June 29, 2007 by Al Hammer.

Today I had the opportunity to meet Bryna Zumer, a reporter with The View Newspaper up on the site and give her a tour of the facilities and share a little bit of the history behind Glen Mar. I don’t know if they are going to publish a story on our project or not, but you might want to keep an eye out just in case. I’d like a copy (we do not currently receive the View) if anyone catches it.

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June 20, 2007 by Al Hammer.

Larry Resch and I met at the site this evening to check on the WebCam which seems to have gone on the fritz again. With much technical savvy Larry was able to correct the problem (he rebooted the computer) and everything seems to work fine.

We took this opportunity to take a little tour of the pad.

We now have interior masonry walls going up:

And structural steel reaching to the sky:

This is a better “big picture view” of the east side of the lower level:

And of the west side of the lower level:

Here is a view of our entrance driveway and the west parking lot with this beautiful black pickup in the foreground:

Yes, I had to climb that to get these shots, I never know from day to day how high our mount will be as it changes according to the needs of the site work. Today at about 30 feet above the parking lot it is about as high as it has been:

Here I am standing in the middle of what is to be the realigned New Cut Road just a few feet north of the Glen Mar entrance to my back and right (which is east). I am looking north where the bed will follow around and connect into the existing New Cut Road:

This is turning south with Glen Mar entrance now on my left and I am facing toward Montgomery Road. Word continues to be that the road should be finished in about 60 to 90 days:

Here I am standing “about” where a car would be entering Montgomery Road from New Cut: Not a bad site line looking west….

but looking east!!! (note the silt fence does block some view):

We should be hearing from the State pretty soon about the results of the Traffic Study and whether or not a signal is warranted.

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June 11, 2007 by Al Hammer.

The subcontractor is moving quickly on progress with laying curb and gutters on the Montgomery Road improvements along with those along the realigned New Cut Road up to our entrance.

This part of the work should be finished next week.

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May 23, 2007 by Al Hammer.

Today, Harry Rowell called me to get permission to visit the work site. I met him at the site where he took some video footage to put up on the screen for the next couple of Sundays. While we were there, I grabbed a couple of pictures and got the latest on what is happening.

Today they were pouring the bases for the light poles in the parking lots.

The pad has completely been poured for the lower level. In the foreground front and center of the picture you can see where the exterior doors will be entering in to a small little indoor amphitheater where there will be steps and you can see the ramp goes up to the main level of the lower “Narthex”.

The picture below is one where I am standing in the entryway that I refer to above and I am looking up the 2 or 3 steps that will eventually take you up the ledge in the foreground. The opening in the background is the exterior doors that will open up on to the exterior Amphitheater that comes down to the lower “Narthex” from the front of the building.

This next picture is of the same Amphitheater looking from the front of the building down into the lower “Narthex”.

The really big news is that BG&E has finally finished their work down on Montgomery Road. We will begin construction of the excel and accel lanes on Montgomery Road and finish up the road all the way to our entrance starting next Tuesday May 29th. The site work subcontractor is also doing the final review work of the approve plans for the upper part of the realigned New Cut Road as we speak. They will also begin on Tuesday to put up sediment control structures for the building of the upper road. Once these controls are approved by the County with a site inspection, and they finish the review of the design of the road they will start construction on the upper road. Estimated build time will be approximately 6 to 8 weeks with no snags.

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May 16, 2007 by Al Hammer.

On Friday 5/11 we were granted the grading permit by Howard County for starting work on the upper part of the realignment of New Cut Road. This part of the realigned New Cut Road is a shared project between Glen Mar and Howard County and falls under their jurisdiction as a Capital Project. Glen Mar will be building this part of the road using the subcontractor our General Contractor is using for site work and be reimbursed by Howard County for their portion of the expense for the road. This upper part of the road will be connected to Glen Mar’s part which goes from Montgomery Road to the entrance to our parking lots.

So that the site work subcontractor does not have to mobilize twice we have been waiting on the point where the Montgomery Road work by BG&E is finished and we can begin building the excel and decel lanes along with getting this grading permit so they can just move right on up the road and keep on building until the whole realigned New Cut Road is finished.

BG&E just about had the utilities on Montgomery Road moved when we ran into two obstacles.

1) BG&E discovered that a pole sitting in the middle of the future excel lane was not theirs to move or remove, but that it was actually under the custodialship of Verizon. We were told Verizon would take another 90 to 100 days to remove the pole, which would put a halt on the work in that area for quite a while. Fortunately, God is Good! and the pole was removed in 15 days and that no longer is an obstacle.

2) BG&E was working on the task of moving utilities (Gas and Electric lines) further back onto our property so that we could build the needed excel and decel lanes. The State of Maryland in conjunction with what we are doing is wanting to make improvements to try and correct a water drainage problem on Montgomery Road just beyond our property. The State therefore asked BG&E to hold up on making the final reconnections until they had their part of the work designed and had BG&E move their part of the utilities at the same time. This was to be another major indefinite slow down on progress. A meeting was held and terms negotiated and engineers collaborated and a plan was developed. A new timeline was set in place and the estimate for BG&E to finish their work in front of our property is by the end of next week 5/25.

All of this is said, to say that since timing looks good on getting the Montgomery Road section ready for construction, and we have a grading permit for the upper part of the road,…. we should see some action on the road soon with completion not being too far away.

No, I still don’t know about a signal at the new intersection. But I have been told that the State is doing their traffic studies to “warrant” the possibility of a Signal there. Howard County is working closely with the State on this issue and it is out of our hands.

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