Construction Money

Carroll County's new multimillion-dollar District Courthouse appears to be back on track for design and construction money in state budgets for 2000 and 2001, county officials said yesterday.In December, officials discovered what they described as a glitch in the project: Construction money that was supposed to have been in the state's next fiscal budget was omitted from a preliminary draft.Steven D. Powell, county director of management and budget, said the project is expected to receive $7.6 million in construction funding in 2001, and $63,000 for design in the 2000 budget.

State Comptroller Peter Franchot criticized Baltimore County leaders Wednesday for failing to use $7 million in school construction funds to air-condition schools. Franchot, who welcomed a group of Middleborough Elementary children and their parents to Annapolis to testify before the Board of Public Works, asked the board to force the county to spend at least half of the money, which has come from the state alcohol tax, on air-conditioning. But Gov. Martin O'Malley and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, the other board members, said that while they were sympathetic to the pleas from children and parents, they would not interfere with local decisions on school construction spending.

Carroll County's new multimillion-dollar District Courthouse appears to be back on track for design and construction money in state budgets for 2000 and 2001, county officials said yesterday.In December, officials discovered what they described as a glitch in the project: Construction money that was supposed to have been in the state's next fiscal budget was omitted from a preliminary draft.But Steven D. Powell, county director of management and budget, said the project is expected to receive $7.6 million in construction funding in 2001, and $63,000 for design in the 2000 budget.

The latest school facilities construction plan, which was presented to the Harford County Board of Education during its meeting June 13, shows once again that the school system and the county government are not on the same page when it comes to planning future school construction. The plan ranks the Homestead Wakefield Elementary reconstruction as the first priority, followed by construction of a new John Archer School, which would be built as an addition to Bel Air Middle. Next in line behind those two will be the renovation or reconstruction of Youth's Benefit Elementary in Fallston, followed by the reconstruction of William Paca/Old Post Road Elementary in Abingdon.

The Maryland Board of Public Works has approved $1.8 million in state construction money for a 356-student addition and a 6,500-square-foot gym at C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air.Construction will begin as soon as the project is bid, county officials said. It should be completed in early 1996.The state approved the project last year, but denied construction money for the 38,473-square-foot addition twice.In a last-ditch effort to move the project forward, county officials invited Gov. William Donald Schaefer to tour the school last month.

The O'Malley administration backed away yesterday from its plan to take control of city money used for school construction, saying it reached an agreement with school officials that will give it more oversight of how such dollars are spent. The agreement calls for two city employees to help the school system manage renovation and construction projects. The city will also devote two of its weekly meetings with senior school staff every month to monitoring capital projects. School officials had opposed the city taking over about $90 million in city bond money approved for school construction.

Members of Maryland's congressional delegation said yesterday that they intend to seek federal money to begin building one segment of the Baltimore Regional Rail Plan - an east-west line from Woodlawn to Fells Point. But the Ehrlich administration said a final decision has not been made on whether to seek the money, and it was unclear if the delegation would proceed without the state's blessing. The congressmen met for more than an hour yesterday with state Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan.

Even though the county is anticipating sharp cuts in state aid, school officials are preparing an $89 million capital budget they say is necessary to avoid overcrowded schools. "To the extent that any of these [projects] are not funded, we end up doing a balancing act," said Director of Planning and Construction Michael Raible. "None of the items are frivolous." The Board of Education has scheduled a public hearing on the proposed capital budget at 7:30 tonight at the school headquarters, 2644 Riva Road.

Carroll school representatives will begin their annual quest today to persuade state officials that the county deserves more money to build and upgrade schools next year.Their trip to the Interagency Committee for School Construction in Baltimore is one of the first steps in a long series of requests and appeals as counties compete for state money for school construction and renovations.Last month, the committee's staff approved $4.7 million of Carroll's $21.7 million request to help pay for capital projects in fiscal year 2000, which begins in July.

