8/19/09 town council

Latest from the Cumberland town council,

At the meeting on aug19, 2009 the town council adopted and signed a contract for fire service from Buck Creek fire department. We have been in negotiations since the beginning of the year as the fire department was looking for a 25% increase this year and further increases for the next 2-3 years. The contract as signed has a 5 1/2 % increase for this year and is an agreement for BCFD to provide service for next 2 years (2010,2011) as well with a dollar amount to be determined during further negotiations. I have been involved with these negotiations and will continue to try to get the best service for the town for the most reasonable cost. We have also decided to start looking at putting the service for the whole town out to bid for the 3 local departments vs have our own department vs leaving the service areas as they currently are. Current tax caps will help in my desire to reduce the tax burden on Cumberland citizens but will require some challenges to provide to current level of service that I feel is a necessity.
The council also voted to allow the police department to use money that has been obtained by them from forfeiture and seizures to purchase in car video cameras. This has been shown to increase conviction rates as well as provide electronic data for department use and help with keeping our officers a bit safer.
The “Cumberland arts goes to market” festival on August 8th was a big hit and the current farmers market is open not only on Saturday mornings but also on Tuesday evenings so stop by and get your locally grown products.
The council passed a resolution opposing the sale, zoning change and redevelopment of the ST. John church on the corner of German Church rd and Washington st. Word is that a developer/corporation is looking at buying the church, tearing it down and building a new retail structure. As the council stated, look forward to developing Cumberland into a even better place but would not wish to see an historic building that has been a part of the town for many years to be replaced when we have multiple site available at this time for such building.
The sanitary sewer board has not made any decision yet dealing with the minimum charge of 4 units that the sewer department is current charging and bringing it back down to actual usage like I have pressed for and will continue to do. It would help if citizens would contact the town and the sanitary board to express your feelings on this issue to them and at their meetings (3rd wed of month at 3:30).
Now that we have received federal monies to build the east sewer interceptor I have asked for a sizable amount of the money we had already set aside for the project be used to pay down the debt on the treatment plant. This to has met with little support among the council but I will keep at this issue as well. It as well as adding customers along the east interceptor will be our best chance to get the flat rate portion of our sewer bills reduced to a more reasonable level.
That is about all for this month. If you have any issues do call or email me. That is why you put me on the council.
Joe Siefker
Town councilman dist 5

PS please keep your cars and homes doors locked, we have had a large increase in car break-ins with car doors being left unlocked.