Car accident cuts BGE power for 7,500 in Finksburg

Thousands in the Finksburg area lost power yesterday morning after a car struck a guide wire of a Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. pole on Route 140, state police and BGE said.

Donald E. Hoffman, 52, of the 1800 block Valhalla Road was driving his 1995 Mazda south approaching Gamber Road about 7:30 a.m., when he swerved to the right and struck the guide wire, police said, knocking out traffic signals at Route 91, Suffolk Road and Deer Park Road.

"The sun hit my eyes and just blinded me," said Hoffman, who was not injured.

A BGE spokeswoman said about 7,500 customers were without power until about 11 a.m. because the accident disabled a substation transformer.

School board swears in new member Rhodes

Longtime PTA activist Laura K. Rhodes of Taylorsville was sworn in last night as the newest member of the Carroll County Board of Education, a role she will officially assume Sunday. Two-term board members Gary W. Bauer and C. Scott Stone, both of Hampstead, were sworn for their third terms on the five-member panel.

"I'm feeling very daunted right now," Rhodes said at the school system's administrative offices in Westminster. "A lot of people seem to have extremely high expectations and as one of five [members], I just wonder if I can live up to those expectations. But ... I've been wanting to do this for a long time."

Westminster man given 18-month term for assault

A 21-year-old Westminster man was sentenced yesterday for a beating at a field party last year near Hampstead.

Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. ordered Kevin Allen Strevig, formerly of Hilltop Drive, to serve 18 months of a six-year term for second-degree assault and pay $7,630 restitution toward medical expenses of William Leroy Vollmer Jr.

Vollmer, 19, of Westminster was treated for head injuries about 1 a.m. Sept. 9, 2001, after he was assaulted in a disagreement at a party on a farm lane off Greenmount Church Road, state police said at the time.