GGP Signs Contract With Hotel Developer
General Growth Properties (GGP) has signed a contract with a hotel developer to construct a hotel with up to 300 rooms on a 10-acre piece of land in the Columbia Gateway office park, said Mark Thompson, GGP vice president for land sales.

Thompson would not specify the identity of the hotel developer. “We have been moving forward,” he said, “but it will be a number of months until settlement, and we will release further details at that time.”

Reports that the land was back on the market were erroneous, he said. “That’s not the case,” he said. “The land is not back on the market.”

Gansler to Sue U.S. Army for Contamination at Fort Meade
Attorney General Douglas Gansler has notified the U.S. Army of the state of Maryland’s intention to file a lawsuit to enforce the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) cleanup order for groundwater and soil contamination at Fort Meade.

The Notice of Intent (NOI), required under the citizen suit provisions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), alleges that the Army has failed to comply with an existing EPA cleanup order at Fort Meade. The NOI further notes the presence of contaminants in the soils and groundwater which exceed the EPA’s maximum acceptable levels and may endanger health and the environment.

The Army, the EPA and the Maryland Department of the Environment have been working together for many years to investigate and remediate pollution at Fort Meade. These efforts are progressing well at many of the 150 identified sites at Fort Meade.

However, in August 2007, the EPA issued an RCRA enforcement order to address cleanup at Fort Meade. The order indicated that there may be an imminent and substantial endangerment on post and ordered that immediate actions be taken to protect public health and the environment. The Army has refused to comply.

“Groundwater pollution at the Fort Meade site has been a problem for many years,” said Gansler. “The Army was ordered to clean up this site and has failed to complete their mission. We cannot stand by any longer while this pollution threatens Maryland’s citizens and the environment.”

GP Strategies Corp. Repays Long-Term Debt
 GP Strategies Corp., the parent company of Elkridge-based global performance improvement solutions provider General Physics Corp. (GP), has repaid (at maturity) all of the outstanding 6% Subordinated Notes held by four Gabelli Funds, and all of the warrants to acquire shares of GP Strategies’ common stock that were issued in connection with the 6% Subordinated Notes have been exercised.

The $2.0 million repayment of the notes leaves GP Strategies with no long-term debt obligations, other than capital leases or outstanding warrants to acquire shares of GP Strategies’ common stock.

In May 2008, GP Strategies prepaid a $5.3 million note owed to ManTech International. The repayment of the note extinguished the holder’s right to convert the debt into as many as 525,000 shares of GP Strategies’ common stock.

CEO Scott Greenberg said, “Our ability to pay down these long-term debts while funding acquisitions and stock purchases demonstrates how strong our cash flow from operations has been and confirms our prudent financial management. … We can now devote more cash generated from operations and short-term borrowings under our $25 million revolving line of credit for achieving strategic objectives, such as developing new products and services, completing acquisitions and repurchasing our common stock under the buyback program.”

Lake Capital Partner Provides Capital to Columbia-Based Soil Safe
Soil Safe, an environmental services company providing soil processing and remediation solutions to clients in the infrastructure, commercial and industrial construction markets, has partnered with and received a strategic investment from Lake Capital, a private equity firm.

Soil Safe will use the capital and strategic resources provided by Lake Capital to continue to extend the scope and reach of its service offerings through growth initiatives and acquisitions.

Founded in 1989, Soil Safe is a provider of value-added treatment, recycling and re-use services for lightly contaminated soil in the mid-Atlantic region and in California. The company is also the largest recycler of non-hazardous, lightly contaminated soil in the country, annually treating nearly 2 million tons of soil.

“With continued regional growth in infrastructure, commercial and industrial construction, the decline of new landfill capacity in Soil Safe’s core markets, and increasing regulatory restrictions on environmental issues, the treatment of contaminated soil has become progressively more important,” said Soil Safe CEO Mark Smith.

QAI, iScan Partner on State’s Digital Records Project
Fulton-based Quality Associates Inc. (QAI), a provider of services and solutions for document management, imaging and archiving, and iScan, the document imaging services division of Humanim Inc., a nonprofit organization that employs individuals with disabilities, will participate in a project for the state of Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation.

When completed this fall, the large-scale project will effectively remove, or redact, sensitive information within nearly 325,000 records, which then will be made available to the public via the Internet.

QAI is providing the software and technical expertise needed for the project. iScan is employing a team of workers to perform the day-to-day, hands-on tasks required.

“The heightened awareness of the dangers of identity theft is creating a situation in which many state and local governments are taking the proactive step of removing information that would be of value to a criminal for identity theft purposes,” said Scott Swidersky, director of QAI’s Information Solutions division.

