With 18 games left on their regular-season schedule, Monday’s series opener against the Red Sox offered plenty of opportunities to put up some crooked numbers on the Fenway Park scoreboard. Instead, they stranded 11 base runners and their bullpen crumbled late as they fell to their division rivals, 12-3, for their third straight loss.

Anthony Santander did his part, becoming the eighth player in Orioles history and first since Mark Trumbo in 2016 to hit 40 home runs in a season with a solo shot in the seventh inning. He drove in all three of the team’s runs to improve his team-leading RBI total to 94, but Baltimore otherwise squandered scoring chances in each of the first four frames.

The Orioles loaded the bases in the first and fourth innings and walked away with only one run each time courtesy of Santander. He scored Gunnar Henderson on a hard-hit single in the first before later bringing Colton Cowser home on an RBI walk. Otherwise, the Orioles went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position to stay true to what has become an all-to-familiar theme over the past three months.

Rookie starter Cade Povich, coming off the best start of his young career with 7 1/3 scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox, got an early hook from manager Brandon Hyde after allowing a lot of hard contact, including back-to-back home runs by Rob Refsnyder and Tyler O’Neill in the third that helped Boston jump out to a 4-1 lead.

He lasted two outs into the fifth before giving way to Burch Smith, who got out of the inning with some help from his defense. Cowser played a fly ball off the Green Monster perfectly and fired a 95.1 mph throw home that Adley Rutschman gathered before making a diving tag to nab Refsnyder trying to score from first. The play was part of a defensive clinic put on by the Orioles’ outfield with Cedric Mullins making a diving catch in center field in the third.

But Smith unraveled in the sixth, loading the bases before Ceddanne Rafaela extended the Red Sox’s lead with a two-run single. Gregory Soto then came in to get out of the jam and Refsnyder struck again with a two-run single that made it 8-2. All four runs were charged to Smith, who has allowed 15 earned runs in his last 14 2/3 innings (9.20 ERA) dating to Aug. 6.

Craig Kimbrel’s equally unimpressive ongoing stretch continued as well. The demoted closer struck out the first two batters he faced in the seventh before giving up a single, stolen base, walk and two-run double by Rafaela. Since recording his latest save on July 7, Kimbrel has an 8.83 ERA over 18 appearances with three losses and two blown saves.

He was replaced by Cole Irvin, who became the second pitcher of the night to allow consecutive home runs to Refsnyder and O’Neill. Refsnyder came to the plate in the eighth a triple short of the cycle and had to settle for a multi-homer game, driving in his fifth RBI by poking one just inside of Pesky’s Pole in right field. O’Neill then capped off the evening with another Green Monster-clearing blast.

Baltimore (82-63) will send Albert Suárez to the mound Tuesday against Boston starter Kutter Crawford as the club looks to even the series.

This article will be updated.

Orioles at Red Sox

Tuesday, 7:10 p.m.

TV: MASN

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

Franklin Smith, 34, of Catonsville, received a nine-year sentence, while Davon Dorsey, 30, of Gwynn Oak, was sentenced to 15 years.

The defendants were charged with 12 counts in April 2022, including kidnapping, according to court documents. In July, Smith pleaded guilty to carjacking and using a gun in a violent crime. In March, Dorsey pleaded guilty to carjacking.

In May 2021, Smith, Dorsey and two others posed as police officers with lights on their car, vests and badges and pulled over an employee of Check Cash Depot in Northwest Baltimore on her way home from work, according to court documents. Smith set up a detour to direct the woman down a side street where two other defendants brandishing guns removed her from her car, handcuffed and blindfolded her while demanding access to the cash checking business, according to court documents. The defendants then left the woman in the trunk of her own car and covered it with a tarp. She was able to make her way out and call for help, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office.

Later in May 2021, the defendants again used police lights to pull over a man around midnight in Edgewood, according to court documents. The defendants told the victim he had a warrant and was under arrest before handcuffing, blindfolding and bounding him while demanding $10,000, according to court documents. The defendants eventually released the victim in Baltimore City after 5 a.m.

