Future Fire Department in Eldersburg

I thought I had written about this before, but I couldn't find the posting. I take many pictures with the intention of writing about it, then never find the time to write, then can't remember if I wrote it or not, but I'm convinced that I did. Most likely I scripted it in my mind, but never put it on pixels, so to speak.

I was looking through the HOA websites of the local neighborhoods and found information on the zoning for the Carrolltowne and Carrolltowne II neighborhoods. They were part of a PUD (planned unit development). One of the conditions of the zoning was that several acres be reserved for a library, an elementary school, and a fire station. The school and the library were built (Carrolltowne Elementary School in 1977 and the library in the early 1980's). The fire station was slated for the corner of Hemlock Road and Liberty Road. It's current occupant is mostly grass behind Faith Lutheran Church, so obviously it was never built.

Will the county ever build a fire department there? I think it makes sense since there's been a lot of development since the 1970's, plus a lot more is to come. There is the Reservoir Ridge development next to Carrolltowne, which will bring in hundreds of new families. There is a large development on the books behind the VFW off of Arrington. Then there's the old farm off of Ridge Road after you pass Brangles. If I recall correctly, several hundred more homes are to be built on that property, too. Before you know it, Eldersburg will be competing with Glen Burnie and Bel Air for congestion.

Anyway, all fire calls in our area come from Sykesville Freedom Fire Department, which is at least 10 - 15 minutes from our house. There really is no direct route from there to here. Having another small fire department would make sense in that regard. On the other hand, we'd have to deal with the noise. And everyone knows that the only thing worse than putting out fires before your house burns down or getting an ambulance to your house before you die, is having a fire department with noisy vehicles going in and out.

Here is the current Sykesville Freedom Fire Department - the one where the hall next to it burned down after the snow storm in 2009. Remember that?


Here is the current site of the "future" Eldersburg" fire department looking west. That's Faith Lutheran by the trees and Liberty Road to the far right.

Fish Catch in Eldersburg

The pond in my neighborhood is a nice place to fish. Located behind my house, my son has enjoyed fishing there all summer. It's stocked full of Blue Gill, large and small-mouth bass, crappie, perch, and at least a catfish or two. We received word recently that the pond (technically a storm-water management system) no longer meets the state (or federal?) environmental protection standards. Therefore, it must be redone. We met with the county last year and they said the fine for not getting the pond into compliance exceeds the cost of retrofitting it.

On Friday, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources showed up with some local Carroll County people to do the fish catch. The process is really interesting. They have a flat-bottomed boat with 2 polls on the stern which they extend and lower into the water, then turn on the electric zapper, after which the stunned fish float to the top of the water and are scooped out with nets.

Only 2 hours late, the MDNR people got to work and quickly started pulling out the bass. I didn't realize that there was that many bass in the pond. I figured they'd fetch hundreds, if not thousands, of blue gills from the water. Perhaps the blue gill are resistant to the electricity.


Here are the people launching the boat. It was kind of humorous because the pond is really only the size of a few back yards. And then there was this boat in it.


There were a couple of prized catches. One was a giant snapping turtle that must have measured over 18 inches across the top of the shell. The guy on the boat threw it back. He said he didn't want that thing in his boat with him. The other was this giant carp. When the pond was created years ago, they put in 4 carp to help keep it clean. This is probably the only remaining one. The county official estimated that he was about 30 pounds and about 15 years old.


Here are the probes that are dunked into the water. They looked like rebar.


Here's one of the zapped bass in a bucket being transfered to a bin in one of the many pick-up trucks that they brought. Some fish were taken to Arnold's pond near Route 97 and others were dumped into Liberty Reservoir.


The geese are curious as to what is going on. When the pond drains I wonder what they will do. Will they still hang around being annoying, or will they go somewhere else and be annoying there?


And here's some more of the excitement.

Gone from Eldersburg - Quiznos Sub

My wife is making fun of me for posting this, because apparently this placed closed a while ago. But I just noticed it today. So, nyaaaaa!

Formerly located in the femininely named Princess Shopping Center, the Eldersburg Quiznos has closed. I suspect that there was way too much sub competition in the thriving metropolis of Eldersburg. After all, we have Jerry's in Freedom Village, Frank's Subs and Pizza in Londontowne Square, Subway in Wal-Mart, and Subway next to New Win Long. And I guess to a degree they were also competing with Panera Bread, and the various other fast-food restaurants in the area.

