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Established 2006 • Volume 2 • Issue 29 • FREE

By Guy LeonardStaff Writer

William Mattingly was hoping to get a good corn crop this year. Grain prices were up because of interest in producing ethanol from corn and the profit margins were looking promising.

It was a good plan, but after looking over his corn crop for the past several months, ravaged by sweltering heat and precious little rain, he may not see those profits any time soon.

On one of his cornfields in Mechanicsville, the stalks were only about one-third of the size they should be, he said.

He added that you could find much the same results at his 43 other plots spaced between Hollywood and Hughesville.

“It’s going to hit very hard,” Mattingly said of the crop losses he expects this summer. “My worst year was back in 2002, but this year is worse.”

Mattingly is not alone. According to officials with the St. Mary’s County Farm Services Agency, a local arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers all around the county are reporting crop losses due to the extreme heat and low rainfall so far this summer.

Amy Farrell, executive director at the farm service agency, said the drought has affected more than just corn and soybeans, the main summer crops, and has had an impact on fruit, vegetables and livestock as well.

“They’ve all begun feeding hay [to their livestock] because their pastures are all burned up,” Farrell said. “They’ve stockpiled [livestock feed] for the winter but they have to use it up now in the summer.”

Mike Russell, a Clements based farmer who makes most of his living working for the county’s Soil Conser-vation District, said the intense heat and lack of rain have drastically reduced the natural food sources that deer can find in the woods also.

Drought, Intense Heat Wither Farmers’ Crops And Profits.


The county department of Land Use and Growth Management (LUGM) has revoked a special use permit that would have allowed the Southern Rock band Molly Hatchet to perform on the ball fields behind a restaurant in Ridge July 28.

Denis Canavan, director of LUGM, said that there are plans to move the scheduled event to the nearby Sea Side View campgrounds but that no approval has been granted for that plan.

The concert is scheduled to take place in a little over a week.

This revocation comes on the heels of an Alcohol Beverage Board hearing that levied a stiff sentence against the owner of the establish-ment, Boatman’s Restaurant and Sports Bar, for noise violations at a June 16 event there.

Scott Boatman, owner of the sports bar, said the beverage board’s decision to suspend his ability to sell alcohol at band concerts for 18 months because of overly loud music at the June 16 party that upset neigh-boring residents, was excessive.

“We do apologize for any kind of inconvenience we caused the com-munity by having a luau,” Boatman told The County Times Monday. “But we expect to be treated fairly.

“To be shut down for 18 months for a noise violation has never hap-

pened in this county’s history.”Boatman said this was his establishment’s first of-

fense and that it was not related to disorderly conduct or selling alcohol to minors.

The beverage board held a hearing July 12 regarding

Concert Planned For Ridge Looking For New Venue


Sheriff’s deputies are investigat-ing a 31-year-old man from Mexico pending charges that he caused a three-vehicle crash on St. Andrew’s Church Road Sunday afternoon.

Lt. Daniel Alioto said the man, who police have not identified be-cause he has not been officially charged, was in violation of U.S. im-migration law.

“He is not a U.S. citizen; he is in fact illegal,” Alioto told The County Times. “He’s facing a lot of differ-ent charges; the case is still under investigation.”

Those pending charges include “immigration issues,” Alioto said.

According to reports from the sheriff’s office, the suspect allegedly got out of his vehicle after the colli-sion and attempted to flee the scene, but was detained by an off-duty Met-ropolitan Police officer from D.C. until deputies arrived.

A motorist in one of the vehicles that was not at fault was flown out by emergency helicopter to a nearby trauma center, Alioto said, while the suspect in the case was treated at St. Mary’s Hospital.

“He complained of various mi-nor injuries,” Alioto said.

Alioto said tests were also pend-

Illegal Immigrant Believed to be Behind Three Car Wreck


Investigators with the state Fire Marshal’s Office say they are look-ing for suspects in two arsons that occurred over the weekend at the National Mobile Home park in Lex-ington Park.

The arsons occurred two days apart in the early morning hours of June 13 and June 15 at the same residence, according to Deputy Fire Marshal John Tennyson who is han-dling the investigations.

“We believe they are connect-ed,” Tennyson said.

In the first incident an unknown suspect poured an ignitable liquid around the foundation of a mobile home and then set it on fire, fire mar-

Fire Marshal Investigating Two Trailer Park Arsons


St. Mary’s County Public Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano says there are still vacan-cies that need to be filled for hard-to-staff courses like math, science and special education.

These courses are among the most important because students must score proficient of better on standardized tests in those subject areas or risk having the school sys-tem fall behind in its progress to meet federally mandated No Child Left Behind learning standards.

Martirano said the county must take the same measures as other ju-risdictions around the state and look outside Maryland borders for teach-ers with credentials in these critical needs classes as the state’s higher education institutions simply do not graduate enough teachers to fill the need.

“The number of qualified can-didates for those positions just aren’t there,” Martirano said. “The pot for those teachers is just so small and everyone is competing for them.

“Special education teachers are a major, hot commodity.”

Edward Weiland, director of Human Resources for St. Mary’s County Public Schools, said that

Schools Still Recruiting For Critical Needs Teachers

See Drought page A-5

See Immigrant page A-5

See Teachers page A-8

See Concert page A-6 See Arson page A-4

William Mattingly, a local farmer in Mechanicsville, looks out over one of his cornfields that have suffered greatly as a result of intense heat and poor rain this summer. Mattingly and county farm services officials fear the hardship that will come from diminished profits.

Photo by Guy Leonard

Photo by Guy Leonard

Mike Stephens, head of the band The Mike Stephens Project, plays some jazz tunes for guests of the Potomac Jazz and Seafood Festival at the St. Clements Island Museum in Clements July 14. This festival was the first time the event had been sold out.

SectionA-� The County Times Thursday,July19,�007

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You would think thatJAWS would have beenenough to ruin the sharkname forever. Truth is, this20millionyearoldpredatorisnothinglessthanfascinating.To feed this fascination, July14thwas theCalvertMarineMuseum’sannualSharkfest.

That morning a longline of eager families waitedoutside the museum for it toopen.Onceyoupaidyourin-expensiveadmission themu-seum was yours to explore.David Poole’s Shark Poolewas, of course, the main at-traction. Kids of all ageshuddledaroundthe tankget-ting topet thesecreaturesofthe deep. They absorbed allofPoole’sinstructionandde-scriptions with the sharks attheir fingertips.

The rest of the museumwas filled with fossils, dissec-tions, face paintings, crafts,marinegamesandothercrit-

ters for the excited audienceto discover. Oddly enoughchildren loved the dissectionoftheraysandskates.Parents

seemedalittlelessenthusias-tic,however.Manyyoungob-serverswalkedrightuptothetableoffreshgutsandblood.MikaelaandZacharyGreen-wald learned about the skatedigestivesystem.Whenaskedwhatthecoolestthinghesawso far was, Zachary simplystated,“Everything.”

TheDiscoveryRoomwasanotherhotspotformostpar-ticipants. In fact, each grouphad15minutesinthediscov-eryroomtokeep thecrowdsdown. The kids didn’t seemto mind however. They bus-ied themselves by huntingforancientsharkteethorfos-sils. They learned about thediamondbackterrapin,horse-shoe crab, spider crab, clearnosed skate, and starfish at the touch tank. They dressed upassailorsandraisedthesailintheDiscoveryRoomsailboat.They allwalked away learn-ingsomethingnewandwithasmileontheirface.

