Paper Mill

Four teen-agers were critically injured last night when their car ran off the shoulder of Paper Mill Road in northern Baltimore County and struck a tree.Two state police Medevac helicopters were needed to fly the boys, ages 16 and 17, to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. County fire officials said they were suffering from head and abdominal injuries and fractures, and one victim was being treated for a possible collapsed lung.Fire Department spokesman Glenn Blackwell said the youths' 1992 Honda was eastbound on Paper Mill Road, between Phoenix and Cooper roads,when the driver lost control at about 10: 25 p.m.The car ran off the right shoulder and struck a tree, Blackwell said.

NEW YORK -- For nearly 30 years, drivers on the Bronx side of the Triborough Bridge have gazed at the monuments of Manhattan, their view unimpeded by the abandoned rail yard on either side of them.But smack in the middle of that rail yard, the southernmost point of the South Bronx, construction is scheduled to begin this year on an audacious, first-of-its-kind building that promises to be a New York landmark.This new monument is a paper-recycling mill unlike any other.The lead developer is one of the nation's best known environmental-advocacy groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Wallace E. Dawes, 71, who operated the Paper Mill and later the Paper Source in downtown Los Angeles, died Sept. 3 in Los Angeles of Lou Gehrig's disease. Mr. Dawes, known as "Mr. Paper," became host of a PBS television program, "The World of Paper."Sam Locke, 81, whose writing career spanned the golden days of radio to Broadway stage and television sitcoms, died Sept. 18 in San Diego. Known for his classic radio scripts to programs such as "Grand Central Station" and "Inner Sanctum," Mr. Locke later wrote television episodes of "McHale's Navy," "The Lucy Show," "36-24-73," "Mooney the Monkey" and "All in the Family."

Environmental Elements Corp., the Baltimore-based supplier of industrial air pollution control devices, announced yesterday that it has received four contracts, totaling roughly $1.9 million.The work involves the repair or replacement of existing precipitators, which remove particles and other pollutants from the emissions generated during the manufacturing process."By retrofitting the latest state-of-the-art components into older but still operable structures, our customers can remain in compliance with EPA Clean Air Act laws," said E. H. Verdery, chairman and chief executive.

For more than 75 years, cars, trucks and wagons have rattled over the steel grates of the Paper Mill Road Bridge, ferrying commuters home and to work across the Loch Raven Reservoir.But in 19 months, the elegantly arched bridge -- one of the few of its kind in the country -- will fall silent, except perhaps for the soft tread of footsteps or the squeak of bicycle tires.Contractors for Baltimore have started work on a $11.4 million bridge that will carry the nearly 10,000 cars that drive on Paper Mill Road each day. When the 669-foot-long span is completed in February 2000, it will be wider and stronger than the old one and will have a pedestrian sidewalk.

THE TRAIL of commuters from northern Baltimore County into Harford County's sprawl often winds along Paper Mill Road, a nearly six-mile stretch of two-lane that at times becomes so clogged with traffic it's also known as a "roller coaster ride from hell."If you've ever taken Paper Mill, you certainly will remember its sharp bends, rusty, rustic, narrow bridge and traffic jams that sometimes make the drive a white-knuckle experience."For 18 years, I've been traveling this route," explained Scott B., a commuter from Forest Hill.

Jacksonville, on the edge of northern Baltimore County near Harford County, boasts a modern, upscale country life.Phoenix, named optimistically for the legendary symbol of rebirth and vitality, bears little resemblance to a once-thriving 18th century mill town of 400 people. The Phoenix post office was moved to Jacksonville in 1967, and with the use of the same ZIP code, Phoenix and Jacksonville seemed to merge.The Gunpowder River flowing through Phoenix powered a cotton mill that started up about 1820.

A PERILOUS situation confronts many who love the great outdoors near the tiny village of Ashland just north of Cockeysville.There, the Northern Central Railroad Trail winds through scenic woods and beckons many a bicyclist and hiker to wander along the 20-some-mile path through northern Baltimore County.But danger lurks among the robins and evergreens. As the trail crosses Paper Mill Road, traffic whizzing by at -- and above -- the posted 40-mph speed limit threatens to slam into the nature lovers ambling through.

SPRING GROVE, Pa. - Republicans in this gritty paper mill town feel about their likely presidential nominee much as they feel about the acrid pulp smell that hangs over Main Street and keeps visits from relatives to a minimum.They may not be crazy about it, but hey, they will tell you to a person, "It smells like money."Bob Dole, they say with similar resignation and pragmatism, may be a little shopworn and musty as a presidential candidate, but they see the 72-year-old senator as their only hope for, as the front-runner himself put it, the smell of victory.

Soon after two Cockeysville men were slain at Loch Raven Reservoir in June, police revealed tantalizing bits of evidence: a Monte Carlo seen in the area, a cap with a Donald Duck emblem found at the scene, some shell casings from an AK-47 assault rifle.More recently, Baltimore County police have received a tip about a man nicknamed Jade who had argued with one of the victims in the weeks before the killings. Thursday, detectives went to rural western Pennsylvania to look for him.But nine months after the slaying of Vernon A. Smith, 46, and Vincent B. Young, 26, detectives concede they are no closer to solving the case than they were on the warm June night the bodies were found floating in shallow water near the Warren Road bridge.

