Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome. Uh we are going to first I'm going to ask for a motion to close for for the public hearing on ordinance 271. I make a motion we close the regular March 10th meeting and open up a public hearing on ordinance number 271. I'll second that motion. Okay. All in favor?

I opposed. I don't think I heard I think I heard everybody say I. So okay. So, um, the public hearing on ordinance 271, we're going to answer any questions tonight and then we'll take a vote. Let me get my paperwork. See, I was talking to everybody for so long I got behind that I didn't get up here and get myself together. So, let me do that. So basically the 271 is an ordinance to amend part two of the code of the town of Manchester entitled general legislation by comprehensively amending various provisions of chapter 250 entitled zoning in order to update the zoning chapter. There was some house clean that need to be done that we've discussed and um we brought it up last month and now we're just taking public comment or questions before we take a vote. Does anybody have any questions or comments? Anybody up here have anything?

Okay, then let's get a motion to approve that if we could. Oh, yes, ma'am. Yeah. Right. Apologize. I take a month off and things fall. I forget everything. So, uh, we're going to, if nobody has any questions or anything, we are going to ask for a motion to close the public hearing. I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. I'll second it. All in favor? I posted. Okay. So, now we're going to call the meeting order. Can we stand for the pledge of allegiance, please?

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Thank you for everyone coming out. It was hard to get here on a 75 or 80 degree day, I'm sure, for everyone. So, I appreciate it. We'll move through things and get you back out in the nice weather. Um, let's start with a receipt of the January 2026 treasures report. I'll make a motion we receive the January 2026 treasures report. I'll second that. All in favor? I opposed.

Okay. Thank you. And also the February 2026 check register. I'll make a motion that we receive the February 2026 check register. I'll second. All in favor? I I

opposed. Okay, that carries as well. All right, I'll go on to the mayor's report. Okay. So, we are having our FY27 budget work session um tonight which will be held after the meeting. The next one will be March 25th at 6:30. Water bills will be mailed on March 31st and due Thursday, April 30th. The office is closed on Friday, April 3rd for um gosh, I almost said Black Friday. My goodness, forgive me. Good Friday. Hydrogen flushing is April 21st and 22nd starting at 900 PM. So, as we all know, sometimes you get brown water after that. Just be prepared. Let your water run just a little. The Charlotte Belet Memorial Scholarship due by May 1st. Um, so don't forget to pick up an application and you can at the guidance office at Manchester Valley or here or online at the man www.mmanchestermd.gov. The MML scholarship is due April 24th. Carol County chapter of the Maryland Municipal League offers three $1,000 scholarships. And again, you can go to our website for that as well. Um, yard waste pickup on Wednesdays. Huge trash will start April 8th and continue through December 16th. Um, we all know it has to be, you know, consist of grass clippings, leaves, and small branches, not in excess of three foot and or 4 inches in diameter. They have to be bundled in arm loads. Please don't put any plastic bags or mix anything else in with them, please. Bulk trash pickup is April 15th. You have to call Hughes, please, and ask them and they'll gladly say yes, I'm sure. And then you can put it out. Brush pickup is April 16th. Um, again, there's stipulations on that and each property will receive one pickup. Pavilion rentals will be available available to rent beginning April 18th. Um, again, your paint paint can disposals, please do not put them in the trash. They have to be completely dried and disposed of properly. Dog owners, please keep your dogs on a leash. quarter chain, especially when they're

not on your own property. We are going to have a Haley's Wish Playground dedication that we're going to hold the grand opening dedication of Haley's Wish Playground on Saturday, April, excuse me, May 2nd at 11:30. All are welcome to attend. That should be a pretty neat event. Um, and we're going to have a military banner program. So um because the town of Manchester is so grateful for the service and sacrifice of the men and women who protect our country um the active duty military members, veterans and family of fallen service members who have lived in Manchester or Lime Burough are invited to apply. Please find the application at the town office or online. Um basically what we're going to do is and when you came in the door you probably in the best of you probably saw this. So, we're if you want it, um, there's an application as well and I believe, if I remember correctly, the cost is approximately $110 and we're asking for the family to pay 60 of it and then we'll pay the rest and we're going to do it for at least two years. I think that's our goal. Is that what we said? Okay.

So, that's something that we want to try to do. We're trying to get all of it up and ready. Well, we are going to have it all up and ready for the 20 250th anniversary. So, um, we want to have all that ready, you know, by then. trying to come up with some neat ideas for for that. So, we have some ideas that we're working on as well. Um, this past week, I was at the Maryland Municipal League Mayor's Conference in Annapolis for a few days. To say it was interesting was an understatement. Um, we slid in legislation for a day. We have a lot of meetings, find out a lot of new things, and um, I brought some information back, so I'll be sharing that with everybody up here later. Um, but very interesting, and um, I hope they make some good decisions. We will see. All right. Um, town administrator. Okay. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh, a couple things on the administrative report this evening. Uh, at the nature center, BGE has picked a date to do their community cleanup event. It will be April 22nd down at the nature center. Uh, might have a little bit more information on that when it gets closer. uh our wastewater treatment plant upgrade which we talk about every month. Uh we had we have a MDE meeting scheduled for this Thursday that will include uh staff from the town, our design engineers, the state's engineers and the state finance group uh to discuss some issues that we currently have been trying to work through. So hopefully at the resolution of that meeting, we'll have a better direction and our plant will be back on the design path. Uh I've also submitted for congressional funding that was submitted on 39. Uh hopefully we can get some of that earmark money as they call it to help

