Sparrows Point

- Dunbar made its first ever trip to the state Class 1A volleyball tournament at Ritchie Coliseum last night. Unfortunately for the Poets, the trip was not a fruitful one. Dunbar gave Perryville (13-6) all it could handle in two of three games, but fell to the Panthers 25-21, 25-7, 25-22. Tara Holland led Dunbar with six digs and three kills. Perryville was led by Morgan Tennant with 22 assists. The Panthers will play Smithsburg, a 3-0 winner in the other semifinal, on Friday at 6 p.m. for the Class 1A state title.

Sparrows Point's first trip to the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association field hockey state semifinals was a memorable one, but unfortunately for the Pointers it wasn't a winning one. Crisfield won the game 2-0 Monday night at Broadneck, but Sparrows Point had a season to remember. . The Pointers won their Baltimore County division for the second straight year, beat county rival Loch Raven for the first time and won their first 1A South Regional Championship.

The United Steelworkers called a request by RG Steel to pay 21 of its remaining employees $767,000 in bonuses and health-insurance stipends "an inappropriate, unfair and outrageous effort. " The complaint, sent to members of the union Friday, came a day after the former steelmaker asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., for approval of the plan. RG Steel owned several steel mills, including Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, before auctioning off its property this summer for pennies on the dollar.

The number of manufacturing jobs in Maryland seems to go in only one direction - down. The state lost 21,000 positions in the past five years. More than 40,000 in the past decade. Nearly 70,000 in the past two decades. But advocates think employment decline - driven by technology, consolidation, closures and offshoring - isn't inevitable. The nonprofit Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland is trying to organize employers and local officials to get the sector growing again. First step: reminding local officials that manufacturing, which employs 111,000 in the state directly and more indirectly, is not dead.

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 Maryland Food Bank said it handed out food Wednesday to hundreds of families affected by the mass layoffs at Sparrows Point. About 2,000 workers lost their jobs after RG Steel filed for bankruptcy in late May and idled the Baltimore County steel mill. The property since has been sold to owners who are trying to find a steelmaker to restart operations but will liquidate the mill and redevelop it if they can't. The food bank, which also handed out food on Tuesday to laid-off steelworkers and others buffeted by the shutdown, said it expected to distribute more than 60,000 pounds to more than 1,700 people between the two days.

Sparrows Point's new owners are setting a three-month deadline for interested parties to bid on the idled steel mill complex — in whole or in pieces. That's slightly longer than the 10 weeks the Baltimore County property was marketed during its previous owner's bankruptcy case. Environmental Liability Transfer, a St. Louis redevelopment company, and liquidation firm Hilco Trading won the bidding in August and closed on the $72.5 million deal earlier this month. Now the complex is for sale again — a turning-point moment that will determine whether steelmaking is part of the site's future or just its past.

The massive Sparrows Point complex changed ownership Friday for the fifth time in less than a decade, potentially its last sale as a steel mill. The new owners, redevelopment firm Environmental Liability Transfer and liquidator Hilco Trading, paid $72.5 million for property that sold for $810 million just four years ago. About 2,000 people worked at the mill before seller RG Steel idled it after filing for bankruptcy in late May, and they were...

RG Steel is asking for U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval for a settlement with Maryland that lowers its Sparrows Point property assessment, reducing its Baltimore County bill for the past three tax years. The steel mill owner calculated in a court filing that its tax bill would fall about $830,000 for the 2011 tax year. It didn't note the effect for previous years. RG Steel said it won a $34 million reduction on the property's 2009 assessed value - to just under $204 million - in Maryland Tax Court in August.

Debbie Hurd sees it in the parking lots along North Point Boulevard — the answer to what life would be like if the steel mill that fueled the tight-knit communities near Sparrows Point never reopens. Fewer cars. Fewer customers for businesses. She gestured in her family's empty bar, Pop's Tavern, and said the days of steelworkers lined up for a drink are long gone. "Everything I see on this boulevard is really, really hurting," Hurd said. "I've told some of my employees, 'Don't get mad at me if I have to let you go.' " No big employer goes down without setting off ripples in the local economy.