Government is often said to move slowly, but it does move, as many of those involved in planning a new 51-acre park and a 63,000-square-foot community center in North Laurel can attest.
Bulldozers should be appearing within the next few weeks in what are now woods and grass between the rear of Laurel Woods Elementary School and Whiskey Bottom Road, and the $25.2 million combined facility is to open in October 2010 - after a mere two decades of effort for what most acknowledge is an old, settled area without enough public amenities.
"The first [land] purchase for this park was made in July 1997. This is 2009. It's taken us a while," county recreation and parks director Gary J. Arthur told a small crowd of officials and community members at an official groundbreaking for the project May 30.
After years of planning and promotion, land purchases took a full decade, and allotting the first money for the project took a few years more. The county has set aside $7 million to begin the project this year, with the rest to come later. When complete, the $19.6 million community center will be a larger version of one built in 2006 at Glenwood, in the western county, under former County Executive James N. Robey.
The environmentally friendly building will contain space for seniors, indoor recreation, health and police offices, a computer room, dance studio, meeting rooms and an arts and crafts room. Outside will be playing fields, playgrounds, picnic areas, basketball and tennis courts, and a skateboard park. In future years, a swimming pool is another possibility.
Robey, now a state senator who represents North Laurel, attended the groundbreaking, as did former area County Council members Shane Pendergrass and Guy Guzzone, and current council member Jen Terrasa, all Democrats. Pendergrass and Guzzone are now Maryland state delegates representing the area.
One former councilman, Republican Dennis R. Schrader, who served from 1994 to 1998 between Pendergrass and Guzzone's terms, said later he wasn't informed or invited to the groundbreaking. Officials said no slight was intended. Invitations went to existing elected officials and residents, like 2006 Republican County Council candidate Donna Thewes, who participated in a citizens' advisory committee that helped plan the park.
At the groundbreaking, Guzzone recalled working to help promote the idea of a park in North Laurel when he served as a special assistant to Pendergrass nearly two decades ago.
