The Trachtenberg Office Attends the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board Meeting

Naomi Bloch represented the Trachtenberg office at last night’s meeting of the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board (MCCAB) that meets the third Tuesday of every month, typically at the Mid-County Regional Services Center, located at 2424 Reedie Drive, Wheaton, MD 20902.

The first guest speaker was Fire Chief Richard Bowers who came by to talk about bill 13-10 (popularly known as the Ambulance Fee) and to urge the support of the Board. A lively discussion resulted when some local volunteer firefighters gave their reasons for why this shouldn’t be supported. A substantive Q&A period followed after which the Board eventually voted to support bill 13-10 with the one amendment that the Board would like to see the fees raised be devoted only to funding fire and rescue operations. The language in the current bill states that these fees would fund the fire & rescue services for only the first year after which they would directed to the County’s general fund.

Council President Nancy Floreen was the second guest speaker and she updated the MCCAB and everyone present about the unprecedented economic challenges facing the county and that even further bad news was expected on Thursday when the County Executive would present the newly revised budget that takes into account the even lower that expected revenues. She praised the MCCAB members for their list of suggestions for the Council on how to cut costs and generate more revenue.

The MCCAB voted on a series of issues, notably, opposition to the ZTA – concerning the subsequent proposal from Costco to have a 16-bay gas station on the Westfield Wheaton Plaza property; support of the 4 million dollar incentive money proposed by the County’s Department of Economic Development; support of a proposal to change the flood plan for the area surrounding the Westfield Wheaton Plaza.

For more information about the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board and/or the Mid-County Regional Services Center visit: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/midcounty or the MCCAB blog at http://mccabblog.blogspot.com/. Email: midcounty.citizen@montgomerycountymd.gov