Village residents have chance to get public water

The only outstanding issue for the design of the Linglestown improvement project is whether public drinking-water will be provided to village residents who live along Route 39.

All properties in the historic section of the village have private wells, and many of them were hand dug decades ago and are only 50-80 feet deep.

According to a resident at last week’s meeting of the Village of Linglestown Committee, old wells in the village will eventually fail, and currently it costs as much as $6,000 to drill a new one. Two wells near the square went dry last summer, he said.

If owners of 70 of the 100 properties in the village agree to hook up to a public water system, United Water Pennsylvania will run a line through the village and charge a tap-in fee of $500 to $1,500 per property. (The final figure will depend on how many properties hook up.) Property owners would also have to pay a plumber to run a line to connect a home or business to the public water line and shutdown the private well.

Village committee member Bill Minsker said owners of about half of the properties have expressed interest in getting public water service.

The village committee needs to make a final decision on the water issue by mid-March. For more information, contact the Lower Paxton Township municipal office.

Other updates ...

* The Linglestown forum on PennLive.com is awfully quiet these days.

* Linglestown Fire Company, along with several other crews, responded Monday night to a fire that heavily damaged the Penn Harris Gun Club in Lower Swatara Township, and helped extract a driver of a minivan on its roof Wednesday evening on Colonial Road at the entrance to Weis Markets.

* After nearly 60 years in business, Joseph A. Rosi Jewelers, 4636 Jonestown Road, is preparing to shut its doors.