St. Mary's County Times December 06, 2018 | Page 6

6 The County Times Local News Thursday, December 6, 2018 Police Alerted to Escaped Fugitive Clements Property Declared a Nuisance Cul Priest Lamont Jones By Guy Leonard Staff Writer Maryland State Police are on the look- out for an escaped fugitive from North Carolina who has been on the lam since mid-October. Cul Priest Lamont Jones should be considered armed and dangerous, said Lt. Krystle Rossignol, commander of the Leonardtown barrack, and should not be approached. “He stole a vehicle in Virginia and it was found here in Callaway,” Rossignol told The County Times. “By the time we got to it, it had been in that location for six days.” The vehicle was found at the Take It Easy Campground on Piney Point Road. “We did search the area but not much was located,” Rossignol said. “We have not seen him at all.” Jones was first reported as escaping from a Hoke County, North Carolina cor- rections facility Oct. 14. Described as an African-American male, 45 years old, standing over six- feet-tall and weighing about 180 pounds, Jones was serving a lengthy sentence for attempted murder stemming back to 1995. In that case, according to media reports at the time, Jones had also escaped from a correctional facility while beginning to serve his sentence for shooting a police of- ficer in North Carolina when he was just 21. Rossignol was not sure Jones was still in the county but asked anyone who had seen him or had contact with him to come forward. “This guy could be in the area,” she said. “He could be out there.” Rossignol said his apparent travels to St. Mary’s County from Virginia appeared strange, since there were other places he could go that were less geographically constricted. “If someone has a tip we are following up on that information,” Rossignol said. [email protected] CHRISTMAS STUFFED HAMS FOR SALE NOW! Order Your Stuffed Hams by December 16th th By the Pound, Half or Whole Hams Available! LOCATED IN OLD DOWNTOWN LEXINGTON PARK OUTSIDE BASE GATE 2 PAX NAS MON. - FRI. 6 A.M. - 8 P.M. • SAT. 7 A.M. - 2 P.M. SUN. 8 A.M. - 2 P.M. 301-862-3544 This home on Horse Shoe Road in Clements has been declared a public nuisance for the years of complaints of drug activity there. By Guy Leonard Staff Writer A home in Clements that has long been the focus of numerous drug in- vestigations and warrant raids has been declared a nuisance after the county at- torney’s office successfully prosecuted a case in District Court in November. Several county law officers testified that the home, 24550 Horse Shoe Road, had been a nexus of drug activity, in- cluding storage and sales, for several years. The ruling by Judge John Slade III included barring four people who once resided at the house from ever returning and compels the owners of the home, Juanita Chase and Francis and Carol Price, to come up with a plan to ensure the property will no longer be a nui- sance to the public that must be submit- ted to the court in 30 days from the time of judgement. If the owners do not comply, they could be held in contempt, according to information from the St. Mary’s Coun- ty Sheriff’s Office, and the property could eventually be sold under certain conditions. Attorney James Tanavage filed the civil complaint on behalf of the county and pursued it in court. “We originally thought about go- ing after it under the blight ordinance,” Tanavage said. “We kind of stumbled on the nuisance statute to be honest.” Tanavage said the home had been the subject of two successful warrant searches for drugs and paraphernalia already this year, with the latest being in April. That raid recovered a major haul of il- legal narcotics, said Tanavage. “There were [drug] calls going to that house dating back to the 1980s,” Tanav- age said of police testimony. “The evi- dence was pretty overwhelming that the house had been used to store and sell drugs for the past seven or eight years, at least.” The people who had been living in the house were family members of the own- ers, said Tanavage. Of the four people forbidden from re- turning to the home, Tanavage said, two were already in prison serving lengthy sentences related to narcotics. [email protected] Town Mulls Downtown Improvement Recommendations By Guy Leonard Staff Writer Consultants hired by the Town of Leonardtown to make recommenda- tions on how the downtown can be better used to foster greater growth and economic development have made suggestions that seem to have been well received. The draft plan from Mahan Rykiel Associates and Arnett Muldrow As- sociates says the town has a strong business presence in the town square and its access to waterfront property was also an asset in its favor, the re- port stated. However, the report stated the town’s downtown has several impedi- ments to making it truly pedestrian friendly with limited lighting and crosswalks for example. The town square is also underuti- lized, the consultants reported, and small shrubs are overused that block the signage of many storefronts. The report goes deep into the mar- ket forces that define the town’s fu- ture but gives advice for improving the core of Leonardtown in the im- mediate future that should be easy to achieve. Town Administrator Laschelle McKay said the plan had favorable options for Leonardtown to pursue to improve the downtown. “The outlook for economic devel- opment was very positive, but the re- port gave us a lot of smaller things we can do in the near term,” McKay said. “I had a lot of positive feedback that the plan had many achievable goals.” One of those was installing signs that gave visitors directions to spe- cific parts of town to cut down on any confusion, particularly in looking for restaurants or other shops. “We’ll likely get a committee to sign off on the priorities we want and then take them to the [town] council,” McKay said. The report said the town was par- ticularly strong as a dining destina- tion, which could continue to grow, as well as independently owned stores for retail shopping, home furnishings and specialty food shops could be a strong retail niche for the town. [email protected]