Page 10 - Port of Baltimore Magazine - July/August 2013

[8] The Port of Baltimore ■ July/August 2013 To subscribe or renew, visit www.marylandports.com
The happenings in and around the Port > > > > > > > > >
COURTESY OF ELLICOTT DREDGES
T he shop at Ellicott
Dredges was festooned
with American flags and
reverberated with patriotic
music as Maryland’s political
elite joined with news media
and plant workers to greet
President Barack Obama at
the company’s headquarters
in south Baltimore.
Ellicott President Peter
Bowe said the presidential
visit on May 17 was meant
to draw attention to the
good middle-class jobs
in America’s manufactur-
ing and export industries.
Among other politicians
on hand were Gov. Martin
O’Malley, Sen. Barbara
Mikulski, U.S. Reps. Steny
Hoyer, John Sarbanes
and Elijah Cummings, and
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie
Rawlings-Blake.
President Obama toured
the plant, asking workers
about the construction of
the digging equipment that
Ellicott sends throughout
NEWSMAKERS
President Obama Touts Job Creation
During Ellicott Dredges Visit
the world. After the tour, he
spoke to the crowd of several
hundred for 20 minutes about
the importance of companies
like Ellicott Dredges to the
American economy.
“Ellicott supplied dredges
for the construction of the
Panama Canal — that was
the beginning of the global
economy,” Obama said. “Now,
the good news is, in a little
over three years, businesses
like this one have created
more than 6.5 million new
jobs.”
To resounding applause,
Obama told the crowd,
“Under Governor O’Malley’s
leadership, Maryland has won
back almost 100 percent of
the jobs that were claimed by
the recession.”
Wrapping up his speech,
the President acknowledged
Ellicott Dredges employee
Myrna LaBarre, who had
shared with him what she
learned during 50 years
on the job, “Be honest, be
helpful, accept your mistakes
and improve upon them, be
good to people, keep a good
sense of humor, have the
best work ethic possible,
and handle the good times
and get over the bad. ...
That pretty much sums up
everything. That’s who we like
to understand America to be,