At Wednesday's session, the Town Council awarded a contract to Suburban Landscape to repair the land around the town lagoon.
The Eldersburg company, owned by Eric Boner, offered the lowest bid to stabilize the banks surrounding the lagoon. The cost will be $35,554.
"We have started upgrading and we might as well go all the way and finish the job," said Mayor James C. Carlisle. "It's no sense doingthis piece by piece."
The mayor said the town had received a $75,000 loan from the county to upgrade the lagoon and might be able to use any money left from that to work on the banks.
The loan will berepaid as new homes are built in the town of 842. Two new developments and a middle school are in the planning stages.
Members also decided to advertise for bids on the trash-hauling contract.
"Our fees are among the highest in the county," said Town Clerk Richard M. Warehime. "And we are expecting the county's tipping fee to double."
Members said they wanted to review the contracts of other municipalities before writing the specifications of the new contract.
Trashis one of several factors that will affect next year's budget, said Warehime. The town is also expecting an increase in the amount it pays for the resident trooper program and must hire a replacement for its water and sewer manager.
"The budget process is much more difficult than in other years," he said. "So many things are up in the air."
Councilwoman Rebecca H. Harman said she hoped to have preliminary budget figures for the council by the next meeting on April 1.
CITIZENS PROTEST ROAD
DATELINE: HAMPSTEAD
HAMPSTEAD -- About 35 angry citizens spoke out against realigning the proposed extension of McAllister Drive at Thursday's public hearing.
The extension, which will connect Fairmount Road to Upper Beckleysville Road, may be curved slightly at the request of Dewco Homes Inc., which wants to buy and divide a lot that fronts Upper Beckleysville Road in the King's Ransom subdivision.
The proposed extension has been on the town's master plan since 1967.
"If I bought a lot that was not buildable, I couldn't go down to the man down the street and ask him to give me some of his property so I could build," said Mark Schaefer, a Fairmount Road resident. "That's basically what's happening here, except the county is acting as the middleman."
Most residents questioned the need for the road in the first place, saying it will cause storm water management problems.
County planner Scott Fischer said the additionalroad would provide a safer way for drivers to get to Route 30 ratherthan using a dangerous intersection at Upper Beckleysville Road. Butresidents said a red light at Upper Beckleysville would serve the same purpose.
"What's going to cost more -- putting up a red light or having bulldozers put a 12-foot hole in my front yard?" said VernonGroomes of Upper Beckleysville Road. "Let's save a little of the taxpayers' money and the taxpayers' land."
Fischer said he didn't know if planners had investigated placing a light on Upper Beckleysville. Although the extension is not a certainty, he said he doubts the road will be removed from the plan.
None of the residents spoke on asecond, unrelated proposal to extend Boxwood Drive south to Trenton Mill Road.
AID REQUESTS DECREASE
Carroll County spent $2.4 millionlast year on public assistance programs, but it appears that requests are beginning to decline, according to the county's director of social services.
In a presentation to the county commissioners Wednesday, M. Alexander Jones said that applications for assistance are down, but requests for medical assistance remain high.
He said the agency receives three times as many applications for medical assistanceas for aid for families with dependent children. In 1991, Carroll County received 822 applications for AFDC, and 482 were approved.
Last year, the county spent $2.4 million on public assistance, which Jones said was money well spent.
"It is worth $8 million to county when you look at the multiplier," he said. "This money turns over veryrapidly."
The department undertook 26 fraud investigations but found fraud in only nine instances.
HEARING ON SEWAGE PLAN
DATELINE: WESTMINSTER
WESTMINSTER -- About a dozen county residents attended apublic hearing Thursday on a biennial update to Carroll's water and sewerage master plan.
The county revises the plan every two years.The revisions this year include a plan to place Pleasant Valley on the county's water and sewer system. The community is currently servedby a private water company and individual septic systems, said BobbiMoser, a planner with the county's Department of Planning.
