County buys Mount land for new park

Mayor Donald Briggs informed the commissioners at their December meeting that Mount St. Mary’s has sold land to the county for a future park.

Briggs stated, "The Mount has sold some land to the county up on Motter’s Station Road … and that will be a county regional park with turf fields, baseball, lighting, and tennis courts, and with walking paths around so it’s going to tie-into the Mount’s sidewalk system."

The mayor said the amount of land sold by the Mount to the county was "one hundred and some acres," adding, "That (the creation of the park) is in the future – maybe two-years out."

"The regional park is up at our end (of the county), so we’ll have to wait to see how this weighs-out with complementing our park facilities," he said.

Renewed water restrictions loom

After only a little longer than three weeks after Emmitsburg had lifted its water restrictions, water supplies have again begun to drop, which could lose to another round of restricted water-usage.

Town Manager Willets told the commissioners’ at their December meeting that the previous mandatory water-restriction imposed had been lifted on November 13.

Willets noted that Rainbow Lake, which serves as the town reservoir, is still low, at 2.8-feet below the spillway, and the area has sustained a 7.86" deficit in precipitation over the past six-months. Normally, the area receives an average of 23.9" during the six-month period but has instead only received 16.05".

"What we’ll do is … we’ll re-evaluate after the holidays the need for water restrictions again," she said, adding, "However, we still encourage people to do their part (in conserving excessive water-usage)."

New water and sewer truck approved

The Town Council approved the purchase of a new water and sewer department vehicle.

Town Manager Willets said the staff is looking to replace the water and sewer department’s 2003 Ford Ranger XLT with 98,559 miles. The commissioners voted unanimously to purchase a blue 2021 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 4WD V8 for $28,089.00 vehicle from Wantz Chevrolet.

124,000 gallons lost in water-line break

Emmitsburg town crews responded shortly after midnight on December 7 to a report of water welling up out of the ground along West Main Street.

Town Manager Cathy Willets told the commissioners at their December 8 meeting that the ruptured pipe was located about six-feet deep beneath the street, and the break was clamped and repaired.

She said however … that the crack was losing about 20 to 30 gallons per-minute. "We believe we ended-up with a loss of about 124,000 gallons."

Willets said town staff would soon be cold-patching and repairing the pavement.