(3/28) The Carroll Valley Borough Council mulled over a number of potential ways and means of aiding a local activist seeking to preserve a noteworthy spring located, not coincidentally, along Spring Trail.
The spring not only provided water to a one-time dairy farm and loaned its name to that of the adjacent roadway, but the pure mountain spring waters emanate from cracks in a bed of ancient lava that had once flowed from a volcano hundreds of millions of years in the region’s past. The spring’s water ultimately flows into Toms Creek, a well-recognized trout stream.
Bruce Rowland, a resident of Spring Trail, said his concern regarding the preservation of the spring stems from what he has observed occurring on neighboring properties involving "timbering."
The spring is located on a small parcel of land owned by Tim Light, who is interested in selling the parcel for $15,000. The circa half-acre tract, Rowland said, was too small to attract the attention and support of preservation organizations, while Borough Manager David Hazlett noted that at $15,000, the parcel is substantially over-priced.
Without any organizational monies available, Rowland appeared before the council to see what ideas they might have for acquiring the tract to preserve the spring.
A number of ideas were floated, from having the borough trade one of the borough-owned parcels to the owner for the parcel with the spring, or to having the neighbors form a coalition to purchase the property and possibly donate it to the borough for protection, to establishing a GoFundMe page to raise the money to buy the land.
The council members did express support for the preservation effort, and Hazlett stated he will try and work with the property’s owner to arrive at a solution that could result in securing the parcel.
