HOLLYWOOD, Md. (January 10, 2019)—The community swimming pool in Town Creek has been closed for the past two summers due to failing plumbing and now the group which oversees its operation, Town Creek Recreation Inc. (TCRI) wants the county to pay for the repairs and renovations to the 50-yearold pool.
Cindy Cartwright, president of the Board of Directors for TCRI said at Tuesday night's public forum that 40 years ago, when TCRI gained 501c7 non-profit status that it should have been exempted from paying property taxes.
She said in her testimony that perhaps neither the county nor TCRI understood that they should not have had to pay property taxes.
"This is an opportunity to correct an oversight that has been ongoing for 40 years," Cartwright said.
She said TCRI was requesting the county reimburse the organization for $43,000 paid in property taxes from 1989 to 2018; the county's records only go back that far, Cartwright said, and that there were still other property taxes paid between 1974 and 1989 that were unaccounted for.
The overall request was for $100,000 from the county to pay for the pool repairs and renovations.
"This would be a timely investment in one of the county's oldest communities," Cartwright said.
Also at the public hearing were numerous supporters for the construction of a new community center in Lexington Park; many speakers called for accelerating the project in the county's capital improvement construction schedule.
The project is currently slated for planning in 2022 at a cost of about $16 million.
"In case you haven't gotten the point yet, let me be pretty clear," said Marcia Greenberg. "We're not going away."
Greenberg, one of the leaders of the community center effort, said it was not a small group of people seeking the center but a broad base of residents.
"We can spend our time getting 3,000 signatures and we will if need be, but we encourage you to take a pass on that," she said. "Listen to these voices, let's get on with it."
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