Board of Town Commissioners - Regular Meeting

They prevent data loss, which is crucial protecting an organization from data breaches, malicious attacks, and backups facilitate disaster recovery, which facilitates an organization's ability to restore its systems and operations after a natural or, God forbid, human-made disaster. The Barracuda email protection is for protecting the town against spam, malware, advanced threat protection, impersonation protection, account takeover protection, email encryption, data loss prevention, domain fraud protection, web security, incident response, cloud archiving, and a data inspector service. The email protection is important in cybersecurity because it protects against threats, ensures confidentiality, builds trust with customers, partners, and allied agencies. This particular product and service is also achieved by piggybacking on another jurisdiction's qualified competitively bid contract, which is the city of Mesa, Arizona, for information technology solutions, products, and services with SHI International. In summary, the cloud storage service is $22,631.76 and the email protection is $16,857.60 for a total of $39,489.36. And town staff does recommend that the board approve this one as well. Thank you. Any questions for Mike about this? All right. We're ready, Mike. Okay. This is for the purchase of the SHI International Corporation contract for Barracuda backup and email protection. Commissioner Foss, how do you vote? Aye. Commissioner Chisholm? Aye. Commissioner Taylor? Aye. Commissioner Hanley? Aye. And Chair Eding? Aye. The purchase is approved. Thank you. Great.

Next, we have the tentative agenda for our town meeting, which will be on June the 22nd at 7 p.m. right here in Town Hall. First, we'll have a public hearing on Ordinance 861-26, prohibiting data centers in the town of Bel Air. Anybody want to have any further discussion of that?

I think we've discussed this well. The only new commentary to add would be that the Planning Commission did consider this at their most recent meeting and took no exception with it, saw no issue with the language as it was written. So we will be good to move on it. I know that Harford County has their public hearing on a very similar piece of legislation tomorrow.

They do. All right.

I think we already had this conversation, but this would not exclude or I guess include, for example, like a server room in somebody's office building or something like that?

All right, we'll move on to the next public hearing the ordinance 862 dash 26 amending the Bel Air Town Code chapter 397 sewers article one sewers and sewage disposal section 397 dash 18 a the sewer service rate determination rates for sewer service and I think we have discussed these numbers quite a bit recently much of it most of it is coming from the county being driven by their rates which we have to pay to them to treat our sewage So if anyone has any questions for Rachel, she's here at the ready.

Making her debut solo appearance.

Making her debut solo appearance. And the rates that appear, of course, in the code are not quite correct because they are several years old. It updates automatically with the consumer price index, but it's not redone in the code. And now we will be correcting those to the current dates.

Kristen, can I ask that some of those papers be passed back down because I only took one and I realized there are three.

Is it just one page?

Oh, never mind then. Apologies.

Yeah, Mary, I think I thought I think those numbers in there were from 2014 and been updated. So that's why there's such a large jump, but they're not that much.

It appears to be a large jump, but there really isn't. Anything else on the sewer rates? all right moving on to the resolution 1273-26 the fiscal year 2026 budget amendments and the employee bonus proposal so rachel in your debut appearance can you fill us in do we have more details on the bonus proposal yes we do so lisa introduced the amendment before so i'm not going to go through every adjustment that she was um

asking you for but I did want to discuss the Chesapeake employers insurance check totaling about 176,000 we're asking for your unofficial approval tonight to include this bonus employee bonuses for the funds we receive from Chesapeake employer insurance and also the go cop retention bonus that will both be paid out on June 18th So this is the third year that we have received these dividends. They call them dividends. And this is for the performance of our workers comp policy in the 2024 calendar year. This year we are proposing that the following bonus payout structure for the full-time employees be approved by you. $1,900 for employees who have been with the town before January 1st, 2024. And then we're going to half it. and make it $950 for employees who have been with the town for the full year, calendar year of 2024. And anyone that's been with the town after December 31st, 2024 would receive $475 bonus. And for the GO-COP employees, their bonus for this would be reduced by whatever they would be getting for that retention bonus from the GO-COP. And part-time employees would also receive some of the bonus funds as well. And the total bonuses that we're proposing to be paid out equal approximately $173,000. I'm sorry, was that $178,000 did you say? $173,000. $173,000.

Yeah. We received the check for $176,000. Oh, that was my question. Yeah.

we also need to include in this budget amendment for the sewer fund we need to adjust it for the ARPA revenue for the ARPA revenue and expenses for the Gateway and Shamrock pumping station that totals about two million dollars and this will be part of the budget amendment because all the work is going to be performed before by June 30 so we wanted to make sure that you know you knew that that would also be included in the budget amendment

So Rachel, this was for the FY24 year, it was a dividend? That's correct. So everybody who was there for the full year from January 21, 2024?

