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Westminster and state officials cut the ribbon on downtown sidewalk retrofit project By Kevin E. Dayhoff, Tuesday, November 05, 2013 page 1

Westminster and state officials cut the ribbon on downtownsidewalk retrofit project By Kevin E. Dayhoff, Tues., Nov. 05, 2013

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2013/11/westminster-and-state-officials-cut.html Labels: Westminster File Sidewalks Trails Friday, November 15, 2013

Westminster and state

officials cut the ribbon ondowntown sidewalkretrofit project

Westminster and stateofficials joined together Tuesday morning,November 5, 2013 to cutthe ribbon on over 200new disabilities-compliant sidewalk curb

cuts throughoutdowntown Westminster

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Westminster and state officials cut the ribbon on downtown sidewalk retrofit project By Kevin E. Dayhoff, Tuesday, November 05, 2013 page 2

Westminster city officialsand representatives fromfour Maryland stategovernment departmentsgathered together

 Tuesday morning infront of the WestminsterRecreation and ParksFamily Center onLongwell Avenue tocelebrate, and cut theribbon, on anunprecedentedgroundbreaking$318,000 partnershipthat resulted in the

completion of 214 newor rebuilt ADA-compliant curb ramps inthe downtown area.

“What a wonderfulproject this is and withso many partners, saidWestminster mayorKevin Utz in preparedremarks for the

occasion, after he was introduced by Mark Vernarelli, spokesperson for theMaryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

“With these partners 4 curb ramps were reconstructed, 64 curb ramps weremodified and 164 new curb ramps were installed…” Because of thispartnership, “over 200 ADA Compliant curb ramps now exist in DowntownWestminster,” explained Utz. 

Utz read-off a long list of state secretaries and dignitaries who traveled fromstate offices in Baltimore and Annapolis for the occasion; including MDDepartment of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary

Maynard, Deputy Secretary J. Michael Stouffer, Public Safety WorksCoordinator John Rowley, Director of Corrections Felicia Hinton, and FacilityAdministrator Leonard Rice.

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Westminster and state officials cut the ribbon on downtown sidewalk retrofit project By Kevin E. Dayhoff, Tuesday, November 05, 2013 page 3

Also present wereDepartment of DisabilitiesSecretary CatherineRaggio, Deputy Secretary

George Failla, Jr., andAccess Maryland DirectorCari Watrous as well asMD Department ofHousing & CommunityDevelopment: AssistantSecretary Carol Gilbert,Director of CommunityPrograms Cindy Stone,and Project Manager DonaSorce.

Along with Tony Romano,a representative of RomanoConcrete Construction and

Ronnie Townes, 21, an inmate who helped build the curbs; MD Department ofLabor, Licensing and Regulation Coordinator, Career and Technology ProgramsKen Weeden, Field Director of Correctional Education Jack Cunning, andDavid Bordley were there to cut the ribbon and discuss the unprecedented city,state and private partnership.

According to informationprovided by thedepartment of publicsafety, DPSCS, the projectwas “Grant-funded thanksto work by the MarylandDepartment of Housingand CommunityDevelopment … The curb

project is the largestproject of its kind ever

done by inmates in theDPSCS Public SafetyWorks community projectinitiative. The inmateslearned concrete skillsfrom Romano Concrete, a

longtime and valued partner with DPSCS.” 

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Westminster and state officials cut the ribbon on downtown sidewalk retrofit project By Kevin E. Dayhoff, Tuesday, November 05, 2013 page 4

Westminster mayor Kevin Utz was joined by Westminster CommonCouncil president Dr. RobertWack, council member Tony

Chiavacci, city administratorMarge Wolf, public works director Jeff Glass, police chief JeffSpaulding, , Community ProgramsSpecialist Sandy Anderson, cityengineer Mike Matov, assistantstreet superintendent WayneReifsnider and recreation andparks director Abby Gruber.

Planning for the project began in

earnest after a similar, but muchsmaller partnership was called to Glass’ attention in the summer of 2012. “Wesubmitted the grant application on August 27,” said Anderson. “The actualwork on the sidewalks began last May.” 

