Wicomico County leaders meet with state legislators ahead of session
SALISBURY, Md. – Wednesday morning, Wicomico county leaders and stakeholders met with Maryland state legislators over breakfast.
“This is the key Wicomico County meeting for us, preparing for the legislative session,” said State Senator Mary Beth Carozza.
“This is just a great opportunity for them to really hear the needs of the county, where we are. Some of them are really celebratory. Others are a little sobering. And so it’s just important for them to have that knowledge going into the session,” County Executive Julie Giordano said.
One of those positive updates was momentum on county-wide water and sewer service, with preliminary engineering reports carried out on the East and West sides of the county, after a SB 246 in 2023 allowed for the creation of a sanitary district.
On the sewer system progress, Giordano said, “It was important for our delegation to hear that it’s not something that we are sitting on, we are moving forward…the next part really is going to be, you know, applying for funding.”
Another topic of discussion was the needs of educational institutions, something that Senator Carozza said she’ll be carrying to Annapolis: “We’re hearing what we need to do on education to make sure there’s fairness here on the shore, whether it’s Wor-Wic Community College or in our local school system, the fairness that we need in our rural communities.”
Superintendent Dr. Micah Stauffer reported an increase of 700 students in Wicomico County Public Schools from this time last year.
Giordano said that funding for education will be one of her priorities in her next budget: “We know there’s going to be some constraints at the state level in the budget, there’s going to be some constraints with us. But we’re going to work really hard with our education system to make sure that they are given the resources to be successful.”
Constraint was the backdrop of many issues discussed, and looking ahead, the state of Maryland as a whole is facing significant fiscal challenges.
“The bottom line is we have major budget challenges in the state of Maryland. So anything we do, we have to factor in that we’re facing those challenges, which makes it even more important that we prioritize in Wicomico County,” Senator Carozza said.
Also discussed at the meeting was recruitment and retention needs for volunteer fire companies, as well as correctional facilities.
