Fall 2010 - Maryland Society of Professional Engineers

MARYLAND
Fall / Fourth Quarter 2010
Professional Engineer
a publication of the Maryland Society of Professional Engineers
A Bridge to Cross the
Chesapeake...
Marylanders originally had to rely on boats to cross the
Chesapeake Bay to and from the Eastern Shore. But as
the population grew and automobiles became a more
popular means of transportation, people began to call for
a bridge that would cross the Chesapeake.
The first plan for such a bridge was developed in
1927, but was quickly forgotten with the 1929 onset of
the Great Depression. In 1938, under mounting pressure, the State legislature authorized a roadway crossing the Bay, but this time World War II postponed the
effort.
(Continued on page 10)
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1 A Bridge to Cross the
Chesapeake...
2 MDSPE Signs New
Management Firm
3 President’s Message
3 $5,000 MathCounts
Challenge to MDSPE
Members: Grant Will
7 H.C. Harclerode II Named
Double Your Tax-Deductible
NSPE Fellow
Contribution
8
Our NLE Sponsors
4 Mead Semiretires: SMSG
9 Meet Your MDSPE Officers:
Working With the Baltimore
President-Elect
Chapter
9
Engineering Tip
5 Westminster Man Guilty of
Faking PE Credentials
18 MDSPE Associates
6 Harrowing Life Story:
20 MDSPE Application
Complaints Laid to Rest
21 Associate Membership at The
With Death of John Elder, PE
Engineers Club Application
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Fall / Fourth Quarter 2010
MDSPE Signs New
Management Firm
MARYLAND SOCIETY OF
PROFESSIONAL
ENGINEERS
A state society of the
National Society of Professional Engineers
Clemons & Associates, Inc., has been selected as the
new society management company for the Society.
Since reevaluating the strategic focus of the Society,
the number one priority for MDSPE was the proper
selection and implementation of a management firm.
“We made the decision to work with Clemons &
Associates after an enthusiastic and thorough search
of alternatives,” said Bill Ryan, MDSPE President. “We found a management team that has the experience and expertise to handle the complexities of
our Society.”
Clemons & Associates is a top-rated organization
that brings over 33 years of experience to the table.
They were among the first association management
companies to become accredited by the American
Society of Association Executives (ASAE). As a
charter-accredited company, they subscribe to the 15
high standards of practice of ASAE.
Amanda Lee will serve as the
MDSPE Executive Director. She will
play an instrumental role in the transition process and guide MDSPE’s
future direction. Lee has a background in the nonprofit sector and
solid experience with supporting a
Amanda Lee
Board of Directors and Executive
Committee. She is currently pursuing
an MBA from Loyola University in Maryland. Cal
Clemons, founder and current Chairman of Clemons
& Associates, will serve as Managing Director.
“While working with Clemons & Associates,
MDSPE plans to stabilize and standardize its internal
functions, improve services to its members, and expand its visibility and influence,” said Lee. “I truly
look forward to serving the engineering community in
the State of Maryland.”
The offices of Clemons & Associates are located
in White Marsh.
PRESIDENT
William K. Ryan, MS, PE
301-360-9534
bryan@ryanandassociates.net
PRESIDENT-ELECT
Edward A. Hubner, PE
410-668-8000
ehubner@eblengineers.com
SECRETARY
Eduardo Acevedo, PE, FMDSPE
410-296-4732
girod1@verizon.net
TREASURER
Michael L. Viscarra, PE
410-608-1073
mickeyvpe@yahoo.com
VICE PRESIDENTS
Brian R. Olson, PE
301-870-4530
bolson@atcsplc.com
Bruce C. Cranford, PE
301-340-0052
bruce-cranford-pe@comcast.net
Karen L. Moran, PE
443-224-1656
kmoran@wrallp.com
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
William L. Mehaffey, PE
301-475-0406
bmehaffey@mehaffeyassociates.com
NSPE DELEGATE
Manoj Jha, PhD, PE
443-885-1446
manoj.jha@morgan.edu
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NEW
Amanda Lee
410-933-3453
amandal@clemonsmgmt.com
NEWSLETTER COORDINATOR
Susanne Viscarra
MARYLAND SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
Maryland Professional Engineer
is a newsletter for our
members. Look for the next
issue midwinter.
5024 R Campbell Blvd.
Baltimore, MD 21236
410-931-8100, fax 410-931-8111
admin@mdspe.com
www.mdspe.org
2
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
$5,000 MathCounts
Challenge to MDSPE
Members
by William K. Ryan, MDSPE President
I’d like you all to join me in
welcoming our new management company, Clemons &
Associates, and Executive Director, Amanda Lee.
As you know, we reevaluated our strategic plan to focus
more directly on organizational
development. Clemons & Associates will play an active role in remodeling the
organization’s structure to better adapt to an everchanging environment. Working with Clemons &
Associates, here are a couple implementations we
have already undertaken to steer MDSPE into the
right direction:
• Improving communication paths with our
members. We are currently redesigning the
MDSPE website to reflect a more accurate
brand image of our prestigious Society. The
website will be updated on a regular basis in
order to provide members with the most current information and easy access to supporting
documents.
• Refining internal functions. We are in the
process of transitioning MDSPE to an advanced CRM system, which provides a 360degree view of a member’s history, relationship, and interaction with the Society. This
will improve the accuracy of our data and
streamline organizational processes.
We are looking forward to working with a
management company that has the resources and
specialized skills to reengineer the organizational
structure to better support our mission.
Grant Will Double Your TaxDeductible Contribution
A $2,500 challenge grant from D.S. Thaler &
Associates, Inc., will double the contributions
from MDSPE members to our MDSPE Foundation 2011 MathCounts Fund.
For a number of years, our MDSPE MathCounts competition has been funded primarily
through a grant from Lockheed Martin Corp.,
which is no longer providing support. Now we
have to make up the difference.
We need to raise $2,500 by February 1,
2011, to qualify for the DST matching grant.
Send your tax-deductible contribution to:
MathCounts Fund, MDSPE Foundation, c/o
Jonathan Blasco, PE, Treasurer, PO Box 2450,
Leonardtown, MD 20650.
Do you have suggestions on
how to improve our Society?
Email them to MDSPE
President Bill Ryan at
bryan@ryanandassociates.net
MDSPE is working for you!
3
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
Mead at the June
2009 MDSPE
Board Meeting
Mead Semiretires
SMSG Working With the
Baltimore Chapter
the group’s numbers from 75
members to over
1,000.
SMSG corporate clients for
12+ years have
included Black &
Decker, Ryland Homes, Lockheed Martin, Teledyne Isotopes, The Rouse Company, and the stone
products company now known as Lafarge.
SMSG’s PR arm is a two-time winner of the
Silver Anvil Award, the highest honor by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), for excellence in marketing communications. One of the
Anvils was for work done for the Greater Baltimore Committee’s campaign to place retrained,
economically disadvantaged people in privatesector jobs. The other Anvil was for a U.S. Department of Labor effort to increase female enrollment
in Job Corps Centers throughout the mid-Atlantic
region.
