County Budget Stmt & Letter

STATEMENT
OF THE BOWIE CITY COUNCIL
REGARDING THE PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY
PROPOSED FY 03 EXPENSE BUDGET AND
FY 03 - FY 08 CAPITAL BUDGET AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
FOR APRIL 30, 2002

On behalf of my colleagues on the Bowie City Council and the residents of Bowie I thank you for the opportunity to come before you tonight to offer comments on the County Budget and CIP.

When County Executive Curry presented his first budget to you eight years ago it was a very different place and time in Upper Marlboro and in Bowie. A member of our Council testified then of the difficult choices being made to reconcile a $108 million shortfall in the County budget. Bowie was a City of less than 40,000, in the midst of residential growth, with several commercial and retail projects on the horizon.

Eight years later we are a diverse community of more than 50,000 with new housing, a new mall, and new shopping areas, including more than 75 retail outlets and several dozen eating establishments that didn't exist in 1994. In just the Bowie Town Center area, this totals almost two (2) million square feet more of commercial space and over 1,800 new dwelling units.

Growth and change have been good for Bowie and good for Prince George's County.

However, growth has brought increased demands for services and recreational opportunities. We have energetic and involved residents who are actively and constantly seeking ways to improve to improve our community. In fact, many of the projects we raise tonight, began as grass roots community efforts. We have worked to be good partners with you in meeting the challenges of our rapid growth. We have taken some unconventional steps to support the County's efforts in Bowie such as assisting with the preliminary site preparation work for the new school, hiring a public safety officer and paying for contract police officers, and contributing almost $2 million to the BRAVA auditorium project. In the interests of time our comments will be brief. More details are provided in the letter that you have received. I'd like to highlight a few items contained in that document.

Education

As is the case all over the County, education remains the number one issue for residents and businesses alike. We are concerned with overcrowded buildings, an inadequate number of teachers, and a deteriorating physical plant. We are also very concerned with the loss of teachers and administrators to other jurisdictions, and hope that the planned salary increase will help to retain our fine educators.

We heartily support the start of construction for the new Bowie Area Elementary School in FY03 and we are anxious for the school system to retake possession of the Whitehall School building so that renovations may begin there. These two major steps will help to relieve overcrowding at the elementary school level. We are encouraged by the completion of Hill Road and East Central Middle Schools this year, which will allow their student populations to attend new neighborhood schools, rather than be bused to Benjamin Tasker. However because of growth in the Bowie area, Benjamin Tasker will remain extremely overcrowded. Returning the Belair Annex to use as a middle school can relieve this problem. Bowie High School is very overcrowded today and will become more so as the school population in the new communities reaches high school age. We strongly endorse the County Executive's proposal to build a new Regional High School on the School Board's site on Mitchellville Road. We urge the County to aggressively pursue returning the former Meadowbrook Elementary School building to the inventory of schools. We also continue to support more funding for repair of the school system's facilities, so that completion of projects like replacement of the Bowie High School track and air conditioning of the school may be accelerated on the Superintendent's schedule of facility repair projects

Solid Waste

According to the proposed CIP, the closure operations at Sandy Hill Landfill should be completed in 2003. We support the closure operations and continue to oppose the construction of any additional solid waste facilities in the Bowie area, including the CIP project for a transfer station at a site to be determined after adoption of the County's Solid Waste Plan. Last fall we provided input to the Solid Waste Plan for the County and hope that our suggestions will be incorporated into the final Plan approved by this body.

Auditorium

A grass roots group, called BRAVA, formed in 1995 to build an auditorium in Bowie to serve the community and especially the high school. The BRAVA organization has raised almost $8 million in private and public funds for this project. The project is at a critical stage - progress has halted due to lack of funding. The construction of the building shell and the interior concrete work was completed recently. The "Building Interior" and the "Lighting and Sound" phases remain to be done. We ask the County to join with the City to make one last substantial financial commitment to bring this multi-use facility to completion.

South Bowie Library

We are pleased by the inclusion of $350,000 in planning funds for the South Bowie Library in this CIP. Park and Planning has completed a needs analysis verifying that the South Bowie area does not have adequate access to County Library services. Given the results of this study and the growth in South Bowie and Mitchellville areas, we request that this project be accelerated, so that planning work is completed and construction work is begun by Year 5.

