Board of Town Commissioners - Regular Meeting

all right good afternoon it is now 5 15 p.m. on Wednesday May the 27th and I'm going to call the roll Commissioner Foss present Commissioner Chisholm here Mr. Taylor here and Commissioner Hanley here all right terrific the first item of businesses and the approval of the agenda may I have a motion

I move we approve the agenda.

Thank you so much. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you so much. Any changes to this evening's agenda that we need to make? Are we good? All right, Mr. Krantz.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for approval of this evening's agenda of the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners work session meeting on Wednesday, May 27th, 2026. Commissioner Foss?

Aye.

Commissioner Chisholm. Aye. Commissioner Taylor. Aye. Commissioner Hanley. Aye. And Chair Edding.

Aye.

The agenda is approved. Thank you.

Next, we have the tentative agenda for our town meeting, which will be next week on June the 1st at 7 p.m. right here in the Bel Air Town Hall. And first, we'll have a presentation, a certificate of recognition for the semifinalists from Bel Air for the If I Were a Mayor essay contest. Mike, are you telling us about that?

we do have already confirmed participation from the elementary school and those students so they'll be excited to be here mr david anderson is in the process of drafting those certificates and i think there might be one in your inbox at the moment just asking to asking your opinion if that was what you had in mind so we are ready to go okay and how many finalists did we have from the local school i think three is that correct

Yep, that is that is a big turnout.

Yeah, three from all from Bel Air Elementary School.

All right. Then we will have the Historic Preservation Commission poster contest results for Homestead Wakefield Elementary School.

and they and Laura Bianca Pruitt from the historic preservation liaison staff liaison to the Commission confirmed that they will be here looking forward to seeing this sort of mix up with the date last time we're getting them because I think they were all yeah there was just a mix-up

All right. Under new business, we'll start with Ordinance 862-26, amending the Bel Air Town Code Chapter 397, Sewers Article 1, Sewers and Sewage Disposal, Section 397-18A, the Sewer Service Rate Determination, the rates for a sewer service. Lisa.

Yes, ma'am. So I handed out a copy of the ordinance. It is just in draft form right now. I sent it to to Liz earlier this afternoon to take a look at. But if you turn to you flip over page one to page two, you'll see all the strikeouts of the different amounts along with the usage rate. Now if you do the math, which Jake, you probably will, the math's not gonna add to a 10% increase. It's gonna add to a lot more than that. But we don't change the chart in the code for just the automatic annual CPI increases. So the change in the chart here before you is just bringing it up to where it would be after the 10% from based on fiscal year 26. again this is as we discussed in the budget it's recommended due to a substantial increase in the harford county bulk rate we want to be able to and again that was over a four-year period of continuing to increase because they treat our sewage this will allow us hopefully to be able to cover those costs and if we have Additional monies left over then they will go into the sanitary sewer capital Improvement reserve and so those funds will then be used at a future time for capital Do you all have any additional questions I don't have anything else to really talk about other than what we discussed during the budget and

You definitely clocked me there. I was looking at that. I guess I've become infamous over in the finance department for my cocktail napkin math. Just so that I understand this, this has not been amended this way outside of the CPI since 2022 or earlier?

So it was 2022, but the only reason it was changed in 2022 is because we added an eight inch meter size.

But that would have been the last time that all the figures were updated? Correct. Okay, so this accounts for four years of CPI increases as well as this year's increase? Yes. Okay.

Correct.

Well, that simplifies everything I was wondering. Thank you.

You're welcome. Any other questions from anyone? And this will be it's an ordinance. So it's just for introduction. We'll have a public hearing the second meeting in June, and then it will be effective 21 days after that, which will be in time for our July 25 sewer billing. Okay, thank you.

All right. I was trying to go through the math a little bit. That's about a 30% increase, is that right? 33? So was the CPI that much over four years?

No, I would, no.

