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The groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the new Colmar Manor Community Center was one stop on Gov. Martin O'Malley's (D) Capital for a Day visit to the Port Towns that included a number of appearances throughout the Port Towns for the governor's monthly event.

The first shovel full of dirt on the site of the future center was a long time coming for the town, and it symbolized the town's commitment to the community, O'Malley said.

"We may be putting shovels in the ground, but we're providing lift for an entire community," he said.

The center had been in the works since 2000 when Colmar Manor Mayor Diana Fennell appointed a committee to investigate the feasibility of building a new town hall to replace the deteriorating, decades' old one. The previous 8,000-square foot town hall had a litany of problems, mainly caused by water damage.

"The community had been crying out for a new community center because our town hall was falling down," Fennell said. "It was old, and a lot of things couldn't be fixed."

Sen. David Harrington (D-Dist. 47) of Cheverly supported the community center from its inception.

"This is more than bricks and mortar," Harrington said during the ceremony. "[Youth] go to dilapidated facilities, playgrounds full of glass… And we're saying to our youth that the community cares enough about you to build this in your own backyard."

Graciela Carbonell, a Colmar Manor resident and member of the town's recreation council, was on the community center committee and pushed for including a full-sized gym. The old town hall had a gym that residents used often but was sometimes closed due to flooding problems.

"After lots of planning and funding the issue, I'm happy I think the town of Colmar Manor is finally getting a community center we deserve and can take full advantage of," she said. "We may be a small town, but we have big ambitions and big ideals, and we want to do right by the people that live here, particularly the children."

Colmar Manor resident Nate Cade, 20, remembered coming to the old town hall on Wednesdays for a church youth group and Thursdays to play basketball.

"The [gym] floor was terrible. It was a concrete floor, and it got really dusty. People slipped and fell all the time," he said. "We always wanted to have a better facility."

The $5 million, 20,000 square foot community center will be owned by the town of Colmar Manor and will house recreational activities, town offices and the town's police department, town treasurer and project manager Daniel Baden said.

The community center will have a full-sized gymnasium with locker rooms and showers, a recreational gaming room, a multipurpose room, a small computer lab and an indoor jogging track. A 210-person capacity auditorium and large meeting rooms for senior outreach programs are also included in project plans, Baden added.

Money for the project comes from a mix of federal, state, county and town funding and grants, and Baden estimated the building could be completed by late 2009.

The town is paying $3.5 million for the project, and some residents are unhappy with their higher tax bills

"There are a lot of seniors in this town, and it's starting to hit everyone hard," former mayor and Colmar Manor resident Ed Mutchler said. "The old town hall needed to be replaced but I don't think it needed to be so elaborate."

In fiscal 2007, the town increased its real property tax rate by 37 cents, and residents now pay $1 per every $100 of assessed value. The increase came in part to pay for the center and to start the town's police department, Baden said.

Fennell said the center will also be useful for nearby Port Towns residents who may live closer to the Colmar Manor center, located at 3701 Lawrence Street on the site of the old town hall, than to their own towns' centers. The Port Towns include Colmar Manor, Cottage City, Edmonston and Bladensburg.

"We envision that it would serve the entire Port Towns," Fennell said.

Since November 2007, the town has been spending $3,500 each month on leased office space to house its town offices and police department. The old town hall was demolished a month ago.

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.