The Washington County Board of Commissioners Tuesday got another preview of recommended capital-improvement projects for the next decade — a list that presently includes plans to expand the county administrative offices on West Washington Street in a few years.
The capital-improvement plan lists about $444 million in projects from fiscal 2013, which begins July 1, through 2022.
Public Works Director Joseph Kroboth III reviewed projects in several categories, including general government, libraries and parks and recreation.
The plan calls for renovating a portion of the County Administrative Building at 100 W. Washington St., which is now occupied by Sovereign Bank. A larger commissioners meeting room and other offices would be on the first floor, Kroboth said.
The project price tag is $3.2 million with most of the money being spent in 2014 and 2015, according to the project list.
A new facility is also recommended to replace the county’s Central Section highway maintenance operation on Northern Avenue for about $4 million, although it is currently scheduled for late in the 10-year project list. Kroboth said the existing facility is inadequate and in a flood plain.
The Central Section fuel center would also be replaced because the underground tanks having not passed pressure tests, Kroboth told the commissioners. That $929,000 project could be done in 2013-14, the project list said.
Hancock is scheduled to get a new library in the 2019-22 time frame. Kroboth said the county would likely bear about 30 percent of the $2.6 million cost, with additional funding from the state, the town of Hancock and private fund-raising.
Sheriff Douglas Mullendore attended the meeting to explain the need for renovations to the Washington County Detention Center.
“We’ve maintained it as well as we can,” Mullendore said of the center, built in 1983.
Parts for some building systems are no longer being manufactured, he said.
There is $9.1 million for detention center renovations on the list, which are scheduled for late in the 10-year plan.
Also in the 2019-22 period is a recommendation to spend $3.5 million for a North Central County Park on 90 acres of land off Eastern Boulevard near the Hagerstown YMCA.
The commissioners will review more recommended capital-improvement projects in coming weeks in preparation for the 2013 budget.
