Water Meters

After lurching through a series of proposed tax rates, the Manchester Town Council last night adopted a $1,458,218 budget and 41-cent tax rate for fiscal 1994.Three Manchester Town Council members each proposed different tax rates, ranging from 39 cents to 42 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, and each proposal died for lack of a second.The new budget represents a 2-cent increase on the current tax rate.A proposal by Councilman Geoffrey Black to set the tax rate at 41 cents was originally defeated, 3-2, with council members Charlotte Collett, John A. Riley and Gerald H. Bollinger opposing the motion.

The Manchester Town Council decided last night to seek bids on two water meter systems after the four council members could not agree on which the town should buy.Of the town's 953 water meters, 512 are at least 15 years old. Such meters tend to undercharge customers, costing the town money.In one of the systems being considered, the meter is read automatically by telephone. In the other, a reader goes to the meter and takes the data with a hand-held scanner-type recording device.Town Manager Terry L. Short said that with the telephone system, new meters cost $110 to $150 each, plus $18,000 to $28,000 for a computer and software.

The Manchester Town Council voted last night to raise water and sewer connection charges for new homes, and to make new residences subject to new safety and parks services charges.The changes were made retroactive to July 1.The charge for hooking up to the sewer system will rise from $1,500 to $1,750.The charge for joining the town's water system will also grow from $1,500 to $1,750.The water connection charge will be higher for buildings, such as nursing homes, that require larger-than-average water meters.

Baltimore County police are announcing today a new task force to combat the growing problem of metals theft that his hitting homeowners and businesses throughout the region. The Metal Thefts Team is being called the area's first law enforcement group dedicated to investigating the thefts, which include everything from ripping copper gutters off homes to breaking into Baltimore Gas and Electric facilities and taking electronic devices. The president of BGE, Ken DeFontes, is expected to join Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and Police Chief Jim Johnson at the announcement, at a BGE training center in White Marsh.

Rhonda Wimbish says she has been battling Baltimore officials over a $300 water bill — more than six times her normal rate — for more than a year. Now Wimbish, a single mother of a disabled child, says her West Baltimore home is scheduled to go to tax sale over the bill, which she maintains is inaccurate. "What do I do? Do I pay my inflated water bill or do I feed my child?" Wimbish said to a City Council committee Wednesday evening. "I've gone through your process. I've done everything I could to fight this bill.

The proposed Manchester budget for fiscal 1994, which would raise real estate tax rates by 6 cents and ask residents to pay landfill costs on their quarterly utility bills, will be the subject of a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the town hall.Real estate tax rates would rise from 39 cents to 45 cents per $100 of assessed valuation under the proposed budget.Taxes for a typical $130,000 home, assessed at 40 percent of its value, would rise about $31 from $202 to $233 under the draft plan.

Manchester Mayor Earl A.J. "Tim" Warehime Jr. made like Russian President Boris Yeltsin last week: They both acted decisively to eliminate political opponents they say were interfering with the effectiveness of their governments.Mr. Yeltsin, claiming that an unruly parliament was more interested in vindictive politics than attending to the needs of Russia, dismissed the country's legislature as it was dismissing him. Half a world away and on a much smaller scale, Mr. Warehime, also tired of the increasingly nasty political wrangling in Manchester, summarily declared vacant the council seat occupied by John A. Riley.

Within the past several weeks, two town managers in Carroll County have announced their resignations.Terry Short, Manchester's first and long-embattled manager, has resigned. Meanwhile, in Sykesville, much-loved manager James L. Schumacher is leaving in March to operate a consulting business. The timing of these resignations may be coincidental, but the reasons behind the departures of these municipal managers vastly differ.After almost three years of continual battles with a implacable faction on Manchester's council and a clique of residents, Mr. Short threw in the towel.

Virginia A. Schadel, a waitress, factory worker and polling-place regular in Baltimore elections, died of cancer Friday at University of Maryland Medical Center. She was 76.Family members described her as a fun-loving and active person who followed politics and often volunteered in city campaigns.She rarely missed listening to an Orioles game, preferring to turn off the sound on the television set and listen to the radio coverage. When there was no baseball game, she listened to the police scanner she kept in her home in the 1500 block of W. Lombard St., facing Union Square.

IN SMALL TOWNS, people generally know a great deal about their neighbors. Apparently, in the western Carroll County burg of Union Bridge, town clerk Kathleen Kreimer thought she was familiar enough with her fellow residents' living habits to enable her to estimate about one-sixth of the town's water bills for years.Mrs. Kreimer's unorthodox billing method was recently discovered. The town now must untangle this mess.It appears that unrepaired water meters are the source of this problem. For the past 20 years, Union Bridge had a contract with Kreimer Construction Co., owned by Mrs. Kreimer's husband, of all people, to read the meters and repair broken ones.