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Patuxent Branch Trail

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The Patuxent Branch Trail is a 10.4-mile (16.7 km) trail in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It mostly runs along the path of the Patuxent River, just south of Maryland Route 32.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Patuxent Branch Trail (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Patuxent Branch Trail
Patuxent Branch Trail, Columbia Kings Contrivance

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N 39.167777777778 ° E -76.850277777778 °
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Patuxent Branch Trail

Patuxent Branch Trail
21046 Columbia, Kings Contrivance
Maryland, United States
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Eshkol Academy

Eshkol Academy was an all-boys Orthodox Jewish day school in Columbia, Maryland, that existed from fall 2002 to 2004. Its name comes from Ish Shekol Bo Hebrew for "well-rounded man" and Eshkol Hebrew for cluster of grapes. In 2002 Eshkol Academy opened at a Christian community center facility in Montgomery County; in 2003 it moved to an office park in Columbia, Maryland. Its enrollment of about 100 included both local students and students from Boston, Baltimore, Montreal, and other cities. The school was founded by Jack Abramoff and funded through his Capital Athletic Foundation. He sent two of his three sons to the school. In all, about $5 million of Capital Athletic Foundation's money was directed to the Eshkol Academy operations. For the year 2002 the dean was Rabbi David Lapin, brother of Toward Tradition's Rabbi Daniel Lapin. According to emails revealed during the US Senate hearings into the Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal, David Lapin was paid through Abramoff's Capital Athletic Foundation. Tax records show that Lapin received a total of $60,529 in 2002. The Eshkol Academy closed in 2004 after questions were raised in the press about Abramoff's financial dealings with Indian tribes. The filings of the Capital Athletic Foundation show that Eshkol Academy received a large portion of its contributions: at least $50,000 in 2001, $1,857,704 in 2002, and $2,366,512 in 2003. In addition, CAF purchased for the school's use a van ($26,060), thermal imager ($18,057), and Torah ($17,000). Eshkol purchases included two Zamboni HDs, for a planned but never purchased hockey rink for the school. Furthermore Abramoff established the organization Beis Avrohom Chaim as, according to the 2003 CAF tax return, "a religious organization" that "provides religious services for the congregation and housing for the Eshkol Academy student athletes." In fact, a number of students were housed there. It received $251,242 in 2003 from CAF and purchased a house near to Abramoff's Silver Spring residence to house students from outside the area. It was occupied by students and the school's athletic director/dorm counselor. Beis Avrohom Chaim was incorporated in June 2003 under Maryland law as a religious corporation. The trustees were Jack Abramoff and his wife; Shana Tesler, a former "Team Abramoff" Greenberg Traurig employee; and her husband Samuel Hook. In 2004, thirteen former Eshkol employees sued the Academy, demanding nearly $150,000 in back salary. The teachers' complaint claims that the Capital Athletic Foundation "was used to launder funds from the tribes to Eshkol."

Lake Elkhorn
Lake Elkhorn

Lake Elkhorn is a 37-acre (150,000 m2) reservoir located in the Owen Brown area of Columbia, Maryland. It is Columbia's third and largest lake. Its main features are a small dam and a park with a picnic pavilion and a two-mile (3 km) walking path around the lake. The path was built in 1982 and is surrounded by a park and townhouses. The lake, which was built in 1974, is named for the Elkhorn branch of the Little Patuxent River. In 1969, Spiro Agnew proclaimed the arrival of the first Columbia based scientific firm, Hittman Associates that relocated for favorable lease rates from Howard Research and Development. Hittman in turn was contracted by the EPA using Wilde Lake as an example to recommend reuse of storm water runoff from all of Columbia's reservoir systems for residential drinking water to save on development costs. The lake is overseen by the Columbia Association. The lake's location behind many townhouses, though considered an attractive feature to homeowners, has raised concern following the drowning of a small child on September 2, 2005. A drowning also occurred in 1980, and a maintenance worker drowned in March 1991. A movement was started soon after to erect a fence around playground next to the lake, but the community was split over this need, and a consultant concluded a fence was not necessary. The lake remained free of fatal incidents until October 8, 2013, when a body of a 32-year-old was found dead in the lake.

