Value City

Value City of Glen Burnie, the American Cancer Society and Phi Beta Sigma will sponsor a Cancer Awareness Day observance from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The Cancer Awareness Day event is part of the American Cancer Society's collaboration with the fraternity's national project, Sigma's Waging War Against Cancer. The event is open to the public. Value City is at 7700 Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie. Information: Phi Beta Sigma, 410-669-8683; or Value City, 410- 553-6500. People Honored: Donald Smith of Glen Burnie was honored by the Maryland Transportation Authority for his outstanding job performance last year.

A Baltimore group wants to put civic pride in your wallet. The Baltimore Green Currency Association, a nonprofit that aims to help small restaurants and mom-and-pop retailers fend off the big chains, is trying to build an alternative economy — mostly in Hampden. To do so, the group plans to issue a local currency called BNotes. Update: The BNote is now in circulation. Customers wanting to buy local could use the currency at more than 25 businesses. And they would get a built-in discount because $10 would get you 11 BNotes, which could be exchanged dollar-for-BNote at designated merchants.

A Value City department store official denied yesterday that his store videotapes customers in dressing rooms, although a federal lawsuit claims that store security guards told a woman they had secretly taped her before accusing her of stealing an $8 belt."

I was walking along Maryland Avenue the other day and scarcely ever could have envisioned a Walmart there, in my own neighborhood. I thought of a little stone chapel that sat once on the corner and considered the streetcar barn that morphed into Anderson Automotive. Even Anderson's once-premier offering, the Oldsmobile, is on the obsolete list. Now the automotive dealer is leaving the corner, and we are promised a Lowe's and a Walmart. It really should not be a surprise.

Partial demolition of Harundale Mall in Glen Burnie is tentatively set to begin next month, with groundbreaking for renovations in the summer, a Manekin Corp. spokesman said yesterday.Cole Schnorf, senior vice president and regional development director of the Columbia-based company, said Manekin officially acquired the mall Dec. 30 and is waiting for the county to approve a permit before starting demolition."We would have liked to have been a little further along," Schnorf said. "Originally, we thought we were going to close in November."

Burton S. Carter Jr., 50, Value City store manager Burton S. Carter Jr., manager of Value City's Eastpoint Mall store since 1996, died Sunday of undetermined causes at Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, Pa. The Rising Sun resident was 50. A Baltimore native, Mr. Carter was raised in the city's Hamilton section. He graduated from Northern High School and attended the University of Baltimore. He had previously managed the Montgomery Ward store in Golden Ring Mall and Circuit City's Bel Air store.

Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s recent decision to slash prices on apparel and durable goods and offer zero-percent financing on home electronics and furniture could touch off an even hotter pricing war among area retailers, who already are battling for the cautious consumer's dollar this holiday season.The nation's largest retailer said Friday that it was launching a pre-Christmas sale, abandoning the implied no-sale policy it started with its "everyday low pricing" strategy two years ago.The move was prompted by sluggish sales attributed to a possible recession and the uncertainty in the Middle East.

Ex-Fox official to join QVCfTCFormer Fox Inc. studio chief Barry Diller plans to buy part of QVC Network Inc., the televised shopping company announced yesterday. As part of the move, Mr. Diller plans to form a venture with QVC's two largest shareholders, cable television companies Comcast Corp. of Philadelphia and Liberty Media Corp. of Cheyenne, Wyo. He will join the company in a senior executive post.4 settle MCA insider-trading caseThe son of the president of MCA Inc. and three associates today agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle charges of insider trading involving the December 1990 sale of the company to Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.The Securities and Exchange Commission simultaneously filed a suit and a settlement yesterday in the case involving Jonathan Sheinberg, 34, son of MCA President Sidney Sheinberg; Richard Ursitti, the younger Sheinberg's father-in-law; Barry Fogel, an acquaintance, and Richard Shephard, his business manager.

A 48-year-old woman was robbed of her wallet early Saturday outside a bank at the Sun Valley Shopping Center by a man who escaped on a red bicycle, police said.Linda Blanch List of Glen Burnie told police she had just made a deposit at a Maryland National Bank branch in the 7900 block of Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. about 1:40 a.m. when she was approached by an unarmed man who said, "This is a stickup." She said the man punched her in the face, grabbed her purse and stole her wallet before jumping on a 10-speed bicycle and riding east on Leonard Road.

Richmond J. Mellendick Sr., whose easygoing disposition and wide smile as major-domo at Westview Mall department stores cheered shoppers and employees, died Sunday from complications of bypass surgery at University of Maryland Medical Center. The longtime Catonsville resident was 76. After his retirement in 1983 from American Oil Co. in Wagner's Point, where he had been a laboratory technician for 29 years, Mr. Mellendick missed working and being around people. "He sat around for a year, and I said this can't go on. I married him for better or worse, but not for lunch," said his wife of 54 years, the former Mary Jane Gerlach.