Mead began his PR career as a PR officer for
the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, serving eight years
as a Coast Guard reserve officer, achieving the
rank of full lieutenant. He held key PR management positions for a major corporation and an advertising agency before creating SMSG. He also
served as adjunct assistant professor teaching upper-level courses in Towson State University’s
Mass Communications Department for 10 years.
Mead has also volunteered for various organizations, including stints as the president of the
local American Lung Association and a board
member of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, the Better Business Bureau of
Baltimore, Baltimore City’s Off-Street Parking
Commission, and the Baltimore Criminal Justice
Commission. These experiences have awarded
him a keen understanding of the needs of volunteer organizations.
He has been accredited by the PRSA and
awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the
by Susanne Viscarra, MDSPE Newsletter
Coordinator
In June of this year, Robert “Bob” Mead decided to
semiretire and tendered the resignation of Smith
Mead Services Group (SMSG) as the Executive
Director (ED) of the MDSPE. SMSG managed the
Society since March 1999, and Mead will now be
working closely with the Baltimore Chapter to create workshops and events to support the new Maryland continuing education requirements for PEs in
the mid-Atlantic region.
SMSG is a Baltimore-based firm that Mead
started in 1967 when he bought out the Naomi Duff
Smith Agency & Company, which was founded
directly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by
Smith to support the American Red Cross. At its
height, SMSG employed a staff of 12, large for a
local public relations (PR) firm, in a four-story office building on St. Paul Street by Penn Station.
Mead now runs the company on a part-time basis
from his home.
The firm has overseen or supported more than
40 local, state, and national nonprofit organizations, as well as corporate and commercial clients,
by providing PR, management, and administrative
services. SMSG develops programs that enhance
organizational effectiveness and high-impact communications programs to gain visibility, credibility,
and membership growth for its professional and
trade clients.
Association clients have included the Baltimore (now Maryland) Ravens Wheelchair Basketball Club, the Center for International Management
Studies, the Engineering Society, the Independent
Armored Car Operators Association, the National
Lumber & Building Materials Association, the
Maryland Society of Surveyors, the Maryland
States Nurses Association, the Greater Baltimore
Committee, the State Employees Credit Union, and
the Greater Baltimore, Susquehanna Region, and
Western Maryland Private Industry Councils. As
the ED of the Maryland Improvement Contractors
Association, Mead, alongside his staff, increased
(Continued on page 8)
4
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
Westminster Man
Guilty of Faking PE
Credentials
A Westminster man who had been posing as a professional engineer pleaded guilty on April 19 to one
count of counterfeiting a public seal in Howard
County Circuit Court. Lawrence D. Novakowski, 52,
of the 3000 block of Nicodemus Road, pleaded guilty
to using the Maryland state seal to fake credentials that
enabled him to work at a Columbia engineering firm.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Kim Oldham
told Judge Timothy J. McCrone that the State Board
of Professional Engineers and the Maryland Department of Licensing and Regulation’s Division of Occupational Licensing (DLLR) launched an investigation into Novakowski’s credentials in July 2009 after
receiving a letter of complaint from a Sparks, Maryland, engineering firm that formerly employed Novakowski. The Sparks firm alleged that Novakowski’s credentials were fraudulent, and the firm
also notified his then-employer in Columbia.
According to Oldham, when confronted by his
employer, Novakowski stated that his license had
been suspended due to child support issues but indicated that he was about to be reinstated. Shortly
thereafter, he produced a forged letter from DLLR
indicating that his suspension had been lifted. Oldham stated that the person who signed the letter
“does not exist.” Oldham also told the court Novakowski was not a licensed engineer and that the
license number he possessed not only belonged to
another individual but also had expired in 2001.
A DLLR investigator subpoenaed documents
from Novakowski, who produced framed college
diplomas, including one from Johns Hopkins University, plus additional engineering licenses from
the State of New York and the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. All documents were deemed
“fictitious,” and Novakowski later admitted to purchasing college transcripts and degrees from an
online source for $500.
Oldham said the deceptions forced the engineering firm to pay back clients’ fees and pull out
of several projects at the last minute. The problems
cost the firm more than $100,000, plus a loss of
Above is one of the fake certificates obtained by
Lawrence Novakowski online. Photo: Algerina Perna,
The Baltimore Sun
professional credibility, she said. Prosecutors declined to reveal the name of the firm.
On July 1, the sentence was handed down by
Judge Timothy McCrone, who said he was moved
by Novakowski’s lawyer’s request to bypass a requested two-year state prison term. The shorter
sentence gives Novakowski a chance to obtain
work release status and provide health insurance
for a daughter in college.
McCrone imposed an eight-year sentence with
all but 18 months suspended. He added three years
probation, a $500 fine, and 100 hours of community service.
“I am very mindful of the injury you inflicted
on your employer,” McCrone said, adding that Novakowski would likely serve more actual time in
county custody than in state prison for the nonviolent crime.
Novakowski’s criminal record stretches back to
1990 for a variety of crimes of deception, Oldham
said, and he has five felonies on his record, including bigamy. Defense attorney Louis Willemin
blamed the crimes on “manic episodes” caused by
bipolar disorder and said his client is now under
treatment and on medication.
McCrone refused Novakowski’s request to delay jail until August 2, so he could see off a son
headed to Afghanistan with the Army. Novakowski
apologized to his family, his former employer, and
to the judge for his crimes.
“At the time they need me the most, I do this
again,” he said about his children.
MDSPE is working for you!
5
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
Harrowing Life Story
paid for with federal money under a program
Elder said was called Building Blocks. He had
Complaints Laid to Rest With also moved into the home of Michaeleen
Malone, his longtime companion, in Rosedale on
Death of John Elder, PE
King Arthur Circle. Malone’s young adopted
son, Timothy, joined them about that time, and
From the Beginning
Malone founded the Timothy Construction Co.
John Decamp Elder was born October 7, 1948. BeWhen applying for his PE license in 1986,
ginning just shy of his 20th birthday, he embarked Elder failed to report the federal conviction on
on a string of criminal cases for the following 42
the application. Unaware of the false response,
years, all unbeknownst to MDSPE until after many the PE Board granted him his license, plus a rehomeowners had suffered under his shoddy PE
newal in 1988.
work. Just the last 20 years (all that one can see
online at this time) comprise a one-and-a-half page 1990s
listing of Maryland cases, in most of which he was Again unaware of the false response, the PE Board
the defendant. Some of these and earlier cases are granted renewals in 1991, 1993, and 1994.
