Terminal

Eight employees of the Baltimore Public Works Department were fired this week over allegations involving missing materials at a municipal work yard.City officials acknowledged yesterday that they terminated the workers, some of whom were supervisors, but would not discuss the reason. However, employees at the city's Park Terminal yard at 2231 N. Fulton Ave. said the department investigation began because of allegations of missing materials, including city equipment, bricks and wood.Public Works Director George G. Balog said yesterday that the workers were fired after an internal department investigation.

With guns bristling, police officers in full tactical gear sweep across the vast deck of a cargo ship and creep up the stairs to the bridge. Their mission: Take the vessel back from armed intruders. Twice a month, the Natural Resources Police Tactical Response Team practices its craft. Tuesday morning's exercise was aboard the USNS Gilliland, a 956-foot vessel operated by the Navy Military Sealift Command and tied up at the Clinton Street Marine Terminal. "Basically it's a high-rise lying on its side, but it's a lot more complicated," said Sgt. Mel Adam, the squad leader, of the vessel.

Columbia LNG Corp., the owner of the idle liquefied natural gas terminal at Cove Point in Calvert County, said yesterday that it has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to reactivate the facility.Columbia LNG, a subsidiary of Columbia Gas System Inc., plans to reopen the terminal, which has been dormant for nearly 13 years, in the fall of 1994 and to operate it as a storage and transportation facility for utilities and importers of liquefied natural gas."Columbia will not own any of the gas," said H. William Chaddock, senior vice president of Columbia Gas System Service Corp.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Port of Baltimore's six public terminals received an "excellent" security assessment from the Coast Guard. The annual review grades security operations at the Dundalk, Seagirt, North Locust Point, South Locust Point, Fairfield and Masonville terminals managed by the Maryland Port Administration. Captain of the Port Mark O'Malley said the continued excellent rating was due to continued training for security and law enforcement officers and upgrades in facilities, including better credentials for workers, a state-of-the-art entry system for trucks and tighter perimeter controls.

A Baltimore-Washington International Airport employee was stabbed in the chest late Saturday at the light rail platform near the airport's international pier and then chased by three assailants into the terminal, Maryland Transportation Authority police said yesterday. The 20-year-old victim was treated at St. Agnes HealthCare and released early yesterday, said Cpl. Gregory Prioleau, a spokesman for the MdTA police. He would not release the man's identity, saying only that he was from eastern Baltimore County.

This month marks a milestone in Baltimore-Washington International Airport's $1.8 billion expansion project, with the opening of the new terminal for Southwest Airlines. The bright and airy 350,000-square-foot A/B terminal, attached to the main terminal and connected by a new skywalk to the hourly parking garage, includes five gates, 62 ticketing positions, 11 security checkpoint lanes and five baggage carousels on the same level on which passengers will arrive. Jonathan Dean, director of communications for the Maryland Aviation Administration, said, "This will be one of the first terminals to open with a 9/11 mindset.

Federal officials have determined that a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point in eastern Baltimore County would have "mostly limited adverse environmental impact" if constructed and operated with certain measures in place, according to a report released yesterday. The final environmental impact statement, by the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, comes months after a preliminary report, which recommended conditional approval for the project proposed by the Virginia-based AES Corp.

Exxon Corp. and Chevron Corp. are considering closing their oil barge terminals in Salisbury on the Eastern Shore to increase efficiency.Such a move could put more oil tanker trucks on the road and present more of an environmental threat to the Eastern Shore, according to a water transport business group.Judy M. Carlson, administrator of Delmarva Water Transport Committee, said that for every barge that can carry 4,116 tons of oil, 147 28-ton tanker trucks would have to be used to carry in the oil. "You are actually compounding the environmental damage," she said.

