Pleasant Valley

Fires Pleasant Valley: Firefighters responded to a fire alarm in the 4200 block of Arters Mill Road at 4: 51 p.m. Wednesday. Duration of the call was not given. Pleasant Valley: Firefighters responded at 5: 30 p.m. Wednesday to a field fire on Arters Mill Road. Units were out 28 minutes.

John Perry II was named the 1999 Firefighter of the Year for his 40 years of dedicated service at the Taneytown Volunteer Fire Company's annual banquet Dec. 20.Howard Welty received the president's award for 55 years of continuous service.The Top 10 Responder awards went to Mike Glass, Mike Clapsaddle, Ken Shoemaker, Donald Shoemaker, Brett Six, Jeff Stitely, Robert Trankley, Craig Bare, Jim Haines, Danny Knox and Danny Myers.Length-of-service awards also were given to members with five, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 45, 50 and 55 years of service to the fire company.

FireWestminster: Firefighters from Westminster, Reese, Pleasant Valley and Manchester responded at 6: 36 p.m. Wednesday to the odor of smoke in a building in the 100 block of E. Main St. Units were out 50 minutes.

Mayor of New Windsor represents state at meetingNew Windsor Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr. is in Los Angeles this week serving as Maryland's representative to the National Conference of Cities.Gullo, who is also president of the Maryland Municipal League, leads a state delegation of about 60 members. The conference is an opportunity to promote state tourism and other industries to a national audience, he said.The convention, sponsored by the National League of Cities, draws as many as 10,000 municipal officials.

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 is restoring an abandoned Serb artillery base in Kosovo, which was bombed several months ago by NATO warplanes.Navy Chief Petty Officer Keith A. Buckman, 36, of Westminster and fellow Seabees are helping to repair the facility, which will house 2,000 U.S. troops in Gnjilane, Kosovo.He also was part of the battalion that repaved nearly 32 miles of road and worked on various civic projects for ethnic Albanian refugees."I supervised camp maintenance and sea-hut plumbing," said Buckman, a 1980 graduate of Woodlawn High School.