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Spring 2026 Edition
New & Noteworthy
What’s New With The Laurel History Boys
Mark your calendar for Saturday, April 25, and join us at Laurel Park for our second Voices of Laurel Day at the Races event! The Laurel History Boys and Voices of Laurel team will be under the tent at trackside—join us to enjoy live racing up close just one week before the Kentucky Derby and three weeks before the Preakness makes its historic debut at Laurel Park. Grants and Donations Thank you to Joan Robison, Marion Hoekstra, Karl Ginter, Amanda Green, Bryan Castro, and
Staff Writers
Neighborhood News
Oldtown
Local news covering the Oldtown area Laurel Cats held a grand opening celebration for its new mobile vet surgery service on March 4. (Photo: Caitlin Lewis) The Cat’s Meow: Laurel Cats Builds on Success with New Way to Help Cat Owners In 2012, Oldtown resident Helen Woods and a small group of volunteers saw a need in Laurel: the feral cat population was huge, with feral cat colonies all over Laurel, and the main method for dealing with the excess cats was euthanasia. Woods con
Caitlin Lewis
North Laurel/Savage
Local news covering the North Laurel, Savage, and Scaggsville areas Howard County Executive Calvin Ball holds a press conference to announce plans for mixed-income houses in North Laurel. (Photo: Manny Locke Jr./WMAR) Photo: Team USA North Laurel is Home to Olympic Bobsledder Bryan Sosoo, a Laurel native, made his Olympic debut at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy as a push athlete in four-man bobsled. A 2014 graduate of Reservoir High School, Sosoo was a track standout at Monmo
Angela Latham Kozlowski
Russett/Maryland City
Local news covering the Russett and Maryland City areas Columnist Brenda Zeigler-Riley with Catherine’s owner Donovan Vassell. (Photo courtesy of Brenda Zeigler-Riley) Catherine’s Restaurant Draws Crowds to Corridor Marketplace Have you ever had Italian-Caribbean food? I recently had dinner at Catherine’s Restaurant, located in Corridor Marketplace. The restaurant was packed; however, my 6 pm reservation was honored. (I advise that reservations be made, especially if dining
Brenda Zeigler-Riley
South Laurel
Local news covering Laurel Lakes, Victoria Falls, Oakcrest, Montpelier, and the Route 197 corridor The Laurel Manor Recreation Center in The Villages, Florida, is named after Laurel Park Racecourse. (Photo: Diane Mezzanotte) The “Six Degrees of Laurel, Maryland” Most of us are familiar with the social science theory called the “six degrees of separation.” (Think Kevin Bacon and that American Express commercial.) I have come to believe that there is also a “Six Degrees of Laur
Diane Mezzanotte
West Laurel
Local news covering the West Laurel and Burtonsville areas The newly renovated Burger King in Burtonsville. (Photo: Russ Geis) Nationwide Policy Actions Can Have Local and Personal Impacts A recent action by the U.S. Government has hit close to home in West Laurel. The current administration sought to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitian nationals living in the United States under protective status because of the dangerous situation in their home
Virginia May Geis
City Beat
City Beat
A roundup of local news, events, and announcements Convicted arsonist David Crawford during his time as Laurel Police Chief (File Photo) Former Police Chief Crawford Sentenced in Montgomery County A Montgomery County judge sentenced former Laurel Police Chief David Crawford to 55 years in prison in mid-February 2026. Crawford pled guilty to two counts of first-degree arson and one count of second-degree arson for fires he started at the home of his stepson in 2016, 2017, and
Staff Writers
Community
Laurel Park Saved From Demolition
Site Will Host Significantly Scaled-Down Preakness in May Photo: Richard Friend Hold on to your fancy hats and mind your bets, horse racing fans, big changes are again expected to impact Laurel Park. Following the ups and downs of the fate of Laurel’s storied racetrack has become like a ride on a merry-go-round: up with the news of much needed renovations to both historic race tracks; down with the news of Laurel Park’s closing and demolition; up with the news of the 151st ru
Angela Latham Kozlowski
Join Us for a Day at the Races, April 25
The Laurel History Boys and Voices of Laurel team will be trackside at Laurel Park on Saturday, April 25 to host our second annual Day at the Races. This free event is open to everyone, and provides another opportunity for residents to see the historic venue and experience thoroughbred racing live and up close—while you still can. With Laurel Park’s future still not completely certain, one thing is sure—its days of being the active racetrack Laurel has known since 1911 will