In August 2021 the defendants carjacked a woman outside an Ace Cash Express in Cockeysville by posing as police officers and blindfolding her in the back of a car, according to the indictment. The defendants demanded access to the check cashing business and safe codes, detaining the victim for nearly six hours before releasing her near Edmonson Village, according to court documents.

In all three cases, the defendants threatened the victims with guns and assaulted them with blow torches while demanding money and keys to the businesses, according to court documents. Court documents do not say that the defendants were ever successful in accessing or robbing one of the check cashing businesses.

The two other defendants in the case did not take plea deals, according to court documents. Dennis Hairston, 34, of Windsor Mill, and Donte Stanley, 33, of Rosedale, were convicted by a jury in June of kidnapping, gun and carjacking charges. They both have sentencing hearings scheduled for November.

McCann, 34, was the Orioles’ choice as the player who “best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.” In addition to being a clubhouse leader, he and his wife Jessica are involved in several charity initiatives across the Baltimore area.

“It’s very special,” McCann said of the nomination. “The Clemente Award, it’s a different award, obviously. It’s what you do in the community, what you do off the field. What Roberto Clemente stands for, who he was, obviously, as a player and then just who he was to his community, words don’t really describe what it is to be viewed in that same light. Being nominated for that, it’s a very special award. I’m proud of it, and I feel very strongly that using my platform to be able to impact the community in a positive way is very important.”

Over the past year, the McCann family has worked to support students in Harlem Park as part of the Orioles’ larger initiative in the community and taken on the personal mission of working with the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to help families of children born prematurely. He’s also partnered with Dream On 3 to help a pair of adopted brothers, DJ and Marshall, with life-altering conditions fulfill their dream of getting a VIP experience at an Orioles game. The Orioles credit McCann for his participation in the club’s Military Suites Program and his work with the Church of the City’s Wrap Around Closet in Nashville as well.

“He’s done a lot of great things with the community and congratulations to him,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “This is a big award. This is something that’s really, really special. It means a lot to players, so for him to get this nomination, and have a chance to win this, a credit to him and his wife for what they do off the field in helping so many people.”

McCann would be the fifth player in Orioles history to win the honor, joining Brooks Robinson (1972), Ken Singleton (1982), Cal Ripken Jr. (1992) and Eric Davis (1997). New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is the reigning winner. Originally created in 1971 as the Commissioner’s Award, the annual honor was named for Clemente after he died in a plane crash while on his way to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was 38 years old.

Lauded for his toughness — especially after he played through a broken nose after being hit in the face by a pitch in July — McCann has served as the Orioles’ backup catcher each of the last two years. He entered this week’s series against the Boston Red Sox hitting .220 with five home runs in 58 games this season.

Around the horn

• MLB named Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson the American League Player of the Week on Monday after he went 10-for-24 (.417) with three home runs, five RBIs and six runs scored for Baltimore. It’s the first time this season and second in Henderson’s career that he has garnered the honor. He’s the third Oriole to receive it in 2024 with Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg going back-to-back in April.

• Hyde expressed tepid optimism that first baseman Ryan Mountcastle (wrist) would be able to return from the injured list by the end of the regular season but hedged his comments saying, “I just don’t know when.” Mountcastle has been sidelined since Aug. 22 when he jammed his wrist into second base on a headfirst slide.

• Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez is hoping to throw a live bullpen session “sometime this road trip,” Hyde said before Monday’s game. Rodriguez threw off a mound for the first time Wednesday and facing hitters in a simulated game setting is the next step in his progression toward a potential return before season’s end.

In a filing in the foreclosure case of Spacey’s harborfront home in Baltimore’s Federal Hill, the actor asked the court to revoke the sale to a Potomac real estate investor. Trustees mishandled the auction, leading to an inadequate price of $3.24 million, and the buyer should be disqualified because of harassment, the document says.