The O'Malley administration is proposing to pare back a bill aimed at reducing global-warming pollution after Maryland industries warned that the legislation could put them out of business. Instead of requiring a 90 percent cut in greenhouse gases statewide by 2050, an amended version of the bill would set this as a goal. "The Maryland Department of the Environment will institute the planning process to get to the 2050 goal ... but we want to clarify that the bill does not require a straight-out 90 percent reduction," Maryland Environment Secretary Shari Wilson told a hearing of two House of Delegates committees yesterday.

Dave Trembley grabs a cloth napkin from the table of an Inner Harbor restaurant and wipes away a tear streaming down his cheek. It's a busy lunch crowd, with waitresses buzzing about and patrons shouting small talk as the 55-year-old Trembley, unrecognized and undeterred, chokes back his emotions and tells his story. It would be much too simple to say that Trembley, a career minor league nomad, received his big break in June when he was named the Orioles interim manager. Or that his dream came true yesterday when club president Andy MacPhail announced that Trembley's contract had been extended through 2008, with a club option for 2009 - meaning he finally has a baseball home from one season to the next, this one in the majors.

Congested roads in growing Owings Mills and White Marsh are scheduled for widening in the next decade under a new long-range regional transportation plan, but relatively few other upgrades to roads maintained by the county have been proposed to handle projected increases in traffic in the next 30 years. Although the population of the county is expected to increase about 13 percent and the work force about 17 percent, the draft plan, "Transportation Outlook 2035," includes few county-managed road projects.

LUKE, Md. -- China is 7,000 miles away from this speck of a town in the mountains, half a world away. But as a looming economic threat, the country has never seemed so stiflingly close. The paper mill here that employs 950 is feeling the pressure of cheaper Chinese imports. On New Year's Eve, it shut down one of its three huge manufacturing machines and cut 130 jobs, touching off rumors across the tri-state region where employees live that it was only a matter of time before the plant closed.

MARYLAND Drowning raises questions The drowning of a Baltimore high school student on a West Virginia camping trip has many people, including his parents, looking for anwswers. pg 1a Behaving badly The Naval Academy has concluded that several midshipmen demonstrated poor behaviour on a Caribbean cruise that brought complaints from people who witnessed the incidents. pg 1b NATIONAL Pet food recall expands A massive national pet food recall involving wet, gravy-style products expanded yesterday to include its first dry food, as federal officials confirmed a contaminated wheat gluten shipment from China had gone to more than one manufacturer.

Faced with criticism from Jacksonville residents, Baltimore County officials said yesterday that they are scrapping plans for a school bus depot there. Officials had agreed to reconsider the project after many residents complained about the proposed location of the bus depot behind the senior center on Paper Mill Road. Residents had safety concerns about the buses entering and exiting the depot on one of the main commuter routes in the area. And in an area still contending with the effects of a 25,000-gallon fuel spill, residents were also worried about the potential for environmental damage from two aboveground fuel storage tanks planned for the depot.

NewPage Corp.'s paper mill, one of Allegany County's largest employers, will lose 130 jobs as part of the Dayton, Ohio-based company's efforts to cut costs and match production with market demand. The job cuts are the result of the permanent shutdown of the plant's No. 7 paper machine, which the company said last week would end production by March 31. NewPage said it will offer early retirement to hourly employees who are 62 or older next year, while some might be moved to other positions.

LUKE - This Appalachian mill town is clinging to life. The school, the barbershop and the general store are long gone. A main street has been permanently closed. Fewer than 80 residents, most of them elderly, remain, a shadow of the more than 1,000 who once lived in this far-west Maryland town. The giant paper mill here buys and razes their houses as they die, turning the cramped hillside streets into an eerie checkerboard. "There were houses all through down here, and they're all gone," said Mayor Joseph W. LaRue, 75, as he led a tour that felt more like an archaeological survey.

THE DEATH of a company town usually starts with the death of a company. But what happens when the town starts dying first? They know the answer in the tiny milltown of Luke in the lower left-hand corner of Western Maryland's Allegany County. Things get ugly. Greedy. Irresponsible. Selfish. That's what a lot of people are calling the 80 or so residents of Luke for holding onto their way of life. Most every other elected official from the area has denounced the town's elected mayor and council.

The bridges crossing Loch Raven Reservoir at Paper Mill Road are a study in contrasts -- one sleek and functional, the other, no longer used, so ornate that it looks like something out of a Grimm's fairy tale. Baltimore County officials have been trying to decide what to do with the latter bridge for the past three years. Now plans are being developed to make it accessible to hikers and bicyclists. "Around here, some people say it's almost as beautiful as the Brooklyn Bridge. ... It's in a beautiful part of the county, and it will give people a good place to go out to on a nice day, if only for a couple hours," said David Fidler, spokesman for the county Department of Public Works.