Middle River

Martin Marietta Corp. is scheduled today to announce an aerospace contract that is expected to secure the future of its Middle River complex and the jobs of its 1,400 employees.The company said yesterday that Norman R. Augustine, chairman and chief executive of Bethesda-based Martin Marietta, along with Gov. William Donald Schaefer and other federal, state and county officials, would make "a major program announcement" at the Baltimore County complex this morning, although it declined to disclose details.

An 8-year-old Middle River boy was critically injured last night when he tried to cross Eastern Boulevard in rush hour traffic and was struck by a van.James Dietz of the first block of Byway South was listed in critical condition at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.The accident occurred at 5: 12 p.m. in the 1700 block of Eastern Blvd. As traffic stopped in the slow lane, police said, the child walked into the fast lane and was hit by a van driven by Warren Fluck, 33, of the 3100 block of Sollers Point Road in Dundalk.

A Baltimore County firefighter was injured and at least on family displaced early today when a fire raced through an apartment house in the 500 block of Langley Road in Middle River.Reported about 3:40 a.m., the fire began in one apartment and spread to five other apartments. Authorities said five of the apartments were vacant.More than a dozen pieces of fire apparatus from fire companies at Essex, Middleborough, Middle River, and Hyde Park battled the fire before it was declared under control about 4:45 a.m.Water was sprayed on nearby dwellings when embers from the fire landed on their roofs.

A 25-year-old Middle River man was charged with attempted murder after his girlfriend's boss was stabbed repeatedly as he walked her to her car in Severn early yesterday, Anne Arundel County police said. Officers responded about 6 a.m. to the 2100 block of Piney Branch Circle in the Arundel Preserve community in Hanover, where a man had been walking a female employee from his townhouse to her car when he was struck with a crowbar and stabbed several times, police said. The assailant ran to a vehicle and fled.

To the cheers of 1,400 workers at its Middle River plant, Martin Marietta Corp. yesterday announced an agreement on a major new contract that safeguards their jobs by generating up to 20 years of new work.Standing in a semi-circle around a makeshift stage, workers broke into applause when Norman R. Augustine, Martin Marietta's chairman and chief executive, told them the company had won a contract to be the sole source supplier of thrust reversers for a line of General Electric Corp. aircraft engines.

Workers at Martin Marietta Corp.'s Middle River complex got some good news yesterday in the form of a new Navy contract, but the word on the West Coast was less welcome, as about 400 jobs in San Diego will be eliminated as the company consolidates its rocket production operations.The company's Aero and Naval Systems division in Baltimore County was awarded a $41.25 million Navy contract to provide design and engineering services related to the production of a rocket-launching system used on ships.

A 6-year-old boy apparently fell down an embankment and drowned in a tributary of Middle River near his home yesterday afternoon, Baltimore County police said.Police said Shawn Michael Williams, of the 2200 block of Redthorn Road in the Hawthorne section, was found floating face down in 18 inches of water in Dark Head Creek.It was believed that he fell into the creek from an embankment where he had been playing 10 feet above the water.The boy was pronounced dead at Franklin Square Hospital shortly after 8 p.m.The boy's mother told police he had left home about 4 p.m. to play in nearby Kingston Park and was to have returned around 5 p.m.Several neighbors and friends were unable to find the boy, and his mother called police about 7:25 p.m.A short time later, an Essex District officer saw the body floating in the creek, about four blocks from the child's home and about a half-mile from the Martin State Airport.

A man shot to death in East Baltimore's Oliver neighborhood late Monday was identified yesterday as a 19-year-old from Baltimore County, city police said. Glenard Byrd Jr. of the first block of Ambo Circle in Middle River, was found about 10:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of N. Bond St. suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, said Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Harris said.

An autopsy on a man buried two months ago led police to bring murder charges against a Middle River father and son yesterday.LTC Gary Lee Fischer Sr., 44, and Gary Lee Fischer Jr., 19, both of the 13000 block of Twin River Beach Road, were charged with first-degree murder, said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey.The victim, Allen Eugene Ellis, 33, of the 10000 block of Philadelphia Road, was found unconscious Aug. 20 near a Pulaski Highway bar where he had been drinking, according to police documents.

Two local entrepreneurs have been quietly trying to gather support for a 75,000-seat Middle River speedway that could handle NASCAR-sanctioned races.But, so far, the proposal hasn't met with much enthusiasm from Baltimore County officials. And it faces several major hurdles, such as extending Route 43 and amending county zoning regulations.The site that Edward H. Berge Jr. and Christopher Stuart are considering is a 1,000-acre tract known as the A. V. Williams property.The plan, Mr. Berge said, would be to build a 2-mile track with a grandstand that also would house a small convention center.