Support the Expansion and Modernization of Mt.Airy Middle School.

 A Call To Action for Mount Airy Residents

The Mount Airy Blog is committed to ensuring we communicate all the issues of the day affecting Mount Airy. Budget issues in Carroll County have resulted in a "Call to Action" regarding the  expansion and modernization of Mt.Airy Middle School.  

Please read below a letter to the Carroll County Commissioners from neighbor, friend and advocate, Rita Misra.  Please share! 

Dear Carroll County Commissioners - 

In this uncertain economy many of us have had to adjust our spending in order to protect what is most important for our families and communities. Likewise, I appreciate your efforts to reduce waste in public spending and protect the taxpayers dime.

After reviewing this year's proposed budget I am writing to urge you to find a way to preserve and protect (and fully fund) our public schools.  Over the last few years Carroll County Public Schools has done its best to trim waste.  Consequently, CCPS has put forth an extremely conservative funding request this year.  I believe that fulfilling their request is critical to ensuring that our children have the resources necessary to thrive.  Reducing the County budget by deferring necessary school modernizations/renovations or denying our children access to educational resources necessary to prepare them for an increasingly competitive job market would be short-sighted and fiscally unsound.

In 2007/8 CCPS developed an Educational Facilities Master Plan that recognized the true costs and adverse educational consequences of deferring modernization of our aging schools.  In 2009, our County Commissioners and the MD school construction funding board agreed that it was time to expand and modernize Mt.Airy Middle School, and planning and design of this important project began. 

MAMS (built in 1958) is the oldest un-modernized middle school in Carroll County.  Although North Carroll Middle (built in 1956) was modernized in 2005, modernization of MAMS has not yet been done. Although MAMS has a functional capacity of only 510; the current enrollment is over 600.  For the past four years one third of the school (all of our 6th graders) spend the bulk of their school day in 10 aging portable units in a deteriorating parking lot.  In addition to the fact that all of our 6th graders are in noisy and crowded "outbuildings", many of our 7th and 8th graders receive instruction in small, noisy, outdated, classrooms with class sizes exceeding 35; CCPS predicts that enrollments at MAMS will continue to grow. While an addition would provide more permanent classroom space, it would do nothing to address all of the limitations associated with other parts of the building (e.g. small and outdated cafeteria, and outdated HVAC system, ADA facilities, and educational resources/technology). Clearly the children and teachers at MAMS have not been afforded the same level of safety, security, privacy, or educational resources that children in modern/modernized schools across the County and State routinely enjoy. 

This project has already received funding approval from Carroll County Public Schools, MD State Dept of Education, and the previous Board of Carroll County Commissioners.  Design and Planning for this project has already been completed and funding was appropriated from impact fees that have already been collected specifically for Capital improvement projects such as schools.  Pulling funding for this project now will adversely affect the quality of our children's education and will render useless significant funds already spent on the design and planning.  Refusing ~$12 M of State funding already allocated for this project in these tough economic times is likely to result in significant burden on Carroll County taxpayers down the road.   

I sincerely believe that the strength of Carroll County lies in the strength of our families and historic communities, and that the heart of each community lies with its children and schools.  Please do all you can to provide our community schools with the resources they need to challenge and inspire our children, so that they can become productive citizens ready, willing, and able to sustain our communities and meet new challenges that lie ahead.

Thank you for your service and for considering my point of view, 

Rita Misra

707 North Main St. 

Mt. Airy

Mayor Rockinberg-- Doesn't Have a Clue

--On Economic Development, Our Commercial Tax Base and  Living Where You Work..

Perhaps it's time for a new survey?

It appears we have a Mayor who really isn’t getting the big picture of why economic development is so important for Mount Airy. At February 23rd's special meeting of the Economic Development Commission and the Town Council,  the Mayor said>>

“I don't see a huge push or need for Economic Development beyond what we already have, we already have a good mix.”

There in lies the problem.  

