Ever wonder why Ike Leggett, Montgomery County Executive, and his ace advisor Steve Silverman, Director of Economic Development for Montgomery County, finally agreed to return the Brickyard Middle School site to the Board of Education? Did he suddenly become a friend of the earth? Or did he realize that soccer doesn't need a fancy field.
Sorry.
The real reason is that Ike Leggett and the rest of the county
already own a prime, five acre school site that is just ready for . . . whatever the county council and its executive desire.
The property is at 175 Watts Branch Parkway, with great access to I270 and fair access to public transportation. The property doesn't require access through a residential neighborhood, and its only neighbor is a gas station and existing park space. The property is the site of the former Karma Academy, an alternative program that no longer exists. Even better? The neighbors are talking about getting the site incorporated
Woottons Mill Park, an existing public space of over 100 acres!
So - what do we know about this site?
Lots of articles in the newspaper about the possibility of
historic review and the
recent fire, but no talk of development or use of the site. Just an old farmhouse that, per usual Montgomery County standards for real estate, falls apart. Think Peary HS, think of all those excess schools in the 1980s that became havens for rodents.
Isn't it curious? When Ike and company own a piece of property adjacent to a park, that is abandoned and a fire hazard, no one thinks about development or alternative uses. But school sites that belong to someone else? These are much more attractive, with Ike and Steve drooling over the possibilities, even before the land belongs to the county.
No wonder the county's
Office of Legislative Oversight found that the county's incentives for development were less than stellar, in particular by 3500 new jobs short of expectations.
And the legal bills! The
first battle of Brickyard concerned the
county's attempts to secure Brickyard Middle School for "workforce housing." The more recent one concerned
soccer fields. Both involved interests who wanted to get their hands on cheap property, and talked public officials into doing their bidding - at taxpayer expense.
Ike and Steve - its time to realize that cronyism just doesn't work. Or perhaps, maybe its time for MoCo locals to elect officials who will be more successful at using county resources to benefit county residents, instead of political war chests.
