A place to put down roots

Many stay, others move back to Clarks Run

Mike Hanks grew up in Clarks Run, and he loved his childhood days playing sports with his friends around the La Plata neighborhood. Years later, when Hanks was looking for a safe place to raise a family, Clarks Run was an easy choice. In fact, he bought his old house from his parents.

"My son is sleeping in the same room I slept in," said Hanks as his son, Jake, and his friends played a pickup game of touch football during the Charles County community's fall picnic. "They're playing on the same grass I played on," said Hanks, 39.

Hanks's wife, Kim, 35, grew up in an adjacent neighborhood. Their children, Jake and Kelsey, go to the same schools their parents attended and in some cases have been taught by the same teachers.

Residents say Clarks Run provides that kind of comfort level. Much about the neighborhood conveys a sense of stability: the colonial-style homes, the mature trees, the large lots, and the wide streets where children ride bicycles and parents walk the dogs.

"The feel of the neighborhood when you pulled into the driveway was wonderful," recalled Julie Jacko, 38, a five-year resident who moved from Frederick County. "I like the fact that it was established, that there were trees already here and no new construction."

"The residents take great pride in ownership. The yards, houses are meticulously kept," said Bonnie Baldus Grier of Baldus Real Estate in La Plata.

The first houses were built in 1979. Thirty years later, some of the original families still live in the 307-unit subdivision, and they have spent those years forging community ties. Newer residents have taken a cue from their older neighbors and have plunged into youth sports, scouts, church groups and civic affairs.

Jacko is the secretary of the Clarks Run Citizens Association and the parent-teacher organization president at Walter J. Mitchell Elementary School. Hanks, who grew up playing youth football for the La Plata Blue Knights, is now a coach for the youth sports group. La Plata Mayor Roy G. Hale is a longtime Clarks Run resident.

Marc Lavery, the citizens association president and a vice president of a concrete company, donated equipment and time toward the construction of an outdoor classroom at Mitchell Elementary. He had help from several Clarks Run residents, some of whom didn't have children at the school. Lavery, 45, organizes the association's fishing derby for children at Redwood Lake. His wife, Catherine, is the volleyball coach at La Plata High School, where their oldest daughter plays.

"The best part of living in Clarks Run is the sense of community that everyone in this neighborhood has," Lavery said. "If you need something, just knock on the door." Many residents have lengthy commutes, Lavery added, but the common response is, "When I get home, it's worth it."

Paul Filardi, the citizens association vice president, said he likes the sense of space that comes with large lots. "You can be neighborly without looking out your window and seeing someone five feet away," he said. Filardi, 40, serves on La Plata's recreation committee and helped develop a trail through a natural area just west of the neighborhood.

Like many other residents, Filardi found Clarks Run when searching for a neighborhood that offered access to regional workplaces, including Washington as well as his current military post, the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in St. Mary's County.