Anybody that was here before 2024 that was hired, like Steve and Chuck, they would get $1,900, yeah. And then anyone that was here for the full year, that was an employee for just that year, would get half of that. which would be nine 950.

So prior to January 21 was a January January 1 January 1 2024 for that calendar year. If you were employed prior to that, you get the full amount if you were if you were here, here for the full year calendar year of 2024, you would get $950.

and then anyone that was hired after 2024. So everyone's gonna get something. The pool of people who get $950 seems almost vanishingly small, because if you're here before January 2024, you get the full amount. You get the full, yeah.

You're saying if you're, so it would literally have to be someone hired on January 1, 2024. That'd be the only person who'd get $950, is that right? That is correct. Okay.

Then anyone that was not here in 2024 would still receive funds.

But what if they were hired halfway through 2024? What would they receive?

It's still the 950.

Oh, okay. So they don't have to be here for the full year in 2024?

Not the way I was looking at this spreadsheet.

Any time during 2024, they would get 950.

So we're not saying that you had to be here for the full calendar year. You just had to be hired in that calendar year.

So it's amount if hired after January 1st, but before January 1st, 2025. So anybody, yes. There we go, okay. So sorry. Yeah, sorry for the confusion. Yeah.

So, and even the part-time folks are gonna get some type of a bonus? Correct. Are part-time people, Michael, eligible for health insurance or no? They are not. Yeah. Thank you.

And this at first I was thinking health insurance as well, you know, because there is a dividend that's given out for health insurance. But this is workers comp. That's fine. How much is the go cop money that we're getting?

I know that the officers aren't getting any more than the dividend share, sort of. But I was just wondering what our go cop money was this year.

It's about 350 per officer for police recruitment and retention.

So the police officers would get that in addition to It offsets It would offset yeah so they would if they got $1,900 they would get That is correct yes Okay

Yeah. And that's a $10,530 for a go cop for all the employees.

Is that about what we've been getting chief or has it gone down or up?

It's gone down. I think it was 600 last year, 21,000, but I mean six, about 600 a person.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yep. Any questions? All right then. Well, thank you, Rachel. Nice job on your maiden solo voyage here.

I'll get over the nervousness soon.

It's not that bad. It's not that bad. All right. Next, we have Resolution 1274-26, the town fee schedule amendments. And Mike, I guess we've talked about those a lot. There's only two. One is strictly accounting pass-through, and the other one is we are We are doing the landscape fees so that they are charged and they're being charged by the other jurisdictions as well in different fashions people they pick different ways to actually implement that but

We've had the luxury of having a landscape architect on staff, but then Mr. Small retired, so it appears to be not uncommon for other jurisdictions to recoup these fees from primarily developers when they build something significant within the municipality.

Right. And they need a landscape plan, not like somebody putting on a deck or dropping a shed in their backyard or anything like that or a fence. None of that.

All right.

Any questions on Resolution 1274-26? All right. Next, we'll have new business next week. Resolution 1275-26, the Park Manor Condominium Trash Collection Deed of Easement. Mr. Klein.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a simple deed of easement which provides the town the ability to drive on Park Manor Circle to collect their trash. They're providing us the easement at no cost.

And we're providing trash pickup at no cost. Exactly. I think they got a great deal.

No cost. They do pay tax dollars. That's true.

They do pay tax dollars. But no extra cost, which they're currently paying to a contractor to pick it up.

Exactly right, ma'am.

I think it's really kind of a win-win. There are residents. You're providing services. The guys do a really great job.

So Elizabeth put together the easement, and I'd like to just get your approval for it on Monday night's meeting.

All right.

Now, I imagine our truck probably can't turn around in that.

Well, fortunately, it's a U. Right, yes, that's what I mean. But I'm saying we would have to make use of the U. There's really no other way to do it. Oh, yeah, exactly right. Having just recently visited that neck of the woods, I was thinking to myself, you know, I'll say this, I appreciate the skill in the guys that we have who drive the trucks, because I hear of very few, if any, incidences of us dinging anybody or getting into any sort of trouble. And that would be one scenario where a lesser skilled driver might run into some trouble, but I have full faith in our guys to take care of it. Sure.

as they have demonstrated with pickup trucks during bad weather when they plow those courts with cars parked in them.

Yes, it's hard.

Not an easy job. All right. Anything, any questions for Steve?

Mr. Klein, will Parkview soon be receiving fresh Town of Bel Air dumpsters?

