Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call to order the uh public uh hearing uh regarding ordinance 0-26-1 and ordinance of the town council of Chesig Beach, Maryland, amending chapter 196 parks and public areas of the town code, article 3, Boardwalk Park, paragraph 196-20. Skateboards, bicycles, and other conveyance is prohibited to permit bicycle riding on the town boardwalk under certain conditions. Laura, are you going to explain this, please? Uh,

sure. Um, so this ordinance came out of my committee and what the ordinance does basically is it allows bicycles on the boardwalk when they were previously prohibited. Um, another thing that it does is, um, there are certain things like scooters that were prohibited and, um, you know, hard wheeled like kid type of um, recreational vehicles, if you will. And it says you can have them, but they have to have pneumatic wheels. So, before they were banned, now we're saying if they have pneumatic wheels, they can have them. Um, and then the last thing it does is it allows for um the boardwalk to be used to get for transportation um for just jogging um going to and from work, going to and from um town after hours. So nothing else has changed in this ordinance. Everything else is as it was in our town code. The goal of my committee was to allow bikes on the boardwalk when they were previously prohibited and that's what we attempted to do. So, um, with that, um, does anybody have any public comment?

So, it's the walkable committee for bicycles. I'm sorry. Your committee is the walkable committee, correct? It's the walkable community advisory group. Yes. Okay. That's called WAG.

Okay. Any anybody have any questions or comments with regard to this uh ordinance that's being uh planned? Um hearing none, we can adjourn. I'm sorry. Yes, there was a written comment. Um, and so the written comment had to do with requesting that our town council ban um motorized vehicles. And my committee didn't do that in this section of the code that we want to amend because motorized vehicles are already banned in everything but roads and places built for that. Um I can find the section of the code where they are not allowed. It's 196-5. Uh the title is motorized vehicles. So there there really was no need to consider that particular comment because it didn't apply to the area code that we're addressing.

Great. I think that clarifies uh actually the um the email that I have included um says ebikes, electric bikes. I don't believe there's motors and electric bikes. Not sure if that's covered under motorized vehicles, but it specifically is um asking for ebikes to be banned. They have electric motors, right? I think that ebike be considered motorized. The the e would run on motors. I think that that's something that we would take up in the other section. I

think our attorney has something to say. Turn the mic on. Well, it does specifically cover motorized bicycles, but I I guess it would never. It does. Electric motor. So, if it does, then I I think it's covered. I I would I would also uh align with Eric on this one where I I do not consider an ebike to be consistent with a motorized vehicle. That that doesn't make sense. Uh just a simple Google search will validate that. Anybody else? That wasn't directed toward you, Alissa. I'm just calling out. Okay.

No offense at that. I'll go with the advisory opinion of our attorney that it's covered. The opinion of the attorney was she doesn't know whether that counts as a motor or not. Um, so I guess I would ask Councilman Schulz, are you proposing an amendment? I am not. Okay. I'm Well, this really isn't the time for the council to be proposing amendments or this is public comment time, right? Public hearing time. Okay.

Oh, one last thing. Also, there was a change to the fines for anybody who um who did do anything outside of this particular ordinance. It went from 100 to 50. Just wanted to make sure that was noted as well. Thank you for noting that. Okay, council. Anything else? All right, then let's adjourn until uh 6:30. at 6:30.

Good evening everybody. I'd like to call to order the town council meeting for February 19th, 2026. Uh we can start with the pledge of allegiance and I think we'll just start at the end again. Next order bit, if we could have silence in the audience, please. Uh, next order on the agenda is, uh, a motion to approve the agenda. Do we have a motion?

A motion to amend the agenda. Okay. Second. Uh, I'd like to uh remove under resolutions and ordinances uh item D with regards to taxation for disabled public safety officers. Um, we just need talking with the town attorney uh some of the language that we need to work on that. Uh, we just need to clean it up a little bit based off of a conversation. So, it's it's no longer valid for this meeting. Uh, okay. That was a motion. Is there a second? Second it. Okay. All in favor of removal of uh item D. Um say I opposed. You guys have it. Meeting just got a little shorter.

