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Last night, Mr. Bob Harris represented the East Wicomico County Chamber of Commerce at the Pittsville Town Meeting. The Chamber wants to work hand in hand with the Pittsville Fire Department and the Town of Pittsville for an ALL DAY 4th of JULY CELEBRATION, of course on the 5th of July this year. The County will hold their Fireworks on the 4th of July and Willards wants to have their own display on the 5th. I'm told they will hold it on the grounds of the new School in Willards. However, they want to partner up with Pittsville where they can have daytime festivities on the grounds of the Pittsville Fire Department.
All parties seemed to be very interested as the Pittsville Fire Department is looking to raise funds for their new Fire Station Addition. More to come on that story, you're going to LOVE it!
Mr. Harris will be at a Board of Directors meeting at the end of the month to iron out the details and the Chamber has already worked out a deal with the same company that will put off the County's Fireworks. I can tell you that even though this just became public, 3 individuals have already committed to $1,100.00 into the fund raising drive for the event. I don't have any details at the moment for a contact if you're interested in making a donation as well but I do know that many of the people on that Chamber read this Blog and they can provide whatever information necessary for others to do so in the comment section.
This was some great work Bob, thank you.
9 comments:
All for it...have a nice celebration and show Salisbury how it is done....I am glad to make a donation to the fire company for their building and fireworks. Are they setting up a special fund for this? Please provide a mailing address and I will have my staff issue a check.
With that said my Pittsville taxes and front footage taxes are high enough for no better services they provide plus they are out of capacity.
They have pissed away more money over the last two years than can be accounted for and certainly was not openly budgeted for.....fancy logos, computers that staff can not operate, shortened office hours, less staff. I agree with Joe, I invested in the town and bought property. I am not sure what has happened over the last few years. They lost their town manager, I think he moved. Several council people left as well...think they were tired of the BS as they wanted to see the town succeed and cleaned up but were always stone walled.
They used to have a fully staffed office open 8-5, now they have one person who I just found out from one of the waterworks staff holds three positions and controlled all the office and financial strings. Even budgeted herself a raise!!Where is their audit and double checks for ethics...think the Attorney General ought to check that out!!
Several public works people who would come out and do things. I talked with one guy last week and he said he basically sits around all day watching some meter at the waterworks plant and was told not to touch anything just be here as a warm body.
I had approached the town about my property development and at one point could contribute to the town about 1 million dollars toward a sewer upgrade, but when I found out this summer that they let a half a million dollars of unused grant money expire, I thought why the hell would I give them any of my money when they let the grant money expire for!!
I try to stay involved even though I live away, but the last time I showed up for a town meeting was last summer/spring at budget time when they advertised a public hearing, I showed up to a note on the door the meeting was cancelled. Did they properly readvertise giving two weeks notice for the budget as their on line code states?
When did they have this town meeting, Joe? I was at my summer house in OC and read in the paper that the town office was closed on Monday which is usually when they meet I think.
I will give them credit on their EPA award, the gentleman who runs their sewer plant met with me years ago about my property development with their town manager. Both very professional, explained the front footage tax, what was needed at the sewer plant to have my property developed, etc.
I think he was talking of retirement then, hopefully they have someone lined up!! Again, good award but they are dead as far as being a Bowie and developing unless they get some more expansion of plants.
sorry to ramble, hit a nerve!!
Please do some additional research. I have not heard any mention of this in The Town of Willards.
No one has brought this up at the town meeting in Willards because believe me I am sure they would be willing to help and so would the fire department. Willards fire department is also looking at either building a new building or renovating their old one. But instead of asking the community for money during a time when no one has extra money to give, they are going to extra fundraising and they have been saving money for quite some time, though not enough for a new fire house I think they have a small start. They invested wisely a few years ago in the old willards school property, they would hope to put a new department right there.
I for one can say that Pittsville does have a community day - but it is in late May early June to coincide with the strawberry harvest. It has been a joint effort between the Fire Dept and Lions Club for the past 3 years. Last year and this year members of the fire Dept have chaired the event and are looking for vendors and volunteers and organizations that would like to participate. Pittsville was once the strawberry capital. Pittsville has initiated a building fund drive that is going relatively well. Just like Willards, Pittsville Fire Dept has extra fund raisers as well as selling memorial pavers and bricks to the public for a memorial walk into the new building. BTW the town office is open from 8-430 M-F except for holidays and weekends.
the office sign reads that but they closed at lunch for an hour (wonder if the person gets paid for 40 hrs or 37.5 hrs?) They used to have two people there now it is only one so when that person leaves, sick, vacation,
they close the office....poor planning from any standpoint to only have one person especially from a security standpoint...no cash checks and balances, etc. also no customer service to be closed!!! I have personnaly had my water turned off (which is my fault 100%) but gone on my lunch break or tried to leave early to pay my bill and they are closed, used to I could leave and make it by 5:00.
Thanks for the support. We got permission from the Board of Ed. to have the fireworks display on their property located directly next to the "new" school in Willards on 7/5/08 at approx. 9:30 p.m. It was difficult to find a large tract of land available at that time of the year. I would like to thank Charlie Bounds of the WCBOE for helping us with that as well as Gail Bartkovich for helping speed the process along. Although the company who will be responsible for the display is located in N.Y., the people who will actually pull it off are from right here in Pittsville and Parsonsburg. We feel excited to be able to bring something like this to the east side of the county.
As far as the event we hope to have during the day in Pittsville - it's still in its infancy. Many details have yet to be hammered out. This event will not in any way, shape, or form interfere with the event sponsored by the Lions Club and the Town of Pittsville earlier in the year. We just thought it would be an excellent opportunity extend the celebration of the birth of our nation, bring a little more attention to the east side of our county, and create more opportunities for the Pittsville Vol. Fire Co. to raise much needed funds to help build the new fire department.
I look forward to meeting with the folks from the Town of Willards as well as the members of the Willards Fire Dept. in the very near future in order to get their input and support.
On a personal note.....I think it's important to note that although the fire departments in Parsonsburg, Pittsville, Willards, and Powellville (and all over the county for that matter) receive some funding from govt. sources, the vast majority of the funds necessary to support equipment aquisition, training, and day to day operations come directly from the efforts of the volunteers themselves as well as the efforts of the ladies auxiliaries. They work tirelessly to try to keep their fire departments up to the task of serving communities which continue to grow. They do so much for their communities that we never see. I encourage everyone to do what they can to support these men and women by donating to thier causes.
Anon. 3:29.....Thanks for you generous offer to donate to the fireworks. If you wish to forward that donation, please make it payable to:
East Wicomico Chamber of Commerce
You can send it to:
P.O. Box 417
Pittsville, MD 21850
Thanks again for your support.
Bob Harris,
Member, East Wicomico Chamber of Commerce
Bob, your next conversation needs to be with the Chief of the Willards Volunteer Fire Company because I spoke with him this evening and he was not aware of ANY plans. I do feel this is an excellent I do hope it is the beginning of a tradition that last for years to come.
Before comments get out of hand. I believe that this is being approached the right way.
A. Sucure the location
B. Approach the Municipality for support.
C. Meet and organize with Public service groups. (Fire and Police)
D. Iron out details of event.
E. HOST A SUCCESSFUL EVENT
Good Luck Mr. Harris and congrats Willards for being fortunate enough to host this event.
Is that B.J. Corbin in that photo? If it is, I hope he is working with Bob on this event, BJ is a fine man and will work well with those putting on this event.
Damn shame he didn't win County Executive seat. Next time BJ, the time wasn't right.
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