Value City Department Stores will close all but one of its eight Maryland stores in the next several weeks as part of a restructuring that includes shedding 30 stores across the country. Seven stores have begun liquidation sales and will close when everything is sold, which company officials estimated would take about six weeks. Value City's store on Solomons Island Road in Annapolis is the only one that will remain open in the state. The Glen Burnie store on Ritchie Highway will be converted to a Burlington Coat Factory as part of a deal announced in October by Value City's former owner, Retail Ventures Inc., to sell the leases of up to 24 of its stores.

Baltimore's property values are growing faster than anywhere else in Maryland, while the rate of increase in wealthy Montgomery County trails the state, according to 728,185 reassessment notices to be mailed today by state officials. The topsy-turvy results showed the smallest percentage increases in the state's most prosperous places -- such as Montgomery and Howard counties -- while areas that often lag economically saw much greater gains, despite a sluggish real estate market. "Anyone who's been paying attention to the city of Baltimore has watched it become a much more desirable place to live," said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon, referring to recent news of a slight increase in the city's population after decades of population declines.

Value City of Glen Burnie, the American Cancer Society and Phi Beta Sigma will sponsor a Cancer Awareness Day observance from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The Cancer Awareness Day event is part of the American Cancer Society's collaboration with the fraternity's national project, Sigma's Waging War Against Cancer. The event is open to the public. Value City is at 7700 Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie. Information: Phi Beta Sigma, 410-669-8683; or Value City, 410- 553-6500. People Honored: Donald Smith of Glen Burnie was honored by the Maryland Transportation Authority for his outstanding job performance last year.

Burton S. Carter Jr., 50, Value City store manager Burton S. Carter Jr., manager of Value City's Eastpoint Mall store since 1996, died Sunday of undetermined causes at Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, Pa. The Rising Sun resident was 50. A Baltimore native, Mr. Carter was raised in the city's Hamilton section. He graduated from Northern High School and attended the University of Baltimore. He had previously managed the Montgomery Ward store in Golden Ring Mall and Circuit City's Bel Air store.

Richmond J. Mellendick Sr., whose easygoing disposition and wide smile as major-domo at Westview Mall department stores cheered shoppers and employees, died Sunday from complications of bypass surgery at University of Maryland Medical Center. The longtime Catonsville resident was 76. After his retirement in 1983 from American Oil Co. in Wagner's Point, where he had been a laboratory technician for 29 years, Mr. Mellendick missed working and being around people. "He sat around for a year, and I said this can't go on. I married him for better or worse, but not for lunch," said his wife of 54 years, the former Mary Jane Gerlach.

Despite a healthy increase in property values last year, city officials say they had hoped for even better and still face a budget shortfall of tens of millions of dollars for the next fiscal year. The city stands to receive less than $3 million in additional revenue from the 2000 property reassessments - a full $4 million less than initially expected for the next budget year, officials say. The disappointing news comes at a time when everything has seemed to be going right for Mayor Martin O'Malley in recent months, with violent crime down, city home sales up and downtown businesses booming.

Burglar takes cash, pool cue from apartmentA burglar used the crawl space in a Glen Burnie apartment building to enter an apartment Tuesday and steal $35 and a pool cue valued at $400, county police said.Police were called to the apartment of Craig Anthony Naylor in the 200 block of Woodhill Drive shortly before 1 p.m. after his father went there to drop off groceries and discovered a hole in the living room ceiling.Officer Max Weinstein found that the burglar had entered a crawl space in the stairwell of the building, climbed to Naylor's living room ceiling and broken through.

I was walking along Maryland Avenue the other day and scarcely ever could have envisioned a Walmart there, in my own neighborhood. I thought of a little stone chapel that sat once on the corner and considered the streetcar barn that morphed into Anderson Automotive. Even Anderson's once-premier offering, the Oldsmobile, is on the obsolete list. Now the automotive dealer is leaving the corner, and we are promised a Lowe's and a Walmart. It really should not be a surprise.

Hechinger Co., the bankrupt home improvement retailer that is going out of business, has sold the leases for seven of its Baltimore area stores, including three that will be operated by Home Depot Inc., Kohl's Department Stores Inc. and the owner of Value City and Value City Furniture. The Maryland-based chain, which announced in September that it would shut down rather than continue to restructure under Chapter 11, said yesterday that it has approved bids for 46 leases offered in an auction Tuesday in New York.

Partial demolition of Harundale Mall in Glen Burnie is tentatively set to begin next month, with groundbreaking for renovations in the summer, a Manekin Corp. spokesman said yesterday.Cole Schnorf, senior vice president and regional development director of the Columbia-based company, said Manekin officially acquired the mall Dec. 30 and is waiting for the county to approve a permit before starting demolition."We would have liked to have been a little further along," Schnorf said. "Originally, we thought we were going to close in November."