Absolutely not. They're going to be providing their own citizens with those dumpsters. They're not going to actually be dumpsters. They're going to have residential collection. The main reason that they never wanted the town to collect their garbage was there wasn't a place, in their opinion, that dumpsters would fit well. So that's why they decided just to continue paying a contractor to pick up the trash. But now that we're starting to collect it, we felt that we could do it now with our regular street side collection. But we were happy to hear that the Condominium Association is going out and buying all the residents nice toters, so their collection should be a clean endeavor rather than trash bags thrown on the corners and things of that nature, which happens sometimes in townhouse communities. all right we'll move on to their other piece of new business for our meeting next week which will be the contract for the purchase of by two minutes concrete otherwise known as asphalt steve absolutely thank you ma'am uh yes it's uh we're just doing our homework here and making sure that we have a good contract to purchase uh asphalt for all our road surface and parking lot needs We're going to be piggybacking on a contract with Harford County. And basically, we estimate to spend about $25,000 a year in asphalt for patching and things of that nature.

All right. Any questions for Steve?

Any more questions?

I will just say that I really think that the town's roads and sidewalks are cut above the rest. As I walk the exterior of the town in Hartford County, the other day I saw a sidewalk that was raised what looked to be like a foot and a half off the ground by It was unbelievable. And patchy roads that the residents were complaining about that, you know, were in need of serious repair. And it's in moments like that that I really just am thankful for the service that we're able to provide our residents. And simply put, there is nowhere in town that looks like that. And that's a real feather in our cap.

They do pop up from time to time and we try to address them as soon as possible.

All right. We're up to the commissioner liaison reports. The tree committee will be meeting this week at 430 at the public works building off of Churchill Road where public works is as well as the planning department. So if anybody's interested in coming, it is an open meeting. We'd love to have you there. And that's it.

Appearance and beautification will meet in a little over an hour in the police community room. And ECDC will meet later this week, this Thursday, in part to consider the nominations received for business of the year. So it's that time again, and we're very excited to honor the wonderful assets that we have here in town.

Planning Commission met last Thursday? I believe it was. There were two items on the agenda. Jake, you already talked about one, about the ordinance for data centers. And then the other item was the phase six for the mall. A lot of people saw that. Basically, they're going to be coming. They got approval for phase six with a concept plan that they proposed, but they will definitely be coming back for a final plan at some point in the future when they get their tenants tied down. as to who's going to be there. They did say, though, that the one major tenant at Phase 6 was going to be a fitness center or gym, but they're still negotiating with whoever that is. So that was about all the details that they were able to provide at the meeting. But like I said, they will be coming back again for a Phase 6 modification. Don't know when, but anyway. Michael, do you have anything else to add to that?

No, I will be working with Liz to develop an approval agreement that has more detail about phase six that includes the schedule and some deadlines for them. Okay.

Rockfield will meet on Wednesday and of course we have the plaque ceremony tomorrow and that's why we were able to move our work session Cultural Arts meets next week and as well as the fellow Downtown Alliance

I was a little bit surprised to hear about the gym, considering Copper Mine is right across the street, and I love Copper Mine, so I hope they don't mess with Copper Mine. Committee for Seniors and Citizens in Need, they met two weeks ago, Jenny Earhart from Downtown Alliance. She presented on how they would like to serve the senior community. One thing she talked about was Burns Alley, and I know that was something that you guys looked at. I think it was last year or the year before, and the price tag was pretty high. But she said she's going to come back. It's still something she's interested in doing. And it was ironic, I spoke with the county executive. He's also interested in more so beautifying the area, making it look better. Because it is, it's kind of rough looking right now. So maybe that could be something we partner with the county in the future. And then Historic Preservation, they met as well. The Bel Air Historic Colored High School over on, what is that, Hay Street. They are going to be doing some upgrades to the doors, windows, siding, all that kind of stuff. So the county actually maintains it. So the county came and presented and got approval for that. And then they are also continuing to work on the America 250. They're doing a downtown historic walking tour where you can identify historic landmarks in the town of Bel Air. So that should be coming out pretty soon.

And just if Jenny's listening, we were not opposed to sprucing up Burns Alley, but it was the half a million dollar price tag that gave us some heartburn.

Gavin, is the Historic Preservation Committee helping with the county with the historic sites and towns and things like that?

They're doing a landmark search where it'll be a picture of a historic landmark and you got to go through the walking tour and find where it is in town. I think they are going to try and tie in with some of the events that are going on around the same time, you know, with the Fourth of July and all that kind of stuff.

No, I just mean for the commission to give the county ideas about what sites to go put on their tour. That's all. Something to consider. I'll bring it up. Because we have the history. We may have more history than what they may have about the individual buildings and stuff like that.

So anyway, just maybe want to reach out and see if they need any assistance. That walking tour seems pretty comprehensive. They've got a lot of sites on it. And the clues are, as written by Mr. Burdett, are... Pretty opaque, I think. They're pretty difficult clues, so you're really going to have to put your thinking cap on to figure out what the buildings being referenced are. So it is maybe a full day, if not two full days, spent walking downtown Bel Air to try to identify all the buildings.

So you have seen – they already have a draft out of it, huh?

It's being finalized.

Okay, okay. I may have seen some internal documents. Okay.

Well Steve was a I hope you didn't get the internal answers because that would not be fair right to the rest of us All right, that's the end of our liaison report so next we have the staffing update Mike Thank You madam chair Or can

We're continuing to recruit and background check for police officers and lateral officers, and we've successfully extended a handful of offers. As a matter of fact, we had one gentleman start today, so things are moving along. dare i say quite nicely it's always difficult to recruit police officers and this uh this climate doesn't quite have the uh the attraction that the profession has had has enjoyed in the past but nevertheless we've been able to recruit and hire and bring aboard some outstanding individuals who are absolutely committed to law enforcement and community policing. So we're looking forward to them learning the ropes and becoming part of the Bel Air team. In the interim, I don't think, I'll double check right now as we're talking, I think the job ad may have just come down for the most recent one. And I'll look on the website just real quickly

and it has okay so that job ad is down so we currently have no jobs posted at the moment that is good to you and uh kudos to the chief and the department i'm happy that we're doing a pretty darn good job of recruiting i know it is a tough place to do it but it is a great job it is a job worth doing and we need some really good people to do it it's not easy I see we have, did you get in touch with Steven Burdette? I sure did. Is he willing to continue to serve? Yes ma'am. It hasn't been too onerous of an appointment for him?

He's committed and we're trying to get together soon and, you know, get through our rules and procedures. Since they've never met, we don't really have them in place. So Elizabeth is going to work with us and we'll put together a nice rules and procedure for the group.

Sounds like a great idea. Yeah. Have them all ready just in case the board has to meet.

Yes.

And then we have one opening on the Planning Commission due to the retirement of Phil Robb after 20 years. He has certainly been a stalwart of the community, both in the Lions Club and for the town. Served in so many capacities. So good luck to him. But we're not seeking a replacement, just someone to be on the board. Can't really replace Phil.

And you know that Mr. Schleyer will also be, his term will be up in November? November 15th. And that leads into the handout that Mike gave out earlier that I wanted to discuss. I think I sent everybody an email that Liz had forwarded or sent me discussing how their terms in the Planning Commission. We have four that are like within a year of appointments When you look at Phil Robb's, just change his date, appointment date to 26, and Mr. Schleyer, change his to 26, you'll see that you have Phil Robb, Pete Schleyer, and then you'll have Jeff Stamm and Gary Webb all within about a year of each other. We have four of the five within a year of each other. Dan Gray is the alternate. Just for your information. for your edification there. Okay, so Liz wrote, I don't know if everybody had a chance to see that email I forwarded about, I could have sworn I did. Did I? Okay, about options about how we can do that. So Liz, if you wanted to.

go through that yeah so basically Maryland law requires for the Planning Commission on the Planning Commission's terms be five years and their terms should be staggered somehow some way for me and Michael Michael they didn't get staggered so you know obviously you know you're basically going to kind of tweak one part of the state law in order to comply with another one so the risk is minimal so you can either ask a couple of the other appointees to take another term and then they can resign earlier to try to stagger them or to fix it another way That's kind of what my suggestion was depending on what the current members of the Planning Commission wanted to do. I haven't spoken to anyone about it.

no I haven't either but I thought you said one of the options would be for like we have two appointments coming up for Mr. Rob and Mr. Schleyer that we could say they was one could be for like three years the other for four yeah even though the state says it must be five but we're violating things now correct yeah so let's violate that in the attempt to live with the letter of the law yeah and so yeah that's an option yes that's an option

is an option to say change anybody that we've appointed already can we change their term i'm not sure if you could change the term of someone who's already appointed because they agreed to sign up voluntarily for a particular time period um maybe if they're okay with that um in order is a way yeah again it just depends on what the planning commission members want to do

Let me ask you this, Liz. Do these appointed officials, I mean, and this is purely for understanding what we can do to fix this. I'm not trying to fire anybody at all. But do these officials, could we in theory remove one?

You could, but there's a process for doing that.

Okay, there is a process for doing that, okay. And I don't mean remove anyone in that regard, I mean shorten a term to get things where they need to be.

You could always talk to them and say, hey look, would you mind resigning in order to clear this up? True, resigning and then we'll reappoint them for- Yeah, to try to, for another five years to try to straighten the staggering out.