With the city of Baltimore promising to provide as much as $8.8 million in road and utility work, the state approved a plan yesterday to purchase a site adjacent to the old AlliedSignal Inc. chrome works plant for a passenger cruise ship terminal.The state Board of Public Works approved an agreement to buy a 3.1-acre parcel for $3 million before August 1997, provided financing can be secured for the terminal's construction. The project is expected to cost between $40 million and $50 million, including the value of the city's infrastructure work, according to the Maryland Port Administration (MPA)

The Army Corps of Engineers said it will not issue a permit for a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point and a pipeline through Maryland to Pennsylvania until the project's developer has complied with federal wildlife regulations, prepared mitigation plans for wetlands that might be disturbed during construction and met other requests for information. The Corps is the second agency this month to question plans by Virginia-based AES Corp. to build the terminal and lay 88 miles of pipe to transport the gas. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to delay its vote on the project, scheduled for tomorrow, until concerns about habitats for the bog turtle and Indiana bat can be addressed.

Population increase is a natural sign of political health. By that measure, Baltimore has been sick a long time. Six straight decades of depopulation have reduced the city by a third. Seeking not only to halt this bad case of "the dreaded shrinks" but reverse it, the mayor has set the modest goal of increasing the city's population by 22,000 people in 10 years. The "experts" assert that immigration is the key to a population rebound. Today's demographers might do well to consult the granddaddy of demographic prognostication: the 18th century French political philosopher Montesquieu.

A Baltimore homicide detective went to court Tuesday to try to overturn an internal punishment in a case that saw him handcuffed and stripped of his badge and gun by a fellow officer as he investigated a kidnapping. The detective, Joshua Ellsworth, is the lead investigator in the killing of an 84-year-old woman in East Baltimore and appeared before television cameras Monday to drum up tips in the case. But he was nearly fired after getting into an argument three years ago with a patrol supervisor, Sgt. Jonathan Brickus, and now wants a judge to overturn the department's decision to suspend him for seven days.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake released this statement Friday: "It is with great disappointment that we announce the termination of the City's agreement with Baltimore Racing Development. Like many Baltimoreans, I hoped that BRD would restructure, recapitalize and begin to pay taxes and debts by the December 31 deadline. BRD's corporate officers and managers have failed to take the appropriate steps to put the company on a sustainable path forward. "The Grand Prix generated $47 million in economic impact and proved valuable in terms of positive media exposure and civic pride for Baltimore's residents.

City officials have terminated the contract of the troubled company that organized the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix and are seeking a new group to run the racing festival in the coming year, the mayor's office announced Friday. The city ended Baltimore Racing Development's five-year contract after the company failed to meet the terms of the agreement, officials said. The racing group owes the city more than $1.5 million in taxes and fees — a fraction of the company's $12 million in debts.

Beginning next week, AirTran will set up shop out of the Southwest Airlines Terminal A/B at BWI-Marshall Airport. The move is further evidence of the ongoing consolidation between the two airlines since Southwest acquired AirTran earlier this year. AirTran passengers are used to flying out of Concourse D, but as of Nov. 16, AirTran will operate from Terminal A/B for all flight activities, including ticketing, baggage check and flight operations. AirTran flights will depart from gates in Concourse B. Baggage claim will shift to carousel number 6, adjacent to Concourse B on the lower level.

I repeated a blooper in my recent column on the 100th anniversary of Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station that was caught by a sharp-eyed Roland Park resident and lawyer, John C. Murphy, who comes from a family of Baltimore architects. I had stated with the authority of numerous articles (some that appeared in this newspaper) that Kenneth Murchison, who had designed Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station, had been a member of the esteemed New York City architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White.

The Maryland Port Administration has taken the first step toward leasing the Seagirt Marine Terminal to a private company that would spend more than $100 million to expand the terminal and then run it. The agency has agreed to hire a Florida-based consulting firm to identify possible bidders willing to spend $100 million to $120 million to expand Seagirt's capacity and then manage the terminal under a long-term lease with the state. The money is needed to build berths with a depth of 50 feet to accommodate the larger container ships that are expected to dominate world commerce after the widening and deepening of the Panama Canal is completed in 2014.

Dolores B. Canoles, a longtime Canton neighborhood activist who joined the battle in the late 1960s that successfully defeated a proposed extension of Interstate 83 through East Baltimore and who later was a member of the city Liquor Board, died Aug. 3 of complications from dementia at Oak Crest Village retirement community. She was 84. In 1969, Baltimore City announced plans to complete the East-West Expressway, which would have created an eight-lane highway through Canton and Highlandtown, and would have linked up with Interstate 95 near Ponca Street.