Monday, December 7, 2015

BOE Shuts Down Mont. College Parking Lot, Finds $1.7 Million to Temporarily Park 100 Buses

Fortunately, money grows on trees here in Montgomery County!

Unable to find a permanent solution for County Executive Ike Legget's plan to boot 400 school buses from the MCPS Shady Grove Bus Depot, the Board of Education will temporarily park 100 of the buses at 850 Hungerford Drive in the parking lot that is currently used by Montgomery College.

For Montgomery College students, that's Lot 13.

Developers NVR and LCOR want the land the MCPS buses are currently using, so the buses will be moved even if there is no permanent location for them.

The cost to temporarily park 100 school buses at 850 Hungerford Drive will be over $1.7 million.

Neighbors impacted by the noise shown in yellow.
That's $17,250 per school bus for a temporary parking spot.

MCPS is going to need to find at least another $5 million to pay for temporary parking for the other 300 school buses that will be booted from the Shady Grove Bus Depot.

Next, MCPS will have to find the money to pay for a permanent solution for parking the 400 school buses at the Shady Grove bus depot.

A note to the neighbors of 850 Hungerford Drive: Get ready to fill out lots of Montgomery County Noise Ordinance Complaint forms.
The MCPS school buses will be violating the Noise Ordinance. 


11 comments:

  1. Here's a perfect place to put those buses, on school property: Brickyard. easy in, easy out. Right off a main street. BOE: make use of the existing MCPS property.

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    Replies
    1. Noise ordinance violations in that part of town won't go over well, I'd bet. *grin*

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    2. The Noise Ordinance issue is huge. The issue has already been brought up by MCPS and if you click the link above you will see that the noise levels for these buses has been documented to show the problem. The Noise Ordinance impacts many locations which is why moving these 400 buses should not be done without a permanent, workable solution. In the alternative, the buses should not be moved at all.

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    3. Brickyard Middle School site is not at all perfect. Neither is using existing high school parking lots in residential neighborhoods, and neither is 850 Hungerford Dr, right next to townhouses.

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  2. That's $47 per day for each school bus. That's more than I pay in rent for my entire apartment, which includes a parking space.

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  3. It still blows my mind that Montgomery County can order MCPS off its property without any realistic place for it to GO - and that MCPS, with allits resources for lawyers, won't fight back. O.o

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  4. And why is it costing $1.7 million to use a huge parking lot that already exists? To paint new lines?

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    Replies
    1. Good question. Note your Apple Ballot endorsed elected Board of Education members will not ask this question. They will also not seek competitive bids for the $1.7 million in work.
      They will simply rubber stamp this very brief memo by Interim, soon to be permanent, Superintendent Larry Bowers.

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    2. It's probably the cost of the high tech laser precision equipment needed to draw straight lines.

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  5. Wow. Thanks Ike, for signing away the land b4 a workable solution was found. Tell me again how that = smart growth? Impeach!

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  6. At a stroke of a pen
    Before you count to ten
    The visionary leadership
    Declares abandon ship.

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