Pipe Creek

Union Bridge will hold a grand opening of Little Pipe Creek Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the park off North Main Street. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will sponsor activities such as fish shocking, bug sampling, live snapping turtles and a tree planting ceremony. Potomac Valley Fly Fishermen will give a demonstration and a riparian buffer demonstration will be presented. Local magician Jesse McCarley will perform. Refreshments will be served all day. Visitors may park at Myers Grocery Store across from the park.

Maryland Department of the Environment officials said a 35-year-old, under-enforced federal regulation could now mandate that levels of fecal bacteria in a sprawling Carroll County watershed be reduced by more than 90 percent, though the state did not suggest yesterday how to improve water quality. Carroll County officials said they have anticipated costly wastewater treatment plant upgrades as the federal government starts to implement more of the 1972 Clean Water Act. It requires states to identify polluted waterways and set limits for each source of contamination.

When the congregation of Pipe Creek German Baptist Church dedicated its newly rebuilt church the first Sunday in November 1891, so many people attended that some could not get inside for services.The Rev. Stan Diehl, minister at what is now Pipe Creek Church of the Brethren, and the church's 100th Anniversary Committee, are hoping for an equally large turnout Sunday when they re-dedicate the century-old sanctuary."We're celebrating with an old-fashioned service, much as it was 100 years ago when the church was built," Diehl said.

With dozens of small American flags tucked under their arms, five members of American Legion Carroll Post 31 walked the hills of Pipe Creek Cemetery in Uniontown, calling out names to each other and searching for the corresponding gravestones and markers to plant the flags. When they finished, 181 military veterans buried or commemorated at the cemetery had the Stars and Stripes waving in the wind for them, an honor extended every Memorial Day weekend to deceased soldiers in Carroll County for more than three decades.

Naming schools is kind of like naming babies.And Carroll school officials, just like expectant parents, will spend considerable time over the next few weeks picking just the right name for an elementaryschool on tap for the Taneytown-Uniontown area.The school is not scheduled to open until fall 1993, but a committee of educators has already begun perusing a lengthy list of prospective names. The school board will chose a name from a committee's list of recommendations at its Feb. 13 meeting.

Carroll County might receive additional state money - as much as $1 million - to preserve farmland in the Little Pipe Creek watershed. State officials plan to reallocate Rural Legacy money that was granted to municipalities two years ago if those dollars are not spent by the end of the year. The money would be directed to jurisdictions - including Carroll and Baltimore counties - that have spent all of the money they were granted in 1998. It was not clear yesterday how much money would be available.

Twelve homes in Carroll and Frederick counties will be featured on the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage.Visitors will arrive in the county on May 3 and tour older homes that have been restored. The sites will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The homes include:* The Weaver-Fox House, Uniontown Road, Uniontown.* Pipe Creek Church, Pipe Creek Road, Linwood.* Hedgeley, McKinstry Mill Road, Linwood.* Resurgam, McKinstry Mill Road, Linwood.* Hard Lodging, Ladiesburg Road, Union Bridge.* The Cottage, Quaker Hill Road, Union Bridge.

A 14,145-acre triangle of the Upper Patapsco River drainage basin in Carroll County has been added to the state's Rural Legacy Program, designed to buy conservation easements against development on a variety of land, such as farms, forests, wildlife areas and historic sites. The new designation - the second in Carroll County - was announced last week at a state Board of Public Works meeting, said Bill Powel, program manager for the Agricultural Land Preservation Program of Carroll County.

1813: Masons leave Pipe Creek The Door to Virtue Lodge No. 46 of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons held its last meeting at Pipe Creek on Sept. 25, 1813. A temple had been built for the Masons in Uniontown. The Door to Virtue Lodge No. 46 of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons was chartered in Carroll County on Nov. 4, 1811. The lodge moved to Westminster in 1824. Meetings were held in the home of Jacob Shower until the charter was surrendered Oct. 21, 1827. The charter was restored Jan. 19, 1866.

A 14,145-acre triangle of the Upper Patapsco River drainage basin in Carroll County has been added to the state's Rural Legacy Program, designed to buy conservation easements against development on a variety of land, such as farms, forests, wildlife areas and historic sites. The new designation - the second in Carroll County - was announced last week at a state Board of Public Works meeting, said Bill Powel, program manager for the Agricultural Land Preservation Program of Carroll County.

