Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Town of New Windsor's work session for March 17th as rescheduled on the 17th due to potential severe weather. Um, welcome tonight. Uh our first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from February 17th's meeting uh February 17, 2026 work session meeting. You all should have received those minutes and reviewed them at this point. Uh do I hear a motion to accept the minutes as written? Accept the meeting minutes as written.

Okay, we have a motion to accept February 17th meeting minutes as written. Do I hear a second? Second. We have a motion and a second for to accept February 17th's meeting minutes as written. All in favor say so by saying I. I. Any oppose? Okay. Motion carries 5. Second item on the agenda is our GMBB proposal planning design and bidding phase uh services for our wastewater treatment ENR upgrade. Uh Councilman and staff discussion. I suppose that will be led by town manager D.

Yes. Uh Jason Lidle and Bradley Hogan the GMBB were scheduled to be here last night but couldn't attend this evening. Um they uh are scheduled to attend the April 20th work session. Originally couldn't make the April council meeting. That's why they chose the March work session. Um, but I did want to keep this item on the agenda to afford the council the opportunity to review GMBB's responses to uh previous questions and provide any additional comments. Um, I sent GMBB's responses to Councilman Wolf Malo and Councilman Howard's proposed proposal questions for review on Tuesday, March the 10th. Um, Connor, there's a GMBB folder in there with I think it's five or six documents. Um, just I put everything in there. Their proposals in there dated February 17th. There's their PowerPoint presentation which they'll they'll go into um at the April work session. Um there's an email um also uh kind of outlining the PowerPoint presentation with some highlights and I did provide you copies of that because it has some good background information on on the the wastewater plant and what they've been working on and then the responses um to those council members questions. um stay on track with the ENR schedule that's proposed in GMBB's um proposal and MDE funding. Um it's imperative that the council provide any additional questions on GMBB's proposal in writing to me by Monday, March 23rd to allow GMBB time to respond ahead of the April work work session. I just want to emphasize that we've been talking about this ENR upgrade for a while, a couple years now. Um, and I've been saying push

is going to come to shove sooner or later. Well, that's that's we're getting to that point very quickly. So, um, just we're going to need a decision from council whether to move forward or not, uh, in the very near future. Obviously, we're going to be listening to GMBB's presentation at the April work session, but like to get any additional comments that you all might have to me by Monday and then that way I can get them to GMBB to respond in time and get back to you before April work session.

Gary, can I um ask a question? Maybe maybe you're able to address it based on um Bradley's email. Um number six uh email is is throwing me for a loop. Um num number five talks about and then you know coming down through three, four and five talk about us asking for 165 and when we get down to number six it talks about MDZ MDE published equation for adjusting eligibility based on flow expansion.

So is that telling me that because We requested flow expansion at 165,000 up, you know, from our 115,000 that MD is only going to allow us 125,000 and and at a reduced uh eligibility. Say that again.

At the reduced eligibility of 59.52%. That's the way I read that as well. So, so that's telling me that we're only going to possibly be able to get 59% of the grant money. Um, it's going to cost us $6 million to do the project and our expansion because we can only go 80% of that puts us down at um 90 no 100,000 edus which is only up 80 I'm sorry is only up um 40 8,000 which only gives us 32 additional edus. Well, we we when they came in the last time and presented they there was discussion as to how how to um put in at what level to put in the the the preliminary engineering report. And that and that was that that took some time to get that worked out that that number from the county and that 165,000 gallon number.

So the they you all agreed to go in for that number and then MDE would have to consider that um reasonable growth, right? Which has not been determined yet. They still they still don't have they still don't have MD's comments as of yesterday. So where does that where does that then 25,000. I'm not I was puzzled on that as well. Okay.

Because assuming an allowable capacity of 125 I guess he's they're thinking that MDE is only going to give us 125 of 165 suggested which is still which is 10,000 over our current permitted capacity. Is that what you're getting? That's what you're getting at. Well, it's it's 10,000 over our our current capacity, our maximum. But when you take 80% of that,

that's only a difference of 8,000 and then divide that by our 250 number that we used. That gives us 32 edus. That means we could build out 32 and it's going to cost us $6 million to do it. Now, they back it up saying, well, if you don't take the$6 million and you have to fix your plant, it's going to cost you 6.25 million. So I read that as six and seven are a comparison of replacing the tanks or upgrading the system to current capacity. Not that the 165,000 gallon is dead or expected to be dead. It's just a if you were to upgrade the current tanks, it's 6.2. And if you were to upgrade the system without asking for more growth space, it's 60% of the share, which is 6 million. So if we were to stay kind of status quo, it's 6 million either way. And if we look to upgrade, then we get additional help from NDE. That's how I read it. It's not worded great because I see his point too. You you read it you read it different than I did because

I absolutely see how you're reading it. It's like okay maybe that's what it is your way. I just I because six and seven are together and start seven is for comparison. I don't see it as bad news. I see it as if we were to replace at current capacity we could expect 60% assistance versus the 70 we're shooting for. except that 125,000 is not our current capacity.

