The City’s Christmas Tree lighting will take place in Memorial Park on December 3rd immediately following the Candy Cane Hunt at 3:30. Santa will be escorted in by the Taneytown Fire Department. Gift certificates, donated by local businesses, will be attached to some of the candy canes hidden for the Hunt. Hayrides will once again be available for the kids and the young at heart. Local churches will be offering cider, hot chocolate, cookies, and some vocal performances.

The annual ‘Pack the Police Car’ event will be held Sunday, December 4th from 10-2 p.m. at Kennie’s Market.

There will also be another Holiday Business Decorating Contest with local businesses in which the community will be asked to vote. Businesses can register for the contest with the city by December 2nd. Prizes will include gift cards and publicity spotlights. Between December 5th and the 31st shoppers will be able to vote for their favorite business decorations.

In addition to the Holiday Business Decorating Contest there will also be a Holiday Decorating Contest for Taneytown residents as well. For this contest, residents will need to register their address by December 15th. The Parks and Rec Advisory Board has volunteered to judge the entries and determine their top 3 choices; the winners will be announced on December 30th. The prizes will be gift cards from local businesses.

Observatory For Bollinger Park Scrapped

Erich Bender, from the Taneytown Astronomical Society, told the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board that Bollinger Park would no longer be a viable location for the conservatory based on the light pollution from the city and Meade’s Crossing.

Bender, the prime mover and shaker of the initiative, (and owner of Taney Auto Service Center) had hoped that this location would be suitable for the Society’s premier observatory, featuring a 25-inch reflector telescope.

Bender said that the telescope would be capable of viewing deep space objects and capturing meteor showers, conjunctions, and other celestial events. The Society had also hoped to host public gatherings during these major events as well as monthly Star Parties and programs with local schools.

Bender had hoped that efforts of the City to be certified Dark-Sky Friendly by the International Dark-Sky Association would pave the way for the observatory. Taneytown is about 80% of the way to meeting these requirements by minimizing skyglow and glare that creates light pollution over the city, according to Bender. However, as Meade’s Crossing is built out, resulting light pollution has made the placement of the observatory in the adjacent park untenable.

Sports Teams Will Have to Coordinate Games With Parks Board

Lorena Vaccare, Director of Parks and Recreation informed the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board that she will be making a calendar of events for Taneytown sports leagues to make them aware of firm dates that are unavailable for each field.

Vaccare said that the need for am official schedule was highlighted when a double header was held on the same day as the Harvest Festival, which interfered with Harvest Day events.

Jerry Hobbs, a member of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, felt that firm rules needed to be put into place regarding the availability of fields, as this has been a repetitive problem. As it stands now, Vaccare said, there will no longer be games permitted on days when other events are happening in the parks.

Vaccare also told the Board that the Memorial Park grandstand repair from a July storm has been finished and the city is hoping the lighting retrofit will be finished before the spring baseball season begins.

As for the Memorial Park expansion, Viccare said that the city has met with four engineering firms to get proposals and a contractor will be recommended at the January Board meeting.

Expansion and upgrade plans include replacement of all athletic fencing in Memorial Park, according to Vaccare, "it is years and years old". Because it is very cost prohibitive to do all the fencing at once, fence replacement will be done in sections, beginning with Field One and then focusing on the worst areas.

Upgrades for the baseball field will include installation of a new scoreboard and accompanying electricity for Field One. The softball field will receive new dugout, the soccer fields will receive additional lighting, and the football field house roof will also be repaired. Ideally all the work will begin in the Fall of 2023.