Owner of New Town Books closing its doors

Owings Mills' only independent, general-interest book store is closing after less than a year in business.

"To quote an old clich�, 'Sometimes when you're in a hole, the best thing you can do is stop digging,'" said Joel Taffet, owner of New Town Books in the Brookside Commons shopping area.

Taffet launched the discount book store last autumn, selling titles at 25 to 90 percent off list price and offering an additional 20 percent discount to teachers. Taffet said he hoped to turn the store into a community meeting place and a resource for area children and book groups.

After experiencing slow sales through the winter, Taffet launched a publicity campaign for the store in recent months. Taffet said he printed 3,500 letters about the store and "stuffed them into every accessible doorway in New Town."

"It was scary weird how many people didn't know the center was here and didn't know I was back here," he said.

The campaign boosted sales by a third, he said. But Taffet estimated he would need a 50 percent sales hike to start making the store viable.

Taffet is now selling his stock of books at 50 percent off in an effort to clear some of the store's debts. He tentatively plans to close the shop at month's end.

Competition from big box stores and online sellers, as well as generally low interest in reading hampered New Town Books' viability, Taffet said.

Its closure, he added, will likely hurt a particular segment of readers.

"My most regular customers," he said, "were the people who paid by putting quarters and pennies on the counter."

- Linda Strowbridge

Northwest Hospital cited in infection prevention

Northwest Hospital in Randallstown was one of nine Maryland hospitals that consistently failed to follow a nationally established guideline designed to prevent surgical infections, according to recent data from the Hospital Quality Alliance.

The data, compiled in a joint project by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Hospital Quality Alliance, represents medical records volunteered by 45 accredited, acute care hospitals across Maryland between October 2004 and September 2005.

The commission recommends that hospitals stop giving antibiotics within 24 hours after surgery to avoid side effects and antibiotic resistance. While experts agree that continuing to treat a surgical patient with antibiotics after 24 hours is not initially harmful, it contributes to a worldwide problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Northwest, and five other Maryland hospitals - including Westminster's Carroll Hospital Center -followed post-surgical guidelines for antibiotics less than half of the time.

- Emily Haile, Capital News Service

Axalto is closing plant with 100 employees

The smart-card manufacturer Axalto will close its plant in Owings Mills in March - but is providing incentives to 100 employees to remain until then and offering them help finding other jobs, a company official said.

About 60 employees have left since May 2005, when staffing stood at 160, said Ernie Berger, president of Gemalto North America, which owns the plant. Gemalto's parent company, based in the Netherlands, is the product of a merger between Axalto, in Paris, and Gemplus International, in Geneva.

The local plant, on Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills, was founded in the 1950s.

Some employees may be offered jobs at Gemalto's smart-card plant .north of Philadelphia, which will also accept equipment from Owings Mills.

- Virginia Terhune