You're welcome. Um now is there a motion to approve the amended agenda? Motion to approve. There second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. The eyes have it. This is the opportunity for the public to comment on anything that's on the agenda. If there's an agenda item and you would like to speak to it, please come forward. We're breezing through it. Uh, thank you very much. Um, council, I need a motion to approve the minutes of the January 15, 2026 public hearing. Motion to approve. There a second. Second.

All in favor, please say I. I. opposed. The eyes have it. A motion to approve the uh January 15, 2026 town council meeting, please. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second it. All in favor? I opposed. The eyes have it. Uh need a motion to approve the minutes of the January 15th, 2026 closed session. Motion to approve. Second, please. All in favor say I. I. I'm sorry early. I maybe he wants to get out of here. Get out of here.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the February 10th, 2026 work section work session? Motion to approve. Second. All in favor say I.

Opposed? The eyes have it. Um if um Zion Amari Love, if you're here, can you please come forward? I think I'll just walk down. What we have here is the young man that uh you helped out neighbors in need and we're grateful for you being here. This is Zion Amari Love. Did I pronounce that correctly?

Yes, sir. And um I'll just read the certificate of appreciation. And if you want to get a picture of Marty, we'll uh we'll we'll do that. Thank you. Thank you. This certificate reads um certificate of appreciation. This certificate is proudly presented to Zion Amar Love for his unwavering commitment to helping others in recognition of your exceptional dedication, strong work ethic, and admirable entrepreneurial spirit. Did you know you had all that entrepreneurial spirit?

Your willingness to step forward and help the residents of our community demonstrates maturity, compassion, and leadership beyond your years. Signed by myself and Simeia Aoto. Please give this young man a hand. Hey, mayor. Mayor, mayor, is his are his parents here? I don't know. Are you This would be a great moment to have him take a picture with you and his parents if they're here. Come on, man. It's a proud moment for a parent.

Yeah, come up here. I'll get something. I'll let Marty go first and I'll grab a couple.

I'm going do one more. I'll send it to you, Mayor. Perfect. Um, but one more thing, man. The guys who helped them Yes. are here. Can they stand up and get applause as well?

The gentleman who who work tonight. Thank you, too. Why don't you give us a little more?

Oh, um context. I guess I have to say something now. Uh my name is Anthony Green. Um so actually um resident um Adrian, she um made a uh a post on uh Councilman Evans uh Facebook group for the community with pictures showing uh that there was an incredible amount of ice and snow packed up on the um on the sidewalks and the walkways in her neighborhood. neighborhood. Um, and of course, uh, Councilman Evans put out some information to help. Uh, Councilman Blackwer also was on the thread, um, saying things that the community could do. And when it came to my attention, um, I took off the councilman hat and immediately called Zion because he had came and did some work for me in my neighborhood where we had, um, walkways and stuff. It was, it was bad. Everybody couldn't get to it a certain time. We were caught off guard. You know, everybody thought they was just going to be in the house eating hot dogs and chilling, but it turned into ice out there. It was terrible. Um, Zion came. He went through the whole neighborhood. He helped everybody out of their spaces. So, when I saw that this was an issue, I said, "Well, the town cannot get to this till another day. Let me call Zion and see if he can get his guys over there to help." Sure enough, they showed up. They showed up in droves. They cleared off the walkways. They cleared off the steps so people can move. and uh myself and a couple of other uh friends of mine um gave these boys a nice tribute and saw that the work they were doing and we honored them for the work that they did for the community. So for everybody involved um doing this for people and then the town being able to come in the day after and make sure that the job got done um from from reaching out to our town administrator and our public works folks. It was good to see the community actually come together and do things for people, especially people who may be

quote unquote marginalized or not thought of as much as others because that's what we can do as a town. So, thank you all so much. Thank you Adrian for reaching out. Thank you guys for stepping up and thank you Zion and crew for doing the things that you were doing. I appreciate it.