Right. I'm in favor of creating, in order to keep track of this, because my guess is that this probably started out fine, is my guess, and somewhere along the way we just lost track. I think you probably have to create a schematic of a seat one a seat two a seat three a seat four and a seat five yeah and they have an attached term to it right and that's held probably over there in the town clerk's office just for the custodian of the records that you know mr webb is holding seat five and mr stam is holding seat four and seat four runs from year x to year y and if mr stam decides i won the lottery i'm going to move to barbados We know that seat four has three years left on the current term, so whoever succeeds Mr. Stamm gets those three years remaining on seat four. And the term is attached to the seat, not to the person. I think that's probably the best way to keep it all straight and avoid this from happening again in the future. I would be in favor of, and whether that means these people have to voluntarily resign so that we can then reappoint them for a five-year term over the next couple years, or whether that means we can just pass an ordinance creating seats one through five and assigning their terms to them as it is, town attorney may say we can't do that, that's fine, maybe that's worth looking into if we could just pass an ordinance that says these are the five seats, these are their current occupants, these are how long the terms, and just go from there, try to knock it all out in one fell swoop, as opposed to having to wait three years to complete this project.

Yeah. We are going to have to amend the town code. Right. Because the town code doesn't match the state law. So there's no requirement in the town code for staggering, but it doesn't really matter if it's missing. We still need to do it. Certainly. And obviously, Commissioner Chismar has raised an issue with that, as far as having the members so close together. If there's anything that you want us to take back to the Planning Commission, we are having a very unusual meeting, I would say. We're having some administrative matters to discuss with them concerning potential work sessions for larger projects. it's a regular meeting with these other topics correct which we don't normally have so you know we can certainly discuss that with them if you want us to just let us know or whatever however you want to handle it try to get straight now

I think that's a great idea to discuss it with the planning commission since we'll be making the ask of those people to do something and however it works out I mean I bet what happened was what you described that somebody left during a term and instead of completing the rest of that term they got a five-year term and then we have all these people which is a terrible idea to have all new members at the same time you know all crowded out we want you want to have it staggered so you have experienced people who can then you know help carry the ball.

Yeah and I think there was probably something happened where someone resigned and instead of an appointment to fill in that term like for example what happened with Commissioner Rutledge they reappointed another board reappointed someone else at for a five-year term so because if it started off staggered it should have remained staggered you know.

So we I would appreciate input from the Planning Commission what the least painful way would be to straighten this out for the future.

I don't have a copy of whatever it was that you said you could oh okay so we can try to get it organized in a meaningful way so okay thank you.

Thanks Liz.

Anything else on the staffing update? Are we good?

Tree committee is the, Deanna Harkins, Deanne Harkins, is she still interested in

I will ask, but she's not, her term doesn't expire until October. I hadn't asked her yet. I think she would be.

I just know somebody that is interested and I don't know what, I mean, do you have the minimum number? Do you need somebody else or?

Five and that is the maximum. Okay. I think the only place that has some space is the committee for seniors and citizens in need right now. Correct.

Okay but this person is more of a tree person Retired science teacher, son is an arborist and lives in the Bel Air Certainly welcome to attend Participate just as somebody from the public They can lend their knowledge and expertise to the situation It's a friendly and small group and the meetings usually are only about an hour

all right but I will check with Deanna just to make sure all right now we have the calendar which of course I remember nothing I look at it and it all looks the same to me I would point out that July the 16th the MML Cecil Harford County meeting will be in Port Deposit at 6 p.m. we just got the invitation the rsvp is due the 30th of june so let me know if you're able to make it i will be there we are of course we will be in office then as secretary treasurer and president so be good to have us attending i know that the 14th through the 17th is mml at ocean city someone we'll all have to keep an eye open for the email that we will get about somebody coming to accept the banner city plaque or whatever and there's a photo op so that'll be important also I saw somewhere might have been in my emails when July I think that's what it was July the 8th there will be a reading of the Declaration of Independence right the 250th anniversary at the Hartford History Center which we all know is the old post office down the street that would be great to Attend I forget exactly what time it is. I'm thinking five o'clock something like that. Unfortunately, I didn't write that down July the 8th, right because that's when the declaration was first read So it'd be a great thing to kind of go to I and I think they did ask for an RSVP there is a 430 tree meeting that day but I might have to pass that up for the reading of the Declaration and they're doing it across the number of locations so it's the idea that everybody's reading the Declaration of Independence at the same time to honor its 250th as well as the country's so I thought that was a pretty cool idea I forget. It was in our emails, Mike, and I forget what time. I think it was around 5 because I know the 430 tree committee meeting was a conflict for me. Yeah, it is. It's definitely evening. It could be. It is at the Hartford History Center, which is the old post office of the Historic Society. They have renamed the location. If you told me it was at the Harvard History Center, I would not know where to go. But if you tell me the old post office or the Historical Society, I know exactly where I'm going. Now they have renamed their building. All right. So anybody else have any other calendar items?