Well, it assumes it's it's 125 is the current limits and then the SSA. I don't know if this system has the calculation different than what our current system is calculated as to where it all kind of equals 125,000 at the end of it. So, Gary, I guess if you go back to to Bradley at all before the the next meeting, some clarification on six. Yeah, because that's a you know, wow. I read it that way as well

because if you go to the one slide that has the the cost estimate, there's two slides that have proposed grant eligibilities basically based on their breakdown of cost. And the in the fir it's the first one really where you see the 70.71% is what we were the the I think is best case scenario which they were saying that and then he drops down to the the 59.52% again there's no that's just the number in this chart in his in his description thereust adjusting and making assumptions on allowable allowable capacity based on MD's equation for for adjusting that. So again, I don't know the nuts and bolts of that that that formula to provide any additional information on it. So I will I will reach out to them for for number six to get some more clarification on that.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Any else have anything any other questions as we stand? All right. Um, we'll move on to item number three, trash collection contest, uh, discussion options and dates. Okay. I I'll take that one. Um, is that all right?

Yeah, sure.

Okay. Um, so the town of Mount Air is actually sponsoring a I think I may have mentioned, but if I didn't, um, town of Mount is sponsoring a trash. It's called Let's Talk Trash. It's a community trash collection uh contest. And currently I believe um the towns of obviously Mount Ary Sykesville umsteading town possibly us and I'm not sure about u about uh Manchester um we talked about possibly jumping in and doing that. The challenge is the last week of April we had our town beautifification day and typically the folks doing that or participating in that are the people that you see right in front of you. Um so

spouses and kids sometimes and their spouses and children sometimes. So to add those another event like that on there we we'd certainly need a lot more hands than the hands that we typically have. Um and the only weekends we would be able to do that would be the 18th and the 11th. So discussed last meeting.

Yes. So those that sounds pretty sounds like oh that's next month but it's next month and it's really only few weeks. So to coordinate enough folks to get out there and really make a difference, we'd have to decide to do that tonight. Um, I don't want to twist your arm either way, but we don't have a ton of time to do it. And we did mention, I think um there was some discussion about maybe gathering some folks uh with the um for the business community, the business round table to see if they could do it. That meeting isn't until Thursday if I'm not mistaken. So, we'd really have to jump on this to to jump to get in. So, I'll leave it up to the council um on that. They have it every year. Not to sway anybody's decision, but they have it every year. I will tell you that I would love to see us really put some effort into getting the town beautifification um bolstered a little bit with with more hands to help with that. Not to say that we can't do both, but I would think that we need to make that a more of a priority because last year was was a little bit of a disappointment. I thought there were going to be several more hands involved considering it was an election year. Nobody people wanted to get out and meet and it was essentially same folks. Did you did you

Yeah. I mean, I had Gary about Yeah, I had emailed Gary about this, too, because we talked about part of it at the MML dinner the other night. And I love a good competition with another town, don't get me wrong, you know, but the reality is that we're a lot smaller than what did you say? Mount

area. I don't I don't know where they're getting their volunteers from, but they have a bigger pool. I agree with Kevin. I mean, I don't think that it would work this year, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't have a combination of trash and beautifification what we currently do on the same day, but the same issue exists. We have to get more people to do it, right? So if we could start if you know I don't know you guys are going to the business thing Josh and see if you can get any interest from them if they be if people would be willing to sign up for next year you know involve their staff if there's a different day of the week you know I don't know but

I think that for this year our efforts probably should focus on the beautifification day trying to get more support that well I'm out town on the 11th. So, I could I could not I could not participate. And um you know, although I could do it on the 18th, then then we're talking two Saturdays in a row with the same people. And that's that's probably unreasonable to expect any more than us to be there. And um I think we can we can beg out of it this year and say our town's pretty clean.

Have that big trash bin anywhere that we need to empty out. and and concentrate, as Josh said, on our beautifification day. We formally announce beautifification day outside of this conversation. Um, it will be formally announced per the newsletter that's coming out in a week and a half. I would maybe do it now. We should probably post on social media just we're a month out just so people can, you know, mark it on the one of you guys could share it on the other groups thing up there. Yeah, I the I put the beautifification day in my um it's going to be in this this newsletter. So, the Facebook page though as well. Okay.

Multiple times and if anybody's got contacts at FSK still. Yeah, maybe. Let's see. But I do actually message and offer credit hours. Yeah, that's a great point. I'll I'll reach out to the principal to show up and pick up trash while we're planting flowers. Hey Has anybody checked the website recently for Facebook? Is it It's not posted. I know. I know. Em. I'll get her to post it tomorrow. I believe the public works is going to do bulk trash that same day. Bulk trash count towards the trash pickup.

