Here is my list of the biggest news stories over the past 10 years in eastern Baltimore County. There might have been a few I missed and I’m sorry about that. I know the list won’t please everyone but here it is:
1.Perry Hall High School Shooting
The Perry Hall community will never forget the day the area made the national news for all the wrong reasons. A student shot another student on the first day of school on Aug. 27, 2012 at Perry Hall High School.
Social media and local news outlets were filled with photos of Perry Hall students leaving the school and heading down to Perry Hall Shopping Center as the school evacuated the building. Many worried parents were relieved when they were reunited with their children at the shopping center.
The day started when Robert Gladden Jr., a 9th grader and 15-year old at Perry Hall, went to the school with a 16-gauge shotgun and 21 rounds of ammunition. When he entered the cafeteria, he pulled the gun out. Then school counselor Jesse Wasmer saw Gladden with the gun and quickly tackled him. Gladden did get off two shots during the struggle. The School Resource Officer stepped in and arrested Gladden at the scene.
One of those bullets hit 12th grade student Daniel Borowy. Although the shot was fired randomly in the air during the struggle, Borowy suffered a bruised lung and fractured rib. He would survive and returned to school in November 2012. Gladden pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
That was a sad day and Perry Hall and a huge story watched all over the area and state. That is why I am making it the number one story in eastern Baltimore County for the decade.
2. Killing of Officer Amy Caprio
I hate to list the top two stories of the decade from the Perry Hall area, especially when both stories were devastating and sad for the area, but the death of Officer Amy Caprio on May 21,2018 ranks as the second biggest story of the decade.
Officer Caprio was called to Perry Hall after a suspicious condition was reported on Linwen Way at 1:58 p.m. According to a report from Baltimore County Police, Caprio was given information about a suspect vehicle and a description of the four suspects that could be attempting a burglary. She found the suspect vehicle after an extensive search. The report added that Caprio realized the danger that a confrontation could ensue. She still approached the suspect stopped at the end of the cul-de-sac on Linwen Way. Reports show that the suspect, 16-year-old Dawnta Anthony Harris, refused to listen to Caprio’s request to exit the vehicle, and choose to drive the vehicle towards the officer which resulted fatal injuries. Harris left the scene.
Harris was found guilty of Caprio’s murder by a jury on May 1, 2019 and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and received 20 years for burglary and five years for theft.
3. The Sale of the North Point Government
Baltimore County trying to sell a piece of land would rank as the third biggest story of the decade. On a December 2012 morning, Baltimore County sent over a release about the North Point Government Center being for sale.
What we learned is that Baltimore County issued its public solicitation for the sale of three parcels of Baltimore County. The Towson Fire Station, The Randallstown Police substation and the Government Center were the three parcels of land. There was not much controversy with the Towson and Randallstown properties but the Government Center in Dundalk was a big fight. The building located on the corner of Wise Avenue and Merritt Boulevard was the home to a junior high school until the early 1980s. Then the land was transferred over to Baltimore County and the building and fields have been used for Baltimore County Recreation and Parks program, the County Council’s office in District 7 and was the home of North Point Police Precinct 12. The police moved over to the old Eastwood Center school.
Baltimore County decided to award the property to Vanguard as their plan was to demolish the government center and to build a small rec. center and use the other side to bring in retailers Chipotle, Panera Bread, Chick-fil-a and Five Guys. The ballfields would remain at the site and there would be retail.
The sale of the Government Center started the creation of Dundalk United. It was group made up of the different rec. programs at the Government Center along with residents who were against the idea of having retail in their backyards.
Members of the Dundalk United received a huge break when it was revealed that since the state of Maryland still held school construction bonds on the property since the 1980s. That meant the Board of Public Works had to approve the project. The late Kevin Kamenetz was trying to sell the property as Baltimore County Executive, but two of the three members of the Board were his political rivals -Republican Governor Larry Hogan and Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot who battled with Kamenetz over school air conditioning in Baltimore County.
