Thurmont
discusses parkway bypass
BY JAMES RADA JR.
Thurmont News Editor
THURMONT,
Md. – Thurmont Town Commissioners are looking to the town’s
past to solve the town’s future traffic problems.
Frederick
County’s regional plan for Thurmont used to show an
industrial parkway going around the town. The road connected
with U.S. 15 and looped around the east end of town, according
to Commissioner Bill Blakeslee.
Over
the years, the bypass disappeared off the maps.
At a
recent commissioners’ meeting, the town commissioners
opened up a discussion about whether the town should support
putting the parkway back on the maps. County Planner Denis
Superczynski said now is the time to decide the issue because
the county is preparing to update the Thurmont Region Plan
and the town is in the middle of updating its town master
plan.
“The
first step for the town … would be to come to some sort
of consensus as to an approximate alignment,” Superczynski
said.
The Thurmont
Industrial Park sits on the east end of town, but the main
transportation route through town is on the west side of town.
That means tractor trailers travel through town past schools,
homes and businesses on a daily basis. A parkway could take
most of that truck traffic out of town.
Other
municipalities are also seeking to have bypasses built around
their towns, such as Middletown, Emmitsburg and Libertytown.
Middletown has been debating its bypass for about 20 years.
“But
if you don’t start things moving, it will never happen,”
Blakeslee said.
Superczynski
told the commissioners they needed to reach a consensus within
the town before the county would begin seriously considering
adding the parkway to the county maps.
In the
town’s planning and zoning survey conducted last December,
36 percent of those who responded said the town should improve
the town’s road system. Of those who suggested specific
traffic reduction measures, half said the town needed to build
a bypass.
“I
want the town to be aware of everything in the hopper so you
can politically gauge where our request would be,” Superczynski
said.
Once
it gets included in the county’s plan, it then needs
to work its way to the top.
“Anything
you can do to make the project more affordable to the state
or the county obviously helps grease the wheel,” Superczynski
said.
Woodsboro
recently had a bypass built, but it was primarily through
contributions from the local quarry.
