Caroline County commissioners approved accepting a $10,000 grant on Oct. 7 to fund site characterization and marketing for the county tech park. County staff said Medco will cover about half the work and the county will use the money to commission an engineering/infrastructure follow-up and a marketability report from a site-selection firm.

Why it matters: County staff said recent appraisals indicate parcel-level values may be higher than a single aggregated appraisal; staff and the Maryland Department of Commerce have urged an active marketing push to attract buyers or users for the tech park property.

Details discussed at the meeting:
- County staff said RK&K will perform an engineering report extending a water-and-sewer study completed previously; the report will examine infrastructure such as electric and fiber availability and other site details.
- A national site-selection and marketing firm (the strategic development/site selector group named in grant documents) will compile a marketing study and distribute it to national brokerage and site-selection audiences to attract interest.
- County staff noted two recent appraisals: one appraised the whole parcel as a single site; another assessed individual parcels and produced higher per-parcel values. Staff said the new materials will support negotiations with the Maryland Department of Commerce and prospective buyers.

Next steps: Staff will finalize the two reports under the grant terms and use the marketing product to reach national site-selection firms and potential buyers; county staff said they will coordinate next steps with the Maryland Department of Commerce and present materials to commissioners in follow-up briefings.