By Howard Notebook
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 15, 2008
It appears that a $57.3 million renovation of Mount Hebron High School has the support of the County Council, even though some Mount Hebron teachers and staff want the facility to be replaced.
In a straw vote taken during a budget work session Friday, four of five council members said they favored funding the first year of the school's renovation in the fiscal 2009 county budget. The remainder would be provided the following budget year, with construction taking three years.
Council member Jen Terrasa (D-Southeast County), who abstained, said Monday that she probably would make the council's support unanimous.
"The reality is we don't have the funds to replace the school," Terrasa said. School system officials say replacing Mount Hebron, which opened in 1965, would cost at least $80 million.
School system officials told council members that rebuilding wouldn't offer significant savings in energy efficiency or operations and maintenance.
But Mark Cates, a veteran social studies teacher at the school, disputed those findings. He said Aberdeen High School in Harford County was replaced for $42.9 million.
Cates said parents and school staff members who want a new school will lobby the County Council and County Executive Ken Ulman (D), with the council expected to adopt the budget next Thursday.
"We need them to reconsider," he said. "We're going to do what's necessary to convince them it's a bad move."
Trash Proposals Are DebatedProposals to raise the county trash fee per household and buy new recycling bins prompted dissension among County Council members during recent budget deliberations.
Council Chairman Courtney Watson (D-Northeast County) and Greg Fox (R-Western County) have been critical of the $50-a-year increase per household sought by County Executive Ken Ulman (D) to make the trash collection operation self-supporting, rather than drawing on general fund revenue. The increase would be $35 a year for households in the county's rural west. Ulman also wants to spend $3 million to purchase large wheeled bins to increase recycling.
"In my opinion, this is not the time to be increasing fees because of the economy," Watson said. She said the bin purchase could be postponed in favor of an education campaign to raise awareness about recycling.
But council Democrats Calvin Ball (East Columbia), Jen Terrasa (Southeast County) and Mary Kay Sigaty (West Columbia) seemed receptive to the increase and bin purchase.
"This one makes sense to me," Sigaty said.
Details Sought From General GrowthHarper's Choice resident Bernard Jennings says there's something missing in General Growth Properties' plans for downtown Columbia: as many as 5,500 new housing units that the company wants to build over the next 30 years in Town Center. Jennings questioned the proposal at a Monday night community forum in the Harper's Choice Village Center.
"We want to know about that in detail," he told company representatives, who brought their PowerPoint show and color renderings to Kahler Hall recently. "There are a lot of people in the community ready to go to war on this if it is not explained suitably."
It's coming soon, replied Barbara Nicklas, the company's vice president of marketing for master planned communities. "The development team is still working through a lot of this," she said.
Company efforts will first focus on new shops and offices, as well as amenities such as landscaped walkways, a market square near The Mall in Columbia and a renovated Merriweather Post Pavilion. The company also wants a change in Town Center zoning to permit significantly higher density in the core of the 1960s planned community developed by James Rouse.
The zoning request could go to county officials this summer. Nicklas promised that beforehand, "there will be enough time for the community to hear it and provide feedback to it."
The two dozen attendees at Kahler Hall debated whether a large increase of people downtown would mean more traffic congestion, tighter parking and more crime. But Cynthia Lynn, who lives near Harper's Choice, said she was hopeful.
"We're not the little Columbia we used to be," she said. "You can't just live in the past. We have to grow."
The Search for a Horse Park SiteHoward County should continue efforts to find a suitable location for a state horse park, according to members of a task force reporting to the County Council.
"We do have properties that would be suitable if we can gain the agreement of the owners," said Michael D. Erskine, a Mount Airy equine veterinarian who led the task force. "It's worth pursuing."
The task force is recommending that another panel be created to negotiate with land owners for a park that could host competitive events, and include an indoor arena and trails. The panel said possible sites include Benson Branch Park, West Friendship Park, the Belmont estate in Elkridge owned by Howard Community College's educational foundation, a private landowner whom Erskine declined to identify and the University of Maryland research farm west of Ellicott City. The university has said that a horse park would conflict with its agricultural research.
Erskine said some private landowners have approached members of the task force about locating a horse park on their property.
"We believe it would be good for Howard County and good for the state," he said.
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