Lumber

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CitySouthern DistrictBurglary: A fax machine and a computer printer, all valued at nearly $5,000, were stolen from Waste Management Inc. in the 1400 block of W. Hamburg St. between Friday and Sunday.Eastern DistrictRobbery: A man wearing a blue cap with a red letter "B" on the front robbed a woman, 50, about 6 p.m. Sunday in the 1200 block of E. North Ave.Robbery: A man armed with a knife robbed a woman, 48, of her purse containing less than a dollar and a set of keys about 3 p.m. Sunday in the 1700 block of Aisquith St.Robbery: A man known as "Stinky" is accused of knocking a woman, 34, to the ground during an argument and robbing her of $10 about 1 p.m. Sunday in the 2800 block of E. Madison St. He was being sought by police.

A large tent and lumber that former Carroll Sheriff John H. Brown purchased to build outdoor housing for inmates at the county detention center has been earmarked for donation, Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning announced yesterday.Complaining that the county jail, which was designed for 144 prisoners, was too crowded when inmate population exceeded 190, Brown vowed in November 1997 to set up a tent in the jail's fenced yard and form a posse of unarmed civilian volunteers to help stand guard.Brown's project ran into trouble when a wooden platform was constructed without proper building permits.

The owners of Westminster's Schaeffer Lumber Co. locked the doors yesterday morning and flipped over the "Closed" sign -- spelling the end of the 52-year-old business.The building-supply company at Liberty and Green streets fell victim to unpaid bills by about half a dozen contractors, said Ken Furman, Schaeffer's vice president. As a result, the company was unable to buy materials despite continued demand."We've closed our doors. It's official," he said.Furman spoke as he fielded telephone calls -- confirming the business had closed and making arrangements with customers to pick up materials.

After more than a century, People's Lumber Co., the business that literally paved the first road in Mount Airy, is closing its doors.Originally known as the Moxley Straw Co. when H. B. Moxley opened in 1889, the family-owned business has changed frequently over the years, becoming a hardware and lumber store. Now, the business is being converted to an antiques mall.In 1916, Ira Watkins, Moxley's nephew, bought the business with help from his father, and the hardware store was known as Thomas E. Watkins and Sons.

EVERY NOW and then a subject just clicks with readers, and this time it's decks. We wrote recently about building a deck, and many readers have responded with questions and anecdotes about deck experiences.Someone inquired about appropriate treatments for finishing redwood or cedar decks. We checked with our paint and stain consultant, Larry Horton, vice president and general manager of Budeke Paints of Baltimore Inc., for the answer.Horton assumed that our reader wanted a transparent finish, so that the redwood or cedar grain would show through.

PUTTING TOGETHER the structure of a deck is a little like doing the proverbial jigsaw puzzle -- except, in the case of the deck, you have to cut out all the pieces yourself. This is the stage, however, when the deck begins to take shape, and all your hard work with the ledger (which fastens the deck to the house) and the main beam (which supports the far edge of the deck) will be rewarded.When you're planning your deck, adhere to the standard lengths of lumber -- that is, the depth of the deck surface should be some regular measure such as 8, 10, 12, 14 or 16 feet.

YOUR DECK should be coming along nicely now, with the structure in place. You've even seen the neighbor's cat picking its way along the joists. Now it's time to install the decking, so people can walk on it, too.You can use any 2-inch lumber (actually 1 1/2 inches thick) for the decking. Most people use 2-by-6s, as anything wider would tend to cup, and anything narrower would take forever to install. You can, however, use a form of decking called "five-quarter," with boards that are 1 1/4 inches thick and have rounded edges less prone to splintering.

A Pep Boys supercenter is coming to Harford Road with a plan to tear down the quaint Bond Lumber Co. building there, despite a struggle by some neighbors to save the building.With city permits in hand, a company spokesman said groundbreaking is set for Monday. He said the auto service and parts store will occupy 18,200 square feet and is to open in January as one of five Pep Boys stores in Baltimore.Legal appeals to halt construction led by local resident Richard Dowd, a 32-year-old graphic designer, have been unsuccessful.

BALTIMORE venues that host entertainment touring shows have a long and star-studded history, dating to at least 1871.Theater has enriched our culture, created jobs and attracted tourists. But today, some of the most popular Broadway shows are designed with a level of technological sophistication that challenges facilities built decades ago. For example, the critically acclaimed Broadway musical ''Miss Saigon'' could not play here.On the theater front, the plot has thickened. We need to take a look at the next act. But to know where you're going, you must know where you've been.

