 2003.

The June 13 meeting will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. at Mt. Hebron High School, with officials available to answer questions.

For more information, call project manager Mark Crampton at 410-545-8876 or 800-841-7439.

_ Michael Cody

County judge said to err in adult bookstore case

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals has thrown out a decision by a Howard County Circuit Court judge in favor of an Ellicott City adult bookstore.

In a 34-page decision issued June 4, the state Court of Special Appeals contends Judge James Dudley erred in requiring the county to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" _ a standard used in criminal cases _ in its civil case against Pack Shack that the store was in contempt for continuing to operate on Route 40.

The store argued it had made changes to its business, including selling paperback books and greeting cards and showing health and sex education films in individual booths instead of adult films.

Dudley ruled against the county in the case in July 2000 and the county appealed his decision.

The state Court of Special Appeals will send the case back to Howard County for more proceedings, but Deputy County Solicitor Paul Johnson said he is not sure at this point what those proceeding will be.

"It's really up to Judge Dudley to a certain extent," Johnson said.

Pack Shack attorney Howard Shulman could not be reached for comment.

In May 2000, Dudley ruled the store violated the ordinance requiring that adult businesses operate at least 500 feet from homes. The store owners, however, said the ordinance violated their First Amendment right to free speech.

The Court of Special Appeals upheld that ruling in April stating there are as many as 12 locations in the county to which the store could move under the ordinance, therefore not violating the owner's right to free speech.

_ Jennifer Vick

Trial of man charged in explosives case delayed

The trial of an Ellicott City man charged with 59 counts of illegal possession of explosives was postponed this week. A new date has not been set.

Richmond Laney, 44, was to go on trial June 4, but both Laney's attorney, Louis Willemin, and Deputy State's Attorney Matt Campbell requested a postponement due to the unavailability of Circuit Court Judge Raymond Kane to preside over the trial.

Kane has presided over previous hearings regarding Laney's case and both attorneys say they want him to preside over Laney's trial as well.

_ Jennifer Vick

Groups find sites that could pollute Patapsco

A group of about 50 volunteers recently counted more than 20 major trash sites and numerous other potential pollution sources in the Patapsco River watershed in a roughly two-hour period without even leaving their cars.

Sue Fothergill, program manager for Save Our Streams, said volunteers from her group, those from The Friends of the Patapsco Valley and those from Heritage Greenway combed the area April 28 after a 90-minute training session.

Their objective, said Kit Valentine, president of the Friends group, was to document what they could see from inside their cars on public roads and highways along the watershed, which passes through Howard, Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Carroll counties and part of Baltimore city.

"We found about 20 different areas where it will take 50 volunteers four hours to even make a dent in [the trash]," Fothergill said.

"People dump with the thought that somebody will clean it up," Fothergill said. "It's a 'It's not my problem any more' thing."

Valentine said overgrazed farmland on the watershed is also a problem. Without a vegetative cover between the barnyard and the water, animal waste and sediment run into the stream.

Sediment clouds water and suffocates fish and shellfish, while nutrients in the manure eventually feed algae in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. In turn, the algae and sediment block sunlight, reducing the growth of underwater grasses that serve as habitat for fish and shellfish.

Caragh Fitzgerald, extension educator for agriculture and natural resources for the Maryland Cooperative Extension-Howard County, said the problem is definitely an issue in Howard County.

She added that the extension service addresses the problem with education for landowners on pasture management and other measures.

"Most are aware of the natural resources that they are stewards of. The problem is, sometimes they aren't aware of what their options are."

_ Lisa Rosato

Firm will guide shaping of land-use `vision'

A New York-based firm is heading an effort to reach a regional consensus on land-use and transportation issues.

The Vision 2030 process, which will involve thousands of people, is expected to take 1 1/2 years.

The result, according to a partner in the firm, will be a set of priorities that elected officials won't be able to ignore.

"It's very easy to ignore a report," said Gianni Longo of ACP _ Visioning & Planning, who has conducted similar sessions in other regions as far back as 1984.

But, he said, "When you've involved hundreds of people, the phone rings."

The Baltimore-area study will cost about $500,000 and is being funded by the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board, which includes the chief executives of five counties, including Howard, plus Baltimore city and Annapolis.

The board is required to revise its regional plan every three years to qualify for federal transportation money.

The last plan, completed in 1998, predicted a 78 percent increase in time spent in traffic over the next 20 years despite billions of dollars spent on road construction, Longo said. Vision 2030 will help with the 2001 and later plans.

County Executive Jim Robey joined the other six executives in introducing Vision 2030 at a news conference in Baltimore May 15.

ACP will start the process in mid-July by assembling three focus groups: one for urban residents, one for suburban residents and one for rural residents. Each focus group will include about a dozen residents, with each jurisdiction represented, he said.