If you missed out onSharkfestthereisalwaysnextyear.Themarinemuseumis,of course, open year roundproviding fun and educationforthewholefamily.Ittrulyisauniquewaytospendasum-merafternoon.

SharkfestFunForAllAges

Photo by Brittany Hailer



Caleb Shores was still anticipating the Shark tank, but the face painting had been his favorite part of the museum so far.

Makaela and Zachary Greenwald were not afraid of the Skate and Ray dissections.

Victor DelaCaesta’s Mom helps him to reach the terrapin at the Discovery Room’s Touch Tank.

ByGuyLeonardStaffWriter

A proposed winery onpropertyownedbytheTownofLeonardtownispickingupsteamastheBoardofCountyCommissionersvotedtohavecounty staffbegindraftingamemorandumof understand-ingthatwilldecidewhowillrenovatethebuildingthewin-erywantstocallitshome.

The winery is part of aplan by a cooperative madeup of 17 grape growers whoarelookingforalocalmarketto sell their owncounty-pro-ducedwine.

The winery project hasbeenintheworksforthepasttwoyears,saidRichardFuller,aboardmemberoftheSouth-ernMarylandWineGrowersCooperative, which will runthe facility once its up andrunning.

The cooperative is alsoanalternativeforfarmerswhohad taken the state’s offer ofatobaccobuyoutnearlyade-cade ago to make a profit sell-inggrapes.

“Wesaidlet’sgetstarted

onsomethingnow,whilewe’vegotthistobaccobuyoutmon-eycomingin,”FullertoldTheCountyTimesabout the ideato start the winery. “Grapesturnedouttobeagoodcrop…itoffersmoremoneyperacrethantobacco.”

Oneoftheonlyquestionsthathastobehammeredout,Fuller said, was who wouldrenovate the old warehousenear Macintosh Road andRoute for the cooperative’suse;thecountyorthetown.

Apublicparkisalsopartoftheoverallwineryproject.

The other questionswouldbewhowouldmanagethepurchaseofequipmenttosetupthenewwinery,Fullersaid.

The new facility, whichshould be renovated by Sep-temberaccordingtothecoop-erative’s time line, will needfermentationvats,oakbarrelsforwinestorage,de-stemmingmachinesandgrapepresses.

“All the things you’d seewalking through a winery,”Fullersaid.

The winery will alsomakeiteasierforthehandful

of localgrowers toship theircroptomarket.

“That means instead ofdrivingthreehoursit’llbe15minutes,” said grape growerStevePurvinsofBushwood.

Purvinssaidthatonthreeacres of land he is on aver-age able to grow about 10tonsworthofgrapesatabout$1,000 per ton in sales.Thattranslatedinto$10,000intotalsales.

Elected officials for the countyandthetownbothsaidthat the project would likelybe a boon to economic de-velopmentand tourisminSt.Mary’s.

“We’re very pleased theco-ophasgottensoorganizedsoquickly,”saidLeonardtownMayorJ.HarryNorris.“Thisisaprojectwecanallbeproudof.”

Commissioner ThomasMattingly (D-Leonardtown)saidtheprojectwouldbeahelpto farmers looking for profits intheabsenceoftobacco.

“Therearealotoffarmerstrying to survive,”Mattinglysaid.“It’sagoodplan…thisisagoodeffort.”

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The students sitting in class at Lexington Park El-ementary School had just spent the whole day working math problems, brushing up on their reading and writing and going through practical science experiments.

It was the middle of July and they were there because they wanted to be.

“We have to make this fun and engaging,” said Susie Fowler, principal at Lexing-ton Park elementary. “We’re competing with summer.”

In one class of 2nd grad-ers, Zachary Simmons, 7, of Lexington Park was taking a break playing with sets of 10 blocks, making structures and generally relaxing af-ter a long day of academic practice.

But even that had a pur-pose; to get children who had trouble counting by tens to master the skill.

“It helps me make tens really fast,” Simmons said. “It helped me count from 10 to 100 easier.”

It was something that he found tough in the past, Sim-mons said, now made easier by the fun exercises.

He also observed the school’s garden as part of his science enrichment and got to see how peppers grow, he said.

“We learned a lot today,” Simmons said.

And that goal of rigorous learning throughout the 20-day Jump Start course was exactly what school officials had in mind to get children ready for their next grade level, a grade level they were not really ready for before taking the program.

These 100 students at Lexington Park elementary were those who just needed more classroom time to mas-ter basic skills.

“Time is always a chal-lenge,” Fowler said. “We have the children for a finite amount of time and we have to do the best we can.

“This represents about 25 percent of our student body.”

Teachers use the same materials they would during the normal school year from the state’s voluntary curricu-lum, Fowler said, which is in turn tested on the Maryland School Assessment.

These tests determine whether a school is meeting federally mandated goals of teaching all children to be proficient in reading and math by 2014.

The children who par-ticipate in the program live mostly in poverty, said Betsy Gay, coordinator of the pro-gram, and this program was designed specifically to meet their needs.

“I think it’s very suc-cessful in meeting children’s needs academically, socially and physically,” Gay said.

Gay said that the 100 stu-dents who showed up were out of 130 students who were invited to take part in the program.

The remaining 30 did not come mostly because their families were moving out of state, to another school district, or simply had other plans.

Gay was confident, how-ever, that the vast majority of young children who needed the help were getting it.

Fowler said that it was critical for students to come to school every day of the Jump Start course to gain the maximum benefit for next school year.

“If they can’t commit to the whole 20 days we’d like to give that slot to another child who needs it,” Fowler said.

The school system has offered the program to young children who need academic assistance for the past four

years, and replicates the program in two other el-ementary schools, Green Holly and George Wash-ington Carver, the major-ity of whose students live in poverty and are eligible to receive federal educa-tion aid.

Fowler encouraged parents to enroll their child in the program if they were invited. The chance for extra help with learning basic skills was invaluable, she said.

“It’s important for the parent to take advantage of it, anytime the school system offers extra help,” Fowler said. “Education is the only ticket out of poverty; we know that and we’re very focused on that for our students.”

Elementary Kids Get Jumpstart On Next School Year

Photo by Guy LeonardSchools Superintendent Michael Martirano talks with Zachary Simmons, 7, of Lexington Park as he goes through an exercise during the first day of a jump start program designed to help school children who are not performing on grade level.

SectionA-� The County Times Thursday,July19,2007

Editorial&Opinion

LetterstotheEditorIfyouwishtosendalettertotheeditor,pleaseincludeyourname,addressandphone number for confirmation purposes. We will only publish your name and city of residence. We can withhold your name by request if circumstances merit it. We must receive all letters by Monday morning for publication in the next issue. Any letter received later than Monday will be held for the following issue.

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Under the efforts of theprevious Board of CountyCommissioners along withthe mayor of Leonardtownandthetowncouncil,theideaof a public winery and parktobelocatedinLeonardtownwas conceived.

