By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Jan. 4, 2018) Pocomoke officials have a simple resolution for the New Year: get serious about revitalizing the town.

Several projects designed to do that are already underway, including improving water quality throughout Pocomoke, addressing delinquent and dilapidated properties, creating incentives for new development, and cleaning up the downtown.

To start, City Manager Bobby Cowger said Delmarva Power & Light workers removed eight old light poles in the downtown area last week.

“They’ve been there 50 years or better,” he said. “The trees and the wires were all grown up in them.”

He said the city installed new ornamental lights several years ago, but never removed the old ones.

“That’s all we’re going to have now is [the new lights]. It will give it a lot better look downtown,” he said.

Additionally, removal of several old trees in a two-block area, from Front Street to Second Street, started on Tuesday.

“Those trees are so overgrown, they’re up taller than the buildings and leaning up against some of them,” he said. “They’re old Bradford pear [trees], so they’re not real sturdy anyway. If one of those limbs would break off, they would fall right into somebody’s front window and the city would have liability. They’re breaking up our sidewalks and they’re just unsightly. They’re all coming down, starting this week.”

Cowger said the city also sent letters to downtown business owners asking them to address any vacant or run-down properties.

“We’ve requested they set up a meeting with myself and our planning director Dan [Brandewie], to let us know what their plans are,” he said. “The city is definitely going to mandate something to be done with those buildings downtown.”

For those who want to make improvements, he said up to $25,000 in matching façade grants are available, like those available in Snow Hill and Berlin.

“I’ve definitely got some interest on some new building downtown. I’ve just got to have the property owners tell us either they’re going to build back or they don’t want to build back, they want to tear down and sell their property … and I’ll have that within the next 30 days,” Cowger said. “I’m going to have a commitment one way or the other from these business owners of what they’re going to do.

“The majority of the property owners tell me their buildings are so old, they’re not going to spend that money on the building,” he added. “I’m at the point where, if you’re not going to spend money on your buildings then the city is not going to continue, as they have for the last 10 or 15 years, to just let these buildings be an eyesore and be vacant and dilapidated – we’re not going to put up with that anymore.

“I’m not trying to run anybody out of business by any means, but we are taking a very hard stance and we’re going to do everything within the law … to get these buildings fixed up or torn down, one or the other,” Cowger said.

The City Council agreed in September to slash tap fees in half for new water and sewer connections, from $4,500 each to $4,500 for both. Cowger said several developers and builders have already expressed interest.

“That’s just unheard of in cities,” he said. “We’re probably one of the first cities that have done that, to show we’re encouraging business and development and we’re trying to partner with people … that’s been overwhelming.”

As for the quality of town tap water, a decades-long issue in Pocomoke, Cowger said a $290,000 project to rehabilitate the town well recently wrapped.

“We put in all new sand filters and valves and controls, to be able to run it 10 times more efficient than it was,” he said. “We know good water is coming out of there and now we’re addressing the pipes.”

The next step, likely to last well over a year, is replacing water pipes throughout the town. Cowger said the first section, affecting 25 homes in Pocomoke Heights, is about halfway done.

“Within a couple more weeks, we should have that street pretty much done,” he said. “That one street is going to help, but it’s going to take getting a lot of those streets done before people are going to notice a big, big change in their water. But it’s definitely coming.

“It may be a year or 18 months, but that and the revitalization are the two major commitments that when I took the job I said I was going to see through,” Cowger added.

Cowger took over as city manager in April. He was born and raised up in Pocomoke and previously served two terms as a county commissioner.

“I know how Pocomoke was at one time and it makes me sick to see it go down as far as it has. Not that I can do it all, but I’m going to try and stir the pot a little bit,” he said. “It’s amazing that new committees and boards … people that before had no interest in the city because of the way it was handled and ran, now they feel excited and want to get in there and help turn our town back around.”