It's also probably cumulative because, you know, if the CPI is one and then it goes up, you know. Yeah, then you take a one on that one percent. Right, right, right.

That only becomes a tenth of a percent. Okay. It's not. So for fiscal year 22 to fiscal year 26, it's 22. Oh, okay. That's okay. It was that much for those four years 21% total. Okay. Okay.

It really puts in perspective the crater on the cost of living that has occurred over the last four to five years. It really does when you when you sit back here and you look at that five years cumulatively. It's really incredible.

Okay.

All right. Moving on from the sewer service rates. We have Resolution 1273-26 for the fiscal year 2026 budget amendments. Lisa.

Yes, ma'am. So I don't have anything hand out for you. Right now I've been working on that this after noon I did not have a chance to really get into it too much. Because budget just took up a lot of time and I've been I've been on vacation for the last week, but I was able to at least put together some information for you this evening as to what some of the amendments will be. So we will need to amend the budget for the Verkada trailer. That was $80,600. The survey services related to the annexation with Fred Ward, that's an additional $17,500. We moved four patrol vehicle modem replacements and 10 laptop replacements from fiscal year 27 to fiscal year 26. We did that for two reasons. One, we wanted to shift the money because we were looking for money. But two, when I looked at the number of patrol vehicle modems and laptop replacements. We were really heavy in fiscal year 27 and it had nothing to do with Josh's replacement schedule. It was just as a result of those laptop replacements came because five years ago it was COVID. So we bought a lot of laptops. So this way, what I did when I decided on how many to move from 27 to 26, it balances those years out a little bit. So in five years, you're not going to have another spike. It's going to be a little bit more even keel, which is really what you want to have. You you want to try to avoid any replacement spikes as you move into the future. So that's about $25,000. With Rachel starting in June, her salary will need to be funded. That's obviously not in the budget. We had two totaled police vehicles this fiscal year. The insurance proceeds for insurance proceeds were about $31,000, but the two replacement used vehicles were 48,000. So we have about 17,700 to fund. We've got some additional tree work that needs to be accomplished. We have the rec building roof, additional monies. Plus, I wanted to let you know that I did hear back from the rec committee. They will fund the remaining half of that. And they've asked for them to be billed after completion of the project, which I have no problem with. So that's an additional almost $26,000 that would be split down the middle. The Alice Ann Park, there is $90,000. That's the expense. But the actual expense is about $170,000. However, $137,500 is grants. So we're looking to find about $32,000. So those are some of the... the larger expenditures I just wanted to share with you along the same lines in the general fund. Of course, you've got the refuse trucks and the containers and the truck for the dumpsters. Those two we've already determined is capital reserve monies. The other expenses that I mentioned this evening, we should be able to fund through additional revenues. When I looked at those fairly quickly, we have some additional red light camera, some additional interest on investments. And then once I kind of dig into the details as well as more into the details of the expenses, we probably have some salary savings, some benefit savings and some other expense savings. So I just kind of wanted to give you a flavor this evening as to what the budget amendment is going to look like. And then I'll have all the details for you. Again, it'll just be for introduction. And then we'll have a public hearing the second meeting of June. Any questions?

I thought the Allison Park was all going to be funded with grants.

It's not all funded. We have to have a match. Both Drescher and Greater Bel Air Community Foundation, they require a match.

Okay. Yes. Because I thought we were going to, I don't know. Somehow I got the impression that that was all funded by them. It wasn't going to cost us much because they were donating all that. All right.

Yeah.

So it'll be about $37,000?

Well, about $32,000 or so. Okay.

Yeah, give or take.

Yep. Anybody else? Okay.

no okay thank you i think we're good next is resolution 1274-26 the town fee schedule amendments i think there's only one item there's two two two items from briefly i did provide you a handout with the departure and retirement of kevin small who happened to be a landscape architect We now are recommending adding a landscape review fee to the town fee schedule to charge up to $450, and then anything in excess of that, I'd put a note that the town will bill for all expenses over the review fee. So we'd have to outsource that landscape architect expertise. We'll now collect it in the form of a fee.

