David Barrett, Howard County School Teacher
Good Evening, my name is David Barrett. I live at 5638 Stevens Forest Road in Oakland Mills. I am a Howard County high school teacher, chairman of the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society Board of Directors and a member of the board of The Horizon Foundation. I am here representing the Howard County chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
The 300-acre Smith farm rests squarely in the middle of Columbia and borders two neighborhoods that serve two high schools, Oakland Mills and Long Reach, at which the Alphas have Alpha Achievers programs for students.
You could say I have a personal, professional and civic interest in the development of the Smith property.
There is no other property that matches its potential in terms of natural assets and location. This is important to understand: to misuse this property is to lose the only remaining opportunity to create a special place for outdoors learning and environmental experience in the middle of our densely developed suburban community.
The Smith property, if developed properly, is uniquely positioned to have a positive impact on the lives of nature-starved children. Our school system is currently without a place for us to take our children for an extended environmental experience. They must leave the county to meet their environmental education requirements.
Howard County wins awards for its sports and recreation programs, every school in the county has playing fields, and almost without exception, Howard County’s park sites are consumed by active recreation fields and buildings, not natural environment.
I am here tonight to call upon you to protect the Smith property. Do not allow its woodlands, fields and flowers, streams and wildlife corridors to be bulldozed in favor of baseball diamonds and backstops, parking lots and stadium lighting, and a 50,000 sq ft industrial metal gymnasiusm as has been proposed. Our rapidly diminishing natural environment can not be replenished.
Ken Ulman is the “green” County Executive. Turning the Smith property into a nature park would be an absolutely inspirational legacy of the Ulman Administration.
Thank you.