Down to Mount Ary. Dumped it. See what we picked up. Speaking of uh participation, I know this wasn't on the agenda, but this is just u kind of gauge interest on that. Um many years ago, several years ago, we used to have a a government shadow town or council shadow day where students would come in and they would essentially assume the roles of uh um of of our positions. Um, I know we tried to do that with Northwest Middle School given the fact that we don't have a middle school here anymore. Um, a public middle school. I was wondering if there was interest of doing that again because I've mentioned it to several middle schoolers and high schoolers. One of both middle school and at West Middle, which is Westminster. I was thinking more maybe if since we don't have a middle school we could maybe do it with the high school SGA. I mentioned that I mentioned it to the uh principal and you you mentioning FSK made me think about the principal. So um I can reach out if you all are interested. We just we maybe need we need to pick a day. So, so Kevin, typically that falls in November and that that goes along with MML's government

something month and you guys have to submit you have to go to uh the summer conference. Someone has to go to the mayor's conference and there's three other things that you have to hit in order to be able to get to Banner City. Yeah, it helps us get the banner city. Oh, yeah. So, so it was it was in line with that

and it is a it's a it's a fun a fun meeting. Typically, well, we've had middle schoolers and we would write their speeches and you know, they would they would read it and pretend they're you and you would get nudge them to get them the motion for the the things and and it was a it was it was kind of a hoot and typically all their parents and everything come so we actually have people here in the audience. Hit last year. It was Neil's last one I think last year. Wasn't last year. Yeah. get it going.

Unfortunately, folks were just kind of reluctant to do it. I I thought we had I when I was working at Northwest, I think we had uh we had about three or four kids interested, but then they they couldn't they just they didn't I guess, you know, it takes parent involvement. That's why I was thinking maybe moving it up to the high school level and see you know, well, if they're involved in the student government, they might There might be something in Banner City where it has to be middle school. Oh, is that right? If I remember reading correctly. Yes, I think so. I can't remember the whole deal because it's been a while. I'll find out and make sure. I'll make it my last official task. Yeah.

So, let's Yeah. Before you do that, let's I'll gauge. Is there interested in doing that? I know there is at least one council member that has a middle schooler who will be in high school next year. Oh, yeah. Over here before he ages out, you know, I think he's already not asking for birth certificates.

All right. All right. So, just one more thing about the beautifification day for all of you listening out there in TV land. Um it's the the 24th 24th. Saturday the 24th of April. I'm sorry. Saturday the 25th of April at 8 a.m. we start and um we go out to all the town parks and um we plant flowers and we mulch and we clean up and we again somebody wants to bring a bag and some gloves and pick up trash. That would be great. But it's a great way to volunteer in the community. So let us know if you're interested or just show up that morning. I'm pretty sure the earth will be tilted just enough that we won't have a snow day. So

mayor is promising that. All right, that was item three. Item we skip item four and then go to item five, fiscal year 27 budget final draft budget discussion.

Okay. Um before I jump into that, I also put in the folder um the updated revised budget schedule just for some information. So, um the April 1st council meeting, um we will do a a an ordinance for that date and um if we're ready, which we very well should be, um we the council will make a motion to introduce that budget ordinance. And then we will post uh the notice of hearing or public hearing on April 8th. We do have a work session in between there. And then May 6 council meeting is the budget hearing and adoption. And um you adopt that you adopt the budget in per ordinance from the April 1 introduction meeting. So just to keep you on track with that. So I'll get I'll get the ordinance ready. I can do that.

Yeah. Whichever was easier. Yeah. Um we'll get that ready. Um first get paperwork. I think that

Yeah. And just a reminder for the sixth uh meeting uh I will I'll be in that Maryland rural water conference that week. So I will not be in attendance but I'll have we should have everything ready for that hearing first thing. We'll go over Kevin just just that's in here just to to look at for um the last couple meetings on the on the budget. All right. Thank you for that update and we'll get into the fun part.

Yeah. So, our budget is I'm going to say 98% complete. Um rundown from the latest changes since the March council meeting. Uh general fund is balanced. Um the revenues and expenditures total the total is on the revenues there's on that second No, it's at the bottom of the first sheet. um totals 1,584,850 which is an increase of $42,910 from fiscal year 26. Prior to balancing uh the revenues exceeded our expenditures by 93,828 and this number um goes into the revenue access to balance general fund which is for future capital reserves line item at the bottom of the uh public works category. You scroll down further bottom public works category line you see that number was input to balance uh the general fund page two

