New Windsor

For the better part of two centuries, the stately circa-1804 Dielman Inn has been a dominant features of New Windsor's quiet Main Street and a centerpiece of the town's architectural and cultural heritage. But for nearly a decade, this cornerstone of New Windsor's historic district has stood vacant and dilapidated, ravaged by roof leaks, termites, occasional vandalism and general neglect. Those contrasting factors — the building's overriding historic importance and its precarious condition — have earned the Dielman Inn inclusion on Preservation Maryland's 2010 Endangered Maryland list.

For nearly a century, Carroll County's smallest town has supplied stone to the massive Lehigh Cement Co. plant that employs many in the community. But the company finds itself at a crossroads — with the quarry nearly depleted, it is eyeing a new supply from a limestone-rich mine that it owns in another town. The company's plan: Construct a 4.5-mile conveyor system that would run under roads, rails and streams — and over acres of protected farmland between the quarry and the plant in Union Bridge.

New Windsor has been overrun by progress. Once a sleepy farming town, it is now a hotbed of residential development. Like several other municipalities in Carroll County, New Windsor is bedeviled by the problems of an old town as well as those of a fast-growing suburb. Older sections need revitalization, while new subdivisions require additional sources of water and strain existing wastewater treatment capacity.For many years, New Windsor's town government operated on inertia. The election of Mayor Jack A. Gullo, Jr. two years ago has energized the government.

For the better part of two centuries, the stately circa-1804 Dielman Inn has been a dominant features of New Windsor's quiet Main Street and a centerpiece of the town's architectural and cultural heritage. But for nearly a decade, this cornerstone of New Windsor's historic district has stood vacant and dilapidated, ravaged by roof leaks, termites, occasional vandalism and general neglect. Those contrasting factors — the building's overriding historic importance and its precarious condition — have earned the Dielman Inn inclusion on Preservation Maryland's 2010 Endangered Maryland list.

Something is not right when juveniles can vandalize a town for hours and nothing is done to stop them. Early on June 11, a band of kids rampaged through New Windsor, spray-painting cars, street signs and lampposts; breaking a window at a nearly completed middle school, and damaging bleachers and a portable toilet at the town park. When they were done, they had destroyed several thousand dollars' worth of property.Even though New Windsor, Carroll County's smallest incorporated municipality, appears to be the quintessential close-knit community, a small band of juveniles has systematically helped to ruin the town's civic life.

FIRE* New Windsor: Engines from the New Windsor station were dispatched to investigate an alarm sounding in a building on Cardinal Drive at 7:14 p.m. Sunday. Units were out for 30 minutes.

New Windsor has purchased 12 acres on Bowersox Road for $110,000.The land is within 25 feet of a town spring, part of its water supply, and adjoins a 100-acre farm, which the town owns. No development will take place on the land."We needed the 12 acres to protect our current springs," said Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr.FireNew Windsor: Firefighters responded at 10: 47 p.m. Tuesday to investigate a report of a fire in the 3800 block of Watson Lane. Units were out 27 minutes.Pub Date: 9/05/96

All students who live in the Elmer Wolfe Elementary School district will attend New Windsor Middle School starting next fall, even if they now go to Northwest Middle.The Carroll County Board of Education made the boundary change at its meeting Wednesday night at Francis Scott Key High School.Most of Elmer Wolfe's students have attended New Windsor Middle, but about 10 percent who live in the Route 75 corridor went on to Northwest Middle in Taneytown.Now that New Windsor Middle is getting a new, larger building, it will be able to accommodate all of the students from Elmer Wolfe in September, school officials said.

New Windsor government will hold a public hearing on annexations, including New Windsor Middle School and adjoining properties, at 7 tonight in the New Windsor Fire Company's social hall.The hearing will be immediately before the Town Council meeting. Comments and concerns are welcome.FIRE* Dennings: New Windsor, Winfield, Union Bridge and the hazardous materials unit from Frederick County responded to a propane tank leak on Doctor Stitely Road at 4:07 p.m. Monday. The call for the hazardous materials unit was canceled before it arrived, but other units remained on the scene for up to two hours waiting for a representative from the propane company to service the tank.

New Windsor is being overrun by progress. Next Tuesday, the town's 850 residents have the opportunity to elect a young mayor who promises to bring a fresh perspective to deal with the problems.Located on the major route between Westminster and Union Bridge, New Windsor has a daily parade of tractor-trailers rumbling down Main and High streets. These behemoths have knocked over the town's fountain so often it is now in storage.Development on the fringes is changing New Windsor's small-town character.

