Infrastructure

The recent reports on suspected cheating on standardized tests at some Baltimore City schools included the statement that school officials worry they might "have hit a wall in educating children. " Some of those walls have been in place for a long time in Maryland public schools - and they are dilapidated and moldy. Baltimore City and Baltimore County have the oldest school buildings in the state, and fewer than half of their schools have decent climate control, either in the hot months or the cold months.

The Maryland Transportation Authority recently announced its intention to increase automobile tolls throughout Maryland, including a per car increase in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge toll from $2.50 to $8 by 2013. According to the MdTA, the justification for the increase is to provide revenue for maintaining our aging facilities. While maintaining safe infrastructure is an invaluable role of our government, further investigation reveals this to be nothing more than another case of fiscal mismanagement by our elected officials.

Recently I read Mike Dresser's article concerning the proposed increase in Maryland's tolls, the one in which he defended them, or at least attempted to justify them! ("Increases in bridge, tunnel tolls cruel but fair," June 13.) Mr. Dresser "drank the Kool-Aid" and bought into this travesty of justice. I believe that these increases have far more to do with supporting President Obama's (anti) energy policies rather than generating funds to maintain and repair infrastructure. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that such increases in tolls will result in Marylanders driving less, possibly quite a bit less!

In two years, Baltimore's next generation of aspiring architects and graphic and fashion designers will join the burgeoning Station North district, thanks to an unusual public-private funding plan that will transform the historic, long-vacant Lebow Brothers Clothing Factory into a school. City schools CEO Andrés Alonso hopes that the Baltimore Design School's financial model — which includes funds from a developer, tax credits and private bonds — can also be used to fund the multibillion-dollar cost of improving the district's dilapidated infrastructure.

Gov. Martin O'Malley made his first major address as the head of the Democratic Governors Association on Saturday night, using an annual fundraising dinner for Virginia Democrats to urge elected leaders to invest in education and infrastructure. The themes echoed his inaugural address and campaign stump speeches: Democrats should not run away from traditional priorities even in difficult economic times. Keeping schools and transportation projects funded will help states "move forward, not backward," he said, according to prepared remarks.

Kudos to President Obama's budget, which will reduce the nation's deficit by a projected $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Wisely it defers major cuts until the economy is more firmly entrenched. History and most economists have taught us that premature spending cuts could derail our hesitant recovery from the disastrous 2007 recession. Proposed cuts will hurt many sectors of our population, but the president's proposals are smart, reasonable and necessary. Hopefully they will avoid gutting programs essential to our poor, sick and elderly.

A group representing civil engineers reported that Maryland's transportation and water systems are in dire need of billions of dollars of repairs and upgrades as it released a study giving the state's infrastructure an overall grade of C-minus. The report Tuesday by the Maryland section of the American Society of Civil Engineers issued grades ranging from a B-minus for the state's bridges to a D for its storm-water systems. Frank Kaul, president of the state chapter, said the results were "not acceptable," adding that Maryland has been putting off investment in aging infrastructure for too long.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined a group of governors, mayors and Cabinet secretaries at the White House on Monday for an event with President Barack Obama highlighting infrastructure investments. The gathering in the State Dining Room was part of a fresh attempt by the administration to focus attention on Obama's plan to invest $50 billion in highway, rail and runway improvements. Those on hand included Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and mayors from Philadelphia, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Charleston, S.C. Among the topics on the agenda was a new administration report that says 80 percent of the transportation infrastructure jobs would be created in the construction, manufacturing and retail trade sectors, and that the work would go to sectors of the economy battered by high joblessness.

The city spending board approved an $18.3 million contract Wednesday to grade and build roads and lay pipes at the Uplands redevelopment project in Southwest Baltimore to Monumental Paving & Excavating, despite a protest from a rival firm. Representatives of that company, Civil Construction LLC of Cheverly, argued that it should have been awarded the contract because they submitted a bid for $800,000 less than Monumental. City officials explained to the five-member Board of Estimates that Civil Construction was disqualified because its bid exceeded a cap on startup costs and failed to meet the requirement for woman-owned subcontractors.

Less than a week after city and state officials celebrated a groundbreaking for a major redevelopment project in Southwest Baltimore, a decision to award an $18.3 million contract for work at the site is being contested. Representatives from a Cheverly company plan to protest at Wednesday's meeting of the city Board of Estimates over a recommendation to award a contract to Monumental Paving & Excavating to grade land and install water and wastewater pipes, curbs, gutters and storm drains at the Uplands site.