As 2017 comes to a close, the leaders of both Indian Head and La Plata reflected on the past year and outlined their plans for 2018.
La Plata Mayor Jeannine James has been in office for about eight months, overseeing the annexation of several development projects as well as a multitude of changes in town code and legislation. Indian Head Mayor Brandon Paulin has held his position for three years but made arguably the two biggest splashes of his tenure in 2017, acquiring major financial support for the Indian Head Boardwalk project and partnering with the College of Southern Maryland to bring the Velocity Center to the town.
James was not the only rookie on the La Plata staff, as she was joined by Councilman Matthew Simpson, Councilman Brent Finagin and Councilwoman Emily Mudd Hendricks as first-timers on the council. Despite their inexperience, the mayor felt positive about their production in 2017.
“It was a fabulous year,” James said. “We’re learning a lot, and it’s pretty neat from our perspective because you do have four new people. We’re looking at it through totally different eyes and we aren’t tainted by anything.”
Paulin, Vice Mayor Ron Sitoula and Councilman Curtis Smith set out to reinvigorate Indian Head through commercial and residential plans, and the Velocity Center represents a huge step in the right direction. The council, CSM Director of the Entrepreneur & Innovation Institute Tommy Luginbill and Naval Service Facility Indian Head had been working out the details of the center for over a year, finally beginning the process by leasing Ely’s Warehouse in September. The facility will have a velocity lab for CSM students and a wing for NSF Indian Head for security operations. The rest of the building will be up for rent by businesses and contractors, providing an economic boost to the town.
“It took a lot of people to be able to get there, and a lot of support to be able to get there, so that was the biggest accomplishment [of the year],” Paulin said. “Once CSM got on board, we got some developers on board, things started to move forward and we’re really happy about it. I know I feel and I know CSM and a lot of people feel it’s going to be revolutionary for the look of Indian Head and the future of Indian Head.”
Both governments made significant strides in a variety of areas in 2017, yet there were still hiccups. Paulin and his council received $3.3 million from the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration to begin construction on the aforementioned boardwalk in early September, but the town is still waiting on a meeting with state officials to kick off the project. The council has had to renew permits related to the plan, with no word on when it will move forward. The CIRI property project also dragged on, rezoned in June this year after it’s concept plan had been approved in August of 2016, and that decision was even delayed a couple days. It’s unclear when the development will proceed, hampering the revitalization process.
“I always wish things would go faster,” Paulin said. “I’ve been doing this for going on three years now, and I always wish things could go faster. … It’s not due to effort on anyone’s part, it’s just one of those things I can’t really help. That’s kind of a common theme, I wish everything could go a little faster.”
The La Plata council butted heads with Charles County officials over the proposed Solar Canopy project through Tesla Energy, with questionable communication on both sides over the location and benefit of solar panels near the Charles County government building. There are tentative plans for a meeting between the council, county commissioners and Tesla representatives in January, although nothing has been made official and whether the commissioners participate is unknown.
“I want to continuously work on is having an open dialogue with the state, the county and the residents,” James said. “I think we can always improve with that. We’ve been very good with the residents, but I still think that there still needs to be more effort made on having sit-down meetings and all of that, because we all have to work together.”
With their sights set on 2018, both mayors have clear plans to improve their communities through revitalization and development. James has 10 major points of emphasis, including traffic concerns and historic preservation. She also wants to make younger residents a priority, along with addressing legislation and code issues.
“Work on passing our first budget that we have total control over, so we’re working there to look at things that need to be included or taken out or tweaked,” James said. “Then we wanna explore ways to secure grants or some type of money to really look into getting a community center built for our youth. Whether that is having it done with the library or having a second building, that’s really important to us.”
Paulin narrowed his scope to a trio of goals, mentioning children as his primary center of attention as well.
“My three focuses for 2018 are gonna be our youth, making sure the velocity center happens, and wrapping up a few of the things that we started in 2017,” Paulin said. “Completing the boardwalk and that sort of stuff, and then this year really being youth-focused and oriented, trying to get even more youth involvement in the town and go out and support the youth within our schools too. That’s kind of the main goal for myself entering 2018.”