Richard Friend
Digging into the Data: What City Reporting Reveals About Crime
Statistics Show Overall Decrease in Incidents Within City Photo illustration by Richard Friend One morning in May 2023, Naomi Beech (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy) walked out of her Historic District home in the City of Laurel planning to commute to work just as she had done every other weekday. Instead, she opened the driver’s side door of her Kia Seoul and was greeted with a vandalized interior and destroyed steering column. Neighborhood Ring camera foo
Hannah Hoffman
Studio Proprietress Shares Passion for Teaching, Fabric, and History
Photos: Angie Latham Kozlowski Ireatha Leona Woods, the owner of Leona’s Sewing Studio in Savage Mill, has been sewing nearly her entire life. She has also been drawn to learn about Africa for just as long. Her interest in Africa and African fabrics began when she was a preteen, thanks to her many visits to a bookmobile. She was also a budding seamstress in those years. She recalled that as a young girl, “I used to study Ethiopia a lot, and then the first person that I met to
Angela Latham Kozlowski
Fred Frederick: In His Own Words
Fred Frederick, who passed away in January, was a Laurel icon. Since he opened his Chrysler dealership in its present location on Route 1 in 1959, he was involved in more community efforts than probably anyone. When I interviewed him in his office in 2014, he had so many stories that my recorder’s batteries ran out. As I tried to politely leave and slowly backed out of his office, he was yelling, “Wait! One more! I have one more!” Here are some highlights from that interview.
Kevin Leonard
Troop 1250: A Scout Is Human
Photo: JV / Unsplash A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. This is the Law of Scouting, and it has been unchanged since William D. Boyce brought scouting to America in 1910 from England, where it was founded in 1907 by Lord Baden-Powell. Laurel’s Troop 1250 has been around since 1963, when James Van Daniker was scoutmaster. If you want more scouting history, there is a merit badge for that.
Shane Walker
History
Kevin Leonard
Kevin Leonard
Diane Mezzanotte
Martha Strayer
Profiles
Wait For Me: A Granite Ghost Story
Rick McGill, who wrote a column about his time as an officer with the Laurel Police Department for Voices of Laurel for five years, has released his first novel, Wait For Me: A Granite Ghost Story . The novel is set in the 1890s silver-mining town of Granite, above present-day Philipsburg, Montana. The Laurel History Boys are proud to present this excerpt. The book is available on Amazon. Prologue In a small tourist town of eight hundred residents in western Montana, Steve a
Rick McGill
Growing up in Laurel
What’s It Like to Jam with Alice Cooper?
Photos by Nick Giumenti The great European mountaineer Reinhold Messner once told me, “Fear is coming and coming when you’re waiting and waiting and going and going when you’re doing and doing.” Messner’s observation is correct. As an adventure writer with Forbes , I’m pretty much afraid just before I do something extreme, but during the experience itself not so much so, whether it’s flying supersonic in an F-16 or to the edge of space in a U-2, or driving 253 mph in a Bugatt
Jim Clash
Laurel Archaeology
Laurel Park Through the Years
Laurel, once again, will soon lose another part of its rich history. In the near future, horse racing will cease operations here and Laurel Park will be reduced to a training facility only. My feelings are mixed on just how long that and the racing industry itself will exist in Maryland. Laurel, in my opinion, would have been a much better idea than Pimlico. The monies invested here in recent years have now to gone to waste. Laurel Park opened on October 2, 1911 and has serv
Pete Lewnes
First Responders
Hot Stuff From the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department
Wreaths Across America It is the mission of Wreaths Across America to “Remember the Fallen...Honor Those Who Serve...and Teach the Next Generation the Value of Freedom.” It is because of this mission that members of the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department are proud to be a small part of this worthy and heartwarming event. On December 17, 2025, we joined millions of others in over 5,500 locations, and came together at Ivy Hill Cemetery to honor, remember, and teach future generat
Carreen Koubek and Mike Sellner
Obituaries
Staff Writers
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