The Hampstead bypass is one of six major highway projects in Maryland that will be getting money for engineering work but not construction, a state highway official said yesterday.No money is budgeted for construction on any of those projects, said Neil Pedersen, director of planning for the State Highway Administration.Mr. Pedersen and other state transportation officials met with the county commissioners and local officials at the County Office Building yesterday.Carroll officials have pushed for about 30 years for a bypass that would alleviate truck and rush-hour traffic through Hampstead.

I' m a 17 year old high school student attending Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. I'm responding to the article by Liz F. Kay ("Size of planned youth jail to shrink," May 13) that explains details of the shrinking of the planned youth jail that is going to be built. When I read the article I was glad to hear that crime among the youth in Baltimore City has declined. As a youth in the city, I feel proud to see my fellow peers making better decisions. Although I'm completely against spending money to build a new jail when Baltimore public schools will have to make budget cuts next year to extracurricular activities, I do think decreasing the size of the jail is a good decision by city officials.

As the state Board of Public Works approved $264 million for school construction Wednesday, two counties asked to delay new buildings because they aren't certain they can come up with the money to finish or operate them — an unprecedented sign, officials said, of the continuing financial challenges confronting local governments. "We've never dealt with anything like this before, where we've come to this sort of crisis point," David G. Lever, director of the state's Public School Construction Program, said of the requests by Charles and Wicomico counties.

The state's Board of Public Works approved Wednesday an additional $1.5 million for preparations for the Baltimore Grand Prix Road Race, as the Maryland Stadium Authority waits for delayed payments from the private group organizing the race. The allocated funds, which will come from the budget of the Maryland Stadium Authority and go toward converting parking lots at Camden Yards into a pit lane for race cars, were approved without discussion at the board's meeting and is the last step before construction begins this month.

Two Democratic primary candidates for Baltimore County executive sharpened their attacks Tuesday as Kevin Kamenetz and Joseph Bartenfelder each accused the other of misrepresenting his record on the County Council, where the two have served together for 16 years. Kamenetz, the District 2 councilman, made a show of challenging his opponent's veracity during a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Towson, gathering three other council members and the president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County and displaying a poster-sized copy of a piece of Bartenfelder campaign literature.

RUTHSBURG - -Maryland officials rejoiced last month at news that this isolated Eastern Shore junction would be the future home of a major new State Department security center. Tiny Ruthsburg, little-changed since the 1700s, is the federal government's preferred site for a state-of-the art campus where diplomatic security agents will train for the age of international terrorism. The 2,000-acre project offers years of construction work and hundreds of permanent, good-paying jobs in Queen Anne's County, which has suffered from rising unemployment and a conviction that its needs often get ignored in the power centers of Washington and Annapolis.

The Baltimore County school system's recent handling of requests for state money for its building projects was riddled with missteps, including late submissions, continual changes and lack of documentation, according to a memo from the head of the state's school construction program. "It appears that communication between the local government and the [school system] is very poor, resulting in miscommunications, hasty changes of scope, and lack of direction on major projects," David G. Lever, executive director of the state's Interagency Committee on School Construction, wrote in the April 22 memo to the other members of the panel.

In a blow to advocates for an expanded transit system in Baltimore, the Ehrlich administration said yesterday that it will not seek federal money to start construction of the regional rail plan that has been touted as key to the city's revival. Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said the state will request only planning and engineering money for the rail plan in its six-year transportation proposal that is due to Congress next week. The next chance for Maryland to request construction money will be in 2009.

Carroll County educators will make their case today for a new Westminster high school before a statewide panel that decides which construction projects receive state money.The county is seeking state endorsement for the school, which would all but guarantee a large chunk of state construction money. The state didn't endorse the school in its first round of consideration, in part because of questions about whether the county needs the facility to relieve crowding in the Westminster area.The high school project is the county's priority among seven Carroll projects before the Interagency Committee for State Public School Construction (IAC)