Ingrid Mezo

Aggressively going after grants is Thurmont’s next mode of attack to keep residents’ water and sewer rates from skyrocketing as the town enters its second phase of sewer system repairs, Mayor Martin Burns said.

An engineering estimate shows the second phase of the town’s sewer repairs will cost between $4.6 and $5 million, Burns said. The town paid another $40,000 for the second engineering study to assess what repairs are needed during this upcoming phase. As many as six phases may be needed to completely revamp the town’s sewer, he said.

A majority of "no" responses on the Myers’ farm annexation poll in Thurmont mandates town officials to look outside of developer Tom Hudson’s pocketbook to fund capital improvements to the town and pay for repairs to the town’s infrastructure problems. Burns said previously that he would use his vote to enact the will of the people, as indicated by the poll results. And, 66% of town residents said in the poll that they did not wish to annex the Myers’ farm, a property outside the town’s growth limits according to the county’s Thurmont Region Plan and the town’s Master

Plan. Both of those plans are now in the updating process. The full poll results are available on www.thurmont.com.

"We have not ever relied on annexations to solve our problems, it just happened that potentially, [Hudson’s proffer] could," Burns said in a phone interview with The Catoctin Banner. "That’s where people missed the mark on this. I think this current board has always been cautious on growth. What changed everything [in this case,] was the problem and the offer."

While the annexation poll did not ask residents about the Drees and Lawyer’s annexation proposals, those two proposals are also unlikely to receive a favorable vote from the town board any time soon. A Maryland Department of Environment consent order requires town officials not to allow further development to the town until its sewer system has been adequately repaired. Both the Lawyers and Drees offers to the town so far would tap into the town’s still ailing sewer system. In addition, both the Drees and Lawyers’ initial proffers have offered far less than Hudson offered in exchange for allowing him to annex the Myers property. Drees has tabled their request for now.

In light of the poll outcome, Burns said the town is stepping up its efforts to get county, state and federal grants to help pay for repairs to its sewer system. While Burns’ letter to residents prior to the ballots indicated how Hudson’s proffers to the town could help keep water and sewer rates from

rising even higher, he said he does not believe a "no" vote on the poll indicates that residents gave town board members the go-head to raise their rates.

"I think that the public has certainly given their opinion strongly, and we certainly have given them the opportunity to do so," Burns said. "And, if we were going to do something, I think the direction is not ‘Go ahead and raise our rates Mayor.’ What I think the people are saying is, ‘We understand you have to fix our sewer system, [but not through development].’ But, it is putting the burden on me to do everything in our power to get grants. I believe the better, proper direction is to go after grants more than we ever have, and that is lobbying hard."

Burns has already sent out letters to all the members of the Frederick County Board of Commissioners requesting a grant to the town to help pay for repairs to its sewer system.

"I do not believe this project is different than any other worthy project that the county has provided to other municipalities," Burns wrote.

"For instance, if you compare any funding that was given to the City of Frederick for the Carroll Creek Project, Senior

Center for Middletown, etc.

County residents benefit from our long tradition of providing volunteer fire and rescue services, buildings and equipment and have undertaken a brand new fire station, which saved millions of county tax dollars. Furthermore, the Thurmont Ambulance Company is also undergoing an addition to their building, which has saved county taxpayers money.

The town of Thurmont donated our own land to defray the cost of the Thurmont Regional Library, and we have provided a building and assisted with funding the Thurmont Senior Center for as long as I can remember."

Burns said he hopes that county commissioners will consider the request in the next county/municipalities meeting later this month.

One county commissioner has already said he would not support a grant to the town to help pay for its sewer problems.

"A public utility has a responsibility to charge reasonable rates for its services," Commissioner Lennie Thompson wrote in a letter responding to Burns’ request for county assistance. "Rates should obviously not be unreasonably high but should also not be so low that the utility cannot operate in a financial sound manner over the long run.

Reasonable rates must take into account not only current operating costs (salaries, chemicals, electricity, etc.) but also the need to set aside funds for the long term "3-R" costs (repair, replacement & renovation) the utility will ultimately bear to keep the system operating. This requires setting aside sufficient funds each year to represent the consumption of a year’s useful life of the utility’s infrastructure."

Thompson said that the town’s lack of funds to pay for its sewer system repairs indicates that the town had not charged residents an appropriate sewer rate in the past to pay for the upkeep of its sewer system. That is why residents now are facing such staggering rate increases.

"If Thurmont does not have the money to perform the needed repairs to its sewer system, it suggests that the town has not been setting aside funds for a 3-R reserve," Thompson continued. "It also suggests that the town’s sewer rate schedule generates less revenue than is needed to operate the sewer system in a financially sound manner over the long run. It is up to Thurmont’s elected officials to rectify the situation."

Thompson said that he had supported such rate increases for water and sewer in Walkersville when he became Burgess there, and also for the county in his capacity as commissioner "in order to have a rate structure that generated sufficient funds to both pay annual operating costs and begin setting aside a 3-R reserve." Both Walkersville and the county’s water and sewer systems were operating at a loss prior to the rate increases, he said.

"In neither case did I request subsidies from others to avoid enacting the rate increases required to operate those utilities in a financially sound manner over the long run…" Thompson said. "[The] federal and state government’s habit of bailing out public water and sewer systems creates a perverse incentive to not have a 3-R reserve. Emmitsburg, Brunswick and Woodsboro are examples of municipal sewer systems that have received money in recent years from the federal or state governments."

After the February 6 town meeting, Burns said he will submit a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request to

the county to see how much the county has paid out over the past decade to other municipalities throughout the county. Once Burns receives that information, he plans to use it to show how little county assistance Thurmont has received in comparison.

Burns is also sending out letters to ask for state and federal grants.

"I have a letter going out to Senator Mikulski," he said. "We have provided waste water treatment to the national park for 30 years. I have another letter going to Senator Brinkley. We have provided the state park with sewer [service] for 37 years. And so, because we came to their aid when they needed something… I am hoping that would warrant us getting assistance in our time of need."

While the Myers’ Farm annexation will not likely be approved, Hudson said he is not folding until the town board actually votes on it. "I’ve already invested the time," he said.

If his annexation request is denied, Hudson said he was not sure whether he would still try to develop the business component of the development on five acres the county planning commission found consistent with the Thurmont Region plan in January. The county planning commission voted at that time to recommend that the Frederick County Board of Commissioners not waive the zoning inconsistency between the Myers’ Farm annexation request and what is currently on the county’s plan.