Expansion

Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend appointed a team of law enforcement officials yesterday to plan an expansion of Baltimore's 311 nonemergency telephone line to communities throughout Maryland.Baltimore launched the nation's first nonemergency number in October to avoid backlogs on the 911 emergency line that resulted in callers being put on hold. In the first seven months, calls to 911 have been reduced by 30 percent.Pub Date: 5/21/97

After more than a decade of foot dragging and idle procrastination, the NFL finally appears to be getting serious about the idea of expansion.Now the question no longer seems to be will the NFL expand, but when, and, more critically to Baltimore interests, where.When league owners convene in Hawaii next week for their annual spring meetings, they probably will correct the mistake of putting a Super Bowl in Arizona. They will reconsider the bad joke that instant replay has become. And they will engage in a conversation, however brief, about the blessings of adding two new teams.

Members of the Ward 1 Residents Association and the Historic Annapolis Foundation are trying to block city approval of a planned expansion of Maria's Restaurant at the City Dock.The expansion, which the city's Planning and Zoning Commission recommended for approval Thursday, will nearly double the restaurant's seating by adding 72 seats to the existing 80, assistant manager Charlie Priola said.Michael Langrehr, president of the residents association, said his group objects to the expansion because they fear the dock area may already have too many pubs and restaurants.

Despite much speculation that the National Football League will delay expansion because of the recession, a league spokesman said yesterday that its target date for expansion still is 1993.Joe Browne, the league's vice president of communications and development, said in a conference call outlining the agenda for the league's annual March meeting next week that there has been no official change in commissioner Paul Tagliabue's aim to get two teams on the field by 1993."We're talking about making the decision to go ahead or not to go ahead either this year or certainly early 1992 at the latest.

Baltimore's NFL hopes have gotten a boost from an unexpected source: a powerful bank chairman backing the rival football bid of Charlotte, N.C.Hugh McColl, chairman of the Charlotte-based NationsBank, said, "Baltimore has a lot of things going for it, like the success of Camden Yards."In a telephone interview last week, he said he sees it as a three-way race among Baltimore, Charlotte, N.C., and St. Louis, Mo. He said he thinks all three cities stand a good chance of getting football, either by expansion or team movement.

Despite a recession that has hit the hotel industry hard, the owners of the Sheraton International Hotel at Baltimore-Washington International Airport are pushing ahead with plans that will almost double the hotel's size.Creative Inns Inc. of Norfolk, Va., plans to add 152 suites to the 196-room hotel, said Earle K. Shawe, a Baltimore attorney representing Creative Inns. The suites will be designed for business travelers."We're going to give Maryland one of the finest airport hotels in America," said Mr. Shawe.

The Maryland Department of the Environment has given the county the go-ahead for an expansion and redesign of the last sections of the county landfill near Millersville.The state agency rejected two challenges from neighbors who said the landfill's troubled history indicated the county could not be trusted to run the property. The permit was issued Dec. 22.MDE did not remove the complaint and order under which the landfill has been operating for two years. The county still has to cap the old cells, excavate part of one trash cell and fix problems that have cause ground water contamination.

Two Carroll businesses won state recognition yesterday for their efforts to expand and add jobs. In a ceremony in Annapolis attended by county and municipal officials, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. honored Carroll County Foods and Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. "He spoke of the accomplishments of both companies and about the creation of jobs," said Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge, who attended the ceremony with her fellow commissioners. "Both of these companies are expanding and staying in Carroll County.

The Rouse Co. and Safeway Inc. recently agreed to expand the Safeway supermarket that anchors the Long Reach Village Center, the first step in what Rouse says could be the eventual upgrading of the struggling shopping center.The Safeway expansion -- and other plans for the 120,500-square-foot shopping center -- are in their early stages, said Cathy Lickteig, a spokeswoman for the Rouse subsidiary, Columbia Management Inc., that manages Columbia's village centers."At some point, the Safeway store will expand," said Ms. Lickteig, adding that Rouse also is considering other work at the Long Reach center, which opened in 1974.

Carroll officials are elated -- check that, happy -- that Marada Industries Inc. wants to expand its auto parts manufacturing operation in the Carroll County Air Business Park. The expansion will be smaller than officials had hoped for, and offers another example of why Carroll County must sustain a strong economic development effort.In preliminary discussions with the county beginning two years ago, Marada's executives indicated they were interested in possibly investing as much as $16 million in a larger plant and adding 250 jobs to its local payroll.