The Timothy Co. kept Elder in contact with
discussed in this article.
city
officials, and in the spring of 1996 the HousElder was first arrested for drugs in August
ing Authority of Baltimore City hired Elder as a
1968 in Burlington County, New Jersey. He was
$40,000-per-year project manager, charged with
then arrested three more times over the next five
years in Maryland: twice for petty larceny and once culling the city’s overstock of dangerous, crumfor forgery of checks. He received a sentence of six bling, abandoned buildings. His criminal record
months unsupervised probation for one of the lar- was apparently overlooked. In this position, he
was a key liaison to demolition contractors in the
ceny charges.
city’s $400-million demolition and revitalization
On New Year’s Eve 1974, he was arrested in
Baltimore and later convicted on three counts: re- initiative to replace dangerous, outdated public
housing with better, less-concentrated projects and
ceiving and concealing interstate stolen property
oversaw the implosion in 1996 of the Lexington
(sailboat), interstate transportation of said stolen
Terrace highrises under Mayor Kurt Schmoke.
property, and aiding and abetting. For these
In February 1997, Elder was criminally
charges, Elder was sentenced in October 1975 to
three concurrent sentences of five years in federal charged in District Court for Baltimore County
prison. When City Paper reporter Edward Ericson, with theft of less than $300. In January 1998, he
was granted 18 months’ unsupervised probation
Jr. questioned Elder about 30 years later on this
federal case, he acknowledged knowing that the 35′ before judgment and charged $205 to cover the
fine and court costs and fees.
boat he bought was stolen.
In September 1997, a civil case was filed
1980s
against Elder and Timothy Construction Co., for
Elder said that he began working for the Housing
which the judge assessed the defendants for apAuthority of Baltimore City, mostly as a demoliproximately $3,000 total plus postjudgment intertion specialist, for about 10 years beginning in the est. After appeal, a settlement agreement was
late 1970s or early 1980s. The Housing Authority reached in May 2000, but the records do not show
seems to have hired him very soon after his release the settlement being paid, settled, and satisfied unfrom federal prison.
til May 2007.
In June 1979, Elder was arrested for conAgain, unaware of Elder’s false response on
tempt of court, then in 1988 he drew a 60-day
his license renewal application about his criminal
suspended sentence plus a year’s probation for
history, the PE Board granted him the renewal in
slashing someone’s tires. By then he was work- 1997, 1998, and 2000.
ing for the Baltimore City Housing Department,
(Continued on page 12)
assessing derelict rowhouses for demolition to be
6
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
H.C. Harclerode II
Named NSPE Fellow
Drawn back to
his home state,
Harclerode accepted a position as
a project engineering manager with
Lever Brothers in
Baltimore supervising the plant engineering department, powerhouse
opera-tions, and the
pollution control
department. Next he was promoted to maintenance
manager, responsible for the 150-man maintenance
department, including packaging machinery mechanics, then to sulfonation plant project manager, responsible for the design and construction of a $13
million sulfonic acid production facility.
Harclerode next moved on to W.R. Grace & Company, based in New York, as the senior project engineer/manager for five years for the Davison Chemical
Division in Baltimore, for which he was responsible
for large capital project spending involving catalyst
production facilities at the divisional engineering level
for plant facilities both inside and outside the continental United States. He moved up to become the director
of engineering and facilities for two years for the Corporate Research Division in Columbia. In this position,
he supervised a staff of three managers and 72 employees in the departments of engineering, purchasing,
maintenance shops, security, hazardous waste management, yards and grounds, warehouse services, reproduction/graphics, and janitorial with a $7-million capital budget and a $5-million operating budget.
During this time, he cofounded Harwel Construction Company in Phoenix, Maryland, in 1984 as
a side to his full-time position at W.R. Grace. He
worked as the vice president for seven years, then as
the president for two years until the company closeed
in 1992. Harwel was a mechanical/general construction contractor with projects budgeted between
$5,000 and $1.5 million, primarily involving HVAC
building systems, wastewater treatment plants, water
filtration plants, underground utility piping and sitework, thermal ice storage systems, booster pump
H.C. “Skip” Harclerode II, PE, had the distinction
of being named an NSPE Fellow in June for demonstrating prominent, long-term service at the
chapter, state, and national levels of NSPE to the
profession, the Society, and the community. He is
the first MDSPE member to receive this honor
since 2005.
Harclerode is a chemical engineer with extensive mechanical/electrical, structural, process
design, and project management experience, including 15 years of increasingly responsible management experience with three major chemical
process industries, eight years of management experience operating a $3.5-million mechanical/
general contracting business, 23 years of experience operating an environmental/mechanical/
electrical/structural consulting engineering company, and professional experience in governmental
and private sectors.
Harclerode received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. He also took
additional courses at the University of Maryland
University College and Johns Hopkins University.
Harclerode is a registered PE in Maryland,
Delaware, Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. He is also a licensed master
plumber in Maryland and a first-grade stationary
boiler engineer.
While in college, he worked summers as a junior
engineer for the Celanese Fibers Company in Cumberland, drafting, conducting metier speed trials, and
evaluating dye degradation tests for colored yarn in
the process pilot plant.
After receiving his master’s degree, he moved to
Morristown, New Jersey, to work for Allied Chemical as a project engineer responsible for determining
process bottlenecks involved with increasing production capacity of a caprolactam monomer Nylon 6
plant. After one year, he was promoted to senior project manager and was responsible for air, water, and
internal hygiene pollution reduction projects totaling
$5–6 million for the chromium manufacturing plant
in Baltimore for three years.
(Continued on page 11)
7
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
MDSPE would like to thank the following for sponsoring our
2010 Fall Awards Ceremony for Newly Licensed Engineers,
which was held on October 21 at The Engineers Club of Baltimore:
Gold Sponsor
EBA Engineering, Inc.
Silver Sponsor
Silver Sponsor
Please join us in February for our
2011 Spring Awards Ceremony for Newly Licensed Engineers.
times. Over the past decade, NSPE has lost nearly
one third of its membership, while MDSPE has
maintained about 90% of its members. For several
recent years, MDSPE was one of only four state
societies to increase its membership.
Moreover, SMSG has helped MDSPE manage
its highly successful legislative relations activity,
thanks to the work of our lobbyists at Public Sector
Consulting Group. SMSG expanded MDSPE’s
education program, establishing the Society as a
highly regarded resource by related technical societies. The firm improved our relationship with the
Maryland Board for Professional Engineers and its
staff, and created the semiannual Professional Engineer Recognition Event, recognizing newly licensed PEs, distributing annual awards, and inducting esteemed MDSPE members into the Society’s
College of Fellows.
Mead and von Briesen are pleased with the
many good friendships they have made over the
years with members and leaders of the Society. In
turn, the Society looks forward to working with
SMSG in its new, evolving capacity with the Baltimore Chapter.
(SMSG—continued from page 4)
MDSPE. Mead was also elected to the PRSA College of Fellows, the first person from a Maryland
private PR firm to receive this honor. According to
Joanna von Briesen, his longtime business partner,
“He has had a lot of respect from his peers, those
who worked in the same field.”
Von Briesen joined SMSG in 1976 and became a full partner in 1983. For a number of years
she managed the firm’s association management
business practice as Director of Association Services. She also served as President of the firm for
several years.
