Without any fanfare — I’m talking nothing — the county council on Tuesday unanimously approved an extra $2.5 million towards construction of downtown Silver Spring’s civic center.
The civic center, which will sit along Ellsworth Drive between Fenton and Cedar streets, will contain meeting rooms, office space for the Silver Spring Regional Center, and a great hall for larger gatherings. The project includes a veterans plaza and memorial, and a seasonal ice rink.
However, the facility may be smaller than originally planned. A legislative analysis found that 5,000 square feet of space was shaved off in the “value engineering” process. That means no stage in the great hall, and a community-use room that doubles as a conference room for the regional center. Interior and exterior frou-frou have also been “simplified”, the analysis states.
Gary Stith, director of the regional center, told Penguin readers in a posted comment that the civic center’s smaller scale was cooked up three years ago. Plans and renderings circulating throughout town already reflect those design changes, he said.
Approval of the appropriation came five days after the council’s economic-development committee tore into the process used to score the money. Construction bids on the project were received in mid March, but MoCo exec Ike Leggett’s request for the extra cash hit the council only last month. A public hearing went down Tuesday afternoon, and the construction bid expires Thursday.
Still, members of the committee — including council prez Michael Knapp (D-District 2) indicated during their meeting that they were ready to hand out a check.
On July 25, the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center celebrates the demise of the Turf, that iridescent swath of artificial grass currently occupying the civic-center lot. It’s unclear when the Turf becomes history, or when construction on the civic center starts.
Lead image courtesy of Flickr user Domnit. Embedded images courtesy of the department of general services, and Flickr user Elemental_Fool.
Updated Jul 16, 2008, at 8:00 a.m.
Read 
What the hell are they building now? Learn more from 
Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
That money isn’t actually for the construction, it’s just to fund 20 more years of town hall meetings to discuss it.
It’s a huge and shortsighted mistake not to put a stage in the Great Hall. Imagine all the events that could be held there if there was a stage, from concerts to live dance events (that is, bands playing so people could dance) to plays to lectures, and so on. I cannot understand why county managers would want to spend so much money, and then cheap out at the end and deliver an inferior result.
That’s great news. Things could always be better but at least it’s moving forward. My fear was that it would die on the vine like so many of these proposals. As for the stage, there are several stages (Old Blair HS, new Fillmore) around to fill that need. Also, when more money shows up they can always retrofit the building. In the mean time a temporary stage could be set-up at one end of the meeting hall when the need arose. Onward and forward!!!
It IS moving ahead and I’m ready for my first skate, followed by a toddy at McGinty’s. What year should I make my reserve for?