Now the Princess Shopping is devoid of 2 businesses. You'll recall that the Romeo's Italian Bistro closed a while back and it is still unoccupied. I blame Obama and Maryland for the continued economic troubles of this state. It's certainly not my fault.

50,000 Viewers on Vote No'Malley!!!

Congratulations IP 68.50.233 on Comcast of Silver Spring, Maryland using Firefox on a Windows NT operating system. Your click on www.votenomalley.blogspot.com on April 15th, 2011 at 11:23:53 pm made you the 50,000th visitor to this most intriguing blog.

I hope my blog satisfied your search for "when is glory days grill eldersburg md".

For those of you wondering the answer to what should read as, "When will Glory Days Grill in Eldersburg, Maryland open?", the answer is a definite 'I have no idea'. The sign has been on the building for at least a year, perhaps two. Are they waiting for more hungry people to show up? I have no idea.

Eldersburg: Robbed Again

You move to the suburbs, or maybe more accurately, the exburbs or suburbs of the suburbs, and you'd think you're moving away from the crime. If you live in Eldersburg, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And this is not the case.

On Wednesday night \ Thursday morning, some hoodlums from who knows where (Randallstown) went through the neighborhood of Quail Meadow and did the old door handle check. If the car is unlocked, the door will open and the guests will grab everything they can, basically relieving the vehicle owner of electronic clutter. This wouldn't be the first time it's happened in this neighborhood. Heck, it wouldn't be the 2nd or 3rd or 4th.

As reported in the Eldersburg Patch, the neighborhood was robbed between 2:30 am and 4am. A neighbor noticed a vehicle roaming the street and several parked cars had their dome lights on. This neighbor then called the police. Maryland State Police then spotted a vehicle that matched the description sitting in the parking lot of the McDonald's on Liberty Road. Inside the car were 4 "suspects", pot, GPS systems, iPods, and such.

Fortunately, most criminals are stupid. Hopefully these clowns will get locked up for this, but I doubt it. It would harm their potential to be a productive member of society.

So remember - lock your cars at night, even when you live in a good neighborhood. You WILL have visitors from other areas.

Blockbuster Express Comes to Eldersburg

I think this is the nail in the coffin for the brick-and-mortar Blockbuster located in the derilict Carrolltown Center Mall. I was at Food Lion today to buy overpriced milk and stand in a line that's way too long when I noticed this Blockbuster Express machine outside.

This will be competing directly with the Red Box, which incidentally was recently removed from the Hey-Y'all Wal-Mart. I think the only ones left are in Shoppers and McDonald's.

I drive by the Blockbuster at the mall all the time and I never see more than 3 cars in the parking lot. I can't imagine how that location is staying business, especially with the competition of said Red Box, and also Netflix and streaming movies on Comcast and FiOS. But perhaps Blockbuster has a golden lease like K-Mart. Who knows???

Grilled Cheese & Company - Almost Done

I swung by Johnsville Station (while singing Smokin' in the Boys' Room) this morning. I noticed that the sign for the Grilled Cheese & Company was up, thus signifying that the restaurant will be open soon. It's up on the marquee, too (and the sign for The Scoop is now gone). Haven't seen an opening date anywhere. There was plenty of stuff all over the floor, so it doesn't seem like it's opening this week. But soon. Unless, or course, if the O'Malley administration can find some more ways to tax small businesses and drive them out of the state.

New in Eldersburg: Lexie's

Lexie's Frozen Yogurt
1311 Londontown Blvd
Sykesville, MD 21784
(410) 795-6962

After my 6 kilometer practice run this afternoon I had to return a Wii game to Game Stop. My daughter received 2 of them. While there, my daughter and her friend asked if they could get something somewhere. This is getting to be a standard question after we run. "Can we go to Rita's?" "Can we go to Qdoba?" "Can we go to Twin Kiss?"

This time since we were in the Londontowne Square (where the Safeway is), I asked the girls if they wanted to try out Lexie's, some new ice cream type place. Of course they agreed. It was almost a rhetorical question.


When we entered we were nearly assaulted by the super friendly staff asking if we had ever been there before. We admitted we were Lexie virgins. The described how you get a cup and take whatever frozen yogurts you wanted (you can mix as many as you want), then add toppings. They charge by the ounce. I think it was 48¢ per ounce. The toppings are cereals, dried fruits, nuts, marshmallows, chocolate chips, fresh fruits, and more.

