2015 News Articles
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2015/07/01/hamilton-royal-farms-opponents-win-right-to-testify/
http://www.citypaper.com/blogs/the-news-hole/bcpnews-group-opposed-to-rofo-in-hamilton-wins-new-hearing-with-testimony-20150701-story.html
http://www.citypaper.com/news/mobtownbeat/bcpnews-chicken-fight-the-battle-over-a-royal-farms-in-hamilton-may-be-decided-in-the-coming-weeks-20150623-story.html#page=1
Northeast Baltimore residents fight to block Royal Farms store and gas station
By Lorraine Mirabella, The Baltimore Sun
5:33 p.m. EDT, August 14, 2013
Northeast Baltimore residents are appealing a city zoning decision allowing a Royal Farms store and gas station to be built in Hamilton, saying the store would create traffic hazards and disrupt the residential neighborhood.
Members of three neighborhood associations said in a statement Tuesday they oppose a 24-hour operation with 12 gas pumps that would be located across Harford Road from an Enoch Pratt library branch, at a "dangerous" five-way intersection and too close to homes, churches and schools. They are challenging a city Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals ruling from earlier this year.
"This station is just bad all the way around," Julie Saylor, an area resident, said in the statement. "We have set a goal of the Harford Road corridor to reduce auto traffic and emissions in favor of a walkable and family-friendly district — and the megastation ain't it."
A Royal Farm representative could not be reached Wednesday.
Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-royal-farm-dispute-20130814,0,2851514.story#ixzz2cBCnh9R8
Royal Farms, Maryland-Based Convenience Store, Slashes Employee Hours to Skirt Obamacare (Huffington Post)
A convenience store chain with roughly 150 stores in mid-Atlantic states has in recent weeks aggressively cut employee hours to avoid having to provide medical insurance under the national health care reform known as
Obamacare, The Huffington Post has learned.
Royal Farms, a Baltimore-based chain, recently reduced most of its full-time and part-time workforce to below 30 hours a week rather than provide health insurance as will soon be required under Obamacare, according to workers in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
At staff meetings held last month, managers informed workers that the company was transitioning to an almost entirely part-time workforce, said three workers in Maryland, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were afraid of losing their jobs. According to these workers, the managers specifically said the company was reducing its number of full-time workers in reaction to Obamacare, which requires that larger firms provide health care to all employees working more than 30 hours a week or pay penalties.
“Since the meeting, they’ve slowly reduced everyone in my store down to 27 hours a week or below,” said one cashier from Baltimore who has worked at Royal Farms for about a year. Frustrated employees in his store have been quitting and skipping out on shifts since the announcement, he said.
Read more here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/royal-farms-slashes-hours-obamacare_n_2345753.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
Royal Farms fined for Md. fuel leaks
Company will pay $600,000, check 70 other stores (Baltimore Sun)
Royal Farms has agreed to pay a $600,000 penalty for fuel leaks at two of its Maryland outlets and to check dozens more for possible problems, the state Department of the Environment said.
The Baltimore-based convenience store chain, in a settlement that heads off court action threatened by state regulators, pledged to conduct a "comprehensive audit" over the next two years of underground fuel tanks and piping at 70 other stores and take prompt action if groundwater contamination is found or suspected.
In a consent order signed in January but released late last week in an overview of enforcement actions, state environmental officials said that in investigating leaks at stores in Rosedale and Cecil County they found evidence that company employees had missed warning signs of leaks and had not installed or properly tested all the equipment the state requires at service stations to prevent and detect fuel leaks.
The Rosedale leak was found in December 2009, according to a fact sheet posted online by the Department of the Environment, when residents of a home on Chesaco Avenue near the store called the Baltimore County Fire Department to complain of gasoline odors. Emergency responders found fuel pooling in the home's basement sump pump, and investigators determined that about 5,400 gallons had leaked over several months from the store's underground tanks.
Read more here:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/blog/bs-gr-royal-farms-gas-leaks-20130524,0,4984161.story
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/06/19/gas-station-plan-a-flashpoint-for-a-neighborhood-with-aspirations/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/06/21/podcast-curran-and-community-spar-over-royal-farms/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/06/26/mayor-sidesteps-royal-farms-protesters/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/07/31/royal-farms-vote-tomorrow-is-no-off-the-table/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/08/02/royal-farms-re-vote-a-big-thumbs-down/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/02/01/city-and-curran-quietly-let-royal-farms-drop-traffic-study/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/04/03/bmza-approves-hamilton-royal-farms-despite-community-opposition/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/05/14/hamilton-royal-farms-opponents-turn-to-crowdfunding/
http://www.cphabaltimore.org/2012/06/residents-fight-royal-farms-gas-station-in-northeast/
Who does Bobby Curran work for: his constituents or Royal Farms?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-zoning-20130417,0,3593132.story#ixzz2TxvjxdbX
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-convenience-store-wars-20130706,0,7846037.story
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2015/07/01/hamilton-royal-farms-opponents-win-right-to-testify/
http://www.citypaper.com/blogs/the-news-hole/bcpnews-group-opposed-to-rofo-in-hamilton-wins-new-hearing-with-testimony-20150701-story.html
http://www.citypaper.com/news/mobtownbeat/bcpnews-chicken-fight-the-battle-over-a-royal-farms-in-hamilton-may-be-decided-in-the-coming-weeks-20150623-story.html#page=1
Northeast Baltimore residents fight to block Royal Farms store and gas station
By Lorraine Mirabella, The Baltimore Sun
5:33 p.m. EDT, August 14, 2013
Northeast Baltimore residents are appealing a city zoning decision allowing a Royal Farms store and gas station to be built in Hamilton, saying the store would create traffic hazards and disrupt the residential neighborhood.