The county and townjoined together to set thegroundwork for this projectwiththetownprovidinganap-propriatesite,whichincludesseveralsuitablebuildingsandland. The county for its part appropriated funds and pro-vided some additional land. Theprojectisnamedthe“Port

of Leonardtown Winery”.The Southern Maryland

Grape Growers Association was contacted to be the leadorganization to oversee thewinery operation. The charge was to form a cooperativeopen to people in our com-munity to join. A cooperative which, among other thingswould support the preser-vation of farmland, makehigh quality wine from local grapes, and produce a goodeconomic return.

ThetownofLeonardtownwould own and operate thepublic park, which includes

a kayak launch, picnic area,gardens, a bridge connectingto 58 acres of hiking trails. The winery and appropriatehospitality area, suitable forsmall to medium size gath-eringswouldoperate in con-junction with the parkland.

With many landowners lookingforagriculturalcropssuitable for land in St. Mary’s County thatwouldprovide areasonable return on invest-ment,grapesareonecropthatholds much promise. Farm-ing is nothing more than abusinessandthefutureofanybusinessisdeterminedbythe

economicsoftheindustryandthe financial condition of that particular business.

Thebestwaytopreservefarmlandisthroughself-pres-ervation, having a profitable crop growing on the land. As was the case when tobaccowasinfullproduction,oneofthe factors in having a profit-able cropgrowing is tohavea reliable market where thegoods can be sold at a fairmarket price.

With a commercial win-ery demanding local grapes,farmerscouldhaveareliablemarkettoselltheircropseach

year,andthefarmeralsohasan opportunity to benefit from theverticalintegrationofthatcrop. Grape growers who are members of the cooperativewill hopefully one day benefit from the winery’s profits.

While the first benefit of thewineryis toofferhelptoour local agricultural indus-try, a second benefit of the wineryistopromotetourisminto St. Mary’s County. Lo-catedalongthewesternshore-line, the winery is close tomanyhistoric sites along thePotomac River. In a county thatreliesheavilyondefense

spending to support our lo-cal economy, creating assetsto benefit our second largest industryisasoundeconomicdevelopment investment.

Now the grape growersand wine makers associa-tion has done much of theirhomework and are ready tomoveforwardtorenovateandequip the building. The town ismovingforwardwithplansfor the adjacent park. This unique project has the poten-tial to benefit our community in numerous ways.

We hope that the pres-ent commissioners, the towncommissioners, and the pub-licatlargewillgetbehindthisproject.

WineryDeservesStrongSupport

DearEditor:

DozensofpeoplespenttheafternoonofJune24atGreenwellStateParkenjoying the sport of carriage driving. I’d like to thank the PlantationDriving Club for holding their event at Greenwell. Their dedication to thesportwasevidentastheysharedtheirloveofcarriagedrivingwiththosein attendance. The club demonstrated the techniques of braking and training, dressage,driving through obstacles, precision driving through defined courses, anddriving for the disabled. Different types of carriages were on display aswas a life-size model of a horse hitched to a carriage, offering a firsthandlook at what’s involved. All of the proceeds from this event directly benefit the GreenwellFoundation’s horseback riding program, and all of us at Greenwell are grateful for the support.

Thankyou,KendallSorenson-ClarkExecutiveDirectorGreenwell Foundation Hollywood,MD

LetterstotheEditorTotheEditor:

I have been reading your paper for a while now and find your coverage very good. But the story you had about Elm’s Beach really has me a bit concerned. I mean, I went there on school trips, and my mother and I often say we’re not going to return because of how hot it was when we went there. But that’s the only thing we had a problem with.

I do hope it recovers because it’s not a bad place to be and the staff there treated me very well when I was there 15 years ago. In fact, once we had one of those overnight field trips, and the children wouldn’t go to sleep they were bouncing around in those tents until the staff needed to call their parents to pick them up. I was the only one who at least tried to sleep, but without much luck. And the next morning when the kids came back, I was allowed to stay in the staff cabin while the others had to go on a hike, I believe. I just sat there and drank Kool-Aid or Hi-C until everyone else came back. On another occasion, we swam in the lake, which was a big no-no, and they sent the kids home.

But getting back to the topic, I didn’t think you could have too much bacteria in a place like the Elm’s because it is nestled in a swampy area. I could be wrong, but I thought swamps help reduce bacteria because of the gas they produce. Or do they produce more bacteria?

In any case, it does sound like someone from the heath department wasn’t doing their job. They really should be watching that swamp down there. I mean, if there is too much algae in the water, doesn’t that mean there is too much bacteria in the water, or do I have that backwards? They surely should put up more warning signs though. I can’t imagine what would have hap-pened if someone drank the water there. I would hate to see someone take ill or even die from poisoning, and I do hope they will get things straight and reopen the beaches.

JayNorrisLeonardtown,MD

DearEditor:

The St. Mary’s County Health Department would like to publicly recognize Drs. Autumn and Adam Terry of All Kinds Veterinary Hospital in Callaway for their community minded pro-fessionalismineuthanizingabatsuspectedofhavingrabiesthathadbeeninvolvedinananimalto animal contact and is presumed to have had a human contact as well. Taking the best interests ofthecommunityintoconsideration,theyprovidedtheservicewithoutchargeandexpeditedthequick transfer of the animal to health department couriers who delivered the bat to Baltimore for testing. Their actions June 29 helped to quickly resolve the rabies investigation.

Eachyear,rabiescasesincreaseduringthesummermonthsaspeoplegooutdoorsandinter-act with their environment more. So far this year there have been three positive cases of rabies in animals. Raccoons, bats, foxes and skunks are the most common carriers of rabies, but our domestic animal population is also at risk. Unvaccinated cats, dogs, ferrets and livestock are at risk of rabies infection and may pass the virus on to their human companions and caretakers.

It takes the combined effort of the health department’s Rabies Prevention and Communi-cable Disease Programs, St. Mary’s County Animal Control, animal care partners including local veterinarians and animal rescue groups such as the St. Mary’s Animal Welfare League, andthevigilanceofourcitizenstovaccinatedomesticanimals,maintainsafeconditions,reportincidents, and provide quick and appropriate response when rabies is suspected. Our thanks are extended to All Kinds Veterinary Hospital for supporting this effort.

DarylCalvanoDirectorofEnviormentalHealthServicesSt. Mary’s County Health DeparmentLeonardtown,MD

shal reports said.The ensuing flame

charredthefoundationandsetnearby vegetation on fire.

“Itwasveryminordam-age to theplasticskirting [ofthe trailer] and it was a flash fire that extinguished itself,” Tennyson said.

Fire marshal reports stat-ed that therewas only about$100 in damage in the first fire.

On July 15 unknown sus-pectsagainusedan ignitableliquid on the trunk of a car of one of the mobile home’s residents, setting it on fire and causingabout$3,000worthindamage to the vehicle.

That fire, according to reports from the fire marshal,

was discovered by someonepassing by the incident andit took firefighters about two minutes to put the car trunkfire out.

Tennyson said that therearenosuspectsatthistimeineithercasebutthatthesekindsofcrimestendtooccurmorearound this season.

“It seems to pick upwhenthejuvenilesareoutofschool for the summer,” Ten-nyson said. “It was a busy weekend.”

Fire marshals have al-readychargedajuvenilewithsetting a shed on fire July 12, adding to the toll of arson fires around the county in recentweeks.

“Itwasjustajuvenileplay-ing with fire,” Tennyson said. “He was just playing with fire and it got out of control.”