with this project. We should know probably within a couple weeks if we've made uh the selection and then I believe within a couple months after that it works its way through the system down there. Uh the Manchester East facility uh the county is still working on procuring the property with that. Uh I do believe that they have started a preliminary design on that as well which will be good for the town. uh our trees and sidewalks on Main Street. The contractor C2 Crane and Tree has submitted the tree trimming application to Maryland DNR. They are working on getting that application finalized so they can begin. Uh hopefully before next month, we see some progress down there on the tree trimming. Uh I don't have any update on the crosswalk project at this point. Uh still waiting on answers back from Andrew with state highway. The watershed action grant that we got through NIWIFF. Uh the plan that Hannover Land has drafted has been approved by uh the EPA and all parties involved. Uh there was a site meeting held last week with SHA to investigate and inspect the storm drains under 27 that are failing and eroding uh around the drains causing potential issues to the roadway itself. So their design engineers were out looked at that. We also had county staff present for that meeting uh because we're looking at trying to find funding sources for this restoration project. uh that will ultimately have to take place down there. Uh on the Hometown Heroes flyers or the

Hometown Heroes banner program, uh as the mayor presented, uh applications are now being accepted. Uh we have some in, but we'd like a lot more. So, if you have family who have served uh and they're from this area, please feel free to drop us an application. Uh we are accepting any and all uh service members from the area. Uh the only thing we ask is that you can prove their service and we are asking for a picture right now. Uh we will follow up uh once we know how many there are for for checks and stuff like that. So uh we have a new website we are working on getting rolled out. We had a meeting on Monday to meet with them to go over some of the options that they have available, what we liked, what we didn't like. So, they are going to start drafting that and within a couple weeks we should have a draft that we are able to see that'll have our information on it and then from there the content will be moved over and our website will be live. So, that'll be a nice upgrade to our current website. So, with that, are there any questions on the town administrator report? Yeah, I have one. Um, I had the chance to inspect our crosswalks

and I inspected the ones at York and Maine and I inspected the ones at 27 and 30 and they are sad. I just wonder how long we're going to keep kicking this can down the road. I don't know who this Andrew is from state highways, but I think a call should be made to the district engineer because the one at 27 the concrete is actually there's a hole and the rebar shown and a child could could trip and fall. An elderly person could trip and fall. But the the the paint or the the u I don't know the material they use for the crosswalk is peeling off. it's going into the storm drains. I mean, it's it's a safety issue. And I think state highways should be aware of these safety issues that they can do something about it,

you know, and I think even if we have to go to Senator Ready and, you know, voice our concerns, you know, something something's got to be done. We we've kicked this can down the road for three years. Well, we have we have spoken to Justin Rey. Yeah, we have. Um, we had a meeting with him. Um, we also went to the meeting at Carol County for the improvements and um, we spoke to them and his boss was there as well and we made that clear again. And if correct me if I'm wrong if something's changed, but the last I heard is they were going to see if they could get it into this year's budget, but if it if it was more than what they had planned, it was going to have to be in this coming year. But maybe you know more than

that is correct. Yes, Andrew is the district engineer for this area. Uh the last correspondence I had with him, he kicked it up to another agency within the state highway for ideas. Uh last check, he had not heard anything back from them. So I will follow up with him again and see if I can also find some uh go down and take some pictures of the deterioration that you're speaking of to send him. It's so, you know, it's it's uh opened up so bad that you can actually see the rebar. Yeah. And that's, you know, it's it's in the concrete. It's in the the concrete beside the crosswalk.

So, two of the options that they had pitched so far, but they haven't gotten back with any details on it, was one to see if they could find a contractor that could rework what was there. The second option was they basically do stamped asphalt. If they went with that option, they would they were requiring us to sign anouou and we would basically be responsible from that point forward for the crosswalks on but it's their highway, right? Yes. They considered it an upgrade or a betterment

than what was there. So they were going to basically uh work anou that if they did the stamped asphalt then from that point forward we were responsible for all maintenance, repair and replacement going forward. And my answer is no because we did that with the sidewalks and look where that got us. Unless we can negotiate something with the trees. Yes. So that that was my answer. I said well that got us real far when we went real far with that when we did the sidewalk. So and the trees. So, um I think that was like a sore subject, but that was my opinion. Yeah, I will definitely follow up with Andrew and get some pictures tomorrow sent to the state. Very good. Thank you.

Okay. Are there any other questions on the administrative report? Okay, moving on to the director of public works report. Uh you have the flow report for water and wastewater in front of you. uh on the water and wastewater. Our POS design is still progressing. Uh don't have much of an update there. We have a progress meeting next week with the design engineers. Uh this early on, progress is normally on the slow side as they work on getting information from the field compiled. Uh hopefully within the next couple months, we see stuff on on paper. So,

excuse me if I I'm a little concerned with the ENR project in this. It's understandable. It's two very big uh infrastructure projects happening at the same time. It's very understandable. Not for me.

So, uh we've already pretty much discussed DNR project. We have a meeting this Thursday. Uh our wastewater treatment plant blower failure. The repaired blower has been returned and they expect to uh install next week. Uh on the pisto system failure, the parts have been ordered. We are waiting for delivery and then we will work on repairing that system. Uh on the parks, maintenance and facilities, uh the new bleachers have arrived. I believe they were out working on them possibly today. I saw uh we had to put a claim in for the first set that came because they were damaged. So, they sent us the the parts that were damaged. We replaced those and I believe they were working on them today. Uh Christmas Tree Park also has a new side another sidewalk in it. Uh this was budgeted in this year's budget to go from the swing set up to the parking lot. Uh that was completed yesterday. uh on the storm water inlet and pipe repair project that was awarded back in November to White Pine. Construction for that is supposed to be starting sometime in April and that will consist of storm water pipe replacement and inlet repairs replacements. Uh one of the first spots they will hit is Grafton Street uh so that they can get that repaid after the solar project. Uh we've had a couple winter events since last time we met. The town staff did an exceptional job keeping our roads clear. I heard nothing but good things and comments from the public and the public works has two action items for this evening. So before we get into those, are there any comments or questions for the public works report?