The philosophy of the Mayor, 2 councilman (Pyatt and Strong) and the entire Planning and Zoning Board towards the “greedy developers” is ‘go away.’  The Mayor also said>>

“We need economic development and the business here more as a convenience.”

He went on to say that the residents need to make more of an “effort” to support local businesses to ensure their survival. He states>>

 "How we can help our residents and these businesses is to foster these businesses only as a convenience. If we don't support the businesses here in Mount Airy, those conveniences will go away. What I think EDC should focus on to help to foster these businesses and keep them thriving is a shop where you live campaign. We can educate these people, because if we don't frequent these businesses, we're not going to have them. I think that will help build our commercial tax base and keep our businesses thriving."

Really? 

Don’t get me wrong; I try to frequent our local businesses as much as possible. I would hope other residents do the same; I mean, who wants to drive to Frederick, Columbia or Germantown? But the Mayor has it all wrong. It’s not the resident’s responsibility to patronize local businesses in order for them to survive.  I, along with my fellow residents make our own choices when it comes to shopping for groceries, gas, eating  out etc. It's a free society. That’s how it works. 


Oh and by the way Mr. Mayor, encouraging a shop where you live campaign in town is just one component of EDC. Shopping here in Town will not grow the commercial tax base.Only new businesses opening their doors will add to the commercial tax base. 

It’s the Town’s responsibility and in the Town’s best interest to ensure the Town remains a viable, attractive and welcoming place to start a business. A diversified business sector brings additional foot traffic for other businesses and creates a climate that would entice residents to make the choice to stay local more often.  

The word “developer” is a bad word in this town, and the development community has been treated very poorly. Half the residents in this Town wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the development community and for the good hearted life long residents who  said YES to us moving to their Town to raise our kids and open our businesses. 

EDC Commission member Frank Dertzbaugh said  “If we can’t at least bring potential investors in the door, and get them through at least a concept, then they will lose interest with all the other hurdles they will have along the way which are many.”

It’s an uphill battle to even get a project to the concept stage. It has become the mission of this administration and the Planning and Zoning Commission to create an atmosphere of negativity with no creative out of the box solutions to infrastructure challenges. 

It's no secret that Mount Airy has a water issue...it's been that way for nearly two decades. The truth? These Town officials don’t want to find water. They don’t want to find a solution. The Mayor said so himself>>

"We have water for every resident in Mt. Airy now; I don't see a huge deficiency. I don't think we need big ground water and that's one of the things I campaigned on. We don't need these big resources. We have water resources.Now we need some more to build out center street. We are limited and I don't think we need to take great gains to change what we already have." 

How quickly we forget when we hit a dry spell? If it were really up to them, they would seal the Mt. Airy borders. Perhaps they should just build a fence? 

EDC member Mike VantSant said  "there are a couple of very key things in the enabling legislation, and one that jumps right out at me is to promote the ability to work closer to home.” To which the Mayor replied>>

"A lot of people had a choice when they moved to Mount Airy of places to live and working the same area, while that can be some what desirable, I don't think that's the number one desire of the people that live here, to have their job immediately adjacent to where they work." 

 Wow! I'll say it again.. Really? 

The Mayor is out of touch with reality and with most residents and business owners in this Town. If we have the opportunity to work closer to home, most people would jump on that, that doesn't mean we want to become an "employment hub." It just means that we create more opporutnity whether it means more jobs for our Teens, stay at home Moms or business professionals.  

Most businesses are eager to see business development. Businesses want to grow. They want the town to be a place where prospective business owners can come and be treated with respect, given an honest process and not subject to the political BS of the almighty Planning and Zoning commission.   

Businesses in Mt. Airy-if you want to grow and prosper, it’s time to take a stand against the unorthodox treatment of our development community. Stand up if you believe Planning and Zoning, Economic Development, and the Town Council should all work in concert to create an atmosphere that is conducive for economic growth and vitality in our small Town.