At Monday’s town council meeting, Mayor Chris Cerino addressed a recently received letter from Governor Hogan’s office regarding the town’s request for $1.5 million from the State’s Miscellaneous Projects budget to rebuild the Chestertown Marina.
The letter, from Secretary Brinkley, was interpreted by many recipients as being critical of the town’s grant application procedures and off the mark as far as accuracy.
Of the $1.5 million requested, $200,000 was earmarked by the State for the marina project.
Cerino deconstructed the letter and addressed each of the points raised by the Secretary while carefully framing his statement in gratitude for Governor Hogan’s ongoing support of the marina project.
“I want to make it really clear that the State of Maryland has been incredibly supportive of all of our efforts to revitalize the Chestertown Marina,” he said.
Cerino went on to illustrate how the State’s capital budget worked and that the town made a direct appeal to the Governor for funding rather than depend on piecemeal funding through various state agencies—which have been pursued successfully aside from this funding request.
With the help of the Waterfront Coalition, 400 letters of support for the marina project were sent to Governor Hogan in November. The Secretary’s letter is in response to the those who wrote the letter, although at last count 260 have been sent.
While Cerino praised the State for its previous support, he called attention to Brinkley’s statement that combined state agencies offered “over $4 million in potential funding sources for this project, but to date, the Town has not submitted any grant applications,” explaining that first, the $4 million was available to the whole state, not just Chestertown and that indeed the town has been submitting grant proposals all along.
In fact, the town just received a $400,000 non-matching grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to apply to the marina revitalization, while a $1 million grant from USDA is looking positive.
Additionally, the final Maryland budget will be publicized on January 20th, and some possibility exists for further funding at that point.
The marina project will move forward, perhaps more incrementally than hoped.
This video is approximately 8 minutes in length.
Brian McNicholas says
Mayor Cerino is doing a fantastic job dealing with all the “politics” of trying to improve the marina. Very professional and he is working for and in the best interests of the people of the town of Chestertown.