By Kenneth C. Rossignol
ST. MARY’S TODAY
LEONARDTOWN --- St.
Mary’s Commissioner Kenny Dement (R. Piney Point) is having
a hard time acting like a Republican. At today’s St. Mary’s
Commissioner’s meeting Recreation and Parks Director Phil
Rollins brought to the board a heavy overrun cost to the
Piney Point Lighthouse shoreline revetment project.
With bids for the
construction of protective seawalls for the beach area in
front of the historic 1830’s lighthouse and lighthouse
keepers residence, Rollins came to the Board for a
supplemental appropriation.
The motion was made
to approve and authorize the Commissioner President to sign
the budget amendment that will transfer surplus funds from
the Chaptico Park Expansion project (RP0805) to the Piney
Point Lighthouse Shore Erosion project (RP0502) to cover a
shortfall of $270,000 for the construction of shore erosion
control measures at the Piney Point Lighthouse Museum and
Historic Park.
Commissioner Larry
Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) said the Board ought to consider
re-bidding the project, which state bureaucrats and agencies
had taken two years to approve the designs.
“The economy is such
now that there may be contractors who would like to do this
job where before they were too busy,” said Jarboe. The
Republican noted that the taxpayers would be served by
rebiding the contract, which came in double the cost of what
the estimate would be.
Commissioner Tommy
Mattingly (D. Leonardtown) said that he felt that a severe
storm could come to the region and cause more damage to the
shoreline if the project didn’t go forward.
Dement, who failed to
vote with Jarboe against the recent $14.5 million tax hike
in property taxes said it was time to go forward with
spending the money and voted with Commissioners Jackie
Russell (D. St. George’s Island), Dan Raley (D. Great Mills)
and Mattingly, leaving Jarboe as the lone no vote.
Dement has been
receiving harsh criticism for his vote against maintaining
the constant yield, which only Jarboe supported. The
constant yield is attained by the County Commissioners
lowering the tax rate to negate the high assessments on
property levied by State tax assessors. In the past cycle,
property owners opened their mail and found increases in
their assessments by as much as a third, some even more,
causing their tax bills to skyrocket by hundreds and
thousands of dollars.
While tax bills
soared the assessed values were not reflected in the
downturn in the value of homes over the past two years,
where property values have dropped by about 50 percent.
Dement has run as a
Republican for office in 2002 and 2006 and Republican party
officials are actively recruiting someone to run against
Dement in the primary.
Dement defeated
Democrat Elfreda Mathis, a retired school principal, in 2006
and scoffs at criticism of him on his vote to raise taxes by
telling furious voters, “go ahead and vote for that black
woman next time and see how high your taxes will be.”
Dement has also gone
along with Raley and Russell in questionable votes bailing
out a developer who donated to his campaign.
The most recent
action came on Aug. 19th when the board voted to
buy a tract of land owned by Empire Homes developers who may
have seen the parcel end up being auctioned by banks but the
county commissioners voted to buy the land with state open
space funds of $780,000. Had the board waited, they might
have gotten the property for the tax bill as other local
developers are beginning to belly up during the home
mortgage crisis.
St. Mary’s County
didn’t need the park, as the property they bought last week
on St. Andrews Church Road is just two miles from Myrtle
Point State Park, which Jarboe pointed out sits unused and
has 192 acres which could easily accommodate ball fields and
boat launching ramps.
Dement voted with
Raley and Russell to buy the park land, Mattingly abstained
but did not leave the meeting and Jarboe was the only vote
against the purchase.