Okay. So, the first action item that public works is requesting is the paving of the driveway at the Ferry Road pump house. The town receives nine proposals uh with the three lowest presented in front of you. Uh they would like to make recommendation that we award to sure I got this correct here. I believe they would like to reward it to CPE even though they were the second bid uh their contingency items were less and the difference between first and second bid was $110.

It's significantly less. Yeah, their contingency items are significantly less on the second better. So, I have some questions. Um, okay. First of all, this this was not one of the areas listed in the fiscal year 26 budget. That is correct. And it appears that we have $335,000 left in this existing budget. Uh

that that's actually a typo on that one. Uh there is $216,340 left. Okay. 216,000. Without me going back into the budget, have we completed all of the streets that were slated to be completed in the fiscal year 26? We have. We we got really good prices this year on our road repairs. Okay. So that left us with this surplus currently. Uh they are other they are also evaluating other streets that need uh that we could also do in this if we can in this financial year with what we have. Okay.

Uh I'm having heartburn over this because this is an area that's used twice a day or maybe three times a day. Um I I I don't know. I don't know if the application is right for the location and um I say this because 4 in of blacktop I don't see any contingencies for stone base and if you're putting in a road if you're putting in something that's going to last you want to do it right and $35,000 isn't going to cut it.

So So there is a stone fill contingency on on these bids. It it's small. I think Rodney was trying to get it all on one sheet, but they are listed under the the price there.

Okay. So, the bid price does not include stone. That was correct. Okay. That's going to blow the budget. That's going to blow the price because if the contingency is $50 a square yard and it's not if if the number if the bid number shown is just for 4 in of black top and no base that that's not a good bid. I mean that's that's that's a bloom bid. So are they going to take out the stone and asphalt millings that are there or No, they were going to you were going to use what is there as millings as their base. Sounds like we're going to have to go back and uh ask them to

you bid this and change correct it. Correct. Yeah. This isn't I mean this isn't in my opinion it's not a complete bid. I mean a complete bid is a finished roadway. you know, your your six or eight inches of stone, your your asphalt on top of it, and and this is a hillside, and the water's going to rush down the hillside. And I I know in the bid there were water breaks in there, but that water's got to go somewhere, and it and the somewhere is the stream because that's the lowest point.

So, there's a lot of issues that fall into play with this. So, if we pave this and it's not pvious anymore, which means we're offsetting water. Is this going to be a storm water management issue? Uh, I mean, obviously when it washes out in the stone and the asphalt goes into this, that's an issue. I'm not saying it's not an issue, but if we are taking 1,200 feet and black topping it and it rains, if it's stone, it's got a chance of going in through the stone. Otherwise, with the black top, it's just going to displace all of it. And won't it wash out the sides if it's hills and things?

Uh, that 1,200 ft is from the bottom of the hill and then up over the hill and down over part of that. It's the whole I mean, it's the whole the whole driveway, but no matter whether it rains at the top of the hill or the bottom of the hill, it's running correct off. So, we're displacing both ways. We're displacing all that water that could be absorbed some of it. It's an impervious surface and that need a better drainage. That water has to go somewhere,

you know, and and one of the comments I made in my email was, you know, we're not through this winter yet. Hopefully, we are, but you know, we we have to take stock in in how much damage was done to our current streets from this winter and you know what's you know what what is that going to take to repair? So there's a lot of there's a lot of issues. So So if you would like, we can table this and I can go back to public works and and ask for more information. We're going to table this and get more information and then if they have to go back and redo the whole bid, then they'll have to go back and redo the bid. Correct. Correct.

When you go back to them, can you find out approximately if it washes out frequently, how much are we doing work-wise to replace? Like how often are we having to fill holes back in and fix what gets washed out? Is it once a month? Is it how much maintenance? Yeah. What's our maintenance on that? Is it every time it rains we have to do it? It What's the situation on that? Okay. So, we're going to table it, get the information, and we can bring it back next month or however long it takes to get the information. Mhm. But we're not going to vote on this tonight.

Okay. And then the other action item is the historical center window replacement. There are 22 windows down there that need replaced. We received three proposals ranging from $14,461 all the way to 27,500. We have $13,739 uh in this financial year budget for this project. Uh Kelly says that we have funds in the overall historical center budget that would cover this $700 shortfall. Uh so the recommendation is to award this to all four exterior LLC for $14,46122.

I have a question. Okay. I think Steve asked it earlier, but I want to verify the UV on the windows and the tint and things like that. Correct. are the reason is the reason this bid is half the price because they're not doing that because we have to have that for the historic No, I talked to our facilities maintenance technician this morning. He's the one who uh solicited for these prop these bids. Uh he said that in the scope of the work included the tinting on the windows. He said currently what is there was applied as Steve said after after windows were installed. Uh this would do the same thing. Okay. The reason why there's such a big discrepancy.