A representative of buyer Sam Asgari called the claims “frivolous” and without merit.

“This is still the house of cards,” said Sam Sheibani, a Compass real estate agent who is representing Asgari, on Monday, referring to the popular Netflix TV series filmed in Baltimore in which Spacey starred.

Asgari is preparing a response to the latest filings in Baltimore City Circuit Court and plans to pursue eviction, Sheibani said.

Attorneys for Spacey, listed as Kevin Spacey Fowler, principal of home owner Clear Toaster LLC, accused Asgari of acting in bad faith.

“Mr. Asgari has continuously harassed Clear Toaster’s principal, Kevin Spacey Fowler, and has published false and defamatory statements and accusations against Clear Toaster’s principal, Kevin Spacey Fowler, who occupies the property as his home,” said Spacey’s attorney, Edward U. Lee III, in a motion Friday.

Spacey purchased the two-unit condo in the gated The Pier Homes at Harborview for $5.7 million in 2017. His friend and manager Evan Lowenstein owned the home, but the former “House of Cards” star recently laid claim to it, Lowenstein previously told The Sun.

The Oscar-winning Spacey, who has said he was left with millions of dollars of debt from fighting several lawsuits in the U.S. and Britain alleging sexual misconduct, owed back payments for the home.

Last summer, a city Circuit Court judge approved a foreclosure sale.

Spacey’s attorneys are arguing the court should revoke the July sale, which took place outside Baltimore Circuit Court and require trustees to resell the property.

They say trustees failed in their obligations to maximize the home’s price. They advertised it as a dwelling, the filing said, but left out details such as its size, 9,000 square feet on five levels, and amenities, such as seven full baths, a sauna, elevator, home theaters, a rooftop terrace and four-car garage.

The price at auction fell well below both the property’s assessed value of more than $5.4 million in July, and the outstanding principal balance of more than $3.8 million, the court document said.

It says Asgari should be disqualified, in part because he threatened eviction before the auction sale had been ratified and before he had possession of the home, placing a “notice about eviction” on the home Spacey has occupied as his primary residence. The sale is not final, the filing says, until an exception period expires and the court ratifies the sale.

Yet, Spacey’s filing says, the notice placed on the property on the day of the auction gave anyone residing in the home 15 days to notify Asgari, or the property would be considered abandoned and the locks changed, without a court order.

Asgari knew the home was not abandoned and intended only to “harass and coerce [Spacey] to leave his home when he was in no way obligated to do so,” the filing said. “In Mr. Asgari’s wrongful demand to have [Spacey] vacate the property, he threatened to pursue eviction as a result of the property being ‘abandoned.'”

Lee said Asgari contacted him in mid-August, “threatening to proceed with interviews with Inside Edition and CBS News that same day unless an immediate response was provided regarding the vacancy date and further threatening to start eviction proceedings the following Monday.”

Asgari views the chain of events differently, Sheibani said. Spacey simply won’t return something that no longer belongs to him, he said.

He is taking advantage of “my client’s generosity, requesting a large sum of money and a long time to vacate the property,” Sheibani said. “We simply want the property that rightly belongs to my client to be vacated and handed over.”

Lee, Spacey’s attorney, countered in the filing that Spacey has never “refused or threatened to refuse” to leave the home.

The document said Lee spoke with Asgari’s attorney Aug. 6 and proposed that Spacey be allowed to stay until about Feb. 1 in exchange for giving Asgari early entry to the home to begin planning to sell to an investor and agreeing not to file an objection to ratification of the sale.

But then a week later, Asgari offered $50,000 if Spacey would leave by Sept. 15, the filing says.

The 33-year-old African penguin, who made a “tremendous contribution” to the survival of his endangered species by fathering 230 chicks, was euthanized for age-related declining health, the Maryland Zoo said. He is survived by his lifelong mate Mrs. Greedy.

