Members also plan to discuss Mayor W. Benjamin Brown's request that the council meet with him for work sessions during weeks that no council meeting is scheduled.
Although council members are paid for each meeting they attend, Brown noted that there is not enough money in the budget to pay the extra salaries. City ordinances state that new council salaries could not be put into effect until after the 1993 election.
At the last meeting, Brown told the council he would appoint a committee to study the situation, if the council so wished.
The council also plans to discuss a request from former City Manager Philip Hertz for a housing rental reimbursement.
LIBRARY AUDIT REVIEWED
Eric Church, an accountant with Stegman and Co., reviewed the Carroll County Public Library's annual audit with the board of trustees Wednesday.
Church told the board that there were no problems with the audit and that the financial controls instituted this year -- such as dividing responsibility for some accounts -- appeared to be working well.
"Notthat there were any major problems before," he said. "Compared to some groups, the library is doing very well financially."
Board members also discussed what other libraries in Maryland are doing to reduce expenses to meet state budget cuts.
Director Martha M. Makosky said Baltimore County libraries will close for seven more days than they were scheduled to this year and will no longer send out notices for overdue notices.
Makosky also told the board she'd been invitedto join a coalition to support children's services in Maryland, despite the budget cuts. She said she told the group, organized by schoolsuperintendent R. Edward Shilling, that the coalition could advocatehigher taxes or a call for shifting the cuts to another organization.
She said she has not attended any other meetings for the group.
BANK BUYS BACK HOUSE
DATELINE: LINEBORO
Taneytown Bank and Trust Co. bought back the house owned by the town's former post office manager in a foreclosure auction it conducted Friday.
The $108,000 MainStreet home was scheduled for the 10 a.m. auction in September afterthe bank declared Barbara J. Hossler and her husband, Russell, in default on a $29,000 home-equity credit line secured by the home.
The bank beat out one other bidder in the several-minute auction, but the price the bank paid was not immediately disclosed.
Hossler operated the community post office here for four years until a postal service audit disclosed revenue shortfalls from the sales of stamps and money orders. In August she was charged with stealing more than $615 in postal money. She is expected to face trial in December, where, iffound guilty, she could receive 15 years in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The Hosslers owed $30,190 to the bank in principal, interest, latecharges and life insurance premiums.
CHIMNEY IS REPLACED
DATELINE: WESTMINSTER
The county last week ordered a Westminster contractor to replace a chimney on an Allen Way house.
The chimney on the house owned by Bill and Shriley Singleton was expected to be completely rebuilt by today.
The order stemmed from the Singletons' complaint that the chimney was improperly built and that it could become a firehazard.
Teri Construction, who built the house, was replacing thechimney Friday, Singleton said. The county ordered the contractor toreplace it at its own expense.
Shirley Singleton said last week that the contractors were tearing down a portion of the chimney with sledgehammers.
"There are bricks all over the yard," she said.
The county had ordered the firm to replace the chimney at the Singleton's neighbor's house -- where Shirley's brother George Frazier and his wife Linda live.
The Singletons and the Fraziers brought the matter to the attention of the county earlier this year, charging that the county hadn't properly enforced its own building code.
Shirley Singleton said that when they moved into the house in January, they noticed the thermostat would not turn the heat on in the rest of the house. The thermostat is in the same room as is the fireplace. She said that is when they looked into the possibility of a problem with thechimney.
She said, however, that no smoke backup into the house occurred and that they did not experience a chimney fire.
Neither home suffered any damage from the defective chimneys, Shirley Singleton said.
TOWNS ARE LOSING CASH
Carroll's eight municipalities lost $18,000 in state aid because of budget problems plaguing Annapolis and the county.
During their quarterly meeting Thursday with the commissioners, the county's mayors learned from Budget Director Steven D. Powell that money earmarked for police aid and other state-mandatedprograms will be cut.
These cuts, the mayors said, will not be devastating to their finances; the total amount represents less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the $18 million the eight towns spend each year.
