County Council President discusses State of the County

WICOMICO CO., Md. – Thursday’s Wicomico State of the County took over Council Chambers.

WMDT spoke with the County Council President to get his thoughts on the speech.

Wicomico County Council President John T. Cannon said he wasn’t surprised to learn that the county is in great shape thanks to its responsible departments and fellow employees.

However, Cannon said he’s interested to see the county budget for this coming year to get a better idea of where the county is.

Big issues Cannon feels are pertinent to deal with include education and the volunteer fire companies.

“I’d say the biggest issue right now is dealing with the Board of Education and their increase request for funding because they have quite a bit of more obligations that have been thrust upon them or by the state, and not only that, but even more so I believe that we have to really pay very close attention to our volunteer fire companies and how we want to continue to thrive as volunteer organization in Wicomico County to serve the needs that are out there,” said Cannon.

Cannon said the Board of Education is increasingly asking for more funding, but he realizes they are becoming burdened by a lot of additional requirements.

“I have a lot of respect for Superintendent Stauffer and I do recognize the fact that they’re going to be encumbered by quite a few more obligations then they have in the past, I know that the number of enrolled students is increasing continually and they do of course have to have some type of additional funding to address that,” he said.

Cannon says the county has in the past given above maintenance of effort, but this year the Board of Education is asking for a very large amount of funds.

He said again, he needs to look at the budget to see how much the Council can help the Board of Education out.

Cannon said he will get a look at the budget on Tuesday of next week.