1813: Masons leave Pipe Creek The Door to Virtue Lodge No. 46 of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons held its last meeting at Pipe Creek on Sept. 25, 1813. A temple had been built for the Masons in Uniontown. The Door to Virtue Lodge No. 46 of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons was chartered in Carroll County on Nov. 4, 1811. The lodge moved to Westminster in 1824. Meetings were held in the home of Jacob Shower until the charter was surrendered Oct. 21, 1827. The charter was restored Jan. 19, 1866.

A 14,145-acre triangle of the Upper Patapsco River drainage basin in Carroll County has been added to the state's Rural Legacy Program, designed to buy conservation easements against development on a variety of land, such as farms, forests, wildlife areas and historic sites. The new designation - the second in Carroll County - was announced last week at a state Board of Public Works meeting, said Bill Powel, program manager for the Agricultural Land Preservation Program of Carroll County.

A 14,145-acre triangle of the Upper Patapsco River drainage basin in Carroll County has been added to the state's Rural Legacy Program, designed to buy conservation easements against development on a variety of land, such as farms, forests, wildlife areas and historic sites. The new designation - the second in Carroll County - was announced last week at a state Board of Public Works meeting, said Bill Powel, program manager for the Agricultural Land Preservation Program of Carroll County.

Heavy rains interrupted Carroll County's post-Isabel sigh of relief yesterday, causing significant flooding across the northwestern section of the county. The flooding in Carroll trapped two motorists who had to be rescued, closed schools and, temporarily, more than 30 roads, and filled basements with water. It also opened two small sinkholes and turned fields and meadows into slimy bogs. In Union Bridge, Little Pipe Creek became a roaring, mud-brown river that ran 5 feet deep and 30 feet across on Main Street and into several businesses, including the service station owned by County Commissioner Perry L. Jones Jr. In Detour, water lapped at the edge of several lawns, as Double Pipe Creek covered the main road through town.

Union Bridge will hold a grand opening of Little Pipe Creek Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the park off North Main Street. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will sponsor activities such as fish shocking, bug sampling, live snapping turtles and a tree planting ceremony. Potomac Valley Fly Fishermen will give a demonstration and a riparian buffer demonstration will be presented. Local magician Jesse McCarley will perform. Refreshments will be served all day. Visitors may park at Myers Grocery Store across from the park.

A number of Carroll County churches and organizations will offer memorial services in remembrance of the Sept. 11 attacks. Services are open to the public. Memorials include: American Legion Post 191 of Mount Airy will hold a Patriot Day service to remember the victims of 9/11 at 3 p.m. Sept. 8 at Pine Grove Chapel. The event is co-sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Four Counties Post 10076. The program will open with the raising of the American flag, which then will be lowered to half-staff.

Maryland Department of the Environment officials said a 35-year-old, under-enforced federal regulation could now mandate that levels of fecal bacteria in a sprawling Carroll County watershed be reduced by more than 90 percent, though the state did not suggest yesterday how to improve water quality. Carroll County officials said they have anticipated costly wastewater treatment plant upgrades as the federal government starts to implement more of the 1972 Clean Water Act. It requires states to identify polluted waterways and set limits for each source of contamination.

If you slog along the muddy banks of Little Pipe Creek near Union Bridge, two things strike you. First, it's deserted along here, unless you count the black-and-white Holsteins trampling the banks. Carp and catfish rule the water, and a lack of trees makes a backhoe the most visible feature in the pasture. Second, the stream flows nearly in a straight line, paralleling four miles of Route 75 from New Windsor to Union Bridge, near the western edge of Carroll County. The creek wasn't always straight and barren.

American Legion Hesson-Snider Post 120 of Taneytown will hold a flag retirement ceremony at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the old gun club park. People with old, tattered flags can have them disposed of properly by the American Legion. The park is at Roberts Mill and Stumptown roads. Information: 410-751-1685. St. Luke's Lutheran sets benefit yard sale Saturday St. Luke's (Winter's) Lutheran Church youth will hold a yard sale from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday at the church near New Windsor. A variety of items will be offered.

Despite aggressive efforts to preserve undeveloped land, Carroll County received yesterday less than 25 percent of the $4.7 million the commissioners sought from the state's Rural Legacy program. Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier, who traveled to Southern Maryland for Gov. Parris N. Glendening's news conference to announce the awards of Rural Legacy funds, said she was "only slightly disappointed" to get $1 million - for preservation efforts along Little Pipe Creek in western Carroll.