Uh I cannot answer that. Uh I don't know if it's profit and overhead. I know all four is a much smaller company than the other, you know, like uh they have a lot of overhead in the other two companies. I don't know if that's why, but just knowing the who the three companies are, that could be it. I don't know. Yeah. I'm not sure. I can't answer that. It equals out to $657 a window. I don't know if that's good or bad. I know. I don't know because you don't know the size of the windows. You

you got to buy purchase the window then installation charges, you know. I I don't know if that's a good price or bad price. Well, anybody have any questions or do we want to take a vote or on this or do we need to do additional research because that's what it sounds like to me that there are some questions about the value cost of the windows. Is this something we should investigate, Steve, a little further? I mean, I don't know what windows cost. I don't know what I don't know either, but I think that's a good price for the window. So, I just curious. I'm thinking my windows in my house are $1,200 a piece.

Yeah. Mine were like $900 a piece to replace. Yeah. This this number seemed awful low to me because a good window is roughly about $1,000. Well, are we comparing apples to apples? That's a question. Is somebody using Anderson and somebody using right Home Depot for who? The first one. I used they only did a couple but I mean I don't know if your windows are like the ones at town. I mean they're quite they're not like right the ones in the in the uh

old meeting room are pretty much uniform. Yeah, but the ones up front are different sizes. So I mean they, you know, some of them may have to be custom made. Well, I would hope that he went came out and measured them all. Yeah, they met everybody on site. Yeah. Yeah. And they're all the same quality from the three companies. That's what I said. We don't like because we want to preserve the history. That's the main goal, right? Like so it doesn't get sun in there. And can you just I know we Here's an issue with tableing us. What's the story with the windows if we table it another month? Is there an issue? Is there an issue with the windows if we don't do anything yet? Uh I do not believe so. I don't believe they're leaking.

Well, we're going to do the same thing. We're going to table it. make sure they're what type of what who they're using for the manufacturers and things like that because we don't have any information here of who they're using or anything. I'm assuming that whoever got the bid has all that, but we don't have it. So, we'll table it and if you can bring it back and send it to everybody, then that would be great for them to look at and then we can proceed next month. Okay. Yeah. Have them supply a cut sheet, a spec sheet. Maybe maybe Peek has that. He's usually pretty good about it, so hopefully he'll Yeah, Peek handled the bidding and the solicitation of those bids. So, I will reach out to him tomorrow. We'll table that till next month. And that is all I have for public works this evening.

One last question before we move on. I realize it's March, but the pool will be opening soon. Where do we stand in regards to have they have they made repairs? Are they on the process? I was I was just thinking about that earlier that the pool would soon be opening. I have not touched base with the Lions Club. I know they were looking for grant opportunities and stuff to help repair their pool. I don't know if they found what they needed. Uh I will have to reach out to I believe guy Gary and see. If you don't mind that'd be awesome because I don't want to run into the issue that we have we seem to keep having where we fill they fill a pool then they turn around have to drain it, fix it, fill it again where we have two or three fills a season. Very good question. I think at the end of last year if I remember correctly we told them it had to be repaired before they were able to fill it this year. Mhm.

I know we talked as a group. I was hoping that they were that they were told that um make sure because now that I bet you they're going to open the pool in the beginning of May to get it all ready for the end of May and they have to have repaired because we're not going to have them emptying it and filling it and emptying and filling it when we're making our own the people that live in our town not be able to fill their pool and not be able to wash their cars and you know if we have a drought but we're not going to allow them to keep emptying the pool and filling it. We can't do that. So, if you could find out they've done the repairs and proof that they've done the repairs, I will I will reach out tomorrow to the line personnel. Okay. Police report, chief.

Yes, ma'am. Short and sweet. Um, we had two thefts to report uh for the month of February. That was our two part one crimes. One appears to be out of area. Uh, the first one and the main one involve sheets. uh three, four subjects come up out of Baltimore City. They went into the sheets. They first parked at Long View Nursing Home. The suspect crossed over 30, walked in the sheets, literally jumped over the counter, told the uh customer service guy not to move. He then pulled out a black trash bag, loaded $3,000 worth of cigarettes, left sheets, went up Long View Long View. He was completely masked up. Um we spotted his tennis shoes. What were those shoes again?

Nikes. Yeah, the Nike Nike

some $200 tennis shoe. So anyway, we started tracking them with the cameras. Uh he crosses up, he goes up Long Lane, goes into a yard, takes off the mask, takes off a couple piece of clothing, dumps the trash bag, goes back across, goes down into uh Long View Nursing Home. They jump in the car. Then they come up 30. He gets out, goes across, grabs the bag, and then they proceed south on 30. Um, we got some great pictures. Uh, Officer Yach did an incredible job. She chased the cameras. We got some good footage. We got a bolo out. Baltimore County had the same suspects over in Perry Hall, I believe. Uh, Howard County is also looking for them. And today, they wrote an arrest warrant for our suspect. We got them positively identified. got to follow up on a search warrant to tie a couple other pieces in. We're hoping to get some prints out of the the gloves. They were all from Baltimore County or actually Baltimore City down around Pering Parkway and then the one lived off of uh Kimble Road in Northeast District. Uh I think it's a brother two brothers that were actually doing it. They've done it a couple times. So hopefully we got them locked in. Baltimore City just issued a warrant for him as well. What was that for? Was that theft or something else?

I'm sorry. Was that a theft for Baltimore City or Yeah, that was a personatch. Personatch. They got Baltimore City's got a warrant for them. Believe Baltimore County has them and now we have them and hopefully the warrant get solved. I mean, uh, signed off on. So, that was our Why this mic? I hate these mics. I talk loud enough.

