Construction on an elementary school in Mount Airy could be delayed because town officials refuse to sign a required grading permit until county leaders promise to make road improvements around the planned school site.
County officials say they have agreed to consider those improvements but are waiting for the Town Council to provide a specific wish list.
School officials say they're stuck - unable to give the Town Council what it wants and unable to begin building a facility that Mount Airy desperately needs.
The school board was scheduled to vote last night on a bid for preliminary construction work at what would be known as Parr's Ridge Elementary. The board voted to put off awarding that bid but did not discuss the impasse between town and county. Work at Parr's Ridge was expected to begin as soon as next week, said Raymond Prokop, facilities director for the school system.
The school board cannot approve construction bids until the town has signed the grading permit. Carroll Superintendent Charles I. Ecker said that if town and county officials reach an understanding in the next week, the construction schedule for Parr's Ridge probably would not be delayed.
"But if this is not resolved in the near future, it would be delayed, and that would mean there would be severe overcrowding at Mount Airy Elementary and Mount Airy Middle School," Ecker said.
"We're in the middle of all this," the superintendent added. "But we really don't have the power to give the town what it wants."
Ecker said that school, town and county officials plan to meet tomorrow to discuss the issue.
The school is scheduled to open in August 2005, but town officials say they don't want the project to move forward until they have a clear agreement with the county detailing which road improvements will be made and who will pay for them. They say they are particularly concerned about the intersection of Watersville Road and Route 27, where three people have died in car accidents in the past several months.
"When you look at this project, it has some impacts off of school grounds," said John Medve, president of Mount Airy's Town Council. "We appreciate that the school people want to get moving on this, but we have to look at it from a more holistic point of view."
Medve said the Town Council is not holding out for a specific road upgrade. "We just want to sit down and understand all of the improvements and who's going to cover them," he said.
The town's stance has frustrated school officials.
"I don't see how anything positive can come from it," Prokop said.
Mount Airy residents have complained about school crowding for years, and they reacted jubilantly when the county announced that Parr's Ridge would be its next new school. School officials initially believed the state's budget crisis would be the largest impediment to getting the project started this summer. But they learned in late April that funding for Parr's Ridge would remain, even though the state deferred money for 29 other schools.
The project seemed to be proceeding as planned until Prokop heard last week that Mount Airy's council would not sign the grading permit.
"It's like taking a cake over to someone's house only to have the person slap you," he said yesterday.
Medve said the town wants the project to remain on schedule but not at all costs.
"Believe me, no one supports this project more than the town," he said. "I believe the project is going forward on that site, because our citizens demanded that the school system relieve pressure on our other schools. ... But at the same time, we have the interests of everybody in town to consider."
The town's planning and zoning commission gave preliminary approval to the school plan in February on several conditions, including one that, "a public works agreement is drawn up between the town of Mount Airy, the Carroll County Board of Education and Carroll County specifying all public improvements to be performed."
Medve said the Town Council wants to see such an agreement before signing the grading permit.
The county has agreed to pay for a new right-turn lane from Watersville onto Route 27 and will consider other improvements the town suggests, said Carroll Planning Director Steven C. Horn. But the ball is in the town's court, he added.
"The unknown is on their end at this point," he said. "We're wondering what improvements the town wants on its road."
The county has offered all the assurances it can, added Frank Johnson, who, as a former Mount Airy councilman and as an assistant to Carroll Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge, has dealt with the issue from both sides.
"What we know about, the county has said fine, let's fund it," Johnson said. "But we're not in a position to say we'll fund any improvement whatever it is. We're certainly willing to talk about whatever else they want."
Johnson said the county's position hasn't changed, and he said he was surprised to hear the Town Council has withheld the grading permit.
"I thought it was an issue where everyone was willing to work together," he said.
