The conversation grew contentious at times as the Littlestown Borough council members and meeting participants discussed saving the last public pool in Adams County and questioning a proposed water/sewer rate hike.
“The borough council has voted in an official act. The pool will not re-open,” Craig Rosendale, Council President, said. He said the pool is slated to be filled in and landscaped sometime in April to avoid potential issues with liability.
“We will not give up,” said Kathy Ednie, the area resident who has spearheaded the campaign to save the pool.
One of the issues discussed was the Dr. Howard Stonesifer Trust, which provided funds to build the pool in 1968 and donated another $500,000 in 1985 to maintain it. Council member Betty Bucher, who was involved in the original creation and administration of the pool, said she was not sure that the council could make the decision they had, given the details of the trust. “I don’t think the borough can wash their hands of it completely,” Bucher said.
Both Ednie and the Council want to research the details of the trust. Rosendale doesn’t believe the trust provides more than $3,000 from interest each year, which is not even enough to maintain the chemicals needed for pool operation each year.
Ednie told council members that she had an estimate of what it would cost to repair the pool and the kiddie pool and replace the decking, and the total came to less than $600,000. She later said council members told her it would cost two million dollars. “I don’t see why we cannot work with the community and the borough,” Ednie said. She asked why the borough lacked a recreation committee to help with this endeavor.
“The borough has no money in its budget for this pool,” Rosendale said. He added that it isn’t just a matter of what the pool will cost for repairs but that staffing and management are a big problem and the main reason why the YMCA decided against renewing the contract to manage it.
Littlestown resident Nicole Trociuk expressed her concern that when the community was told about the decision to close the pool, the notice stated that a survey had been given out, but she questioned whether that was true. Trociuk said a study should have been sent out to the entire community, the data from it reviewed by the council and borough, and the findings shared with the community, and no decision should have been made until that point.
Rosendale later said that he was unaware that a specific pool survey was sent out. “it wouldn’t have mattered anyway,” he commented. “We can’t keep the pool. It (the survey) would have been a futile effort and deceptive when we knew we couldn’t continue to operate the pool.
Councilmember Brent Sheely, a lifelong resident of the borough who grew up using the pool, said things have changed, and children don’t engage in the same activities anymore. “The people who are sitting here, you’re the ones who care. It’s not the kids,” he said, adding that the borough’s duty is to the taxpayer. “It’s our responsibility to make sure this town stays afloat.”
Countering comments that the borough needs to provide area children with activity areas, Sheely pointed out that a two to three-million-dollar park for residents is being built that will offer age-appropriate play equipment areas, pickleball and basketball courts, new pavilions, soccer and baseball fields, new bathrooms and a hiking path. The anticipated construction for the Littlestown Community Park Project is from July 2024 through October 2024.
A resident asked if a million-dollar donation might change the borough’s mind. Rosendale said they still wouldn’t be interested. “We’re not running it. We’re not fixing it. We are getting out of the pool business completely,” he said.
Rosendale has continued to say that he appreciates the residents’ concerns and attempts to save the pool, but it will have to be done without borough support. He suggested that the borough might be able to lease the pool area to an outside entity that could then manage and maintain the park, but he wasn’t sure.
Borough secretary/treasurer Sandy Conrad suggested that since many legal questions were arising, the council should sit down with its solicitor and discuss what can and cannot be done.
Water/Sewer Rate Hike
A new water/sewer rate hike also sparked intense discussion during the last hour of the public meeting. Borough engineer Logan Jury reviewed a preliminary presentation giving three options for the hike. Option A would be to set a maximum rate based on facility and assets in the system. It would increase the current rate of $33 per quarter to $81. “We’re not looking to make a profit,” Logan said, “but we need a reserve for maintenance and repair of the current system.
Option B would raise the rate to $77, and Option C would involve multiple increases over the next year, reaching the same end goal.
Logan, an engineer with Herbert, Rowland, and Grubic, Inc. of Harrisburg, said there hasn’t been a rise in rates for the past 10 or 11 years, which has created the problem of catching up with the needs of the older plant. He began the oral presentation by comparing the quarterly cost of water and sewer to Littlestown residents, showing it to be much less than that of surrounding areas, some of which use outside companies to provide their services.
A request for the presentation document was denied because it is considered a working document, and Logan did not respond to calls for further explanation.
“We need to raise the rate,” said Charles Kellar, borough manager. “The projects that need attention will cost in the area of 1.5 million dollars.”
Judith Cameron Seniura is a freelance reporter. She began her journalism career in the early ‘70s and has written for newspapers, magazines, and other media in Ontario, Canada, Alaska, Michigan, Nebraska, San Antonio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
Sure sounds like the board had made up its mind and refused to hear comments from citizens that they are working for. that means the only way to solve the issue is to elect a new board.
I wish soneone would call into wgal 8 where they bust people like the people pretending to run this town. They cheap out on everything and they spend millions on stuff no one wants, like a new park and an airplane for a highschool football team . New blacktop on the mainroads that leave the manhole covers deep enough to rip off the bottom of your vehicle. Politicans making this pa town unaffordable to everyone but Marylanders. Crying shame
Borough Council President Craig Rosendale later said there would be a public work session to discuss the water/sewer rate hike issue. It will be a posted meeting, but no public comments or questions will be heard at that time.