So, that was our biggest step for the uh month of February. Uh, I told you, Jay, it's not a lot of crime, man. It's not what we're used to, man. So, uh, juveniles, we, uh, charged zero juveniles this month. Uh, we had criminal charges on nine adults. Uh, traffic enforcement was 151. There was 106 calls for service. It was a pretty low mo month for the, uh, calls for service. And we had three warrants. Uh, overdoses, again, 50% decrease. The numbers are going down. I was just looking at the municipality report year-to- date. Hamstead has two. We're holding at zero. Sykesville zero. Tony Town zero, but Westminster there's only one. That's a pretty low number. That's actually that's a that's a good good sign there. So the overdoses are down, the fatalities are down. So definitely the overdoses are all heading in the right direction. Hopefully it stays that way. That's about it.

Good. Any questions? Thank you. Okay, we're going to have the discussion now of ordinance 271 comprehensively amending various provisions of chapter 250 entitled zoning. Does anybody have questions on that or concerns or anything else to discuss? Okay. Think we have a make a motion we accept ordinance number 271 as it pertains to zoning. I'll second the motion. All in favor?

I I opposed. Okay. Ordinance 271 carries and passes.

We're going to have an introduction of ordinance number 272 on the snow and ice. Um, I'll try to give you a quick rundown on this as I as much as I can. Um, the town has been experiencing recent recent circumstances where property owners abudding sidewalks have not been timely and adequately removing snow and ice from the sidewalks. So, it currently imposes an obligation to remove the snow and ice from sidewalks abudding only certain roads within the town. Um, we are going to change that to reflect a general obligation to remove snow and ice from all streets and roads within the town due to the owing due and owing to the fact that since enactment of chapter 182, the town has grown and in order to better encourage snow and ice removal, increasing the penalties for failure to comply, which have not been updated in some time. Town council has determined it to be the best interest of the town to do this. Um, let's see. So now it reads, "All owners and persons in possession of any land or premises situated on any street, alley, or highway within the limits of the town where sidewalks have been or may hereafter be laid shall remove the snow there from the entire length therefore the width of at least three feet and may deposit the same along the remaining portion um after it has ceased falling. um shall be removed before 6 p.m. this the next day. Um and that's pretty much any violation of the chapter is declared to be an infraction subject to a fine of $150 for the initial offense and 300 for every additional violation that occurs within the fiscal year.

Okay. So we'll do that and then next So we'll have a public hearing on next month. Yep. Okay. So, everybody knows about that. And discussion discussion of resolution 1-2026 to clarify which streets, roads, and alleys in the town are the town's responsibilities. So, this is going to be another discussion for right now, I believe. Um, see I'm just trying to So, the town will follow the MDOT State Highway Administration roadway maintenance responsibility list only way only what is listed in the city of or municipal highway agency responsibility. Um, pending further review and adjustment of subsequent resolutions that the town will maintain roadways as listed on the M.SHA roadway maintenance responsibility list as city or municipal highway agency responsibility within the town limits of Manchester. Um, basically if you live on a street that's not really a state highway, um, and you want it plowed, it's going to be your job to plow it, not the town is the best way I can really put it. Correct.

So, this cleans up some issues we found over the winter. Uh, there was some, uh, disagreement on who's responsible for certain roadways in town. So, this cleans all that up. Uh so basically the town the state will be responsible for state highways that that's uh as is the town will only be responsible for any roadways listed on the state highways roadway maintenance responsibility chart as city or municipal highway agency responsibility. So the state does a very good job of an interactive map that shows every roadway in the county or actually in the state uh and who has the ultimate responsibility for maintenance of said roadway. So this cleans all that up uh going back basically to a council decision in 1994. So, uh, you guys as the council can discuss this this evening and if you would like, you can actually make a motion and vote on it. It doesn't have to have a public hearing next month because it's a resolution.

Oh, go ahead, Steve. I I think it's good legislation. I I think this clears up all the questions about the common use driveways and so on so forth. So that that's my take on it. Um I I'll entertain them. I'll make a motion. Is everybody here comfortable with voting to vote tonight? I am. I am. Yeah. Make a motion, please. See? Okay. I make a motion that we accept resolution number 01-2026 to clarify which streets, roads, and alleys are the town's responsibilities. I'll second. All in favor? I I

opposed. Okay, the resolution passes. Thank you, Steve. Okay, next we will have comments from the community. Um, public comments. Jay Lansman, would you like to come up to the microphone just announce who you who you are and appreciate the opportunity to uh introduce myself. My name is Jay Lansman. I'm running for sheriff in 2026. Um just wanted to let everybody know there's another uh name on the ballot in the June Republican primary. I spent 30 years of my life in law enforcement. uh 26 and a2 years with the Baltimore County Police Department uh going from the rank of teenage cadet to colonel of operations and serving in a variety of investigative and uh patrol command roles along the way. My family has been in law enforcement for uh 90 years um going back to 1936. My grandfather spans four generations, 14 of us, including my my dad and now all the way down to to my son, all my siblings. Um, we have deep roots in this county. Um, most of the family in in law enforcement uh has spent many years serving communities off of Route 30, 140, and Liberty Road. Um, we have deep roots in this county. A lot of family ac across the county. My first childhood home was right here on Oak Street uh in Manchester. I was baptized at St. Bartholomew. Um I met my wife Jen uh who's in the audience here working at George's grocery store which was used to be a Carol County mainstay. We had our first date at the Caroltown Movies in 1992. We were married in 1998, moved to Westminster, raised two kids. We are now

empty nesting grandparents. I am not here tonight to disparage anybody's service uh to this county and and you know I just want to give the people of Carol County a choice for the first time in 12 years. I know that name familiarity and uh you know name recognition is a big thing in the county but leadership is about more than familiarity and name recognition. It's about judgment. It's about accountability and a vision for the future. I just I'm just looking for the opportunity to exercise servant leadership in Carol County as your next sheriff. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Jennifer, were you gonna speak or were you just for moral support? So, it looks like the next three people are all with light fiber. Is that correct? So, is there one of you speaking? Are you all speaking or We're going to be quick. Each one will be quick. Okay. Whoever wants to go first can go first.