Ma'am, just a reminder, on Tuesday, June 16th, the commissioners are invited to the Top Cop Award recognition for Senior Officer Krause. It's at 7.30.

And that is in Ocean City?

Yes, ma'am. It's the MML convention.

All right. Keep an eye out for that. Keep an eye out for those things. I will not be in Ocean City, so I will not be able to attend. And neither will Commissioner Taylor. Yeah, me too. He's great. And I have seen him posting on Facebook. He's enjoying himself way too much. Yes, he does. All right. Anything else on the calendar?

You know, I have some friends of mine who spend their summers as members of the Beach Patrol, and he's like a living legend down there. As a matter of fact, the guy that I went to high school with who does his summers as a lifeguard down there saw that the Beach Patrol had posted a picture celebrating Rick when he received that award, and I was in the picture. And he sent it to me and said, you've made it, you're with Rick Krause. So that's what a big deal he is down there.

Haven't we all? I mean, he is a living legend both locally and in Ocean City. So he's got statewide recognition. All right. I think that's all the calendar items that I saw that I wanted to talk about. So next we have miscellaneous. The Commissioner's Vehicles for the Independence Day Parade. Mike, is that you?

Yep. It's more of a question than anything else. If I recall correctly the commissioners obtained and used their own vehicles last 4th of July is that correct? That is incorrect.

It is partially correct I have and use my own so I don't need any but the rest of the jeeps were from So there's still an expectation for the town to try to find some jeeps?

Well then in that case how many do we need?

because Michael prefers them to be red white and blue jeeps Michael Blum that is the parade marshal's orders I have had the army green in the past and that was substandard but acceptable to Mr. Blum if Mr. Blum let you in the parade he let me in the army green was close enough okay but but yes red white and blue preferred it's a different kind of American color so that's that's good

Well, we'll do our best to try to find some convertibles, and I'll let you know as that progresses. All right.

Okay.

Jeeps, Jones has provided the jeeps, I think, for years, and they very kindly do so. And as a major sponsor of the Independence Day Parade, I think that counts as kind of part of their participation, and we do appreciate it.

And I do know that they also provide upon request for other elected officials who are in need of a jeep. I know of at least one state delegate who has had used them in the past so hopefully it's as simple as reaching out to the the lot manager and saying hey we'd like to continue this relationship so I heard a rumor that Larry retired yeah where's going to

We provide our own drivers though, right? Correct. I just wanted to speak with you about the one citizen that wanted to be in the parade. It's on his bucket list.

I'm happy to discuss it. How can I help?

We can talk about that later. He's a gentleman that a lot of people see around town. Can he drive? No.

In that case, Mike does prefer that everyone have a driver because he doesn't like us distracted. by looking at the crowd and trying to drive at the same time that's the only kind of and we cannot throw anything to the crowd you know no candy no flags no waving only so practice your Miss America wave and I would imagine that if Mike talks to Jones that would be the person to ask about you know having this gentleman ride along with you

Perhaps we can talk after the meeting and I can try to intervene I know it's probably too late to file an application for the 4th of July as a member but okay thank you Anybody can ride in the car Mike doesn't have a problem with that I would just wonder how Jones was about it

I'm just being inserting another vehicle, whatever. Mike does not have a problem with that. My grandchildren were in the car with me last year. It's not a problem.

Oh, forgive me. I misunderstood what you're saying. So they're just going to ride in the car. Ride in the Jeep with her. Wanted to ride in the Jeep. Yeah. With you.

This is his lifelong dream is to be in the independent state parade and he's a local citizen that walks around and my cousin Gretchen has talked to him.

I recall our conversation but I was not under the impression that it needed any approval. Typically commissioners have family, friends, other people like that in the jeeps with them. It's never been an issue but we can certainly run that by Michael Blum. the parade committee if they're going to restrict people in their jeeps I would be more I don't think that's ever happened yeah there's that and the person I would ask if you have a friend or a citizen that would like to ride in your Jeep I think that's perfectly acceptable okay forgive me I misunderstood where you were going with that okay

He will have to wave at people.

Is he willing to do that? What about pets? I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. No pets.

I only don't have pets in the car because they're distracting and I'm afraid they'll jump out.

The most important thing is to be respectful of the brand new Jeep that we're being borrowed. No shoes, no dirty shoes, no pets that might have an accident. You know, we did receive criticism one year of returning Jeeps that weren't all that clean. So we never want to have that.

I hope it was a long ago.

