Not one but two fire trucks led the Roland Park Fourth of July Parade. The community can always count on Engine 44 showing up from the Roland Park fire station, but this year came a bonus -- a 1922 engine from the Fire Museum of Maryland.

Fire engines were a recurring theme. A table was set up at Roland Avenue and Upland Road for parade goers to make donations to help repair and renovate the aging firehouse. And as they do every year, children and youths crowded around Engine 44 to soak up the excitement of being hosed with water.

There was another bonus this year -- the apearance of Mayor Sheila Dixon -- and the first appearance by any mayor at Roland Park's festivities on the Fourth.

The parade capped a year in which the neighborhood stopped Keswick Multi-Care Center's proposed 343-bed retirement center. Last year's parade was punctuated with "Keswick NO!" signs, and a pivotal speech by Baltimore City Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton, in which she sided with Roland Park.

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