The Board of County Commissioners have been requested for 24 hour/7 day a week career staffing at Station 28 in Point of Rocks.
Current staffing is only Mon - Fri - 6am - 6pm creating problems for response time with apparatus.
The Board of County Commissioners will be mailing an information packet for public hearing, switching Point of Rocks “first due area” from Suburban to an Urban district, with necessary increase in real estate taxes.
Within the last 3 months we had 3 cardiac arrests and units failed, and units from Adamstown was dispatched to cover where staffing is already limited.  This is where the community can help to support the efforts to providing service & care to our citizens that we protect.
Support is needed in the form of testifying at an upcoming BOCC hearing, sending letters and e-mails to supporting the change to the BOCC, and certainly attending the BOCC hearing and ‘fill the room’ showing support.
Currently it takes 4 minutes of failure time after dispatch to get the next due unit dispatched. Then there is the 10-12 minute travel time to get there. This can mean the difference in saving a life or a home that has caught fire. Having 24/7 staffing will mean someone will always be there, except when they are on a call.
Spread the word and come to community meeting on  Wed.. March 26 at 7 pm at station #28 on Ballenger Creek Pike, at Rt 464.   Eddy Arnold,  Pres. Carroll Manor Fire Company.

Point of Rocks Ruritan Club held a community meeting (over 40 in attendance) with Maryland State Highway Administration staff presentation on all local state road improvements in February 2007.  The community was updated on the plans for the bridge replacements on Rt 28 (Tuscarora Creek and Washington Run), the MARC Parking Lot project, and the Rt 15/464 roundabout.
The MARC parking lot is almost complete, with new spaces, street lights, and extensive landscaping. The bridge over Tuscarora Creek on Rt 28 was completed in 2007, causing traffic and business disruption for several months.   The bridge over Washington Run on Rt 28 will be completed during the summer school break (promised within 65 days) and will again be a disruption in traffic and local businesses. 
The Roundabout was to start in Fall 2007, but has been delayed with contract difficulties.  The same design that was presented in 2007, is still being planned with a projected start date of Fall 2008, and completed later in 2009.  
With several deaths and many non-fatal and more near accidents, everyone passing the intersection has been anxious for a solution sooner.  The SHA has responded to the recent deaths, listened to the POR Neighborhood Watch concerns, and will be installing rumble strips, new road striping, new large signs and large blinking lights.  The Roundabout is still being planned.
For more information – contact Pepper Scotto 301-834-9907  or read the March 12, 2008 Whistle Stop community newsletter that is on this website.

With the growing cost of road parade insurance (over $850 in 2007), and the decline in participation over the past years, the parade will be eliminated from the 2008 festivities.  Reinstatement in future years will be considered if a financial sponsor(s) and increase participation is developed.
Meanwhile, the Ruritan Club, sponsor and facilitators for 2008, is asking the community to give suggestions for what types of activities would be wanted and supported.  
Anyone who wants to make a suggestion at any time – please email:  Whistlestop@pointofrocks.org  or call one of the Ruritan Board of Directors.

The Catoctin Aqueduct Restoration Fund is a non-profit organization established to raise awareness of the need to restore this circa 1834 stone water bridge at Lander (3 miles from Point of Rocks along the C&O towpath), coordinate efforts in partnership with the National Park Service between Federal and State and Local agencies to facilitate the establishment of the project, and raise the funds required for the project.
The good news is the that the awareness was raised to the great level that the project was adopted by the C&O Canal National Historical Park as a priority project, numerous governmental grants were awarded, including 1.728 million dollar matching grant from Maryland Transportation Enhancement Program, and donations from hundreds of individuals, groups, and businesses have been received.  Matching funds and in-kind services and materials have been also donated from private and NPS sources.
Of the total $3.4 million estimated at this time for the project, the fundraising is less than $150,000 to go.
This project will restore the western end of the Point of Rocks Ruritan’s Historic Transportation project “Catoctin to Catoctin – Path Through Transportation History,” to culminate in a published walking tour guide from the Point of Rocks historic Train Station (Catoctin Mountain) to the Catoctin Aqueduct – a 3-mile trip on the C&O Canal towpath.
For more information: www.CatoctinAqueduct.org