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December 2005
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
It's hard to believe, but the holidays are upon us already! I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the Butchers Hill Holiday Pot-Luck Dinner, Sunday, December 11th at St. Andrews from 5-8 p.m. All residents are invited. Bring your favorite appetizer, main dish, salad, or dessert (doors open at 4, if you want to bring your dish early; we will have heating and warming ovens plus refrigerators). The Butchers Hill Association will provide everything else. This is an event for the whole family and you are welcome to bring friends. It is great party with plenty of food (thanks to you), a chance to meet new neighbors, join together in the holiday spirit. See you there!
And now for a quick update on the Zoning Task Force. Butchers Hill is not participating in the expedited CHAP process. This means that we will need volunteers to get the necessary signatures if we are going to make all of
Butchers Hill a local CHAP district.
--Dave Dyer.
COMMUNITY DUMPSTER
Tuesday, December 20th,
100 block S. Collington Ave.
For Butchers Hill residents only. No building materials, refrigerators, water heaters, washers, dryers, stoves, batteries, wet paint, automotive parts (including tires and rims), hazardous materials. The dumpster arrives by 10 and leaves around 2. Please fill from the back.
FAMILY & FRIENDS BHA PARTY
Sunday, December 11th, 5 to 8 P.M.
St. Andrew's Church Hall (Lombard & Chester)
The holiday pot-luck dinner is a great opportunity for all of us Butchers Hill residents to get together and get to know one another. It's one of the BHA events designed to be a fun time for all, including families, in this season of celebrations. Bring your favorite casserole, dessert, appetizer, salad, side dish, whatever. Butchers Hill provides the beverages and setting for an enjoyable, laid-back evening. The food is always tasty when we share recipes and community meals, especially when we can count on treats from someone else's kitchen!
Mr. Larson will bring his accordion for an hour of entertaining us with tunes we all recognize, and we'll probably have plenty to talk about too.
You are welcome to drop off any of your food, to be heated or kept cool, an hour before the party (between 4 and 5) and come around 5 to share in
the feast. See you there!
--Sue Noonan.
The Julie Community Center's
COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS CONCERT
Wednesday, December 14, 7:00 PM
St. Michael's Church (Lombard & Wolfe Streets)
Donations go to support the Julie Community Center, which, under the direction of Sr. Bobby English, provides a wide assortment of youth activities in our community throughout the year.
An end-of-the-year note of thanks and appreciation to all our reliable distributors who ensure, month after month, that this Newsletter reaches your home: Alexis, Ann, Carol, Carolyn, Carter, Clint, Craig, Deb, Elizabeth, Greg, Hal, Les, Patty, Remington, Sandy, Steve, Tish, Toni, Tom, and Virgil; and to Sandy Sales for her unfailingly cheerful and reliable help in production and distribution. And last but not least to Hal Laurent for posting the Newsletter on our website.
--Steve Young, Editor
Steve, Thank you for another year of faithful and wonderful service as the editor of the Newsletter. This has been above and beyond the call of duty. Your volunteer position and excellent publication are appreciated.
We may not acknowledge your dedication often, but let me reassure you, no
one else could consistently put out such a fine newsletter.
--Sue Noonan.
NO RECYCLING PICKUP ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 26th
(CITY HOLIDAY: CHRISTMAS OBSERVED)
PLEASE REMEMBER NOT PUT OUT YOUR BLUE BAG RECYCLING.
BHA Committees and Monthly Meetings
Crime Prevention/Block Representatives: Wednesday, December 21st, 7 p.m., 2105 E. Baltimore St. The committee meets monthly to share information from our block representatives and to coordinate action. New block representatives wanted; if interested e-mail or call Carolyn:
c.boitnott@verizon.net, 410-522-4991.
Call Carolyn if you notice new graffiti. She will report to the police - they are tracking the associated gang activity.
Butchers Hill Citizens on Patrol (C.O.P.): Butchers Hill Citizens on Patrol (C.O.P.) has been regularly patrolling the neighborhood for over six years, and conducts its walk-arounds on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. We meet at 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of Patterson Park Avenue and Lombard Street. All are welcome. For more information, please contact Evan Helfrich at 410-342-2148 or via e-mail, ubik14@netscape.net.
Community Representative, School 27 School Improvement Team: Carolyn Boitnott, 410-522-4991.
Education Committee: NO MEETING IN DECEMBER. The next meeting will be Thursday, January 19th, 7 P.M., 124 S. Patterson Park Avenue. Contact:
Martha DelPizzo 410-522-6046, e-mail mdelpizzo@comcast.net. At its November meeting, the Education Committee discussed the activities at the Patterson Park Public Charter School (PPPCS) and School 27. Both schools serve the children in our neighborhood and we are fortunate to have two options, with such dedicated staff. School 27 continues to thrive under the leadership of Mrs. Shirey and continually thanks the BHA for its support. We still have money left from the locks and clocks fund-the locks in the parts of the building that are used are now functional.