Through October, ACP will invite a couple of hundred business, environmental and other leaders to a series of "stakeholder" meetings.

In early 2002, ACP will hold town meetings around the region. Then the firm will survey more than 1,000 households.

ACP will sort the results into a report on shared goals for the region.

_ Michael Cody

Officials narrow in on watershed restoration

County officials and the Army Corps of Engineers are about six months away from agreeing on more than $4 million in restoration projects in the Deep Run and Tiber-Hudson watersheds, two years after a report on possible projects was completed.

Howard Saltzman, chief of the stormwater management division of the county Department of Public Works, said the county didn't like some of the Corps of Engineers' original recommendations and sought an opinion from a third party. The Corps of Engineers hired The Bioengineering Group of Salem, Mass.

The resulting plan includes less stone and more plants.

So far, according to Saltzman, the corps is going along with it.

The county and Corps of Engineers will confer with property owners and go through the county permit process, Saltzman said.

The original report stemmed from a 1994 "reconnaissance study" that identified five watersheds, plus the Patapsco River and Baltimore's Inner Harbor, as being especially damaged by development. Among them were Deep Run, which drains about 13 square miles in Elkridge, and the Tiber and Hudson branches, which together drain about 3 square miles in Ellicott City.

About 16 percent of Deep Run's length, and 37 percent of the Tiber and Hudson streams, are in poor or very poor condition, with limited buffers, shading and flood plains, according to the 1999 report.

The report proposes spending about $4.6 million at 12 sites on restoring streams, restoring and creating wetlands, and building stormwater management systems to increase the diversity of wildlife and to reduce flooding.

Two-thirds of project costs would be borne by the Corps of Engineers, with the rest (including the value of easements from land owners) funded locally, Saltzman said.

Once an agreement is signed, projects could continue year-to-year, Saltzman said, noting that for fiscal year 2002 the county has $295,000 available.

_ Michael Cody

Parks director rescues struggling swimmer

The director of the county's Department of Recreation and Parks put his lifeguard training to use May 20, rescuing a struggling swimmer at Centennial Lake.

Gary Arthur, the 54-year-old department director, is a former water safety instructor who works out regularly in his basement. In fact, he said, he has rescued others in the past.

He and County Executive Jim Robey were watching the annual Columbia Triathlon from the shore of the lake when the incident occurred.

A group of about 200 swimmers, aged 30 to 35, had just entered the water, and he and Robey were remarking on their abilities, Arthur recalled. Then Arthur happened to look away from the main group.

"I saw a guy struggling," Arthur said. "I was trying to figure out what the heck was the trouble. Then I saw the expression on his face."

At about the same time, a woman cried out, asking if someone could help the man.

"Next thing I know, Gary just charges off the bank and into the water," Robey recalled.

Arthur waded in, wearing street clothes.

"I was hoping to just get my pants leg wet," he said. But the water deepened as he moved toward the swimmer, about 30 feet from shore.

Robey said he saw Arthur disappear under the surface as he neared the swimmer. Then both went under again before they resurfaced and Arthur pulled the swimmer to shore.

Centennial Lake's average depth is 12 feet, Arthur said, adding that it wasn't as deep there.

"I remembered some of my old lifeguard skills," Arthur said.

The man explained that he had trained in a heated pool and was shocked by the cold water in the lake, Arthur said.

_ Michael Cody

County backs off plan to take cemetery land

Members of the King family proved they know how to organize after the county's Department of Public Works proposed to take a 30-foot strip from their 1-acre cemetery in Annapolis Junction to widen Guilford Road.

The county changed its plans, at some expense, protecting graves in the approximately 172-year-old cemetery from harm.

"In the end, the decision to avoid taking any land from the cemetery could not have been an easy one," family spokeswoman Kathryn King Kulick said at a June 5 news conference in Ellicott City. "They have taken the hard right and not the easy wrong. Very simply, some things are too precious to sacrifice to the bulldozers."

Ron Lepson, chief of the bureau of engineering in the Department of Public Works, said state and local agencies, as well as a developer, will spend about $8 million to rebuild a bridge and widen roads in Annapolis Junction.

Original plans called for taking a strip of the cemetery to widen Guilford Road. Instead, ground will be built up and reinforced on the opposite side of the road.

"We bit the bullet," Lepson said, adding that he is unsure what the change will cost. "It might cost some more," but it "protects the integrity of the cemetery," he said.

Kulick said the newly formed King-White Cemetery Foundation will renovate and maintain the cemetery.

She gave a painting of the cemetery to county officials, and later contributed money to Preservation Howard County and the Coalition to Protect Maryland Burial Sites for helping with the effort to save the graveyard.

_ Michael Cody