Thank you Anthony for helping out there. Um, next moving along. Okay. Uh, Jenna McCree is here who is the town lobbyist. Uh, she works with the pererry Jacobson and she is here to talk about legislative priorities. Uh, thank you for being here, Jenna. Right here. Right here. Okay. Marwall town council members, it's good to be with you guys this evening. I'm Jenna. Um, I'm an attorney with Perry Jacobson. represent the town um before the state legislature. Um I'm just gonna give you guys Wait one second. Zion, if you all feel like you want to leave, you can or you could you're welcome to stay. It's up to you.

Yeah. Okay. So, we did it by texting digging. Go ahead, J. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt.

Um just for a little update about where we are in the legislative session. So, the legislature convened on January 14th is going to adjourn on April 13th. Um the bill introduction deadline was February 9th in the Senate and February 13th in the House. So at this point we largely know all the bills that are going to be introduced. Um the crossover deadline is March 23rd which is when a bill has to pass the first chamber before uh to avoid an additional procedural step. So it's usually a good indicator of bills that are going to pass. Um we kind of have a good idea by March 23rd. the state's operating budget has to be passed by April 6 and then the capital budget um has to be completed by the final day which is April 13th. Um so on behalf of the town specifically um we've been a resource to assist you guys with submitting testimony on bills of interest to you. um primarily uh Senate Bill 36 and House Bill 239, which is a departmental housing bill that imposes certain restrictions on local municipalities, local jurisdictions um preventing them from adopting certain zoning provisions and among other things. It's a pretty big bill. Um you guys have you are members of MML, the Maryland Municipal League, which is a good advocate on your behalf and we're aligned with them. Um they've introduced some amendments and worked with DHCD to try and get it to a place that everybody can be comfortable with. Um there's another piece of legislation that limits uh municipalities ability to limit um people visiting certain beaches. I it's my understanding that the bill is going to be withdrawn. It hasn't yet had a hearing in the house. Um it's only a house bill at this point. Um so we're keeping an eye on that and we'll let you guys know once it's actually a withdrawn. and I've I've spoken to the sponsor and he also indicated to me that he is going to withdraw it. He and he he entered that because he misunderstood what our objectives were.

Okay. Good. Good. So, it'll be just a procedural thing that will have to happen and once that happens, we'll let you guys know. Um and then more specifically for you guys, we are pursuing a capital appropriation on behalf of the town for the well relocation project. Um we are cautiously optimistic that it's going to be successful. Uh, but the, as I said earlier, the capital budget has to be passed by April 13th. So, we'll know on that date what what the town is going to receive for that. So, I appreciate being here tonight. I appreciate you guys letting us represent you and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have for me. This is a good opportunity.

So, realized this is my first time seeing her in person. I had no idea who she was. I hate you, Jenna. Yeah. Okay. But it's good to see you as a human in person. That's nice. Yeah. Um, I had a quick question regarding represent representative uh Long's uh what he had put forward. Um, when what's the process for us to actually see when that gets removed? Is it only when it goes onto the floor and is discussed or because because right now if you were to look it up, it still shows active.

So, it's still pending um in the House committee. It hasn't been scheduled for a hearing. It can that could happen where it just will never get scheduled and it'll it'll just kind of stay pending or um it will actually be withdrawn which would require a vote by by the committee. So when the committee the GLE committee has a voting session, he would submit something official to the committee saying I'm withdrawing it. They'll vote. It's a it won't be much discussion. It'll just be withdrawn and then it'll be done. It's also possible that it could just sit there if that step's not taken, but um it it'll just need to go to a vote.

Okay, perfect. Thank you. Uh the only other thing is I appreciate what you're doing for for our town. Uh and I know that there's quite a few projects that we have on the the docket that we're trying to get after. So I think the workload is coming your way. Happy to accept it. Any other questions? Um I was told that you um tried to help us out with SHA recently. Were Were you able to report on any of that? So I've been talking to the town administrator about this is about the sidewalk. Yeah.

