September 17, 2009 Testimony to County Council

Montgomery County Council Public Hearing, September 17, 2009
Testimony on Planning Board Draft Gaithersburg West Master Plan
Don O’Neill, Montgomery Village Resident
ONeillDon@aol.com

I am Don O’Neill, a resident of Montgomery Village. I oppose the relocation of the PSTA. The core issue is whether the planned investment of $25 million to overhaul the existing facility would be better applied to a new PSTA at a different location.
1. The Master Plan argues, “The County recognizes that all PSTA needs cannot be satisfied at this location with its limited expansion capability and has identified a site where the PSTA could be relocated.”
2. The PSTA sits on 52-acres and is served by a superior road system. The County Executive would rather abandon this site and spend $125M to place a “state of the art” facility on the Webb Tract in Montgomery Village.
3. How does the current PSTA compare with Howard County’s James N. Robey Public Safety Training Center located just off I-70 at the edge of a landfill? Dedicated in 2007, this 38-acre facility is being accomplished on a 10-year $35M CIP and is identified as a “state of the art” facility despite having no flashover training capability, no high-speed driving track, and only a three-story burn building. Howard County fire and safety personnel must travel to the Montgomery County PSTA for their flashover training.
4. The County’s Smart Growth Initiative web page poses the right question when it asks, “If the current PSTA occupies 52 acres, how will you fit it on 29 acres?” The web page blithely responds, “The present facility has added many additional buildings over the past 30 years which are scattered on the parcel. The future PSTA site will be constructed to accommodate all its necessary functions in a more efficient manner.” Why then will the future PSTA not be equipped with flashover training considered necessary and essential by Fire Chief Bowers ?
5. How can a smaller site support the needs of the PSTA and provide for an expansion capability? The claim to “accommodate necessary functions in a more efficient manner” was made without the benefit of a site plan, crucial evidence to buttress such an assertion. The County Executive’s request for $1.6M for a Webb Tract relocation plan is tacit acknowledgement of this missing evidence.
6. The facts do not support the Planning Board assertion that “all PSTA needs cannot be satisfied at this location...” To the contrary, the current site exceeds the capability of the vaunted “state of the art” facility in Howard County. With the planned $25M renovation, this site would substantially meet the projected requirements for fire and police training. On the other hand, the $125M Webb Tract PSTA relocation would fall short of matching the capability of the current PSTA, now emerging as the true “state of the art” facility.