Public Safety

· Bowie Emergency Medical Services Facility

The City is pleased to see the inclusion of an advanced life support (EMS) facility as a first step toward ensuring fire protection and emergency service needs in the Bowie Town Center vicinity. Approximately 85% of calls for emergency services in our area are for medic service. While planning funds are shown in Year 3 and construction funds shown in Years 4-5 of the CIP, the City requests that the proposed programming be accelerated, due to the amount of new development that has occurred in this part of the County. With increases in levels of traffic and activity at the Bowie Town Center, Bowie Senior Center, Municipal Gymnasium and the Bowie Health Campus, the number of calls for service is expected to increase rapidly. The Bowie New Town Fire Station has been programmed in the County CIP since 1977 and is badly needed to close gaps in response times. We still believe this situation must be addressed.

· Woodmore/Glenn Dale Police Station

The future police station planned for MD Route 193 is moved back from Year 6 to "Beyond 6 Years" in the CIP. The justification for this CIP project each year states that the existing station will not be adequate to service the area and that a new district will need to be created to serve the rapidly developing area. With 187,000 residents, the current District II station serves the largest residential population of any police station in the County. The City again asks for your support for the construction of a new police station as soon as practical.

· Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Service Staffing

The growth in our area is severely straining police, fire and emergency medical staffing. The number of police officers assigned to the Bowie area is not adequate to serve the needs of our community. For this reason we have contracted for the services of six County officers to perform supplemental duties in the City. However, out of necessity, these officers regularly supplant the efforts of the District II officers who should be handling calls for service in the City. More officers must be assigned to the Bowie area. Similarly fire and medical services staff are stretched too thin, despite the recent addition of staff to the Pointer Ridge Fire Station. Incidents of "failure to respond" continue to occur due to staffing shortages. More career personnel are needed at each of the Bowie fire stations in FY03 to complement the work of the dedicated volunteers.

Transportation Projects

The City appreciates the programming of improvements to several of the area's collector roads, including Governor Bridge Road, High Bridge Road, Mount Oak Road and Woodmore Road. As we noted at last year's hearing, improvement of the County's collector road system serving our area is very timely, as these roads are in a substandard condition and new growth is continuing to strain them. The City Council has outlined six projects in our letter, which we believe are necessary to enhance safety and improve circulation throughout our community:

Conclusion

Time precludes me from mentioning other issues that are important to the City of Bowie and its residents. I urge you to read the letter before you, which outlines all of those projects. This is an ambitious budget. While schools are clearly our top priority, we thank you for funding the various other projects that we have requested in the past and look forward to working with you on future projects.

April 15, 2002

The Honorable Peter Shapiro, Chair
Prince George's County Council
County Administration Building
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772

Dear Chairman Shapiro:

The Bowie City Council offers the following comments on the Prince George's County Expense Budget for FY 2003 and the Capital Improvement Program for FY 2003 - 2008. Comments on the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission portion of the budget were presented separately at the hearing on April 24th.

EDUCATION

As is the case throughout the County, education remains the number one issue for residents and businesses alike. We are concerned with overcrowded buildings, an inadequate number of teachers, and a deteriorating physical plant. We are also very concerned with the loss of teachers and administrators to other jurisdictions, and hope that the planned salary increase will help to retain our fine educators.

We heartily support the start of construction for the new Bowie Area Elementary School in FY03 and we are anxious for the school system to retake possession of the Whitehall School building so that renovations may begin there. These two major steps will help to relieve overcrowding at the elementary school level. We are encouraged by the completion of Hill Road and East Central Middle Schools this year, which will allow their student populations to attend new neighborhood schools, rather than be bused to Benjamin Tasker. However because of growth in the Bowie area, Benjamin Tasker will remain extremely overcrowded. Returning the Belair Annex to use as a middle school can relieve this problem. Bowie High School is also very overcrowded today and will become more so as the school population in the new communities matures to high school age. We strongly endorse the County Executive's proposal to build a new Regional High School on the School Board's site on Mitchellville Road. We urge the County to aggressively pursue returning the former Meadowbrook Elementary School building to the inventory of schools. We also continue to urge more funding for repair of the school system's facilities, so that completion of projects like replacement of the Bowie High School track and air conditioning of the school may be accelerated on the Superintendent's schedule of facility repair projects.

