In Upper Marlboro, Capital Project Budget Doubled

The Town of Upper Marlboro could be getting a facelift, thanks to the $184,000 set aside in the fiscal year 2013 budget for capital projects, reported the Gazette.

The amount is more than double the $90,000 the town budgeted for improvements last year. 

The funds, which are part of the $900,000 budget unanimously approved by the Upper Marlboro Board of Town Commissioners on Tuesday, will be for things like an addition to the town hall, renovation of an old parking lot on Church Street, and the removal of an old water pump house on school lane.

The property tax will remain stable at 24 cents per $100 of assessed value and operational spending will drop to $717,000, down from $765,000 in fiscal year 2012, according to the Gazette.

“It’s about taking a shabby part of town and improving the town and getting it to look better,” Board President Stephen Sonnett told the Gazette. “We want to make it into a better town.”

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the more than doubled capital project budget.

Former town commissioner George Leonning thought the project estimates were high, and the spending excessive, but Sonnett that the town will not necessarily use all of the money budgeted, that the numbers provided flexibility to see where the projects would go.

The full story on the Upper Marlboro fiscal year 2013 budget can be found on the Gazette.