It was a long time ago. Oh, good. But we never want to have that again, so.

because I personally never seen anyone be disrespectful of the generosity of Jones and the jeeps they were very careful with their equipment and they drop it off at the lot often and gets driven and then driven right back into the town lot and goes back to Jones just the way we got it although we do sometimes decorate them with balloons that has that has happened and stickers there there's cling things yeah they're fine with that and we will have our own clings to put on there so with your name on it and that sounds like fun to think that we could have a small part in making someone's lifelong dream come true of being in the bellartown parade i'm feeling good about that all right any other independence day parade questions mike I ran into Mike Blum one day I was taking a walk and they were just coming out of their meeting so I see that they're hard at it and the sign is out there and it is coming up quickly so I'm looking forward to it.

all right next the fiscal year 2028 parks and rec capital improvement budget requests and who is handling that i have all right just we received a letter from harford county government just asking about that in advance i talked about it with our staff at the latest staff meeting uh two potential requests would include the rockfield playground and then a connection from the mompaw trail through or around kelly fields to thomas street then i think we did have one inquiry from from the commissioners regarding mcfall activity center the capacity and the future plans i did speak with mr magnus and he conveyed that the county has some other more pressing needs for activity centers including some areas and communities in harford county that do not even have an activity center so that does probably be a big big wish to see an expansion of the mcfall center while there's other areas in the in the county that are still still waiting for even a community center they don't even have one However, the Ma and Paw Trail connection through Kelly Field to Thomas Street may require a harder look due to some water and stream obstacles that may have to be overcome. Nevertheless, the county did confirm that it is on their list. Definitely something they're very aware of and they seem fairly interested in as well too. They are of course primarily focused on connecting the trail right now up to Forest Hill. and the county did also mention that if toba the town of bel air were able to obtain a community parks and playground grant for the rockfield park playground that would cover the most of the cost it wouldn't be inappropriate to also ask the county for some assistance so that's the only feedback i have and of course we can open it up to yourself or other staff members if there's anybody else who has other ideas or suggestions for fy 28 harford county government parks and recreation capital improvement budget requests

Steve you would Steve Klein you had said something about we asked we look went for a grant several years ago to do repairs to Rockfield and then but we couldn't ask for a grant now to replace it because we use those yeah that's the same that's the same thing it's it's several years ago there were some components to the equipment that were starting to break down chains leather seats things of that nature that needed to be replaced some would work as well and i how much was it instead it was like 75 000. it was like 75 000 so we put that we did those repairs to make the uh playground safer for everybody okay subsequently we went back steph went back and said we want to replace the entire facility now because it's just it's meant it's it's a useful life it needs to be done and they said we can't do that now because we just gave you money for the repairs so for the next 20 years you you have to leave those repairs there and not uh take them down I think we could probably get around that with the help of Mr. Magnus and maybe some people from the state if we really try hard and explain better what occurred. All right so we're gonna try and do that? If it's the desires of the we've already tried to get in they said no. Right but you don't think they fully understood No, I think they understood. Oh, okay. Yeah, I think they understood. I just think we might need to go in a different direction, maybe over the head or something of that nature, maybe a little more clout going and asking, maybe utilizing some of our friends in different political organizations to help out. For example, Hartford County government, you know.

When did we get the grant to do the repairs?

uh it was probably three years ago maybe three or four i can't really recall yeah yeah i mean i just you know and i had no indication and that this would ever happen you know i didn't know that they were going to do something like this it was during covid okay yeah so anyway so that could be five to six years ago And I personally, it's a long time for that playground the way it is right now. How much of that? I'm thinking a mil. Yeah. That's a real rough shot.

Yeah.

You know.

Well, part of it's going to be taking the stuff out.

Yeah, we could do a pretty good job with that ourselves. So that would save some money.

I don't know. I helped BG&E put those poles in the ground. I was on the pole burying crew when we built that. And they're down pretty deep. I don't know how they pull those out. But they must have a machine or something to pull those poles out. But they're deep.

The pole ground has been perfectly maintained over the years by Castella, I think her name is. Yes.

Castaldo. Nancy Castaldo.

Exactly. You got it right. And every year she goes in and she gets a crew and they pressure wash it and they stain it. So, I mean, it's really been maintained very nicely over the years. And so it's not as a lack that it wasn't maintained properly. It's just it's over 30 years old. And you know what happens to pressure treated decks when they're 30 years old. You need to replace them.

And that's probably the good stuff. Right. Compared to today's pressure treated wood. Right.

So it's just something that we as a town, I think, really need to think. And I think Harford County has to also help in that endeavor because a lot of people do come from out of the town to utilize it. And I think it is one of the bigger parks in Harford County. Right.

