District 21 Legislators Stop By Piney Orchard

Lawmakers from Maryland’s District 21 touted several recent efforts to improve the lives of people living in Piney Orchard during a town hall meeting with residents on Thursday night.

With the 90-day legislative session behind them, Sen. Jim Rosapepe and Delegates Barbara Frush and Joseline Peña-Melnyk outlined their support of new laws governing electricity reliability, along with efforts to balance the budget while protecting funds for education and the disabled.  

About 20 residents attended the informal session at Piney Orchard Elementary School. Delegate Ben Barnes did not attend. 

Rosapepe said that Piney Orchard residents should be particularly pleased with the installation of stiff fines against electric companies for power outages, which are commonplace in the community.

“Your experience is totally unacceptable,” Rosapepe said. “The good news is that it’s gotten so bad that we finally got the attention of the public service commission and the legislature.”

The public service commission is now drafting the list of standards that electric companies must meet. Companies could face fines of up to $25,000 for each individual outage.

Some residents said they were concerned such fines might then be passed onto consumers, but Rosapepe said he was hopeful that wouldn’t happen, because electricity rates are set by the PSC.

“Can this be screwed up? You bet it can be screwed up, but we’re going to keep an eye on it,” he said.

The legislators also said they are watching closely the impact of the expansion of the workforce at Fort Meade, and said they will push for more money for transportation improvements in the next legislative session. Rosapepe and Peña-Melnyk said they would favor an increase in the gas tax, as well as a mechanism to ensure money raised for transportation could not be spent elsewhere.

“It does seem like the definition of insanity, but the reality is we haven’t raise the gas tax in 19 years,” Rosapepe said. “We are obviously due the kind of investment we need, because it’s going to catch up to us.”

Residents Lisa Garner and Aaron Klebanoff urged Rosapepe to push for more money for bicycle lanes in the community, as an alternative means to get to Fort Meade. 

They also asked whether the Army base could re-open an entrance gate near Piney Orchard. The gate, located of Range Road in the southwest portion of the community, was closed many years ago, but residents said re-opening it would cut commute time to the base by as much as a half-hour.

“They’re getting a better feel for the gridlock from BRAC, and there’s a change in leadership,” Rosapepe said. “We will do a frontal assault on Fort Meade. We will write to them, we will call them, we will get in their face.”

The state legislature is expected to hold a special session on redistricting in January. Some residents of Piney Orchard asked whether District 21 would be redrawn or split, as most of the district is actually located in Prince George’s County.

Peña-Melnyk fended off suggestions that the District 21 contingent was unreceptive to the concerns of Anne Arundel County residents.

“It’s like having a child whose self-esteem isn’t as high as another’s,” she said. “You actually end up giving them more attention.”

Editor's note: A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of Piney Orchard resident Aaron Klebanoff. Patch regrets the error.