The St. Mary’s County Commissioners rolled through a discussion of their Fiscal Year 2015 and six-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) on Monday with little disagreement. In the end they agreed to take to public hearing a proposed plan for the next fiscal year that begins July 1 for projects that will cost $59.7 million. The six-year plan totals $141.6 million.
The county is anticipating going to the bond market for the first time since 2009 for $26.5 million of the total $59.7 million in FY 2015.
The only controversy at the two-and-a-half-hour budget work session Monday afternoon was on the FDR Boulevard construction schedule. The plan calls for funding $6 million in each of the next three years for the staged construction plan. Commissioner Lawrence Jarboe (R: 3rd) continues to argue for a delay in construction. He voted against the construction timetable when it was put in the capital budget last year.
The FDR Boulevard has been in various plans for 20 years. It will be a local access route parallel to Route 235 and intended to relieve traffic on that main route into the Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
Commissioner Todd Morgan (R: 4th) has been a vocal advocate for FDR Boulevard. Jarboe used as an argument for his position an argument made by Morgan when testifying in Annapolis in support of a bill last week. Jarboe said that Morgan said that there were factors looming on the horizon that could lead to a 1,000-person workforce reduction at Pax River. Jarboe said that was evidence that traffic on Route 235 would be reducing over time, lessening the need for FDR now.
Morgan at Tuesday’s regular commissioners’’ meeting said the bill he testified on was HB 1168, which would establish a moratorium on wind turbines on the Easter Shore in Somerset County. He said they would interfere with testing at Pax River. At the work session Morgan noted that traffic is congested now on Route 235 and that St. Mary’s County would continue to be the state’s fastest growing county.
Commissioner Cynthia Jones (R: 1st), who is an opponent of Jarboe’s in the upcoming Republican primary for the House of Delegates District 29A seat, argued in favor of Morgan’s position. She noted that there is the possibility of another round of base closings and realignments. She said the county needed to state its case for Pax River by providing the infrastructure to support the base, such as roads.
Commissioner Daniel Morris (R: 2nd) supported Jarboe’s contention for a delay in the construction timetable, although he did support the continuing to purchase right of way agreements. All five commissioners on Tuesday voted to support the execution of three option contracts for the right-of-way.
The decision to pull the proposed jail expansion project was controversial last year, but continues in the CIP with no change this year. The $9.4 million renovation project has also escalated in cost with the revelation by Director of Public Works and Transportation George Erichsen that there would be an additional $1-3 million cost to relocate inmates for three-eight months during the renovation. They would be relocated at cost to other jails in the state with capacity and willing to take them in.
Sheriff Tim Cameron continues to press for the new jail. At a recent budget presentation to his Citizens Advisory Committee, Commander of the Corrections Division Captain Michael Merican said that the current jail’s capacity is 230 inmates, but national standards say the capacity shouldn’t be exceeded on average by 80 pe
