Wicomico County leaders eye improvement projects following “unexpected” revenue

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – Wicomico County could see significant investments in the future. County Executive Julie Giordano says through investments made by the Deputy Director of Finance, the county was able to earn about $7.5 million in interest.

“It probably will never happen again. It’s just that interest rates at this time are getting ready to come down. So, we wanted to make sure it was time to focus on capital,” said Giordano. “I didn’t really want to dip into the reserves. We know that we need to hang onto that for whatever may come along. I wanted to focus on that interest money; $7.5 million that we were not even expected. It was unexpected revenue.”

After asking for feedback from County Council members and constituents, Giordano says county leaders are looking at using some of that money to make several improvements across the area.

“One of them happened to be the Civic Center. Our Civic Center right now, the roof has been leaking, we’ve been doing deferred maintenance on this. It’s time for a new roof,” Giordano said. “The Civic Center is such a revenue driver for us here, and it’s just such a big location. People gather there for all different types of things. So, we want to keep up with it. And, it’s way to bring people to our county; it’s an economic driver.”

Other projects in the pipeline include fixing the air conditioning at the Westside Community Center, paving Athol Road, and a facelift for the Port of Salisbury marina.