that's page three at the bottom of public works on on the print out

that that line is is for when your revenues exceed your expenditures which is a good thing. Um so uh some line items to note. Um the revenues under the miscellaneous uh the bottom bottom line item there highlighted in gray I believe on the color copies. Um I just wanted to mention that because to explain what that is again that's the opposite of what I just said. This line item is is for the event that your expenditures are exceeding your revenues. So we don't have that um in this for general fund, but that's that's what that line item is for. You'll see that come into play in the enterprise fund. Um, let me see here under expenditures. uh the capital projects, Connor, there's a there's a a capital projects um in the form there and those those are the proposed capital projects for fiscal year 27 uh for general fund and enterprise fund. So just want to highlight those. Um let me grab my copy of that too so I can tell you what's included in those different line items. So under uh the total for capital projects in general fund is $140,500 total and then also list on that sheet there the uh five road segments that we're planning to do but that's with highway user revenue. So that that those totals are shown separately. um that the one thing to note that the we've cut down a good deal on our capital projects. So you'll see you'll see decreases for

instance in capital projects and general fund is is decreased 277,000 from FY26 um municipal building line capital projects there um are 69,000 and um that is Those three projects in there are the retaining wall for the dumpster area down at Gear Lane. Um the town hall building behind old town hall uh exterior paint repair and paint and small box trailer for events and emergencies. So those are the three proposed projects that that that make up that 69,000. Um under the public works capital storm drain project. Um that's 20,000. That's the same uh same that we had in there before. That's for uh preparing manholes and storm drain manholes and sewer manholes and valve boxes and things like that. Pavement, small areas. That's what we did with it last year and and CP did 50 couple of those last year. Um and then capital vehicles and equipment. Uh that's um 19,000 that's half of the ATV cost. So the ATV cost is estimated at 38,000. That number gets cut in half for general and it get cuts cut in half again for for water and sewer. Um so the again that revenue excess lot balance uh to balance the general fund is the 93820 I mentioned uh above under the parks

and activities um town activities we increased that by 22,000 per your direction at the last meeting. Um and then Capitol Park projects is uh 32,000 and that is um there's three projects in there. Lions Club Park Pavilion windows uh pavilion floor painting and then Atly Ridge Total. So those those are the three projects that make up that. And then under the miscellaneous category, um the healthc care benefit, uh that in increased 6,500 since the last meeting for a total increase of 175 and we have to plan for the new clerk treasur taking health insurance. We're not sure about that till till the hire. And then the short-term disability and life insurance increase 200 since the last meeting. Total increase is 350. And then retirement increased 500 since our last meeting for a total increase of 900. So that's to add the town administrator and CEO promotion and plan for new clerk treasurer. So that is the general fund. Again the total 1,584850 of revenues and Any questions we're ready to proceed on to the good stuff

is we are balanced to date. Revenues and expenditures total 1,837,431 and that is a decrease of 85,781 from fiscal year 26. Um that in a minute. Prior to balancing, our expenditures exceeded revenues in the enterprise fund by 177,731. And this number went to a new line item um at the bottom of the revenues. It's enterprise fund reserve transfer to balance and that's where the 17731 is input as a revenue which is a transfer from the reserve to balance the enterprise fund. So the The difference you'll see, and I'm going to talk about some revenue increases, but you'll notice that the capital reserve transfer for water projects and for sewer projects in in fiscal year 26 was each 286,931. And what we did, that was the first year that we put the line item specific capital projects into the budget. And that took the proposed capital projects for fiscal year 26, the totals, and then we just we just lumped it together and split it in half to balance the budget. So, what I'm doing this year is I'm putting in the specific line items for water and sewer that we're planning for. And that's the 147 that you see and the 575. And then the 17731 is the remainder to balance. So, I should have broken up the first year the same way, but we're doing it the same way this year. But you see the parentheses numbers in the increase column. We've cut back on our capital projects by a lot. A lot. I don't have that number right here in

front of me, but I can probably get it really quick. So, Gary, real quick, 17731 is what we are short or do we need to add that to the cap reserve for both the water and sewer projects? That's the deficit that that is the deficit from expenditures to revenues the 177 or all three.

Well, you've already taken into consideration your two capital projects. So when you look on the water, your capital projects will total 147. So your revenue offset it. So the one the 17773 is a deficit from general operating expenses for enterprise. So that's what we're under. I got you one more time. I got you. Let me get that. Get that total for you guys. One second. I'll call in on Friday.

So, we reduced um those capital projects in that that far right column. If you add those together, it's it's $369,362 less. Um, so that's that's kind I want to explain that difference a little bit. Um, then um on the revenue lines, we we looked at the sewer usage uh hookup sewer usage and hookup fees for water and sewer were adjusted to uh we added another .edu for a property at 2800 News Road that director Myers has been working with the the uh owner developer and the plumber. So, he's we're pretty certain that that's going to um get hooked up to their own well and septic, believe it or not. Right there. It's right across from the entrance to Snater Summit that that house that sits by itself.