Thatcasehasbeenturnedover to the juvenile services

department for prosecution,Tennyson said.

An arson that occurred in Golden Beach in June com-pletely engulfed a small cot-tage and caused $300,000 indamage.

State fire marshal’s in-vestigating the case arrestedtwojuvenilesshortlyaftertheblazewhowere suspectedofthe crime.

Investigatorssaidthatthearson was the result of a fire setafterthesuspectsallegedlycouldnotgetagolfcartoutofthe homes carport.

The investigators havealsosaidthattheybelievethearson was gang related.

Anyone with informa-tionregardingthetwomobilehome park arsons can callTennyson at 443-550-6834.

ArsonContinued from page A-�

ToTheEditor:

IwouldliketothanktheCountyCommissionersnotonlyfortheopportunitytoserveontheTask Force Board to study the different forms of governments, but also for taking the impossible and making it possible for their endless work for the past twelve years by bringing St. Mary’s Countyintothe21st.

The Task Force Meetings have been a pleasure and experience not only to study the many booksandpapersgiventous,butalsotolistentothespeakersrelatingtousthefunctionsoftheirforms of government.

CountyCommissioner,CodeHomeRule,andCharterarethethreeformsofgovernmentwehave studies and had many discussions.

My choice was to keep our present County Commissioner form of government. The County Commissioners,inmyopinion,aretheclosestformofgovernmenttothepeopleandthemostassessable.

IcannotjustifychangingtheCountyCommissionerformofgovernmentintotheLegislativeBranch.

If five Commissioners can bring St. Mary’s County into the 21stcenturywithoutthehelpofanyotherformofgovernmentthatIfeeltheneedtovotetokeepthepresentformofgovernmentwe now have.

Pat WoodburnCompton Md.

Thursday, July 19, 2007 The County Times Section A - �

Terri Bartz Bowles

We have a couple of bun-nies in our backyard. We start-ed seeing them in early spring and they’re not a constant presence, but we see one or two a couple of times a week. They’re fun to watch and

we’ve enjoyed having them around. They like dandelions and it’s funny to watch rab-bits eat with their high-speed chewing action. They’ll nip the dandelion stem down low, eating from the bottom up un-til they get to the fuzzy seed

ball which they just spit out. Dandelions in the lawn don’t bother us, we kind of like them and would never spray weed killer because it would probably hurt birds and the good insects. So it was fine with us to have a little natural

dandelion control because the yard was becoming a little too yellow. Between the rabbits and the goldfinches eating the seed heads, we thought that was working out pretty well.

One night when we came home late, we caught two

bunnies in the headlights and they went ballistic. They started jumping up and down and back and forth but weren’t running away. They were next to the driveway and we didn’t want to run over one of the dumb bunnies, so we turned the headlights out and waited a minute. That didn’t work – when the lights went out they just went back to eat-ing and when we turned them back on they went ballistic again. So we sat there with the lights on and eventually they hopped off into the blackness. They’re cute and they’re en-tertaining. They’re also start-ing to eat my violets and once they start on the violets, it’s a short hop (so to speak) to the other flowers and plants. We have plenty of yard where they can eat all the grass and clover they want, but I’m not too enthused about them mak-ing a buffet out of my flower beds. It’s not rabbit season yet, so we can’t have them for dinner and by the time rab-bit season rolls around, they could have eaten everything I have! Those cute little bun-nies make good eating; fried rabbit with some rabbit gravy is yummy. However, that’s not an option til later, so what do I do in the meantime?

Well, nature may very well take care of my little rab-bit problem. A couple of weeks ago, something swooped low

across the back yard. When I looked, I saw a hawk sitting on the ground just into the brush at the edge of the yard - right where the cute little bunny usually pops in and out of the woods. The hawk was looking around, he obviously missed his mark but at least I know he’s on the bunny trail. I chuckled with glee and ran to tell my husband the good news. We also have another predator in the neighborhood, a beautiful gray and red fox. It comes sidling out of the woods out back at the edge of dark, warily looking around. Ooh, find the wabbit, find the wabbit, I say to myself. Now I have two predators on the bunny trail. But Mother Na-ture has given me one more gift.

On the way home one evening last week, just be-fore dark, we saw something flying low across the path of the car and land in a tree in somebody’s front yard. We stopped, backed up and took a look. It was an owl! A big owl. A big beautiful predator of an owl. YES! We watched him for a while, they’re fascinat-ing as they rotate their heads around checking out the scen-ery. I looked at my husband and smiled. He knew what I was thinking: between the hawk, the fox and the owl, my rabbit problem is solved.

Photo by Adam Ross

Ramblings of a Country Girl

Odd News

Hunters and the Hunted

OREGON- A man named Kent Couch decided it was time to fulfill his dream last weekend and set off in a lawn chair into the blue Oregon skies. Attached to the chair were 105 very large helium balloons, four plastic bags filled with 5 gallons of water acting as ballast, and a parachute. Also with Couch were devices to measure altitude and speed, and a GPS. He wanted to try to fly all the way to Idaho, but landed short about 193 miles from his home close to nine hours after taking flight. Couch knew it was time to land when he was coming dangerously close to running out of water, and he was nearing Hells Canyon. After landing and jumping out of the chair, the forceful wind swept away his chair and video recorder. Whether Couch will take another flight depends on if his wife Susan agrees. Right now, however, she thinking it will be a no.

LOS ANGELES- Shira Barlow couldn’t believe all the wrong numbers and text messages she was receiving on her new cell phone, especially in the early hours of the morning. All the time random people were calling her phone and won-dering why she told them she was a college student and they had the wrong number. The weird calls all began when Barlow was out with friends and dropped her old cell phone in a toilet. Soon after she replaced it, she realized that most of the callers where seemingly referencing someone named Paris. It was then that she found out she had been given one of Paris Hilton’s old cell phone numbers. The mystery was solved and Barlow finds the whole thing quite amusing.

BEIJING- Bao Xishun, a herdsman from Mongolia and the world’s tallest man, who stands an amazing 7’9” tall, was mar-ried to a 5’6” saleswoman named Xia Shujian. Not only is Xia half Bao’s height, she’s also half his age (she’s 28 and he’s 56)! Xishun started looking for a bride earlier this year, sending ad-vertisement all around the world. Turns out his wife was closer than he thought; Shujian hails from Xishun’s hometown of Chi-feng. They were wed in a traditional Mongolian ceremony.

And that has forced them into farmers’ fields all the more in search of sustenance.

“There’s no grass or veg-etation in the woods for them to eat in the woods,” Russell said. “This is the worst deer related [crop] damage I’ve ever seen.”

Russell said that farmers would be fortunate to see a 60 percent crop yield this season, which he described as poor, and that it likely would not cover their bills.

He said crop insurance was available to farmers, which is based on the average yield of the past five years, but farmers often only bought enough insurance to cover about 55 to 60 percent of their crop because to go any higher would be too costly.

“You’ve got to have bush-els [of crops] to make your liv-ing and pay your bills,” Rus-sell said.

Mattingly said that last year he was able to get 166 bushels per acre in corn, a good yield, and he was hoping to get at least 150 bushels per acre this year.

After the lack of coopera-tion from the weather, though, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to glean a third of that this season.

