Town Officials

Carroll commissioners will survey town officials to find out how many of them want to meet quarterly with county officials.At a Town-County Conference last week, many town officials said they would like to meet more often with county officials.The commissioners meet quarterly with mayors from Carroll's eight towns and cities.But some town council and planning commission members said they also would like to meet with the commissioners.The commissioners said they would find out how many town officials are interested in such meetings and will decide whether all or some of the meetings should be at night.

A seagull chattered away in the parking lot of the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City (Md.) as, indoors, hundreds of elected officials gathered for the Maryland Municipal League annual meeting, June 26-29. Just inside, in the front lobby, Taneytown Mayor Jim McCarron and city administrator Henry Heine; Union Bridge Mayor Perry Jones; Hampstead Mayor Chris Nevin; and Westminster Mayor Kevin Utz and Councilmember Dennis Frazier gathered to compare notes after attending a roundtable forum with state cabinet secretaries.

Renovations to a century-old schoolhouse in Sykesville could begin before winter weather further damages the building.Town officials would like to restore the one-room building, once the only school for African-American students in South Carroll, and make it into museum."

EDMONSTON - This little town in the paved-over heart of suburban Washington, where cows grazed long ago, is "greening" its main street - showing what Baltimore and other cities in the region might need to do to help save the Chesapeake Bay. In a bid to make the working-class community of 1,500 more pedestrian- and environmentally friendly, Edmonston has begun a $1.1 million makeover of busy Decatur Street, narrowing the two-lane residential thoroughfare...

New ball-field lights and other park improvements approved in the Manchester town budget won't happen unless the money comes from somewhere else, town officials say.The Town Council approved a $910,817 operating budget Wednesday night, which will keep the tax rate at 46 cents per $100 assessed valuation.Water and sewer rates will go up, however, by about $13.05 each quarter for the average user. Of the few public comments at the budget hearing before approval Wednesday, Tootie Rill of Main Street complained that the water and sewer rates were going up without an increase in quality.

ELKTON -- As Elkton officials prepare to vote tonight on a Ku Klux Klan request to march through town April 11, the Klan is keeping a high profile.Passengers in a white stretch limousine put Klan leaflets in a black Elkton neighborhood late last week. Police are investigating the incident.Earlier last month, Klan members held a cross-burning outside Elkton, and they plan to light a cross again after tonight's vote, says Chester J. Doles, state leader of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Exchanging trains for trekkers, town officials hope to develop a hiker-biker trail from the center of town to the Patapsco River.The two-mile path would be laid out in two phases.In the first, the 3,000-foot B & O spur that runs from the centerof town to Watkins Park would be renovated as a multipurpose trail. Organizers then hope to continue down the right of way, adding a trail section just over a mile long from the park to the Patapsco."The project's been in the dream stage for about a year," Mayor Gerald R. Johnson said.

Sykesville's plans to annex the Warfield Complex and turn its 15 aging buildings into a business center drew more than 150 residents to a public hearing last night.Officials in the town that straddles the Carroll-Howard border would like to incorporate the 131-acre property, once part of Springfield Hospital Center, to spur economic development. They envision a business and employment campus. Two colleges and several businesses are interested."The two main reasons to annex this property are income and control," said Mayor Jonathan S. Herman.

Hampstead's largest developer agrees that town officials were correct in citing him Nov. 15 for failing to set aside enough open space in his 220-unit North Carroll Farms IV development.And, says Martin K. P. Hill, the Manchester builder who has put up more than 800 homes in Hampstead in the past decade, "So what?""It would appear the town's point is correct, or technically correct," Mr. Hill said."It would also appear that every planned-unit development that has ever been approved and built in Hampstead has the exact same problem because all of them were reviewed in the same way."

Looking to solve problems generated by Carroll's burgeoning growth, about 70 town leaders and residents met with the county commissioners last night to discuss proposals to limit residential development. The commissioners unveiled proposed revisions to Carroll's growth-management ordinance, which was created in 1998. That ordinance set limits on residential construction - 1,000 homes a year for six years - to ensure that development would not outpace the county's ability to provide adequate infrastructure.

