Mount, Daughters to found health school

Mount St. Mary's President Timothy Trainor announced the university plans to establish a school of health care professionals in partnership with the Daughters of Charity.

Trainor said the proposed school could attract 80 to 100 graduate students and will focus on training those who assist doctors and nurses in the medical field. President Trainer stated, "We're going to do this where we're really helping people learn lessons from this pandemic, and what's needed in order to be able to respond to such a pandemic."

The school will be established on the Daughters of Charity's Emmitsburg campus. The project is currently in a fund-raising phase to help finance the program, and plans are for the school to open in 2021 or 2022.

Mount offering land for new County park

Mount Saint Mary's University has offered land to Frederick County towards the proposed establishment of a major county park near Motter Station Road and Route 15, near the southeastern edge of Mount property.

The Mount is working with the county to provide a few hundred acres of university land upon which they can build facilities. "Right now, it's in the negotiation stage," President Trainor said, "We haven't finalized any arrangement with them yet. It's kind of in the pre-contract stage."

The idea, according to President Trainor, is to provide parkland for both the people of Frederick County and Mount students to use.

Trainor stated that he would also like to see a trail system established between Emmitsburg and the institution. "I would love for people to be able to walk between the Grotto (and the Mount)…down to the Seton Shrine, and for students to be able to get into the town."

Mayor Don Briggs stated there had been a $145,000 trail plan involving the town and the county to establish such a trail that has not yet come to fruition.

Pay increase proposed for town staff

While the Town’s fiscal budget year 2021 projects reduced revenue, Mayor Don Briggs has recommended a pay-increase for town staff. The Mayor has proposed a step-increase with a two-percent cost of living increase for the staff, generating a salary allocation of $947,938 for fiscal year 2021, an eight-percent increase over the current budget.

Fifty-four percent of the proposed increase in salary costs is a result of new hires for the water and sewer services. This proposal would also be contingent on where the revenue is when virus-related, cost-impact issues are realized.

COVID-19: local update

Mayor Briggs stated at the Town’s COVID-19 status briefing on May 6 that Paul’s Pit Stop is closed as the result of the current pandemic. Briggs stated there was a recently confirmed case of COVID-19 at the shop.

"This was a voluntary action by the owner, just as a preventative situation," he said. "On behalf of the town, we hope for a speedy and full recovering of everybody there, and we thank Paul's Pit Stop for undertaking the efforts to protect the general public." A sign posted at the store indicated it was closing for a two-week period.