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Committee reviews FY26 fire CIP amendments for Rockville, White Flint and Clarksburg stations
Summary
The Public Safety Committee reviewed three fire capital-improvement projects — a funding timing shift for Rockville Station 3, a cost escalation and funding change for a new White Flint station, and savings at Clarksburg — and staff recommended approval of all three amendments.
The Montgomery County Public Safety Committee on March 17 reviewed amendments to the FY2026 fire capital-improvement program that affect Rockville Station 3, a new White Flint fire station and the Clarksburg station.
Council staff presented three items under the fire CIP, recommending approval of all the changes. "This is just an amendment that basically pushes the programming of $500,000 out from FY26 to FY27," said county staff member Farag describing the Rockville Station 3 amendment, which delays $500,000 in programming because of ongoing project delays. David Dice, Director of the Montgomery County Department of General Services, told the committee the county plans to start construction on HVAC replacement at Station 3 "at the end of this year" and that the HVAC project is expected to be completed around February of next year. "It is gonna happen. It's about $4,500,000 and the work is underway," Dice said.
Eric Bernard, identified as the president of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department, said volunteers "concur with the assessment" and thanked the county for assistance, adding that the station "has not had functional air conditioning for 4 summers now." Committee members and presenters also discussed a longer-term plan to secure 3 to 4 acres on the Carver site for a new station; Bernard said the volunteers have been negotiating with the school board and other officials to secure that parcel, but the timeline for a land deal, design and construction remains multi-year. "So we're probably talking 6 years at best," a county speaker said when outlining design and construction timing if the land deal proceeds.
On the White Flint station, staff said last year the committee discussed delaying the project to reassess need; during CIP reconciliation the project was deferred two years for fiscal capacity and now returns with cost escalation. Staff said the approved CIP will see an increase of $6,900,000 and a funding switch of roughly $1,000,000 from general obligation bonds to recordation tax premium. For Clarksburg, staff reported a decrease in total cost of $1,300,000; those savings were transferred to the Public Safety Communications Center phase 2 electrical distribution and HVAC upgrades.
Committee members asked questions about coordination with the City of Rockville, volunteer ownership of the existing property, and how the county will balance near-term HVAC repairs with long-term relocation. Montgomery County Fire Rescue leaders described new internal processes to improve communication with General Services and station stakeholders, including a SharePoint site and weekly meetings to track repairs and renovations.
Council staff recommended approval of all three fire CIP amendments; committee members indicated support during the work session. No formal roll-call vote on the CIP items was recorded in the transcript of the work session.