Baltimore City has no money set aside for future payments to members of its oldest fire and police pension system, according to a just-released state audit of Maryland's local governments, but city officials said no one will miss a payment. The state report also showed six municipalities, including Cumberland and Cambridge, closed the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2008, with a deficit. Meanwhile, results were uncertain for tiny Forest Heights in Prince George's County: The town of 1,000 hasn't filed the required audit for the past two fiscal years.

Just days after a three-alarm fire destroyed or severely damaged about a fourth of Main Street businesses, Mount Airy town leaders and developers were meeting to discuss plans for a new mixed-use development to continue downtown revitalization efforts that the blaze derailed. Developers Brian A. Gallagher and Rob Scranton are expected to bring before the town Planning Commission next month a development proposal that would involve first-floor retail and restaurants, brick walkways and second-floor condominiums around the site of Main Street's old train station.

Hampstead town officials have asked the Carroll County commissioners to consider a zoning amendment to prohibit billboards along the $83.4 million Hampstead Bypass to emphasize the 4 1/2 -mile roadway's role as a scenic gateway, when it opens to traffic at the end of 2008. "We'll have this new road going through pristine countryside," Hampstead Mayor Haven N. Shoemaker Jr. said. "We'd like to keep it as blemish-free as possible and maintain the rural character of our community." Hampstead passed an ordinance in 2001 to prohibit all billboards from being erected within the municipal boundaries, town officials said.

Grappling with an ever-tightening water supply, the growing town of Mount Airy has given up on tapping nearby rivers in favor of a renewed search for wells that can produce enough water so that homes already approved there can be built. This week, the Town Council approved a new agreement with the Maryland Department of the Environment limiting development until additional sources of water can be found to supplement the 10 wells now supplying the community of nearly 8,500 residents on the border of Carroll and Frederick counties.

Oakland --Officials racing against a thaw to protect a threatened earthen dam and homes in Western Maryland ordered bigger pumps yesterday and called on the state's Air National Guard to help install them. A CH-47 Chinook helicopter was deployed to the mountain town of Oakland, the Garrett County seat, to hoist two 8,900-pound pumps into place beside the Little Youghiogheny River Site 1 reservoir, according to town officials and Katie Leahan, spokeswoman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.

Elkton 7-year-old boy saves his brother A 7-year-old boy is being credited with saving his brother's life on a Boy Scout camping trip. William Richmond performed the Heimlich maneuver on his 12-year-old brother, Mark, when Mark choked on a piece of bacon, the Cecil Whig reported. "I didn't think I was going to live," Mark told the newspaper. The boys' mother, Theresa, is a nurse and went over first aid procedures with the campers. But she was surprised that William was able to do the maneuver.

After months of bickering with Carroll's commissioners over growth management, several town officials have drafted a plan to stem sprawl throughout the county - and they're marshaling support from their colleagues. Even as the commissioners worked yesterday to revise the county's growth-management law, one town councilman was circulating a letter calling for stronger action from the county. Frank Johnson, president of the Mount Airy Town Council, drafted the letter, which lists six measures to control growth.

Manchester officials are studying new ways to preserve town springs as drinking water sources, after several attempts to identify well sites have failed.The town is under a state-imposed order to reduce its dependency on the springs that have supplied 40 percent of the town's drinking water since 1933. Nearly two years ago, state environmental authorities determined that the springs were vulnerable to surface water contamination."We're shifting the emphasis a bit and concentrating on doing spring rehabilitation work to improve the source of the springs," said Manchester Town Manager David Warner.

Sykesville, a town of about 4,500 on the border between Carroll and Howard counties, has a vibrant downtown, a rich railroad history and a charming riverfront. Trading on those amenities should help the town draw its residents and visitors to its varied businesses, restaurants and attractions. Town officials have started the Warfield Corporate and Culture Center, a $20 million business enterprise in former state hospital buildings along Route 32. They have worked to restore a one-room schoolhouse as an African-American museum, a companion to the Gatehouse Museum, which houses town memorabilia.