Westminster City Council

The Westminster City Council agreed to take another look at sidewalk sandwich boards last night after hearing an impassioned plea from the owner of a West Main Street bakery."

Knorr Brake Corporation on Wednesday, Jan. 18, broke ground on the company's new manufacturing facility in the Westminster Technology Park in Westminster. This new facility will double the existing size of Knorr's manufacturing capabilities in Carroll County, from 120,000 square feet to 236,000 square feet of space. Knorr is a manufacturer of braking, door and HVAC systems for mass transit vehicles. Company officials said that an influx of new orders, primarily from a new series of rail cars for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, along with other increased business, is driving the expansion.

WESTMINSTER -- Council President William F. Haifley thought he had support for term limits and a resign-to-run requirement for the mayor and council members.He was wrong.The four council members unanimously blocked an ordinance proposed by Mr. Haifley at their Monday meeting. The ordinance would have limited the mayor and council members to two terms, and officeholders would have been required to resign if they decided to run for another office while they had more than one year left in their terms.

As the Westminster City Council moves closer to banning tattoo parlors from the downtown business district, local practitioners of skin decoration plan to bring Carroll County's first tattoo convention to Westminster late next month. The council could pass the ban before then. City officials said a zoning amendment should be introduced Jan. 8 and go to public hearing Jan. 22, when it could come up for a vote. Tattoo parlors would still be permitted in the industrialized business zone along Route 140, and an existing tattoo business downtown would be allowed to stay open, Mayor Thomas K. Ferguson said.

The Westminster city council proposed a 6-cent increase in the property tax rate - perhaps the largest such increase in the city's history - as part of a $27.2 million budget recommended for fiscal 2007 in a work session last night. With soaring costs for staff benefits and water treatment projects, the council recommended an increase in the property tax rate from 40 cents per $100 of assessed value to 46 cents. The city's last property tax rate increase was a 4.8-cent jump four years ago. Council members stressed that they want to enact a budget that avoids deficit spending.

The Westminster City Council is expected to award a $2.1 million contract tomorrow night to renovate West Green Street. The project, which includes reconstructing the road and sidewalks between Liberty Street and New Windsor Road, has been in the works for at least two years, said Thomas B. Beyard, the city's director of planning and public works. The street lacks storm water drains, and West Green Street often floods. "The whole street is like a big river when it rains," said Councilman Robert P. Wack, who lives on the street.

Knorr Brake Corporation on Wednesday, Jan. 18, broke ground on the company's new manufacturing facility in the Westminster Technology Park in Westminster. This new facility will double the existing size of Knorr's manufacturing capabilities in Carroll County, from 120,000 square feet to 236,000 square feet of space. Knorr is a manufacturer of braking, door and HVAC systems for mass transit vehicles. Company officials said that an influx of new orders, primarily from a new series of rail cars for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, along with other increased business, is driving the expansion.

The Benchmark Co. of Baltimore has dropped its plans for The Pavilions shopping center at Route 31 and Fenby Farm Road.Robert Fox, Benchmark owner, said he is tired of fighting city hall and the politics involved in trying to put in the center.The firm's proposal for a 128,000-square-foot shopping center wasunanimously killed by the Westminster City Council last September after more than 200 citizens spoke out against it at a public hearing.Although the council said it might consider a smaller shopping plaza, Fox said he was unable to scale down plans for The Pavilions and still have it profitable.

3/8 TC A Westminster City Council committee recommended the council award Baltimore architects Colimore Clark Associates a contract to design and renovate City Hall and the planned police station.The council may vote Monday night on the recommendation if council members resolve some planning issues.Council President William F. Haifley asked for the special session to renew discussion on whether to install an elevator and create work space for council members as part of modifications to make the building accessible to the disabled.

The Westminster City Council narrowly agreed last night to put up a 3 percent share to qualify for a federal and state grant to clean up a nameless stream that runs along the railroad tracks through the city.The agreement to spend $5,000 in matching funds in each of the next two fiscal years for the $310,000 grant came over the "no" vote of Councilman Stephen R. Chapin Sr. and objections from Council President William F. Haifley, who votes only to break ties.Mr. Chapin questioned whether the proposal would actually succeed in reducing pollution in the stream.

The former deputy housing secretary under Gov. Parris N. Glendening has been tapped for the newly revived position of city administrator in Westminster, Mayor Thomas K. Ferguson announced yesterday. After a five-month search, the Westminster City Council offered the job to Margaret "Marge" Wolf, 60, who also served as Hyattsville's city administrator for nine years and now manages the borough of Kennett Square, Pa. "Marge brings to this job in Westminster, Md., experience in spades," Ferguson said.