Members of three neighborhood associations said in a statement Tuesday they oppose a 24-hour operation with 12 gas pumps that would be located across Harford Road from an Enoch Pratt library branch, at a "dangerous" five-way intersection and too close to homes, churches and schools. They are challenging a city Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals ruling from earlier this year.
"This station is just bad all the way around," Julie Saylor, an area resident, said in the statement. "We have set a goal of the Harford Road corridor to reduce auto traffic and emissions in favor of a walkable and family-friendly district — and the megastation ain't it."
A Royal Farm representative could not be reached Wednesday.
Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-royal-farm-dispute-20130814,0,2851514.story#ixzz2cBCnh9R8
Royal Farms, Maryland-Based Convenience Store, Slashes Employee Hours to Skirt Obamacare (Huffington Post)
A convenience store chain with roughly 150 stores in mid-Atlantic states has in recent weeks aggressively cut employee hours to avoid having to provide medical insurance under the national health care reform known as
Obamacare, The Huffington Post has learned.
Royal Farms, a Baltimore-based chain, recently reduced most of its full-time and part-time workforce to below 30 hours a week rather than provide health insurance as will soon be required under Obamacare, according to workers in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
At staff meetings held last month, managers informed workers that the company was transitioning to an almost entirely part-time workforce, said three workers in Maryland, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were afraid of losing their jobs. According to these workers, the managers specifically said the company was reducing its number of full-time workers in reaction to Obamacare, which requires that larger firms provide health care to all employees working more than 30 hours a week or pay penalties.
“Since the meeting, they’ve slowly reduced everyone in my store down to 27 hours a week or below,” said one cashier from Baltimore who has worked at Royal Farms for about a year. Frustrated employees in his store have been quitting and skipping out on shifts since the announcement, he said.
Read more here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/royal-farms-slashes-hours-obamacare_n_2345753.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
Royal Farms fined for Md. fuel leaks
Company will pay $600,000, check 70 other stores (Baltimore Sun)
Royal Farms has agreed to pay a $600,000 penalty for fuel leaks at two of its Maryland outlets and to check dozens more for possible problems, the state Department of the Environment said.
The Baltimore-based convenience store chain, in a settlement that heads off court action threatened by state regulators, pledged to conduct a "comprehensive audit" over the next two years of underground fuel tanks and piping at 70 other stores and take prompt action if groundwater contamination is found or suspected.
In a consent order signed in January but released late last week in an overview of enforcement actions, state environmental officials said that in investigating leaks at stores in Rosedale and Cecil County they found evidence that company employees had missed warning signs of leaks and had not installed or properly tested all the equipment the state requires at service stations to prevent and detect fuel leaks.
The Rosedale leak was found in December 2009, according to a fact sheet posted online by the Department of the Environment, when residents of a home on Chesaco Avenue near the store called the Baltimore County Fire Department to complain of gasoline odors. Emergency responders found fuel pooling in the home's basement sump pump, and investigators determined that about 5,400 gallons had leaked over several months from the store's underground tanks.
Read more here:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/blog/bs-gr-royal-farms-gas-leaks-20130524,0,4984161.story
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/06/19/gas-station-plan-a-flashpoint-for-a-neighborhood-with-aspirations/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/06/21/podcast-curran-and-community-spar-over-royal-farms/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/06/26/mayor-sidesteps-royal-farms-protesters/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/07/31/royal-farms-vote-tomorrow-is-no-off-the-table/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/08/02/royal-farms-re-vote-a-big-thumbs-down/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/02/01/city-and-curran-quietly-let-royal-farms-drop-traffic-study/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/04/03/bmza-approves-hamilton-royal-farms-despite-community-opposition/
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/05/14/hamilton-royal-farms-opponents-turn-to-crowdfunding/
http://www.cphabaltimore.org/2012/06/residents-fight-royal-farms-gas-station-in-northeast/
Who does Bobby Curran work for: his constituents or Royal Farms?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-zoning-20130417,0,3593132.story#ixzz2TxvjxdbX
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-convenience-store-wars-20130706,0,7846037.story
