Taneytown

Grinding poverty and the booming suburbs meet head-on in the Carroll County community of Taneytown, which last week turned down $100,000 in state money because officials feared abortion counseling was attached to the cash.Scrapping the community health center the money was to have bought has exposed the dichotomy of the 240-year-old locality four miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line: Taneytown is at once Carroll's poorest, least-educated and insular community and one of Baltimore's fastest growing suburbs.

A motorist traveling up to 90 mph on Route 140 led police on a 16-mile chase to Taneytown Sunday night, Westminster police reported yesterday.Police said an officer clocked the man at 65 mph in a 45-mph zone near Route 140 and Englar Road about 6 p.m. When the officer activated his emergency lights, the man accelerated and sped away."

If Taneytown's officials don't want to be known as "dweebs" among the city's small community of skateboarders, they should be able to find a place where these boys and girls can do their 180-degree "switchfoot heel flips," "nose slides" and "nose grinds."Taneytown's government seems to have a particular dislike for skateboarding. The sport was banned from the city for several years, but that absolute prohibition has since been rescinded. The current ordinance forbids skateboarders from streets and sidewalks.

Despite its remote location in the northwest corner of Carroll County, Taneytown has experienced an explosion of residential growth in recent years. The major tasks facing the town government are developing the public services to accommodate this influx of people, rejuvenating the town's old commercial district and ensuring that new commercial development outside the town's center enhances, rather than detracts from, the local quality of life.Taneytown's elected officials will also have to choose a new town manager.

The city council in Carroll County's Taneytown is afraid. Three of its five members decided a week ago to reject a $100,000 Community Development Block Grant that would have transformed a vacant bank building into a much-needed community health services center. The reason: it might include abortion counseling as part of its family planning services.In a town where a stunning 40 percent of the 4,500 residents live at or below the poverty line, a community health services center would improve the health and well-being of a large number of people.

The Taneytown Cardinals' reign as three-time defending South Penn League champions ended Sunday afternoon when the visiting Littlestown Dodgers came away with a 7-6 win in the third and decisive game of the semifinal playoffs.It was the Cardinals who ended the Dodgers' 12-year dynasty as SPL champs in 1990. The Dodgers took an early 5-0 lead Sunday and held off a ninth-inning rally by the Cardinals to advance to the championship series against Gettysburg, which upset New Oxford in the other semifinal series.

When it comes to finding new solutions for traffic problems, state and local highway officials are turning more and more to an old concept.The old-fashioned traffic circle, or roundabout, seems to be catching on since the first modern one in Maryland was installed last spring in the western Howard County community of Lisbon. Now the State Highway Administration reportedly plans to build two more in the Baltimore metropolitan region -- one at Maryland Routes 2, 408 and 422 in the southern Anne Arundel County community of Lothian by this fall, and another at Routes 140 and 832 in Taneytown by the fall of 1995.

The South Penn League baseball playoffs are set to start tonight, and as has been the case the past three years, the Taneytown Cardinals come in as the team to beat.One of the teams with the best chance to catch the three-time defending champs is the Westminster Elks, who enjoyed their finest season ever, finishing tied for second with a 23-13 mark.Brushtown (13-23), which gained the eighth and final playoff seed with a win over Thurmont Monday, will get the first crack at the first-place Cardinals (28-8)

If Taneytown's proposed ordinance regulating peddlers and yard sales is approved as written, the town's residents may find they will have to divulge more personal information to hold a Saturday yard sale than to obtain a gun permit.People holding yard sales will not only have to disclose personal information -- height, weight, color of eyes -- but also list his or her employer, length of employment and any criminal history. The town clerk then will have to conduct an investigation of the applicant's "business and moral character."

Taneytown city government will readvertise the city manager's position that has been vacant since Joseph A. Mangini Jr. was fired in August, but officials continue to interview candidates who applied for the job when it was first advertised in the fall.Councilman Henry C. Heine Jr. said the council decided to readvertise the opening in case none of the top candidates is able to take the job.One of the top candidates withdrew his application last month because he has already gotten a job, Mr. Heine said.