Spurning the objections of several irate residents, the Westminster city council voted unanimously last night to adopt a $27.1 million budget that will raise property taxes and water and sewer rates for the first time in several years. Several dozen people attended a public hearing that preceded the vote, and several demanded an outside audit of the budget before the rate increases were enacted. To ease the rate increase, the mayor and council approved a 10 percent tax increase, down from the 15 percent originally proposed.

The Westminster city council proposed a 6-cent increase in the property tax rate - perhaps the largest such increase in the city's history - as part of a $27.2 million budget recommended for fiscal 2007 in a work session last night. With soaring costs for staff benefits and water treatment projects, the council recommended an increase in the property tax rate from 40 cents per $100 of assessed value to 46 cents. The city's last property tax rate increase was a 4.8-cent jump four years ago. Council members stressed that they want to enact a budget that avoids deficit spending.

All five members of the Westminster City Council are displaying a spirit of unity, agreeing with the mayor that the city of 18,000 requires a full-time manager. That position will likely be filled, at a salary in the $100,000 range, as the council meets to trim next year's budget in a work session tomorrow night. Last week, the council and mayor sponsored an ordinance to hire a city administrator. They will vote to approve that position at their April 24 meeting. "No $25-million-a-year business would trust the management of that business to part-time officials," council member Gregory Pecoraro said during last Monday's meeting, referring to the city's annual budget.

The Westminster City Council is expected to award a $2.1 million contract tomorrow night to renovate West Green Street. The project, which includes reconstructing the road and sidewalks between Liberty Street and New Windsor Road, has been in the works for at least two years, said Thomas B. Beyard, the city's director of planning and public works. The street lacks storm water drains, and West Green Street often floods. "The whole street is like a big river when it rains," said Councilman Robert P. Wack, who lives on the street.

Soaring 92 feet above Main Street, the clock tower atop Westminster Fire Hall has come to be more than just a perch for a Seth-Thomas timepiece and home to a bell that once summoned volunteer firefighters to duty. "It's been a symbol of the city of Westminster for a long time," said Suzanne P. Albert, a Westminster City Council member who launched a successful campaign to save the firehouse's bell when the Fire Department moved to its new building on John Street in 1997. But since its construction in 1896, the tower, with its distinctive octagonal curved roof, has become weathered and worn.

PoliceWestminster: A resident of South Court Street reported Thursday that someone stole his bicycle from his residence. Loss is estimated at $200.FiresWestminster: Firefighters from Westminster, Manchester, Reese and Pleasant Valley responded at 7: 42 a.m. Friday to a heater fire in the first block of Pennsylvania Ave. Units were out 20 minutes.Westminster: Firefighters responded at 9: 43 p.m. to a fire alarm on Stoner Avenue. Units were out one hour.Grading permitsWestminster: Carroll County Bank & Trust Co., addition, 410 Englar Road; 7,875 square feet disturbed.

LONDON -- In a day or two, the question before one of Her Majesty's Justices in the High Court of England will be: Does the working class exist any longer in these days of post-industrial affluence?The argument is between the richest and unlikeliest of litigants.Arguing that the working class is still with us is the Duke of Westminster, reputed to be Britain's wealthiest aristocrat.Asserting that the working class went into terminal decline when brightly illuminated shopping malls replaced yesteryear's "dark, satanic mills," is Lady Porter, heiress to a grocery fortune and leader of the Westminster City Council.

The Westminster Common Council is expected tonight to adopt a $17 million budget for fiscal 2001 that calls for no increase in property taxes but does raise water and sewer rates. Sewer rates would increase by 3 percent and water rates by 5 percent. Both utilities must be self-supporting, city officials said at a work session last month. The council balanced the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, in April by trimming and delaying some items to eliminate a $952,000 imbalance between budget requests and projected revenue.

Thomas W. Eckard Sr., a businessman, civic activist and former member of the Westminster City Council, died Thursday in a boating accident off the Delaware shore. He was 62.He was elected to four-year terms on the Westminster City Council in 1970 and 1983. He resigned midway through his first term because of a heart ailment.During his years on the council, he looked to balance the need for additional services in a growing Westminster and a desire to hold down taxes."He appreciated that you had to run city services like a business -- we didn't have a bottomless pit of money here," said Mayor Kenneth A. Yowan, who was elected to the council with Mr. Eckard in 1983.