Governments at all levels are under pressure from concerned citizens to tighten the availability of sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, while fulfilling their obligation to provide needed documentation to the general public. The process of redaction removes certain sensitive information from documents before they are made available to the public.

Scholastic Sports Net Launches Revamped Web Site, Coverage
Columbia-based Scholastic Sports Net (SSN) has launched a new web site in time for the 2008–2009 high school athletics season and will deliver “more full-length games, features, interviews, pictures, stats and college recruiting tools than anybody else out there while ensuring that site navigation remains simple and user-friendly,” said Jay Nowaskey, co-founder of Scholastic Sports Net.

New to Scholastic Sports Net this year is the powerful college recruiting tool called “Player Pages.” It allows student-athletes to upload all of their personal, athletic, academic and contact information as well as link to game videos, highlight videos, pictures and other web sites to package their entire athletic and academic résumé and submit it to college coaches and recruiters.

“Last season, we were able to increase our content and visibility with tremendous success,” said Nowaskey. “After doubling our visitor and video download totals from the year prior, we know that Howard County and the Maryland state athletic community is watching, and that they want more and more content. However, we also know that if the user gets lost in a complicated site, it will probably prevent them from returning.”

Also new to Scholastic Sports Net this year will be “television broadcast-style” game productions. Area television sportscaster Steve Bassett will handle the majority of the play-by-play responsibilities for the upcoming football season. Bassett has spent more than 35 years as a TV and radio sportscaster in major markets across the country, including Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

Sysco, Dezina Announce New Venture
SYSCO Systems & Services Corp. and Columbia-based Dezina Marketing have announced an exclusive venture designed to penetrate the residential market for online grocery shopping through substantial cost savings offered by SYSCO’s buying power, and the personalized product delivery system created by Dezina Marketing Inc.

The venture marks SYSCO’s first foray into online grocery marketing to individual consumers. Dezina is a marketing company in the food delivery marketplace. It primarily markets food delivery service commissaries under the trade name Deli Around The Corner (DATC). Through the DATC operations, Dezina will provide the marketing and distribution channels for delivering SYSCO food products to individual consumers at a personal level of service.

“In direct contrast to the rising grocery bills most Americans are facing, SYSCO expects to offer the online customers significant cost reductions on their grocery items,” said Keith Shapiro, president and CEO of SYSCO Food Services of Baltimore LLC, which markets and distributes food and related products to foodservice operators throughout the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas.

The initial target market will be DATC business customers with a second phase extending to residential households falling within a three-mile radius of DATC locations, all of whom will receive free delivery of their groceries from Dezina representatives.

Maryland DOT Consolidated Bonds Rated ‘AAA,’ Outlook Stable
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services assigned its ‘AAA’ long-term rating, and stable outlook, to the Maryland Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) consolidated transportation bonds, series 2008.

The rating reflects a diverse, broad-based economy; a diverse transportation trust fund revenue stream; continued steady growth of all pledged revenues despite a recent downward revision; and strong coverage from pledged taxes and net revenues of maximum annual debt service (MADS).

The rating also reflects MDOT’s prudent management practices, which include a policy of maintaining coverage levels of at least 2.5x MADS; a rapid maturity schedule, which limits, by statute, debt issuance to 15 years; and sound legal provisions, which include an additional bonds test requiring that both pledged taxes and net revenues be at least 2.0x MADS on bonds outstanding and proposed bonds.

“We base the stable outlook on our expectation of MDOT’s continued steady growth in trust fund revenues and the maintenance of sound working cash levels,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Richard Marino. “Net coverage of MADS should remain above the targeted 2.5x coverage level and coverage of pledged revenues well above that. We expect coverage levels to remain strong despite a significant capital plan and annual debt issuance.”

Plant Sensory Systems Receives DOE Grant
Plant Sensory Systems, a resident of bwtech@UMBC’s Incubator, has received a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. It will help the company test new genetic modifications on its laboratory plants to divert carbon into seed oil more efficiently.

Once extracted from the seeds, the oils could be used in either cooking oils or biodiesel production, which is consistent with the DOE’s objective to create alternative fuel sources. The company plans to license its technologies to seed and agricultural biotechnology companies. If the company experiences success in its research and shows that the project is feasible, it will be eligible to apply for a Phase II, two-year grant from the DOE.

Loyola to Adopt ‘University’ Designation
The executive committee of Loyola College in Maryland’s board of trustees has announced that it has affirmed and ratified the preliminary decision of the full board to change Loyola’s designation from “college” to “university.”

