The Town Hall Road Tour opens the last week of August. Please, get ready to join us.

Actually, the staff at town hall isn’t going far – from King Street to Princess Street.

The new town hall project is scheduled to begin the week of Aug. 23, and the first phase of the project is the demolition of the current building.

Thus, the staff is relocating, temporarily, to the same building where the police station is housed. It’s at the corner of South Princess and Washington streets, the commercial building holding down one edge of the corner, across from Jefferson Security Bank, Shepherdstown Lumber and Southern States.

The King Street Town Hall will be closed Aug. 20 so that staff, files, equipment, etc., can hit the road for Princess Street.

Town hall staff and operations will operate out of Suite 12 at 207 S. Princess St., which is on the upper level of the building. If you are looking at the front of the building, we will be located in the top left corner (over the laundromat). Beginning Aug. 23, if you need to visit the interim town hall, the entrance is located on the back side (the railroad side) of the building.

Town hall phone numbers and hours of operation will remain the same.

As for the locations of town meetings, information will be posted on the windows at the interim town hall and on the town website: www.shepherdstown.us.

Actual demolition of the King Street building will begin after the move is complete and construction equipment is in place. The completion date for the new King Street building is the first week of April 2011.

Shepherd University’s fall classes begin Aug. 23. As most of you know, it takes a few weeks for the parking situation to settle down, so let us be patient with the new and returning students, and the parking issues that arrive at the start of every semester.

Note that, as in the past, the “free parking” signs of summer will come down and be replaced by 90-minute parking signs.

If you desire to read the parking ordinances, they are posted online at www.shepherdstown.us.

Also in the parking arena, new residential parking permits are required. If you are a resident or renter within the corporate limits and desire parking in the residential zones, a new parking sticker is required. Police/parking enforcement will issue citations to vehicles that are parked in residential zones without current stickers.

Speaking of road tours, parking and streets, the street paving project is complete for this year. The streets had not been paved since 1986; with approximately $175,000 of video lottery money, we have some smooth, safer streets – safer, that is, if drivers obey the speed limit and employ common courtesy.

Bidding opens Aug. 26 for construction of the new wastewater treatment plant and new pump station and line. Director of Public Works Frank Welsh said the two projects (the treatment plant is a separate bid from the new pump station and line) will begin this fall and will take approximately 18 months to finish. He said that during the construction period “neither of these two projects should affect service to town residents.”

Here is a list of town hall telephone numbers, each beginning with 304-876-:

Town hall – 304-876-2312

Town clerk – 2398

Billing Clerk – 2574

Accounting Clerk – 2589

Mayor – 2605

Zoning Officer – 6858

Fax – 1473