BERLIN — The Berlin Mayor and Council approved their annual Program Open Space (POS) allocation “wish list” this week.
While the funds have been a huge help in the past, funding has dried over the last several years and even if Maryland finds itself in a full economic recovery, there’s no guarantee that the money will come back to towns on the Eastern Shore.
The reason Berlin has not been able to find POS funds for the past couple years is due to how everything trickles down from Annapolis, where legislators have kept the purse strings for the program tight.
“This is the annual wish list that we present to Worcester County each year as they present their requests to the state for allocation of Program Open Space funds,” said Mary Bohlen, deputy town administrator, Monday.
If Berlin managed to receive any POS funding, it would immediately be injected into area parks.
“The priority park would be the John Howard Burbage Park,” said Bohlen. “First we are requesting $5,000 total funding to help develop specs to improve the park and turn it into truly a park instead of a park in name. Beyond that, $50,000 for the development of the area actually after having those specs created. And then the tot lot in Stephen Decatur Park for a total of $10,000.”
Bohlen reminded the council that this year’s wish list mirrors what Berlin has been requesting since funding disappeared during the recession. While state funding isn’t completely dead, it is severely reduced and restricted to the point where there isn’t enough left over for Worcester to distribute POS dollars for municipal projects.
Mayor Gee Williams observed that money has just not been able to spill over lately.
“And, again, this is all dependent on how much the county gets and this has been lean, lean pickings in recent years,” he said.
It is a disappointing situation since POS has been “such a great program for such a long time,” according to the mayor. Some early reports indicate that Worcester and the state might witness a degree of economic improvement over the next few years.
“Is it realistic to expect that Program Open Space, when the economy recovers and state revenues are not in such demand compared to the supply, that this action will become real again?” he asked Bohlen.
“I hope so but I honestly have no real sense of how to gauge that,” she said.