Wincopia Farms

Wincopia Farms is a historic farm located at North Laurel, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Wincopia farms was one of three large farms in the area. Overlook Farm and Fairlands remain well preserved, but the 124 acre Wincopia Farms was purchased for development. The Hearn family operated it until 2010. While some sources claim the Hearn family owned the farm for over 200 years, the title history shows the family purchased the farm in 1880. They raised poinsettias with customers that included the White House and Kennedy Center. On September 8, 1992, a man and a teenager attempted a series of failed carjackings starting at the southbound I-95 rest stop on Wincopin property leased by the Hearn Family through the Bolling Brook subdivisions. The men carjacked the vehicle of Dr. Pam Basu and her 22-month-old daughter at a stop at Horsham and Knights Bridge Road. Basu attempted to retrieve her daughter, and was dragged to death along Gorman Road, with the carjackers leaving her body entangled at the fenced entrance to Wincopia Farms. As a direct result of the violent incident, the Federal Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992 (FACTA) was created, the first federal carjacking law. The 1992 act, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2119, took effect on October 25, 1992.Around 2002, the Hearn family took out a $4.5 million loan from Gourley and Gourley LLC, a private lending group, secured by the 124 acre property. The Gourley and Gourley loan was provided to the Hearn family to refinance existing financial institution debt already on the property that was in default and awaiting foreclosure. By the Great Recession in the United States in 2007, and after multiple loan extensions (each one increasing the loan amount to add an interest carry reserve to the loan), the Gourley and Gourly debt increased to $10 million. Despite efforts by the Gourley group to encourage the Hearn family to sell the property to a developer, payoff the $10 million loan, and keep the family wealthy, the Hearn family instead insisted on maintaining a struggling nursery. After a long, drawn out bankruptcy by the Hearn group, Gourley and Gourley LLC foreclosed on the property and evicted the Hearn family from the property. Gourley and Gourley then went on to develop the property, obtain preliminary plat approval for 220 home sites, and sell the property for $41 million. Howard County designated the main access, Gorman Road, a scenic road but offered the developer exemptions to reduce setbacks, widen the road, add a tunnel, and cut down the 300-year-old trees that bordered the road.

Commodore Joshua Barney House
Commodore Joshua Barney House

The Commodore Joshua Barney House is a historic home located at Savage, Howard County, Maryland, United States. It was originally situated on a 700-acre tract in modern Savage Maryland named Harry's Lot, at a time when the closest town was Elk Ridge. Both "Haary's Lot" and "Huntington Quarter" were inherited by Charles Greenberry Ridgely, sixth son of Colonel Henry Ridgley and Elizabeth Warfield Ridgley. After the death of Charles Greenberry Ridgely, Thomas Coale purchased portions of the land containing the structure. His daughter would become the famous Commodore Joshua Barney's second wife, bringing the figure from business in Baltimore. In 1809, Nathaniel F. Williams (1782-1864) married Caroline Barney, daughter of Joshua Barney, who in turn expanded an existing mill site on the property to create the Savage Mill.It has three sections: the original 2+1⁄2-story brick house built by Charles Greenberry Ridgley Sr. about 1760, a 2-story frame addition built in 1941, and a one-story frame addition to the west, built in 1946. The interior of the house was altered during the 1940s when it was used as a boys' school, and about 1960 when it was converted into apartments. Its significance is tied to Commodore Joshua Barney, who was a hero of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and who lived in the house until leaving the industrial operations to family just prior to his death in 1818 from wartime wounds en route to another property owned in Kentucky. Barney rose to prominence for action during the war while living in this house including involvement in commissioning the star spangled banner. The house is situated near the Ridgley family cemetery. It was operated as a bed and breakfast inn starting in 2000, until being placed on the market for $1.2 million in 2012. The house never sold, and had been vacant and neglected until 2017. The house is currently an occupied private residence. The seven remaining undeveloped acres surrounding the structure place it at risk of incompatible development and has been placed on the 2014 and 2015 top 10 most endangered properties list by Preservation Howard County.The Commodore Joshua Barney House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.