(11/2019) On October 18th, I presented the annual State of the County. I am proud to share that the state of Frederick County is strong, vibrant and on the move! Livable Frederick lays the foundation for our bright future so we can make life better for the people who call Frederick home. We’ve embraced our rich history, invested in our people and places, and taken care of our citizens. We are leading the way with innovation and excellence. Frederick County is soaring to new heights!

During the State of the County address, I shared a video highlighting our accomplishments from the past year. I urge you will take a few minutes to watch it and feel a sense of pride about this great place we call home. You can watch the video on the County website at www.frederickcountymd.gov or at www.tinyurl.com/StateofCountyVideo2019. It is a fantastic video that highlights all the good things happening in and around our county.

Some of the key accomplishments of the past year include:

• Welcoming Kite Pharma’s move to Urbana, with hundreds of new jobs. This company will add to our bioscience industry and the work to find a cure for cancer.
• Accelerating school construction: Building has begun on a new Urbana Elementary School and a new Rock Creek School in Walkersville. Plan are underway for the new Blue Heron Elementary School in Lake Linganore, a new larger replacement Waverley Elementary School, and an addition to Oakdale Middle School.
• Powering up a solar array at the landfill that now provides power to seven county buildings and the charging stations for TransIT’s growing fleet of electric buses.
• Excellent financial management and our AAA bond ratings has allowed the County to build a new Othello Regional Park in Brunswick, an expanded Utica District Park, a library in Myersville, and a major transportation project near New Market, all without raising taxes.

I am excited about what we have accomplished together, and I am even more excited about what's next!

I unveiled the Livable Frederick Implementation Program, which will guide the county’s initiatives in the coming year. The Implementation Program kicks off with two small area plans. Public processes will begin for a Sugarloaf Mountain Treasured Landscape Management Plan to preserve this special area’s natural and scenic beauty; and a redevelopment corridor plan for our prime economic development and business corridor along MD 85 and MD 355 to ensure economic resiliency and opportunities for more jobs within an area that already has infrastructure.

A broadband feasibility study will look at how to bring high-speed internet to underserved areas of the county. We know that access to broadband is key to everyday life and to economic growth for our rural communities.

I am pleased that to share progress to expand treatment options for people suffering from addiction. Utilizing one time grant money from the County, 18 medically supervised detox beds will be added at the Mountain Manor facility in Emmitsburg by January 1. Another 28 beds will be available by the end of 2020 once the renovation is completed within an unused portion of the work release center. This location will be called Mountain Manor at Marcie’s Choice.

Frederick County has been named the 2019 Chesapeake Forest Champion by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and the U.S. Forest Service. The award recognizes our efforts to replenish forest cover by strengthening our Forest Resource Ordinance and through the Creek ReLeaf program that provides funding to property owners for planting new forest.

In November, the county will power up a second solar array next to our Ballenger McKinney Wastewater Treatment Plant. The array will charge a back-up battery system to ensure ongoing operations of the plant during power outages.

A value-added agricultural workgroup will evaluate next steps through a feasibility study to help farmer’s process local products through a co-op or other collaboration. Stay tuned for more details on this effort. In addition, I am looking to introduce a new effort to accelerate agriculture preservation in the county so we ensure a legacy of agriculture for the future. This is also our best way to manage growth.

Closure of Walkersville Yard Waste Site

The County will be closing the Walkersville Yard Waste Site at Heritage Park at the end of November. This site has experienced environmental issues, impacts on neighbors and issues with dumping and commercial violations.

In 1994, the County entered an agreement with three towns to operate yard waste sites. These sites were located in Brunswick, Walkersville, and Mt. Airy. The towns agreed to maintain and operate these sites but this largely shifted to the county. The Brunswick and Mt. Airy sites closed over 10 years ago.

About 10 or 12 years ago, the county banned yard waste from the waste or trash stream. Most haulers will not pick up yard waste mixed with other municipal solid waste because they know the entire truck load risks being rejected at the scale house at the landfill.

The County worked with municipal governments and with HOAs to help set up and transition to a curbside collection program for yard waste. The County accepts yard waste at our Reichs Ford Road location for free. The county charges $69/ton for solid waste disposal. Since yard waste is a heavy item, municipalities and HOAs saved money on their waste disposal by taking the yard waste out of their waste stream at $69/ton and shifting it to a separate pick up with a disposal cost of zero. The cost savings more than covered the cost of the additional collection. This was implemented around the county very successfully. This effort diverted a tremendous amount of yard waste out of the landfill and into the mulch recycling program which was environmentally beneficial and all the towns and HOAs experienced cost saving.

The County will help the town of Walkersville financially to set up its curbside collection program and we will also assist with their Christmas tree disposal program. These discussions are ongoing.

I do appreciate that the curbside collection program is not beneficial for everyone. Many rural homeowners are not part of a HOA or in a municipality and may not want to pay for the extra yard waste collection. Many rural homeowners already dispose of their yard waste somewhere on their own property. There are also times when homeowners have an usual amount of yard waste and want to haul it somewhere even with a curbside program. Most of homeowners in this circumstance come to the Reichs Ford Road location now.

Ultimately, this decision will transition to the convenience of curbside collection to Walkersville residents, save the town money on their solid waste disposal, and resolve the dumping and environmental issues at the yard waste site. It will cause an inconvenience for some homeowners who will have to travel farther to dispose of their yard waste at the Reichs Ford Road location. I do expect most of the commercial operators who were using the Walkersville site to simply switch to the landfill location which is a fully staffed and managed.

If you have questions or concerns on any subject, please feel free to contact me at jgardner@frederickcountymd.gov or at 301-600-3190.