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Politics & Government

Tight Deadline to Spend Money Catches City Council Off Guard

College Park must determine how it wants to spend its annual open space money at the City Council's next meeting.

The College Park City Council will decide next week whether to spend tens of thousands of dollars at Hollywood Gateway Park or Duvall Field.

The city has received $174,774 to acquire property in 2012 from the state. It can use this money to buy open space or create parks on land the town already owns.

Terry Schum, the city’s director of planning, was on hand at Tuesday’s worksession to discuss options for spending the money.

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The city was not expecting to receive so much money—in 2010, it received $30,000 and in 2011, it received $60,000, Schum said. She continued to say that early indications were that College Park would not receive a substantial increase this year.

The council must decide where to place the money by June 17.

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The deadline caught members of the council off guard.

Schum’s current spending recommendation includes proposals to develop the Hollywood Gateway Park and renovate Duvall Field.

Engineers calculated that renovating Duvall Field would cost about $5 million. The city has nearly $1 million allocated to the project already.

Schum suggested that the city spend $86,000 to create Hollywood Gateway Park, and the rest to start work on Duvall Field with a $520,000 concession stand. 

Councilwoman Christine Nagle (Dist. 1) disagreed.

“It’s a total waste,” Nagle said. “We don’t know how much [Hollywood Gateway Park] would cost yet.”

University of Maryland students designed possible parks, but no construction budgets were considered in the drawings.

Nagle was also concerned about the cost of the concession stand, saying she was unsure why it would cost so much.

Even so, she said she would prefer a proposal putting all of the open space money toward Duvall Field. She will have an opportunity to provide a proposal at next week's meeting.

The council will vote whether to spend the money on Duvall Field and Hollywood Gateway Park next week. Nagle and Councilman Mark Cook (Dist. 3) agree there will be significant debate at the meeting.

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