Um, mayor, council, members, um, police chief, and Miss Baldwin and Mr. uh, Lyster. My name is Chris Shepman. I'm the president of U Flight Fiber. Um tonight what I want to do is just talk about who we are as an organization as well as our investment uh in Manchester. Um Flight Fiber is a privately held organization. 100% of our investment in Manchester is um privately held funds. We did not go out and get government funds. We didn't go get grants. Uh we didn't request any state funding for our investment. Um my mission as a leader is to invest in the community and tonight we're going to talk about what that investment looks like. Um our goal is to provide highquality fiber internet connections to businesses as well as the homes. Uh our pro our overall approach is to do business with people. Uh and as we created our business plan, we quickly realized that uh having a face-to-face conversation is the most important part of our business. As we went through discussions of launching fiber, launching the business plan, we quickly realized that some folks were not comfortable with the doortodoor knocking doortodoor conversations. Uh and tonight we'd like to talk about what that is. uh how how do we create that uh I'll say face-to-face trusted conversation versus just sending mailers or calling folks on on on the phone. Um the overall uh goal for me as a leader is to have this conversation uh instead of just sending and calling and and requesting access uh to your community and your con constituents. Uh my goal tonight was to talk through the plan of action and what

that would look like and also create accountability not only for me as the leader uh but for my team uh to put a face and and name with uh the initiative. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce Val. Uh she is the market leader for Manchester as well as Carol County. Do I need to officially call or No, you go ahead. May I pass that to you?

Um, good evening and um, again, thank you for giving us the opportunity to chat for a few minutes. Um, as Chris said, my name is Valerie Jovini and I'm the market development manager uh, for Carol County for Ant and Broadband and I oversee our doortodoor sales program and I'm way shorter than Chris. Is this okay? Can you guys hear me? Okay, I just noticed that I'm like looking up at that. So Chris just walked you through who we are as a company and what this partnership means for Manchester. And so I want to spend a couple minutes of my time focusing on something different. How we run this program and why it matters so much to me personally. I'm not someone who comes in from another county or another state to run this program. I'm a Carol County resident. This community is home. These are my neighbors. These are the people I stand behind in Walmart. and they are who I see when I'm at my son's high school lacrosse games. So, when our team is out in a community like Manchester, I believe it reflects on me directly and I take that incredibly seriously. I monitor this program closely every single day. I know where our reps are, how they're representing our brand, and how they're interacting with residents. As a matter of fact, when reps and residents have additional questions at the door, it's my cell phone that they call. I'm the point of contact. If something isn't right, I address it immediately because this is my county, my reputation, and your residents deserve the absolute best. It's no accident that we have a strong track record across Carol County with our door-to-door sales in places like Sykesville, Tony Town, and New Windsor, where mayors have shared their positive experiences with our team and where resident satisfaction continues to stay high. Every representative I send out to the neighborhoods is certified, trained, locally onboarded, and held to the highest standards of safety, identification, and municipal compliance. I ensure badges are worn and visible, branding is clear on the vest

and hat, and permits are obtained prior to knocking and carried on their person. We operate with a what I call a respect first standard, meaning we honor no solicit signs. We don't pressure and we treat every resident like we're stepping onto our front porch. Why does this matter for Manchester? Because not everyone gets or even sees information through mailers, emails, or online ads. Some of your residents really do benefit from face-to-face support. Think seniors, new homeowners, and people who just prefer to talk to a real human being. And when you're talking about something as essential as connectivity for work, school, teleaalth, and daily life, having someone at the door who can answer questions clearly and honestly makes a big difference. My team helps bridge that communication gap, and we make sure residents feel informed, supported, and respected, not sold to. When I say we want to be Manchester's trusted local partner, I mean it. You'll never have to wonder who's in your community or how they're operating because I'll know. I'm accountable and I'm right here in the county watching over it. At the end of the day, my goal is really simple. To make sure Manchester residents have a positive experience at their door and to feel confident in the people representing this partnership. As a Carol County resident, that's a responsibility I'm proud to stand behind. On the document, you'll see that we have a partnership with Miller Bros. And we're lucky enough tonight to have the manager who individually trains the representatives here. and I wanted to just give him an opportunity to share with you all what significant amount of training that all of these reps go through before they knock on one single door.

Okay. I have a I have a question. This might be a silly question and I probably should know the answer. However, I had someone ask me this already when they heard about you guys. If you have a your your internet or your your email is through Comcast or it's through whoever and they go with you guys and they leave Comcast, what happens? Do they have to change their email? That's their concern.

No, we get this question so often and I'm going to respond. I'm going to follow up. I'll send Mr. Lyster the official email tomorrow because I've seen this in writing from Comcast. So long as you log in every so often to this Comcast email. It's our understanding and we've seen that you don't lose it, you can keep it. But we have this documented from the Comcast website and I'll make sure that Mr. Lyster gets that information so you have a answer that I'm more prepared to say this is your answer. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Awesome. And so this is Parley Gentry from Miller Rose. Okay.