When SMSG first partnered with the MDSPE,
she was its ED for the first three years. Over the
course of her career with SMSG, she has also
served as the ED for the 1,000-member Maryland
Improvement Contractors Association and the Baltimore Cosmetologists Association. Additionally,
von Briesen served as PR Account Executive for
the Southeast Baltimore Community Development
Corporation and the Department of Labor’s Job
Corps, among many other duties.
Under SMSG’s management, MDSPE has
maintained membership levels during difficult
8
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
Meet Your MDSPE Officers
President-Elect
design of direct digital energy management and
control systems, and central plant design.
In addition to serving as President-Elect of the
Maryland Chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers, Hubner is active in numerous
professional associations, including the American
Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, for which he chairs the chapter’s
Refrigeration Committee, the American Consulting
Engineers Council, the Maryland Council of Design Professionals, and the Society of American
Military Engineers.
He also serves as a captain in the Engineering
Corps of the Maryland Defense Force, for which he is
the officer-in-charge of the Maryland Engineering
Emergency Response Team and the liaison officer to
the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
Hubner and his wife Mary, also a Penn State
architectural engineering graduate, have three children, one in high school, one in middle school, and
one in elementary. The family is very involved in
their community.
Hubner has served as a board member of the
Fire Museum of Maryland, coached soccer and
lacrosse for the Fallston Recreation Council, and
been a volunteer for the Boy Scouts of America
since 2002. His wife is very active with the local
schools in addition to being a troop leader for the
Girl Scouts of America.
Edward A. Hubner, PE, was
born and raised in northern
New Jersey. He received a
bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering with a specialty in environmental systems design from The Pennsylvania State University in
1985. Upon graduation, he
relocated to Maryland to begin his professional career.
He has been a registered PE since 1990 and is
currently licensed to practice in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Hubner has worked as a consulting engineer
for EBL Engineers, LLC, since 1987. He is the current principal-in-charge of mechanical, electrical,
and plumbing engineering, as well as their construction management group. He has extensive experience in the design of HVAC, refrigeration,
plumbing, industrial ventilation, thermal storage,
process piping, geothermal, energy management
systems, and consideration for construction phasing to maintain operations during renovation and
expansion of existing facilities.
Hubner is highly regarded for forensic engineering in the field of remedial energy analysis.
His specialized areas of expertise are analysis for
energy conservation and life cycle cost analysis,
Engineering Tip
In an effort to provide additional information that
will help professional engineers in their daily
work lives, we provide a hyperlink to an online
white paper, webcast, video, or discussion in the
newsletter. Below is information on a free white
paper on the Eng-Tips Forums website:
PC and server downtime. Protecting computer
systems with Uninterruptible Power Supply
(UPS) hardware is part of a total solution, but
power management software is also necessary
to prevent data corruption after extended power
outages. Various software configurations are
discussed, and best practices aimed at ensuring
uptime are presented.
Preventing Data Corruption in the Event of an
Extended Power Outage
Despite advances in computer technology,
power outages continue to be a major cause of
You can access this white paper through the hyperlink or by copying the following URL into your
browser: http://eng-tips.nethawk.net/
registration_dynamic.php?id=61
9
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
(Bay Bridge—continued from page 1)
In 1947, under the leadership of Governor
William Preston Lane, Jr., the Maryland General
Assembly directed the State Roads Commission to
build a bridge across the Bay, and the first shovelful of earth was finally turned in January 1949.
The bridge’s two-lane original span, which today carries eastbound traffic, cost $45 million and
was, at the time, the world’s longest continuous
over-water steel structure—an amazing engineering
triumph. It opened to traffic at 6 p.m. on July 30,
1952—at the same moment that the Kent Island–
Sandy Point Bay ferry began its very last run.
It was the end—and the beginning—of an era.
Construction of the bridge’s $148-million second
span, which currently carries westbound traffic
across the Bay, began in 1969 and was completed
on June 28, 1973.
J.E. Greiner Company, Inc. designed both
bridge spans, and numerous companies contributed to the bridge’s construction.
John W. Greene, Sr.
Phone: (410) 773-8323
E-mail: jwgreene@finsvcs.com
John W. Greene, Sr. is a registered representative of and offers
securities through MML Investors Services, Inc. Member SIPC
(410) 785-7654. Insurance offered through Massachusetts Mutual
Life Insurance Company and other fine companies
Text and photos compliments of the Maryland Transportation
Authority
Lee & McShane PC
1211 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite 425
Washington, DC 20036
www.lee.mcshane.com
800-493-3483
10
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
(Harclerode—continued from page 7)
stations, reinforced concrete, and specialized industrial process piping systems.
In 1986, he also formed KBD Engineering Company, Inc., in Phoenix, a position he still holds. He
performed engineering on a part-time basis until operating full time as a consulting firm in 1992. KBD is
an engineering consulting firm that specializes in the
environmental abatement arena as well as mechanical/electrical/pro-cess and structural design for commercial and industrial facilities.
From 1981 to 1982, he served as the NSPE Congressional Fellow to the U.S. Senate as a legislative
assistant on the personal staff of Senator Pete
Domenici. He oversaw all legislative matters for five
congressional committees: Armed Services, Commerce, Science and Transportation, Governmental
Affairs, Small Business, and Veteran’s Affairs.
Chairman of the Maryland Board for Professional Engineers since 2008, he has been a member
of the Board since 2003 and vice-chair of the Board
and chair of the Complaint Committee from 2005 to
2008. He was unanimously elected as the new chair
of the Maryland Joint Design Boards in February,
which oversees five boards including the PE Board.
He is a fellow and life member of the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers, for which he is a
member of the Licensing Advisory Subcommittee
and has served on the Professional Development
Committee since 2004 and the Executive Committee,
Maryland Section since 2003.
He served as a national officer of the NSPE from
1983 to 1985 and served on its Legislative and Government Affairs Committee from 1982 to 1985 and
2004 to 2005, plus its Critical Infrastructure and
Homeland Security Task Force from 2005 to 2006.
He is also a member of the MDSPE, for which
he was the treasurer from 1984 to 1985, one of four
founders of the MDSPE Educational Foundation,
and cochair of the Maryland Engineers Week Activities Committee for five years. At our meetings, he
has presented the certificates to newly licensed PEs
twice a year since 2004.
As a member of the National Council of Examiners of Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), he
served as a member and subcommittee chair of the
Uniform Procedures and Legislative Guidelines
Committee from 2004 to 2008 (committee chair,
2006–2008) and as a consultant to the committee
since 2008. Harclerode has served on the Engineer-
ing Education Task Force since its inception in 2008
and the Chemical Exam Development Committee
since 2005. He was also an ex-oficio member of
NCEES’s B+30 Task Force from 2007 to 2008 and a
member of the Fire Protection and Design-Build
Task Force from 2003 to 2004. Additionally, he was
the Northeast Zone assistant vice president from
2007 to 2008 and received the Northeast Zone 2008–
2009 Distinguished Service Award (ENNY).
In August, Harclerode
was awarded the NCEES
Distinguished Service
Award for his dedicated
service to the engineering
profession. The award was
presented at the annual
NCEES meeting, which was
held in Denver this year.
