What of the 3rd Bldg Is in the Gov’s FY16 Budget
re-posted from the St. Mary’s County Business Development e-Newsletter
What Is Included for a 3rd Building at SMHEC in the Governor’s FY16 Capital Budget
What the Governor’s budget proposal does show is the higher dollar amount needed to fund a research and classroom versus a classroom only type building. This is a significant step forward in the commitment to creating the State’s first and only campus for RD&TE for unmanned systems and making St. Mary’s County a leader in the unmanned and autonomous systems’ industry nationwide. Ideally, design and construction funding will be advanced from the “out years” in the Governor’s budget to a more near-term possibility for our State and region. Continued support from our newly elected Delegation to the Maryland General Assembly will be critical to making this possible.
The original plan for a 3rd building to be constructed at the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center envisioned a 38,000 sq. ft. classroom, engineering lab, offices and meeting room building typical of the other exceptional facilities found on the campus today. There is such demand for graduate level degrees to be offered in St. Mary’s that SMHEC’s Board of Trustees has advocated for this additional building for well over a decade and successfully secured design funding in 2012.
A change in the proposal for the 3rd building occurred in 2013 with legislation introduced to amend the original plan by adding 39,000 sq. ft. for research space and equipment designed for the development of unmanned systems and autonomous technologies. This will create an international center for research in autonomous technologies in Southern Maryland with one of a kind facilities that otherwise can only be found “inside the gate” at NAS Patuxent River. SMHEC also proposed that research faculty and supporting personnel be employed to conduct leading edge research in unmanned and autonomous systems at the new facility.
The agreement forged between the SMHEC and the University System of Maryland (USM) to manage a 77,000 sq. ft. classroom and research facility accessible to private industry and academia is critical to the economic diversification and technical growth of Southern Maryland. However, this change precipitated an extensive review of the increased design, engineering and construction costs by the MD Dept. of Budget and Management, which received a formal proposal for the changes from USM in December of 2014. Unfortunately, DBM’s review was not completed in time for funding to be included in the Governor’s FY16 budget as originally hoped.
What the Governor’s budget proposal does show is the higher dollar amount needed to fund a research and classroom versus a classroom only type building. This is a significant step forward in the commitment to creating the State’s first and only campus for RD&TE for unmanned systems and making St. Mary’s County a leader in the unmanned and autonomous systems’ industry nationwide. Ideally, design and construction funding will be advanced from the “out years” in the Governor’s budget to a more near-term possibility for our State and region. Continued support from our newly elected Delegation to the Maryland General Assembly will be critical to making this possible.
