Better late than never

It's been a long time coming, but at least one of Harford County's elected officials has finally taken notice that getting ready for the BRAC influx at Aberdeen Proving Ground just hasn't been happening.

Last week in Annapolis for a Maryland General Assembly committee meeting on BRAC preparedness in the state, Southern Harford Sen. Nancy Jacobs decried the lack of financial attention being paid to infrastructure needs on state roads providing access to APG.

She asked specifically about some key intersections, notably Routes 40 and 715 in Aberdeen as well as the Perryman Road intersection with Route 40, also in Aberdeen. While some of the work is under way, she was told, other pieces will have to wait until funding becomes available. There was no real timeline provided to the senator.

Similarly, there has been some movement on improvements to the Edgewood MARC commuter rail station, but most of the work is yet to be done.

Furthermore, while there's been talk within the state's university system about offering programs geared to providing training so local people can come up to speed and qualify for BRAC jobs at APG, as well as Fort Meade, it's been mostly talk.

The senator's response to all this was one of irritation at the failure to deal with the BRAC challenges earlier.

Jacobs said the projects should have been initiated a long time ago, but because they hadn't been, "a great opportunity is being missed."

First of all: Amen! Jacobs is absolutely right. All this and more should have been done. The financial groundwork should have been taken care of within weeks of the announcement in 2005 that BRAC changes would be bringing thousands of jobs to APG.

Early on, there was a lot of talk about road improvements and upgraded commuter rail stations for Aberdeen and Edgewood. The wish list grew and before long, just about every project to come before a governmental body — state, Harford County, even some federal agencies — had a BRAC aspect to it.

As it turned out, the list of BRAC-related things to talk about and plan for apparently became so big that there was just no time to talk about the money involved or dealing with the basics, such as a schedule.

Jacobs can count herself among the many folks who failed to deal with traffic problems on state roads that provide access to APG. Already overtaxed before the coming of BRAC, these roadways would only become more crowded in years to come. While this was clear enough, it appears it wasn't flashy enough to get the attention of Jacobs or her colleagues in the Maryland General Assembly (from both parties, by the way), when it comes to securing money.

So even as no roads were being built, massive new buildings were being finished on post. The result: BRAC has arrived, and the full contingent of a substantially expanded APG workforce can be expected to further clog local roads over the next several months. As several people close to the BRAC situation in Harford have said, we probably haven't seen anything yet on the congestion issue.

Nancy Jacobs appears to be the first in state government to have awakened from the dream of BRAC riches only to find a more harsh reality. Let's hope her other colleagues have a similar epiphany in the next few weeks and put on a full court press for those improved roads and commuter rail facilities.

In this case, late is definitely better than never.