Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton, Councilmember Mark Pierzchala and city staff took the following requests for federal support to a June 6 meeting with the city’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.:
- Metro funding: Federal funding to maintain and improve the Metrorail system, ensuring the system’s safety and reliability. Metro is critical to Rockville’s transportation network and is heavily relied upon by residents, workers and city visitors.
- Infrastructure upgrades: Requests for federal funding for bridge rehabilitation and asphalt repair and replacement, stormwater system renovation, and sanitary sewer system improvements.
- Truck weight and length: Continued opposition to efforts to change national standards and allow trucks of greater weight and length.
- Opposition to cuts for Amtrak long-distance rail lines: In 2017, more than 5,600 passengers in Rockville used the Capitol Limited Service route to connect to cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest.
- Community Oriented Policing Services grant: A request to re-establish a technology and equipment grant through the federal program known as COPS. The Rockville City Police Department is seeking federal funding to replace its 13-year-old Mobile Command Center vehicle and equipment, and to purchase forward-looking infrared spotlights for 25 police vehicles, which can help to locate missing or lost individuals. The department also plans to apply for a COPS hiring grant to expand community policing.
- Community Development Block Grant: A request that this federal grant funding, which has been cut by nearly 30 percent between 2010 and 2017, not be cut further. The city puts the funding toward housing rehabilitation for low-income homeowners and other low- and moderate-income housing rehabilitation.
- Cybersecurity training and upgrades: A request for federal funding to make cybersecurity upgrades identified by the United States Department of Homeland Security. DHS recommends cybersecurity training for city staff; the incorporation of cybersecurity and business continuity into emergency planning and disaster recovery efforts; and tests and upgrades of city networks, including the control system of the city’s water treatment plant.Find more information, including video of the Mayor and Council’s May 7 discussion of the federal priorities at www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter. For more on Rockville’s federal priorities, contact Linda Moran at [email protected] or 240-314-8115.