This decision must be endorsed by the Maryland Higher Education Commission; Loyola officials have submitted an official request for endorsement. The decision comes after months of discussion with students, faculty, staff and other supporters, and has been reinforced by the review of extensive market research on the topic with SimpsonScarborough, a higher education consulting firm. The school has a campus in Columbia.

BWMC Named National Spirit of Women Premiere Hospital
The Spirit of Women Health Network has selected Baltimore Washington Medical Center (BWMC) as a “Spirit of Women Premiere Hospital,” based on an evaluation using the National Standards of Excellence in Women’s Health that measure clinical excellence in women’s health care and community outreach.

A national network of leading hospitals dedicated to improving women’s lives with innovative health and community programs, the Spirit of Women Health Network developed the standards in educational cooperation with the Office of Women’s Health and Department of Health and Human Service (DHHS).

Erickson Creates Formal Partnerships With Three National Charities
Erickson Retirement Communities has created formal partnerships with three national charitable organizations: the Alzheimer’s Association, American Diabetes Association, and Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Erickson is now launching a multi-faceted internal communications campaign to inform its 35,000 residents and staff about these three “mission partners,” and to garner volunteer and charitable support. In addition, Erickson will hold fundraising events on a regular basis to support these organizations.

Thunder Hill Elementary Partners With Health Department
A new partnership with the Howard County Health Department will promote health and wellness among Thunder Hill Elementary School students, staff and families.

Under the terms of the partnership agreement, the department will participate in wellness events at the school, and will provide information on its Healthy Howard Initiative for use in class activities and for distribution to families.

The department and school will co-sponsor poster and essay contests to promote the visibility of the Healthy Howard Initiative and its mascot. Thunder Hill Elementary will serve as a pilot test site for the launch of the Healthy Homes Campaign and will encourage students to complete activities to certify their home as a Healthy Howard Home.

Vendors Wanted for Howard County’s CareerFest 2008
The Howard County Office of Workforce Development is looking for vendors for its CareerFest 2008 which will be held on Thursday, Sept. 18, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kossiakoff Center, located at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in North Laurel.

The event, which attracted more than 700 job seekers last year, offers businesses a great opportunity to recruit new talent, interview potential employees and accept applications and résumés.

Some of the businesses that have already registered for CareerFest include: Defense Information System Agency (DISA), AT&T, Fedex Ground, Eaton Aerospace, Unisys, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Internal Revenue Service, Howard County Public School System and many others.

The Howard County Office of Workforce Development is a partner in the Columbia Workforce Center. For more information, contact the Columbia Workforce Center at 410-290-2600 or 410-290-2620, or visit www.dllr.state.md.us/county/howard/howjobfair.htm.

Recruiting Multi-Generations to the Workplace
The Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber (BWCC) will hold a seminar, “The Changing Face of the Workforce: Multi-Generational Recruitment,” on Sept. 25. It will be held at UMUC Dorsey Station in Elkridge from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

Three local experts will present an overview of the four generations in the workplace today and offer specific recruitment techniques to help employers and HR professionals tackle the challenges that multi-generations pose.

The seminar is part of a series of programs offered by BWCC to address workforce recruitment and retention issues. The cost is $49 for prepaid BWCC members and $79 for non-members and members not prepaid. For more information, call 301-725-4000 or 410-792-9714, or visit www.baltwashchamber.org and go to Events.

HCEDA to Join in at Procurement Expo
The Baltimore Regional Cooperative Purchasing Committee, in partnership with the Howard County Economic Development Authority (HCEDA), will hold the Regional Procurement Diversity Expo 2008 on Tuesday, Sept. 16, from 8 a.m. to noon at Martin’s West in Baltimore.
 
The event will provide an opportunity for businesses to network and learn about procurement opportunities with local procurement officials from the governments, public schools, community colleges and libraries in seven jurisdictions: Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties, the city of Annapolis and the city of Baltimore, plus the Maryland Department of General Services.

For more information, contact the Howard County Office of Purchasing via 410-313-6381 or sfox@howardcountymd.gov.

LHC Recruiting for Leadership Essentials
Leadership Howard County is accepting applications for Leadership Essentials 2009, a development program that targets young professionals who work or live in Howard County.

This six-month program (to be held from January to June 2009) is designed for emerging leaders who are viewed in their respective organizations as “rising stars” and who have a personal desire to get involved in community service. Applications are due on Oct. 8. Interested parties can contact Laurie Remer at 410-730-4474, ext. 111, or visit www.leadershiphc.org.