In 2002, which he con-sidered to be one of his worst years, he was only able to get 51 bushels per acre on average and he feared this year would not benefit him as much.

Russell said that soybean production was yielding about 27 to 35 bushels per acre this season, which is a low count from the usual 40 or so bush-els that can normally be expected.

If rain comes it could save crops that were planted later in the summer, Russell said, but it was too late to save most of the crops that were planted in late spring.

Even if torrential rains came, it would likely run off from soil that had become hard and dry from the heat and do little good, he said.

Mattingly said, by his measurements, Mechanic-sville had received only 1.7 inches of rain. In June that amount was less at only 1.3 inches. In July the rainfall was a paltry three-tenths of one inch of rain.

Last June Mechanicsville got a much healthier eight inches of rain, he said.

Steve Reeves, head of the county’s planning commis-sion and a farmer of smaller production capacity than Mattingly and others, said the bleak picture for farmers

meant that most would have to tighten their belts financially.

“If you can’t ring the reg-ister then you can’t make the money to get through the non-productive years,” Reeves said. “They’re going to be go-ing to the banks or somewhere else to get money so they can put their crops in next year.”

It was not an uncommon part of farm life, Reeves said.

“We’ve had droughts before and we’ll have them again,” Reeves said.

For farmers like Mattingly though, to see crops scorched and stunted as they are means more than just financial loss.

“I’ve got a weakness for planting seed and watching things grow,” Mattingly said. “Now I try to cover my eyes when I’m driving by… there’s no bigger gamble in the world than what we do.”

DroughtContinued from page A-�

ing to see if alcohol was a fac-tor in the wreck that occurred at about 2:10 p.m. July 15.

“There was alcohol pres-ent in the [suspect’s] vehicle, but tests are not back yet,” Alioto said.

According to informa-tion from the sheriff’s office, the suspect, who was driving a sports utility vehicle, tried to pass a vehicle that was stopped and careened off the roadway.

The suspect in the sports utility vehicle lost control, ac-cording to information from

the sheriff’s office, and the vehicle rolled over and struck an oncoming vehicle going in the opposite direction.

The alleged at fault vehi-cle was then struck by a third vehicle. There was a passen-ger in the at-fault vehicle, Ali-oto said, but it was unknown whether the passenger was also here in the United States illegally.

Alioto said the 31-year-old suspect was likely a recent arrival in the country.

“I don’t think he’s been in the states too long,” Alioto

said. “I was not advised of [the suspect] having any criminal record.”

Alioto said that crash in-vestigators were still gather-ing evidence and would relay the case to State’s Attorney Richard Fritz’s office for prosecution.

Alioto said that “law en-forcement contact is on the rise” with illegal immigrants in St. Mary’s County, and noted that several years ago il-legal immigrants from Guate-mala were arrested by federal authorities who were investi-gating a scheme involving the passing of fraudulent checks, an operation that Alioto called very successful.

He said if county deputies

encounter an illegal alien in the course of their duties, even if they have not committed a crime, that contact is docu-mented and forwarded to fed-eral immigration authorities.

However, the deputies will not arrest or detain any il-legal immigrants if they have not been found committing a crime, Alioto said, and the county would leave that up to federal law enforcement.

Documenting contact with illegal immigrants is something the sheriff’s office is getting used to, Alioto said.

“It’s something that’s picking up steam, but until now it hasn’t been something we’ve had to deal with a lot,” Alioto said.

ImmigrantContinued from page A-�


Pledge to “eat local, eat fresh!” during Buy Local

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When you discover the ben-efits of buying from your

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Shop at a grocery store that stocks genuinely local products, and support the

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the violations that occurredatBoatman’sonJune16andresidentsofRidgecameouttotestifyaboutthepasteventandtoprotesttheJuly28concert.

Canavansaidthatthere-vocation of the special usepermit for the concert wasnecessarybecauseofamyri-adofconcerns.

“Eveniftheirwerenois-sues with the alcohol bever-ageboarditwouldhavebeenrescindedforhealth,parking,traffic and safety concerns,”

CanavansaidTuesday.At the July 12 hearing,

Canavan testified that media reportsabouttheconcertquot-edBoatmanassayingthathehadsold2,500advancedtick-ets,wellover the999peopleallowedbyBoatman’spermit.

Boatman said that thesenumbers were false and thattheboardmadetheirdecisiononbadinformation.

Commissioner Dan-iel Raley, who said he wasspeaking as a private citizenJuly 12, asked the beverageboardtowithdrawthepermitfor selling alcohol outside ofBoatman’s establishment toconcert attendees on his ball

fields where the bands would play.

“The economic enginedrivingthisevent is theabil-itytosellalcohol[outsidethemain structure],” Raley said July 12, adding that allow-ingthesaleofalcoholontheball fields in this case would be “detrimental to theRidgearea.”

Oneresidentgivingtesti-monyatthehearing,recalledthe night of June 16, andcalled the loud music “Godawful music next door”.

Theresidentalsosaidheheard profanity laced lyricsthat were disturbing to himandhisfamily.

Members of the bever-ageboard receivedapetitionfrom 127 residents of Ridgeprotestingtheconcertandthecommanderof theAmericanLegion Post 255, Jim Yeat-man there said his membershadvotednottoallowtheirlotto be used for concert guestparking.

“We are against it,” Yeat-man said. “They’renotpark-ing there.”

Boatman said he wouldhave been willing to workwith the community in thewakeoftheJune16incidenttopreparefortheMollyHatchetconcert.

“Ifeelapologeticforhav-

ing it on [the luau] at all,” Boatmansaid.“Noonecametometotalkabout[theMollyHathcet concert], it was just‘try and shut me down’… Iwas a little saddened by that.”

SouthboundProductions,the concert’s promoter, hassince planned to move theperformance to the nearbySeaSideViewcampgrounds,Boatman said, and that hehelped the promoter find the newlocation.

Other than that he said,hisinvolvementwiththeMol-lyHatchet concert,whichhehadadvertisedformonths,isover.

Boatmansaidheinvested

close to $30,000 in hostingtheMollyHatchetconcertandnowthatmoneyiswasted.

“I’mprettymuchoutofitnow,” Boatman said. “That’s moneyI’ve lostnowbecauseof this.”

Boatman said that hedoes not plan to appeal thedecision.

ConcertContinued from page A-�

Everyone loves a par-ty, but planning one can bedaunting.From theguest listtogroceryshopping,youneedastrategytoget itdone.Usethe organizer below to helpyoustayontrack.

Threeweeksbefore:

* Plan your guest listandsendoutinvitations.U.S.Mail, phone calls and e-mailarealloptions.

*Takeinventory.Doyouhaveenoughchairs,tablesanddishes?Makeplanstorentorborrowwhat youdon’t have.Or,choosetousedisposables.

*Planthemenuandpre-pare the shopping list. Notewhich foods can be madeaheadandfrozen.

Twoweeksbefore:

* Plan your decorationsand centerpieces. Consideradding a festive flourish to yourtablewithedibletopiar-iesthatarenotonlyfundeco-rations, but help you servefood, too. Instructions are atright,orlogontowww.styro-foamcrafts.com.

* Prepare foods that can befrozen.

*Choosethepartymusic.

Oneweekbefore:

*ContactguestswhohavenotyetRSVP’d.

* Shop for non-perishablesand store them in a conve-nientplace.

