August Woodsboro News-Briefs

(8/2024) Town To Explore Dredging Park Pond

Commissioner Bill Rittlemeyer suggested that the Town dredge the pond in the town’s park before it’s filled with silt to such an extent that it would no longer be considered a pond, "but a marsh."

Rittlemeyer noted that over the years silt had been building up in the pond, to the point that during last year’s drought, Israel Creek, which feeds the pond, stopped running, resulting in the pond level dropping to the point that it was, less then 12 inches deep in some spots.

The pond, which serves as a "fill buffer" to prevent the creek from overflowing its banks and running onto Route 550 or into the back yards of homes along Copper Oaks Court, is no longer performing that task, Rittlemeyer said. During heavy rains last fall and this spring, the creek routinely rose to the level of the street and into back yards. While it didn’t block the street or flood a yard, it’s only a matter of time before it does.

Rittlemeyer told the Council that he had reached out to a specialist who would be willing to come look at the pond and give the Town an estimate for what it would cost to dredge out all the accumulated silt and restore the pond to its initial state.

"It’s not going to be cheap," Rittlemeyer said, "but the Town can apply for a State sponsored CPP (Community Parks and Playground) grant that will pay for 100% of the cost.

"Unlike POS (Project Open Space) grants, which can only be used for new projects, and only pay for 90% of out-of-pocket expenses, CPP grants can be used for restoration projects, like dredging the pond, and they pay 100%," Rittlemeyer said.

Barnes agreed with concern over the status of the pond, and, along with Rittlemeyer’s fellow commissioners, was encouraged to get a cost estimate from the dredging specialist so work could begin on submitting the CPP grant paperwork.

Baseball Field To Be Refurbished

The Town has given the OK to a local resident associated with a 14-and-under and 18-and-under boys traveling baseball team to refurbish the town’s baseball field located next to the new skateboard park.

The field, the smaller of the town’s two ball fields, was originally constructed by the town’s old Recreational Council as a softball field, hence its small size. Later it was converted to a "kids" baseball field and then back to a softball field, said Rittlemeyer.

Following the demise of the Recreational Council, the field has gone unused and unmaintained for at least three years. As a result, the dirt infield has been taken over by grass and weeds and the outfield looks like a pasture.

While Rittlemeyer, who serves as the Park Commissioner for the Town, was supportive of its use by the 14-and-under traveling team, he expressed reservation about its use by 18-year-olds. "18-year-olds can hit a ball harder than 14-year-olds, so with 18-year-olds, we are going to have more foul balls falling into yards of homes adjacent to the field along Copper Oaks Court."

The resident requesting its use acknowledged Rittlemeyer’s concern, as did Barnes, but the requestor said the issue could be alleviated by a higher back stop fence or fencing along the 3rd base baseline, which the traveling team would pay for.

Despite Rittlemeyer’s concern, the Council gave the resident permission to at least begin restoring the ball field so the younger team can begin to practice on it.

Town To Explore "No Trucks" Signs For Alley Ways

Commissioner Jesse Case once again raised the issue of how best to limit traffic on the town’s small alleyways.

The case recounted a recent example where a 30-foot box truck, "literally no smaller in width than the alley way," tried to navigate the alley next to his house. "The truck got stuck and after failing to be able to back out of the alley, eventually managed to drive the full length, only to get stuck while trying to turn around on Main Street," Case said.

Case asked if there was any way the town could prohibit truck traffic on the alleys or at least trucks over a given weight.

"Unfortunately, no," said Barnes. "The alleyways are technically state roads, so we can’t limit who or what can use them." But Barnes was open to putting up signs of some sort to "warn larger trucks about the inadvisability of using an alleyway."

Verizon In Final Stages Of Setting Up Transmitters On Water Tower

During their final review of last year’s budget expenditures and income, the Council asked Town staff when the Town will start to receive the $2,000/month fee from the five-year lease the Town entered with Verizon last year, allowing them to install 5-G transmitters on the town’s water tower. Staff said Verizon engineers were in the final stages of picking the best locations for the transmitters and it is expected they will be installed by August or September at the latest, when Verizon will begin making payments.

The installation of the 5-G transmitters will enhance coverage in the Woodsboro area, which currently, according to the Verizon representative, has dead zones. The new service will not only help alleviate frustrated Verizon users asking, "can you hear me now?," but increase download speeds by up to 10 times over current speeds.

Verizon initially offered to pay the Town $2,000/month for a five-year lease, with five, five-year extensions, for a total maximum lease of 30 years. In addition, Verizon offered a 2% yearly increase on the monthly rate.

While the Council was open to the offer, they noted that both AT&T and T-Mobile, which currently lease space on the water tower for their customers, increase their monthly rate by 3% per year, and requested Verizon to match them, which they did.

Verizon said that given the central location of the tower, installing their transmitters on it was far preferable coverage-wise, not to mention economically, to leasing land on an adjacent farm and building their own cell tower.

5G will enable gigabyte downloads in seconds. Once installed, users of the service in Woodsboro will be able to download a 1-hour, 48-minute town meeting movie in just 49 seconds – that is, of course, when the meetings are held in the new fancy Town Hall once it is built. In the meantime, they use the speed to download movies in minutes.