(1/30) As part of the five-year notice requirement, Carroll Valley Borough has updated the emergency plan for Section F (Lake May) Dam. Classified as a high-hazard dam by the Department of Environmental Protection, the borough had to create an emergency plan several years ago.

The Lake May dam is a 22-foot high, approximately 2,500-foot long earthen embankment recreation dam located adjacent to Toms Creek. There are approximately sixteen total buildings; one home, one agriculture structure and no businesses within the area subject to flooding from sudden dam failure. The Fairfield Regional Emergency Management Coordinator is responsible for determining the dam’s threat potential, and may initiate a warning and evacuation in case of emergency.

Back in 2013, about one-third of a gabion wall at Lake May collapsed into Toms Creek. Gabion walls consist of cells of wire "baskets" which contain rock fragments, and are generally used to control erosion of embankments located near streams or other water bodies. The gabion wall, installed more than a decade and a half prior to this event, protected an embankment that served as part of the Lake May water impound. The embankment itself and the dam were not affected by the collapse. The collapse, luckily, posed no imminent threat to the safety of nearby residents.

An updated copy of this plan, including an inundation map noting areas in Carroll Valley Borough and Liberty Township subject to flooding in the event of failure, is available for public inspection at the Carroll Valley Borough office, Liberty Township Municipal office and Adams County EMS.

In other Borough news, Carroll Valley Borough’s Police Chief Richard Hileman reported that crime in Carroll Valley saw a slight increase of 6.2% in 2018.

The Borough experienced a lot of small thefts last year, mainly out of unlocked vehicles, that unfortunately drove crime rates in the Borough up. This, however, seemed to be on par with surrounding areas, that also experienced an increase in these small vehicle thefts.

In 2018 the police department responded to 2,273 calls to service. He noted this as a 2% decrease in call volume from last year, when comparing core department calls. Some new calls, that were not previously tracked, were added in 2018, which made the statistics appear as though calls increased, but when comparing core department calls, the department did see an overall decrease. Of the calls that were received, a majority related to residents calling for information, either to report suspicious people or activity, or just notifying the police about a concern. Other calls included animal complaints, alarms, warrant searches and assistance to fire and EMS emergencies. Of these calls, there were 143 uniform crime reports, which was a 3% decrease from last year. Of these crime reports, 74 were filed as part 1, which is a 7% decrease from last year, and the remaining 69 reports were filed as part 2 minor offenses, showing a 1% increase.

The police report also showed that the criminal clearance rate for major crimes in the Carroll Valley Police Department is 70%, which is well over the state average of 31.2%. If the five Ski Liberty offenses were taken out of the equation, then the department is actually seeing a 75% clearance rate for major instances. As explained by Chief Hileman, crime related occurrences that take place at Ski Liberty almost always involve a visitor from outside Carroll Valley committing crime, and then vacating the Borough. These crimes, therefore, become more difficult to trace and handle. Part 2 offense clearance rates stood at 71% in 2018, showing a 7.8% increase from last year.

Additionally, the police report showed that DUI’s were down from last year, however there was a 12% increase in traffic, non-traffic and ordinance citations; a majority of those citations were traffic related.