“This one bird was incredibly important to the continued existence of African penguins throughout the world,” Maryland Zoo bird curator Jen Kottyan said in a Sept. 5 news release. “It’s tough to lose an animal who has been such a welcome presence at our Zoo for three decades, but all of us are proud that he is survived by five generations of offspring.”

Kottyan added the median life expectancy of African penguins is 18 years, and Mr. Greedy was the oldest penguin in the zoo’s colony. Both Mr. and Mrs. Greedy hatched in 1991 and arrived in Baltimore in 1992.

“They had been paired up from the time they hit reproductive age in 1994,” Kottyan said.

Zookeepers are monitoring Mrs. Greedy, and if she shows interest, will pair her with a single male in the colony as a companion, according to the release.

The couple’s oldest offspring is 28 years old, and several of the pair’s chicks still live at the Maryland Zoo, including a fifth-generation descendant named Olive, according to the release.

Based in Baltimore, Maryland Zoo is home to the largest colony of African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) in North America, according to the release, and has bred more than 1,000 chicks.

The zoo’s Penguin Coast exhibit is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and offers private visits with a zookeeper and photo opportunities.

That’s because of the highly detailed and accurate data teams get from tracking chips in each player’s shoulder pads called radio-frequency identification tags, or RFID.

“We have the tracking data from that game,” Harbaugh said, referencing Baltimore’s 27-20 loss to the Chiefs. “We know exactly where the Chiefs tackles were lined up and exactly where ours were lined up.”

The veteran coach was terse about specific findings. But the discourse is unambiguous, he said, because of the data available. So they’ll have a sense of whether officiating crews call it consistently as the season progresses.

Three of the Ravens’ five illegal formation penalties, including two on the opening drive, came against left tackle Ronnie Stanley. Stanley said after the game that he felt targeted by the officials and that his presnap alignment followed what he was told by offseason referees.

An illegal formation is called when a player’s helmet isn’t aligned with the waist of the center. It’s advantageous for a lineman in pass protection to be lined up further back behind the line of scrimmage. Stanley said Thursday night that he was confident his head was “breaking the center’s butt.”

“I thought Ronnie was in reasonable position almost all the time,” Harbaugh said. “I do think the adjustment that needs to be made, is during the course of the drive, if it’s something that you didn’t expect and it’s totally different than they’re calling the games, you gotta make the drastic adjustment right away and then we’ll talk about it later. Ronnie actually thought he was doing that. When you watch the tape, I think what he says bears out.”

Illegal formation penalties aside, Harbaugh said the offensive line  — which has been a hot topic through the preseason as they replaced three starters from last year — set a “pretty darn good baseline,” particularly in the deafening conditions of Arrowhead Stadium against a formidable Chiefs defensive front.

Similar to the slew of early penalties, Harbaugh isn’t worried about his offensive line.

“I know how hard they work and I know how talented they are and I watch all the other offensive lines in the National Football League,” he said. “I think if you applied some of the same standards to the other offensive lines out there, you’d be like, ‘Oh, boy.'”

Against Kansas City, the Ravens ran for 185 yards on 32 carries. Half of those were by quarterback Lamar Jackson, who finished with 122 rushing yards; Derrick Henry added 46 on 13 carries. The Chiefs combined for one sack and one quarterback hit. For reference, Kansas City totaled four sacks and seven quarterback hits in the AFC championship game in Baltimore in January.

“Our offensive line is going to be really good this year,” Harbaugh said. “I believe that. And we’re working hard toward that.”

Jerome Isaac Hurley, 44, was charged in April with one count of theft of more than $100,000, a felony in Maryland law punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Hurley appeared Friday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court in Annapolis. His next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4 with trial set to begin Dec. 10, according to the Maryland Judiciary.

Mark Lechowicz, Hurley’s defense attorney, declined to comment Monday.

On Sept. 5, 2023, Anne Arundel County Police went to the Miracle Temple along Southern Maryland Boulevard after being alerted to a theft, according to charging documents.

