Laurel's mayor says the city met with a national firm Thursday morning that is trying to help secure a second water tank, though it may not be tied to the proposed forensic mental health facility.
See the location of the new proposed development here:
Jennifer Lorenz, vice president of Laurel CARED, has spent months fighting the state's new mental health facility in court. She says no matter what gets built in Laurel, water has to come first.
"No matter where they were going to put this, Laurel needs to have a new water tower and expand our water system because we just can't handle any growth," Lorenz said.
The pressure grew Wednesday night, when a new housing development received preliminary approval from the city's planning board.
The housing development would hold more homes than the mental health hospital would have beds.
"We do not have the capacity to service more homes, let alone the forensic mental hospital," Lorenz said.
Laurel resident Shelley White says the water strain is already showing.
"There's already people in Laurel that don't have enough water. There's already water in Laurel that isn't the best in the world when it does come out," White said.
Mayor Kris Vogley acknowledged the concern in a statement to Q2, saying "our water issues are real and serious" and that city engineers are already studying how to fix it.
The mayor says the city met with a national firm Thursday to help raise capital for a second water tank and expanded water lines, to boost volume, pressure and reliability across town.
Laura Kirschman, also with Laurel CARED, has been following plans for the mental health facility since January and wants to see Laurel residents put first.
"Financially Laurel can't fix the things that we need to fix. So we need to be able to take care of our community as it is before we add anything else to it," Kirschman said.
The housing development has been in the works since 2018.
Developer Michael Bergman says water concerns were always on his radar.
"The questions are warranted and that's why we have spent so much money on engineering and processing and everything is to get it right," Bergman said.
The new subdivision project now moves to city council for final approval.
Laurel CARED, meanwhile, is filing a new injunction to stop the state forensic mental health facility from moving forward.
