PRSTD STD US Postage Paid Permit No. 145 Waldorf, MD
Thursday, April 5, 2007 • St. Mary’s County, Maryland
Established 2006 • Volume 2 • Issue 14 • FREE
House Passes Impervious Surfaces Bill
Missing local optometrist found Investigators looking into circumstances surrounding his disappearance By Guy Leonard Staff Writer The family of Marcel Brooks is rejoicing now that the optometrist who had been missing for more than a week has been found unharmed. Anne Brooks, his wife, said her husband’s story was one of fear as he was taken and made to drive his captor all the way down to Texas and then to Alabama where he was found by local law enforcement in what is turning out to be a bizarre set of circumstances. “He’s pretty shaken up,” Anne Brooks said Monday of her husband’s apparent ordeal. “He was taken and threatened. “[The abductor] took everything, his credit cards, his money…
so all he could do was sit on the side of the road.” Marcel Brooks went missing March 24 from his place of work at a Pearl Vision Center in Hillcrest Heights after calling his wife saying he would meet her at Andrews Air Force Base after he went to get a lottery ticket. That call was the last Anne Brooks heard from her husband for 10 days as both she and police searched intently for him. Police from the City of Brewton, Ala. found Brooks April 2 on U.S. Highway 31 at about 10:45 in the morning, they said, reading a road map and telling them initially that he was looking for a way to get back out See Found page A-7
By Adam Ross Staff Writer
Photo by Guy Leonard
Anne Brooks, wife of optometrist Marcel Brooks who was found alive and unharmed in Alabama after going missing for more than a week, prepares fliers for Randy Ordonio, a family friend who had traveled from San Francisco to help search for her husband, a few days before he was found. Police in Brewton, Ala. found Marcel Brooks April 2 in his vehicle on the side of the road and he later claimed he had been abducted while trying to buy a lottery ticket in the District.
Rescue Squads Need Volunteers To Staff Critical Day Shift By Guy Leonard Staff Writer Rescue squads around the county are looking for more volunteers to fill their ranks, especially for the day shift where some squads are having trouble responding. Company 79 in Hollywood is one such squad. “It’s hard to cover calls during the day,”
Index House Bill A-8
said Lt. Robert Millar, who was tending the station by himself March 28. “It’s just me here. I can’t transport anybody.” Millar said that there were about 80 volunteers at the Hollywood Volunteer Rescue Squad but with most of them working during the day, staffing the station was nearly impossible during the day. “Just as much happens if not more during the day than at night,” Millar said of the need to answer calls for service. “If we had two or three volunteers during the day that could run [the ambulances] we could get out most of our calls.” Millar said the lack of volunteers in the
county and his station for the day shift was “serious.” “It’s just prolonging getting help to people,” Millar said. Bob Miedzinski, vice president of the Leonardtown Volunteer Rescue Squad, said that the county commissioners have started an Emergency Services Task Force to examine whether there are enough volunteers at the rescue squads and whether response times are acceptable in length. “That’s a study that’s going to be underway,” Miedzinski said.
St. Mary’s County government officials are reeling over a bill that would levy a costly blow to new home constructions if passed and signed into law. The Maryland House of Delegates passed its version of the Green Fund Bill March 21, which is aimed to raise $130 million a year from $1 and $.50 per square foot fees imposed on the construction of impervious surfaces. It would also levy a flat fee ranging from $100 for homes when adding less than 1,000 square feet of impervious surface, and up to $1,500 for homes adding more than 10,000 square feet of impervious surfaces. An impervious surface includes sidewalks, parking lots, driveways, gutters and any surface created as a result of residential, commercial or industrial development that could contribute to the affects of storm water runoff. “I’m not really supportive of it,” said Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D-Leonardtown). “I’m more supportive of the concept than the funding mechanism they have developed to implement the program. It puts the responsibility of cleaning up the bay strictly on new developments.” The House passed the bill 96-41, and was sponsored by House Environmental Matters Committee Chairman Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City). Thirty-five percent of the bill’s revenues would be distributed by the Maryland Department of Agriculture to help farmers pay for reducing agricultural runoff and similar environmental risks. Additionally, 30 percent would be divided equally between the Maryland Department of Planning and the Maryland Department of the Environment to help smaller local governments plan better for growth, and 10.5 percent would go to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for wetland and oyster restoration. For several weeks, the St. Mary’s Board of County Commissioners has expressed concerns over the bill because of its impact on rural counties where longer driveways and more impervious surface is often needed for new constructions. Before the bill came out of committee, a halfmile driveway that was ten-foot-wide would add an additional $58,000 on to a new home construction. Under the bills’ current form that cost would be
See Volunteers page A-
See House Bill page A-
Pax River Struggles With England Job Retention; Turns to Goes Pro in Washington Local Schools for Help Local Standout Signs with Major League Lax Team
Baseball B-1 By Andrew Knowlton Staff Writer Op.-Ed ..........Page A - 4 Obits .............Page A - 5 Police ............Page B - 5 Classifieds.....Page B - 7
For Continual News Updates Visit: somd.com Local Weather Friday Partly Cloudy 50° Saturday Partly Couldy 42° Sunday Mostly Sunny 51°
Photo by Adam Ross
St. Mary’s Board of Education members’ meet with staff and the College of Southern Maryland Board of Trustees for one of its monthly held joint meetings.
By Adam Ross Staff Writer Patuxent River Naval Air Station is continuing to outsource its jobs away from native Southern Marylanders. These days finding homegrown scientist and engineers skilled enough to do the work is more of a burden than a luxury. With more high-tech programs already in pursuit of
Pax River, and increasing demands from the state for a stable workforce, recruitment within St. Mary’s County and surrounding areas is becoming more of a necessity than an ambition. A report from Towson State University shows that after the national military base realignment takes place in five years, Maryland will have a shortage of residents See Job Retention page A-
“There are 380,000 student athletes and most of us go pro in something other than sports,” says the NCAA’s most recent public service announcement. But this tagline doesn’t apply to Jim England, a former standout at both St. Mary’s Ryken and St. Mary’s College, who in February was selected to play for Major League Lacrosse’s (MLL) “newest” team, the Washington Bayhawks. In February, England was invited to join approximately 60 other players for the first open tryout Washington ever held. He and the 60 other players were split up into three teams for three-hour long scrimmages. Trying to stand out in a group that large was no easy undertaking, according to England. “It was brutally cold - about 26 degrees - and everyone was wearing shorts so they would look tough,” he said. But perhaps England was noticed before any of the other players, when on one of the first plays of the scrimSee England page B-