Harclerode’s professional members also include
the American Society of
Safety Engineers and the
American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and AirConditioning Engineers. He
received the Order of the
Engineer in 1995. He was also named to Who’s Who
in the East.
He and his wife Judy, a practicing attorney, have
been married for 39 years. They live in Phoenix and
have three children: Kristin, 34, is a practicing attorney; Brent,31, is an electrical engineer; and Drew,
28, is a chemical engineer.
Active with the Central Presbyterian Church,
Harclerode served in the vice president and president
positions of the Church Trust Committee for 10
years, is a member of the Mission Projects and
Building Committee, sings in the adult choir, and has
participated in numerous mission trips.
He is equally active in the Boy Scouts of America, for which he has been an assistant scoutmaster
and scoutmaster for Troop 444 since 1992, a campmaster at Broadcreek Memorial Scout Reservation
for over 10 years, and is a merit badge counselor for
over 30 merit badges. Additionally, he is a vigil
member of the Order of the Arrow and a graduate
of the Wood Badge NE IV-88 Leadership Program.
He has also coached girls’ softball, lacrosse, soccer, and boys’ basketball for his local recreational
council.
11
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
doubled his sentence to 18 months in state prison.
He was sentenced May 1, 2001.
Neighbor Harassment
Meanwhile, in December 1999, Gini Lovell
But while Elder managed legal demolitions for the was granted a divorce from Elder, which she had
city, court records show that he destroyed the prop- previously filed for unsuccessfully in 1991.
erty of his neighbors in the Kings Court subdivi2000s
sion. “My husband is African American and I am
Shortly after his release from prison in February
white—that was what most of the problem was
2002, Elder enrolled in alcohol treatment.
about,” said Joyce Washington, who at the time
In 2002, the PE Board again granted him his
lived two doors down from the Elder–Malone famPE
license
renewal without knowledge of his
ily with her son and husband, Reginald Washingcriminal
history.
ton, who was her boyfriend at the time.
After making 75 calls to the Elder–Malone
The dispute began after Washington’s son and
home
between July 2002 and July 2003, Baltimore
Elder’s girlfriend Michaeleen’s son Timothy left a
County
police searched the house on July 24, 2003
skateboard under one of the Elder family’s cars,
and
seized
drug paraphernalia, Oxycontin, and
which damaged the car. Washington said that Elder
$41,000
in
cash from Elder’s basement bedroom.
demanded $1,700 from her for the damage. “When
Elder,
his
longtime
girlfriend Michaeleen Malone,
I wouldn’t pay the whole thing, he just started torand her adopted son Timothy Malone were all arturing me,” she said. “He would pop my tires—I
drove a Camaro Z-28, so every time he did that, it rested. On July 29, 2004, Elder was convicted on a
would cost me $228.” Elder—and a boy he enlisted single count of drug possession and fined $500
plus $250 in court costs.
to help—then moved on to Washington’s boyLater, Elder insisted that his criminal history
friend’s Geo Storm. They threw a chemical on both
“has
nothing to do” with his life as an engineer
cars that ruined the paint, and when the couple
and pleaded with a reporter to omit it from his
started parking their cars elsewhere and walking
story. Clients, colleagues, and even opposing lawhome, Elder would telephone them, Washington
yers apparently knew nothing of Elder’s criminal
contended, and chant, “Hide hide hide, seek seek
record.
seek, destroy destroy destroy!”
Elder’s job was a source of menace to Wash201 E. Gittings St.
ington: “I was told by police that he had a weapon
After this latest drug arrest but before sentencing,
and that he was an implosion specialist. I was
Elder stamped and sealed a drawing dated Novemafraid of being blown up.”
ber 26, 2003, for a project officially labeled
At Christmas, when Washington set a Nativity
“Underpinning at 201 East Gittings St.” The drawscene in her front yard, Elder “painted Joseph’s
ing was part of a contract that Gregory Szczepaniak
face black, so [Mary and Joseph] would be an inhad with contractor William E. Connolly.
terracial couple,” she said.
In April 2003, Szczepaniak’s house was apReginald Washington was arrested for assault
praised for $245,000. Connolly estimated a comafter he verbally confronted Elder’s accomplice in
plete renovation, including a gut rehab, adding a
the harassment campaign. “My husband had aprooftop deck, and digging and finishing a new
plied for police academy at the time,” Joyce Washbasement and foundation, at $88,920. In his estiington said. She further claimed that the pending
mate, Connolly reassured his client that he was in
charges delayed his becoming a police officer over
professional hands: “Contractor will also consult
the next two years.
with John Elder, known as ‘Engineer,’ on all maAfter many court delays Elder, who blames the
ters [sic] involving permits, building code, etc.”
boy who was convicted as his accomplice for the
With Elder’s excavation plan on hand, Conwhole ordeal, was convicted on three counts of manolly hired a subcontractor, Sheckells and Sons
licious destruction and three counts of racially moConstruction Company Inc. of Baltimore, to dig
tivated harassment. When Elder appealed his sen(Continued on page 13)
tence of nine months in the county jail, the judge
(Elder—continued from page 6)
12
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
(Elder—continued from page 12)
out the basement. According to a lawsuit filed by
Szczepaniak, the company started digging on December 4, 2003. Four days later, the house dropped
into the hole, levering up the sidewalks around it
and ripping the back wall off of a neighboring
structure.
On December 9, Baltimore City’s building inspections superintendent pronounced the sagging
house a danger to public safety and called in
HABCo, the Housing Authority’s in-house demolition crew, to tear down the house. They billed
Szczepaniak $6,426 for the demolition.
In his suit, originally filed in March 2005,
Szczepaniak claimed that Connolly was “negligent
in failing to apprise Sheckells of the appropriate
method of excavating the basement (as directed by
the engineer, Elder), in hiring an excavator without
sufficient training or experience, in failing to supervise the excavation and otherwise negligent.”
Szczepaniak also claimed Sheckells neglected to
follow Elder’s professional plan and tried to dig
out too much too fast. His suit demanded $300,000
from each of the contractors and $200,000 from
State Farm, his insurance company. He retained
Elder as an expert witness to press his case against
the defendants.
However, Sheckells and Sons found its own
expert engineer, willing to testify that Elder’s plans
“may have been inadequate and/or led to the condemnation or damage to the subject property,” according to the company’s answer to the lawsuit.
In his answer to the complaint, Connolly
claimed that “all necessary parties have not been
named in this lawsuit.” Lawyers for the other parties agreed and sued Elder in an amended complaint. Nearly a year after filing his suit, Szczepaniak was suing his own engineer and expert
witness.
“In drafting plans which were internally inconsistent and inapplicable to the plaintiff’s property,
and in authorizing the excavation that actually proceeded, Elder failed to adhere to the accepted standard of care applicable to licensed professional engineers and caused or contributed to the collapse of
the building,” according to the complaint, which
was served December 14, 2005.
