Paper Mill

IT'S MARCH, that trashy time of year. The snow banks have melted, and the wind is kicking up all the litter concealed for so much of this winter. But the weeds and brush haven't sprouted enough yet, or greened up enough to hide it all again. All this roadside rubbish drives me nuts. I can't figure out what thought process prompts people to heave an empty six-pack, or a bag of burger wrappers and french-fry cartons out the car window. But there it is. Tons of it. Look around you while you drive.

BLOOMINGTON -- This town knows death -- usually by trucks. Proof is found in 18 faded white crosses at the foot of Cemetery Hill, each marking the fatal crash of a truck whose brakes failed. But today, this tight-knit community on the border of Garrett and Allegany counties and West Virginia is burying Eddie Lee Rogers, a 15-year-old who died in an unexpected way last Sunday, when an out-of-control coal train smashed through his house just yards away from the tracks. "No one ever dreamed that the train would run off the track," says Alice Howard, Bloomington's historian and one of its oldest residents.

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.

As cities and states around the country launch long-overdue bridge repair and replacement projects, shortages of steel and skilled workers threaten to set these programs back.The shortages are causing temporary delays on bridge programs nationwide, including such local projects as the new O'Donnell Street overpass in Baltimore. But as billions in new federal highway money wash through the economy, those delays could persist, some in the industry say."Employees are our biggest asset and our biggest problem," said Jim Pue, a principal of Wilton Corp.

Call it bridge troubles over drinking water.Baltimore will pay $450,000 more than expected for redesigning the Paper Mill Road Bridge over Loch Raven Reservoir after the first design was rejected because of environmental concerns.The city showed the new 669-foot-long design at the city Board of Estimates meeting yesterday as questions surfaced over the doubling of the design price."It jumps out at you," Council President Lawrence A. Bell III said of the increase.The city originally agreed to pay civil engineers Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson of Sparks $451,128 to design the bridge that stretches over the northern tip of the reservoir in Baltimore County.

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."

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.

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.

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.