Barge

Baltimore's Inner Harbor is set to acquire a third outdoor restaurant barge along Pier 4 by summer. The city's Board of Estimates today approved a request from the Baltimore Development Corp. to amend a 1999 lease agreement to allow an affiliate of the Cordish Cos. to construct a "fixed or floating barge structure" between Inner Harbor Piers 3 and 4. According to city officials, the barge will be used by Dick's Last Resort, a restaurant that opened on Pier 4 last June. The city will receive annual rent of $7,200 plus 3 percent of gross sales from the outdoor restaurant in return for granting rights to install the barge.

He didn't fall — but it looked like he came close. Daredevil Nik Wallenda made it nearly all the way across a wire over the Inner Harbor, stepping steadily and deliberately, when he stopped to kneel and pump his fist in the air. He was walking 300 feet across, up to 82 feet in the air, in a stunt to mark the imminent opening of a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. The rapt crowd, cell phone cameras in the air, sighed with relief. But their celebration — and Wallenda's, too — was premature.

The first step in stopping invasive species from hitching a ride into the Chesapeake Bay aboard cargo ships is determining how to make massive ballast tanks an inhospitable environment. Maryland scientists hope they will find the answer aboard a new $2.7 million floating laboratory that is able to test ballast-water treatment systems under real-time conditions. The 155-foot vessel is part of the research fleet operated by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

If you're like us, you're itching for Tiki Barge weather. If you're bartender Megan Morstein, it's already started. It's the Columbia, MD native's second season serving drinks on the Barge, and she could not be more excited. "[Tiki Barge] is the only place in Baltimore where it doesn't feel like you're in Baltimore anymore. " Now living in nearby Federal Hill, Morstein is also a teacher, but started working at the Barge after spending an entire summer on the opposite side of the bar. When last summer was coming around, she contacted the owner, and management, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The body of a man reported to have fallen off a barge about 12 days ago was found Monday morning at the mouth of the South River, Maryland Natural Resources Police said. Gregory S. Luckett, 49, of Pasadena, was found in the chilly waters near Mayo Beach about 11:30 a.m. Anne Arundel County police recovered the body. Luckett was reported missing about 4:05 p.m. Nov. 5 from a 25-foot barge. U.S. Coast Guard officials, joined by several other agencies, had searched for him through the night after they were told he fell into the water while returning from a work site.

A barge carrying 420,000 gallons of black oil that went aground Wednesday morning on the Nanticoke River in southern Dorchester County was refloated last night after some of its contents were removed to lighten the load, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Baltimore said. Petty Officer John Edwards, the spokesman, said about 140,000 gallons was pumped into another barge, and that the vessel was refloated about 7:15 p.m. and towed to a power plant in Vienna, about halfway to its original destination, Seaford, Del. Edwards said the double-hulled barge was not damaged.

The body of a man reported to have fallen off a barge about 12 days ago was found Monday morning at the mouth of the South River, Maryland Natural Resources Police said. Gregory S. Luckett, 49, of Pasadena, was found in the chilly waters near Mayo Beach about 11:30 a.m. Anne Arundel County police recovered the body. Luckett was reported missing about 4:05 p.m. Nov. 5 from a 25-foot barge. U.S. Coast Guard officials, joined by several other agencies, had searched for him through the night after they were told he fell into the water while returning from a work site.

A 60-foot Naval Academy sailboat sank early yesterday after colliding with a coal barge in the Chesapeake Bay, throwing one of 12 crew members overboard and prompting a rescue by tugboat operators.Midshipman 2nd Class Judy Creed was treated at the Naval Hospital-Patuxent River for hypothermia and released.The cause of the accident was under investigation by U.S. Coast Guard and Naval Academy officials.Coast Guard Lt. Gary Merrick said the sailboat, American Promise, may have had some kind of problem with its rigging when it ran into the bow of the 365-foot barge.

I would like to take a barge trip through the Netherlands in April or May, so that the trip would include the tulip gardens. Can you name any tour companies?A number of companies can book a barging trip to the Netherlands at tulip time:* The Barge Lady, 101 W. Grand Ave., Suite 200, Chicago, Ill. 60610; (800) 880-0071.* Abercrombie & Kent, 1520 Kensington Road, Suite 212, Oak Brook, Ill. 60521; (800) 323-7308.* Le Boat, 215 Union St., Hackensack, N.J. 07601; (800) 922-0291.* European Waterways, 140 E. 56th St., Suite 4C, New York, N.Y. 10022; (800)

Edwin F. Hale Sr., fresh from his victory in the fight to control Baltimore Bancorp, said yesterday he may convert his Baltimore-based trucking and barge operations into a publicly traded corporation.Port East Transfer Inc. and Hale Container Line Inc. are owned entirely by Mr. Hale. Together, they employ more than 500 people."I'd say that by this time next year it would have been accomplished," Mr. Hale said of his plans to take the companies public.Mr. Hale, who was born in Highlandtown and grew up in Sparrows Point, rose to prominence on the success of his transportation companies.

