Everyone agrees that Obrecht Road must be improved to allow safer access to Route 32 in Sykesville. The town is grappling with how to improve the high-traffic road, the only major connector between Routes 97 and 32, at its northern border.
Faced with two possibilities, the town is pushing for both a realignment of Obrecht Road in a loop around the north end of Fairhaven Retirement Community and an extension to Third Avenue through town to the highway.
"The town's position is that we need two roads," said Mayor Jonathan S. Herman last night at a public hearing, which drew state, county and town officials and about 75 residents.
Steve Horn, the county traffic planner, conducted an extensive traffic study and agreed with the town assessment.
Traffic has increased about 40 percent on Obrecht Road in the past 10 years and will continue to increase, he said. "The ultimate conclusion is that both roads are needed," Mr. Horn said.
The county has budgeted $1.5 million for the realignment, part of its master plan for several years, and the town is looking to the State Highway Administration for money to pay for the extension.
Most speakers reiterated the same concerns, and most residents repeated the same opposition to one or the other option proposed for improving the much traveled-road Obrecht Road and extending it to the state highway, often called the Sykesville bypass.
Obrecht Road, a route with an average daily traffic count of 5,000 vehicles and a projected count of 15,000 within 10 years, must be improved, officials say.
Maps with concept plans for two options lined the walls of the Knights of Columbus Hall on Main Street. Although the county has budgeted the project, it has not put the road work out to bid nor has it yet filed wetland mitigation plans with the state for the proposed loop, which adjoins Piney Run park and reservoir.
Nearly two years ago, after several public hearings and much heated debate, the Town Council rejected the proposed extension, which would have to be built at town expense. Sykesville voted in favor of the realignment in June 1993 and expected the road to be under construction by now.
Now, with the possibility of state construction money, the town is revisiting the extension and pushing for it and the realignment. Fairhaven could figure heavily into any decision. It would have to grant the county right of ways to build the realignment.
"While we see the reason for both roads, our immediate concern is for the extension of Third Avenue," said James Melhorn, president of the Fairhaven board of directors. "We won't transfer any land [for the realignment] to the county until Third Avenue is completed."
Officials of the retirement community have said the extension is the safest and most accessible route for Fairhaven residents and nearly 500 employees.
If the town supports the extension of Third Avenue, Fairhaven has offered Sykesville the possibility of annexing 12 industrial-zoned acres, near Cooper Park.
Mr. Melhorn said Fairhaven also owns 23 acres south of Route 32 and is willing to give the state the land it needs to make Route 32 "a safe and workable highway."
Fairhaven also is willing to pay engineering costs to reconstruct its entrance on Third Avenue and will grant easements for sidewalk construction.
County Commissioner Richard Yates said he could see both sides of the issue but said he had made no decision as yet.