Cleaning Up Little Patuxent

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman is holding a ceremony today to break ground on a $100 million project at the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant to install new equipment to remove so-called nutrients from wastewater flowing to the river.

High levels of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous), as well as sediments, have been destroying the Little Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay for years.

According to the county's Web site, the plant in Savage serves the central part of Howard County, including Columbia, Savage, and North Laurel. There are 820 miles of gravity and force main sewer pipe that carries wastewater to the plant.

GGP's Bankruptcy Case

The WSJ sets up today's bankruptcy hearing involving Columbia's developer and owner of the mall (the mall is so far not part of the case). Lots of investors who hold Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS)are watching closely because that's how GGP gets a lot of its money. Loans on commercial mortgages get packaged into securities and sold to investors. GGP is the nation's largest CMBS borrower, the Journal reports.

A major issue in the bankruptcy case is General Growth's request to draw cash flow from its malls and use it at the corporate level or in other areas of the company. Such transfers of money within the corporate structure used to be routine at General Growth, as they are at other similarly structured real-estate companies. But, now that General Growth is in Chapter 11, its CMBS lenders want to enforce the malls' status as separate entities and keep the malls' extra cash flow from being siphoned away to pay other creditors, namely unsecured lenders.

To prevent that, General Growth took several steps in its bankruptcy filing that might aid any argument it ultimately makes to continue drawing cash flow from the malls for corporate use, according to people familiar with the matter.

Among them, General Growth pledged to continue paying interest on its mortgages, possibly making it more difficult for CMBS holders to argue they should be allowed to foreclose. It also pledged to provide its mortgage lenders "adequate protection," meaning they will have an administrative claim in any liquidation scenario to cash flow drawn from their properties by the parent company.

AP Rewards

For years, WaPo's education columnist Jay Mathews has long championed the idea that pushing students to take AP classes and tests is the best way to prepare them for a successful college career. Jay even came up with the Challenge Index to compare schools based on how many tests their students take.

One member of the Talk Team has spent much of this week taking his share of those exams, and he reminded us of another reward for academic rigor.

Free stuff.

All week he and his classmates have trooped over to KFC, Chick Fil-a, Rita's and other places that are offering free eats just for taking the tests.

"Dad," Young Talk tells us, "when was the last time you saw a line out the door of a fast food place?"

Living Well Despite Big Boxes

He saw this in Jay Hancock's blog at the Sun. Fortune ranks Columbia No. 7 for America's Top 25 Towns to Live Well.

Sez Fortune:

Seventh place Columbia, Md., a 97,506-population town between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, is packed with restaurants, parks and music venues, and it is zoned against big boxes, making it exceptionally small business friendly.


No big boxes?

A Transit Town Center

The Sun says the county council agreed to sell bonds to build a parking garage at the Savage MARC commuter rail station, to be paid off from tax revenues generated by the project. The council's legislation posted here said the county intends to borrow up to $17 million.

The area is currently a 13-acre parking lot. That would be replaced by a parking garage, leaving the rest of the land available for development by Petrie Ross Joint Ventures.

Their proposed Savage Towne Centre, located at the intersection of Route 32 and Dorsey Run Road, would include 416 new residential units, 21,000 square feet of retail, 9,200 square feet of restaurant space, 7,800 square feet of office and 152 hotel rooms.

Columbia Archives Goes Online

The Columbia Archives has become to put some of its materials online. You can reach the homepage here.

Here's one account of the town's history.

Boy! Do we feel old.

The New Prez Takes Over

From CA:

The new Columbia Association (CA) President Philip Nelson officially begins his term today, Friday, May 1. Arriving to the organization earlier this week, Nelson got a head start in his new role and met individually with members of the CA Board and CA senior team members. Both provided him with transition plans that he is currently reviewing.

Nelson received a B.A. in political science from Fort Hays State University in 1971. His experience includes serving as city manager of Northglenn , Colo. , from 2001 to 2006; city manager of Derby , Kan. , from 1988 to 2001; and county administrator of Barton County , Kan. , from 1986 to 1988. Most recently, he served as city manager of Troy , Mich. , where he was employed from 2006 until March of this year. Nelson will reside in Hickory Ridge.