Police said church officials had recently discovered $347,000 of a $350,000 insurance check had been transferred from their Bank of America checking account into Hurley’s personal account.

According to charging documents, Hurley filed a successful insurance claim in March 2020 after a residence on the church’s property caught fire. Church officials told investigators that throughout Hurley’s seven years at Miracle Temple, from 2015 to 2022, he handled bank statements and finances.

A year after the fire, when the claim was vetted and a check was issued, Hurley took the vast majority of the insurance money from the temple’s account, police said. Charging documents reference bank account numbers and the dates of several bank transfers, including when the insurance money cleared the church’s account and when it was allegedly transferred to Hurley nine days later.

The church’s attempts to contact Hurley about the money were unsuccessful, police said. In February 2023, the Miracle Temple’s board sent Hurley a certified letter saying they had entrusted him “to act in good faith” when handling the church’s finances and that they had never been notified of the insurance claim or the $350,000 check, according to charging documents.

Police did not indicate what Hurley may have spent the money on once it was in his account.

A representative for Miracle Temple declined to comment Monday on Hurley’s case or time with the church.

A spokesperson with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the 2020 fire at Miracle Temple.

Since last year, Hurley’s case is at least the second criminal accusation levied against a church official in Anne Arundel County involving church money.

In March 2023, Marie Simeone was charged with embezzlement and two felony theft counts after she was accused of taking nearly $65,000 from the Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in West River.

Simeone, who was the church’s director of operations until about three months before she was charged, allegedly made personal purchases at several businesses, subscribed to magazines and streaming services, went to restaurants and paid her utility bills using church funds, prosecutors said.

In November 2023, Simeone pleaded guilty to a felony theft scheme charge and was granted probation before judgment.

NEW YORK (AP) — James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, “The Lion King” and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.

His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York’s Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.

The pioneering Jones, who in 1965 became one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama (“As the World Turns”) and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was also given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.

He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of “The Gin Game” having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.

“The need to storytell has always been with us,” he told The Associated Press then. “I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn’t get him.”

Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in “Field of Dreams,” the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit “The Great White Hope,” the writer Alex Haley in “Roots: The Next Generation” and a South African minister in “Cry, the Beloved Country.”

He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader (“No, I am your father,” commonly misremembered as “Luke, I am your father”), as well as the benign dignity of King Mufasa in both the 1994 and 2019 versions of Disney’s “The Lion King” and announcing “This is CNN” during station breaks. He won a 1977 Grammy for his performance on the “Great American Documents” audiobook.

“If you were an actor or aspired to be an actor, if you pounded the pavement in these streets looking for jobs, one of the standards we always had was to be a James Earl Jones,” Samuel L. Jackson once said.

Some of his other films include “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Greatest” (with Muhammad Ali), “Conan the Barbarian,” “Three Fugitives” and playing an admiral in three blockbuster Tom Clancy adaptations — “The Hunt for Red October,” “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger.” In a rare romantic comedy, “Claudine,” Jones had an onscreen love affair with Diahann Carroll.

LeVar Burton, who starred alongside Jones in the TV movie “Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones,” paid tribute on X, writing, “There will never be another of his particular combination of graces.”

Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958’s “Sunrise At Campobello” and would win his two Tony Awards for “The Great White Hope” (1969) and “Fences” (1987). He also was nominated for “On Golden Pond” (2005) and “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” (2012). He was celebrated for his command of Shakespeare and Athol Fugard alike. More recent Broadway appearances include “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Iceman Cometh,” and “You Can’t Take It With You.”

As a rising stage and television actor, he performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival Theater in “Othello,” “Macbeth” and “King Lear” and in off-Broadway plays.

Jones was born by the light of an oil lamp in a shack in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on Jan. 17, 1931. His father, Robert Earl Jones, had deserted his wife before the baby’s arrival to pursue life as a boxer and, later, an actor.

When Jones was 6, his mother took him to her parents’ farm near Manistee, Michigan. His grandparents adopted the boy and raised him.

