David R. Brinkley, Maryland State Delegate.

While the Lake Linganore Association's chances for SHUR funding this year are long dead, the old debate over it is alive and well, and reaching up to the level of state government.

Delegate David Brinkley is proposing a new bill, #1305, which would make it impossible for the Frederick County Commissioners to tack on requirements for State Highway User Revenue funds other than those specified in the bill. The SHUR funds, derived from taxes, come from the state and are passed on through the county to homeowners associations for road maintenance. That was made legally possible in Frederick County in early 2001.

In essence, this bill would reduce the Frederick Board of County Commissioners' ability to do what it did last November. Just when the LLA was set to send its list of roads on through to the State Highway Administration for approval for the funds, the BoCC asked for additional water and sewer easements from the LLA.

The LLA's residents had voted on granting public easements in exchange for the $60,000-some dollars in road maintenance money, but not on the blanket water and sewer easements. With its time restrictions on a vote, the LLA's Board of Directors decided it was legally not possible to give the county those water and sewer easements.

The SHUR funding deadline of Dec. 1 passed, but Brinkley said that on two separate occasions, Dec. 13 and Dec. 17, he asked Commissioner David Gray to "back off on the water and sewer" easements, admit they made a mistake and "throw the issue in the delegation's lap." However, he said that they chose not to do that. The LLA lost the funds for FY '03.

This year's money, gained from the taxes of Maryland residents including those in Lake Linganore, will go towards road maintenance somewhere else in the state. Brinkley said his bill, up for consideration at the Maryland General Assembly, comes from his desire to see roads in Linganore brought back into the SHUR inventory for Frederick County. It "basically codifies everything (the parties involved) agreed to prior to the commissioners throwing (the easements) into the loop at the last minute," Brinkley said.

A letter from the BoCC sent on March 7 to all the Maryland delegates states that Brinkley's bill is "totally unnecessary," and "creates additional problems" by negating the prior SHUR funding bill made through cooperation between the LLA, county and state. Assuming the vote of the LLA membership to grant the easements is successful this year, "we fully anticipate that the SHUR funding application will be in place before the...deadline for FY'04 funding. No legislation is needed for the SHUR funding to be in place for the Lake Linganore roads in FY '04."

However, Brinkley said that if more requirements are tacked onto next year's application, again the funds might not happen.

Meanwhile, Commissioner John "Lennie" Thompson said that the county needs those easement rights, because "we can't negotiate with 1500 homeowners," and no one wants water and sewer work in their yard. "The LLA wants to be able to tell us how to do the job," Thompson added.

Brinkley said that the county's need for the water and sewer easements is a legitimate one. "I'm not trying to take that from the county," he said. However, he said, "Frankly, (the LLA) were negotiating in faith on that as a separate issue." All that was messed up by the commissioners' added requirement, he said.

According to Thompson, it is this bill which is "undoing a very delicately balanced agreement." Thompson said that he knows of a vote going on at the LLA to authorize the BoD to grant utility easements on a case-by-case basis, but "they haven't given [the blanket easement] thus far."

"The Lake Linganore HOA leadership evidently whined to Delegate Brinkley," Thompson said. He said that Brinkley has "only heard one side of it," and has never had "any formal communication with us at all."

The problem with the bill, Thompson said, is that it would allow any homeowners association to get "their cut out" of SHUR funds by forcing the county to accept any roads that meet the bill's criteria. "It opens the door for anybody to say we want our share," he said. "It's what happens when you draft legislation to mollify a particular group and it has county-wide implications."

Brinkley said it is not his intention for it to apply to other HOAs. The delegate, who lived in Lake Linganore for 5 years, said that all he wants is to get the county and everyone out of the way, so that the Association can get any highway maintenance funds it is entitled to. "I don't give a damn who gets the credit," he said.

Brinkley said the bill will be heard Friday afternoon in his committee, Commerce and Government Matters. Brinkley said it could go through multiple revisions, and may be voted on that day.

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