St. Mary’s County advances Spring Ridge renovation, adds ag‑land match and updates CIP

The St. Mary’s County Board of County Commissioners on May 13 moved to revise the county’s capital improvement plan to accelerate the Spring Ridge Middle School renovation and to add county match funding so the county can capture increased state funding for agricultural land preservation.

County finance staff briefed commissioners on a series of capital realignments and timing changes that together revised the county’s FY14 capital schedule. Lane Kramer, a county budget presenter, told the board: “Tomorrow, the Board of Education will be before you … to ask to move $250,000 so that they can start on the engineering and design of Spring Ridge Middle School … and that positions the Board of Education in its work with [state review bodies] to get their funding in place to meet that accelerated schedule.”

Why it matters: Commissioners said finishing Spring Ridge sooner would reduce disruptions for students, position the school system to receive state planning and construction reimbursements and allow the county to manage cash flow and debt capacity. County staff also told the board the county’s debt ratio under the recommended budget is about 0.85 (policy threshold 2.0), and the board still holds a PAYGO fund balance (about $10 million noted in materials) it can apply to projects if it chooses.

What the…