Wicomico County County discusses funding overage on Morris Mill Dam Project

FRUITLAND, Md. — On Tuesday evening, the Wicomico County Council discussed funding issues for the Morris Mill Dam Rehabilitation project.

The Deputy director of public works, Mark Whitelock, was in attendance and says an overage of $250,000 was used to build the dam. Whitelock explains that the overage mainly came from poor soils in the dam itself,  even after redesigning it, construction crews found more problems in it.

Whitelock expressed that he wanted to build the road safely, while also meeting the deadline to finish it. In a statement to the council, Whitelock said, “You can’t build a road on top of that and to try to build a road on top of that … would have been as a poor reflection on us as it would’ve been anything.” He finished his statement saying that he wanted to the job right the first time.

County officials say they are now looking for ways to prevent funding issues like this, from happening in the future.  A public hearing has been scheduled for October 20th — to put in funding as a capital item in this year’s county budget.