These days no one can dispute the importance of State Department officials receiving up-to-the-minute training on security. We just hope the rest of that job is being handled better than the federal government`s quest to consolidate that training at a new facility to be built on 2,000 acres of farmland near Centreville in Queen Anne’s County.
You might think that during a recession it would be easy to sell the residents of a rural county on a $70 million federal facility that would bring more than 400 jobs to the region, not to mention the economic stimulus from 10,000 trainees a year spending time in the area.
As it happened, the General Services Administration did a terrible job of answering questions from residents, local opposition erupted and politicians who were initially friendly to the project backed off.
The public relations debacle gained momentum when the federal government failed to respond quickly to the Queen Anne’s County Conservation Association’s Freedom of Information Act request for material on how the site was picked.