She says it contains a lot of school construction projects.
Frederick, Md (KM) A proposed fiscal year 2021 Capital Budget and six-year Capital Improvements Program were discussed Thursday by Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner.
During a public information briefing, she said a number of school construction projects remain on track, including a new Urbana Elementary School, a new Rock Creek School, Blue Heron Elementary School and an expanded Waverly Elementary School, which will be located at the current site of the Rock Creek School on Taney Avenue. The Rock Creek School will be relocating to an area near Walkersville Middle School.
But Gardner says the big news is the advanced funding for a new Brunswick Elementary School, which moves this project up a few years in the CIP. “This school is certainly one of our older buildings, and is in great need of modernization and replacement,” she says. “The new school will also be larger and accommodate more students than the current school. So this is great news for the Brunswick community.”
Gardner says the CIP also contains renovations to Linganore Hall at Frederick Community College. “This project will provide improved classrooms, and skilled teaching labs, additional general classrooms, enhanced testing, more collaborative student learning areas as well as faculty space for the Community College’s Nursing and Allied Health Program,” she says.
And there’s a new library. “I’m very pleased to announce that we are planning to move the Middletown Library project ahead of schedule. We are moving construction funding up a year from fiscal year ’23 to fiscal year ’22,” Gardner said. “And while that is a year earlier in the budget, it will probably effectively move up the opening of the project by about six months.”
In addition, the CIP contains funding for three near fire halls. One is called Northgate, formerly Hayward Road Fire Station. “And it will be located in the northern part of the city of Frederick just west of the new Monocacy Boulevard Interchange with US 15,” says Gardner. “This station is critically needed to handle increased calls on the northwest side of US 15 in response to growth in the city of Frederick. We do not have a fire station in that part of the county.”
The other two projects are replacements for the Carroll Manor station in Adamstown, and the Green Valley station.
Gardner says there’s also a new project in the CIP: an expansion of the Animal Control Center and the animal adoption center. “While this is scheduled for design in an out year, fiscal year ’23, and construction in fiscal year ’25, it is a new project that has been needed for years. This is first time it’s appeared anywhere in the Capital Improvement Program so I wanted to highlight it. I expect this to have great community support among our community’s animal lovers,” she said
The County Executive will hold a virtual public hearing on these budgets on Monday, March 23rd beginning at 7:00 PM. It will be broadcast on Cable Channels 19, and 1085.
Because of the state of emergency declared by the Governor to combat the coronavirus outbreak, citizens will not be allowed inside Winchester Hall that evening. However, they can submit their comments through e-mail ([email protected]). between now and the close of business on March 25th. They can also phone in their comments to 301-600-1622. They can also send their comments via Facebook Live video which will be streamed live from www.Facebook.com/JanGardnerExec.
By Kevin McManu