“A world ended for me, the safe world of childhood,” Jones wrote in his autobiography, “Voices and Silences.” “The move from Mississippi to Michigan was supposed to be a glorious event. For me it was a heartbreak, and not long after, I began to stutter.”

Too embarrassed to speak, he remained virtually mute for years, communicating with teachers and fellow students with handwritten notes. A sympathetic high school teacher, Donald Crouch, learned that the boy wrote poetry, and demanded that Jones read one of his poems aloud in class. He did so faultlessly.

Teacher and student worked together to restore the boy’s normal speech. “I could not get enough of speaking, debating, orating — acting,” he recalled in his book.

At the University of Michigan, he failed a pre-med exam and switched to drama, also playing four seasons of basketball. He served in the Army from 1953 to 1955.

In New York, he moved in with his father and enrolled with the American Theater Wing program for young actors. Father and son waxed floors to support themselves while looking for acting jobs.

True stardom came suddenly in 1970 with “The Great White Hope.” Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play depicted the struggles of Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, amid the racism of early 20th-century America. In 1972, Jones repeated his role in the movie version and was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor.

Jones’ two wives were also actors. He married Julienne Marie Hendricks in 1967. After their divorce, he married Cecilia Hart, best known for her role as Stacey Erickson in the CBS police drama “Paris,” in 1982. (She died in 2016.) They had a son, Flynn Earl, born in 1983.

In 2022, the Cort Theatre on Broadway was renamed after Jones, with a ceremony that included Norm Lewis singing “Go the Distance,” Brian Stokes Mitchell singing “Make Them Hear You” and words from Mayor Eric Adams, Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson.

“You can’t think of an artist that has served America more,” director Kenny Leon told the AP. “It’s like it seems like a small act, but it’s a huge action. It’s something we can look up and see that’s tangible.”

Citing his stutter as one of the reasons he wasn’t a political activist, Jones nonetheless hoped his art could change minds.

“I realized early on, from people like Athol Fugard, that you cannot change anybody’s mind, no matter what you do,” he told the AP. “As a preacher, as a scholar, you cannot change their mind. But you can change the way they feel.”

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

The trail is meant to boost greenspace access and active transportation routes for residents of Northeast Baltimore, providing pedestrian and bicyclist connection to Morgan State University, Lake Montebello and Herring Run Park, in addition to other neighborhoods.

Local officials and community leaders gathered on the park’s basketball court Monday for a celebration of the grant and the park’s revitalization hosted by Rails to Trails Conservancy, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) and the Northeast Community Organization (NECO). The Morgan State Marching Band played cheerful music and danced before speakers took turns at the podium beneath a basketball hoop with a missing backboard and rim.

“We are able to come together today because we got a new vision and a new dream for our community,” said Father Joe Muth of Notre Dame of Maryland during the opening prayer, echoed by “Amens” from the crowd. “And we are grateful that we’ve come together today to make that dream a reality.”

About two years ago, the Rev. Cat Goodrich of Faith Presbyterian and some of her colleagues in Northeast Baltimore started having conversations about bringing residents together to see if there were common concerns, she said.

Of the issues raised, Goodrich said, “We heard a lot about Chinquapin Run Park.” She said people remembered when there were picnic tables and benches in the park, sports programs and children playing in the stream, noting the missing basketball rim and overgrown trail. The group had several meetings, held a walkthrough with City Councilmember Mark Conway and did some door-knocking, connecting with more than 100 residents, Goodrich said.

“It feels good and right that we are here today to celebrate because this park is a connector. It cuts through six different neighborhoods,” Goodrich said. “It runs all the way from the city-county line down to Morgan State. It cuts across lines of neighborhood and race and class, connecting us as one community.”

A clean, safe and well-kept park for families in the community is essential, said Angie Winder, president of NECO, reflecting on her elementary school teacher who “stood in the gap for us.”

