Baltimore Gas

Powerful storms that swept through the Baltimore area yesterday afternoon and evening knocked out power to nearly 9,000 homes and businesses, utility officials said. The outages were caused by wind-tossed tree limbs and were not related to the power failures that darkened much of the Northeast Thursday and Friday, officials said. As of 11:30 p.m., Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. spokeswoman Sharon Sasada said, 3,827 electricity customers were without power in Baltimore County; 2,549 in Harford County; 2,203 in Anne Arundel County; 292 in Howard County; and 18 in Baltimore City.

On Tuesday, June 21, 2005, NORMAN W. Mc NICHOLAS. Norman served in the U.S. Army during WWII. He retired from the Baltimore Gas & Electric in 1982 with 35 years of service. The Cockeysville resident was 86. Norman is the beloved husband of the late Ann Mc Nicholas. Also survived by his long time companion Marie C. Florentine, brother, Thomas W. Mc Nicholas and nieces and nephews. Services and interment private. Arrangements by Peaceful Alternatives Funeral & Cremation Center, P.A.

Mary Jo Messenger, a secondary mathematics teacher at Centennial High School named by the White House as Maryland's 1991 Presidential Awards Recipients for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, was one of four teachers honored by the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. at a ceremony in November.Messenger and the other three winners will each receive $7,500 from the National Science Foundation for their school, a visit to Washington, and a $1,000 award from BG&E.

New positions* Biospherics Corp. named Sylvia Williams director of its information services division and Karen Levin vice president for corporate communications.* BGE, the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., has appointed Judith K. Pensabene director of federal affairs. She will head the BGE Washington office and be responsible for all federal lobbying efforts on behalf of the utility.* Baltimore International Culinary College said that Cynthia Bishop joined the BICC communications department as a publications specialist.

Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., the direct descendant of Gas Light Co. of Baltimore, the nation's first gas utility, will begin its 175th anniversary celebration at 2 p.m. Monday with a ceremony at the company's headquarters, Liberty and Lexington streets.Comments from Chairman George V. McGowan will be followed by an unveiling of display windows containing exhibits that document the development of both the company and gas and electric appliances.The ceremony will be held outdoors at the Liberty Street entrance.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. recently paid $2,779,928.61 in operating property and capital stock taxes to Harford County for the fiscal year 1990-1991, which ends June 30, 1991.The bulk of the utility's payment covered company-owned facilities located in Harford County, including such items as poles, lines, buildings and substations. The balance of the payment represents the county's share of capital stock taxes which the company pays to all political jurisdictions in Maryland where residents own the utility's stock.

Baltimore County police are warning drivers that they may encounter rush-hour delays -- and possibly road closures -- this evening on Padonia Road between York Road and Beaver Dam Road in Timonium. Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. crews are investigating a possible gas line leak in the 200 block of Padonia Road, near Interstate 83, and anticipate that their work will continue through this evening, police said. Originally published April 29, 2004, 2:32 PM EDT

Defects in power lines were blamed by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. for two separate power outages yesterday that affected more than 1,100 homes and businesses in Annapolis and downtown Baltimore. The first outage, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., occurred in Annapolis and affected 1,105 BGE customers. Those indoors reported dimmed lights; others, temporary loss of electricity. By 3 p.m., 28 customers in downtown Baltimore were plunged into darkness when a feeder line failed. The blackout lasted for a few seconds as power was rerouted to a second feeder, said BGE spokesman Charles Welsh.

A former Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. employee, who won a $750,000 wrongful discharge suit against the company last fall, lost this week in a retrial of the case.Donna Hines, 40, of Fallston sued the company for $1 million, saying BGE forced her out of her $33,000-a-year job as a distribution analyst after she became pregnant in 1993.After a jury verdict in Ms. Hines' favor last fall, Senior U.S. District Judge Edward S. Northrop ordered a new trial, saying he had made an error in his jury instructions.