From Harford County government:
City of Aberdeen partners with County to increase capacity and meet water needs
(Aberdeen, MD) – – Harford County Executive David R. Craig and Mayor Michael Bennett of the City of Aberdeen, have signed the Sixth Amendment to the Harford County – Aberdeen Water Agreement. The agreement was signed Monday, October 5 at City Hall in Aberdeen, and will provide Aberdeen with a plan for current and future water needs.
Joining the County Executive and Mayor Bennett were Congressman C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, County Councilman Dion Guthrie, Aberdeen Council President Mike Hiob, and Aberdeen council members Ruth Ann Young, Ron Kuperfman and Ruth Elliott.
“Today is a great day for the City of Aberdeen and the people of Harford County,” remarked County Executive Craig. “With the signing of the Sixth Amendment to the existing water agreement, we have helped secure a brighter future for the City of Aberdeen and business community,” the County Executive stated.
Commenting on the signing of the Sixth Amendment, Mayor Michael Bennett stated, “Water links us to our neighbors in a way more profound and complex than any other, it is the building block of life”.
Also commenting on the occasion of the expansion of the Harford County – Aberdeen Water Agreement, Congressman Ruppersberger remarked, “It’s great to see Team Maryland coming together to create a comprehensive solution to ensure businesses in the region have access to water now and in the future. With thousands of jobs coming to the Harford County region through the closing of military bases in other states, it is even more important that we work together to ensure we have the infrastructure in place for current residents and businesses while we prepare for new ones,” said Congressman C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger.
In March of this year, Harford County and the City of Aberdeen reached agreement on the Fifth Amendment to the water agreement. That amendment allowed for the purchase of an additional 100,000 gallons of water to support businesses in the City of Aberdeen. Both the Fifth and Sixth Amendments are vital to the county and City of Aberdeen as they work to meet the growing demands of BRAC to the region.
The original contract between Harford County and the City of Aberdeen was executed on June 27, 1995. That contract provided 500,000 gallons of water per day to the city from the county. The Sixth Amendment boosts the water allocation to a total of 600,000 gallons of water per day, with an option to increase that by another 300,000 gallons in the future.
The Sixth Amendment also coincides with the construction of the expansion to the Abingdon Water Treatment Plant, which began in December 2008 and is scheduled for completion in October 2011. As such the City of Aberdeen is now a vested partner in the Abingdon plant expansion.
The signing of this agreement also marks an important step forward in achieving County Executive Craig’s goal for a regional approach to managing Harford County’s water needs.
“It is critical for Harford County Government and the City of Aberdeen to work together on projects and initiatives that are in the best interest of our business community, our military partners and citizens we serve,” stated County Executive Craig.
The Mayor has finally done something right.and if it’s not.the council is in arm’s reach. put the blame on them.
Buying water from Harford County has just GOT to be a quick , short term fix…Still too late for any housing development to support the BRAC folks relocating from New Jersey. Best bet is our own filtration plant, like they have at Guantanamo. Once it was put into operation, they cut the water line that supplied them from Cuba. Same equipment and technology is available to municipalities as Gov’t SURPLUS. Babs got a chunk of fed money for the Military in MD, if we’d been on the bandwagon, could have had some for a water plant. Just my thoughts on too little too late.
George is 100% spot on. Helping the dirty sweater gang pay for the financially troubled Abingdon water treatment plant instead of investing in an independent water source continues to demonstrate the lack on depth in the Aberdeen Council brain pool. Instead of moving forward in an independent sense addressing our own growth issues with regard to BRAC and others we continue to suck on Craigs sippy cup providing water to projects that he would have to accomodate anyway. And having Dutch, the whirrling derbish of all things self important present, likens the project to Halitosis which is just barely better than no breath at all. If Dutch really wanted to accomplish something while he was in the area he should scoop up Rick Impalaria who he created with his ill fated waterfront land grab a few years back and take him back to Baltimore County.
The technology that George talks about is real and costs less per million gallons to produce than the water we are buying from Craig. And it makes Aberdeen independent.
Al Thong is correct in many respects with one glaring exception. If the empty suit were to move forward with any of the things suggested by George, he would have to admit that Fred Simmons was right. Nothing that Fred touched can have any validity or worth according to Art oops Bennett.