As of late 2019, the North Point Government Center property is still at the corner of Merritt Boulevard and Wise Avenue and many rec programs such as the Sky is the Limit theater remains at the site.
4. President Barack Obama Visits Parkville Middle
I don’t care what side of the aisle that you sit on, when a sitting U.S. President comes to your area it is a big deal. It might be the story of the decade. So why was Barack Obama’s visit to Parkville Middle School only ranked fourth? It was low key and no local media was allowed to go to the event. That meant we didn’t get the great local stories that we received when candidate Hillary Clinton visited the GM Plant in White Marsh in 2008 or when then-candidate Donald Trump visited the Dundalk Boulevard Diner in 2016. Even visits by Governors Martin O’Malley and Larry Hogan to the area created many great stories as our local community members, media and even elected officials were part of the visit. This visit was not the case.
Obama picked Parkville Middle to make an announcement about education priorities for his Federal Government’s 2012 budget and thought Parkville Middle was the perfect choice with the school’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program.
From what I recalled, The Avenue News, East County Times and the local Patch websites were not invited to the event. I am not sure if the local TV stations were allowed at the school during Obama’s visit. A press release was sent out to the local media outlets.
I can understand the security of protecting the President, but it would have been great if the local media and others would have been allowed to attend.
The Avenue News wrote an article a day or two later when Editor Amy Graziano got to go to the school after the President left to interview the teachers and the students that met him but I’m sure it was not the same. It was a story about a story that took place a day earlier.
5. Angel Park is Built by Community
This is one great story that was uplifting and brought a community together. That was the building of Angel Park in Perry Hall.
Yes, this story started off with sadness as Kelli and Andy Szczybor were looking to give back to their community after their son Ryan was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 6 months old and he later died at 15 months. That lead the Szczybors to want to create a place that children could enjoy and they came up with the creation of Angel Park.
Bill Paulshock of Bill’s Seafood spearheaded the project along with the Szczybors and he announced that Angel Park would be built next to the Perry Hall Library on Honeygo Boulevard. Paulshock also announced that the playground would be under construction from July 8 to July 18 in 2016 and they were seeking volunteers from the community to build the park. That included people with or without experience.
It was reported that over 4,000 people volunteered to help build Angel Park and many of those volunteers return on multiple times on the 10-day construction period. Angel Park added indoor bathrooms a few years later and it is one of the most popular playgrounds in all of Baltimore County.
6. The Closing of the Sparrows Point Steel Mill
The history of the steel mill at Sparrows Point goes back centuries but in May 2012, RG Steel, (owned by Renco Group) announced that it was shutting down the mill. As the Baltimore Sun reported, RG Steel was the last company to own the steel mill, but the list goes back to Pennsylvania Steel all the way back to 1889. Bethlehem Steel, which had over 30,000 employees in the late 50s, bought the steel mill in 1916 for $50 million. They would own the property until they filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
That resulted in multiple owners throughout the steel mill’s final 11 years.
Hilco Trading LLC bought the property from RG in August of 2012. The Baltimore Sun reported that Hilco was a plant liquidator and the company has dismantled industrial properties in the past so everyone knew this was the end of the steel mill in Sparrows Point.
In late 2014, Hilco partner up with a new group called Sparrows Point Terminal, which later became Trade Point Atlantic.
7. Rebirth of Sparrows Point
After the steel mill property was sold to Hilco Trading LLC, that company started to rebuild the area by dismantling steel mill building. Hilco would partner up with a new group called Sparrows Point Terminal, which later became TradePoint Atlantic.
After TradePoint Atlantic took over the site, many new businesses started to locate the old steel mill site. TradePoint prided its location on “Unparalleled Railway Connectivity, Deep Water Port and Direct Highway Access. Some of the businesses that moved into the site include FedEx Ground, Pasha Automotive Services, Harley-Davidson of Baltimore, Access World, Atlantic Forest Products, C. Steinweg, Lafarge Holcim, Under Armour, Amazon and Gotham Greens.