*Clearawayclutterandcre-atespaceforacrowd.Ifneces-sary,hireacleaningservice.

*Makeroomintheclosetforcoats.

Twodaysbefore:

*Setthetablewithlinensandservingpieces.

* Shop for perishables andprepare remaining menuitems.

*Createyourdecorations.

*Setupthebarandbeveragearea.

Our final advice:

Ask friends and familyto help out. And, enjoy theparty!

PartyPlanningTipsfortheHostWiththeMost

Thursday, July 19, 2007 The County Times Section A - 7Thursday, July 19, 2007 The County Times Section A - 1

Bernard Hale “Sammy” Baird, 79

Bernard Hale “Sammy” Baird, 79, of Avenue, Md., died July 11, 2007 at his residence.

Born Feb. 4, 1928 in Blountville, Tenn., he was the son of the late Carl and Mary Diecy Smith Baird. He is sur-vived by his children; Bernard W. Baird, Carolyn A. Lump-kins, Richard Wayne Baird and Robert Keith Baird, Sr., all of Avenue, Md. He is also survived by his sister Sylvia Stevens and his brother Cle-tis Baird, both of Banner Elk, NC as well as eight grandchil-dren and three great-grand-children. He was preceded in death by his siblings; Ledford Baird, Virginia Baird and Wilton Baird.

At a young age he enlist-ed in the US Navy and later owned and operated B&W Drywall Company; retiring in 2003 after 50 years of em-ployment. Sammy moved to St. Mary’s County in 1968 where he loved playing his guitar, singing bluegrass and country music and fishing. He also belonged to the Mechan-icsville Moose Lodge.

The family received friends on Friday, July 13th 2007 at the Mattingley-Gar-diner Funeral Home, Leonar-dtown, Md., where a funeral service was held on Saturday, July 14th, 2007 where Bishop William McClean officiated. Interment followed in Charles Memorial Gardens, Leonar-dtown, Md. Pallbearers were Francis I. “Pete” Lumpkins, Francis I. “Petey” Lumpkins, Jr., Clinton B. Lumpkins, Rob-ert Keith Baird, Jr., Trampas Goldsmith and Darrell Wise. Arrangements provided by Mattingley-Gardiner Funeral Home, P.A.

Marie Taubert Colleary, 45

Marie Taubert Colleary, 45, of Piney Point, MD died July 14, 2007 at her residence.

Born June 25, 1962 in Portland, Ore., she was the daughter of Edward J. Taubert of Smyrna, Del. and Nellie Campbell of Mountain Lake Park, Md.

Mrs. Colleary gradu-ated from Largo Senior High School. She enjoyed sewing, gardening, reading and spend-ing time with her extended family. She was looking for-ward to being a grandmother. She married J. Michael Col-leary on May 30, 2004 in Val-ley Lee, Md.

In addition to her parents and husband, she is survived by three daughters, Crys-tal Gray of Lexington Park, Md., Christine Welch and her husband, Joshua of Midway Park, N.C., and Jessica Gran-nis and her husband, Richard of Lusby, Md., step-mother, Mary Taubert of Smyrna, Del., step-father, Conrad Hen-

ken of Mountain Lake Park, Md., four siblings, Virginia Walsh and her husband, Gary of Greenville, Tenn., Mark Taubert and his wife, Jen of Brooms Island, Md., Robert Taubert and his wife, Nancy of Bowie, Md., and Carrie Taubert of Smyrna, Del., ma-ternal grandmother, Catherine Adamson of Valencia, Calif., and many aunts, uncles, niec-es, and nephews.

All services will be private.

Memorial contribu-tions may be made to OPIS at St. Mary’s Hospital, P.O. Box 527, Leonardtown, MD 20650 or HOSPICE House c/o HOSPICE of St. Mary’s, P.O. Box 625, Leonardtown, MD 20650.

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

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

Kathryn Isabell Craig, 68

Kathryn Isabell Craig, 68, of Lexington Park, Md, died July 10, 2007 at her residence.

Born Sep. 12, 1938 in Sha-ron, Pa., she was the daughter of the late Robert S. McCon-nell and Theda L. (Jennings) McConnell.

On April 5, 1957, she married Donald Edward Craig and he preceded her in death in 1993. Known by her close friends as “Kate”, she and her family settled in Lex-ington Park, Md. She proudly served as a substitute teacher for St. Mary’s County Public Schools. Mrs. Craig also was active in youth sports and was the team mother for sev-eral years for baseball teams. Mrs. Craig was a resident of the Lexington Park Adult Community and enjoyed handcrafts, making dolls and afghans for her friends and family.

She is survived by her four children, Jennifer Holcomb of Cleveland, Ga., Ellen Hobby of Waldorf, Md., Donald Craig and Douglas Craig, both of Columbia, Md., sisters, Ev-elyn Higbee of Fredonia, Pa., Susan Benfield of Mechan-icsville, Md., four grandchil-dren, John Craig, Sean Mayer, Angela Hobby, James Hobby and spiritual granddaughter, Michelle Tefft.

In addition to her parents and husband, she is preceded in death by her sisters, Kar-en McConnell and Roberta Bender.

The family received friends Tuesday, July 17, 2007 from 5-8 p.m. in the Brins-field Funeral Home Chapel, Leonardtown, Md. A Funeral Service was conducted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 10 a.m. in the funeral home chapel. Pastor Curtis King will conduct the services. In-terment will follow in Mary-land Veterans Cemetery, Cheltenham, Md.

Serving as pallbearers will be Sean Mayer, John Craig, James Hobby, Richard Tefft, Frederick Harding IV, and Charles Welch.

In lieu of flowers, me-morial contributions may be made to Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, 910 17th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, 332 North Lauder-dale Street, Memphis, TN 38105, or Gideon Bible Soci-ety, P.O. Box 140800, Nash-ville, TN 37214-0800.

Condolences to the fam-ily may be left at www.brins-fieldfuneral.com.

Catherine Patricia “Pat-sy” Nickless, 63

Catherine Patricia “Pat-sy” Nickless, 63, of Lexington Park died July 9, 2007 at her residence.

Born Dec. 16, 1943 in Scotland, Md., she was the el-dest daughter of the late Nel-son E. Dean and Catherine P. Dean.

Pat was a devout Catholic of St. Cecelia’s Church and member of its Choir for many years as well. She joined the army in 1961, where she met and married her former hus-band, Chuck. After marriage she became a homemaker and mother for many years before she returned to the workforce in the late 1980’s. She was an amazing woman who touched the lives of many, especially her family. In recent years, Pat was content to enjoy her grand children and crochet award-winning doilies and angels. Many of her angels were used as gifts to people with terminal diseases. Pat loved children, and especially loved a good laugh. She will be missed but will live in our hearts forever.