Yeah. So, I think that as it stands right now, it's sitting waiting for an approval. We requesting a funding increase. Um, and we're just waiting to hear back from them. And if depending on what response we receive, I'm going to go back to the um team at SHA to to work it out. So, I I'm aware of it and we're just kind of waiting to see what staff comes back with first. Okay. And and do you have a good feeling about that? I mean, with the background that I understand at this point, I I do. Um, but you know, the I will say the state is, as you've probably seen in the news, the budget picture at the state is

not it's it's not great currently. Um, so I think those things just get a closer look, but I think that based on the way the process works, I think it will I feel hopeful. Thank you. Thanks. Other questions? Just one last thing. Thank you so much for all your help with the tennis courts. Yes. People should be giving you high fives when they see you. Thank you. And we'll do a match there to celebrate. There we go. Perfect. Well, thank you very much. We appreciate you being here with us tonight. Of course. Thank you.

And if if you'd like, we won't force you to sit through the rest of the meeting. And again, thank you. We appreciate what you're doing for us. Next on the agenda, Calbert Health Foundation and um it says okay. Okay, so it's Amy Phillips and Kasha Sweeney and then we have Lissa Goans. Okay, we're glad you're here. Thank you. We have a presentation. Do you have a clicker? I will transition.

Okay, perfect. Perfect. Well, good evening. Thank you all for giving me some time tonight on your agenda. My name is Amy Phillips. I am the executive director of the Calvert Health Foundation. Um I am proud to be here tonight on as a member of this community and asking for you to consider um all the important work that we do at Calvert Health for the community that we serve. Our primary mission at the foundation is to help um serve the impact of the community with the health and well-being and connecting donors and community members with their philanthropic dollars of how they can make a huge impact on the patients that we serve. So since go ahead next since our inception in 1989 um our foundation has raised over $30 million to support our work at Cal Health. We are at the arm of the hospital which is a 501c3 which means we are a taxdeductible in uh in organization and we are governed by a group of local board members who are representatives of this community. One of them being uh a former council member Mr. Bob Carpenter who now serves as the vice chair of our board of directors. So some of the funding needs that we have um at the Calvert Health that we have been working on over the past 10 years uh primarily we have did campaigns around count cancer care and our room expansion and I'll talk a little bit about those two campaigns in just a second. But we also have uh raised funds to support our surgery program, our women's health, our behavioral health program, and more importantly what's coming up this year which is our family birth center. Also, we raise funds to support the local workforce who are interested in pursuing their education in healthcare and medicine. So, we award scholarships to the local community high school students as well as individuals who are already started the process in medical

school. And to date, we've awarded over a million dollars to uh local students. some of the events that we host uh every year and by annually to help raise those funds. We do a national doctor's day which is coming up in March to honor our providers that serve our community. Uh we do a golf tournament every year at the Cannon Club and that's held usually the Monday after Mother's Day. Every year we do a 5K in Solomon's for October breast cancer awareness month. We're doing a fishing tournament which is reeling for a cause which helps support cancer care. Uh we just did our Calvert Health Gayla here at the Rod and Reel in town in November. It was the first time we had had it back in Calvert County for quite some time. Um we also do Giving Tuesday which is primarily focused on our employee giving campaign. And then we also have a rising star program which helps encourage young philanthropists in the community to get involved in giving back to the community they live in. And I I was uh honored to be able to attend the the gayla at the Rod and Reel, which is one of the first events there after their reconstruction. And I've got to tell you, it was a fabulous event. And uh I I urge you all to consider joining and going to that when you have the opportunity.

Thank you, Mayor Wall. We will get invited. Right. Okay.

Next slide. So, I'm going to talk briefly about our previous campaign successes. Uh, in 2016, we did the uh building a century of care, which was the private room expansion in the hospital. If you've ever been in healthcare, you know, sharing a room when you're trying to recover from an illness is not the most pleasant. So, we did a capital campaign in 2016. Our goal was 3 million. We actually successfully raised over $4 million, which we were proud to say that you all were a part of that at a $75,000 donation to help us make that possible. And this is the breakdown of how those funds u were allocated. Basically, you can see we had zero dollars that were grants specifically, a lot of major gifts, which is what the category you all were in, and then we had some plan gifts as well as corporate and foundations that supported that. And then the other largest was our events that we just talked about. More recently, we did in 2020, we did our cancer care campaign. Our goal for that was 5 million and we successfully raised $6.1 million. And that was specifically for our cancer care that we have in Cow Health. Now, and the breakdown for that, you can see we had $2.3 million of that, which was a grant that we had received. Um, so that was 38% of our funding for that project. And then our major gifts was also 34%. Um, so what I'm here for uh tonight is just to tell you a little bit about our exciting project that we're doing for 2026, which is our family birth center. And with me tonight, I have Kasha Sweeney, who is our senior vice president of strategy and transformation. and she's going to talk a little bit about what that pro what that project is and our anticipated timeline for that.