8. Death of Kenwood Student on the Aero Acres Train Tracks
The decade was only five days old, but the death of Anna Marie Stickel on January 5, 2010 was one of the worst tragedies of the 2010s in eastern Baltimore County and probably one of the worst days in the history of Kenwood High School. It was the worst event that I personally covered in my nine-year history as a journalist.
The 14-year-old was walking to school along the railroad tracks near Old Orems Road and Middle River Road when a southbound Amtrak train struck and killed her. Another girl was walking along the tracks with Stickel but was able to get off the tracks safely.
Anna’s death obviously upset the Kenwood High community. I went to the site of the tragedy the next day and many of her friends and classmates where there to pay their respects. There were hearts and teddy bears placed along the train tracks’ gate. The area is still decorated there 10 years later.
After her death, there were concerns that Kenwood students from Aero Acres were still using the tracks to take a short cut to school. There was a request from some Kenwood parents to build a pedestrian bridge over the tracks that would connect Aero Acres to the Middlesex area. That bridge was never built, but a black iron fence was placed along the tracks from Eastern Boulevard to Mace Avenue to replace the worn-out chain-link fence.
9. Paragon Outlets
The White Marsh area had its version of the sale of the North Point Government Center with the near development of the Paragon outlet stores. This project saw opposition from community members, but also had opposition for existing shopping centers such as White Marsh Mall. According to the Baltimore Sun, Paragon Outlet Partners bought an 88-acre site at the corner I-95 and Route 43 for $15.3 million. Paragon’s plan was to build 100 stores and 250 residential units.
The proposal was met with mixed emotions from the community. The Sun reported other members of the community were not happy with the outlet proposal but some wanted that project instead of the original plan that called for 1,200 housing units. There were other residents that did not want the project at all. Some of the opposition came from other retail centers.
White Marsh Mall started a petition drive in opposition of the plan and spent over $500,000 to collect over 26,000 signatures from registered county voters to place a referendum on the 2016 ballot to uphold the zoning law for the Outlets.
The proposal was passed by Baltimore County voters, but the Paragon announced in January 2017 that it had plans to sell the property and the plan for outlet stores was dead.
It was reported in June 2018 that Atapco Properties and Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC (CREG) bought the property and had plans to turn the site into warehouse space. The Baltimore Sun reported that the idea of warehousing was more lucrative than outlet stores and gave examples of Amazon, FedEx and Under Armour moving into Sparrows Point. As of April 2019, Atapco and CREG reported that construction began on a two-building project. The first-phase of the project is expected to be completed in 2020.
10. War of 1812 Bicentennial Celebration
The Dundalk Patapsco Neck Historical Society and Museum kicked off their celebration of the 200 years anniversary of the War of 1812 in 2012.
Defenders Day has been an annual tradition on Labor Day weekend as reenactments are always held on Labor Day Sunday at Fort Howard Park. In 2013 & 2014, the Maryland War Of 1812 Bicentennial Commission asked Defenders Day Chairman Harry Young to move their day back to the second weekend of September where it became a two-day event. This would accommodate other events at Fort McHenry so the War of 1812 events were promoting and not competing with each other. Defenders Day moved back to it one day slot back on Labor Day in 2015 and the event was still going strong in 2019.
Battle Acre Park on Old North Point Road had been a quiet landmark in the area for almost 200 years. In September 2014, the area was flooded with excitement as soldiers reenacted the six mile walk from Patterson Park to Battle Acre. After the march, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and other dignitaries met at the site for a celebration.
Battle Acre did become the center of controversy when the historic wrought-iron gates at the front of the park was stolen and allegedly scrapped in June 2014. An arrest was made in August before the festivities.
The final piece of the War of 1812 Celebration took place in 2015 when the Maryland Natural Department of Resources official opened the 9- acre North Point Battlefield at the end of Trappe Road. The state of Maryland bought the vacant Trappe Road field from Mars Supermarket in 2006.
