“At a quarter till (six), we had people busting through the doors,” said Thurmont Main Street Manager Vickie Grinder. “They came in, got their bags and started looking.”

In all, 78 vendors set up booths in Catoctin’s two gymnasiums to show off their products and offer free samples.

It was Connie Cissel’s first time showing her PartyLite candles. She came to the expo to let residents know she was in town and to allow them to see her products.

“It’s been wonderful,” Cissel said. “I’ve had quite a » full story

“If everyone adopted a mindset of ‘If it’s not funded, it’s not on a planning document,’ we wouldn’t have a Highway Needs Inventory,” said Dave Coyne, district engineer with the SHA. He spoke to members of Thurmont’s Economic Development Commission on March 19.

The Highway Needs Inventory is the state’s long-range unfunded road improvement plan. It contains many projects for Frederick County that have » full story

The county has urban and suburban fire tax districts. Residents in urban districts pay 12.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value. Residents in suburban districts pay 8 cents and use mostly volunteer staff.

The county commissioners are considering merging the two districts into one and creating a single fire tax rate that would start at 11 cents per $100 of assessed value in July and increase to 12 cents in July 2009. The request came about because five more suburban-district companies have asked to become urban. If all of the companies were moved to the urban district, more than 80 percent of the county would be in an urban district.

“So 80 percent get a tax break, but my residents are going to get an increase to pay for that [tax break],” Mayor Martin Burns said during » full story