It only took a few moments of silence from the St. Mary’s County commissioners on Nov. 16 to delete all the work done by the citizens of the county to get a YMCA.
There had just been a presentation by YMCA officials. Then came the motion: “I move to approve the YMCA site selection concept plan and to adjust Project RP-2004 to reflect the results of the feasibility study and authorize the commissioner president to sign any related documents.” There was silence from the commissioners, who could have said “second” and moved the county forward to getting a YMCA.
The lack of a second to the motion deleted all the work done by residents of St. Mary’s County to secure an outstanding program available throughout the world.
Those few moments of silence deleted the six years of work by volunteers who call themselves the Steering Committee to get a community center in Lexington Park.
The silence deleted the many months of work done by the YMCA Exploratory Committee, who were selected to represent all of St. Mary’s County.
The silence deleted the work done by the YMCA Task Force, which included many outstanding citizens of our county.
The silence deleted all the letters from county business people and Navy contractors sent supporting a YMCA.
And, the silence and lack of a second to the motion deleted all the 3,500 plus names of county residents that were on the petitions for a YMCA/community center that had been presented to the commissioners at a previous meeting.
What were commissioners Todd Morgan (R), Eric Colvin (R) and John O’Conner (R) thinking when they had this opportunity for St. Mary’s County, and they were silent and choose not to second the motion?
Did they not realize that their lack of recognizing the work done by the citizens of St. Mary’s County to get a YMCA would be upsetting and it would be vocalized by those present at the meeting?
What were our St. Mary’s County commissioners thinking when they refused to second the motion that would have given our residents the YMCA they had worked so hard to obtain?
The citizens of St. Mary’s County are looking forward to getting the answers.
Joan Sullivan-Cowan, Lexington Park
The writer was a member of the steering committee to get a community center in St. Mary’s County.