Water Tower Opposition Spreads Through Petition, Facebook

When Ayanna Chen’s young son showed her there were workers in the wooded lot next door, surveying on the corner of Timber Grove Road and Bond Avenue, she hoped it was to prepare for road work.

The turn from Timber Grove onto Bond was dangerous and she said she was excited that Baltimore County might attempt improvements.

That feeling quickly was replaced by dread when her husband  investigated and returned with the news: The workers were surveying to prepare for the construction of a water tower. Calls to the county confirmed the information.

“When we heard the news, we were just crushed,” said Chen, a resident on Timber Grove since January 2009. The water tower would wipe out one of the few pockets of forest in the area, she said, and cause home values to plummet.

“I had this tremendous sinking feeling we were alone, and just this sort of worry about what are we going to do,” she said. “It’s like a David versus Goliath sort of situation.”

But the Chens knocked on neighborhood doors, passed out fliers and solicited more than 300 signatures on a petition.

Then, residents in the community of families with busy working parents stepped up their campaign, taking their cause to the social media platform, Facebook. The Facebook page for those opposed to the water tower’s construction is taking the community's agenda forward as well as becoming a virtual meeting place for discussion.

The group is called "Save the Sagamore Forest. NO water tower!"

The page’s latest post reminds members to attend tonight’s Reisterstown-Owings Mills-Glyndon Coordinating Council (ROG) meeting, where representatives from the Department of Public Works are expected to discuss the necessity for water towers.

 showed up for ROG’s meeting on June 7. County officials, including Councilwoman Vicki Almond and public works director Ed Adams, are expected to attend tonight.

Bonnie Levitt, who has lived in Owings Mills for 33 years, said she was surprised at how quickly word spread on Facebook and how many people got involved.

“But, I guess that’s because of the Facebook,” Levitt said. “It’s totally grassroots.”

The Facebook group is even self-policing, said Levitt, herself an administrator on the page. She said members have been removed who are not contributing to the conversation in a positive way.

“We’ve had a couple people that we’ve taken off Facebook because they’re being uncivil, saying (unhelpful) things.”

Over 300 people are members of the group, which was created May 28 by Michael Rosner, a friend of a family in the community. Rosner has since backed away to let the community run the page, but new members are still being added every few days.

The Facebook group has garnered the attention of Baltimore County politicians who represent the area. County Councilwoman Vicki Almond has posted on the page several times.

“The community is being heard by the county executive and by the county council on the water tower,” one of Almond’s posts said. “We are in this together.”

In another post, Almond promised to keep members of the group informed with up-to-date information.

Almond, who was traveling last week, was not immediately available for comment.

“We wondered if anyone else would care,” Chen said. “Obviously, we’ve been proven wrong. That has been one of the most refreshing, reassuring experiences, to see all these people coming out for this.”

Tonight's meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. at on Chatsworth Avenue in Reisterstown.