If you're like us, you're itching for Tiki Barge weather. If you're bartender Megan Morstein, it's already started. It's the Columbia native's second season serving drinks on the Barge, and she could not be more excited. "[Tiki Barge] is the only place in Baltimore where it doesn't feel like you're in Baltimore anymore," she said. Now living not far from the Barge in Federal Hill, Morstein is also a Title 1 research teacher and provides Baltimore private school children with extra support in reading or math.

Mark your calendars. The Tiki Barge has set April 13 as its opening date for the season. Tiki's manager Bud Craven confirmed the news Thursday. Craven is still nursing his wounds from a March Liquor Board hearing that denied his plans to build a seafood restaurant and raw bar barge right next to the existing Tiki. At the time, the board concluded that the foot traffic to the combined barges would be too heavy for Harborview Marina.  When the old Tiki Barge re-opens next Friday, it'll be back to what fans have gotten accustomed to for the past two years, Craven said.

The Tiki Barge won't have a twin barge this Spring after all. Owners of the popular and controversial floating barge had planned to build a seafood and raw bar aboard a second barge this Spring, but the Baltimore Liquor Board Thursday sided with neighbors who opposed the idea. The decision was a major disappointment for Tiki manager Bud Craven, who was ready to start construction Monday.  "I'm real surprised," Craven said after the hearing. "A lot of time and a lot of money has already been spent on this project.

Of the seven charges against Dubai nightclub at the Baltimore Liquor Board Thursday, it was the accusation the club allowed guests to smoke pot that piqued commissioner Elizabeth Smith. On September 2 of last year, police officer Stephen Wilson was called to the club, the former Velvet Rope , for crowd control after rappers Jim Jones and Juelz Santana had performed. Wilson "walked into a visible cloud of smoke that had a strong odor of marijuana," he told the board.

The controversial and popular Tiki Barge may have a sister barge this Spring. The people behind the Tiki Barge - including Harborview developer and liquor license holder Richard Swirnow and general manager Bud Craven - asked the Baltimore Liquor Board Thursday to add a seafood restaurant and sushi bar aboard another barge to their existing liquor license. That license covers Tabrizi's Restaurant, Sorso Cafe and the Tiki Barge. After what chairman Stephan Fogleman desribed as a "vibrant discussion," the Liquor Board said it will have a decision on the expansion in two weeks.

The first step in stopping invasive species from hitching a ride into the Chesapeake Bay aboard cargo ships is determining how to make massive ballast tanks an inhospitable environment. Maryland scientists hope they will find the answer aboard a new $2.7 million floating laboratory that is able to test ballast-water treatment systems under real-time conditions. The 155-foot vessel is part of the research fleet operated by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

Two minutes and eight seconds. That's all the time it takes to cross the Potomac River at Whites Ferry. But you'd be missing half the fun if you focused on your watch instead of the scenery during the brief voyage on the barge Jubal Early II: There's so much happening all around.The diesel tug engine hmmms steadily as it propels the barge (named for a Confederate general) across the river from Virginia toward the Maryland ramp. On board, tourists and commuters stir in their cars and prepare to disembark.

Hale Intermodal Transport Co. announced yesterday that it would spend $8 million for four barges to be built at Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Sparrows Point shipyard -- the first new vessels to be made there since 1988.Although the company could have saved money by ordering the barges from cheaper shipyards in Mississippi or Louisiana, it wanted to give Bethlehem's Baltimore County complex a boost, said Hale Intermodal Chairman Edwin F. Hale."They were good enough to hire some of us right out of high school to allow us to make tuition payments," he said.

At 9:30 p.m. Monday, three digital clocks stationed on a couple of barges in the Inner Harbor will put into motion a fireworks show that will turn Baltimore's skies into a kaleidoscopic landscape of colors and shapes, from half-moons to jellyfish. It will take just two seconds for one of the 1,400 fireworks to zoom 800 feet into the sky and explode. But what often seems like an all-too-brief show takes about 20 hours to design, and five days (and four technicians) to set up. "Just one minute of the show takes an hour to design on the computer," said Victor Weinmann, lead technician for Pyrotecnico, the company handling the effects.

The Tiki Barge , the legally waterlogged Inner Harbor party barge, will stay afloat in July after all. The liquor board Thursday "formally reconsidered" its April 28 decision that would have suspended its liquor license for the month of July. The Tiki Barge has paid a $3,000 fine in lieu of a 14-day suspension under an agreement between the owners and some of its neighbors. The board had suspended its liquor license after saying patrons disturbed the peace and the bar's counsel gave misleading statements.