Pat is survived by her ten children and their families; Virginia & Mike Richardson of Albuquerque, N.M. and son, Christopher, Theresa & David Quade of Lexing-ton Park, Md., and daughter, Amanda, Charles & Joanne Nickless of Lexington Park, Md., James & Robin Nick-less of Cheltenham, Md., and daughter, Amanda, David & Tina Nickless of Lexington Park, Md., and daughters, Christina, Cathleen, Holly, Alyssa and son, Matt, as well as grandson, Brandon, Juanita & Daniel Palmer of Pocahon-tas, Ariz., and son, Daniel and daughter, Cynthia, Rebecca & Marc Edwards of Lexing-ton Park, Md., and sons, Scott and Nathan, Keith Nickless of Lexington Park, Md., and sons, Tristan and Dillon, Del-la Nickless & Victor Proctor of Lexington Park, Md., and daughter, Elaina and sons, Patrick and Tyler, and Darryl & Liz Nickless of Gaithers-burg, Md., and sons, Carter and Samuel. She is also sur-vived by her brothers; James, Leonard, Arthur, Edward and George, and sisters; Brenda, Mary Lou, Shirley, Hazel, Winifred, Crystal and Carol.

The family received friends Friday, July 13th from 5-8 p.m. in St. Cecelia’s Cath-olic Church, St. Mary’s City, Md. Prayers were recited at 7 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Sat-urday, July 14th at 10 a.m. in the church. Interment will fol-low in St. James Cemetery, Park Hall, Md.

Serving as pallbearers will be family and friends.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Lexing-ton Park Rescue Squad or American Diabetes Associa-tion, P.O. Box 11454, Alexan-dria, VA 22312.

Arrangements by Brins-field Funeral Home, P.A. in Leonardtown, Md.

Elizabeth Ann “Betty-Ann” Smith, 50

Elizabeth Ann “Bet-tyAnn” Smith, 50, of Great Mills, Md., died July 14, 2007 in Washington Hospital Cen-ter, Washington, D.C.

Born Sept. 21, 1956 in Leonardtown, Md., she was the daughter of Mary Frances (Courtney) Hudson of Cleve-land, Ohio, and Donald Moore of Lexington Park, Md.. Betty Ann was a devoted daughter, mother, grandmother, sister and niece.

BettyAnn was always there for her family and always insisted on helping where she could. The family loved her and felt without her presence at family functions the events just were not the same. At times she would be one of the last ones to leave just so she could help. She is a special soul who will be sorely missed by all of her aunts and uncles to whom she was more like a sister to them - all growing up at the same time. Betty Ann was also known to her kids’ friends as Momma Betty.

BettyAnn finally moved into the home of her dreams and she just began to decorate two weeks prior to departing this life. She was so excited about what she could do to make the house her home.

BettyAnn really enjoyed cooking and having Sun-day dinner for her children, grandchildren, parents, sis-ters, nieces and nephews. She enjoyed having late night conversations on the phone with her closest friends, Phyl-lis Griffith and Monica Jones. BettyAnn loved the music of the Gridlock band and would take every opportunity to hear them play.

In addition to her parents, Betty is survived by her three children, Richard Lavelle Smith, Jr., DeAnthony Travon Young and Monchelle Renee Young, all of Lexington Park, Md., stepfather, Samuel Ar-thur Hudson of Cleveland, Ohio, stepmother, Laura Moore of Lexington Park, Md., four sisters, Renee Book-er of Cleveland, Ohio, Juanita Sewell of Great Mills, Md., La-Ronda Johnson and Don-nita Moore, both of Lexington Park, MD, two brothers, Don-ald Moore Jr. of Honolulu, HI, and Thomas “Tommy” Moore of Great Mills, Md., four grandchildren, Rickita L. Smith, Kenya Hawkins, Kayliah Shearn, and Rickhi L. Smith, four nieces, LaToya N. Sewell, Alondra Johnson, Ariah Moore, and Janecia Moore, six nephews, Joshua Smith, Devon “Bone” John-son, Andrew L. “Chocolate” Sewell, Jabari Moore, Aaron Moore, Jihad Moore, and Is-maiil Moore and two great-nieces, Alayni Carroll and LaTiana “LaLa” Adams, fu-ture daughter-in-law, Shatoni Stout, godmother, Catherine Herndon and a host of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends.

She was preceded in death by her grandmothers, Elise Frances Berry and Mal-issa Floyd Moore, grandfa-thers, Joseph Edward Berry and Thomas Moore, and her natural grandfather, Francis Briscoe.

The family will receive friends on Friday, July 20, 2007 from 5-8 p.m. in Im-maculate Heart of Mary Cath-olic Church, Lexington Park, Md. Prayers will be recited at 7 p.m. A Mass of Chris-tian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, July 21, 2007 at 10:30 a.m. in the church. Fa-ther Jack Kennealy will be the celebrant. Interment will fol-low in the church cemetery.

Serving as pallbearers will be Michael G. Briscoe II, David L. Price II, David D. Thompson, Raleigh J. Dicker-son, Horace B. McClane, Jr. and Thomas A. Moore. Serv-ing as honorary pallbearers will be Joseph Berry, Michael Berry, Wayne Berry, Joshua Smith, Andrew Sewell, Dev-on Johnson, Donald Moore, Jr., Ricky Ray Hewett, LeAn-der Webb and Elvis Dorsey.

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

Helen Mae Stetler, 85

Helen Mae Stetler, 85, of California, Md., died July 14, 2007 in St. Mary’s Hospital, Leonardtown, Md.

Born May 19, 1922 on Lewistown, Pa., she was the daughter of the late Lee Reed and Mae (Moyer) Reed.

Mrs. Stetler worked as a Budget Analyst for Comptrol-ler NATC. She married Russel Clifford Stetler on September 20, 1941 in Lewistown, Pa., and he preceded her in death on Oct. 20, 1998.

She is survived by her son, Russel L. Stetler of Racine, Wis., two sisters, Sarahann Shenk of Mechanicsburg, Pa. and Marie Erb of Belleville, Pa., four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. In addition to her parents and husband, she is preceded in death by her daughter, Doris Jane Zenz.

The family received friends Tuesday, July 17, 2007 from 9-10 a.m. in the Brins-field Funeral Home Chapel, Leonardtown, Md.; where a Funeral Service will be con-ducted at 10 a.m. Reverend Tom Manning will conduct the service. Interment will follow in Charles Memorial Gardens, Leonardtown, Md.

Condolences to the fam-ily may be left at www.brins-fieldfuneral.com.

Marguerite Amy Tucker, 93

Marguerite Amy “Marga-ret” Tucker, 93, of Hollywood, Md., died July 7, 2007 at St. Mary’s Nursing Center.

Born Aug. 10, 1913 in Hollywood, Md., she was the daughter of the late Clyde Jo-seph and Effie Elizabeth Joy Wallace. She was the loving wife of Charles I. Tucker, Sr. whom she married on Oct. 11, 1931 in Hollywood, Md., and who preceded her in death in 1999. She is survived by her children; Charles I. Tucker, Jr. and his wife Snookey, of Avenue, Md., Clyde LeRoy Tucker and his wife Phyllis of Venice, Fla., James Allen Tucker and his wife Cindy of Inman, S.C., Darlene Ann Tucker Guyther and her hus-band Robin of Leonardtown, Md., Katie Magdalene “Max” Tucker McConnell and her husband Arthur of Lexington Park, Md., her brother Tony Wallace of White Hall, Md., and her son in law Mike Rod-gers. She is also survived by her grandchildren; Pamela A. Tucker Joy, Cheryl A. Tucker Baez, Keith A. Tucker, Denise M. Rodgers D’Amico, Den-nis M. Rodgers, William A. Tucker, Dana Tucker Gladysz, Emily E.E. Tucker, Amy M. Brown Wallace, Katrina L. McConnell Beyer, Charles A. McConnell her great-grand-children; Chad Joy, Jackie Joy, Elaine Fogelman, Melis-sa Johnson, Krissy D’Amico, Kyle D’Amico, Ethan Tucker, Jonathan Gladysz, Nathan Gladysz, Laura Breck and Ashley Beyer, as well as her great-great-grandchilden

Ashlyn and Austen Fogelman and Jacob and Riley Johnson and Mia Johnson. She was also preceded in death by her daughter Phyllis Delores Tucker Rodgers, her sisters Emma Readmond and Grace Fousek, her brothers Robert Wallace and William Wallace as well as her brother in law Carroll Tucker.

