Bainbridge

Directors of the Bainbridge Development Corp. will meet tomorrow to remove a technical hitch to allow a Columbus, Ohio-based company to move ahead with plans for a 550-acre applied technology center, which could employ 3,000 workers, at the former Bainbridge Naval Training Center in Port Deposit. The BDC, as the group is commonly called, is a quasi-public agency created by the General Assembly in 1999 to oversee the development of the 1,200- acre Navy boot camp, which closed in 1976. The hitch stems from the BDC having given its approval of a concept plan for the development of Bainbridge.

Berkshire Laboratories Inc., the small Columbus, Ohio-based company that wants to locate a technology center employing 3,000 workers on a hill overlooking Port Deposit, could turn into something "very, very big" and should be aggressively pursued by the state, said a scientist familiar with the company. "We have seen their patents, and they are extraordinary," said Rustum Roy, professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, founder of the school's materials research laboratory and member of science and engineering academies in other nations.

The former Bainbridge Naval Training Center, on a hill over looking Port Deposit, would become home to one of the nation's top business technology research centers under a proposal announced yesterday. Berkshire Laboratories, a small and little-known Columbus, Ohio-based research and development company is looking at opening a 500-acre technology center that it says could create 3,000 or more high-paying jobs at the former Navy boot camp that closed in 1976. "It is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime deal," said W. Paul Gilbert, director of the Cecil County Office of Economic Development.

If things go as planned, water could be flowing again in two years at the former Bainbridge Naval Training Center on a hill above Port Deposit overlooking the Susquehanna River. With the water comes a chance of a reduced number of houses proposed in a plan to redevelop the 1,200-acre former Navy boot camp that closed in 1976. It also opens the door for a second real estate development company to take a new look at a site it abandoned in frustration last summer after waiting three years for the county to come up with a plan to provide water and sewerage to Bainbridge.

You know you're in the right place the minute you see him. Not Cal Ripken, although the Iron Man was certainly on site last night, opening day for his Aberdeen IronBirds. It's the other guy, the one with the ample gut and the beard and the fetching IronBirds T-shirt. He's the one who makes such a grand entrance through the iron gates at Ripken Stadium. The guy's got 100 pounds on Cal, easy, but he's also got that hat - the hat of a true minor league baseball fan. His name is Jerry Bainbridge.

An old player in a plan to develop the 1,200-acre former Bainbridge Naval Training Center on a hill overlooking Port Deposit and the Susquehanna River wants to take a new look at the property. James M. DeFrancia, president of Reston, Va.-based Lowe Enterprises Community Development Inc., said he would be interested in offering a new development proposal for the property if an agreement can be worked out to supply water and run sewers to the site. "If the public sector, the town of Port Deposit or Cecil County says, `OK, we will take care of water and sewer,' we would very much like to come back," DeFrancia said late last week.

Charles Robert "Rob" Flayhart, the new mayor-elect of Port Deposit, sees his 14-vote victory as a mandate for change. "One of the first things I want to change is the way the office is run," he said after his victory over Mayor Wayne Tome. "I want it to be more open. I think the citizens should have a better feel for what is going on." Flayhart received 119 votes in Tuesday's election, which he said brought out a record high 74 percent of the registered voters. Flayhart's narrow victory looked like a landslide compared with the race between Cheryl Griffin and Brian LaFond for a seat on the Town Council.

PORT DEPOSIT - Memorial Hall - once the proud centerpiece of the turn-of-the-century private Tome School, and later a prep school for the Naval Academy - shows its many years of neglect. The clock from its tower is gone, replaced by a circle of plywood with peeling paint. Inside, much of the iron railing from twin stairways leading to the auditorium is gone - ripped out by looters. Giant chandeliers suffered the same fate. A sign out front warns: "Absolutely No Entry Permitted. This Building Has Been Condemned."

String of robberies, burglary reported along Route 24 Maryland State Police and Harford County sheriff's deputies are investigating a string of armed robberies along the usually quiet Forest Hill area north of Bel Air, officers said. One burglary and four armed robberies have occurred along the commercial route in the past three weeks, said Detective Sgt. Douglas Zeller of the Bel Air barracks. The burglary occurred April 12 at the Roy Rogers Family Restaurant in the 1400 block of Rockspring Road, he said.

The proposed developers of the former Bainbridge Naval Training Center in Port Deposit have requested an extension of their exclusive negotiating agreement with the Bainbridge Development Corp. to convert the property into a mixed-use residential and commercial center. The agreement expires Wednesday. Harland R. Graef, chairman of the Bainbridge Development Corp., said the agency's board members would meet in closed session tomorrow to consider the request. The BDC is the quasi-public agency created by the General Assembly in 1999 to oversee the development of the 1,200 acres of the former Navy boot camp on a hill overlooking Port Deposit and the Susquehanna River.