On Tuesday, July 23, Senator Jack Bailey addressed the St. Mary’s County Board of Commissioners with an update on legislation and his efforts in Annapolis on behalf of the residents of St. Mary’s County. In addition to providing the commissioners with a summary of bills impacting St. Mary’s County during the 2019 Legislative Session, Senator Bailey also detailed his work to bring more state resources to the county since the end of the session.
One initiative that Senator Bailey discussed with the commissioners was his work to secure federal and state funding to improve Maryland Route 5 between Great Mills Road and Indian Bridge Road. Senator Bailey recognized the support of federal, state, and local officials in working to secure a grant to fund this project, and announced that the state will know whether the project will receive this grant by November 1.
Other topics addressed included Senator Bailey’s collaboration with the Maryland Stadium Authority to improve local sports facilities in the county. Senator Bailey was joined by Jodi Stanalonis, a member of the board for the Maryland Stadium Authority, which works to bring state resources to local building projects.
Also discussed was the care and maintenance of Saint Clements Island. Senator Bailey outlined his work with the state’s Department of Natural Resources on better maintaining the island. “Being the birthplace of Maryland, we obviously want that to be a show place and treated and taken care of the way that we feel that it should be,” Bailey told the commissioners, “the state should be responsible for the maintenance and the care of our birthplace.”
Senator Bailey noted the visit of Steve Schuh, Director of the state’s Opioid Operational Command Center, to St. Mary’s County earlier in the week to see the county’s efforts in combating the opioid crisis, saying that Schuh praised St. Mary’s County’s plan to responding to the opioid crisis. Bailey called it “a kudos to our volunteers, to our people in emergency services, and how we treat a crisis that we are all facing.”
Senator Bailey also encouraged the commissioners to work with him on their short-term and long-term legislative priorities for the county. “There are other counties that have been taking precedence over St. Mary’s and Calvert in the legislature and this is our time to move forward for us and for our constituents and we need to make the best effort that we can to do that,” Bailey said.