Yeah. So, that we're planning that to add. So, we've added another .edu edu. And then we also um updated uh our user and edu numbers from director Myers and water sewer billing clerk. Um I sent some information to to Councilman Wolf Malo and you pointed out there were some differences and we looked at that Wayne and and Kim looked at that closer and made some adjustments on that. So thank you for that. Um so our sewer usage receipts increased uh $7,750 since the last meeting. that's still running below. And again, I explained this last meeting that the numbers we put in for the 26 budget did not account for the adoption of the tiered system rate that changed those numbers. That's what that's what the difference. That was a mistake on my part. Um the sewer hookup fees increased one edu, which is the 8,830 since the last meeting for a total of 35,325. The water Usage receipts increased 17,000 since the last meeting. Total 55,650 and hookup fees one edu is for waters 10,875. So that total is up now 43475. Um so if you add those four lines together including the negative it's still 106,450 to the good. However I said due to the significant reduction in capital projects the net revenues decreased 8 85781. Is that making sense? Shaking his head. Josh. All right. Any questions on that? Before I move on,

have we looked at projected water and sewer revenues for to finish out this fiscal year? Like how much we're expected to receive? Well, our our year our year to dates are up to date as of the end of this meeting. I'm gonna get you a number right now, Connor. Give me two seconds. I knew you were going to ask that question. Talk amongst yourselves.

Excuse me. So expenditures in the water just a couple highlights. Um service contract lines increased 9,000 for we have more contracts in water than we do in sewer because you'll see in sewer we reduced it a little bit. Um so your capital projects again back to the capital project list total uh 147 which is a decrease of 80 88,000 from fiscal year 26. So let me catch up here. The again the capital vehicles and equipment there the 9 9500 is a quarter of the cost of the ATV and then the capital water projects is total 1375 and those projects are meter and MXG replacements. Atley Ridge certificate of portability and engineering bring the well online um hillside well wells hydrant installation and then the lead and copper rule mainline replacement and service line replacements. So there's five things there total the 1375 uh under the sewer. Keep this flipped over sewer. We have uh service, like I said, service contracts. We reduce that by 7,000 and there's less contract sewer contracts in the sewer. Uh sludge disposal continues to rise. It's it's a tough line item. That's increased 25,000. Um, I updated those projected numbers and I also used a 5% inflation rate on the dis on the um, disposal rate at the Westminster Septage facility. I've been

asking for since they started doing that ENR upgrade and I still haven't gotten an answer. I'm expected to get uh, I've been in touch with actually the controller, Jenny Hobbs, um, took over for uh, Rob Burke as controller a couple years ago. Um she said within the next two weeks, which is about the first week in April, she'll she should know if there's an increase in that. I put a 5% increase on because I know it's coming. And just the hauling amount of hauling we're doing um each year is cons we consistently haul pretty much every Friday anywhere between six and 10 loads depending. So

I'm guessing there's no wastewater treatment facility that we would be able to put in that would eliminate a hallway press, but I don't think that's in they talked about about that before I even started here. Those things are big time money and a lot of a lot of I've seen them work. I've seen them in action actually very neat. But um there with the ENR upgrade um the sludge falling was reduced I believe. I have to look back through the per report, but I think there's there's factors in there with the upgrade that would wouldn't eliminate the sledge hauling, but I think would reduce it.

There there was kind of a trade-off on that as as well. When the sludge presses, we have less hauling because it's dry, but we have to then retreat that sludge the second time or the system has to be able to handle that. And so it was it was a bit of a trade-off. a sledge press with big bucks nowadays. But I believe you can press to a consistency to land apply. I mean, I've seen it at West um Hamstead police water treatment plant. It just completed an ENR upgrade probably two or three years ago. They have press there. It's it's pretty remarkable.

It looks like the best dirt you've ever seen. Did you sell that? I I don't know if they're selling it or not. I Uh it it's it's it's qualifi it's of the content where you're you can land apply it per NDE good bit of it. They they basically roll a a drop a rolloff container in there and they have a a presses in a building and it comes out a conveyor belt and then conveyor belt drops it and and runs forward and back and fills that that bin and they come in the whole bin away probably once a week. One of those dumpsters like we get down for for bulk trash

probably once a week from what I remember field trip out there. It's a pretty neat plant. Hamstead. That's a county. I was gonna say that's a county facility, isn't it? County operates that plant system just where it is. Yeah. Hamstead's unique not only because they're getting Dana Mangus, but their their wastewater is run by the county and their w the town runs the water in H. get that deal for us while you're deal.

To answer your question, Connor, um I would say you can add an additional $174,000 to um sewer usage and then $166,000 to water usage. Estimate. Yeah. Those again, please. 166 for water,

174 for sewer. Additional Spring tends to run a little higher because everyone's watering things. So, pretty close to 26 budget for sewer, but more for 26 budget on the water side. We're just kind of kind of looking ahead.