So we do have to outsource it because we don't have anybody on staff, correct?

Kevin Small was the, happened to be a landscape architect. And I think it's unusual for a town to maybe have a certified landscape architect, a town our size, to have one on board. You can't just go out and apply for a permit and get it. And I could research it further, or Michael, if you have any additional input,

yes no it's very unusual for a town of our size to have that expertise on staff unless someone has that background like Kevin did so and he is available to help

Okay, and so what does the $450 cover? Does that cover like two hours?

That would basically cover the cost of a basic review.

Okay, so it usually would cover the cost, but in a more complicated thing, if there's an overage, it'll be billed as a fee.

Yes, and that's how we're handling the traffic impact analysis. So if it's a more complicated one that requires more hours. Gotcha.

and if we find that this is excessive we can bring it back to you to reduce it or to split it perhaps in half a smaller fee or a larger fee but we thought this might be the the right path to go on just upon the basic research that Michael did along with Kevin Small and the potential hourly rate of having a landscape architect handle this previously we had no fee for this

no no food so why don't we just say it will be we'll bill for all expenses why do we have to have a flat fee what if it's something simple takes an hour 20 you know whatever and then just for the cost of review rather than it's 450 and if it doesn't take 450 I mean we're in essence, pocketing that money.

Well, you have to keep in mind that there's administrative fees and things like that as well. So when you put a flat fee out there, the town staff, Michael, myself, we kind of built in a little bit of cushion that includes the administrative processing of all the paperwork, the other administrative duties that go along with capturing that. the 450 might not entirely be you know two hours depending upon who we who we choose to do the landscape review it could be a little bit a little bit more so when we would do that it might be might be a little bit more difficult to build for things exactly because there isn't necessarily an invoice when you count in town staff review and you'd have to everyone would have to track their hours accordingly and and I mean, it's up to you if you'd like to do that. We might also want to look at some of the several other fees that we have.

So how do we handle the traffic impact?

Exactly the way that's been recommended.

I'm sorry, Mike.

Yeah, we have a flat fee and then it says the town will bill for all other expenses over the review.

Okay.

Michael, I was just going to say to you, that's generally how we have all of our fees in here. Staff has built in their estimates. I know with our advertising fees for the tax sale, that's essentially what we've done. We build in, based on history, what our legal component is, what my time, my staff's time is,

um you know they're all hard costs so that's i think typical typical of all of our fees in that fee schedule if if we have underestimated that was kind of the uh the reason for the clause that the town will bill for all expenses over the review fees no i agree with that i mean i was just wondering if we just why don't we just bill right i'm open to considering that if that's what the board would like to do

What types of applications are we dealing with here that this would apply to?

So this is when a subdivision or a site plan is submitted. So that would be required as part of that package.

And that's the only scenario? Yes. Okay.

so a standard on bond a the the mall project a hickory flats would all all those would as well but if you're you know applying for a shed permit or building putting a deck on your house okay commercial yeah the homes behind bell or methodist the homestead i think they did have one actually they require it was on the site plan that there was i think on this

On the site plan, there was indeed landscaping required for the project. I'm not sure. But that's for building an entire house, right? It was actually a small development, really.

I guess what I'm trying to separate the wheat from the chaff here is that this is for commercial activities.

I'm not sure about the new house up on Robinson, if they have one. Not Robinson, but Rowland. Rowland. Yeah, I'm not sure if they have one there.

That's what I mean. I'm just trying to figure out when does the 450 kick in? What projects?

Is it safe to say that no homeowner attempting to make an alteration of their property that is not of a knock the house down and build a new one variety is going to be affected here? Correct. Okay. That's really what I was trying to get to. So I appreciate that.

It's not like a single unit, unless it was a very significant

Right, right. This is either commercial or when it's residential, we're literally talking about the development of new residential. Right. Okay, that makes sense.

