Funding for new recreation centers and money to improve Baltimore?s cultural institutions ? these are the some of the choices city voters face today as they are asked to approve $120 million in new bonds.
Listed on the ballot as questions A through F, the bonds up for approval include $36 million for capital improvements for city schools, $3 million for renovation of the Enoch Pratt Free Library?s central branch and $10 million for an affordable housing fund to finance the development of low-cost housing for city residents.
Councilman Keiffer Jackson Mitchell, chairman of the City Council Taxation and Finance Committee, said his amendment to the $36 million bond for city school construction ensures that the money will be spent properly.
“Now that I have an amendment to make sure the money gets spent on what it?s supposed to be spent, I think city voters should approve it,” said Mitchell, D-11th District.
Also on the ballot is $9 million fornew recreational centers ? a pet project of Councilman Kenneth Harris, who fought for the bond issue during the contentious approval process for the city-funded $305 million convention center hotel.
“As a kid growing up in Park Heights, the recreation centers gave me a place to go,” said Harris, D-4th District. “We need to provide alternatives to the streets.”
The funds would be used to build recreation centers at Morrell Park and Clifton Park and a new gymnasium for the Edgewood-Lyndhurst recreation center.
A $3.6 million bond to provide money to many of the city?s cultural institutions includes funding for a $400,00 children?s “discovery” wing at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, $800,000 to fund a 120,000-square-foot expansion at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum and $350,000 to fund improvements to the Creative Alliance, a theater and gallery complex near Patterson Park.
Megan Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Creative Alliance, said funding cultural centers is a solid investment in the city?s future.
“The city?s cultural institutions are critical to the city’s health because they attract both residents and tourists,” she said.
Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage
