BUSINESS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun | March 13, 2013
Sparrows Point's landowner turned down a Maryland Port Administration offer to use part of the property for containing dredge material, but both sides said Wednesday that it's not the final word. "We're not really taking this at all as a closed-door situation," said port spokesman Richard Scher, who said the rejection came last week. "This is part of negotiating, and we recognize that. " Scher said the port has a meeting next week with Environmental Liability Transfer, which owns the land and some of the buildings on the former steel-mill property.
NEWS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun | March 2, 2013
Joshua Polanowski was one of the first to go. He drove south in his 15-year-old GMC pickup truck, leaving behind freezing cold and a forever-closed steel mill for a balmy winter and a choice of manufacturing jobs. Forrest and Lacey Martin followed with their two daughters and pair of cats. Goodbye, Maryland. Hello, Texas. The demise of Sparrows Point and its 2,000 jobs last year has forced many life-changing decisions. For a small but growing number of workers, that change is an out-of-state address.
BUSINESS
By Steve Kilar, The Baltimore Sun | February 18, 2013
The Steelworkers union local at Sparrows Point has been taken over by its parent organization, a standard practice when a steel mill closes. United Steelworkers Local 9477 was put into "administratorship" in January, according to Jim Strong, the Baltimore-area director for the USW International. Strong has been appointed to oversee the local while it winds down operations. "They've begun the dissolution process, basically," said Chris MacLarion, vice president of the local at Sparrows Point before it was taken over.
NEWS
By Steve Kilar, The Baltimore Sun | February 14, 2013
SKW Constructors plans to hire up to 100 people to construct concrete tubes and fans at the Sparrows Point Shipyard and Industrial park in Dundalk, according to Baltimore County economic development officials. Subcontractors are expected to hire additional people to work on the project, including carpenters, mechanics, surveyors and truck drivers, the county said. "This project is a huge boost in our efforts to bring new businesses and new jobs back to Sparrows Point," Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said in a statement.
NEWS
By Julie Scharper, The Baltimore Sun | February 11, 2013
When Eddie Bartee started working at the Sparrows Point steel mill in 1955, about 35,000 men toiled at the eastern Baltimore County plant. Over the next four decades, he made a comfortable life for his wife and their six children as he moved through the ranks at the mill. Now, with the plant closed and machinery being sold for scrap, Bartee and other steelworkers are teaming with University of Maryland Baltimore County students and professors to record their stories. The students are making a website and helping with a documentary to preserve the history of the plant.
BUSINESS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun | January 29, 2013
The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is suing the Renco Group — parent of bankrupt RG Steel — for allegedly attempting to "evade liability" for the steelmaker's pension obligations. The agency is seeking $97 million from the New York holding company, which created RG Steel in 2011 to buy the Sparrows Point steel mill and other facilities. RG Steel rapidly failed and sought bankruptcy protection last May. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York on Monday, alleges that Renco sold 24.5 percent of the steelmaker, of which it had been sole owner, in January 2012 with the "principal purpose" of avoiding pension liabilities.