Exactly. And as we said, it's kind of in keeping with the other fees. That's how we based it.

Mr. Klein, what about something like a Brookside Market? Do they have a landscape plan? Yeah.

I haven't seen it yet, but they will.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then what about John Brown Butcher? I don't know if they'll even have room for any landscaping, so probably not.

There could be one area where they are required to put landscaping, and that would be on the site plan around their dumpster that they're actually requesting to be put in Burns Alley. just some we haven't been formally requested on that yet but there has been some talk about they wouldn't like a location in the parking area back there so we would require them to put landscaping around the enclosure to make it look nice does anybody know how the county charges for this or how they handle this or havery brace or aberdeen i can find i can find out staff maybe they might they might

We could research that and share that information with you.

That would be a great idea. I always like to know, even if we do something different, to know what the other competitors are doing as far as those kinds of things.

Okay.

all right we will research our our colleagues over in haverdegrace and aberdeen and we'll find out what the county does and we'll have that for you when we recommend your receipt of this because we it is a fee so while we don't have to have a public hearing over a resolution we typically have in the past so this would be for a receipt on monday at the town hall meeting and a public hearing on the 22nd of june okay

And there was one other fee in here, which is the county system development fee. Back on page seven. And it's increasing from $11,289 for 30 fixture units to $11,797. And that is something that the county charges and we are strictly a pass-through.

Yep, we're just following their legislation. I have a list every year of that 4.5% annual increase. Okay.

Didn't want to leave that one out. Since I missed it, it was like a little tiny bit of yellow way back there.

All right.

Anything else on the county schedule?

That's all.

All right. In that case, we'll move on to the accessory package for the criminal investigation division ban and patrol vehicle. Dave Hughes here making a guest appearance.

There we go. Thank you. The chief next week will be presenting on these vehicle accessory packages to a specific one is for 2022 unmarked Ford Explorer interceptor and for a 2020 Dodge CID crime scene van. In the amount of total amount of $16,047.55, the purchase is going to be through Global Public Safety Corporation, known as GPS. We use them for several years. One accessory package purchase and equipment transfer service is being performed for a recently purchased 2022 Ford Explorer that is replacing car 5A 2021 Ford Explorer police interceptor that was totaled in a departmental crash in December of 25. Some of this purchase costs will involve recycling and transfer of law enforcement equipment from the total patrol vehicle to the newly purchased used patrol vehicle. The additional accessory package will be needed for upfitting a 2020 Dodge van that will be converted into a Bel Air Police Department crime scene van. The 2020 van will replace a 2002 Chevrolet CID crime scene van, which is super old, outdated and just needs to be surplus. The total cost for upfitting accessory package and transfer service for the used Ford police interceptor is $9,724.64. The total cost for upfitting the accessory package for the CID crime scene van is $6,322.91. So the total amount would be $16,047.55. And it should be noted that we did sell the CID van, the old van, for I believe it was $7,000. Is that right, Lisa?

One was like $9,300 and the other was $1,500.

Okay. So that would be for the CID. We made a little money off the back end and took some of the old equipment out of the total vehicle to do our best to be judicious and save some money.

Any questions about that? All right. Thanks for saving the equipment off the old one so we can put it on the new one. Commissioner Liaison reports the tree committee met on April the 28th the next meeting will be on the 13th of May at 4 30 in the planning and community development office at 705 East Churchill Road at the April meeting there was a discussion of the 2026 tree planting projects some Rockfield Park plantings that are planned some RFPs were reviewed the other thing that was discussed was the Tree City USA to make sure that everything is in order to submit so that we continue to be a Tree City USA.

So that was it.

Cultural Arts Commission met, and we're excited that we're going to have Colleen Webster for American 250 do the Rachel Carson. We're looking for a Tuesday in October to be able to do that, but she has a pretty good following. I think this is like the fourth or fifth? Fifth.

