(5/21) A request from the Town for the County to assist in funding much-needed upgrades and repairs to the Town’s wastewater treatment plant was rejected by County Executive Jessica Fitzwater. The $257,893 funding request was to cover the cost of replacing three obsolete electrical distribution panels and the facility’s sewage pre-screening filters.
"The electrical distribution panels are old and it’s only a matter of time before they fail," said Burgess Heath Barnes. "Because of their age, we can no longer repair them by swapping out worn parts, but must replace the full panel—and if we lose one, we lose the whole plant. Given the impact of even losing one, we need to take preventive measures and replace them in a controlled manner that will have the least impact on the facility’s operations.
"Given that the County budget has increased by $20 million, to $228.1 million, I approached County Executive Jessica Fitzwater to see if some funds added to her County budget could be used to help the Town," Barnes told the Town Council.
In an e-mail to Barnes, Fitzwater rejected the request, stating that while she carefully considered the request to include funds in her budget, she decided not to.
"I feel strongly that municipal maintenance and improvement projects are a responsibility of each municipality and their rate payers," said Fitzwater in an e-mail reply.
While she said that she would support the Town’s request for funding from State and Federal sources, Barnes told the Council that the state grants that could have been used for the repairs have all but dried up.
"Unfortunately, we’ve already allocated and/or spent all of the $946,000 the Town received from the American Rescue Plan Act that came our way as part of the COVID-19 recovery efforts. The vast majority of it going to much-needed repairs in our water and sewer systems," Barnes said.
[The American Rescue Plan Act provided $350 billion in emergency funding for eligible state & local initiatives related to infrastructure improvements, specially focused on water and sewer initiatives.]
Unwilling to leave any stone unturned, Barnes also reached out to Delegate Jesse Pippy and Senator Bill Folden and asked them to present the Town’s request to the Governor, but he denied the funds as well.
With both state and county funding blocked, Barnes said the Town Staff will sharpen their pencils and see where they can find the money for the repairs. "We have no other option," Barnes said. "We don’t have the luxury of sitting around and just waiting for the waste water plant to fail. We need to fix it now, in a methodical fashion."
Woodsboro is not the only local town struggling with identifying funding sources to repair ageing water and sewer infrastructure. In April, the town of Emmitsburg approved a 363% increase in their water rates, spread out over five years, to fund repairs to their failing water system. Without the rate increase Emmitsburg Town Officials said, the Town would be unable to demonstrate that the ratepayers were covering the day-to-day cost of the system, which would make then illegible for future state grant requests.
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