ACTION NEEDED: Planning for the 2025 AA county budget has started. A budget town hall for District 5 (that's us!) will be held on Thursday, January 25 at 6:00 pm at Severna Park High School. Attendees must register  HERE. 

By showing up and working together last year we successfully secured funding to start a sidewalk project in 2024 (design phase). We must advocate for continued funding for 2025 and beyond. Please sign up to attend and give testimony. Let's keep our momentum going and express our needs to our County Executive (Steuart Pittman) and County Council Representative (Amanda Fiedler). 

September 26, 2023: Message receivd from the Maryland Dept. of Transportation. 

..."the cost share agreement is the first step to starting design. The agreement requires legal sufficiency and that can take time for both agencies. The process can take 4-6 months so it’s tough to give a specific date on having the agreement in hand and starting design. We consider obtaining survey data as the beginning of design. The survey data cannot be collected in parallel, unfortunately, because it’s the foundation for which everything else is built. 

We do plan on having a period for public feedback on the design so we hope you and the rest of the community provide feedback when the time comes."

September 1, 2023: Message received from the Maryland Dept. of Transportation.
"We’re excited to let you know that this project is moving toward starting design. We are currently working on starting a cost-share agreement with the County and anticipate to start a project early next year and have survey crews collecting data in Spring 2024." 

We are making progress and will continue to share updates as we receive them. 

On Wednesday, Feb. 8th, 2023, AA County held a District 5 Budget Town Hall. This was an opportunity for residents in District 5 to share their input as to what should be funded in the 2024 budget. 

We had about 12 residents in attendance from Cypress Creek, of which 5 provided testimony. Each of our speakers made their case for why the sidewalk is important and should be funded in the 2 minutes allotted per person. It was a great way to reiterate all that has been previously communicated via our petition and our Nov town hall. Thank you to all our residents who attended! 

At the end of the evening, County Executive Steuart Pittman responded with an update. Regarding our sidewalk, he said that the state hwy association had held a meeting earlier that day on Feb 8, and then informed his office that their feasibility study is scheduled to be completed by May 12th, 2023 (as opposed to March). 

Some of the county leaders in attendance included:

✔️ Steuart Pittman, County Executive, AA County.
✔️Amanda Fiedler, Member, AA County Council, District 5.
✔️Samuel Snead from AA County Dept of Transportation. 

The presentations were recorded. Watch the video HERE. 

Thanks to Severna Park Voice for covering our "Support the Sidewalk: Town Hall." The story can be found on page 8 of the December 2022 edition. 

Cypress Creek Lobbies For SideWalks

Support the Sidewalk: Town Hall on 11/2/22 at St. John the Evangelist 

If you haven't yet, please SIGN the petition at https://tinyurl.com/sidewalkpetition 

On Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022 CIA vice president, Cheyenne Dominguez, together with volunteers Christina Fritts and Patti Anderson, hosted a town hall meeting to coalesce support for a sidewalk along Ritchie Hwy, between Cypress Creek Road and McKinsey Road. The sidewalk would connect residents to shop local businesses, provide safe passageway for area youth and families, enable walkability for students and parishioners of St. John, and reduce traffic at two busy intersections. 

We are especially grateful to Saint John the Evangelist School for hosting our neighbors and friends. For those who missed it, we heard from the following speakers/community leaders who discussed support for our sidewalk. 

✔️ Steuart Pittman, County Executive, AA County.
✔️Rachel Muñoz, Maryland State Delegate, District 33 and Cypress Creek resident.
✔️Amanda Fiedler, Member, AA County Council, District 5.
✔️Carl Neimeyer, Candidate for AA County Council, District 5.
✔️Karen Fiasco from Maryland State Highway Administration.
✔️Samuel Snead from AA County Dept of Transportation. 

As a result, AA County has submitted a formal request to the Maryland Department of Transportation / State Highway Association to conduct a feasibility study within 12-16 weeks. The volunteer team has scheduled a follow up meeting with MDOT/SHA in March 2023 to discuss the results of the study and next steps. More to come!