A therapeutic horseback riding program run by a local non-profit is no longer moving to Oakington Farm near Havre de Grace, prompting Harford County government to revise its proposed 2017 budget and to abandon a capital project with an estimated cost approaching $3 million.
Chesapeake Therapeutic Riding will not go forward with a new facility that it had asked the county to subsidize and for which ground was broken two years ago, according to the county administration. The project would have been the first significant public access development on the Oakington Farm property the county bought two decades ago.
"It is a mutual agreement," Billy Boniface, county Director of Administration, told the County Council at its Tuesday meeting, explaining why the administration had asked for a budget amendment to reallocate $25,000 within the parks and recreation operating budget.
Rather than continuing with the capital project at Oakington Farm, the county will instead contribute $25,000 toward the organization and its existing facility in Jarrettsville, Boniface said, "as we would do with any nonprofit."
Boniface said the amendment also recognized Councilman Chad Shrodes' concerns about providing consultants to deal with the parks and recreation plan to get state Program Open Space funding because that's for what the $25,000 had been budgeted. The county will instead do the grant work internally.
Shrodes thanked Boniface and Budget Director Kim Spence for helping him.
"I think it's the right thing to do," he said about the Chesapeake Therapeutic revision.
The county decided to not move forward with the project, which was started by the previous administration, county government spokesperson Cindy Mumby explained Thursday morning.
"Funds were spent on site work and grading, which could be used for another project at the site in the future," she said.
Cathleen Schmidt, executive director for CTR, said she was understanding about the situation and "it would have been a very huge challenge to try to raise the rest of the money that we would have needed."
"We felt that in order to be financially responsible to the county, as well as to the taxpayers, we felt at this time it was best to amend the [memorandum of understanding]," Schmidt said.
Chesapeake Therapeutic Riding offers children and adults with disabilities, or other special needs, including brain injuries or mental health issues, specialized horseback riding lessons and other activities, according to its website.
The abandonment of the CTR project means the county has no immediate plans for amenities on the 312 acres it owns at Oakington Road, originally bought with Program Open Space funds, Mumby said.
"Another project is possible in the future," she said.
The riding facility would have been on 40 acres. The remaining 272 acres are leased out for farming, which must go through the county's procurement process every five years.
The last administration challenged CTR to raise $150,000 toward the first phase of its project. About half of that had been raised in mid-2014, when a contract was let through the Board of Estimates for the site work and grading, including new fencing.
The county had planned to repurpose and expand the existing barns on the Oakington property for an indoor riding ring and other activities. There was a prior appropriation of $1.9 million in the capital budget from, but no expenditures were planned in fiscal 2017.
In all, the previous administration planned to put nearly $3 million into the project, according to budget documents, which also show about $465,000 was already spent.
Other budget amendments
Other budget amendments approved by the council Tuesday included $11,600 toward the oral history program at Harford County Public Library and reallocation of $1 million toward a new fleet maintenance facility.
Shrodes and Councilman Pat Vincenti both said they are enthusiastic about supporting the oral history program that preserves the stories of Harford County's longest lived residents.
"I think the oral history part of the Harford Living Treasure is very important," Shrodes said, referring to a four decades old program that honors senior residents for the significant contributions to the county. "It is very unique and we are probably one of the only local jurisdictions that has such a program."
"When we lose that person and it's not on tape, it's gone forever," Vincenti added.
The fleet maintenance funding, meanwhile, would start engineering and design on a new facility, in cooperation with the government and the Board of Education, Spence told the council.
Revamping the maintenance facility was ranked as one of the highest facilities priorities for the county, according to the facilities master plan released last year, Boniface noted.
"We have a ton of safety issues there and concerns," he told the council, adding the administration had talked with the school board about combining facilities, as theirs also needs upgrading.
"This is an area where we really need to move forward on," Boniface said.