Carolyn Boitnott will now work with Mrs. Shirey to get the clocks working and hopefully synchronized.
The committee heard that PPPCS was seriously underfunded and agreed to use discretionary monies in the Education budget to help with school supplies. On the back page is a letter from the school's community liaison, Claudia Towles.
Land Use: NO MEETING IN DECEMBER. The next meeting will be January 16th, 7 P.M., at the White House, 27 South Patterson Park Ave.
The Land Use Committee reminds homeowners in the 2100 and 2200 blocks of E.
Baltimore Street and the 2200 block of E. Pratt Street that you live in a City historic district. All exterior work and painting must be submitted to CHAP and Butchers Hill. We are always happy to help with any questions you may have. Contact Virgil Bartram: 410-327-4964. CHAP's number is 410-396-4866.
Events Committee: NO MEETING IN DECEMBER. The next meeting will be Monday, January 9th, at 7 P.M., at 2029 E. Pratt St. We are looking for anyone willing to pitch in and make sure we do have a Flea Market this year. It's not too early to start. We need help. Contact Sue Noonan 410-522-6773, e-mail Tbolita@erols.com.
BHA Executive Committee: Tuesday, December 20th at 7 PM, the White House, 27 South Patterson Park Ave. Contact: Dave Dyer (410-342-7655) or dave@viacapital.net.
Streetscape Committee: NO MEETING IN DECEMBER. Contact Jeff Gabriel:
jgabriel@ubalt.edu. A reminder that we are trying to arrange city tree plantings for what will likely be the Spring. Contact Jeff Gabriel at
jgabriel@ubalt.edu or 978-884-5498 to get a tree request form. If you have already requested a tree from the City, please let Jeff know, so the Streetscape tree-planting efforts can be coordinated.
Newsletter: The deadline for the JANUARY issue is Friday, December 23rd. Contact Steve Young: young@umbc.edu or
steven.r.young@att.net.
Early submissions are appreciated!
NO BUTCHERS HILL GENERAL MEETING THIS MONTH
The next meeting will be January 4th
ALL BUTCHERS HILL RESIDENTS ARE INVITED TO THE BUTCHERS HILL POTLUCK PARTY
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11th, from 5 to 8 at St. Andrew's Church hall, Lombard Street at Chester.
"We have so much strength when we work together as a community."
NOMINATIONS FOR BUTCHERS HILL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 2006
The Nominating Committee will present the following slate at the January 4th meeting of the Butchers Hill Association. Nominations from the floor may be made at that time, providing the nominee has consented to serve.
You must be a Butchers Hill Association member to vote.
- President: Richard Hackett
- Vice President: Linda Proctor
- Vice President: Les DelPizzo
- Corresponding Secretary: Liz Elliott
- Recording Secretary: Beth Needham
- Treasurer: Greg Matanoski
- Parliamentarian: Dave Dyer
- Member at Large: Dave Phoebus
- Member at Large: Terri Ehrenfeld
- Member at Large: John Murphy
WINTER HOLIDAYS AND BUTCHERS HILL CIRCA 1940
We are fortunate to still have in our neighborhood residents whose presence here predates most of us. I talked recently to Don Shiner, who is still living in the house he was born in. He was the youngest of eight children, who grew up with their parents in a small row house on N. Duncan Street. His parents moved into the house as newlyweds.
Thinking back to 1940, when he was an elementary school student at the old School 27 (now the Woodbourne Center on the SW corner of Fayette and Chester), Don has many fond memories. People in the neighborhood set up Christmas gardens in their front rooms, and it was the custom to visit them over the holidays. His father worked for months transforming their front room into a village with trains, miniature houses and custom-built scenes. The children had to wait until Christmas Eve to see it. His mother baked fruit cakes and pastries; there were always fresh nuts and hard candies on the table.
Area churches had live nativity scenes with local children performing.
The merchants and men's clubs sponsored an Empty Stocking Club at the State Theatre (2000 block of E Monument), where children got filled stockings and saw a Christmas show. Many Polish residents continued old-world customs and came through the neighborhoods in horse-drawn "Polish wagons," singing to music played by an accordion player and stopping for drinks along the way. The arabers often helped by supplying the horses and wagons. The churches rang their bells.
Don remembers taking the Fayette Street bus for 5 cents to the Howard Street department stores to see the big Christmas window displays. The Petersons (of Petersons Lumber) lived around the corner at 2113 E.
