Around Maryland

A new apartment complex geared specifically to police officers, firefighters and other first responders is coming to downtown Baltimore. Jon Pannoni, president of Landmark Partners, said his firm is investing roughly $25 million to transform four dilapidated buildings in the 100 block of South Gay Street into Guardian House.

It seems the boil water advisory centered in west Baltimore is starting to take a toll on one of the most vulnerable populations. On the third day of the advisory that was issued after E. coli was detected in routine water samples over the weekend, many senior housing residents are having issues getting fresh, clean water while others are too fearful to boil their water to use it as frustrations mount.

Two days after the city first announced that E. coli had been found in tap water samples taken in West Baltimore, two of the three sites where the bacteria were first found now show negative results, officials said Wednesday. The city Department of Public Works first discovered the bacteria in water samples taken from Sandtown-Winchester and Harlem Park over Labor Day weekend. On Monday, Public Works told residents across a large swath of West Baltimore and southwestern Baltimore County to boil their water.

Dr. Thomas M. Scalea has had spent much of his long career as a trauma doctor witnessing the emotional toll on families from the city’s unrelenting violence. “The walk down to a set of parents to tell them their kid’s not coming home again … I can almost tell you the number of steps because I have had to do it way too many times,” said Scalea, physician in chief at the University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. Dr. Thomas M. Scalea has had spent much of his long career as a trauma doctor witnessing the emotional toll on families from the city’s unrelenting violence.

A series of local grants will expand access to swim lessons and other aquatic facilities for people with disabilities at the Severna Park Community Center starting this fall. Thanks to three donations totally $50,000 from the Fund for Anne Arundel ($25,000), Anne Arundel County ($20,000) and the John J. Leidy Foundation ($5,000), the SEALS (Social, Educational, All Welcome, Limitless, Swimming) Program will be free to people from all over the state this fall after launching as a pilot program last year with about two dozen families. Free swim lessons will be available from September to June to adults and children with disabilities.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks says police in the Maryland county will begin stepping up enforcement of an already on-the-books curfew to keep teens off the streets at night, amid a rise in carjackings and other violent crime. The announcement Monday of a get-tough approach on crime came as Prince George’s County marked its deadliest month in decades — with 24 killings investigated by police in August, alone — and a rise in violent crime by repeat offenders, Alsobrooks said during a news conference.