Solomons traffic circle approved

Pattern in plans 20 years ago

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The project has been planned since the community’s first master plan was drafted in 1986.

The project includes a traffic circle at the intersection of Charles Street and Farren Avenue, as well as a sidewalk from Williams Street to the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory’s visitors’ center.

The contract was awarded April 22 to Rustler Construction of Lanham, and will set the county back more than half a million dollars. The vote was 4-1, with Commissioner Barbara Stinnett (D) dissenting because ‘‘I do not favor the roundabout in Solomons,” she said.

The one-lane roundabout will feature an asphalt center island 34 feet in diameter, to be stamped with a logo to be designed by the public, according to Public Works Director Terry Carlson. The roundabout will also include a brick sidewalk and require a retaining wall on its north side. It is designed to allow trucks or cars with boat trailers to drive over the middle of the roundabout if necessary, but ‘‘we don’t want people really running on this thing unless they really have a need,” Carlson said.

Construction will begin in mid- to late May and take about four months, Carlson estimated.

As then-president of the Solomons Civic Association, former county commissioner Bobby Swann spoke in favor of the roundabout at a public meeting almost two years ago. He still supports it today.

‘‘It finishes off the end of the island and it will entice a lot of the traffic to make the circle instead of going through the lab and so forth,” Swann said. ‘‘I think it certainly enhances the end of the island and also I think the labs have some plans to add some things to that area as well.”

It will also be nice to get this final component of the original master plan out of the way, he said.

‘‘It’s been on the Solomons Master Plan for 20 plus years. It was part of the 1986 master plan, and so it does take a long time to get these master plans fulfilled.”

But Charles Donnelly, a Solomons Island attorney and failed candidate for the board of commissioners, wouldn’t mind if fulfillment took a bit longer. The expense is unnecessary, he said.

‘‘If money wasn’t an object, it’s a nice landscape feature, but there is no traffic need there and there’s no bustling area of activity. ... I think that money could have been spent or allocated in areas where there’s a real traffic and pedestrian need, and I think vast majority of people in Calvert County agree with that,” he said.

Donnelly also criticized the commissioners for moving ahead with the project.

‘‘The commissioners are hell-bent on approving this project, and I think this raises questions about their judgment in the allocation of capital funds,” he said. ‘‘... With so many places where monies can be spent, it is totally inappropriate. You have to just say it is a landscaping project which will benefit, for the most part immediate residents, who will have a nice place to walk. ... It is a landscaping gift to the [Chesapeake Biological Lab], who has plans for a major renovation there, with a new library⁄conference center. Here they are battling over painting the sheriff’s cars ... and saying we need be frugal with money. If you apply the same standard to this project, it’s very hard to defend.”