SALISBURY – Questions surrounding the Salisbury airport and Mardela Middle and High School highlighted last week’s work session on the county Capital Improvement Program.
Last week, the Wicomico County Council held a work session on the fiscal years 2021-2025 Capital Improvement Program (CIP).
Officials kicked off the meeting with a discussion on the Salisbury Regional Airport.
In April, the airport received more than $18 million in CARES Acts funding to pay for operations and capital projects over the next four years. As a result, members of the council last week questioned if county contributions were needed to support airport projects in the coming fiscal year.
“I know we have other requests for money to be spent,” Councilman Joe Holloway said. “Should we even consider putting that in the capital fund?”
Director of Administration Wayne Strausburg told the council this week roughly $9.1 million in relief funding would be used for operating and maintenance expenses at the airport, while the remaining $9 million would be available for capital projects approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Based on guidance the county received from the FAA, the reimbursement grant would pay for most of the airport projects listed in the CIP. However, it wouldn’t support a runway extension project budgeted at $2.5 million in fiscal year 2021.
“We asked the FAA if that runway extension would qualify under these CARE funds and we were told it would not,” he said. “That’s a significant project that I believe has to remain in the airport CIP.”
Strausburg suggested the county leave the projects in the CIP with funding to be determined. Reimbursement grants from the FAA could then be accepted by the council as they become available.
“What we need is written confirmation from the FAA on the capital side as to what projects they will support,” he said. “We have that verbally. We would want that in writing.”
With the potential surplus in county funding coming from the airport’s budget, Councilman Bill McCain urged the executive office to include the Mardela Middle and High School renovation project in the coming year’s CIP.
“Given the fact that there is a very real possibility we are going to be able to have or give back these funds in some fashion, Mardela is not in the CIP, and I think Mardela should be in the CIP,” he said.
While the extensive renovation and addition project was included in County Executive Bob Culver’s CIP presentation late last years, residents were surprised to learn in January that the project had been removed.
At the time, Culver’s decision to remove the project from the CIP rested on the state’s decision to defer planning approval for the school because of fiscal constraints. It should be noted, however, that the state’s Interagency Commission on School Construction has since lent its support for the project.
Strausburg told the council this week the project had not been pulled from the CIP because of funding, but because of uncertainties surround the scope of the project and the economic climate.
“I don’t know how we embark on significant capital projects at this point in time without knowing what fiscal constraints we will be facing over the next two to four years …,” he said. “We placed a hold on any capital project that hasn’t started until we can ascertain where we are going in this county and in this state fiscally.”
Councilman John Cannon, however, said that never stopped the county from proceeding with capital projects in the past.
“Three members of this council were also on this council during the last recession we had, and the county did not cease to go to the bond market, did not cease to look at what might be necessary for the schools in Wicomico County …,” he said. “There are good times and bad times, but you still need to continue to be forward thinking.”
Strausburg said the executive’s concern was committing funds to the project in fiscal year 2021.
“The critical year is the budget year …,” he said. “That $2.5 million in the budget year becomes real money, and if we proceed with architectural and engineering costs on a plan that the executive of the county is not going to endorse, that’s money that’s not well spent.”
Council President Larry Dodd questioned if money had already been spent on the Mardela project.
“The money that was spent was for the conceptual investigations as to what the board of education and school building commission felt was the best plan for either renovation or replacement of the school,” he said. “So the funds that were appropriated and have been spent were for that due diligence … That money wasn’t wasted.”
Strausburg said the executive office would continue to discuss the project with the board of education.
“We aren’t walking away from the project,” Strausburg said. “The concern is the fiscal 2021 budget year.”