“We, too, are standing in the gap for the next generation just by being here, affirming to them I’ll fight for their future,” Winder said. “Revitalizing this park is just one example of that, we will not see it be neglected or let it be disinvested.”

Grants and donations from the France-Merrick Foundation, Kentfields Foundation and Lockhart Vaughan Foundation, as well as private donors, comprise the investment funds according to the Rev. Kate Foster, a Baltimore resident and mid-Atlantic director of trails development for Rails to Trails.

The investment will support the preliminary planning of the trail, but Rails to Trails doesn’t own trail projects or build them, according to Foster. The group will continue working alongside partners to receive city and state funding for the project’s final design and construction.

“To get this park back and get it back better, we’re going to need resources. To get this trail built and to complete the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network, we’re going to need city leadership and a lot more money,” Foster said. “So we’re here to work with you, Baltimore City, but we need you to make it a priority too.”

The project is part of the vision to connect the area to the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network, a city-adopted plan for a 35-mile network of paths for city residents to “walk, bike or roll” between 75 neighborhoods and safely access green spaces, according to Foster.

Director of Baltimore City Recreation and Parks Reginald Moore emphasized the city’s commitment to all parks. Moore explained that benches will be replaced and a new basketball goal has been ordered, along with a fence to prevent people from doing donuts on the court with their vehicles, motioning to the marks on the ground. He also said the city will support a 2025 application for more funding to complete the full project.

Amidst many calls to action, Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry reminded the crowd that the mayor is responsible for delegating city spending, so people must call on the mayor to prioritize funding for the park.

“We have to make it clear that this is important and that we prioritize this. Are we good?” Henry said. “Yes,” the crowd cheered. “Do we understand the assignment?” Henry asked. “Yes,” the crowd cheered again.

Last week, the Baltimore County Council approved a plan to use $10 million in state funds to purchase 85 acres on the former C.P. Crane coal plant site in Bowleys Quarters from North Carolina realty firm Forsite Development. The county plans to use those acres to preserve it as a park, but it’s uncertain when it will open. The Department of Parks and Recreation plans to first gather community feedback, according to agency director Bob Smith.

At a Monday news conference, elected officials including County Council members, the Baltimore County executive and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said the deal came together after years of advocacy by community groups in nearby Seneca Park and Bowleys Quarters.

The plant closed in 2018 after environmental regulators cited it for exceeding pollution limits and failing to test its emission levels. It changed owners multiple times, but plans to redevelop the site for housing or to reopen the plant as a natural gas facility fell through after residents pushed back. In 2022, Forsite demolished the candy cane-looking smoke stacks that served as a navigational marker for boaters and pilots from nearby Martin State Airport.

“The candy cones were good for boaters, but less so for the environment,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. “We knew that there was an opportunity to preserve the site as both open space and parkland, and also to find ways to support the transition to a more modern green economy and future.”

Local advocates began lobbying County Councilman David Marks and other officials to preserve it as a park, according to Seneca Park Improvement Association Vice President Bonny Jasinski.

“We enjoy and appreciate the natural wonder that is the Chesapeake Bay, and know the reality of its fragile ecosystem,” Jasinski said. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here. The purchase of this property will connect and extend that undeveloped land in combination with local, state and federal lands.”

“People talk a lot about how government doesn’t work these days, but here’s an example of government working together across party lines and in partnership with neighborhoods,” said Marks, an Upper Falls Republican. He described the negotiations as “complex.”

Forsite will still own 33 acres on the site and is in charge of cleaning up the site, which includes a dilapidated pier, parking lot and warehouse. The company is applying for permits to build a battery storage center, according to Chief Operating Officer Ryan Ford.

Baltimore County will receive an additional $1.7 million in federal funding to acquire right-of-way easements to connect the property via a rail trail to Marshy Point Nature Center and Eastern Regional Park, according to U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat.

“There are very limited amounts for these congressionally directed spending projects, earmarks, so the ones that rise to the top are ones that are well thought-out and have community support,” Van Hollen said.