Underground

BGE vice president Christopher Burton's recent letter about the challenges of installing power lines underground brought up some obvious objections raised by other power company executives based on cost ("There are drawbacks to underground power," Feb. 14). However none of them have mentioned the return on investment. The number of overtime hours paid to repair crews and the expense of bringing in crews from out of the area would diminish considerably. I am sure that Mr. Burton has access to employee timesheets and information about how much has been paid out to those out-of-area crews.

A developer has filed for a permit to demolish theMorris A. Mechanic Theatre, a decades-old venue that has sat unused for eight years in the heart of downtown Baltimore, and replace it with a $150 million-to-$200 million mixed-use development. OneWest LLC plans to build two 30-story towers containing 600 market-rate apartments, 150,000 square feet of retail space and an underground parking garage on the site at 1 NorthCharles St., the partnership said. "The market is ripe and the financing is available for apartments," said Howard S. Brown, a partner in OneWest and chairman and president of Owings Mills-based David S. Brown Enterprises Ltd., which is managing the development.

When St. John's College disclosed plans two years ago to turn Maryland's former Hall of Records into a library, preservationists were alarmed that extensive alterations might harm the Georgian Revival landmark.But at a groundbreaking ceremony this week for the $6.8 million project in Annapolis, the city's preservation watchdogs were full of praise.That's because the college and its lead designer, Travis Price Architects of Takoma Park, found an innovative way to expand the library and respect the historic building at the corner of College Avenue and St. John's Street.

Crews from the Baltimore City Fire Department and the Maryland Department of the Environment worked most of Wednesday morning responding to a 2,000-gallon fuel spill from a train in South Baltimore. Fire officials said the train's fuel tank ruptured about 9:30 a.m. on the tracks along Fort Armistead Road. The spill is confined to the track area and no injuries have occurred, though it has disrupted rail traffic in the area. Officials have yet to determine what caused the rupture.

AN OLD publication once called Baltimore the Liverpool of America, a reference to our harbor, shipping and industry. There are times, however, when I prefer to compare our city to Venice, because of all the water underfoot. I'm serious. This summer, we've seen an apparently sound chunk of Cathedral Street collapse. Another urban sink hole, suspiciously close to the Walters Art Museum. Some 35 years ago, when construction crews labored and labored to build its back addition (at the time, I thought the pyramids went up faster)

The body spotted Friday by a Verizon worker in an underground cable vault in North Baltimore's Mid-Govans neighborhood was that of a decomposed white female, and detectives are awaiting the results of an autopsy, according to police. The telephone cable splicer, Barry Schwaab, said he had been preparing to do routine maintenance on buried lines and was about to climb down into the vault through a manhole when he saw the body lying face-down in about 5 feet of water. The vault is on a wide alley off Benninghaus Road, just east of York Road.

The first year, it was held in a former funeral home. Its main venue last year was a vacant storefront that's now the Baltimore Tattoo Museum. This year, Baltimore's annual MicroCineFest is moving up -- to a Falls Road loft space known as the, ahem, G-Spot.MicroCineFest '99, a five-day celebration of nearly 100 low-budget underground films and videos from around the world, is right at home in such alternative spaces (though it opens and closes this year at the revamped Charles Theater).The short, subversive fare it serves up are among the last true "independent" films, flying far below the radar of bigger, more commercial festivals.

NEW YORK -- Lean, grizzled and grateful for life, Harvey Weinstein described yesterday his frightening passage from kidnapping crypt to freedom regained, lingering over a despairing plea that his kidnappers at least leave his dead body to be claimed by loved ones."

Baltimoreans gobble up stories about the older parts of town being crisscrossed by secret tunnels.I have heard people speak, with seeming absolute authority, of the presence of a network of passages in Seton Hill, all through West Baltimore and, if you can believe this one, under Herring Run.Some of these fanciful underground trails are said to have helped rum runners. Other stories claim these burrows were part of the Underground Railroad. If true, these ways must have been as busy as rush hour at the Fort McHenry Tunnel.

MOSCOW -- Sealed in a Day-Glo army-issue chemical weapons suit, Vadim Mikhailov enters a public park as nonchalantly and unhindered as if he were on a Sunday stroll.With a crowbar, he pops open a 75-pound manhole cover and drops into the dank, echoing depths of a dark tunnel for another day's work.Where Moscow's self-appointed lord of the underground emerges is likely to be a story on the evening news.Up from the sewers, utility tunnels and underground river beds, he has crashed parties through ventilation shafts at the chic Maxim's restaurant and Planet Hollywood.

Yesterday, we reported on the stabbing at the Occupy Baltimore encampment , which organizers condemned but critics of the protest say is another example of troubles the site has attracted. Police said the stabbing came after an argument over a cat, which begged a little elaboration. Early this morning a member of the movement, Elise Heroux, clarified the circumstances on their message board: "The true story is: the suspect was keeping a cat in her tent. She hadn't been there for a week, so the cat was left alone in the tent for that time.

As someone who endured a five-day power outage after Hurricane Irene, I am bemused by Bill Alcarese's letter blaming trees for the downed power lines ("As Irene demonstrated, trees have their disadvantages," Sept. 1). The problem is not with the trees but with the power lines, which should be buried underground. Every year, this country loses hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity due to downed power lines that shut down businesses and keep people from getting to work.

Guy J. Matricciani Sr., an underground utilities contractor and local philanthropist, died of pneumonia Thursday at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 96 and resided at the Blakehurst Retirement Community after living in Homeland for many years. He was the son of John and Lucy Matricciani. His father, who founded the John Mattricciani construction firm, immigrated from Italy in 1907 and lived in the same house on Exeter Street in Little Italy for the rest of his life. Father and son worked together in the business.

The All Rap Round Robin is far from the average microphone-too-low, DJ-too-loud, consistently tardy hip-hop show. Now entering its fifth year, the gathering of the city's on-the-fringe hip-hop acts will converge Friday night on Floristree. The event will showcase Baltimore's underground rap scene, which appears to be growing, given this year's expansion from nine acts to 12. The Round Robin, which was formed by longtime friends and rappers Dan "Height" Keech, Mickey Freeland and Bob Jones, is unusual because it lacks a headliner.

Harriet Tubman has long inspired a deep sense of pride among Marylanders, especially in the rural communities of the Eastern Shore, where the former slave was born and led dozens to freedom on the Underground Railroad. While her story is taught to schoolchildren across the country and a small storefront museum here pays homage to Tubman, descendants and historians have been waiting to see her memorialized in a grander fashion. The state announced Tuesday that it had secured enough money for a state park and visitor center bearing Tubman's name, cheering advocates for the long-planned project.

Human trafficking happens because prostitution is illegal ("House of ill-repute," July 29 ). Prostitution is illegal only because the majority of people don't like it. Making something a crime forces it underground which is what enables abuse to take place. What happens between two consenting adults should not be the business of anyone if no one is harmed. Wendel Dean Renner

WASHINGTON -- The Americans hiding in Kuwait called them "our baby sitters."Courageous members of the Kuwaiti underground supplied all their needs, say the former hostages, from rice to forged identity papers, from videos to Thanksgiving turkeys, from courier service to a Black Forest cake that brightened a bad November day.Members of the underground were a varied lot. Not all were Kuwaitis. Some had worked for the exiled emir's government. Some were educated in the West. Many were Shiite Moslems who have a score to settle with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein over the eight-year war he launched against Iran.