SALISBURY – School renovations, parks and recreation projects and civic center improvements highlight just some of the requests included in this year’s capital planning document.
Acting County Executive John Psota and Finance Director Pam Oland held a public hearing Nov. 17 on the county’s proposed Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for fiscal years 2023-2027. The five-year planning document outlines $68.5 million in general fund requests and $76.9 million in enterprise fund requests.
“We created a process where we do a CIP, which is a five-year plan to give us an estimate of what we see up and coming for the next five years …,” Oland said this week. “We use that five-year plan to take the first year of that plan and use it to help us budget for the next fiscal year.”
This year’s proposed CIP, totaling more than $145.4 million, includes $11.3 million for recreation and parks projects and $9.46 million for improvements at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center, though most of those requests will be funded with state and federal grants.
“A majority of those projects are grant funded,” Oland said, “so most of it will be coming from sources other than the general fund.”
The proposed CIP also includes $7.5 million for Wor-Wic Community College, which has plans to use some of that funding for the construction of its applied technology building. Oland added the planning document also includes money for a new Pittsville library branch.
“There’s requests to look at doing a Pittsville library,” she said, “so that is in here for the library.”
A lion’s share of requests, however, come from the Wicomico County Board of Education. The school system’s requests, totaling $21.2 million over five years, includes funding for its three priority projects: $18.8 million for the Mardela Middle and High School renovation/addition, $1.48 million for a Wicomico High School roof renovation, and $978,000 for a Parkside High School roof renovation.
“We’re looking to fund Mardela out of bond and the other two we are hoping to pay with pay-go funds,” Oland said.
In her remarks, Superintendent Dr. Donna Hanlin thanked Wicomico County officials for their support. She noted the $10 million in county appropriations through fiscal year 2022 will allow the school system to execute construction on the Mardela project.
“After discussion with various stakeholders, including the School Building Commission, we are also exploring the use of Built to Learn funds to assist in addressing the project’s overall cash flow needs,” she told county leaders.
She also thanked officials for incorporating the two roof replacement projects in the five-year planning document. She said the 210,000-square-foot roof project at Wicomico High and the 128,000-square-foot roof project at Parkside are the next two replacement projects in the school system’s Roof Asset Management Plan.
“Although we only highlighted three priorities, I wanted to note there are a number of other projects included in our FY23 capital planning budget, including site work, plumbing, cameras and access control at various locations throughout our school system,” she said. “And we’re also pleased to report that we were able to initiate and complete various CIP projects from the previous fiscal year through other funding sources, including ESSER and COVID relief funds of approximately $26 million to address various HVAC, windows and doors and roof replacements.”
Oland told attendees officials propose funding capital requests through various sources, including bond proceeds, grants and pay-go funds, or funds from the county’s savings account. She said the capital planning document will be submitted to the Wicomico County Council in December.
