Brickyard Coalition

Here We Go Again - Is a School Bus Depot Coming to Brickyard??

We have learned that the Brickyard School site is now under consideration as a possible site for a MCPS School Bus Depot. Two of the MCPS bus depots currently located at Shady Grove must soon move to a new location.

A workgroup consisting of both County officials led by Greg Ossont, Department of General Services, and James Song of the MCPS is considering options for the location of a new Bus Depot site. Brickyard Road is one of the sites being considered. The school bus depot could bring:

400 school buses
700 parking spaces for drivers and employees
Buses are left running for hours and diesel fumes pollute for miles
Buses have noise levels higher than maximum allowed residential standards
School bus traffic would inundate Falls, McArthur and River Roads dramatically increasing morning and evening drive times

Four years ago, unknown to the voters in the elections, our County Executive - Ike Leggett - was working on a secret deal to hand over the Brickyard school site to a private group for use as a soccerplex. Ike Leggett chose to wait until after his re-election to make his secret deal public. The result was that the Brickyard community was forced to battle for almost two years to stop the soccerplex-but only after spending tens of thousands of dollars and countless man hours. A Circuit Court Judge, commenting on the Brickyard matter wrote in a court order "the county's actions - and the Board's - resulted in an enormous waste of private, county and state resources" and "left the notion of government 'transparency' with a black eye."

Over the past several months, the Brickyard Coalition's Board of Directors has met with almost 20 elected officials and candidates, seeking their commitment to stop any consideration of a bus depot at the Brickyard school site. The results of those meetings so far include:

Of the candidates for County Executive, Doug Duncan says no bus depot at Brickyard;
Phil Andrews says the community should have a say;
Ike Leggett is non-committal - and yet the proposal was conceived under his leadership.
Of those running for County Council, in District 1, Roger Berliner is "vigorously opposed" to the bus depot and he and his staff have been working with the Coalition to obtain information about this secretive bus depot project;
At-Large County Council challenger Beth Daly and incumbents Marc Elrich and George Leventhal are opposed to a bus depot at Brickyard. At Large Councilmembers Floreen and Riemer have not committed.
In the At-Large Board of Education primary, Jill Ortman-Fouse has also committed to oppose locating a bus depot at Brickyard.

Over the next few weeks, the Brickyard Coalition will provide more information and insight to our members regarding the upcoming election races. The primary is June 24, but early voting begins June 12. You can also still request an absentee ballot. The BOE race is non-partisan, so everyone can vote in that primary. Your vote and your voice can make a difference. Please forward this message to your family and friends in Montgomery County.

Authorized and paid for by the Brickyard Coalition Inc., PO Box 60962, Potomac, MD 20859, Keith Williams, Treasurer. This message has not been authorized or approved by any candidate.

Sincerely,

Brickyard Coalition
Brickyard Coalition Inc.

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