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Frederick police said Tuesday four suspects in a sexual assault reported at the Maryland School for the Deaf last week have been identified.

Charges were pending Tuesday against four male students, who police believe were involved in the assault of another male student on Oct. 27 at the school's Frederick campus. The victim was treated at Frederick Memorial Hospital on the night of the incident and released the next morning, police said.

Three of the suspects are juveniles and one is an adult, and all reside in the same dormitory as the victim, police said. Criminal charges had not been officially filed on Tuesday.

Police offer two new drug education programs

The Frederick Police Department, the Frederick County Health Department and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America announced the start of two new education campaigns aimed to inform parents and teens about alcohol and drugs.

Due to the success of the Meth360 program — which educated the community about the effects of methamphetamines — the Partnership for a Drug-Free America developed Parents360 and Youth360 to address drug and alcohol issues.

The programs are designed to be delivered in teams led by law enforcement officers, substance abuse prevention and treatment professionals, as well as other community members committed to the cause of raising awareness at local organizations, schools, churches and parent groups.

Parents360 is a multimedia training programmed designed to increase parents' understanding of preventing and addressing drug- and alcohol-abuse.

Youth360 is a teen-oriented substance abuse prevention education presentation program that aims to teach teens about the realities and consequences of substance use.

All of the programs are coordinated through the Frederick Police Department. Interested residents should call Lt. Steve Tuel at 301-600-2715 to schedule a presentation.

City celebrates opening of community center, dedication of Lord Nickens Street

The Housing Authority of the City of Frederick invites residents to celebrate the grand opening of its downtown community center, and the dedication of a street named for one of Frederick's most notable African-American residents.

The grand opening of the Bernard W. Brown Community Center will take place beginning at 10 a.m., Tuesday. The center is located at 629 N. Market St. During the grand opening celebration, the city will also hold a dedication ceremony for Lord Nickens Street.

Nearly seven years in the making, the community center will mark a major anchor of the Frederick's Hope VI project — the Housing Authority of Frederick's 10-year program to decentralize poverty and eliminate distressed public housing.

City receives grant to replace lighting

The City of Frederick has received federal stimulus funds to update its public lighting and make it energy-efficient.

The city announced last month that it received last month a $614,700 Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The funds will go to replace all traffic lights in the city with electronic lighting and retrofit the lighting in the four downtown parking decks.

The projects are estimated to save the city $167, 035 due to lower energy usage and less maintenance costs. All projects have either started or will begin by the end of this year.

Rental registration won't be implemented

The majority of Frederick's Board of Aldermen reiterated the stance last week that a program requiring landlords to register rental properties in a city database would not address the prevalent problem of overcrowding in homes.

Alderman Alan Imhoff (R) brought up the proposed Rental Registration Ordinance for a second time — he originally proposed it in March — at a workshop Oct. 27, saying that he wanted to "float the balloon again and see if it would fly."

The figurative balloon popped.

Three aldermen hammered home the position that asking property owners to register their properties with the city's code enforcement department wouldn't help the issue of too many people living in single-family homes in neighborhoods around the city.

"I see this as a way to try and say we're doing something and we're not," said Alderman Donna Kuzemchak (D). Aldermen Marcia Hall (D) and David "Kip" Koontz (D) agreed.

Aldermen C. Paul Smith (R) said he thought it was a good first step.

"I am in favor of registration for the purpose of seeing who is living in the properties," Smith said. "I think that's a gigantic piece of information in terms of enforcement."

In 2007, Mayor W. Jeff Holtzinger (R) formed an overcrowding task force, which for 10 months researched overcrowding issues and made several recommendations to the city. Recommendations included full enforcement of all laws and policies that exist, stiffening of penalties, creation of strict parking regulations and beefing up the city's code enforcement staffing and training.

The city received 76 complaints about overcrowding between January and October of this year. Thirty-nine complaints were unfounded, 18 were resolved and 19 are unresolved, according to Joe Adkins, deputy director of the city's planning department.

Bill Dukes, who heads the city's code enforcement department, told aldermen last week that rental licensing would be more effective in addressing actual overcrowding violations.

E-mail Erica L. Green at egreen@gazette.net.