Carroll legislators are keeping watch for the Carroll County Agricultural Center. The delegation has introduced two bills to preserve $400,000 in allocations approved for the center in prior years but not used.
These bills are separate from the big one: a request by the Carroll delegation for $950,000 for the Ag Center's $3.3 million expansion project, set to break ground in August and be completed by July 2000.
Hearings on the $950,000 request will be in Annapolis at 2 p.m. Thursday before the House Appropriations Committee and at 4 p.m. March 15 before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. Representatives from the Ag Center will have no more than six minutes to make their pitch.
Ag Center Board President Lawrence Meeks told the Carroll County Agricultural Commission yesterday that he'll get right to the heart of the matter.
"The county really needs it," Meeks said.
The complex was built in the 1950s by volunteers, when the county had 50,000 residents, he said. The population has tripled since then.
"And we're still using the same facility," Meeks said.
The commission, which advises the Carroll County Board of Commissioners, voted to support the bill and to send letters to legislators on the committees that will consider it.
The two other bills, to extend the allocations, are something of a formality, but an important one, said Del. Joseph M. Getty, a Carroll Republican.
Allocations expire in two years if the recipient has not used them and they haven't been extended through legislation. That could present a problem in August, when the center's board hopes to spend the money and break ground.
The two allocations are $100,000 approved in 1996 and $300,000 approved in 1997. The 1996 allocation was lost in the shuffle last year and expired, Getty said. But he doesn't anticipate a problem -- he has seen older allocations revived, he said.
The extensions are for two years. That would align all the allocations, including the new one, to be used by 2001, Getty said.
All the requests for the Ag Center are for "bond bills": the state will sell bonds to provide the money. Because the state doesn't want to pay interest on money that will just sit around, the Department of General Services doesn't sell the bonds until it has to, Getty said.
Before the Ag Center, or any other recipient of a bond bill, can get the money, it has to present certification: documentation showing that local fund raising has matched the state money, and how and when it will be spent.
The Ag Center board has raised $1 million in pledges and cash, but design plans for the center were delayed until January, when the board completed modifications to the design to appease neighbors.
Nearby residents were concerned about the aesthetics of the new building.
Pub Date: 3/05/99