For 2 frozen yogurts I paid about $5. Not too bad. The girls really liked it, and that's what matters most. And since we just got done running, I figured it probably wasn't appropriate to get one myself, though I will admit I did get a taste. Yummy. Check them out. They're located next to 5 Guys!

Jeff Barnes - Losing Their Wheels

I read in the Carroll County Times last week that Jeff Barnes Chevrolet in Eldersburg was robbed. The thieves got away with $35,000 worth of wheels from Chevy Tahoe's and Cadillac Escalades. The joke at work was it was done by either some clowns from Randallstown (like most of the crimes committed in Eldersburg) or it was done by Bodie and Wee-Bay.

I suspect that it was an inside job. Does anyone who works at Jeff Barnes live in Randallstown?

I swung by this morning on my way to Martin's to get groceries and wouldn't you know it....there are still vehicles without wheels. Check it out...

2011 South Carroll Business Expo Review

I know it's been a week, but I haven't had time to write this week. My daughter with leukemia is all jacked up on steroids and is going a mile a minute and demanding 100% of our attention. She's still like that right now, so it's sort of 'Lord of the Flies' around the Eludius house tonight. She did lose all of her hair last week, which is sad, but certainly not unexpected. She stays up until 2 or 3 in the morning making demands for Diego, Dora, fried chicken, spaghetti (buh-sketti), and chocolate milk. Then she's up early in the morning and ready for another round. Needless to say, my wife and I are physcially and mentally exhausted. But enough about that!


Last Saturday was the annual South Carroll Business Association's Expo. Normally the event is held at Liberty High School, but this year the event was held the Century High School. A friend of mine is very active in SCBA, so I decided to check out the work that he did.

The event had local businesses who were offering samples of their wares, free stuff, offers to open accounts at their company, and plenty of raffles. Of course I signed up for every raffle. And I was polite and pretended that I was interested in opening a bank account at every bank in Eldersburg.


I ran into some people I know, which pretty much happens to anyone who's lived in Eldersburg more than 5 years. I took home several bags of pencils, pens, magnets, and bank account applications. I did make a bid on a framed and matted hockey photo of Cindy Crosby and Alex Ovechkin in the silent auction.


Next day I got a call that I was the winner of the hockey photo. Very exciting! Sad, however, because I was the first bidder. It is now proudly hung over my bed. In my defense, I did ask my wife where I should hang it and she said she didn't care. I then got another call that I won a $25 gift card to Qdoba from the Carroll County Times. And finally, I was informed that I won something from J Marie's Salon. Though I'm nearly bald, I'm thinking of getting some highlights and a perm.

So all in all not a bad day! I think it would be a little better if it was on a Saturday prior to when softball, lacrosse, and baseball starts. I know the fields around town were full of kids and parents. If the event was even 3 weeks sooner the turnout could have been a little higher. I'll definitely be there again next year.

Coming to Eldersburg: Grilled Cheese and Company

I don't usually make it over to the Johnsville Station much, except for the annual soccer parties at Ledo's for the teams I coach. I got wind that the former Scoops Ice Cream store was going to be occupied by The Grilled Cheese and Company, whose website uses the clever www.ilovegrilledcheese.com as their website.

I've never heard of this place, but I looked at the menu and apparently they sell grilled cheese sandwiches. And these grilled cheese sandwhiches cost $5 and up. I think that's going to be a hard sell. Why would you want to spend that much money for a cheese sandwich slopped with butter and fried? Sure it's good, but $5??? That'd be like selling donuts for $3 each. The Grilled Cheese and Company also has other make and models that sell for upwards of $8. I'm sure I'll try it once to satisfy my curiosity.

And when you think of Johnsville Station, do you start humming "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" by Brownsville Station? You will now!

Moved in Eldersburg: Weichert Realtors

As stated in my previous post, the former Cuts and former BDG Entrepreneurial Services location is now occupied by Weichert Realtors Property Concepts. I'm not sure what the 'property concepts' means. Perhaps they're helping to determine alternate uses for your properties. It's always good to "think outside the cliché".

There are a lot of properties that have closed in Eldersburg in the last year. If you follow this blog you see a lot of evidence of this. So it's nice to see some of the closed properties being occupied. I just hope they have an open order for a new sign because the one they have isn't very good. And it doesn't look very permanent.

Weichert is a national chain and I'm pretty sure that they were somewhere else in Eldersburg. If you know, please tell me. I'm curiously stupid like that.

