The Emmitsburg Board of Commissioners approved the creation of a facilities maintenance position for the town during it regular meeting Monday.

The maintenance person will work under the direct supervision of the town’s Director of Public Works and will be responsible for minor heating and cooling repairs, electrical and plumbing repairs, as well as painting, minor carpentry and other maintenance tasks in the five buildings the town is responsible for maintaining.

Salary for the position would come to about $27,000 per year, plus benefits.

Handling maintenance responsibilities in the town’s five buildings is taking more and more of the existing staff’s time and the current town staff does not have a member with the required expertise to handle these types of problems, Town Manager Mike Lucas said.

The town will save money by having its own staff member to do maintenance work in the buildings instead of contracting out for the work, Town Manager Dave Haller said.

Pool fence to be replaced

Also during the meeting, board members accepted a bid from Frederick Fence Company for $16,100 to replace fencing at the municipal swimming pool.

The bid is significantly lower than the $30,000 set aside in the fiscal 2006 budget for the estimated cost of replacing the fencing.

The town has made a number of repairs at the pool in the last two years, totaling about $70,000, and hosted a series of pool parties there this summer.

Repairs included replacing the tile in the pool, refurbishing the entire inside of the pool, fixing a major leak in the main pool and making minor repairs to the building, Mayor James Hoover said in a phone interview earlier this summer.

The town plans to repair problems to the baby pool next. Plaster is bubbling on its floor and it is leaking, necessitating its temporary closure this summer.

Town releases funds to developer

The town also voted to release Buckeye Development from a letter of credit for $36,208 the town held to ensure the developer made improvements in the Pembrook Woods community, since those improvements have now been made.

Under the agreement, prior to the release of the stormwater management monies for phase I of Pembrook Woods, Buckeye had to provide the development’s homeowners’ association with a list of estimated ongoing maintenance costs for the development. The list will help the association in its future budgeting.

In addition, Buckeye had to address flooding and erosion problems in the development before the town would release the money.

Buckeye representative Zoltan Nagy said the developer has met the association’s repair specifications and that the association seemed satisfied with the arrangements.

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