Nave

The state has offered $100,000 to help build an emergency communications tower at Springfield Hospital Center, making the county's option to put equipment on a controversial cellular tower in Sykesville less attractive.The Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems would give the money toward the estimated $300,000 cost of constructing a 220-foot tower on the state hospital grounds."Financial support from the state lowers the county's stake considerably," Jay Nave, administrative assistant for the county Bureau of Roads Operations and tower project director, told the Carroll County Planning Commission on Thursday.

Five companies, including two from Maryland, submitted bids ranging from $118,555 to $168,900 yesterday to build a 220-foot emergency communications tower in Sykesville.UNR Rohn of Peoria, Ill., was the low bidder in the competition to "design, ship, and erect" the tower, which officials said will improve emergency communications.The tower, which will eliminate transmission blackouts in South Carroll, will be built on a site at Springfield Hospital Center. It is the final piece of the county's $8.2 million, seven-tower emergency communications system.

Members of the Carroll County Radio Replacement Committee met last week to evaluate the only bid received to replace an antiquated radio dispatch system with a new 800 megahertz communication system for police, fire and other government agencies.Jay Nave, co-chairman of the committee, said the only bid received by the deadline, Oct. 19, was from Motorola and arrived in five large three-ring binders.He called it a well-engineered plan. The bid was for $8.4 million, higher than expected by county planners.

Carroll County's computerized emergency 911 system malfunctioned yesterday, but a backup radio system enabled dispatchers at Westminster Emergency Operations Center to maintain public safety without a glitch, officials said.All 14 of the county's volunteer fire companies were immediately alerted to monitor station house radios when the system malfunctioned at 10: 45 a.m. until the problem was found and corrected, said Jay Nave, the county's roads administration supervisor."The problem had no effect on 911 lines and the radio system continued to work," Nave said.

After five years of study, Carroll officials have signed a contract to buy a $7.6 million radio system that should improve communications for emergency services personnel and other county agencies.Officials from Motorola -- the only company to bid on the project -- were expected to sign and return the contract today, said Jay R. Nave, chairman of the county Radio Replacement Committee.Motorola officials could not be reached yesterday for comment.The new computerized system will replace a 30-year-old, two-way radio system that no longer can handle the volume of calls in Carroll, said Mr. Nave, administration assistant in the Bureau of Roads Operations.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: FLECHE In ecclesiastical architecture , the Gothic fashion was for the fleche (pronunciation anglicized as FLESH), a slender spire, often placed at the intersection of the nave and the transept. It is a direct lifting from the French fleche , or "arrow," resembling an arrow that has been shot through the structure, protruding through the roof.

The recent onslaught of ice, snow and freezing rain has left Carroll roads with raised sections of pavement and treacherous dips. But the worst is yet to come, road maintenance experts say.When warm weather returns, road sections that have been forced up by freezing water will collapse and become gaping potholes."

When a friend called Chris Nave and said Chris' father's pickup had been in an accident Friday morning, the young man drove from his Mount Airy home to the scene in Taylorsville.Route 27 was blocked by police cars, fire trucks and ambulances, so he had to walk the last part of the distance.Police stopped him as he got to the twisted, smoldering wreckage. They led him away to the relative privacy of a patrol car to tell him his father was dead.Donald Alton Nave, 51, was killed when his pickup, swinging wide as he turned from Braddock Road onto Route 27, moved into the path of a tractor-trailer that could not stop before hitting it, police said.

South Carroll's Gene Brown, who has coached for 15 years, says it has been quite some time since he has had a squad with so much depth at midfield.That doesn't bode well for the rest of the county, considering the Cavaliers have gone 17-1 in county play during the 1990s.The South Carroll dominance goes back much further than three years, and early indications are that this year will be no exception.Brown has as many as eight quality midfielders, led by returning senior starters Brad Blizzard and Travis Mansfield.

There are no nerves like snow nerves.The roads were dry and clear when Carroll County school officials decided to dismiss children one hour early yesterday. Snow had not fallen by 4 p.m., when most students would have been home under normal dismissal, and it still hadn't fallen hours later."While it may be unusual for us to make the call without snow on the ground, [we have] a 100 percent chance of snow [forecast] at our dismissal time," James Doolan, supervisor of transportation, said at about 12:30 p.m. yesterday.