Water, water, waterrr!

Jack Deatherage

(6/2023) I try to sit in on every public meeting held at the town office since the COVID restrictions ended. If pressed, I can't explain why. Most of what I hear goes over my head. What I manage to grasp leaves me wondering how anyone can work in government. Still, attending the meetings gets me out of the house and occasionally provides me with something to contemplate besides the next nap, which can catch up with me during a heavily "government speak" filled meeting. Unless the topic is water.

In the mid 1960s we were living closer to Fairfield, though Dad would haul the lot of us into Emmitsburg on Sundays for Mass. Half my siblings had been baptized in Saint Joseph's church and much of Mom's family gathered there, above and below the ground. I knew a good deal more about Emmitsburg than I did Fairfield. One of the things I knew was Emmitsburg had a serious water problem. More than once a priest would ask the congregation to pray for rain because Rainbow Lake was low and the farmers were facing a crop failure.

Sometime during the 1970s when we lived along the Taneytown pike, Middle Creek all but dried up. During the late 1970s/early1980s, when I was floating the Monocacy River, mostly north of MD 550, it was not unusual to find stretches of the river where we had to either drag or carry our canoes to navigable water. During the reign of Parris Glendening - 1995 to 2003 - we suffered a drought so severe that farms bordering the Monocacy River were denied access to the water for their crops. Word swept through the gardening population that all water; under, on, flowing through, passing over the state of Maryland belonged to the state. One market gardener told me he had mown his entire garden because he couldn't take watching it slowly die. Others ignored the statewide water ban and paid fines if they were caught using water in ways the state deemed inappropriate.

In 2002/3, COPE (Citizens Organized to Protect Emmitsburg) decided to stop the development of the Silver Fancy Farm along North Seton Avenue. From today's vantage this seems like a seriously bad move.

As I understand it now, and I'm sure much of what I think I know is inaccurate- at least from the points of view of many involved in that battle - the Town (mayor, commissioners and planner) were counting on the influx of cash from sewer and water tap fees to upgrade the aged waterlines in the "old town". Yes, the town government was aware of the deteriorating waterlines at least twenty freaking years ago!

From the Frederick newspaper – "Mr. Hoover, the mayor, said he wished the group would alter its style. He said COPE members don't attend some committee meetings, where background information is discussed, so they often don't know all the facts. He also said that if asked, he'd meet with COPE members to discuss issues. "The way they (COPE) deal with it is more on an attack rather than a can-we-talk-about-this type thing."

I've witnessed people at town meetings speaking from an emotional, ill-informed perspective and not hearing what is being said back to them. Couple that with the somewhat confusing reporting on the recently enacted water rate increases, and what seems to be a general lack of basic mathematical skills, and I'm surprised another version of COPE hasn't arisen to kick the water can twenty more years down the road.

Not that COPE is the only reason for the town's current dilemma. Past mayors and commissioners listened to the cries of hardship and poverty every time the issue of increasing service fees arose. Today's commissioners no longer have a road to kick the can down. The waterlines are failing and the usual sources of loans and grants are refusing to help a town that has consistently put off the inevitable - increasing the rates to infrastructure sustaining levels.

Because the citizenry cried poor-mouth at every attempt to bring in enough revenue to maintain the water system, and organized to stop a major development, the sewer/water system has been eating itself. Moneys held in reserve for serious emergencies have been usurped to keep the water flowing, even if some of the water has occasionally been brown. The lenders/granters see a town failing to attempt to break even, let alone to raise income from its utilities to upgrade. No "in the black" cash flow, no loans/grants.

Welcome to Emmitsburg 2023. Thank you citizens of pre-2004 Emmitsburg. Instead of small increases in sewer and water bills that may have strained a few household budgets we're now stuck with drastic rate increases at the same time inflation is increasing our property taxes and devastating our grocery and electric bills. It's debatable if allowing the annexation and development of the Silver Fancy Farm would have left the town in a better position today, but it is not debatable that small increases in the sewer and water rates would have shown the town's lenders we would be able to pay back the loans needed to repair and upgrade our utilities.

Cursing COPE and the commissioners of 20 plus years ago is a waste of time better spent figuring out how to meet the challenges before us. As much as it hurts to look at the water rate chart and see what's coming at us like a runaway train, I thank the current commissioners for doing the right thing and finally increasing the rates while continuing to seek moneys elsewhere.

Will the DW and I still be living in town five years from now?

Probably. Though we might have sold our house, bought a tent and set up camp in the town park bordering Toms Creek as Mom told me the hobos used to do during The Great Depression. When I mentioned that possibility to a town staff member as we walked the park path recently, she allowed we'd likely have lots of company. Yeah, the town staff knows the water and sewer rate increases, coupled with the current inflation, are going to be a hardship for many of the residents. She, along with the commissioners, are searching for solutions they are currently unaware of to help alleviate this burden.

Suggestions that the town staff and commissioners are solely responsible for this mess are ridiculous and continue to foment the distrust and outright hostility between the citizenry and the local government. If the goal is to have the county take over the town's utilities, leaving residents with even less control over our fate, I guess we're well on the way to that end.

Our house has two taps, one for each apartment. We currently occupy the entire house and pay both bills. Fortunately, we rarely pay more than the minimum water rate. Unfortunately, reducing our water consumption won't affect the future increases.

There being nothing I can do about the overall situation I'll keep collecting clean waste water and rain water for the new community garden. Maybe I can reduce the grocery bill if I'm successful with the garden?

The DW snorts, "You think we can recoup what you've spent on the community garden?"

Can "idiot" be used as a term of endearment?