Contracts for design are expected to be awarded this month. Construction could begin as early as next January and be completed by fall 1993.
Westminster attorney Charles O. Fisher, representing the owners of the Beltfarm, objected to the county staff's recommendation not to include the 200-plus acre Sykesville farm on the planned service area forwater and sewer.
The plan will come before the county Planning Commission on March 17.
ADVISORY BOARD MEETS
DATELINE: WESTMINSTER
WESTMINSTER -- The county commissioners have asked the Environmental Affairs Advisory Board to study farmers' controversial requests to spread sludge on their land.
"It would be a good project for you to take a look at and give us your opinion," said Commissioner President Donald I. Dell.
He said the panel could send its review and any recommendations to the Sewage Sludge Division at the Maryland Department of the Environment, which will determine whether to issue the sludge permits.
One of the farms is near Francis Scott Key High School in Uniontown.
AUDIT REPORT GIVEN
The county should establish methods of control and review for agencies with outside checking accounts,according to an annual audit of the county's financial records for fiscal 1991, which ended June 30.
That was one of 10 recommendations presented Thursday to the county commissioners in a report by the Baltimore firm of Wooden and Benson, which has been auditing the county's records for decades.
The firm noted that several county agencies and departments, including the Industrial Development Authority and the Sheriff's Department, have separate checking accounts. These accounts are not subject to the same controls placed on other agencies,the report noted.
Also recommended was providing off-site storagefor software programs and data files and review measures of control for agencies with separate checking accounts.
GEBHARDT TO RETIRE
DATELINE: WESTMINSTER
WESTMINSTER -- Carroll County Career and Technology Center Principal Robert Gebhardt is expected to announce he will retire at the end of this school year when the Board of Education meets at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The meeting will be at the career center, where Gebhardt has been principal since 1978. He has worked at the center since 1971.
Also Wednesday, the board will vote on awarding acontract to build Runnymeade Elementary, planned for just outside Taneytown. The administration is recommending that the award go to Triangle General Contractors of Hanover, Md., one of the companies that bid on the project.
Other issues to be voted or discussed include:
* The 1992-1993 duty calendars for school staff.
* Use of school buildings after hours by community groups.
* Summer school tuition rates.
* A procedure for deciding when to close school on very hot days.
CCGH GIVES ESTATE HELP
Carroll County General Hospital Foundation, the fund-raising arm of CCGH, is offering a series of estate-planning seminars.
The first was Saturday, and more will follow, said Suzanne Lee, director of the foundation. The seminars are partly underwritten by Carroll County Bank and Trust Co., and are offeredto people who have contributed to the hospital, Lee said.
"Estateplanning can be very technical and confusing," Lee said. "The seminar will focus on helping people plan their estates in such a way that their loved ones and the organizations they supported during their lives are adequately provided for in their wills."
33 APPLY FOR POSITION
DATELINE: MANCHESTER
MANCHESTER -- Almost three dozen people areinterested in filling the job Kathryn L. Riley has had for more thantwo decades.
Mayor Earl A.J. "Tim" Warehime Jr. said Friday that 33 people have applied for the clerk-treasurer job, which will becomeopen when Riley retires in July.
"We've gotten a real cross-section of applicants," Warehime said.
The Town Council will interview six of the candidates Tuesday night after its regular meeting, in thehopes of hiring by the end of April, Warehime said.
Riley, who told town officials of her plans to retire nearly a year ago, has a hand in almost all day-to-day operations of the town. Her knowledge of the budget process, the bill collection system and most town business is considered a great help to the smooth running of the town, officials have said.
The clerk-treasurer's duties may change in the coming months, as the town is now considering hiring a full-time town manager. David Warner, the former councilman who took a $400-a-week post as the town's first projects administrator a year ago, is the closestthe town has come to a full-time manager. He and Riley work togetheron most town business.
The Town Council last week began to look into the cost of creating a town manager's position. It directed Warner to draw up job descriptions and salary ranges for the town's front office should a manager be hired.