Top Edgewater-Davidsonville Stories of 2011: Part II

Between the fires, bank robberies and county rezoning, Edgewater-Davidsonville Patch had a busy first year. Here is a month-by-month look back at the stories and posts that stood out. 

Here is June 2011 to present. A story on .  

Stories that link to a video will include a (V) so you won't be surprised when you click through.

June 2011

• Residents of Glen Isle in Riva learned that the  closed their South River beach to swimming because of high bacteria counts. They later learned that the culprits were geese living on the beach. More specifically, the culprit was goose poop. . Community leaders came up with a plan to humanely get rid of the geese. First, they had to stop feeding the geese. Next, they had to put up barricades so the geese wouldn't want to hang out on their beach anymore. That was accomplished with aluminum pie pans and shiny silver CDs strung across the beach on a rope (unlike magpies—geese don't like shiny things). Their plan worked. The beach was reopened shortly after the geese moved out and bacteria counts returned to normal.

July

• The Davidsonville community mourned the . Since Riddle's death, his son Brian has taken on the management of the wholesale and retail nursery—the largest employer in Davidsonville.
• Decennial rezoning heated up as the  to the Anne Arundel County Council. Hundreds testified at hearings during July. One of those  due to public testimony. In mid-July, things got even hotter when freshman Councilman Jerry Walker (R-Crofton/Davidsonville) amended Bill 44-11 to include 45 "up" zoning requests, including . Activists pursued a remedy through County Executive John Leopold, who issued vetoes on 16 of the more controversial changes. In the end, the council overrode 10 of those and the bill was signed into law. A  challenging the council's actions.

August

• The  in three months. But this time, police were able to make an arrest in the case. Later in the year, police commanders credited the work of  on Central Avenue. The suspicious behavior of one driver caught Krok's eye and he radioed in. Within minutes, police made arrests.
• One shopper at  by buying a winning $250,000 Maryland Lottery ticket there.
•  We rocked in Maryland when a 5.1 tremor struck central Virginia.(V)
• . It was the beginning of a one-two punch of tropical storms that together dumped 20 inches (or more) of rain on the region.(V)

September

• Tropical Storm Lee caused  Patch captured the swollen Patuxent River on video, then later captured the . (V)
• The grouping of students,  became a hot topic among parents after Central Middle School's principal, Millie Beall, changed the curriculum and the method of grouping students by ability level. The  with parents threatening to boycott  if the grouping method didn't change.

October

• Davidsonville's  with the announcement of his engagement and later marriage to skateboarder Lind-Z Adams Hawkins. Oh, and he's heading to NASCAR in 2012 while not giving up on the X-Games.
• Students at  for the most people doing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period. The record went beyond being broken. It was crushed.
• The  at the entrance to the Edgewater Beach neighborhood off of Maryland Route 2/Solomons Island Road.

November

• An  then went on to be crowned Mrs. Maryland. Teresa Scanlon will compete in the Mrs. America competition in 2012 and promote awareness of pituitary gland tumors.
• , took the silver medal in endurance riding at the Pan Am Games in Chile. 
• We learned from Historic London Town and Gardens' Rod Cofield that colonists in the  for a meal of Thanksgiving. 

December

• Two new restaurants opened in Edgewater:  and . (V)
•  for an overnight stop at a farm on Davidsonville Road near Maryland Route 50. 

Happy New Year to all of the friends of Edgewater-Davidsonville Patch!