I mean, I think it's worth pursuing if it's in some way, find out what our options are.

All they can say is no.

Right. All they can say is no. That's right. I will try to reach out to Paul and see if he has a workaround on that and see what we can do. Right. All right. i i know stephanie's really worked hard and uh and uh it doesn't seem like we could get anywhere but we can definitely try again and see what what we somebody might come up with a solution and that's the only grant that's the only type of grant money pretty much but we are stuff like that stephanie is keeping her eye open for other possibilities right

Absolutely and I mean my that I call them the fab five the five of them that go over there that are that age they call it Castle Park it's like their favorite they were just over there the other day and we always have to say no please don't get in the sand today please don't get in the sand you know and we let them get in the sand but it's a great park it's a I mean with the little pavilion there I tell you how many birthday parties that we've had that we've been to for that or picnics that we've had or let's all meet there so we're there we're there about once a week at least and it's it's definitely definitely worth we're actually putting a new roof on that pavilion and underneath it we're also replacing some of the boards underneath that got a little rotten so that should really enhance it too And they even do a little hike afterwards. Pictures on my phone I can show you. Just from Saturday.

Good. And the library uses that as well because I know I went with my grandchildren too. I think it was a magic show and they held it at the pavilion. So it's used by a number of groups and lots of people who don't live in town. So I think it's worth a shot. We can't be in any worse position than we currently are. Right.

it is difficult for me to chase them when we play games up and down through that no just it is it's not his adult friend though but it shouldn't be like that but it's challenging yeah okay all right anything else on the parks and rec staff comments we'll start with Mr. Krantz nothing at the moment Jane no

Liz Rachel all right Stephanie no Steve Chief man all right well that was quick all right Commissioner's comments I have to actually I had it up on my screen but of course my computer shuts itself off all the time so I can't read it right now but I did want to point out that I got an email from a gentleman who lives over on West Gordon and he said when we had that big windstorm at the end of May on a Saturday he the tree was standing when he left to go out and get coffee and when he came back shortly after the tree had apparently fallen he was a little sad about that but it didn't hurt anyone didn't damage any property and he said The public works was already there. The police department was already there. It was already being taken care of. It was quickly, the road, it had fallen in the road. The road was reopened and he said you guys cut it up into big chunks and then came back later and cleaned up the whole thing including all the sawdust that was in the road. So he was very impressed with the quick response of the police department and public works and appreciated it. So I know I sent you guys an email but I just wanted to publicly say what you guys do does not go unnoticed.

That's good. Commissioner Hanley, how'd you do Sunday?

Just under 24 minutes, so not too shabby.

That's impressive. 24 hours, that's what I was going to say. It might have been that. I wasn't able to attend because little baby Joseph Ambrose was baptized on Sunday. But I thought about you.

Yeah, town run was fun big big crowd. Mm-hmm. I noticed it doesn't go by your house anymore It does not go by my house anymore.

I know you were looking The route they go a different way, but yeah, so it's okay it looked like it was very well attended It was it was great. I saw the pictures on Facebook. I saw Gavin Thanks for carrying the standard for us because you were the only one of us that ran.

That's right. I Don't forget your peach milkshake, that's all I have to say.

Go get a peach milkshake after this. All right, anyone else? All right, in that case, May I have a motion to go into closed session?

Yes, I actually do have quite a bit more to say. I move that this portion of the meeting will be closed under the provisions of the Maryland Open Meetings Act. General provisions Article 3, Section 30305B17N8. The topics of discussion will be to consult with counsel to obtain legal advice regarding the Harford County Circuit Court Case Number C12CV26000281, Town of Bel Air, Maryland versus 121 South Bond Street, LLC. And to consult with counsel to obtain legal advice regarding the Harford County Circuit Court case number C12CV25001030, Harford County, Maryland versus Town of Bel Air, Maryland et al. And the request for the extension of the Hickory Flats building permit. And to discuss potential appointments to the vacant town administrator position. The reason for closed session discussion of the above topics will be because public discussion of confidential information and legal strategies can compromise the attorney client privilege and inhibit the ability of the public body to receive candid and uninhibited legal guidance. And because public discussion of candidates' names, qualifications, experience, and background could discourage people from applying for employment or compromise their privacy rights.

Thank you very much. May I have a second?

I'll second.

And is there any need for any discussion of the closed session? No? All right. I am going to just point out to the public that once we are finished with our closed session, we will only be adjourning. We will not be conducting any further business in public. And I'm going to call the roll for the vote. Commissioner Foss?

Aye.

Commissioner Chismar? Aye. Commissioner Taylor? Aye. Commissioner Hanley? Aye. And the chair votes aye as well. So we are now in closed session. Yep.