Water Damage

Last year, Congress passed a law that allows older workers to make "catch up" contributions to their retirement accounts. I am over 50 and wanted to put $12,000 into my 401(k) this year - the $11,000 maximum the law allows most employees, plus the $1,000 catch-up contribution. But I'm not being allowed to do so. My employer, a large international company, is telling me that no one can figure out how to implement the law. Did Congress and President Bush pass a meaningless law? Please help clarify this bizarre twist.

NEW YORK - Water-damaged ceilings. Exposed wiring. Chipped paint. Corroded woodwork. City Hall, one of New York's most ornate, beautiful and historic buildings, is clearly getting a little shabby around the edges. Two water stains and corroded woodwork directly over the entrances mar the 189-year-old building's beauty the moment a visitor walks inside. An old rug in the visitor's balcony above the City Council chamber, where everyone from tourists to schoolchildren watches government at work, is so badly ripped and buckled that an elderly woman tripped six months ago and broke her ankle, City Hall police acknowledged.

A fire in a laundry room of the historic Governor Calvert House inn on State Circle in Annapolis forced the evacuation last night of more than a dozen customers, but caused no injuries and only slight damage.A dryer in the laundry room on the upper level of the parking garage of the mansion across the street from the State House caught fire at about 6: 25 p.m., triggering sprinklers that kept the flames from spreading, said Capt. Leonard Clark of the Annapolis Fire Department.All the diners at a banquet and several residents in the hotel's 18 occupied rooms escaped safely when they heard smoke detectors, according to fire officials and hotel management.

More than a dozen investigators are sifting through the ashes of Tuesday's five-alarm fire, trying to determine what started the blaze that destroyed the 58-year-old Gill Gymnasium at Western Maryland College.At 7 a.m. yesterday, teams of deputy fire marshals and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms began the painstaking search of the gutted building, which housed athletic and ROTC offices, an auxiliary gymnasium and equipment storage on the Westminster campus."The teams are digging to pinpoint the point of origin and looking for clues to the cause," said W. Faron Taylor, deputy state fire marshal.

Fifty-foot geysers are springing up from temporary water pipes in Butchers Hill, causing thousands of dollars in damage to rowhouses and sparking panic and anger among residents.When a careless driver ran over a temporary pipe snaking along South Madeira Street this week, water shot into the air, through the front windows of Bernard Blunt's house and over the roof. The soaking lasted an hour.Jennifer Lucas' rowhouse, also on Madeira Street, has been damaged three times. The latest was yesterday morning when another 2-inch steel pipe was run over and the water streamed into her basement.

A Glen Burnie man died early yesterday in a fire that engulfed his apartment and heavily damaged 10 other units in the building.Anne Arundel County fire officials reported that Marvin T. Burkindine, 63, of the 2900 block of Glen Ridge Circle was found dead after firefighters extinguished a blaze in his apartment that began about 2:15 a.m. Fire officials reported smoke, heat and water damage to the building and its contents totaling $225,000.The cause of the fire was still being investigated yesterday.

Worst shapeAs a resident and a parent of two children in Edgemere Elementary School, I feel it is of the utmost importance that I call your attention to the deteriorating conditions of our school.It is my understanding that the Planning Board of Baltimore County is presently studying proposed building projects for fiscal year 1996.It is also my understanding that Edgemere Elementary School is at No. 19 on a list to receive funds which would replace our school. Such a ranking is far too low, considering the condition of our school.

At least half a dozen Howard County schools were damaged when pipes that froze in last week's sub-zero temperatures thawed and burst, flooding classrooms.Much of the damage was minor and involved drenched carpets and wet furniture, said Thomas Kierzkowski, school facilities director.But three schools -- Mayfield Woods and Burleigh Manor middle schools and Pointers Run Elementary School -- suffered more substantial damage.School officials say they have no cost estimates on the damage, which occurred last week when students and staff were off because of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and bad weather.

Last week's frigid temperatures combined with insufficient insulation on domestic and commercial sprinkler systems caused monumental headaches for property owners and firefighters who had to deal with hundreds of burst pipes, said Robert Thomas, deputy chief for the state fire marshal's office.Such problems were especially troublesome in Harford County, where frozen pipes burst in relatively new condominium projects, Mr. Thomas said Tuesday, the day before the mercury dipped to minus 4 and wind chill bottomed out at minus 30.The Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company handled 20 calls for burst sprinkler system pipes between Sunday and Wednesday, said James Lyons III, assistant chief.