Dan Reaver
President, Emmitsburg Glass Company
I have grown up and lived in this area
for most of my life and with my brothers and we have built
successful businesses here. I would hate to see Emmitsburg
turn out to be another Frederick city, Olney or Germantown.
But I do not think that Emmitsburg's charm and small town
historic nature would be compromised if the town population
would double "gradually" over the next 5-10 years.
I see a lot of positives that could
come from this annexation and other annexations that most
likely will follow, if the town has available water and sewer
capacity. The businesses that are currently here could
continue to grow. And if the population increases, this may
encourage some new businesses to locate here.
The new taxes and fees that would come
from annexation could help the town with the repairs and
upgrades that are needed. The increased population may attract
more businesses to locate here which in turn would pay more
taxes. This would help to keep tax, water and sewer fees down.
A comment was made that Emmitsburg is
growing too fast. I disagree. The population has only
increased by 500 people in the last 20-25 years. The more
people that move to the town, the more children, which could
perhaps help with the return of our lost middle school.
Also I feel that with a larger
population, the town and surrounding area would have more
political clout in Frederick County. If the library renovation
project for Emmitsburg does move forward, we will get the old
furniture that was removed from the library in Frederick City.
Possibly one day Emmitsburg could be home to the new Northern
Frederick County Recreation Center or Up-county Recreation
Center.
On the issue of increased traffic.
Most comes from the Fairfield and Waynesboro areas. With all
this new development that "will" be coming, I
believe it may be time to revisit the Bypass options. Now is
the time to begin to set aside the right of ways for the
northern bypass before all of the properties on the north side
of town are annexed and developed. Make the developers and
builders pay for this by requiring them to place funds into an
escrow account. With one or two new bypasses this would keep a
lot of the traffic out of downtown as well as get most of the
large trucks and noise off of our streets.
Dan Reaver President
Emmitsburg Glass Company
