Highlights:   GACA General Meeting
January 18, 2001

Our January meeting focused on the business community in Arbutus and guest speakers were Pierce Macgill, Baltimore County Office of Economic Development, Deanna Lilly of Business Concepts and Kim Nicholson of the Arbutus Business and Professional Association.

Pierce Macgill has recently taken over responsibility for the District One area and will work with the ABPA and other community groups to promote the County's services and market the Arbutus area to potential business owners. Pierce described several County programs:

1) Architect on Call - The County will provide architectural consulting to businesses contemplating improvements. There is no charge for the service if the improvements are made. In Arbutus, the Arbutus Laundromat - owned by Tom Booth - is using the Architect on Call service in redesigning the his property at Sulphur Spring Rd. and East Dr. He will also use an SBI loan for the improvements.

2) Small Business Improvement Loan (SBI) - Provides low interest loans for improvements up to $10,000. If the loan is over $15,000 there is no interest on the loan.

3) Commercial Revitalization Tax Credit - The Arbutus business district has been designated a Commercial Revitalization area, so improvements to businesses within the boundaries are eligible for tax credits.

Pierce let us know that several other businesses are in the preliminary stages of working with the Architect on Call program.

Streetscape is scheduled to be completed by August, 2001 and a marketing campaign will get underway in March, 2001 to encourage more businesses to locate here. Pierce may be reached at 410/887-3990.

Deanna Lilly provided a description of her company, Business Concepts and specifically her work on Arbutusbiz.com. Deanna described coming here from Texas and being disconcerted at the lack of information about local and small businesses via the telephone directory. Many were listed as "Baltimore," which takes in a lot of territory.   Arbutusbiz.com allows small, local businesses to have a web presence. For a cost of $60.00 per year a business may have either an ad of up to 250 words with the most pertinent information from their own web site, or up to 250 words of advertising. For $120.00 per year, Arbutusbiz.com will host an existing web site.

The Arbutusbiz site has a search engine and map capabilities to allow users to pinpoint the location of the business they want to contact.  Deanna will also link to community organization sites and other churches at no cost. Web site development is also available.

Kim Nicholson, of M & N Plastering, is the incoming President of the Arbutus Business and Professional Association. The ABPA has been in existence for over thirty years and has been responsible for many of the aesthetic improvements to the community such as grass cutting in the "downtown" and gateway areas, the clock at Sulphur Spring Rd. and East Dr., and the annual Arts Festival.

Kim is looking forward to increasing the membership base of the organization by soliciting members outside of the central business district and building networking opportunities. The ABPA's February gathering will be a planning meeting. The ABPA now has a telephone number, 410/242-4642.

Some concerns about crime in the business district, including loitering led to our next speaker, Officer Weber of Wilkens Precinct One.  Officer Weber is part of the Business Patrol, an initiative started with a Federal grant for the purpose of patrolling the US 40 corridor between Ingleside Ave. and Rolling Road. The program has been such a success that Captain John Spiroff expanded it to include the East Dr. area. In February, the program will be expanded again when seven new officers are hired. Patrols will operate Monday through Saturday for sixteen hours per day, 6:30 AM to 10:30 PM. Maiden Choice Shopping Center (Mars/Rite Aid) and Wilkens Beltway Plaza (Giant) will be included in the patrol areas.

Joining us last night for the first time was Larry Reuschling, Jr. Sanitarian for Baltimore County Dept. of Environmental Protection and Resource Management, otherwise know as DEPRAM. Larry will be replacing Cheri Abremowicz who has been transferred to another District.

The County has made a number of changes in recent months, so we will be seeing some new faces at our meetings.

Diana Itter will also be changing Districts and her replacement in the Office of Planning is Dennis Wertz. We look forward to meeting him at our March meeting.

Mark Gawel is now our primary contact with Code Enforcement. Mark attended the January meeting of the Arbutus Community Growth Assn. and we will invite him to join us in March as well. Joe Glorioso and Ron Turner have been rotated to other areas.

We wish everyone much success in their new positions.

Joe Wickless provided an update on our web site transfer to UMBC. The transfer from Sitestar is finally complete and the web site should be back online and updated within the week. A temporary problem causing a diversion to a department of UMBC will be resolved on 1/22/01. We look forward to being back online!

Evelyn Revels of the Cowdensville Community Assn. has agreed to take over our meeting notice mailing. We appreciate her offer, and thank Kathy Hartig for her work over the past five years. We urge anyone with e-mail or fax capabilities to provide us with that information, however, as it is the fastest and most reliable method of communication.

Delegate James Malone was unable to attend last night's meeting but did offer some information on a few local projects:

1) The fire hydrant in Cowdensville is scheduled to be reinstalled on 1/19/01, weather permitting.

2) The lights on Halethorpe bridge over Amtrak and Southwestern Blvd. were on constantly as a result of a bad sensor. The sensor has been replaced, along with some light bulbs that had worn out.

Delegate Malone has been re-elected to Vice Chairman of the Baltimore County Delegation and Chairman of the Motor Vehicle Administration sub-committee. He has also invited anyone interested in observing a session of the Assembly to contact his office to make arrangements. His local number is 410/247-2300.

Donna Cameron announced that the publication of the History of Arbutus is in the works. Meetings with the publisher have been held and a release date timed with our April, 2001 meeting is scheduled. A draft copy will be produced in early February, so please, if you would like to make a submittal, do so by January 25, 2001. Gail Ross, the Librarian at the Arbutus Branch of the Baltimore County Public Library has graciously agreed to have the books available for sale and transfer the funds to us.

The January meeting of the Housing Advisory Committee was changed to a meeting relating to Community Block Grant issues, so we will resume work on Housing matters in February.

We will not have a February meeting and will meet again on March 15, 2001 for a roundtable discussion. As mentioned earlier, we will also invite Mark Gawel and Dennis Wertz to join us. Please bring us your communities concerns or issues so that we may work together.