The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development sent an e-mail to most of the state’s counties on July 6 looking for alternative sites for the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC). At least three of the Mid-Shore’s five counties received the e-mail, which asked for a response within 24 hours.
The U.S. Department of State and the General Services Administration had considered acreage in Queen Anne’s County as their preferred site for the proposed new training center, but opposition to the site location, led by the Queen Anne’s County Conservation Association, caused that consideration to be withdrawn on June 28. QACA filed multiple legal challenges, and the Center for Biological Diversity also announced its intent to sue over impacts to the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel.
The Department of State is continuing its efforts to find a location for the center, which would be constructed with funding by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The center would combine centralized training for diplomats now conducted at 19 different facilities. The GSA estimates between 850-1,000 permanent part-time and full-time employees eventually will be needed to operate the training center. The July 6 e-mail sent by MDBED was not distributed to Queen Anne’s County according to its county commissioner’s office.
Talbot County Director of Economic Development Paige Bethke said no sites were available in Talbot County that would meet the land requirements of the center as planned. According to federal requirements and regulations, suggested sites must be a parcel or combined parcels of at least 1,250 acres, and none of the properties can have wetlands, landfills or agricultural easements.
In an undated reply, Kent County Administrator Susie Hayman and Bernadette Van Pelt, tourism and economic development director, listed eight locations where parcels of farmland could be combined into at least 1,250 acres. Three are near Galena. One is the 1,378-acre Starkey Farm property on the north side of state Route 213, which includes Sassafras River waterfront. Another of 1,397 acres is southwest of Galena between Route 213 and state Route 290. The third is 1,725 acres south of town between state Route 290 and U.S. Route 301. All three are “next to town public sewer,” according to the county.
A suggested location in the middle of the county is immediately south of Lynch, about 1,250 acres on both sides of state Route 561 and along Worton-Lynch Road. Another central location is 1,357 acres on the west side of Locust Grove Road, partly on property used by Angelica Nurseries. One is north of Golts (1,300 acres) next to Millington Wildlife Refuge. Another is between Route 301 and state Route 313 north of Massey, about 1,250 acres.Another is Bloomfield Farm, plus nearby farmland, which is 1,250 acres including the Sassafras River Natural Resources Management Area. It is west of Turner’s Creek Park and across the creek from Kentmore Park.