It’s a good news/bad news scenario in Taylortown.

The bad news is that water is in short supply.

The good news is no one seems to notice — until the water runs out.

"My neighbors have no idea that we’ve been asked to conserve water," said Pinesage subdivision resident Yvette Stepnoski. "I knew because I read it in The Pilot. But not everybody reads The Pilot. There are people in my neighborhood watering their plants and washing their cars because they haven’t heard that we’re short on water."

Or, the bad news is that there has been no town-sponsored police protection since Police Chief Homer Burkley resigned on April 23.

The good news is that the Moore County Sheriff’s Department is patrolling the area in the interim, and new Taylortown police officers have been hired and are being trained.

Some Taylortown residents are disgruntled over both problems, though, largely because they feel that the town government has not kept them sufficiently informed.

Water: On June 26, drought and a break in the water lines combined to leave about 80 homes in the Pinesage development without water for over 48 hours.

The situation became so critical that bottled water was shipped in by the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management.

Water service was restored to Pinesage on June 27, but Taylortown Mayor Ulysses Barrett asked The Pilot on July 21 to publish an article urging water conservation by all town residents until further notification.

Town Council member Jesse Fuller said the town also ran public service announcements on a local radio station, though he and Town Clerk Carolyn Mitchell did not know which station ran the announcements.

Employees of all local radio stations told The Pilot that they did not recall the public service announcements.

"We could also put a message about it in the water bills," said Fuller. "But a bill hasn’t been sent out since we announced the need to conserve water. I think notifying the newspaper and radio station is plenty of advertisement."

Mitchell told The Pilot that as far as she knows, residents are still being asked to conserve water until further notice.

Police: Fuller said police officers have been hired and are in the process of being trained, but he didn’t know when they would be activated.

Mitchell said she was unaware of the police hires, and Barrett failed to return numerous telephone calls from The Pilot concerning the water and police situations.

Town resident David Levine, who has filed to run for a spot on the Town Council in the next election, said he has the perfect solution to apprising all residents of the water situation.

"Taylortown is so small that Town officials could have gone door-to-door telling people to conserve water," said Levine. "That’s the biggest problem with our current administration — a lack of communication.

"I mean, I haven’t been told that we’re short on water, and I definitely don’t know what’s going on with the police."

Levine added that he thinks a police force is an unnecessary expense for the taxpayers.

"The Sheriff’s Department has done just fine looking after us," he said. "We don’t need a police force — it’s just a waste of money."