SOLID WASTE

BOWIE CIVIC AUDITORIUM

A grass roots group, called BRAVA, formed in 1995 to build an auditorium in Bowie to serve the community and especially the high school. The BRAVA organization has raised almost $8 million in private and public funds for this project. The project is at a critical stage - progress has halted due to lack of funding. Construction of the building shell and interior concrete work were completed recently. The "Building Interior" and the "Lighting and Sound" phases remain to be done. We ask the County to join with the City to make one last substantial financial commitment to bring this multi-use facility to completion.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Bowie EMS Facility

The City is pleased to see the inclusion of an advanced life support (EMS) facility as a first step toward ensuring fire protection and emergency service needs in the Bowie Town Center vicinity. The Fire Department has documented that a high proportion (approximately 85%) of calls for emergency services in our area are for medic service. While planning funds are shown in Year 3 and construction funds are shown in Years 4-5 of the CIP, the City requests that the proposed programming be accelerated, due to the amount of new development that has occurred in this part of the County. Since 1996, almost two (2) million square feet of commercial space and over 1,800 new dwelling units have been built in the Town Center area. With increases in levels of traffic and activity at the Bowie Town Center, Bowie Senior Center, Municipal Gymnasium and the Bowie Health Campus, the number of calls for service is expected to increase rapidly. This sustained demand justifies provision of an EMS facility as soon as possible. The Bowie New Town Fire Station has been programmed in the County CIP since 1977 and is badly needed to close gaps in response times. We still believe this situation must be addressed, and we recommend that the Fire Chief develop a specific proposal to ensure adequate coverage for our residents.

Woodmore/Glenn Dale Police Station

We note that the future police station planned for MD Route 193 has been pushed out from Year 6 to "Beyond 6 Years" in the CIP. The District II station on Route 301 currently provides service to the City and the surrounding area. We agree with the justification for the new police station in the CIP, which states the existing station will not be adequate to service the area and that a new district will need to be created to serve the rapidly developing area. A new station on MD Route 193 offers excellent accessibility to the north-central portion of the County and would be located in an area presently underserved by police facilities. With 187,000 residents, the current District II station serves the largest residential population of any police station in the County. Also, while the County's population rose by 9.9% between 1990-2000, the City's population grew by approximately 33%. Because of the continuing growth in new housing (including the Fairwood project), commercial (including the recently opened Bowie Town Center), recreational and entertainment facilities, the City again asks for your support for the construction of a new police station as soon as practical.

Police Services

The Council recognizes the outstanding work performed by the management and officers at the District II/Bowie Police Station. This station now serves the largest residential population of any County police district. The City of Bowie, with over 50,000 residents, comprises twenty-seven percent of the district's total population. While the County's population rose by 9.9% from 1990-2000, the City's population rose by 33.7%. Despite the opening of the mall and other new major commercial development around the City, the number of officers assigned to the area has not been adequately increased. During the last five years the complement of sworn personnel at District II has only risen by five officers, from 136 officers to 141 officers.

The City currently contracts with the County for the services of six County officers to perform supplemental duties for City residents. Out of necessity, these officers regularly supplant the efforts of the District II officers who should be handling calls for service in the City. We request a significant addition of sworn police personnel to our local police station to handle the increasing demands placed on its public safety officers.

Fire and Emergency Medical Service Staffing

We are encouraged by the County's response to our request for additional staffing at Station 43 in Pointer Ridge. We are further pleased by the Fire Department's demonstrable willingness to open the lines of communication in an effort to produce solutions to our City's fire safety needs.

However, our three fire stations continue to respond to an increasing number of calls in and around the City that severely tax their limited resources. Unfortunately, there continues to be incidents of "failure to respond" due to staffing shortages. Additional career personnel are needed at each of the three Bowie stations in FY03 to complement the work being performed by a cadre of dedicated volunteers.

SOUTH BOWIE LIBRARY

We are pleased by the inclusion of $350,000 in planning funds for the South Bowie Library in this CIP. Park and Planning has completed a needs analysis verifying that the South Bowie area does not have adequate access to County Library services. Given the results of this study and the continued growth in the South Bowie and Mitchellville areas, we request that this project be accelerated, so that planning work is completed and construction work is begun by Year 5.

TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS

The City appreciates the programming of improvements to several of the area's collector roads, including Governor Bridge Road, High Bridge Road, Mount Oak Road and Woodmore Road. As we noted at last year's hearing, improvement of the County's collector road system serving our area is very timely, as these roads are in a substandard condition and new growth is continuing to strain them. The City Council finds the following road projects necessary to enhance safety and improve circulation throughout our community:

Church Road

The CIP does not contain a project to upgrade Church Road. This major north-south residential collector road serves a rapidly growing residential corridor west of the City and is the City's highest priority planning project. Several large planned unit developments, including Fairwood (1,799 dwelling units), Cameron Grove (1,168 dwelling units) and Oak Creek Club (over 1,300 dwelling units), will add thousands of vehicle trips to Church Road. Continuing construction of estate homes at Woodmore Highlands, Woodmore Estates, and Woodmore North will add more new traffic. Developers have improved Church Road in a piecemeal fashion over the years, resulting in a hodge-podge of road sections that sometimes meet County standards, but in other locations quickly deteriorate to substandard conditions. Church Road has many dangerous curves and drainage culverts that will have to be replaced. Only the County can provide the umbrella of oversight and project coordination needed to implement an improvement project of this magnitude. The need for an upgrade to Church Road is extremely urgent, as traffic volumes, as well as the potential for serious accidents, are increasing daily. As this level of coordination can only be accomplished through a CIP program project, the City requests that you include a specific page in the CIP devoted to the Church Road upgrade, from Oak Grove Road to Maryland Route 450, to rural collector standards as called for in the Bowie-Collington-Mitchellville Master Plan.

Mount Oak Road/Woodmore Road

Another important project that the City would like to stress is the placement of Woodmore Road and the segment of Mount Oak Road, from west of the Church Road intersection to Mitchellville Road, into project planning process for improvements in alignment, sight distance and roadway width. The draft CIP proposes to move planning funds for Woodmore Road back to Year 6 with Mount Oak Road. These narrow, serpentine, two-lane roads with no shoulders are overly congested during the morning and evening peak periods. According to the CIP, the existing roadway is substandard and will not satisfy the projected needs of the adjoining developing area and anticipated increases in through trips. The much needed road widening and the relocation of the Church Road/Woodmore/Mount Oak Road intersection will greatly improve motorist safety. We appreciate your inclusion of this project in the current CIP, but ask for advancement of planning and design funding to the initial years of the CIP for next year.

High Bridge Road

The current CIP includes High Bridge Road as a County improvement project. We appreciate and support your advancement of planning funds for this project in the proposed CIP, but are disappointed that construction funding for the project was moved "Beyond 6 Years". The City supports the eventual upgrade of High Bridge Road, including sidewalks, so that traffic from the High Bridge community, which includes an elementary school and a heavily used MNCPPC park, can be safely and efficiently accommodated. The improvement of Route 450 over the next two years and the future relocation of Church Road to intersect with High Bridge Road will accentuate the need for this upgrade. We also hope that the proposed CIP project description can be modified to include an off-road hiker-biker trail that will provide safe pedestrian access to the WB & A trail and beyond to Old Town Bowie.

Governor Bridge Road

The proposed CIP moves start-up planning funds for roadway improvements and a bridge upgrade from Year 4 to Year 2 and right-of-way acquisition funding from Year 6 to Year 5. However, construction funds are still programmed in the "Beyond 6 Years" category. The existing one-lane winding section of Governor Bridge Road, from the developing 240-lot Longleaf subdivision to the Patuxent River, is badly in need of immediate improvements in alignment, sight distance and roadway width. The road has a one-lane bridge with weight limit restrictions that is subject to flooding when it rains heavily, thus making it impassable. This bridge needs to be replaced with a wider span to provide adequate egress, especially for emergency vehicles. It is important to note that Governor Bridge Road is the only road that can be used to access the Longleaf subdivision in case of emergency. It is requested that the necessary right-of-way and construction funds be advanced to Year 3 to allow this project to begin as soon as the design stage has concluded.

Race Track Road

We observe that the proposed CIP will fund construction of a new bridge over Horsepen Branch next fiscal year. We appreciate the efforts of the Department of Public Works and Transportation to keep this project on schedule and we further encourage you to examine the entire length of Race Track Road. New development pressures have prompted a need to plan substantial improvements to the deteriorating road section between Route 197 and the Bowie Race Track. Because of increasingly heavy traffic volumes, the segment of Race Track Road between Saddlebrook and Route 450 is in need of traffic calming techniques or other measures to alleviate safety and circulation concerns.

Hiker-Biker Trail along Old Chapel Road and Race Track Road

Located near several school facilities, these asphalt pathways are very old and have deteriorated severely. The trails are uneven and have been encroached upon by utility poles and wires to the point that major sections are unusable. Significant improvements are needed to allow these trails to be used safely, especially by school-age children.

In conclusion, we thank the County Executive and the County Council for their work on this budget. It is an ambitious budget that contains many improvements for Prince George's County. We welcome the opportunity to discuss these items further and to work with you on our proposals.

Sincerely,

Bowie City Council
G. Frederick Robinson
Mayor