Walkersville commissioners granted Frederick County Public Schools an exemption Wednesday from a bond ordinance for a $12.5 million elementary school construction project scheduled to begin this summer.The project at Walkersville Elementary includes new classrooms, a new gymnasium, a cafeteria upgrade and other improvements. Construction is to begin July 1, according to Mark Herr, a senior FCPS project manager.
At issue was a local ordinance that led town commissioners to seek legal counsel before waiving a bond requirement for the school system.
Previously, Herr expressed concern that the start date could be pushed back, potentially driving up costs, if commissioners further delayed granting an exemption from the ordinance. Final design approval is before the Walkersville zoning board.
Developers are typically required to post a bond when proposing a new building project to ensure that necessary infrastructure work, such as water and sewage systems, is completed. Frederick County Public Schools has always been exempted from such bond requirements by municipalities.
Herr said Walkersville is the only municipality in the county, and the state, he believed, requiring a school system to do this.
The project at Walkersville Elementary is expected to take two years. The new gymnasium, is a significant improvement in particular, and will also be used by the county's park and recreation department, Herr said.
Herr stressed that the county needs this summer and next, as well as working through school calendars, to complete the work.
'Buy American' resolution
Introduced by Town Commissioner Russell Winch, Walkersville adopted a resolution March 25, declaring a "commitment to buy American."
The Frederick County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution in late February to encourage the use of stimulus funds to buy American goods and services. The Frederick city Board of Aldermen passed a similar resolution last week requiring a preference for purchasing American goods with any federal stimulus money that may arrive.
"If we purchase something we are going to check to see if it was manufactured in the United States, and where practical and possible, we'll buy American," Winch said.
The resolution noted the economic downturn and highlighted "everyday Americans who are struggling to maintain or find jobs in an increasingly difficult environment."
The resolution states taxpayer dollars that provide the revenue needed to operate essential government services should also "be spent to maximize the creation of American jobs and restoring or maintaining the economic vitality of our communities."
"Most stuff we buy is from around here, and I'm not sure it's going to have a huge impact," Winch said. "But we wanted to take a position of leadership on this. That's what counts."
Zoning ordinance repealed
A Walkersville zoning ordinance passed last year forbidding the construction of places of worship, recreational facilities, shops and private schools on farmland in town was formally repealed Wednesday.
The April 2008 ordinance came seven months after the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community applied to build a worship and recreation center on Woodsboro Pike agricultural land owned by David Moxley.
The repeal could aid The Banner School, a private, coeducational institution whose proposal to build a new school in Walkersville was ultimately rejected because of the ordinance.
The repeal was written to help the town's case in a $16.5 million lawsuit filed by Moxley, whose proposed sale of his agriculture-zoned land to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was blocked by the ordinance last year.
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