General Services

Two bomb threats triggered the evacuation of 6,000 state employees in four Baltimore state office buildings yesterday, but no explosive devices were found, authorities said.Police were investigating the anonymous threats, which were phoned in early yesterday to the Maryland Department of General Services, in a building it shares with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene at 201 W. Preston St., and later to the Department of Human Resources, 311 W. Saratoga St.As a precaution, officials emptied those buildings and state-owned complexes at 300 and 301 W. Preston.

The silver has been packed away and the scaffolding is in place for the most extensive renovation of the Maryland State House in 50 years - a $5 million effort to renew the 18th-century landmark while keeping it running as a tourist site and busy workplace.Until September 2000, contractors will upgrade nearly every facet of the nation's oldest capitol still in use as a hub of state government.Renovations to the 210-year-old white dome, one of Maryland's most enduring symbols, have begun. Windows are being taken out so that chipping lead paint can be removed and broken panes replaced.

Due to incorrect information from the Baltimore City Police Department, an article Saturday misidentified the agency of an officer who helped city police arrest a suspected bank robber. The officer works for the Department of General Services, which is responsible for patrolling state property.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 2/11/97

The discovery of human remains, probably 19th-century settlers, at a building site in Sykesville has moved construction to another area of the state driver training facility.The state Department of General Services, contractor of the $46 million public safety training center, has called for an archaeological investigation, cordoned off the area and moved construction to another location on the 70-acre site."Ultimately, the gravesite would be part of the [training course], but we are working around it now," said Raymond A. Franklin, assistant director for the state police and correctional training commissions.

Just when the state found four potential buyers for a vacant property in Marriottsville, sale of the property was delayed recently after officials discovered three landfills on the site.A year ago, the state said it no longer needed the Henryton Center in the southeast corner of Carroll County and placed it on the market."We have four offers that we are evaluating," said Dave Humphrey, spokesman for the state Department of General Services. "In the course of the evaluation, we discovered the landfills, and we are investigating for the potential of environmental problems."

A senior Baltimore building inspector who was suspended two months ago after disclosures of his unusually close ties to contractors he regulates is back on the payroll.Leon A. Peters was suspended March 18 after The Sun reported that while on city time, he helped a contractor win a $125,662 state job, had worked for another contractor whom he regulates, had been given cash "tips" by at least two contractors for expediting permits and inspections, and had issued permits to contractors who employ his son.After the disclosures, the city state's attorney opened an investigation and housing chief Daniel P. Henson III pledged that "individuals who abuse the public's trust must be identified and dealt with swiftly."

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works director says he will lay off nine midlevel managers, including longtime deputy director and Planning Commission representative George Winfield.George G. Balog, the department's director, said that half the positions will be eliminated this month, and the remainder will be gone by the end of July, saving about $678,000 in salaries and benefits. The department employs about 6,000 people."We are reorganizing and centralizing and thereby you need fewer supervisors," Mr. Balog said.

A black skull-and-crossbones flew majestically from the top of the State House dome yesterday, leading Annapolis folks to wonder who stopped by overnight."

Howard County government officials are moving to dissolve one department and create a new one a proposal that caused a few sparks during last night's County Council meeting."

Rivals of Bell Atlantic Corp. in the increasingly competitive telephone industry are steamed over a decision by the Glendening administration to award the state's dominant carrier a three-year, $10 million contract for telecommunications services without putting it out for bids.After the Board of Public Works voted Wednesday to approve the contract, the governor's office issued a news release saying that the new contract would cut $2.2 million from the state's expenditure for telephone services.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and dozens of others who work out of the nation's oldest operating capitol will begin moving back into the Maryland State House early next week, as a more than $10 million renovation project to the stately building ends in the days before the legislature convenes for its 426th session. "I never thought we'd move back," O'Malley joked, brandishing an oversized golden key given to him by the Department of General Services at yesterday's Board of Public Works meeting.

Baltimore city Question A: Creation of Department of General Services "To establish a Department of General Services, providing for the powers and duties of the Department of General Services, transferring certain powers and duties from the Department of Public Works to the Department of General Services, and requiring that obstructions in the public street to the work of the Department of Transportation or the Department of General Services must be...

A former state employee filed suit against Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration yesterday, alleging that he was fired as part of a purge of white Republicans from the Department of General Services in favor of black Democrats. Nelson Reichart, a 29-year state employee who was elevated to the head of the department's real estate division by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., was fired June 29, the day after he was quoted in The Sun discussing a Queen Anne's County land deal. He contends in his suit that the quote hastened his firing but that his termination was part of a pattern in the department.

An employee of the William Donald Schaefer Tower downtown was stricken with Legionnaires' disease, and several others with respiratory illnesses are being examined, but state officials were cautioning yesterday that they don't believe the building is contaminated. "Right now, what we have is one case," Gov. Martin O'Malley told reporters yesterday at a news conference inside the building. "If there were a second case in this building, that would tell us we have to go into a much deeper level of forensic examination."

After more than two years of waiting, construction along one of the major thoroughfares into Annapolis is set to wrap up next week in time to welcome back the General Assembly, but frustration from local merchants is tempering any fanfare. Bladen Street, closed for more than 2 1/2 years, opened its northbound lanes last week, and southbound traffic can pass through starting Wednesday. By that same day - the start of the annual General Assembly session - the $20 million Calvert Street Parking Garage at Calvert and Bladen streets will be open to state workers.

A Christmas tree sprouts up in the lobby of a government building, and, instead of holiday spirits, it raises one of the thorniest issues in American civic life. Not the church-state thing. This time, it's Ravens versus Steelers. In the state office building at 1100 N. Eutaw St. in Baltimore, workers decked a tree with silver, red and green balls. But standard Christmas colors don't cut it in Ravenstown. Somebody added a purple ball with the Ravens logo. No problem until last week, when the guy who oversees the building - a Pittsburgh native and (surprise, surprise)

The Ehrlich administration is moving ahead with plans to move the Maryland Department of Planning from its longtime state-owned offices in Baltimore to rented space in Prince George's County, despite being denied funding for the nearly $2 million relocation by the General Assembly. The Department of General Services has prepared a lease agreement effective July 1, 2007, for the planning agency to occupy new quarters in Largo, according to an internal document obtained by The Sun. The department "has been requested" to present the lease to the Board of Public Works for approval, says the document, which is dated Aug. 1. Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said the administration is committed to the relocation to fulfill a four-year-old pledge.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. appointed R. Stevens Cassard Jr. as secretary of the state Department of General Services yesterday, replacing Boyd K. Rutherford, who was named to a position in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cassard, 48, had most recently been deputy secretary. Also yesterday, Ehrlich named B. Diane Wilson deputy secretary, filling Cassard's previous position. Wilson had been assistant secretary for facilities operations and maintenance, and previously had been a facilities manager with the University of Maryland Medical System.

Legislators should have the power to block the sale of state parkland, leading senators said yesterday, despite concerns from agency officials that such interference would hamstring their ability to conduct routine property management. "If we add another layer of review, it's going to be to the point of lockdown. We are not going to be able to function," said Eugene A. Piotrowski, director of resource planning for the state Department of Natural Resources, at a joint hearing of Senate budget and environmental committees on land preservation legislation.

A state audit made public yesterday found indications that state workers had created and sold phony Maryland government identification cards and misappropriated related cash collections in the Department of General Services. The legislative audit said DGS had failed to take "appropriate action" to correct significant problems with the security cards and that the department and the Maryland State Agency for Surplus Property had shoddy accountability and control over cash collections. The Department of Legislative Services publicized the fake ID scam after state auditors examined DGS records from September 2000 to November of last year.