In the quaint town of New Windsor, officials have sold the municipal ball fields to a cement company, purchased a dilapidated inn with taxpayer money for development that hasn't happened and stuck residents with the bill for a nearly $5 million wastewater treatment plant. While the town council is up for election next year, angry residents aren't waiting to express their displeasure. They're pushing a measure to allow the recall of local officials. Petitioners say they aren't targeting the entire council or any one official: They want their petition campaign to send a message to all. "We are not Occupy New Windsor," said Rebecca Merson, who moved to Atlee Ridge, one of the town's new developments, in 2004.

Digging into the past can be an intriguing and enlightening experience. But when it involves slogging for hours through shin-deep mud and frigid water on a chilly November morning, it might tend to dampen the intrigue and stifle the enlightenment a little bit. Not so for a dozen or so students from New Windsor Middle School who, on a recent Saturday morning, participated in an ongoing archaeological dig at one of New Windsor's landmarks, its...

On Saturday, Nov. 5, the town of New Windsor will celebrate two birthdays at a event called "Birthday Celebration at the Crossroads. " The evening celebration will, first of all, mark the 25th anniversary of the incorporation of the nonprofit New Windsor Heritage Committee, which has done much to reawaken an appreciation of the sleepy western Carroll town's rich and vital history. Then again, a quarter of a century is a mere drop in the bucket, compared to the town's 215-year-long history, which is also being feted.

Selma D. Streett, who with her late husband developed Anne Arundel County's Chartwell community, died Oct. 8 of heart failure at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. She was 98. The daughter of a businessman and a homemaker, the former Selma Demmitt was born in rural Carroll County and spent her early years on a family farm in New Windsor, until moving to Baltimore in 1927. After graduating in 1931 from Forest Park High School, she worked as a cashier in the Hutzler's Tea Room.

More than 225 runners and walkers braved extremely heat and the humidity on June 8 to participate in the seventh annual Maryland Special Olympics' Law Enforcement Torch Run. Featuring local law enforcement officers from around the county and from Maryland State Police — as well as several of the athletes who were to participate in the weekend's Special Olympics summer games event in Towson, at Towson University — the torch run brought the...

A home and garden tour on Sunday, June 12, in New Windsor will showcase six homes and five gardens. It will also feature an idea Dori Batavick thought added charm to a garden tour she attended in Delaware — namely, artists.. "In several of the gardens, they had … an artist," Batavick said. "I thought it was just wonderful. I thought it added something to the tour. " So, when planning began in earnest for the New Windsor Heritage Committee's first home and garden tour, Batavick suggested adding area artists to the mix. Before long, she had several artists, jewelry makers and two quilters willing to participate.

SPRING COMES to New Windsor Saturday with the arrival of New Windsor Day, an annual festival sponsored by the New Windsor and Sulphur Springs Lions clubs.The event, beginning at 6 a.m. with breakfast in the Carnival Grounds pavilion, lasts until 5 p.m.The Lions have pulled out all the stops to provide something for everyone -- without charging admission. Started in 1980 as a May Day festivity, New Windsor Day has evolved into a small-town celebration that includes line dancing, crafts, a hole-in-one contest and music.

New Windsor Fire and Hose Company No. 1 will hold its annual firemen's parade at 7 p.m. tomorrow in conjunction with the carnival this week.Marching bands, fire equipment, clowns and floats from the area will be featured.During the hourlong parade, the following road closures and detours will be in effect:Main Street, from Church Street at the 7-Eleven store to Church Street at the railroad tracks, will be closed. High Street from Main to Church will be closed.Water Street from Atlee Avenue to Main will be closed.

Trapped in the darkness of a wrecked Haitian hotel, choking on the dust of crushed concrete, Richard L. Santos wondered whether anyone would ever find him and his five colleagues, two of them badly hurt. At one point, the thump of a helicopter's swirling blades gave them hope, only to fade into silence. As he awaited rescue from the Jan. 12 earthquake that shook Port-au-Prince to its core, Santos made a vow. "We knew the whole city must be devastated, and I realized that the rebuilding of Haiti would take decades," he recalled.

Julia R. Cairns, who was known as New Windsor's "unofficial historian" and spent decades gathering and preserving the history of the Carroll County village, died March 20 from complications of pneumonia at Friends House, a retirement community and nursing facility in Sandy Spring. She was 96. Julia Ann Roop, scion of an old Carroll County family, was the daughter of a real estate salesman and a homemaker. She was born one of nine at home in New Windsor, and was raised in the Carroll County community, where she spent most of her life.