Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett is seeking $40 million more from the feds to complete BRAC-related construction projects, in addition to $28.2 million the county has already acquired from the Department of Defense.
In a letter to Council President Valerie Ervin, Leggett asked the council to allocate the $28.2 million grant for construction on MD 355 to improve travel between Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the Medical Center Metro station. It would pay for high-speed elevators and road improvements.
In addition, he is pursuing a $40 million grant from Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment.
Leggett said he hopes to get federal funding to cover the costs, but can’t know for sure whether federal dollars will cover everything. What’s not covered by federal money could end up coming from county taxpayers.
In fact, he said, it’s unlikely that even the $68 million that the county might get would cover all necessary costs of the move.
“The money that we anticipate getting from the federal government is not going to do everything that we need to do,” he said, adding that the projects in Montgomery will cost “far more than the $300 million [the federal government set aside to fund BRAC projects] could ever provide.”