Let me check something real quick. Another spreadsheet because I I made that same observation. I want to That's holding true. Josh, that that U spreadsheet I sent you on the water sewer calculations um is where I'm pulling my note here. So, so what which which ones did you say was going to be higher and which one's going to be lower or what? Sewer is going to be about the same. Water is going to be more than the 26 budget. 27 I'm doing it in my head.

Came up with too looking back in previous years that water water usage rates and revenues are historically higher than projected and sewer is actually a little bit less but the difference sewer is closer to to budgeted um but less and water is usually higher gives us like the cushion over budgeted yeah it's not it's not a lot but it should help a little bit next year

checks and balance we came to the same thing there All right, where did I leave off? We talked about sludge disposal. Um, let me close this. The other thing there in in um sewer is the three Rs. Three three Rs operating system maintenance. We reduced that 40,000. Um, we're just our year to date's only 8,300. Um it's probably gone up a little bit, but we collectively got together with Wayne and public works and knocked that back 40,000. Um engineering services, we cut that back 25,000. And then again the capital projects for sewer total 575 and they are uh manhole lining uh blue ridge sub subdivision at Maryland 31. Um and manholes before the pump station and then CCTV work in Blue Ridge subdivision to see what additional lining we want to do. And then Atley Ridge bypass for when we um upgrade that pump station. We want to establish a bypass so that we can pump and haul a lot easier and more efficient. So those three plus then your other capital vehicle and equipment a quarter the $9,500 quarter of the cost of the ATV. And then under personal Now the healthc care benefit again is increased 4,000 since the last meeting meeting. Total increase 10,000 again that's the um on the clerk treasurer and plan for that

take health healthcare. Uh so again the total get to my last page budget is balanced to date. If there's things that moving forward, they hopefully should be minor. And where it will affect is those line items that we use to to balance things out. Those last nine items. Well, we increase one, we'll decrease the other. So that's that's kind of where we are. Um the total where' that go? So total expenditures and total revenues for our budget is 3,22,21. No,

no tax increase. No tax increase, folks. Say that again, Kim. 10 years no property tax increase. tax rate increase. Corrected by the lawyer. Somebody who says my taxes went up. That's not our fault. That's the value of your house. Your house is worth more should be a good thing, too. We all like our values to be higher, but not our tax. That's right. So, any questions on that? I know that's a lot of information, but we're

I just thought of one question, Gary, and I might have missed something in here. Aren't we getting some project open space? This year, we have we have four projects that um we have been awarded project open space. How much of that does that cover? That's we don't even have them listed. Just a wash. Okay. Okay. That's what I was asking. We do a wash in the journal. You look I'm sorry. If you look in the um the plan

uh capital budgets, there's some um italics numbers there. We had originally planned for Line Club Park pavilion roof and gutters. We combined that with the pavilion the pavilion interior exterior painting and block wall repairs that

that's we got $48,13 on that one. So, we got the um the lights at the park which have been installed. We're almost done installing. Um we got the uh basketball court which we issued that contract. We met with Remsburg paving and we're looking at some um he came in under budget because of the we don't need to retain wall and the grading. So, we're looking at some additional things possibly a full court there. We have the He's going to run, he's going to provide some numbers and putting a bench, you know, and a trash can in there and things like that. So, so those two are underway. And then, um, public works is working on the RFP for um,

spring house, a spring house, it's all for spring and then the other project out at Lions Park. All right. If there no other questions, we will move on to item number six, pedestrian safety improvements for Town View Circle Summit.

Did you have information on that, Councilman? Not to put you on the spot. Howard also put some stuff together. Nice.

Without getting into too much details, but we had a um the bus stop in our community is elementary school and it's chaotic around the 15 minute window that the bus is picking up. Um there's no crosswalks. a couple of the intersections. Um got hit by a car this past week. She's she's okay. There's a few things that we could do to improve visibility, the way people are parking there and then also defining crosswalks for the kids to cross because currently they're just it's like a free-for-all because there's no guidance for them. Some of them are five and six years old.

Is this in Town View Circle or at 31? Josh, is that at the top where the the the divided road ends and the other the other road loops back in?

Yep. So, there's there's one stop sign at that intersection um coming down the hill from the the top side of the community. Um yeah, side that kind of where Conor's mouse is, there's a stop sign at the end of there. That's the area where the child was hit. Um, but I think that um, you know, things to consider is making it a three-way stop or a two-way maybe. Um, I'm personally in favor of a three-way stop there just so that way cars are I mean the speed limit was only 15 miles per hour, but the number of people that do 15 is probably less than half. Generous probably.

So was right here where the stop sign is. No. You see that the um the white line is where the stop um making that a three-way. There's also a um where that crosswalk that goes between the last town home and the first single family home. There's a crosswalk there, but the no parking sle is kind of in an odd spot. It allows people to park completely blocking the crosswalk. I think it's just a pardon me for interrupting. It's it's a depression. Yeah, it's like ADA handicap or Yes,

it's an ADA compliant ramp there. Um but but people park in front of it, completely blocking it, which is what causes the kids to kind of walk at a diagonal. So, between there being no lines and cars completely blocking the crosswalk, um it's pushing kids to kind of it's kind of chaotic. Um was there any downside to changing the parking? Well, it would it would probably reduce the the um parking in front of that one home by one. I mean, they have a driveway. There's more street parking available, but directly No, the single family the street there. See where that um Yeah.

where where the crosswalk kind of enters there where the grass is kind of not visible. But there's the ADA. Yeah. Yeah. Right there. Right there. Parking no parking sign is just on the right of that. So people can park completely blocking that crosswalk. So right here. Yeah. So just pushing it down so that the crosswalk area is clear. Pushing down towards 31 20 ft to the left basically. Okay. Yeah. The mouse is just just to um just so that there's not parked cars because you know a kid that's four foot tall coming in front of an SUV, you can't really see them until it's too late. Could we actually paint a crosswalk there because it's not really a

and put up crosswalk signs? Can we do that? Town road. Yeah, it's a town road, right? So, where where does where's the bus comes at? At the bottom of the hill, the bus is right here. Yep. So, a lot of you know probably 75% of the kids walk to the bus and 25% get driven depending if they're on the other end of the community. if if you were there during during that 15 minute window. Uh Deputy McGinness was actually there the day after the incident and he he he noted that um that it is kind of a little chaotic just because they're small children, lot of kids too,

a lot of blind spots. there's cars and also at the same time there is um a special needs bus that enters the community um which is I think maybe contributed to this causing um like a visibility issue but um so there's a lot going on in that you know 15 minute window for the elementary bus specifically. So for the specific situation where this accident happened, are the things that you just suggested things that would help with that not happening again or is there something else besides that? I think it would just help, you know, open up the uh visibility

giving the kids some guidance as to where where they should be walking and trying to prevent cars from blocking access to the crosswalk where the kids should be walking and and stopping the traffic with stop signs. I love stop signs, but I do I mean you never can put too many stop signs in for me. That's fine with me, but that I would be worried about would that cause any problems coming into the development. That's that's that was the questionable one. I think that the other two ways can definitely warrant a stop sign. The coming in um that one is 5050 for me. Well, you say coming in would be a problem. The backlog backlog in the lane out the 31.

Well, yeah, that's a potential point. could and also they're coming up they're coming up the hill so I think it will cause more visibility issues as well. So the two-way stop situation would be where the one stop sign currently is and then the other stop other stop sign coming like as you're leaving now basically exactly that and that and that would give that would afford us stopping where both the crosswalks are again paint actually painting crosswalks The crosswalks are not demarcated on the pavement. They're just where the 88 ramps go down. Okay.

So, you look at getting two of those painted. Two two of the crosswalks.

Back on this a little bit. I've talked to Wayne a little bit about crosswalks and markings on the road throughout the rest of town as well. Um because I live in Oldtown more so for Oldtown just because that's where I'm um experiencing it. Um a it certainly makes the town look more professional, more official. We have instead of an alley ending into another alley, we have stop lines and such, but I think it would also drive home oneways, do not enters, that type of thing. We're not relying on signs. It's also painted on the road. Um same thing out here. crosswalks in out here. Crosswalks in Blue Ridge and Atly. Um he was going to look into a little bit of pricing. We talked about the uh the thermally appro applied ones instead of actually having a crew come out to paint.

Good question. D asked if we can use highway user money for crosswalks. Good idea. It's not working. Yeah. Yellow lines. question. I will certainly find out. I got to your Friday. I already answer. Let me go Google that right now. That might be an MML question. I think it's a I think it could be very logically argued in our favor. I could see a sign not counting but a marking could be.

In this particular case though, I mean given I mean I over the last week since this happened. I've driven through and uh it's quiet right now, but in the I've seen it in the morning and it is if you're just driving on 31 and right by it, there's enough for you to catch your eye. Um but I drove it uh after it happened and uh and it's part of things it's congested. Yeah, it is. You know, because just a lot going on and from that it looks like there's a lot of room. There's really not a lot of room in there.

So, um at minimum I listen I don't make the the ultimate decision but it would be I would certainly be in favor of putting crosswalks there so that people see that you know and in 20 years there won't be as many kids. I mean every development goes through that and it's cyclical but for I think for the immediate need there is an immediate need to do something because they're going to be kids there for the next 10 15 years. How many kids get on the elementary bus? But it's quite a few. It's a bunch. It's a bunch. Yeah.