Wow.

And if you get a chance to, once we get the date for that in October, it really is interesting because she takes on the persona and she does this whole storytelling performance for that and then takes questions and answers in character. So it's pretty neat. They also on we have a little free art library that's right outside of Armory Marketplace and it's right across from the elementary school. So we're looking for like little mini art. And what you do, it's like the little free libraries where you can take a book and leave a book. So, if you know of anyone that would be really, or if you have art that you'd like to place in there. I know that my nieces are going to bring some. Correct, Angela? And I write on that with the whole little. Rockfield is going to be having their plaque ceremony now that's the night of that we do have a work session so I think that we're two of us are gonna go to that is that what Mike is that what we're gonna do we definitely have a work session yes June the 9th at 5 o'clock at 5 o'clock so and it's the yeah we were gonna try to send at least one one of us to go that's open for discussion you can always change the change of the date or the time of the meeting or someone could attend on behalf of the board or the staff

I would vote for you as a liaison to attend since you obviously want to go and I'm fine with that I'm also fine with moving the date or time of our meeting but that would be I know people's schedules get full

We can discuss that further under the calendar item. I think that's a great idea. Absolutely.

And the Bel Air Downtown Alliance met and their first Fridays are off to a great start. Also, it's something interesting that they're that they're doing, they have these indoor billboards in places throughout Hartford, Baltimore, and Cecil County. And their events in Hartford County, like some of the signature events that come up. So I thought that that was really kind of interesting that they do that. And they talk about the outdoor amenities that we have, our first Fridays, the Bel Air Market, and such. They're also accepting applications for their classes to be a barbecue bash judge. I think they have already They already have over 50 applications, wasn't that right, Angela, something like that? It was a lot, and I mean, this is quite a class that you have, and they take it very seriously. Apparently the barbecue is judged within a tent, and they can't smell. They're not supposed to have the odors from the other areas, because I mean, it's all multi-sensory. I just thought that was kind of interesting, so. And I think that's about it. Did I miss anything? No, I think that's good.

I don't really have much to report from either of my incredibly acronymic committees. ABC will meet, as we always do, second Monday of the month. There'll be June 8th this month coming off, of course, a very successful Garden Mart. And then regarding ECDC, we'll meet, as we always do, the second Thursday of the month. For them, I will just shout out that we're still accepting, yes, nominations for Citizen of the Year and Business of the Year, so get those in. The CDC will be considering the Business of the Year nominations at that meeting, right? Yep. And Angela, of course, if you want to add anything.

Deadline for nominations is June 8th.

June 8th, thank you.

Both Historic Preservation and Committee for Seniors and Citizens will be meeting tomorrow.

Planning Commission may be meeting next Thursday. Yes.

We'll be talking about the data center's ordinance as well as... Oh, so we will definitely be meeting for the data center ordinance.

Yes, we will be meeting. Okay, right, because we have to go before those. But there was a mall application, but they don't have all their stuff in yet, so they... We anticipate having discussion about it and review.

Okay.

Yeah, while we're having the meeting, right, might as well for the ordinance. And then there was another one that Jimmy Johns that may be pulled back.

That will be postponed. Postponed, yeah. Some additional review on their part.

Okay. So the mall meeting will be, if people are interested, it will be phase six about the mall, which will basically be, well, I haven't seen it yet, but they kept calling it as tearing down the rest of the mall and what they're going to plan on putting for the remainder of the mall. Right. So.