A lifelong resident of St. Mary’s County, Margaret was a homemaker who loved to sew and embroider and she made many beautiful quilts in her life. She was a member all of her adult life of Hollywood United Methodist Church.

The family received friends for a visitation/view-ing on Thursday, July 12, 2007 from 5-8 p.m. in Mat-tingley-Gardiner Funeral Home, Leonardtown, Md., where prayers will be said at 7 p.m. with Rev. Ann Strick-ler officiating. A Funeral Service was held on Friday, July 13, 2007 at 10:00 AM at Hollywood United Method-ist Church, Hollywood, Md., with Rev. Ken Walker offici-ating. Interment followed in Joy Chapel Cemetery, Holly-wood, Md. Pallbearers were her nephews, Douglas and Wayne Tucker, her grandsons Chuck McConnell and Keith Tucker, and her great-great grandsons, Chad Joy and Na-than Gladysz. Contributions may be made to Hollywood Volunteer Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 79, Hollywood, MD 20636. Arrangements pro-vided by the Mattingley-Gar-diner Funeral Home, P.A.

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overall there are a significant number of teacher positions beyond the critical needs ar-eas thatmustbehiredbeforethe beginning of the 2007 to2008 school year.

“We still have vacancies out there [for science, math and special education],” Weiland said. “We’re about 70 percent filled on positions across the board in elementary, middle and high school levels.”

Weiland said that of theapproximately 2,300 employ-ees in the school system, 1,300 were teachers.

The school system is continuing aggressive efforts to fill all the positions before school starts, Weiland said.

“We’ve looked all over,” Weiland said. “We recruit all along the East Coast, Pennsyl-vania, New York, throughout the south and in Virginia.”

Weilandsaidthatmostofthe time the school system has all its teacher vacancies filled in by the time school starts.

While the system is look-ing for scarce teachers to fill critical positions, there appears to be no shortage of teachers who meet federal guidelinesfor being highly qualified.

Martirano said St. Mary’s ranks second in the state for having highly qualified teach-ers, those who meet state cer-tification standards and have a specialized knowledge in a core subject area like math, history, language arts or sci-ence, just behind Allegany County.

Currently, about 94 per-cent of classes are taught by highly qualified teachers, Martirano said, which is up from 93 percent last school year.

In Allegany County about 98 percent of classes are taught by highly qualified teachers, Martirano said.

“We make this a huge

priority for our schools,” Martirano said. “We want the best teachers in front of our students.”

And with the opening of the new charter school in Lex-ington Park, and an additional 50 to 60 teaching positions added to the school budget, the school system will likely be hiring more teachers than it has in recent memory, the superintendent said.

“This could be a banner year for hiring teachers,’ Mar-tirano said.

Usually the system hiresabout 140 to 150 teachers each year, but this year that number could rise to 200, according to the superintendent.

Martirano has added arecruiting specialist to the hu-man resources department, he said, to help hire more teach-ers to fill the needs of the sys-tem — and there is particu-lar focus on hiring minority teachers.

The systemhasmet fed-eral requirements for hiring100 percent of highly qualified teachers for all of its Title I schools, or those schools with a majority of students who are living in poverty and thus are considered at risk for falling behind academically.

“It’s very important to achieve [all highly qualified teachers in Title I schools] regardless of what No Child Left Behind requires,” Marti-rano said.

There are four such schools in St. Mary’s Coun-ty: Park Hall, Green Holly, Lexington Park and George Washington Carver elemen-tary schools.

Martirano said he wasalso counting on the positive atmosphere in county schools to attract teachers to come here.

“We have a superior school system here and teachers want to teach here,” Martirano said. “We have supportive parents, respectful kids and they come ready to learn.”

TeachersContinued from page A-�

ByGuyLeonardStaffWriter

Investigators with the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Of-fice are looking to the com-munity to help solve the latest inastringofarmedrobberies;this time it involved a suspect who robbed employees at St. John’s Pharmacy in Holly-wood at gunpoint.

So far, the response from the community in helping in-vestigators close the case has been significant.

“We’re getting a lot of leads and a lot of calls from citizens and we’re following up on all of them,” said Lt. Rick Burris, commander of the Bureau of Criminal In-vestigations. “We’re certainly concerned when something like that happens; I don’t know why there seems to be a surge [in armed robberies] right now.”

Information from thesheriff’s office stated that the armed robbery took place June 11 at about 5:30 p.m. and thatawhitemalewithathinbuildandstandingabout5 feet 10 inches tall entered the business and demandedmoney and prescription drugs while displaying a weapon.

The employees complied with the suspect’s demands, and the suspect, who was

wearing a bandana over hisface, fled in a tan or beige col-ored four-door car.

No one was injured in the incident.

Burris said police are not releasingtheamountsofmon-ey or drugs that were stolenfor fear that it might hinderthe investigation.

Police are still investigat-ing twoarmedrobberies thattook place in Charlotte Hall June 29 and July 3. Burris said that since the suspects in the two cases were similar they might be related.

The first crime occurred at the Domino’s Pizza on Charlotte Hall Road when two suspects took money from the establishment while holdingan employee at gunpoint.

The second crime oc-curred at the 7-Eleven conve-nience store on Three Notch Road where the suspect, us-ing a handgun, entered and demandedmoneyof the em-ployee on duty.

Burris said that these two incidents and the St. John’s robbery do not appear to be connected.

Police also took two men into custody July 4 after they allegedly committed a home invasionandarmedrobberyatan apartment house in Leon-ardtown on Medley’s Neck Road.

The two men, Derrick Medley and Trey Barnes, are accused of kicking in the doors of residents demand-ing to know where one of the residents was, according to information from the sheriff’s office.

When they found theman they were looking for, charging documents read, they demanded money andmarijuana.

When the victim handed over the marijuana, a physical altercation ensued and Barnes allegedly fired a shot from a handgun down the hall-way, according to charging documents.

The suspects fled when the gunfire erupted and police arrested them soon after.

Burris said the recent spate of armed robberies was a serious concern to law en-forcement, but that the Bu-reau of Criminal Investiga-tions was keeping pace with the incidents.

“Fortunately, we’ve been able to close most of these cases,” Burris said.

Anyone with information regarding the St. John’s Phar-mancy robbery can call Crime Solvers at 301-475-3333 or de-tectives at 301-475-4200 ext. 1947.

PoliceWorkingLeadsInPharmacyRobbery

Sheriff’s deputies cordon off the parking lot of St. John’s Pharmacy in Hollywood June 11 after an armed robber entered the establishment and demanded money and prescription medication at gun point.

Photo by Jimmy Hayden

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