Sparrows Point

Speculation about WCI Steel's bankruptcy started circulating early in 2003. Owned by New York billionaire Ira Rennert and his family, the Warren, Ohio, steelmaker was missing payments to suppliers. A lousy economy and tough competition were bleeding the mill of cash, even as it cut costs by outsourcing functions once performed by plant personnel. "We have no intention of filing for federal bankruptcy protection," a mill spokesman told The Vindicator newspaper of Youngstown, Ohio.

The closing of the steel mill at Sparrows Point overwhelmed Bob Jennings. Too young to retire at 59, he faced a gloomy job market for local manufacturing workers and a bureaucracy that couldn't get him timely training help. He felt like a failure. No, no, his wife said, "the system is the failure," but she couldn't convince him. On a cold Saturday morning, he wrote her a short note of apology, walked to their shed and shot himself. Troy Pritt, 44, also worked at the Baltimore County mill.

When you're still being dragged along in the gnarly wake of the Great Recession, bristling with the splinters of the housing bust and other flotsam of the financial meltdown, it's hard to see much of a future, much less big ships on the horizon. But they are out there, or on their way - big ships, wider than ever, carrying cargo up the coast, up the Chesapeake to the Port of Baltimore. In a couple of years, a wider Panama Canal will open for business. The wider canal will mean larger ships - new megaships - making the run from Asia to the East Coast, instead of always stopping in Pacific ports.

The demise of steelmaking at Sparrows Point last year landed like a body blow on eastern Baltimore County. With 2,000 jobs and a 125-year-old legacy lost in the shutdown and subsequent liquidation of assets, the cost to families, to the local economy and to the very social fabric of a close-knit community was immense. Yet, nearly one year after RG Steel filed for bankruptcy, the outlook for the 3,300-acre property is significantly brighter. The potential for redevelopment could yield as many as 10,000 jobs within 10-15 years as new businesses - particularly those related to the Port of Baltimore - take the place of steelmaking.

To last another century, the Sparrows Point steel mill needs maybe $1 billion invested in new equipment or an act of God that moves Baltimore closer to Detroit and the manufacturing customers there. Which event is more likely to occur is debatable. Ira Rennert, whose Renco Group has agreed to buy Sparrows Point and two other mills owned by Severstal North America, does not have a reputation as a big spender. (On his companies. What he spends on himself is another matter entirely.

Regarding your report that Sparrows Point is again up for sale, due to past uses of the land there's not much that can be done with now. However, it could make an excellent site for a race track. With the Baltimore Grand Prix IndyCar race supposedly a success, maybe it is time to try finding interested parties to operate a track. Sparrows Point can never be turned into housing, but a huge track with bleachers would be perfect. There are many racing enthusiasts in Maryland and many actually race their own vehicles.

The United Steelworkers Local 9477 has dreamed up a number of fictitious reasons for the demise of the mill at Sparrows Point ("Union's account of steel mill's end," Dec. 18). They have refused to admit, and The Sun seems afraid to say, that the real reason there will no longer be a steel mill at Sparrows Point stems from the fact that no corporation in the U.S. can make money in that business because of high labor costs due to union demands. Why are our shoes no longer made in the United States?

A three-alarm fire tore through a church in the 4300 block of North Point Blvd. in Sparrows Point on Tuesday night, causing parts of the roof to collapse, according to a Baltimore County fire official. Responding to a 7:38 p.m. call reporting a fire at Pleasant Zion Baptist Church, fire crews found a shed and wooden pallets at the rear of the church engulfed in flames, said Lt. Jay Ringgold. The fire quickly spread to the roof of the church, and the crew requested a second alarm, Ringgold said.

The Sparrows Point steel mill will soon rumble back to life, according to its new owner, which on Thursday announced plans to restart primary operations at the plant this spring. Under the plan by the New York-based Renco Group, which is expected to close on an acquisition of Sparrows Point by the end of the month, 150 workers will return to work next week — bringing life back to a large portion of the hulking Baltimore County mill, which has sat idle, dark and quiet since July.

In Dan Rodricks ' otherwise intriguing discussion of the future of Sparrows Point ("Re-imagining Sparrows Point," Nov. 6) I found the total absence of any mention of environmental impact startling. I believe that we need to include environmental interests at the beginning so it is built into any development plan, not put on as a somewhat unwelcome afterthought. Natalie Dandekar

A new marine terminal could bring 9,000 jobs to the Sparrows Point peninsula, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said Friday as he laid out the county's vision for remaking the land around its closed steel mill. A terminal in the peninsula's Coke Point area could take 10 to 12 years to become a reality, he said, and plans depend on the Maryland Port Administration's negotiations with the land's private owners, among other factors. The area has complicated environmental problems, but county leaders say the peninsula offers an exceptional location and the infrastructure to attract new investment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Baltimore County fire officials say one person was injured in a flash fire on a locomotive in Sparrows Point. It happened about 4:40 p.m. Monday at the locomotive repair shop on the Severstal property at the Sparrows Point plant. Officials said the fire was caused by a leaky fuel system. The employee was burned on his arm and was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Severstal North America spokeswoman Bette Kovach said. Baltimore Sun reporter Joe Burris and the Associated Press contributed to this article.

Your recent stories last week about the closing of Sparrows Point and the Maryland Port Authority's purchase of new cranes from China were sad in many ways ("Gloom hangs over Sparrows Point mill," June 5). This state does not care about manufacturing, even though it could be the foundation of the region's economy. Maryland does little to encourage an industry that at one time helped this country lead the world. Instead, the state purchases $40 million worth of equipment from China, a country that really should give us the cranes, since they will be used primarily to unload cheap Chinese consumer goods and to load raw materials we are exporting to China.

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.

As one of the last 2,000 employees of the steel mill at Sparrows Point, I have been reading with interest The Sun's reporting of the steel plant's demise. Included in the last article was mention of a faded sign proclaiming "America - Strong as Steel" ("Sparrows Point auction brings hundreds to buy," Jan. 24). After the 9-11 tragedy, I was asked by my superintendent to paint a symbolic and patriotic sign. Before the sign was placed at the plant entrance, it was the backdrop for a steelworker's rally at our union hall and at the national "Stand Up for Steel" rally in Washington, D.C. Now, years later, the sign is again symbolic - of the destruction of steelmaking at Sparrows Point and 2,000 faded steelworkers.