The retired Baltimore fire boat Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. sits in the old shipyard at Sparrows Point, now Tradepoint Atlantic. (Baltimore Sun staff)
If it’s OK with everyone, I’d like to follow up on a few earlier columns, starting with a story I told in 2019 about old Tommy, a Baltimore fire boat that had been left aground in Sparrows Point. There were more pressing issues at the time — there always are — but I thought the boat deserved a better fate.
Turns out, it will get one, and just days from now.
The Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. was named in 1956 for the man who was mayor at the time — and who previously served eight years in the House of Representatives over which his daughter, Nancy Pelosi, now presides as Speaker.
The 103-foot boat worked the city’s waterfront for nearly 60 years before it was decommissioned in 2015. It ended up in the old Bethlehem Steel shipyard at what is now Tradepoint Atlantic. Its hull had been cut to the waterline and most of its stern removed. The wheelhouse, tower and water cannons survived.
I happened upon old Tommy during a tour of Tradepoint Atlantic and wondered what would become of it.
Turns out, some volunteers have been working for a few years to raise money to preserve what’s left of the boat and put it on display.
So, early Thursday morning, it will arrive in pieces at its new home, the Fire Museum of Maryland in Lutherville. The relocation and reassembly will involve a police escort along the Beltway and crane operators and welders at the museum.
“The long-range plan calls for restoration, exhibits and opening the wheelhouse to visitors,” says a news release from the museum. “The deck guns may even go into service as a splash zone during special events.”
Among dozens of donors, the D’Alesandro family supported the project. Pelosi made substantial donations, both individually and through the Paul and Nancy Pelosi Charitable Foundation. More than $106,000 has been raised to give old Tommy a permanent home at the museum.
If it’s OK with everyone, I’d like to declare this development very cool.
A local fundraiser for Ukraine, including an event at Barcocina in Fells Point, brought in more than $50,000, according to Marta Lopushanska, a native of Lviv and organizer of United For Ukraine Baltimore. The donations directly fund medical supplies and gear for defenders of Lviv through small organizations in the western Ukraine city.
“Our volunteers withheld attacks and continue, despite their personal sacrifices, to thank you profusely for your kindness,” Lopushanska reported to donors. “We have negotiated with manufacturers and suppliers directly to ensure our dollars are stretched and have shipped a second lot of protective and tactical gear for volunteers and defenders on the front lines, including 100 helmets. A third lot, including Stop The Bleed kits and additional protective gear, was shipped [last] weekend and already reached our contacts in Lviv.”
Lopushanska says additional items needed by defenders and doctors will be shipped weekly to Lviv for distribution in other areas of the country under Russian attack.
The United for Ukraine fundraiser is ongoing through givebutter.com. Next is a benefit celebration of Ukrainian culture, music, art and food at the Admiral Fell Inn on May 14.
Both Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot have contacted PNC officials about the bank’s failure to prevent that $175,000 check fraud against 89-year-old Myrle Bratcher of Reisterstown, formerly of Finksburg. Nothing has come of those efforts so far.
But, given my reporting on the Bratcher case, I’ve been alerted to another matter involving PNC, in which the bank is accused of failing to prevent checking account fraud.
In a lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia a few days ago, an attorney accused the bank of allowing his office manager to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars by forging and cashing checks against the law firm’s accounts.
The attorney, Bernard Grimm, was disbarred for not safeguarding client accounts. But his employee, Katherine Ross, pleaded guilty to bank fraud last year. Grimm argues what Mrs. Bratcher’s attorneys argue — the theft would not have happened had someone at PNC been paying attention.
Regarding my column on Sen. Ben Cardin’s efforts to strengthen staffing at the State Department following its slide during the Trump years, I received this update from Foggy Bottom: “State Department Foreign Service attrition rates have not changed appreciably over the past decade while our mission has expanded into new and critical areas like climate change, cyberspace, digital policy, global health and multilateral diplomacy. The department needs more Foreign Service applicants to fill our growing needs and encourages the public to apply to our job opportunities posted on the state.gov website. We are actively recruiting for a diverse workforce that represents America. On Monday, a new Foreign Service class of 179 was sworn in, the largest since the pandemic began.”
In a column last month about Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, I referred to the case of a home invasion, for which a convicted felon received a five-year sentence. The maximum penalty for home invasion in Maryland is 25 years, so the five years seemed disturbingly light. However, I subsequently learned that the defendant, by pleading guilty to the home invasion, violated his probation from an early conviction. Seven months after sentencing in the home invasion, he received another 12 years for the probation violation. He is now incarcerated at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, serving 17 years.