Published: October 10, 2008 11:45 pm         

Public Cabinet meeting

Mayor: Blighted properties an expensive fix

CUMBERLAND — The idea of using inmate labor to demolish blighted properties within the city limits drew praise by some state and local officials Friday as a cost-effective way to manage a problem.

Mayor Lee Fiedler told Gov. Martin O’Malley that 18 percent of the properties in Cumberland are blighted and 14 percent of them are vacant. O’Malley wondered if there would be tax credits available to developers as an incentive to invest in blighted properties.

O’Malley was in town with his entourage of Cabinet members, press secretaries and staff as Cumberland served as “Capital for a Day.” They held an hour-long public Cabinet meeting at 9 N. Centre St. for the Arts, which houses the Allegany Arts Council.

Sen. George Edwards and Allegany County Commissioner Jim Stakem also addressed Cabinet members during the meeting.

As one of three issues Fiedler mentioned, he said part of the problem is the cost of demolition, which can range between $6,000 and $8,000 per property.

O’Malley suggested another possible incentive would be for the new home owners to pay their taxes not to the state but to a developer.

If a developer knows he would get a return on his investment, O’Malley said, a property would be more enticing to work on.

“Whatever we might give up in the first five, six, seven, eight years we’d get back in year nine,” O’Malley said.

Secretary Gary Maynard of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services suggested the use of inmate labor to complete the demolition work. It would lower the cost of the demolition work, he said.

After the meeting, however, Western Maryland Central Labor Council President Jim Bestpitch said that would cause the conversion of good-paying jobs into “slave labor” and lacked “common sense.”

“That’s jobs that people need,” Bestpitch said. “To have inmate labor ... doesn’t put food on people’s tables.”

Fiedler said he hopes the impending retirement of Councilman Ed Hedrick doesn’t impede the progress the city has made on removing eyesores from the community.

Fiedler also spoke of economic development and the need for industrial and commercial development. He requested the state’s assistance in providing a future use for the soon-to-be vacant Western Maryland Health System Memorial and Braddock campuses.

Stakem used his few minutes to highlight local companies’ recent expansions — including ATK, CSX, New Page and Schroeder Industries — as well as Laurelhurst at Cumberland Chase, the county’s “first major housing development in 40 (or more) years.”

Across from Cumberland Chase, Stakem said, sits a ready-made Barton Industrial Park.

He also spoke of the much-needed repairs to the Savage River Dam. Costs are projected to be some $6.5 million.

“A lot of people think Allegany County can afford this,” Stakem said. “We can’t.”

Stakem said while the dam locally provides flood control and manages recreational fishing opportunities, it’s also important to jurisdictions on the eastern end of the state such as Montgomery County.

Stakem also said the county simply can’t do without a north-south highway. The U.S. Route 220 corridor project has been stalled for decades.

“I built my home in Cresaptown in 1968. For 40 years now we’ve been talking about it,” Stakem said. Had it been built, “we wouldn’t be a county in despair. That would have changed everything.”

Stakem said he realized the state is “in a difficult situation” with tight budget constraints. So too is Allegany County, he said. If scuttlebutt from down state turns into law — rumors that transfer the burden of funding teachers’ pensions and a state court system, for example — “it would be a catastrophe for Allegany County.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.