June Woodsboro News-Briefs

(6/2024) Contract For Street Sweeping Service Approved

Thanks to the efforts of Commissioner Cutshall, Woodsboro once again will have its streets swept on a regular basis.

Following the revelation at the April Council meeting that the street sweeping service the Town had contracted with in 2021 had stopped coming last spring with no prior notification to the Town or reason given, Cutshall offered to take the lead in finding a replacement.

Cutshall was successful in his effort, and he subsequently toured the Town with a new contractor to scope out the extent of work. Due to the length of time since the last street cleaning, an extensive amount of debris has built up in the gutters, so the first street sweeping is expected to take 8 to 10 hours to complete. After that, the contractor estimates it will take only 8 hours to sweep the streets at a cost of approximately $1,200 to $1,500 per sweep. The $300 difference in final cost per sweep will be based upon the condition of the streets at the time.

Based upon an upper cost of $1,500, Burgess Barnes recommended, and the Council agreed, that the Town should aim to have the streets swept at least once a quarter.

"We budgeted $6,000 for street sweeping, so even if a sweeping takes longer than planned and we are billed at the upper end of the estimate, we have the money already set," said Barnes.

Barnes noted that the Town’s AWOL street sweeper had given the Town an estimate for $1,440 to $1,920 per sweep, "so we’ll be getting the streets swept at a better rate than before."

No News On Town Hall

A disappointed Barnes told the Town Council that the architect and builder of the new Town Hall had still not finalized the cost estimate for the project, so he had nothing new to present for review.

In hopes of getting construction underway as soon as possible, Barnes had suggested that the Council meet May 2, as opposed to its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, May 14, to fast track the approval of the final design for the Town Hall and its cost.

If it had worked out, and the Contractor had given Barnes the estimate, the Council could have approved the project at the meeting, which would have allowed the contractor to get a two-week jump-start on acquiring all of the necessary County permits to start actual construction.

Barnes told the Council that when the estimate does come in, he will forward it to everyone for their review so they can fast track approval at the June Council meeting.

When beginning the process to build its first Town Hall several years ago, the Town was prepared to spend $800,000. That estimate, however, was blown out of the water when the bids came in, the lowest bid being $1.6 million. As a result, Barnes and the Council have been actively reevaluating what amenities are needed to create the type of Town Hall they envisioned while reducing the cost to a level that the Town can afford.

Barnes noted that the builder and architect have recommended several changes to the original design that are major cost savings and will help get the total down to its $1.1 million goal.

Park Pond Aerator To Be Replaced

Following up on his commitment at the April Council meeting to investigate the cost of replacing the two failed Memorial Park pond aerators, Commissioner Bill Rittlemeyer told the Council that it will cost the Town $4,245 to replace both aerators. One has completely failed and the other is putting out such low pressure that, for all intents and purposes, it has ceased to do any aeration of the pond.

"The aerators," Rittlemeyer said, "are really only air compressors that are used to force water from the bottom of the pond to the top, where it forms a fountain of water. With the hot days of summer just around the corner, without the aerators, the pond will soon be covered with green algae. We are already starting to see some of it bloom."

After verifying the Town still had extra funds in its States Project Open Space account, the Council unanimously approved the purchase of the replacement aerators.