Water Tank

Week of June 25, 1956 County housewives generally were mighty pleased when a modern-type garbage collecting vehicle made its appearance at their homes yesterday. One Halfway homemaker who lives on Dogwood Drive phoned the newspaper with the good news. "A Mr. Smith (Arthur F. Smith) collects our garbage and he showed up this morning with a new, modern truck that keeps the garbage from falling off in the street," she informed us. The County Roads Department is using all the cinders from the coal-burning boilers of the Municipal Electric Light Plant.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.VA. Portable toilets were being ordered for Shepherd University students and classes have been canceled at the university, Shepherdstown Elementary School and Shepherdstown Middle School today because of a water main break that occurred Tuesday near the city's water treatment plant on Princess Street, officials said. Shepherdstown Town Council member Howard Mills said he was told that a water tank along W.Va. 45 west of the city lost much of its water after the break occurred.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was so great that residents of Lake Shore, Miss., returned to a town that one local woman said, "was hard for even us to recognize. " For the next year, Michelle Straub says her family of six expects to live in a camper supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "It's something to take on vacation. It's not something to live in," she said. In the days after the hurricane, however, thousands of residents of coastal Mississippi, their homes carried away or smashed by a tidal surge that reached miles inland, often only had tents and tarps for shelter.

MARLOWE, W.VA. martinsburg@herald-mail.com It stands 120 feet tall, weighs between 80 and 100 tons and can hold 1 million gallons of water. Maybe the best way to convey its size is this: Painted on the side of the new water tank in Marlowe is "Berkeley County West Virginia," with a 4-foot apple used in place of the "o" in the word "County. " The tank, which will be filled with clean water pumped from a Potomac River plant in Falling Waters, W.Va., will serve residents from the northern end of the county to the General Motors plant outside of Martinsburg, said Paul Fischer, executive director of the Berkeley County Public Service Water District.

CLEAR SPRING - The town's new water storage tank has passed its electrical, plumbing and final building inspections, according to Councilman Steve Blickenstaff. While voluntary water conservation practices are still in effect, Town Clerk Juanita Grimm said water usage is up. Two serious leaks - one on Brennan Drive and another along U.S. 40 - were identified and fixed recently, Grimm said. It also was reported at Monday's meeting that installation of water meters is nearing completion throughout the town and to water customers living beyond town limits.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - With one of four recommended projects no longer eligible, two of the others were approved for additional Community Development Block Grant funding Thursday by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners. Valleys' Medical Center in Dry Run, Pa., had been recommended to receive $121,000, primarily for improvements to a Head Start center in the building. "The county was notified the Head Start center is planning to leave the building because of bus routes and is not going to renew its lease after this year," said Dan Wolfe, the county's planning program manager.

marlob@herald-mail.com CLEAR SPRING - A new water storage tank and filtration system came one step closer to reality Monday night when town officials voted to accept a bid from a Hanover, Pa., firm for both projects. In bids from several companies opened at a May 3 meeting, Conewago Enterprises submitted the low bids of $790,000 for the filtration system and $487,000 for the construction of a 340,000-gallon treated water tank that will be constructed at the reservoir site west of Clear Spring.

Rising water caused three propane tanks to detach from their mooring and float, possibly emptying as they went, down the Conococheague Creek and into the Potomac River Wednesday, Washington County officials sad. It was unknown whether the valves on the tanks were turned off at the time the tanks went into the creek on Hopps Landing Road south of Cearfoss, Washington County Emergency Services Director Joe Kroboth said. The tanks could have been emptying propane as they floated, Kroboth said.

marlob@herald-mail.com CLEAR SPRING - As 2003 dawns, the new year may be remembered as the one when town officials were finally over a barrel on the subject of water and sewer rates. The culprit is progress. For many years, in-town water customers have been paying $18 per quarter while those hooked up outside the town limits pay $27 every three months. A state-mandated water filtration system will cost the town between $660,000 and $1 million. On top of that, plans are on track to erect a pricey water storage tank that would hold 340,000 gallons of treated water.

CLEAR SPRING - The next step has been taken in the quest to build a 340,000-gallon water storage tank to hold treated water for the town, but that step may have been in the wrong direction. Originally, the town agreed on a tank 33 feet high and 42 feet in diameter at a cost of $270,000. When the Oct. 4 bid deadline came and went, only one bid had been received and it was $200,000 more than the town had anticipated spending for the structure. "Our engineers are negotiating now with the firm that submitted that bid," Mayor Paul Hose Jr. said.