Pulaski

Unable to persuade the City Council to lift Baltimore's ban on construction of trash-burning facilities, the owner of the Pulaski Incinerator has gone to court, seeking to have the law overturned.ad,1 In a suit filed against the city yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, the New Pulaski Co. Limited Partnership said the 1992 law imposing a five-year building moratorium is "arbitrary and unreasonable." The law also improperly usurps the state's authority to regulate incinerator construction, the suit argued.

The city has rejected a proposal by the operators of the Pulaski Incinerator to alter their contract for disposing of Baltimore's trash.The offer to amend the deal was turned aside because it would cost the city even more than its current agreement with the Pulaski Co., according to a letter written yesterday by Public Works Director George G. Balog.The department has decided "that it would be of no financial benefit to the city to accept your proposal," Balog wrote.Balog refused to comment on his letter, saying that the city was still in negotiations over the terms of the incinerator deal with Willard Hackerman, general partner of the Pulaski Co.While Balog refused to comment, a source said the city is considering several ways to get out of the Pulaski deal, which is draining the city's coffers at the rate of $14 million a year.

A deal hailed in 1981 by top city officials as an example of creative financing was scorned by Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke yesterday as an unfair contract that is draining the city budget.Under the deal, then-mayor William Donald Schaefer agreed to sell the city-owned Pulaski incinerator to developer Willard Hackerman for $41 million.The arrangement, which was roundly criticized as a sweetheart deal by others when it was approved by Mr. Schaefer, requires the city to pay 85 percent of the incinerator's operating costs through at least 1996.

The highway helps. If it weren't for that, Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski's name may have been buried in obscurity long ago. But the name of the Polish-born general has probably been uttered by everyone familiar with Pulaski Highway, making the rededication of his monument in Patterson Park yesterday notable - even for those who know little about the Revolutionary War and who are not part of the loyal Polish community that has recognized him...

One of two Pulaski Highway bars found guilty of violating Baltimore County liquor board rules on seminude dancing and ordered closed for a week was able to evade part of that punishment -- for a time.Shakers, at 7916 Pulaski Highway, was allowed to reopen Saturday night after attorneys for owner Norman F. Farris appealed the board's ruling and won a stay of the Feb. 10 order to close for seven days starting Feb. 11, said Assistant County Attorney Barry Butanis.Butanis said he submitted his own motion to Baltimore County circuit Judge John Grason Turnbull II this week that resulted in a negotiated agreement for the bar to complete the week of quiet time starting Sunday at noon.

At first glance, Pulaski Highway between Golden Ring Mall and the Baltimore line seems little more than a quiet, though uninviting, strip of female revue bars, motels and convenience stores."

The owner of the Pulaski incinerator wants to sell the plant to another firm that would build a $200 million trash-to-energy plant on the East Baltimore site.Willard Hackerman, general partner of the Pulaski Co., which owns the incinerator, outlined the proposal to City Council members at a closed meeting earlier this week.But the briefing did not seem to impress several City Council members."We told him to go to the community before he comes to any political body," said Councilman Perry Sfikas, D-1st.

The City Council gave preliminary approval last night to a bill that would prohibit the construction or expansion of incinerators for five years -- a measure that would effectively kill plans for a new waste-to-energy plant on the site of the troubled Pulaski Incinerator in East Baltimore.The council passed the incinerator measure after securing the support of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, who initially opposed the moratorium as being too restrictive.That concern was eased when the council amended the bill to allow the public works director to petition the council for permission to allow new incinerator construction if a trash-disposal "emergency" develops.

An armed holdup of a Northeast Baltimore check-cashing service ended yesterday with three arrests and no injuries after a three-hour standoff that shut down Pulaski Highway for most of the morning, city police said. One suspect was arrested after he ran out of American Cash Express in the 5900 block of Pulaski Highway. Officers said they pulled a second suspect from a ceiling where he had hidden. The third suspect surrendered after the standoff. The incident began about 8:30 a.m., police said, when three men accosted a female clerk as she opened for business.

A bank robber's bomb hoax closed a bank and briefly shut down a major roadway in Baltimore County yesterday, police said.A man carrying two bags entered the First Mariner Bank in the 8200 block of Pulaski Highway just after 2 p.m. yesterday, according to police, and handed a teller a note demanding money. The note also implied he had a bomb, said county police spokeswoman Cpl. Vickie Warehime.The teller handed over an undisclosed sum, and the man left the bank but dropped one of his bags as he went, Warehime said.