Uh hello. Thank you all for uh you know, I don't know how I can really follow that up. Val and Chris are some of the best people y'all y'all ever meet in terms of uh you really caring about the the people that they serve with the with the product that we represent. Um I as Valad mentioned I work with Miller Bros Cells. We partner with flight. Uh so any any representative that would you know if if we are allowed to come into y'all's communities if y'all give us that permission uh any representative that comes in is going to go directly through me and and my other coworker my man the other person that manages uh this area with us. Um we everyone underos a strict background check and drug checks uh drug tests uh before they can come on and work with us. Um, we find that incredibly important because we want to leave a a very positive interaction with everyone at the doors and um we have turned down many reps that have wanted to come work with us uh because they couldn't pass checks. Um with uh with that being said, the the people that do come on uh there's an extensive online training uh that they go through and then inerson trainings. Um we cover product knowledge, we cover uh respect at at the doors. uh by no means uh the the the process that we try to train our reps on is not uh a process of pressure but uh what makes sense for the person we're talking to. There are times uh and I I believe the product that flight has is flight fiber is uh an incredible product and I think most people will be able to benefit from it. Um, but there are times where it doesn't make sense for the customer to move forward. And at the end of the day, the way I train our train of the reps that

come in is we uh ask a lot of questions to figure out, you know, will it make sense for this customer to move forward on our fiber? Will it make financial sense? Will it make um will it make sense from a service perspective? uh will it make uh will the customer have an easy experience uh coming over or will it will they need more time before they'll be ready? And so we we don't really uh apply pressure uh when we're on the doors. uh we respect if someone has a no soliciting sign uh we don't approach those doors uh because we at the end of the day as Val mentioned it's a respect first um it it's all about respecting uh respecting people and their wishes uh when we uh one thing I I I do want to say though is uh you know I've I've been in this area in in Carol County working this uh the past two weeks myself uh being in the market in the field uh meeting people and uh I found that there are a lot of people uh that are paying a lot of money that we've been able to help save a lot of money uh making their uh everyday uh costs go down and that's my passion for doing this. I've been doing this 10 years and um I love helping people uh find a way to put more money in their pocket which means they can go on vacations, they can spend more money in their local communities and uh Flight has an incredible product uh that allows uh allows their customers to do that. It's no matter how you know I think it's about 90% of all mailers, cards that are left with people get thrown in thrown in the trash. Uh, and that's where a representative like myself or the uh the reps that that I train uh come in handy. They're able to go out and actually help

people through that bust through that door uh of of uh uh you know of of getting started with a better service. But that's that's pretty much uh everything I had to say. Um, I hope y'all know that if if y'all do permit us to come in and and be able to work with y'all's communities and uh allow us to talk to uh the residents here in Manchester uh at their own homes. Um just like Val said that everyone answers to them. They also answer to me. They represent me when they're on the door. They represent Miller Bros. They represent Flight. Uh, so we we hold our reps accountable. If someone does something that they shouldn't, uh, they're they get they're off the team. Um, and so I just want you all to know if y'all need my contact information or anything, I'll leave it with y'all. Uh, so y'all can contact me directly. Thank you all for uh, letting me come up here.

Thank you. Appreciate it, guys. Okay, so let's do move on to our committee reports. Is there anybody else that wanted to speak? Okay, let's move on to our community reports. Um, Councilman Azeroth. Oh, I just want to ask when you're doing the new website, is there a chance you could put something? Yes, we're working on not horses. I know because you can't have horses. I already talked to them about that per your request. As much as Yes, we've already given instructions to some of our staff if they're out and they see a picture worthy moment to take a picture of it for the website. just Main Street is a pretty picture where the leaves are on the tree.

Yeah, we have them we have them searching out the right photo. But yes, I I I passed your message on that you told me. Yeah. So, we may start with some stock photos, but they will transition to town photos. Yeah, bring them up. Yeah, we can send you out shopping. See what you can find. Um Okay. Okay. Councilman, guess we didn't address the horse ordinance. It was more the chicken one. Right. Right. Yeah. Okay. Um I think uh intergovernmental relations uh Matt and Mayor already addressed that as well. They've been meeting with them to see how it can work with the state. So nothing to report for me in these uh these committees right now. Okay. Thank you, Councilman Steve Miller.

Uh Matt did a good job reviewing the capital projects. Uh, also we received a very good audit report from our independent auditors, uh, Clifton, Larson, and Allen. So, Kelly, thank you very much. And staff, thank you. Very good. Thanks again, Kell. She gets through one hard process and we bring her right to another budget season. She doesn't get a break. Uh,

just a couple things. A few of us are attending the quarterly MML at um Union Bridge, I believe. UN bridge is hosting it. That's this Thursday. So, that puts us um in with that. Um could we possibly, and I just thought of this, could we look into exploring possibly a photo contest and open it up to all the town residents for photos for our website? See if we can figure something out. If we're looking for photos, maybe beyond just our staff, I'm sure there's some amateur photographers or maybe professionals in the area that we might be able to do something and have some kind of little contest to get some pictures up there. We can definitely do that because I bet you at the historical center, too. Probably one, there's probably some really cool ones that are out and around.

So, it be neat to see what people can come up with. Um, number three, uh, if you're looking for something to do next Saturday, it looks like they're calling for a chance of rain. Um the fire department is doing their uh bingo with the Easter Bunny. It's geared more mostly towards kids. It's 10 games of bingo. Um and the prizes are Easter baskets filled with toys and different things. And if you're if you win, you get to pick whichever basket you want. Um information for that and flyers is out there. We're getting it added on um to the thing. There's a QR code or you can call or text uh the phone number for information on that. And then the last thing after our meeting last month when Emma shared her exciting news about them taking a trip out west. Um we've done some behind the scenes work and the Manchester Fire Department is collaborating with Emma's group coming in May. I'm not going to share the date yet because we don't have all the details finalized, but we're looking at towards the end of May doing a drive-thru dinner type situation where you can order your dinner ahead of time. Drive through, come pick it up. All of the proceeds, all of it is going to Emma's group. So hopefully we can all band together as a community. Um, get the word out there. As soon as we have all the details, we're going to push it out everywhere we can get. Fire department's only covering their expenses and everything that's brought in profit-wise goes directly to the group to get them out to Indiana so that they can bring home a win.