Sheckells, State Farm, and Connolly then sued
Elder, too, blaming the engineer for the collapse.
201 E. Gittings Street during its demolition by the
city after its collapse: Elder drew up the basement
underpinning plan and obtained the necessary
permits. Photographer: Frank Klein, City Paper
Elder answered the complaint himself, without
a lawyer, on January 24, 2006. He claimed that the
statute of limitations barred suit against him, as he
had not been served until two years and 10 days
after the event. He also claimed that Szczepaniak
was solely negligent, noting that Connolly was
unlicensed by the Maryland Home Improvement
Commission. Elder said neither Connolly nor
Sheckells ever contacted him for advice about the
excavation and that, had his plans been followed,
“the work would have been successfully completed, without the alleged ‘imminent harm or
threat of severe personal injury or death,’ so as to
render this defendant liable to the plaintiff.”
In an interview with Ericson, the City Paper
reporter, at the city’s permit office on July 12,
2006, Elder elaborated, saying that Connolly had
underbid the job. Sheckells “does neat work,”
Elder said, “but he just overexcavated” because he
was pressed for time. Elder insisted that he was not
13
(Continued on page 14)
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
(Elder—continued from page 13)
at fault: “I had no obligation to do any inspections.
At that time, the engineer would do the plans, and
the city would do the inspection.”
Meanwhile, the PE Board again granted
Elder’s PE license renewals in 2004 and 2005,
since he again lied on the applications that he had
no prior criminal record.
106 E. Montgomery St.
Tom Bird also said John Elder never inspected his
basement excavation, as required by the city’s new
permitting procedure. “This gentleman gave me the
permits for the place and never came out to inspect
at all,” Bird told Ericson. Bird’s house at 106 E.
Montgomery Street collapsed in the fall of 2005,
damaging houses on both sides of it. “He just takes
the check, and that’s it.”
Bird’s project was much like Szczepaniak’s
house on E. Gittings. Elder handled the plans and
permit, and Bird hired an unlicensed contractor
(who he said he could no longer locate). The excavation was rushed. On the day the house fell, Elder
“was scared…he knew he was in trouble,” Bird
recounted. “He kept saying, ‘It’s not my fault, not
my fault.’”
Mike Dominelli, PE, wrote a letter to Dr. John
Hawkins in September 2005 that predicted catastrophe. Bird’s house, next door to Hawkins’s, was
about to fall down, and when that happened, it
could fall on the dentist’s own Federal Hill rowhouse. Three days later, Bird’s house caved in.
Hawkins’s house luckily suffered only minor
damage.
However, the home on the other side, 108 E.
Montgomery, was left uninhabitable, according
to its owner, Donald Eickhoff. “So, he buckles
my areaway” between the houses, Eickhoff said
of Bird, the owner of 106. “He gives me a call
and says, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything.’ Month and a half goes by, nothing happens. I’m tied to him on the second and third
floor, and he’s twisting my building. There’s big
cracks appearing.”
When the back and side walls on 106 finally
fell, bricks rained on Eickhoff’s house. “It shifted
the wall in the living room and the room in back of
the kitchen,” he told Ericson, but Bird “still had
people in there digging.”
Elder drew up basement underpinning plans for
two different locations, 3409 Harmony Court and
1600 Clarkson Street. The drawings appear identical, except for minor notations about the lot
dimensions and the amount of dirt to be excavated. Both houses collapsed during basement
excavations. Photographer: Frank Klein, City Paper
The debacle angered other neighbors as well.
Living in one of the city’s priciest neighborhoods,
their block looked like a war zone. In the months
following, city officials prodded Bird to make repairs and shore up his neighbors’ buildings, while
neighbors hired their own experts to assess the
damages.
These days, “it seems much better,” Hawkins
said. Bird “finally got a good contractor,” and the
chances of Hawkins’s house falling down diminished. Eickhoff said the city threatened to condemn
his house, but although it never was, he said he was
stuck with a $2,500-per-month mortgage on a
home he couldn’t renovate.
Bird said Elder surprised him in civil court in
July 2006 by testifying as an expert witness on behalf of the contractor who Bird originally hired for
14
(Continued on page 15)
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
(Elder—continued from page 14)
his basement excavation. Bird had refused to pay
the contractor because of nonperformance, but
Elder told the judge that the contractor had done a
third of the work when Bird fired him. Bird said
that Elder’s status as a licensed engineer held great
weight with the court, and his testimony led to an
$8,000 judgment against Bird.
Bird, who was appealing the case, didn’t know
that Elder was sentenced to prison for racially harassing his Baltimore County neighbors in 2001 or
that, shortly before he drew up the plans for Bird’s
underpinning, Elder had been convicted of drug
possession.
Bird said a city inspector told him afterwards
that Elder had also been the engineer on collapses
on Hanover Street. Elder acknowledged that he had
one on Fait Avenue as well.
3409 Harmony Ct. & 1600 Clarkson St.
Elder was also hired by the owners of 3409 Harmony Court, which collapsed in February 2006,
and 1600 Clarkson Street, which collapsed in November 2005. The Clarkson Street collapse resulted
in the condemnation of not only that house but also
the house next door, 1602, and forced the owner of
the latter house, Karen Nasuta, to find other quarters. The city charged the owner of 1600, Mark
Koch, with criminal violations of the city housing
code and summoned him for a July 2006 trial.
Braverman, the deputy commissioner for code enforcement. “His name has come up. We did have
some concern,” Braverman said in an interview on
July 2006. In February 2006, officials blocked
Elder’s ability to pull building permits and summoned him to a meeting in which city code officials told him to be more careful—and got his signature on a promise to do so.
In a letter to Dorreya Elmenshawy, the director
of Permits and Code Enforcement, Construction
and Building Inspection, Elder pledged to advise
every underpinning client about the dangers of the
work, make sure their contractors call him for inspections, inspect weekly even if no one calls, and
withdraw from the project if he finds “any form of
non-compliance.” Elder’s withdrawal as engineer
would cancel the permit.
Braverman said he knew of no other engineer
forced into a similar agreement with the city. He
also said that he had no knowledge of Elder’s
criminal record.
City Paper and PE Board Investigate
Elder first came to the PE Board’s attention after
Ericson’s series of investigative articles in the City
Paper that detailed Elder’s criminal history, which
had not been reported as required on his license
renewal applications, and his involvement in four
separate collapses in Baltimore City.
Ericson’s first story examined why dozens of
buildings fall down in Baltimore every year and
City Finally Notices
detailed four collapses in which Elder’s name apElder’s reputation for collapses was finally noticed peared as engineer. Elder said there were others,
by city housing officials, according to Michael
but denied he was responsible for any of them.
On October 7, 2006, Elder responded to the PE
Board’s inquiry, explaining that in each collapse,
he was not responsible and could have done nothing to prevent it. Elder gave a copy of his response
to the City Paper. (State licensing agencies do not
report details of complaints, investigations, and
hearings until after the cases are completed and
their orders have passed the appeal dates. Hearings
are public, however, and when MDSPE is aware of
them, someone usually attends.)
