He says it makes it challenging to try to meet the town’s needs.
Thurmont Mayor John Kinnaird (Photo from Town of Thurmont)
Frederick, Md (KM) Small towns like Thurmont don’t have a large tax base. Mayor John Kinnaird says the municipality has a property tax base of $1..8 million.
Appearing recently on WFMD’s “Morning News Express,” Mayor Kinnaird said one of the town’s biggest expenses in road maintenance and repair. “We do have issues with road surfacing, just as every other community has,” he says. “We work diligently to try to keep our roads up in shape.”
A few years ago, the town had a problem with North Church Street. Kinnaird says the water and sewer infrastructure underneath the road was replaced, but the road itself needed repair. He said it had been “a mess” for two years. . “State Highway Administration finally got it repaired, got it repaved, something we wanted to get done sooner,” the Mayor says.
Even though it was done later than he wanted, , Mayor Kinnaird says he appreciated the work done by SHA. “They did a great job of it and I am very happy with the workmanship. It was aggravating waiting for it for so long,” he says.
The state provides a portion of the highway user revenue collected from the gas tax to counties and municipalities which they can use for local road projects. During the 2008 and 2009 recession, the state took away more than 96 percent of the funding to balance the budget. In 2022, the General Assembly agreed to restore that portion of the highway user revenue to local governments.
“It’s always a struggle to get enough funding to pay for everything you’d like to do. So you do the best with what you have and do the best for your residents in the community as a whole,” says Mayor Kinnaird.
By Kevin McManus