Gone From Eldersburg: Curves

Curves, the little sister of the former Cuts franchise, one of which was located at the former BDG Entrepreneurial Services, now occupied by the current Weichert Group, is now closed. The Eldersburg Curves franchise was located in the shopping plaza with Serra Brothers and Captain Dan's, though I don't know the name of the shopping plaza. It also has the store front that says NASCAR, which hasn't been a NASCAR store for years.

If I'm not mistaken, the current former Curves location was formerly a video store, one that some local people protested because they had adult content. Censorship - it can be your friend!

So ladies, you now need to find a new place to work on your curves. You're more than welcome to use my basement.

South Carroll Community Showcase - Saturday 26th

Be sure to stop by Century High School before you drag your kids to baseball and softball practice on Saturday. The South Carroll Business Association is having the annual Community Showcase, though it was previously named the Expo. You'll get to meet some local businesses that still exist and get free samples and schwag. And there will be things for the kids, too, such as face-painting. It's a good event. Think local!

Restaurant Fund Raiser for ORMS @ Qdoba

If you're from Eldersburg, you know that ORMS is Oklahoma Road Middle School, which I'm sure you'll agree is a really stupid name for a school. Why not just call it Oklahoma Middle School? Is the road really that necessary?

Anyway, come out to Qdoba in Eldersburg on Tuesday March 29th from 5pm until 8pm. Qdoba will donate 15% of the proceeds to the ORMS PTA.

Eldersburg Litter - 3.27.11 ???

If you've driven around Eldersburg this week you'll notice the sign weeds on every corner of town. Mixed among the Long & Foster and Coldwell Banker realtor signs is this sign that reads: 3.27.11 and www.launchatliberty.com.

My curiousity got the best of me, so I looked it up. It's part of Freedom Church, which I believe is headquartered in the derelict Carrolltowne Center. I suspect they're having an animal sacrifice or something at Liberty High School on March 27th. I wonder what God thinks about sign pollution. If I'm not mistaken, I think Moses was carrying an extra tablet down from Mount Sinai and he dropped it. But unbeknownst to most people was an 11th Commandment that read:

Though shall not pollute thy town with unauthorized signs.

Seen In Eldersburg....

I thought I had posted this, but couldn't find it. During my travels around town I was at the intersection of Route 32 and Route 26 when this monstrosity went by. I think it might by a reinforced container that can hold all of Martin O'Malley's hot air, but I'm not totally sure. What do you think it is?

Gone From Eldersburg: Thai Classic

I never quite understood this restaurant in the Oklahoma Shopping Center on Liberty Road. You know the one - next to McDonald's? I've lived in Eldersburg since 1999 and the Thai Classic rarely ever had any cars there, yet it remained in business for nearly 11 years. I am convinced that the store was a front for a money laundering operation. Or perhaps it was the headquarters for the Eldersburg mafia, though others contend that the Eldersburg mafia is run out of the Freedom Optimist Hall.



I only visited Thai Classic once and I was not impressed. My wife got a boat of sushi and it was just average. I got Pad Thai (doesn't everyone?). Eh....

Well, now it's closed. So if you're looking for a good location to open a restaurant....or a place to headquarter your very own mafia, contact the owners of the Oklahoma Shopping Center!

The Freedom Optimist Hall:

Teahcer Conferences at Oklahoma Road Middle School

That is not a typo on my part. The headline from the Alert Message that I received actually says:

ORMS - PARENT / TEAHCER CONFERENCE Night - March 29th

If you follow Fail Blog, this would be a FAIL. Or is it a FALI? Hello! You're a school. You should spell everything correctly in all communications that are distributed. It shows poorly on the school. And ORMS is a Blue Ribbon school? Perhaps that only applies to the students.

New Playgrond at Carrolltowne Elementary School

How often does the opening of a new playground grab the attention of a local news station? We received an email from Eldersburg's Carrolltowne Elementary School Principal Terry Ball that at 12:30 today WMAR ABC News Channel 2 (who knew they still did news???) will be covering the ribbon-cutting event.

I haven't watched news on Channel 2 since Sally Thorner was there. What was that, 25 years ago? From what I recall Channel 2 is solidly in last place in the Baltimore news market. I guess this ribbon-cutting event will be part of their feel-good segment, which usually follows the 30 minute coverage of the daily wrath of shootings, murders, robberies, and such in Baltimore.