Ericson closely followed the Elder case, including civil suits, Baltimore City investigations,
and a Baltimore City councilman’s inquiries. AcDamage at the rear of the 3400 block of Harmony cording to a City Paper article in November 2006,
Court after the collapse of 3409 Photographer: Frank
Klein, City Paper
15
(Continued on page 16)
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
1600 Clarkson Street Photographer: Frank Klein, City
Paper
(Elder—continued from page 15)
At 106 E. Montgomery St., Elder wrote that
owner Tom Bird was solely responsible, because he hired unlicensed contractors who
overexcavated without Elder’s knowledge.
Bird has since been charged with housing violations in the matter, according to records and
interviews, and that case is pending in Baltimore City District Court.
The collapse of 201 E. Gittings St. was
similar, Elder wrote, except that it went down
at a time when ‘Baltimore City was responsible
for all construction inspections and site visits,’
so Elder was removed even further from responsibility. The owner there, Gregory Szczepaniak, sued Elder for his involvement in the
2003 collapse but dropped the engineer from
the suit in August. In a conversation last summer, Szczepaniak’s lawyer acknowledged that
Elder—who does not own a home in his own
name and says he does not carry liability insurance—is “judgment proof,” meaning that he
could avoid paying monetary damages even if
the court ordered them. The case appears to
have been settled in late October. Calls to
Szczepaniak’s lawyer were not returned.
At 3409 Harmony Court, Elder wrote, the
owner hired someone to dig out the basement
with a backhoe—without informing Elder. As
evidence, Elder cited a letter from Mike Coster
of byDesign, with whom Elder has worked
closely for years. The final case, 1600 Clarkson
St., had collapsed before Elder was even hired,
he wrote to the board. In that case, the city’s
permit office had granted a vague permit for
“digging out basement.”
In a case that started with relentless publicity in
the City Paper, John D. Elder, PE, was fined
$2,000 by the Maryland State PE Board on August
22, 2007, and his license was suspended for 120
days for failure to reveal criminal convictions when
applying for his PE license in 1986 and 11 subsequent renewals. This was the latest of 39 years of
almost continuous court cases for Elder, stemming
back to August 1968.
His criminal record of cases not involving engineering issues were deemed by the PE Board to
be misdemeanors related to the practice of professional engineering and/or involved drug-related
offenses. Elder had not acknowledged any of these
convictions on any of his PE license renewal applications. His license was due to expire on December
3, 2007, and he was eligible to request reinstatement of his license on December 15, 2007.
Getting Back to Business
In the spring of 2008, Elder did not pay his 2007
state income taxes. He told Ericson that he cashed
in a $16,000 retirement account to pay about
$12,000 in back taxes. Then, in March, he went to
the PE Board to ask that his license be reinstated.
“I took my application down there in hand,”
Elder told Ericson. “The first time I took it down,
they wouldn’t give it to me. They wanted another
letter saying that nothing had happened in the interim,” meaning that Elder had not been arrested on
criminal charges. He has not been arrested since
2004, according to online court records. The board
agreed to reinstate Elder’s engineering license at its
April 10, 2008, meeting.
Milena Trust, an assistant attorney general at
the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and
Regulation, which the PE Board falls under, would
not confirm that the PE Board had expected to end
Elder’s engineering career. “When the license is
suspended for 120 days, that’s exactly what it
means,” she said, adding that there is another case
pending that, by law, she and the PE Board cannot
discuss. “His license was reinstated. With the ongoing case, again, I cannot comment.”
Elder maintained that he bore no responsibility for the collapses and said the licensing board
16
(Continued on page 17)
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
(Elder—continued from page 16)
agreed with him: “They did investigate the collapses—everything I told them turned out to be
true;” Elder laid blame for the destruction on the
various contractors and homeowners involved:
“The people that caused all the collapses, they
didn’t follow the instructions. People want to cut
corners.”
Elder said he could not babysit his clients to
make sure they followed his plans. “I can’t be a
policeman and go out there and check on people
on a daily basis,” he told Ericson. “I have to rely
on people to call me” for inspections. That 2007
statement was contrary to the signed promise he
gave Baltimore City authorities in February 2006.
Trust would not verify whether the PE Board had
investigated the collapses, citing confidentiality
requirements.
Harry Loleas, deputy commissioner of occupational and professional licensing at the state Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, said
his division had only 12 of the 16 investigators it
was budgeted for, although three of those slots
were being recruited. “We have a fair degree of
turnover from time to time,” he told Ericson, “But I
will give you an absolute assurance that any vacancy in an investigative position is totally without
impact on the standing of the complaint that you’ve
inquired about.”
So, John Elder was back in business.
when Elder died on March 3, 2010, at the age of 61.
Several active cases still appear in the court’s online
records, with Elder listed as the defendant.
According to Ericson, Elder never took his reporting personally. He returned Ericson’s calls and even
had words of encouragement. “Your article did do one
good thing,” he said in their last conversation. “It
woke the city up to the fact that curb-retaining walls
[to hold up rowhouses with dug-out basements] are
not a good idea. Mathematically they don’t work out.”
Elder left a mark on Baltimore City and Baltimore County, albeit a very long, sad, and dirty one.
The facts and quotes in this article were culled from
several City Paper articles by Edward Ericson, Jr. from
2006 to 2010, an August 2007 MDSPE consent agreement, the January 2008 MDSPE newsletter, and online
Maryland court records.
The Conclusion
Elder’s adopted son, Timothy, whom Michaeleen
Malone had adopted prior to Elder moving in with
her, died in November 2008. Elder also claimed to
have had a blood infection that kept him in the hospital for seven weeks sometime in 2008.
In December 2008, Elder was granted 12
months’ unsupervised probation before judgment
for failure to perform contract, acting as a contractor without a license, and theft of $500 plus value
in January 2008. He was ordered to pay $4,500 in
restitution to the complainant, Michael Miller, plus
court costs and fees.
He next faced additional charges in a case involving several building collapses to be heard by the Office of Administrative Hearings in the fall of 2009.
That case was heard by an administrative law judge,
whose recommendation was just about to be released
17
Would you like to contribute an
article or suggest a topic for our
newsletter? Feel free to email us
at admin@mdspe.com.
PROFESSIONALENGINEER
ENGINEER
MARYLANDPROFESSIONAL
MARYLAND
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
Summer
2009
MDSPE Associates
The Maryland Society of Professional Engineers extends our deep and sincere appreciation to these
firms who support our organization as MDSPE Associates. If you are interested in becoming an MDSPE
Associate and would like information about the costs and benefits, please call MDSPE Executive
Director Amanda Lee at the MDSPE Staff Office at 410-933-3453 or email admin@mdspe.org.
Accurate Infrastructure Data, Inc.
Daft McCune Walker, Inc.
