Council gets updates
SHEPHERDSTOWN – At its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Tuesday, Sheperdstown Town Council heard a review of the public sewer service improvement project,.
In its final stages of approval, work on the $9.8 million project is expected to begin in late fall and take about a year to complete.
Three bids for the project were received and have been reviewed.
The town will take out a loan of $9.3 million over 30 years at 0 percent interest, Attorney Hoy Shingleton explained.
The loan will be financed with revenues from rate payers.
These improvements will make Shepherdstown the first community in West Virginia to comply with the Chesapeake Bay Watershed guidelines, officials said.
Also during the meeting, Greg Didden reported on the current status of the town’s Housing Authority.
Many of the original projects, surveys and community improvements, that began 30 years ago, have now come to an end, he said. The committee feels that the need for the Housing Authority may have come to an end as well, he said. Committee members propose to turn the existing funds over to the town and disband.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Mark Cucuzzella discussed the logistics of the upcoming Freedom’s Run on Oct. 2.
He said the event will offer five races of different lengths – a marathon, a half-marathon, a 10 K, a 5K and the popular children’s run through town.
Nearing capacity, about 2,800 runners from 40 states and five different countries already have registered for the races, he said. The number of participants is limited by the size of the roads, he said.
All the races will finish at the Shepherd University stadium with an after-party at the Bavarian Inn, he said.
An addition this year is a spaghetti dinner on Oct. 1 at the Men’s Club, he said.
Mayor Jim Auxer complimented Cucuzzella and his team for leaving the site so clean last year. The team had committed to recycling as much as they could and composting the fruit snacks and even the hundreds of water bottles the runners required.
This year, the town will assist them with the removal of all the recyclables and runners are being encouraged to refill their commemorative bottle. Volunteers still are being recruited. For more information, go to www.FREEDOMSRUN.ORG.