It wasn’t the first time the Greenbelt City Council had met over the years with representatives of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) to discuss potential changes to the campus of “the farm” that forms the city’s northern boundary and is cherished by Greenbelters as a significant part of what remains of the city’s “green belt.” Efforts to chip away at BARC land have persisted for more than 50 years, and the most disturbing threats have involved federal legislation to enable selling the property in whole or in part.
On February 7, councilmembers met with Dr. Howard Zhang, director of BARC, Gary Mayo, legislative affairs officer for the Agricultural Research Service and Chuck Davis, supervisory facility engineer with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP).
Davis currently has a second title as the project manager for an intended relocation of the currency production functions of BEP. The BARC campus is not the only federal property under consideration for the move, but at this time it is BEP’s first choice, due to location and other factors.
BEP falls under the U.S. Department of the Treasury and is located at 14th and C Streets S.W., D.C. Its website uses the whimsical address of moneyfactory.gov. It occupies a main building built in 1914 and an annex building built in 1938. Together, with a second location in Ft. Worth, Texas, the Washington facility designs and prints all the notes (paper money) for the Federal Reserve, as well as a long list of other security products for the federal government. The main building has long been inadequate and inefficient as a modern production facility.
Read more of this story in the February 22 News Review.