Okay. Well, good evening everyone. Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight. Jenny to move that up a little. I'm very tall compared to Amy. How's that?

Um I also want to acknowledge Lissa Goanzer, my colleague on the executive team at Calbert Health, who's our senior vice president for operations. and we're talking about the family birth center which is a project that is very near and dear to both of our hearts. Me because I've delivered my children at Calbert Health and I've been working with our women's health team on developing this project for the last few years and Lissa because she also is a former labor and delivery nurse and has a real passion for how we deliver care in that area. So I'm Kasha Sweeney as Amy said I'm the senior vice president for strategy and transformation at Calbert Health. Next slide. And I'm here to talk tonight about the importance of our family birth center project. I think I've been here once or twice before talking about our strategic plan. And in that discussion, we shared that women's health is a real area of focus for us. And the reason the family birth center in particular is super important is because across the country, rural hospitals have been closing their labor and delivery units. As a matter of fact, about half of rural hospitals across the country have closed their units, which has really created a a challenge in terms of maternal morbidity and mortality and infant morbidity and mortality because having that resource and OBGYNS and strong supportive care close to home is really important. Many times the individuals who have the most risk are the ones that have the most difficulty with traveling long distances for care. So we're really excited to be um I'm excited to be working for an organization where our board said we really want to invest in women's health. Next slide. So we are obviously the only provider of these services in our county and it's a pretty

long distance from Prince Frederick to any other hospital. So I think it's really important that we maintain the highest quality of modern facilities for the women of our community. Our whole county is a medically underserved area and it's also important that we're able to recruit top physicians to serve the people of our community. And I can tell you as the person who does most of our physician recruiting that to get great doctors here, you have to have great facilities. They want to work in a place that's modern where they have the right tools to deliver optimal care to patients. Next slide. So, uh, this is ex the family birth center today. It looks exactly the same as when my children were born there more than 20 years ago. It probably looks familiar to some of you in this room. And while it's served us well and obviously been a great resource for the community over many years, it doesn't meet the standards that we want to uphold for women today.

Next slide. I want to interject that uh my wife Becky and I had the opportunity to to go through this facility with Jeremy Bradford a number of months ago and it's like stepping back in time.

Yeah. especially with the rest of the hospital now being so modern and you know I think um when people come to our community when they move to our area they're they're looking for great schools great health care system and so having the latest amenities is really important so this u these are pictures I actually showed our board when we were uh trying to convince them of the importance of investing in this project because this is what today's hallway looks And we get great feedback from our patients on the nursing care and the physician care and their experience overall. But we can do better than this. This is the nurses station today, which you can't tell exactly from these pictures, maybe a little bit from the one on the right, but the nurses station does not have a view of anywhere that the patient rooms are. So it's like on the corner with the rooms going behind it in both directions. So, as part of our project, we'll be moving that nursing station over to the other side, so there's a clear view of both hallways where patient care is happening. And this is the new nurses station, which will still have a similar shape, although we're getting rid of the checkerboard that was from the 1990s design. And as I said, and you can see here in this picture, it will have a clear view down the hallway where the patients are being cared for. And then we'll have some sub nursing areas very close to the patient rooms at the ends of the hall as well. So here is a rendering of what a new labor delivery postpartum room will look like. So one of the big changes in the new design is that we intend to have rooms that are called LDRP rooms. So today, if you deliver your baby at Calvert Health, you deliver in one room and then we kind of get everything settled down and then you move into a