William R. Mace Jr., 73, lumber company executiveWilliam R. Mace Jr., a retired lumber company executive, died Oct. 23 of lung cancer at St. Joseph Medical Center. The longtime Towson resident was 73.He had been owner and president of Mace Lumber Co., which was founded by his father at the turn of the century. The business, on North Fremont Avenue in Baltimore, was destroyed by fire during the 1979 blizzard. In 1980, he joined Essex Lumber Co. as a sales executive and retired in 1988.He was born and raised in Stoneleigh and was a 1940 graduate of Towson High School.

The corporation that just opened the $65 million, 202-room Hotel Monaco inside Baltimore's historic B&O Building is in danger of losing the property at a public auction next month for not paying a Millersville lumber supplier $184,000 for doors, wood trim and other materials used in the project. A Baltimore circuit judge issued a final order this month establishing a mechanic's lien and directing the sale to move forward on the premises unless the building owner pays the J.F. Johnson Lumber Co. $184,000 plus interest and attorneys' fees by Aug. 31. Johnson had sued Baltimore and Charles Associates LLC, owner of the building at 2 N. Charles St., and general contractor James M. Jost & Co. of Columbia, claiming it is owed more than $230,000 for lumber products used in the construction.

PBA Tour 1 p.m. [ESPN] If you can't make it over to Country Club Lanes, the Lumber Liquidators Shark Championship finals come rolling across your screen. Call one of your friends who is at the lanes and get him to wave to you from the crowd.

The governor wants the wife fired. And now Lou Grasmick has another headache that threatens the family finances. Politics, once again, plays a part. But the new trouble also turns on Brazilian rainfall, a weak U.S. dollar, and a hardwood called ipe, which sounds like "e-pay," but in this case, the money's not on the way. Ocean City, N.J., canceled a $1.1 million contract with Louis J. Grasmick Lumber last week because the company missed a deadline to deliver wood to rebuild a block of boardwalk.

Malcolm Edward Henry, former owner of an Anne Arundel County lumber company and a World War II combat pilot, died Tuesday of Alzheimer's disease at Copper Ridge nursing home in Sykesville. He was 85 and a former longtime Ellicott City resident. Mr. Henry was born and raised in South Portland, Maine, and after graduating from high school in 1940 enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was commissioned a second lieutenant after graduating from the advanced flying school at Craig Field, Ala., in 1943.

Weyerhaeuser Co. Shares gained $5.51 to $73.85. North America's largest lumber producer may exceed $100 a share if it converts to a real estate investment trust and sells assets such as its recycling operations, Barron's said.

This week, as the glaciers deposited in the backyard by the St. Valentine's Day storm began to recede, I got itchy to grow something. The soil was not quite frozen, not quite thawed. The sun was stronger than it had been during the dim days of February, but it was still far from welcoming. Then there was the wind, raw and biting, great for lifting up kites and knocking down cyclists. March was teasing. Yesterday, the weather seemed to invite me to scratch the ground, to believe that the grip of winter has loosened.

$5,000 reward is offered in Elkridge firebombing An Elkridge pizza shop owner and the Howard County Police Department are offering a $5,000 reward for information in a firebombing last month at the restaurant. On Sept. 19, a surveillance camera recorded the smashing of the front glass door of Philly's Best Pizza & Subs in the 6500 block of Huntshire Drive and caught a male throwing a firebomb into the restaurant. Damage to the shop was estimated at $5,000. A similar incident occurred at the restaurant in March 2004, when a firebomb was thrown into the restaurant and caused more than $300,000 in damage.

Hurricane Katrina's destruction is putting more pressure on the already heated housing market - even in the Baltimore area, a thousand miles away. Market prices nationwide increased 5 percent to 10 percent for lumber and 20 percent to 25 percent for plywood and oriented strand board between Wednesday and yesterday, said Mark Hunt, who manages three local building-material facilities for Builders FirstSource. He attributes the unusually large increase to panic as much as anything else. Lumber and its related products total about a quarter of the cost of home construction.

Guy F. F. Garman, president and owner of a family-owned Baltimore lumber company, died Sunday of a duodenal ulcer at Franklin Square Hospital Center. The longtime Ruxton resident was 82. Mr. Garman was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton. He was a 1940 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, a member of the school's champion ice hockey team and had played varsity lacrosse and baseball. He began his college studies at Cornell University and transferred to the Johns Hopkins University, where he played lacrosse.

Mark E. Campion, a lumber mill foreman who had leading roles in community theater productions and appeared in television commercials, died of surgical complications related to cancer Nov. 11 at University of Maryland Medical Center. The Govans resident was 58. Born in Baltimore and raised in the Westgate area of Baltimore County, he was a 1964 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School. After serving in the Army, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1976 from what is now Towson University. As a 15-year-old, he began working part time for Walbrook Mill and Lumber Co. on West North Avenue.