1100 Batavia Farm Road, Suite 200
Baltimore, MD 21237
Contact: Michael T. Maguire, MA, LS
410-686-5091, fax 410-686-5093, cell 443-610-2672
mmaguire@aidatainc.com
www.aidatainc.com
At A/I/DATA, our subsurface utility location services conform to CI/ASCE 38-02 standard guidelines for the collection of existing subsurface utility data. Subsurface utility
location, test hole services, surveying and mapping, utility
georeferencing and positioning services, and GOS data
population.
200 E. Pennsylvania Avenue
Towson, MD 21286
Contact: Kristy Bischoff
410-296-3333, fax 410-296-4705
kbischoff@dmw.com
www.dmw.com
Comprised of a team of land planners, landscape architects,
civil engineers, surveyors, and environmental professionals, Daft McCune Walker (DMW) is a leading land development and consulting firm in the Baltimore region.
Founded in 1970, DMW originally provided professional
landscape architectural, land planning, and site design services. In 1982 the company added civil engineering, followed by surveying and environmental service in 1987.
Today, with significant experience in nearly every aspect of
the land development process, DMW’s employees service
a wide range of clients on a variety of projects around the
Baltimore region and beyond.
Atlantic Risk Management, Inc.
5850 Waterloo Road, Suite 240
Baltimore, MD 21045
Contact: Michael Colonnello
410-480-4406, fax 410-465-0759
mcolonnello@atlanticrisk.com
www.atlanticrisk.com
Atlantic Risk Management is a full-service insurance and
bonding agency located in Columbia. We are here to offer
insurance and financial assistance to the members and organizations of MDSPE.
Garrison Financial, LLC
The Constellation Design Group, Inc.
57 W. Timonium Road, Suite 200
Timonium, MD 21093
Contact: Cathy S. Ritter, PE
410-252-1884, fax 410-560-3632
critter@constellationdesign.com
The Constellation Design Group performs civil highway
and roadway design for the Maryland State Highway Administration, MdTA, CTA, MPA, Baltimore City, and various Maryland counties. Our responsibilities consist of
storm drainage, SWM, critical area permitting, E/S control,
MOT, and utility relocation. Our work also includes highway design, intersection improvements, roundabout design,
park-and-ride plans and specifications, drainage improvement evaluations, reports, and bridge approach roadway
complete designs.
MDSPE is working for you!
EP IV, Suite 200, 11350 McCormick Road
Hunt Valley, MD 21031
Contact: John Greene, Sr., or Scott Schuebel, CFS
410-773-8323, fax 410-785-7655
jwgreene@finsvcs.com or sshuebel@finsvcs.com
www.garrisonfa.com
Garrison is a client-driven firm founded on a dedication to
excellence in providing investment, insurance, and financial strategies. By listening closely and thoroughly understanding the needs and goals of every client, we ensure that
they are positioned for the expected and prepared for the
unexpected.
George W. Stephens, Jr. & Associates
215 Schilling Circle, Suite 114
Hunt Valley, MD 21031
Contact: James A. Markle, Jr., PE
410-785-6640, fax 410-785-6647
jmarkle@gwstephens.com
www.gwstephens.com
George W. Stephens, Jr. & Associates, established in 1940,
provides a full range of services from offices located in
Hunt Valley and Belcamp, MD, and Georgetown, DE. Inhouse expertise includes highway and traffic engineering,
hydrologic and hydraulic engineering, streetscaping, land-
18
MARYLAND PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summer
2009 Quarter 2010
Fall / Fourth
scape architecture, land planning, utilities, resource conser- Mehaffey & Associates, PC
vation, surveying, and construction phase services.
41650 Court House Drive, Suite 100
Leonardtown, MD 20650
James Posey Associates, Inc.
Contact: William L. Mehaffey, PE
3112 Lord Baltimore Drive
301-475-0406, fax 301-475-2822
Baltimore, MD 21244
bmehaffey@mehaffeyassociates.com
Contact: Stephen J. Hudson, PE
Mehaffey
& Associates is a civil engineering firm that spe410-265-6100, fax 410-298-9820
cializes
in
land use and planning of commercial, industrial,
shudson@jamesposey.com
and
residential
development.
www.jamesposey.com
Morris & Ritchie Associates, Inc.
James Posey Associates has provided mechanicalelectrical engineering since 1911 to clients throughout
the mid-Atlantic region. The staff of 57 includes 14 professional engineers and eight LEED-accredited professionals, as well as engineers who are lighting certified and certified in plumbing design. The firm
serves a diverse client base in the public and private institutional sectors on projects for education, healthcare, medical research, and the arts, and for all levels of government.
They have received numerous ASHRAE, ACEC, and
IESNA design awards and are the only firm to twice be
named “Consultant of the Year” by AIA Baltimore.
3445-A Box Hill Corporate Center Drive
Abingdon, MD 21009
Contact: Frank F. Hertsch, PE
410-515-9000, fax 410-515-9002
www.mragta.com
Morris & Ritchie Associates and Geo-Technology Associates are affiliated professional architectural, engineering,
and planning firms. Their full-service team routinely provides planning, design, and construction-phase services for
a wide range of projects from the Carolinas to New York
State. Project types include office buildings, commercial
and retail centers, industrial parks, institutional facilities,
residential communities, recreational facilities, mining and
land reclamation, and golf courses. They also provide infrastructure design and improvement projects to local, state,
and federal government agencies.
Lee & McShane, PC
1211 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 425
Washington, DC 20036
Contact: James F. Lee, Jr.
202-530-8100, fax 202-530-0402
jfl@lee-mcshane.com
www.leemcshane.com
Lee & McShane has over 30 years of experience representing engineers and architects in litigation matters as well as
legal advice on contracts ownership transitions, employee
issues, personnel manuals, mergers and acquisitions, and
risk management concerns throughout Maryland, Virginia,
and Washington, DC.
Stanley Martin Commercial, Inc.
Little & Associates, Inc.
1055 Taylor Avenue, Suite 307
Towson, MD 21286
Contact: Dwight Little, PE
410-296-1636, fax 410-296-1639
dwightl@littleassociates.com
www.littleassociates.com
Little & Associates is a civil engineering/surveying consulting firm specializing in residential and commercial land
development projects.
MDSPE is working for you!
7220 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 210
Bethesda, MD 21814
Contact: Fred Farshey
301-654-7000, fax 301-654-6532
ffarshey@stanleymartincommerical.com
Stanley Martin Commercial, Inc., is a developer/
investment manager of commercial real estate in the
Baltimore-Washington metropolitan areas. The company has developed land and approximately 2,200,000
sq. ft. of office and warehouse buildings. Currently, the
company manages a portfolio of 1,600,000 sq. ft. of
warehouse/office buildings.
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, LLP
1 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 300
Towson, MD 21204
Contact: Dino C. LaFiandra
410-823-2084, fax 410-339-4031
dlafiandra@wtplaw.com
www.wtplaw.com
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston is a Maryland-based law firm
that has been serving the real estate development and construction industries since 1933.
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