County workers to move into new office building

Meeting room offers more audience space

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Dave Boyden, Eric Klinger, Gary Stokes and Cheryl Blazer of Blazer Custom Construction built the Chesapeake Building which will house the offices of the St. Mary’s County commissioners, county administrator and the legal and finance departments. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN George Erichsen, director of St. Mary’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation, and Eric Klinger, project manager with Blazer Custom Construction, make their way down from the roof of the new Chesapeake Building next door to the governmental center, which has been renamed the Potomac Building.

The two-story building will house the office of the commissioners, the county administrator, the finance department and the legal department.

‘‘It’s not a flashy building — it’s a nice building,” said Cheryl Blazer, owner of Blazer’s Custom Construction in Great Mills.

The new meeting room for the county commissioners, planning commission and other groups offers technological advances over the current room. There will be flat-screen televisions on the side walls of the meeting room, broadcasting the meeting as it happens. There are drop-down screens for presentations that both the audience and the commissioners can watch at the same time. There are speakers on the sides of the room to boost sound levels. ‘‘Sound has always been an issue,” said Bob Kelly, director of information technology.

The biggest difference is the space. Some meetings at the governmental center become too large for Room 14 and the audience spills out into the hallway. Public participation becomes a problem then.

The new room has space for 80 to 90 seats.

‘‘We used local,” Blazer said of manpower and materials for the project. Ninety percent of the materials came from Southern Maryland, and 40 to 50 percent of the subcontractors are from St. Mary’s County, she said.

‘‘We are absolutely within budget. We’re on schedule,” she said. The project cost $3.1 million and the building is due for its final inspection this week.

The building will be ready for county staff by July 31. The first commissioners meeting will be in August while the television and taping equipment continues to move in.

The entire building is sealed off from the elements for 50 years, said Dave Boyden, vice president of Blazer construction. It’s like a liner for a truck bed. ‘‘That’s my favorite,” he said.

The brick exterior of the building matches the existing governmental center. That building dates back to 1920 and was the old Leonard Hall School before the school became a junior naval academy. County government bought the 93-acre property and five buildings for $1.15 million on June 25, 1974. The main building was renovated and county government moved to it in 1978 from the circuit courthouse.

The office of only two of the county commissioners currently have windows — Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. and Francis Jack Russell — and the new building does not change that number.

Mattingly and Commissioner Daniel H. Raley get the natural sunlight in their offices, while Russell loses his.

Nobody had any issues with that, Mattingly said Monday. Overall, he said of the building, ‘‘It’s turning out pretty nice, nothing fancy, but it’s serviceable.”

Elaine Kramer, financial officer for county government, gets a corner office with two windows and plenty of space. Her current office is in the basement of the governmental center.

‘‘There’s no room at all” there, George Erichsen, director of St. Mary’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation, said.

Of Blazer construction, Kelly said, ‘‘These guys did really good work.”

‘‘I found them to be professional and approachable,” Erichsen said.