Fayette. They had a beautiful house, and a housekeeper (a very large and stern "Old Sally") who often supervised the children when they played in their large basement. Rome Grocery was on the SE corner of Fayette and Chester (later part of the Peterson Hardware & Lumber Yard). The 1900 block of E. Fayette was full of little stores, a dress shop, egg shop, pots-and-pans shop, button shop, jewelry shop and most exciting of all for the little boys in the neighborhood was a girdle shop (they were full of wonder looking in that window). Don's block of Duncan was a sledding path, and many area children zoomed past his house from the top of the hill at Fairmount.
Other businesses in the area were the Roxie Theatre (now New Harvest Ministries at 2241 E. Fayette); there was a haberdashery shop at Collington and Fayette and a pigeon shop where the owner sold goldfish, and pigeons and other birds. At 116 N. Collington was Hammons, a Jewish dairy products store; they imported New York cheesecakes for the holidays and people stood in long lines on Friday nights to get some. Miss Grace (just recently moved to a nursing home from her home on N. Chester) ran a confectionary shop at 101 and 103 N Chester. Across the street were row houses (where our current School 27 now stands), and that is a story for
another time.
--Carolyn Boitnott.
HIGHLIGHTS, November 2nd BHA General Meeting. The complete set of minutes, prepared by BHA recording secretary Beth Needham, can be found at
http://www.butchershill.org/association/minutes.shtml.
Dave Dyer, BHA representative to the November 7th Historic Southeast Task Force meeting on CHAP and comprehensive rezoning, was instructed, by a vote of 34 to 2, to express that Butchers Hill supports a CHAP process by which every property owner is polled, and a simple majority of respondents must approve for the process to proceed. Also, a motion to instruct Dave on behalf of Butchers Hill not to support any changes to zoning which do not include current protections found in the urban renewal plan passed by a large majority and a motion to change the zoning of 2101 Pratt Street from B32 to R8 was passed 28 to 0.
COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD
Mayor Martin O'Malley and Family
cordially invite you and your family to attend
A City Hall Holiday Open House
Sunday, December 11, 2005
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
100 North Holliday Street
R.S.V.P. (443) 984-3471
St. Andrew's Orthodox Church, Corner of Chester and Lombard, is having a Christmas Cookie Sale on Sunday, December 11th. The sale starts at 11:30 a.m. in the church hall. All of our neighbors are welcome. Please plan to arrive early for the best selection, as we usually have a sell-out.
Patterson Park Public Charter School opened its doors to over 300 students on September 6th with a mission to develop well-educated community minded children. Since that time our students have participated in a number of community activities including a clean-up in Patterson Park, a canned food drive to benefit St. Michael Outreach, and a penny drive for hurricane relief, to name a few.
On behalf of all our students and families we thank the Butchers Hill Community Association for its generous donation of $1,500 in support of our Family Resource Room and to obtain much needed teacher supplies.
These funds will go a long way toward making sure students and their families continue to have the opportunities the school founders envisioned.
Utilizing community and volunteer support to ensure that we are innovative is another important part of the founder vision. There are limitless ways for community members to have an impact. We are calling on you to become personally involved as a Patterson Park Public Charter School volunteer.
There is much to be done within the school setting as well as in committees and task groups. A wide range of skills and abilities are needed as we move forward, and all schedules can be accommodated.
We appreciate your continued support and look forward to working together
in serving the children of Baltimore City.
--Patterson Park Public Charter
School Board of Directors.
To keep informed on the happenings of the school watch for updates to our website www.pppcs.org. To learn about volunteer opportunities contact our Volunteer Coordinator Dan Calvert at 410-558-1230 ext. 339.
Currently Baltimore City Public Charter Schools receive lower funding per pupil than centrally operated schools (non-charter public schools).
Charter schools face costs not incurred by centrally operated schools, such as facility and start-up costs therefore are automatically challenged with finding room in their budgets for these extra costs. Continued funding at this lower rate could cause what is now a challenge to become an impossibility. There is a funding threshold below which it will be impossible to start or maintain a Maryland Public Charter School.
Patterson Park Public Charter School is a member of The Maryland Charter School Network. Members of the Network are engaging in education and advocacy efforts in support of our commitment to public school choice.
To learn more about Charter Schools operating in Maryland and ongoing advocacy efforts visit www.mdcharternetwork.org or contact at Claudia Towles, Patterson Park Public CS Advocacy Chairperson at 410-558-1230 ext.
330 or claudiatowles@gmail.com.
It's that time of year again! Please join Kirsten Lapointe for her annual Holiday Ceramic Sale on Sunday, December 11, 2005 from 1-6 pm at 2215 East Lombard Street. Come and get that last minute gift!
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