New Windsor

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.

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.

Visitors to New Windsor will have to make more trips to the parking meter in some areas of town after the state Highway Administration installs new parking signs.Some of the spaces designated as two-hour parking will be changed to 15- to 20-minute parking areas, Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr. told the Town Council last week. Additional parking spaces will be provided on some corners, Mr. Gullo said, but it is unclear when the signs will be installed.The mayor also said the town would petition the state to add stop signs to two trouble spots in town.

A judge eventually may have to sort out the imbroglio over whether a New Windsor development company owes sales tax on materials used in building a sewer pumping station. While state tax collectors, accountants and lawyers argue over this case, Carroll's local governments should establish clear policies so this confused situation is not repeated.At the root of the issue are the public improvements -- streets, sewers and street lighting -- that developers build as part of their subdivisions but then turn over to local government.

New Windsor Town Council awarded bids Wednesday for a water main extension and renovations to the pump station on Route 31 at the south end of town.A. C. Schultes of Edgewood will complete the renovation project for $137,870, the lowest of five bids received for the work.The contractor will replace the largest pump and add pipes to bring the station up to capacity in time for the September opening of a new middle school.The town awarded the extension project to Stambaugh Inc. of Union Bridge for $41,726, the lowest of five bids.

Middle school considered for New WindsorThe Board of Education is reviewing plans for New Windsor's new middle school, representatives from the county government told city officials at their monthly meeting last week.But there is no guarantee that the board will receive the $2.8 million in aid it originally asked the state for to help pay for the $9 million project."We're not sure whether that commitment will be available," Steve Powell, director of the county's budget and management office, told Town Council members at a meeting at the New Windsor Service Center.

An accidental kitchen fire extensively damaged a two-story wood frame house in New Windsor Wednesday night and forced the two occupants to move out, fire officials said yesterday.One of the occupants, Lisa Doan, 29, returned to the dwelling in the 300 block of Maple Ave. about 9 p.m. and saw flames shooting from a kitchen window. The fire apparently started from a container of grease left on the stove while the oven was on.Fire officials said the blaze spread to cabinets above the stove and throughout the kitchen.

New Windsor soon might have a town park at Routes 31 and 75.The town recently signed a deal with the state for the 1/2 -acre parcel. The state Board of Public Works, which must approve the transfer, probably will review the proposal at its meeting later this month.The town must pay the $800 transfer cost and agree to maintain the property, keep it in public use and erect no permanent structures."We will be able to have a gazebo or fountain on the site, however," said Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr.The town hopes to place a century-old public fountain in the park.

A chunk of concrete the size of a tennis ball, apparently hurled like a baseball, shattered the glass in the door of New Windsor Mayor Jack A. Gullo's office Tuesday.State police said they received a call to the mayor's private law office in the 100 block of Green Valley Road about 8:45 p.m. and found the chunk of concrete had broken a double pane of glass, damaged a venetian blind, ricocheted off a side wall and put a hole in the wall opposite the door.The destruction, estimated at more than $250, occurred between 3:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., Tfc. Rudolph Hansen, New Windsor's resident trooper, was told.

New Windsor must better control its money flow and and reorganize its billing structure so the town government can keep a more accurate accounting of its finances, the Town Council agreed last night during a work session."