Additional funding approved for sidewalks

Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007

Additional funding approved for sidewalks

Talk of the Town | Danny Jacobs

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Rising construction costs have forced plans to build missing sidewalks along the Route 29 corridor to be pared down, though all sidewalk projects in the area will eventually be completed.

The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday approved nearly $1.5 million in supplemental funds to build the sidewalks on the east side of Route 29. The total project’s cost estimate increased 36 percent in the last year, from $4.1 million to $5.6 million, mainly because of higher construction costs, according to the Department of Public Works and Transportation. Missing sidewalks on the west side of the Route 29 corridor will be completed as part of a future project.

The money will go toward constructing 1,000 feet of sidewalk on Route 29 between Lockwood Drive and Burnt Mills Avenue; 2,700 feet of sidewalk along Route 29 between Lorain Avenue and the bridge over the Northwest Branch; 700 feet of sidewalk along Lockwood Drive between Route 29 and New Hampshire Avenue; and the overlay of the existing sidewalk on the west side of Lockwood Drive from New Hampshire Avenue to Oak Leaf Drive.

HHS looking to expandin east county

The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services is looking to expand operations in its east county satellite office, the department’s director said last week.

The department’s satellite office in the Eastern Montgomery Regional Services Center handles 11,000 patients each year, Director Uma Ahluwalia told the East County Citizens Advisory Board on Oct. 3. The 13 satellite offices across the county treat a total of 70,000 patients each year, she said. The County Council has held preliminary discussions to study an east county expansion, Ahluwalia said.

The department could use space at the services center currently occupied by a Third District police substation depending on what police do once a district headquarters opens in White Oak, Ahluwalia said.

Ahluwalia also did not rule out forming a partnership with Washington Adventist Hospital should it move to a proposed site off Plum Orchard Drive in the White Oak⁄Calverton area. But she said it was too early to comment because the hospital is in the early stages of trying to receive state approval for the move.