The October 6 Cambridge City Council meeting included an item under new business that engendered considerable discussion between the commissioners and City Manager Glenn Steckman. This was the proposal to extend the consultant services agreement with Strategic Programs Development (SPD), which runs the city’s Resilience Project, managed by SPD founder Larry White. When Mayor Lajan Cephas called for a motion to approve the agreement, she was met with silence from the Council.
One of the commissioners asked how much money has been paid to SPD so far, and the number thrown out was $250,000. Steckman, who insisted the real number was lower, reminded everyone of what White has been doing in his engineering work on the resiliency project. Then he stated that, until something significant is done about Cambridge’s shoreline, the city will continue to have issues with high tides and water events.
Commissioner Shay Lewis-Cisco of Ward 2 said she didn’t know what White had delivered for the money he’d been paid, and Steckman explained that the project team has completed 30 percent of the project’s design. They are working to reach 65 percent, at which time they will put out for formal bids.
Though grant funds are already in hand for the complete design, the FEMA grant that SPD previously won was pulled back by the Trump Administration, which has slowed movement toward construction. This is despite all the complaints received by the City Manager’s office regarding continual flooding on Water Street.
Commissioner Brett Summers of Ward 1 then made the argument that High Street gets significant flooding only every couple of years but that there is a more immediate issue with water from the Choptank River getting into the stormwater system. So, Summers asked if it would be possible to break the construction part of the resilience project into two phases, the first of which would deal with the sewage and stormwater problem.
“I have a lot of questions,” he continued, “and I want to see if we can better use this money.”
At that point, Council President Sputty Cephas of Ward 4 made a motion to move the issue of SPD’s agreement to the next meeting. Steckman immediately asked if they were going to continue paying White for any services, because the cancellation of the FEMA grant meant the city would have to pull the money out of its own coffers.
Steckman then reiterated the principal issue: river water is getting into the stormwater and the wastewater treatment plant because of extreme flooding. “Water Street has lived up to its name.”
Summers said he wanted to meet with White and his team about focusing on the dire problem of sewer and stormwater infiltration. Then, he proposed, they could talk with Rep. Andy Harris about the cancelled FEMA grant. Steckman replied that he had already talked with the Congressional representative as well as Maryland’s two senators.
However, the City Manager continued, “every week or month we postpone this, you’re opening yourself up to major storm events. People may not like [the idea of] climate change, but the reality is that Cambridge is sinking.”
When Summers said he had heard the full shoreline project would cost $50 million, Steckman countered that an updated estimate was $25 million.
“People think this won’t affect them for 50 years, but I think that’s shortsighted,” said Steckman. He added that, until recently, FEMA had been funding such preventative projects, but the Trump Administration had moved away from them.
“I’m in favor of the project,” announced Mayor Lajan Cephas before asking the commissioners an important question: Is Cambridge going to move forward or allow the shoreline to recede?
Sputty Cephas once more made a motion to move the discussion to the October 27 council meeting so the commissioners could speak with whomever they wished. “My concern is, we’re hiring a consultant to design something, but how much are we contributing?”
After stating that the flooding problem would affect all of Cambridge, the mayor proposed inviting White to make a presentation and provide all the information the Council would need to make a decision. Steckman said an update meeting was upcoming, and City Planner Brian Herrmann added that there is a Resilience Project meeting every Monday.
“I think we agree raw sewage in the river affects all of us,” spoke up Ward 5 Commissioner Brian Roche for the first time. He then stated that there should be a clause in SPD’s contract for concentrating on the sewage problem first, having passive architecture instead of something more intrusive, and making a concerted effort to update the council on residents’ acceptance of the shoreline design.
All Commissioners voted in favor of Sputty Cephas’s motion to move discussion and action on the consultant’s agreement to the next Council meeting.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.