The Smooth Sounds of Septic System Contracts

Septic removal contracts may sound more utilitarian than sexy to the average person.

Hey, it's a dirty job and the county has to pay someone to do it. That doesn't mean, however, that it needs to be boring.

County Recreation and Parks Director Barry Williams made that point Tuesday afternoon with his somewhat dramatic reading that left some Baltimore County Council members looking for more. [Listen to Williams' presentation.]

"This is a fun one," Williams said as he started his discussion of waste removal from septic systems and cesspools at various county parks facilities.

Williams has what some have called a broadcast quality voice, which he used to explain the one-year contract with four one-year renewals with Burns Septic Tank and Line Cleaning Inc. The job is valued at $8,265 annually.

When he was done, there was a long pause that prompted Councilwoman Vicki Almond to ask:

"Is that it?"

"You want more?" Williams responded.

"You can't make it sound any sexier?" asked Councilwoman Cathy Bevins.

"This is it, this is all I've got," Williams said amid laughs in the room.

The jocularity only made it tougher for people like Robert Stradling, the director of the county Office of Information Technology, who asked the Council for approval of an agreement to create a joint data center between the county government and schools system.

"It's not as sexy as the septic tanks," Stradling conceded.

And really, what is?