Leonardtown, MD — The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County appear to be ready to step to the plate to fund the monies needed to kick start the third building at the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center (SMHEC). The proposed building would be used by the University of Maryland for unmanned system research and education.

As the 2015 Maryland General Assembly session concluded at midnight Monday, April 13, only $450,000 of the $3.8 million needed for design and engineering of the facility survived the budget turmoil. That combined with another $250,000 previously funded leaves the project more than $3 million short of what was needed for the next fiscal year to keep it on track.

The commissioners had committed using $1 million towards the amount needed as a match for the state monies. Now based on comments made by the commissioners at their April 14 meeting they may be willing to fund the entire amount needed from a $7.5 million reserve set aside to deal with Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) issues.

“This commissioner is willing to put more dollars into that third building,” said Commissioner Mike Hewitt [R – 2nd District] in leading off the discussion during time set aside for commissioner comments. He added, “It is our future to a diversified economy and a better community.”

Commissioners Todd Morgan [R – 4th] and Tom Jarboe [R – 1st] echoed Hewitt’s comments and Commissioner John O’Connor [R – 3rd] told The Bay Net after the meeting that he also supports the third building.

Vice President Jarboe, who was filling in Commissioner President Randy Guy, did seem to hold out some hope that additional state monies could be found. “The dust has not settled,” he said of the hectic final day of the general assembly, agreeing with earlier statements by Morgan. Both noted there still were no definitive numbers. The commissioners have some time set aside next week to talk about the issue.

Jarboe emphasized that the building was not intended to be a business incubator and was planned not just for unmanned aircraft research and education, although that is Pax River’s mission. He said the building would be a place where technology transfer would take place and would complement the unmanned test site at the adjacent county airport.

Jarboe said that other communities are ahead of St. Mary’s County in the battle for supremacy in the future unmanned world. “It is important to make sure this building is on time,” he said.

The commissioner noted that enrollment at SMHEC is down slightly because military training monies have been reduced. The third building would thus help the overall SMHEC mission, he explained.

As the session was winding down Monday evening, State Senator Steve Waugh [R – 29th District] told the Bay Net that Governor Larry Hogan was “personally very supportive” of the SMHEC project. What is preventing the allocation from becoming a done deal, said Waugh, “is pure parochialism on the part of [House] Speaker [Michael] Busch.”

Waugh added that the funds for the SMHEC project became endangered when the University System failed to submit its funding request in a timely manner. That position has been consistently denied by Joe Anderson, president of the SMHEC board of trustees.

Contact Dick Myers at news@thebaynet.com