“I’m very pleased that whatinitially started as aconversation withSecretary Maynard andSecretary Skinner hasbecome a model

partnership between theCity of Westminster andthree state agencies –  Disabilities, Public Safetyand Corrections, andHousing and CommunityDevelopment,” said MDDept. of DisabilitiesSecretary CatherineRaggio. “As a result of this

partnership, we now have sidewalks that are safer and more accessible forindividuals with disabilities, seniors and others.” 

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Westminster and state officials cut the ribbon on downtown sidewalk retrofit project By Kevin E. Dayhoff, Tuesday, November 05, 2013 page 5

“DPSCS worked with

the MD Dept. of Labor,Licensing, andRegulation to secure the

partnership withRomano Concrete---with whom DPSCSinmates previouslyworked on the EasternShore at Cambridge in asimilar but smallerproject,” according toinformation provided byDPSCS. “This project is

the first to give inmates

DLLR on-the-jobcertifications.” 

“It’s been a great

project… It’s made a bigdifference for (gettingaround) downtown,”said Glass. Wolf and Utz agreed. “Everybody was a winner,” said Wolf. 

Maynard called the inmate restorative justice initiative, “groundbreaking.”“This is our largest community curb project yet,” said the DPSCS secretary.

“Our inmates have built or rebuilt more than 200 curbs, getting valuable skillstraining from Tony Romano and his concrete tradesmen, and helping this nicetown become more accessible in the process.

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Westminster and state officials cut the ribbon on downtown sidewalk retrofit project By Kevin E. Dayhoff, Tuesday, November 05, 2013 page 6

“We call projects like these Public Safety Works ‘restorative justice’ programs,

because they allow inmates who want to pay society back with a reallymeaningful way to do that.

“On any given day, we have more than 350 inmates out across the state ofMaryland doing meaningful projects. Right now, inmates are rebuilding askipjack on the Eastern Shore, gleaning fresh produce for the Maryland FoodBank, planting millions of oyster spat, restoring battlefields, cemeteries andplaygrounds, and helping cities and non-profits with all kinds of projects theycouldn’t do otherwise. 

“We are very serious about this particular kind of project here in Westminster---where inmates get actual skills training from professional tradespeople. We’rehaving inmates trained in hazardous materials abatement and they’re taking

down the old House of Correction prison in Jessup, a deconstruction that’ssaving taxpayers at least five million dollars compared to the cost of demolition.It’s the only project of its kind in the country. 

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Westminster and state officials cut the ribbon on downtown sidewalk retrofit project By Kevin E. Dayhoff, Tuesday, November 05, 2013 page 7

“These skills should serve the inmates well and give them a leg up on jobswhen they get out and go home. I would love to talk to you today about howPublic Safety Works might be able to help your agency or non-profit.

Maynard also elaborated upon how the

partnership with the city gave the prisoninmates an opportunity to learn job skills.“We may be in charge of keeping peoplelocked up,” continued the secretary, “butwhat we really want is to set people free;to free them from addictions and angerissues, give them education and job skilltraining, and turn them into productivetaxpaying citizens. After all, almost allinmates will one day be getting out.” 

“We are very serious about this particular kind of project here in Westminster---where inmates get actual skills training from professional tradespeople,”remarked Maynard.

“This project, however, is about so much more than curbs and concrete,” saidUtz in agreement. “With this project, the Department of Labor, Licensing andRegulation (DLLR) provided training for the inmates. With this project the statecorrections department has provided construction experience and positivecommunity participation for the inmates. With this project the inmates havereceived certification from the DLLR for on the job training. With this projectthe inmates participated in a major community project.

“Maynard was all smiles as he thanked the city and invited city officials to talkabout more opportunities for partnerships. “Thank you again for this wonderfulcollaborative effort, and thank you, Mayor Utz, for allowing the Dept. of PublicSafety and Correctional Services to perform this important work inWestminster.” 

Utz added, “At this time I’d like to personally thank the inmates for their hardwork. Their work was crucial to the success of this project. Concrete lasts along time. We hope that the experience gained from this project will last evenlonger. Thank you.” 

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