(10/2021) I want to thank all of the Town residents who came out for the election. We appreciate you taking time to vote. Every candidate ran a good race and raised issues important to the residents. I look forward to working with the new board to continue the Town’s lengthy history of keeping the tax rate low while providing Maryland State resident troopers, great parks, and the other services such as weekly trash pickup, the curbside yard waste program, bulk trash pickups, and shredding events.

I always encourage residents to compare our tax rate of 14 cents for a town of 6,574 residents to other Towns and Frederick County. Frederick County has a tax rate of 1.06, Brunswick with 6,652 residents has a tax rate of 41 cents, Emmitsburg with 3,270 residents has a tax rate of 34 cents, Frederick City with 73,308 residents has a tax rate of 73 cents, Middletown with 4,910 residents has a tax rate of 23 cents, Myersville with 1,884 residents has a tax rate of 34 cents, and Thurmont with 7,070 residents has a tax rate of 29 cents. This savings adds up every year one resides in the great town of Walkersville. You can see how this works through this example if you house has an assessed value of $300,000 the tax bill in Walkersville would be $420 if you lived in Brunswick your tax bill would be $1,230 and in Myersville your tax bill would be $1,020. Over a 5-year period if those rates all stayed the same a Walkersville resident has paid $2,100 versus $6,150 in Brunswick and $5,100 in Myersville.

I would like to send out a big "Thank you" to John Grimes, Walkersville United Methodist Church; Gary Wachter, St Paul’s Lutheran Church and Irene Weddle, Glade United Church of Christ for ringing church bells on 9/11 to honor all the innocent victims of that day. Bells rang at 8:46am and 9:03am to remember the times the planes struck the World Trade Center in New York. Bells rang at 9:37 to remember the time the plane struck the Pentagon. Finally, the bells rang at 10:03 to remember the time the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The bell ringing was a part of 9/11 20th remembrance program behind Town hall on Saturday September 11th.

Thanks to the Veteran’s Committee for holding a picnic/cornhole tournament for area veterans and the veterans trip to Washington D.C. remember to mark down Sunday November 7th for the Veteran’s Day Program at Memorial Park (Pennsylvania Avenue and Main Street)

The Town will be seeking members of the community to serve on the Economic Development Commission. Please contact Town hall 301-845-4500 for more information on applying

Town hall will be coming thru renovations, and we will be holding meetings in the 2nd floor meeting room so please enter using the front door closest to the entrance driveway, there is an elevator that can be used to get to the second floor. This is where Parks Meetings, Board of Appeals meeting, Planning and Zoning meeting and the Burgess and Commissioner meetings will be held.

We are please to announce that meetings can be watched live and then recoded on the Town website as opposed to the town Facebook page. So please go to walkersvillemd.gov to watch meetings as they occur or to watch the recording of a meeting. If you wish to submit public comment or have questions about items, the way to do that is via email info@walkersvillemd.gov.

The Town is in the process of upgrading/updating the web site to allow payment of water bills online and other new features. The Town is also going to put the Town Code in a format that is term searchable and thus hopefully, more user friendly and more receptive to the residents by being able to find the code applicable to their specific issue or item.

The Town is receiving a total of $5,165,925 for the American Rescue Funds. $2,582,962.50 was received earlier in the month with the second payment to be received within the year. The Town will be asking for nonprofits and businesses to submit requests for reimbursement for losses due to the Covid19 pandemic. The Town will also be using the funds to upgrade water lines and other improvements in both the Water and General Funds. These funds have very specific limits on what they may be used for, again if you have questions please call or email us at Town hall. Specific forms for the non-profits and business are still being worked on and will be announced when ready for distribution.