All right. Well, that completes our liaison report. So we'll move on to the staffing update. Mike.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we have, I'm gonna check and see if that job ad came down or not right now. So we, yep, the job ad for dispatcher did come down, so we still have a posting for a police officer, and we're accepting positions for a police officer. Current sworn officers are, of course, encouraged to apply as well as individuals aspiring to become a police officer are also encouraged to apply and that job posting will end on June 1st so there's still a couple more days to apply and that closes on June 1st at 4 30 p.m all right and then has Steve have you had an opportunity to talk to Steve Burdette to see if he's

okey-dokey and then we still need a do we still late a member for the Planning Commission yes we are okay and potentially two one one later on in the fall so if there's anyone in the community interested you must live in the town of Bel Air proper and if you're interested please talk to myself or Mr. Kranz or mr bear and there's an application you can put in on board i mean online so look that up and submit an application and any of us will be willing to talk to you to understand if you want to have questions about what's involved so please uh encourage anyone to come up we need potentially two people so would you like us to begin advertising that vacancy on social media or do you think we have enough traction just in the website and the word of mouth I don't mind you going on social media. I mean, I really don't have any. I've been looking in town. I have not been I've been asking a lot of people and have not been able to get much response. So

it's a double-edged sword because once we post it on social media invariably you get people from outside of the town limits and they don't understand that they don't actually live within the municipal jurisdiction and you go through that explanation and most people are always you know oh thank you for the explanation and they're grateful and interested but we we sometimes do pick up a couple town residents who wouldn't otherwise know about it so we'll do it then we'll go ahead and put it on social media okay

steve i might have i might have someone that might be a good fit i have to reach out to him and see if he'd be interested but someone just came to mind so i i'll i'll call him maybe not tonight but i'll see what we can do all right so having finished with the staffing update we'll move on to the calendar where we have the june 9th conflict

And that week is a little busy. I have the, that same week, Wednesday, Thursday, probably the rest of the week is busy. Monday the 8th though, I could certainly, if we wanted to move it to Monday, we could do that.

I would be open to doing that.

Everybody open on Monday? I could do that.

yeah the only thing we run up against is ABC but you know I we can always send them to Siberia over in the community room if we need to do that and hopefully but you know we may be done we may not be done depending on the workload who knows but if I can hop over there and you know we can play that by ear that's not a huge problem okay yes and then Rockfield will be clear for on the 9th so that we can go over to the

plaque unveiling okay so we'll move the June 9th work session to June 8th correct that is correct neither Lisa nor I are available that day to make this switch for you know two weeks from now but I can try to send a staff member or if I have nothing on the agenda

Lisa, do you need to be there?

I'll do my best to brief Rachel.

Okay.

I mean, it will be the public hearing on the sewer ordinance, so I think we're safe there. And if there are any additional amendments from the introduction to public hearing, I don't anticipate there would be.

sometimes they do come up um then she could brief you on that as well okay if you're if you all are okay with that I'm okay with that I think we'll be all right yeah so what time is the rock five I think it's at five okay because I was just thinking if we met earlier I don't know if everybody could make it even earlier on that day that's an option we can do it Monday we do it earlier well how or we could do it later how long is this plaque dedication going to be I do not know and I I hate to They're having to have anything dependent on that because it's it's difficult to sometimes, you know, run out on those things and the timing can be flexible. So I hate to do that.

All right.

I think I think that'll work. All right, so having resolved that, is there anything else on the calendar that anybody sees that is going to come up to be an issue? I do not. 14th. Because we already moved the town hall meeting on the 16th. That was on the 15th, actually, I think, that was going to be a problem with MML. So I think we are good there. Yeah, we did. All right, so I think we're good. Or at least nothing comes to mind. And if when you go home and you run this against the current calendar that you have, if anybody finds any problems, we'll take care of them then. I think that's pretty much it. All right. So now we have eight miscellaneous. Do we have anything under miscellaneous? Nothing. All right. Staff comments. Michael Krantz.

Nothing at this time.

All right. Mr. Bear. Nothing for me. No.

Thank you. No, thank you, ma'am. Nothing for me.

All right. There you go. That was quick. Commissioner's comments. Shh.

I got none except it's hot and sticky out of it all right do we have a second on the adjournment all right all in favor aye that was record time we're done less than 45 minutes

Well, I think they will.