Very nice. Very nice. Council, I attended the Charlotte's Quest board of directors meeting last night. Matt had already touched on the BG partnership for April 22nd, which happens to be Earth Day. That includes the storm cleanup, picnic tables, and benches. So, it's going to be a pretty involved process. uh for members only. There's the egg hunt has been moved to March 28th and going out a little bit. The 17th of May from 11 to 1 is their plant swap, but we'll touch on that again next month. That would be it. Council Kuno,

the planning and zoning committee met on February 17th. Uh at the meeting, we met with representatives from the Patriots Overlook project uh to kind of review their updated plans. Members of the community were able to ask questions of the developer and there's a lot of good back and forth. Um, a lot of questions came out of it and we have a work session scheduled for next Wednesday with uh, Patriots Overlook to kind of go through some revisions. Thank you. Okay, Emma, it's your turn.

Hello. For those of you who don't know me, um, my name is Emma Hubler. I am the student representative from Manchester Valley High School. I guess we'll begin with um, the news that Councilwoman Miller shared. We're very grateful to the fire department. Um, if you don't know, I'm a part of my school thesbian troop and we competed in January at the Maryland Thesbsian Festival at Talson University. Our show, our production took home a perfect 20 out of 20 score. We won numerous awards for performance, for vocal technique, for costume design, and we were invited to represent the state of Maryland at the International Thesbian Festival in Indiana this June from June 21st to 27th. It is an incredibly amazing like it's an honor for us because it's the first time Carol County has been selected to attend. Um, but it's also very very expensive. It's um totals to around $50,000 for all of our actors to attend and 20% of our actors cannot afford to pay for their own trip. So, we've started fundraising and we've already raised $6,400 through our GoFundMe, which I have a lovely QR code right here if you would like to donate, but we still have to raise the rest of that money. So, um anything you can contribute is appreciated. If you know any businesses that would love to contribute, we are like very very happy for any support that we can get. Um, and especially thanks to the fire department. That's an amazing fundraising opportunity for us. Uh, speaking of fundraising opportunities, we are hosting an IT cabaret on March 28th at 700 p.m. Admission will be $10 and it goes to support our efforts to afford to go to the festival. You can come and you can

watch students sing songs, perform monologues, do scenes, and numerous other performances. It's going to be great. It's going to be like an hour and a half um a Friday night. So, come out and see the kids. Matilda rehearsals are well in the works. Our shows for the spring musical are coming up on April 17th, 18th, 24th, and 25th. Prepaid tickets are now available on the school website. Our honors vocal ensemble, which is our highest level chorus group at school, performed at the Carol County Coral Adjudications on Friday the 6th. And we've received a superior score in sight singing and an excellent score in stage performance. Our band and orchestra groups are performing at their adjudications at Wyinners Mill High School today and tomorrow. So, I guess we'll hear about their scores soon. And then finally for performing arts, the Carol County Eststeadfed performance is coming up on March 20th and that's going to be at Westminster High School at I believe 700 p.m. Um 10 Manchester Valley High School students will be performing in it. I am one of them. Um but it's a very selective course group. 10 students from each Carol County schools. They get to come together, learn a bunch of music, and then perform it with a guest conductor, which that's definitely going to be fun. Um, in sports news, we had a senior place first at Wrestling States, making her the 2026 state champion for Manchester Valley High School. Um, the girls varsity basketball team won the 2A North Championships and are competing in the state semi-finals tonight at Queen Ans High School, so hopefully we can take home a win. And tonight there's also the start of varsity tennis, softball, and varsity baseball at um Patterson Mill and Urbana High School and then C Milton Wright High School,

which it's interesting. We have all the spring sports starting up the final push to the end of the year. And for other news, the 2026 Manchester Valley High School Carson Scholar is freshman Torren Farmer. He will be receiving a $1,000 college scholarship and an invitation to a banquet in May. Um, another Manchester Valley High School student, Vivian Huntington, was the recipient of the Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizens Award. She's also receiving a scholarship, and that was for her responsibility and outstanding character and efforts in the community. The class of 2029 is hosting their Bloom into Spring Designer Bag Bingo on Saturday, April 11th. Doors for that will open at 4 p.m. Your regular tickets are $25 and your premium tickets, which include the early bird and the special games, are $50. Manchester Valley High School is hosting their spring blood their spring blood drive on March 27th with the Red Cross coming into our schools to, I guess, educate students on donating blood and taking student blood donations. Um, and then finally, there's a restaurant fundraiser night at Green Mount Station on March 18th from 11 to 9:00. So, if you mention that you are with Manchester Valley High School, 15% of the sales go to all of the Manchester Valley classes. And that's everything I have for tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to tell you every single meeting how much we appreciate you. But don't forget about our Black Friday. We were going to sing, remember? Oh, yes. I I have to make I have to make sure we can Oh, yeah. I I talked to my course teacher. She knows. Okay. Can you put the word in? We're trying to line some things up now. I will. I'll I'll I'll keep pushing for it. Okay. Thank you. All right. Does anybody else have anything? No. Okay. Well, thank you all for coming out and let's cross fingers for some more warm weather. And um can I have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion we adjurnn. I'll second it. All in favor? I I Good night everyone. We'll be staying for