Vic Bradshaw
Frederick News-Post

(2/12) The town's version of "Cops" apparently will be back for a second season.

The fall experiment with an extra law-enforcement presence in the town got good enough ratings to prompt its producers, the board of commissioners, to likely renew the service this spring. Based on comments at Tuesday night's board meeting, it appears the extra patrols will restart in April.

Woodsboro contracted with the Frederick County Sheriff's Office to provide a community deputy to work three four-hour shifts on town streets in October and November. The program drew rave reviews for reducing speeding, loitering and reckless skateboarding around town.

Based on a suggestion from the sheriff's office, the town shut down the program over the winter. But the commissioners appear set on getting the deputy back on the streets as soon as the weather breaks.

"I'm in complete favor of pursuing it again," Commissioner Roger Hub said.

Commissioner Kenneth Morgan said he wanted to meet with someone from the sheriff's office to discuss it before deciding to contract the patrols. Though he didn't express any displeasure with the program, he said he had unanswered questionsabout what was done.

The town had been leaning toward restarting the program in March, but Commissioner Gary Smith suggested that waiting another month might be best because it will still be cold in March. Mr. Hub agreed with that logic.

The board also learned that it has an opening on its planning and zoning commission. One commissioner responded to a letter about continued inter-est in serving the town, saying he wanted to step down because of a conflict on the meeting dates.

The town's search for water is set to resume. Burgess Donald Trimmer said test drilling will be done in Woodsboro Community Park in the middle of February.

Mr. Trimmer also informed the board that an annexation request should be discussed at the Feb. 23 workshop meeting and said the town may put its zoning regulations online to improve public access.

The board also responded to a complaint from Judy Katz about the way streets are plowed when it snows. She said plow drivers didn't get within four or five feet of the curb in Copper Oaks subdivision, leaving a wide swath of snow.

The commissioners, however, defended the town's plow drivers. They said that if there's much accumulation, there's too much snow to get closer to the curb. They also said that if the plows made follow-up passes, they could clog driveways, storm drains and mail boxes that people had shoveled out.