There may be a recession at your house and mine, but Harford County's government appears to be doing just fine, thank you.
Last week, the county's board of estimates approved the first of what are likely to be many contracts to build a new Emergency Operations Center in Hickory at an estimated price tag of $15 million. The project began as a second story addition to the existing building, then morphed into a whole replacement building, after initial engineering studies determined the building's structure wouldn't support the additional floor. Last week's contract for almost $1.6 million will cover design of the new building and an assessment of the site in Hickory to determine the best place to put it.
The county is also trying to get started on a nearly $10 million upgrade to its water treatment plant in Havre de Grace — the same one the City of Aberdeen might be interested in acquiring. The upgrade is needed, in part, to ensure the county has a reliable water source on line while it expands its main treatment plant in Abingdon, at an estimated cost of $43 million.
Also on deck is a plan to spend $117 million to build a new county office building on Main Street in Bel Air and a new sheriff's headquarters on Hays Street on the current site of the health department, which is due to move to a new combination health and police center in Joppa. The cost of the latter building hasn't been set yet, but the county did pay $3.2 million for the site near the intersection of Routes 40 and 152.
Let's not forget the $25 million expansion of the detention center and future plans to build an eastern precinct police station. And, oh yes, there are all those school projects with a combined cost of hundreds of millions, including $75 million for a new Edgewood High School, $25 million or more for new elementary schools planned north of Bel Air and in Campus Hills, plus similar amounts to upgrade existing elementary schools in Edgewood and Joppatowne and for a new John Archer special school. And, that's just the big stuff.
In discussing the so-called global space utilization plan that includes the new buildings planned for downtown Bel Air, county Director of Administration Lorraine Costello said earlier this year: "This plan is not just because we want more glamorous surroundings. It's about being prepared for the future."
I'm sure every one of these projects can be justified on some basis, and many are no doubt way overdue. But, you also can see by these numbers just how much government drives our local economy, and in this instance we have only hit the highlights of some of the county government's activities. Bel Air's town government wants to upgrade and expand its town hall for some $5 million, and hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent both by the federal government and by private developers to accommodate BRAC needs over the next five to 10 years.
Obviously there should be a lot of work around for contractors, subcontractors, skilled and unskilled construction workers, bankers, lawyers, materials suppliers, equipment rental companies and the like. And, since according to Vought's Law, bureaucracy expands to fit the space allotted, you can also be sure plenty of permanent jobs will be created when all these schools, treatment plants, office buildings, research facilities, government headquarters, police stations and jails are completed.
What recession?
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