Josh, I don't know if they do this anymore and this be something your your HOA might be able to do. Do they have crosswalks any or cross crossing guards anymore? Um I think those are limited for um kids that walk to school, right? Yeah. Like in Tony Town there is one, but it's paid by the town um out of their budget. Yeah, it's right. It's on the main street Baltimore that leads right across limitation to the HOA having somebody volunteer to do it. Wear a vest and a sign. No,

I'm sorry. The lawyers someone volunteering. If someone asked me, should I volunteer to do that? I would say what a gracious person you are. No. Sure. There's a safety training course into Well, I think that's why safety patrol went away. I was I don't know how many of you all were safety patrolling, but I was. I think back can't believe they trusted fourth and fifth graders.

Yeah, I got you. I I got my I think I have my shield somewhere. I got a little the good old days. Not just bus time. You're going into summer season where kids are outside. Like my neighborhood on those 80 days they were packed. The kid every kid was outside. Oh yeah. I mean there's a ton of people that walk walk during dogs and all that. Works are make this the community safer for everybody. There's a ton more foot traffic through town. Especially last week because it's nicer

and that kind of brought it all back to like hey Wayne and I talked about it a couple weeks ago, a couple months ago. Um I just think it would be it would help out here. It would help through town. It would help in the developments and we don't have to hit it hard right away. We can phase it in, but I know it's not those thermos aren't that expensive to put down. And it absolutely is a safety thing, but also a dress up and make the town look better, too. We are getting them at the the major intersections here with our scootcape,

right? But any of the any of the ones that are going either across church or main, well, not because it's a state, but church, Lambert, Maple, any of the cross alleys. That's where there's sidewalks. Any place where you've got the the ramp down to the road should probably have something. We want to find out if we can use highway user road. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. If we could, we could just get a crew in here. Yeah. because and I don't know I think CPE has been done on paving the last couple years they sub out that work right

and that's the the not the plastic stuff but they sub that out but if we can use the highway user money for that then we can try to work that in with uh with the next contract for baby I don't want to put words in Wayne's mouth he didn't sound like it was too large for public works to the thermos, but at an entire town scale, maybe that's a little different of a thing. Or a combination of like because we usually, like I say, when we plan to do roads, we we measure them and we plan full depth reconstruction, right?

And we rarely have to do that. So, we usually typically come in under budget because we're not using great tab for for for the base. Most times we just don't need it, but we plan for it. So, a lot of times we'll get done to the end of the list of roads we're doing and we might throw another road in because we have extra money. But in that in this case, we might want to say bring your bring your scraping crew in and do some intersection for us. So, if we can use it that way, we can't. You have a surplus of general fund funds. The other thing you you brought up when we were talking is the um a town county agreement that we get that 87,000.

Yes. I checked into that last year and there's no limitations on there. There you go. That's um at the very le while we do some research on the um the crosswalk whether we can use the highway user funding and how that would work whether we want to make it a part of a bigger project in town. Um could we address the two signage issues? We can do that ourselves. Yeah. A public works thing sight of what brought this to our discussion. Number one, let me just take a step back. How was the young lady that suffered the injury?

The last I heard that she was doing. All right. So, as well as you can be. That's good to know because that was man I when I got your email that was that was I mean anybody with kids would imagine that was it had to be a frightening situation and not placing blame on anyone but That's something that we can maybe help out. So, if we can admission uh it's under the general fund revenues, the county town program and county road grant, it's $87,500.

So, what would the next step be for for for to take care of something for like just at this at the start to move the parking sign and add a stop sign? Two stop signs. one or two stop signs on definitely one on the street that comes this way. Definitely on the one leaving the neighbor neighborhood coming right there. Wayne probably has an opinion about the hill just because of putting the stops at the top of the hill in the snow and yeah I even have an I that that would be difficult potential for queuing traffic on the road and snow come up the hill. I was thinking queuing traffic

because he he does focus a lot on like making sure that at least that assaulted. I know because it is a pretty steep hill. So, two stop signs and potentially crosswalks. One one stop sign. The parking sign moving the no parking sign to the left. But it sounds like we could use this town county money to do all this all the crosswalks we want. Restrictions on the use of that. I check. I mean, you know, other than it doesn't hurt to find out if we can use HUR, but if

So, according to Maryland Transportation Code 8-408, permitted use of highway user revenue funds, um, construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of highways and streets, transportation of facilities as defined, traffic control, and traffic safety related activities. Yes. 8-48 of their code. Any other questions you guys need by Friday? Answering is showing off. Look at her.

Yeah. Block. It's It's not It's not important for this discussion. Highway related infrastructure. Did you know that? I did not know that. All right. Well, thank you all for bringing that. An unfortunate situation, but thank you for jumping on that. All right. Um, any other questions? Any community, any residents concerns?

Jump over that. We're not talking about that. No, we're not. item number four. Okay. Due to the fact that I'm leaving, it was it was a retirement plan and it was just not enough time to properly present it to you guys. All right. Um given that we don't have any other items, we'll entertain motions to adjurnn. Make that motion. We have a motion to adjurnn in a second. All in favor state so by saying I. I. All opposed. We won't hear you. months from the last. Yeah.