postpartum room, which really the modern way of doing that is keeping patients and families together in one room. So you deliver your baby, you're enjoying that moment, and you're able to just stay comfortable where you already are. So the new design will have four LDRP rooms, which will be larger, and patients and families will be able to stay there. We will still have postpartum rooms as well in case we have a very busy time and need to have additional space for patients. Next slide. So, here's a postpartum room. They'll be a little bit smaller because that's where we'll be renovating existing space, but they will still have the same level of comfort and amenities that we intend for the other space. And this is another view of a postpartum room. So in addition to it being the right thing to do for our community and the right thing to do for women and families and babies, it also is very aligned with the goals of the state of Maryland and really the country in reducing maternal challenges especially for underserved populations and in rural areas. There's a Maryland Women's Health Action Plan, which is really about how we make sure that great family services are close to home for individuals across the state. We have an OB Navigator program, a collaborative care program, a great partnership with the health department. So, this will just give us a great space to house all of those programs. And we also thought it was really important. I have my own opinions about what's important in that space. I remember actually when I delivered my child that the haird dryer was like way over here and the mirror was over here and you have people coming to visit you. So we really wanted to ask women and families what was important to them in a

family birth center. And so this is feedback that we got from I think over 300 responses from patients and non-patients, people who delivered with us and delivered at other facilities about what they thought was important. And I think it's notable that location received the highest score. So again, people are really interested in staying close and being with their families, especially if you have other small children and they have to travel long distances. Keeping everybody close together is really important. But we have tried to address as many of the feedback items that we got from patients as possible in the new design. So of the people who did not deliver at Calvert Health, we asked them some of the reasons why they did not choose Calvert Health. One of the things that of course will always be a challenge in a smaller community hospital is that some individuals need a higher level of care. So while many and most deliveries will be done safely in a community setting, we intend to create great partnerships with other tertiary level hospitals that have more robust services for patients that are extremely high risk. And we're already working on how we can bring services like maternal fetal medicine into our new women's health center for prenatal care for patients. And then the the patients who did not deliver with us who could be encouraged to deliver with us. We definitely heard that having a modern facility with amenities was important to them. So we heard we people wanted mini fridges, smart TVs, comfortable sleeping arrangements. So, while those feel like extras, they also are the things that make people feel most comfortable, especially when you have an important event like that in your life. So, some of the feedback we received was

around the bathrooms. I mentioned the haird dryers, which was personally important, but I think also there are a lot of opportunities for us to enhance safety features for patients, create shelving and areas where individuals can store things, which doesn't exist today. So again, patient feedback is really being considered in the design. Next slide. So overall, this project is just under $10 million. We do have funding approved from the state through the Maryland Hospital Association bond program of $3.9 million. We have finished the design work for the project. We expect the entire project will cost about or take about 16 to 18 months and we are looking forward to starting later this spring. So hopefully you'll all be joining us for a groundbreaking later in the spring. It'll be a phased approach. So there's two sides to the family birth center today. It's a little hard to see in this picture, but the colored section is actually our current postpartum area. And the gray block um kind of just below and to the left of that is where our current labor and delivery rooms are and our C-section room. So, we will start by closing the current labor and delivery rooms and transitioning those over into our postpartum area. We will temporarily use some swing space on the fourth floor of the hospital to transition patients after delivery just during this construction phase. Next, and then we'll come back and move into the new labor and delivery space. So, you can see those four lighter blue rooms are the new labor and delivery postpartum rooms. The green is the

nursery, the kind of olive green. You can see the rounded nursing station now on the other side with visibility to both sides of the unit. So, I think it'll be much nicer. And then ultimately, we'll be completely finished and that will be the labor and delivery postpartum room side with a unit of postpartum rooms if we need them for extra capacity. So, just as I wrap up, um I'd like to say that our goal is really to have a center and a program that is a hub for women's health in our community where there is education and support and comfort and family environment. And we're really committed to dedic to delivering on that. and we appreciate the support of our foundation and of our many community partners as we work to get to our $10 million um planned investment in this project. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Anybody have any questions? Hi. Hi. So one from the 80s and stuff you guys have come a very very long way you know so uh I think you have a favorable opinion and I think these uh remodel and updating are are going to be well received. U maybe you know or don't know. Do you know if our birth rate in our county is where that's sitting?

Yeah. So, I think really across the country there's been a declining birth rate, but I will tell you that a large number of women in our community already leave the county for their care. And that's been for a couple of different reasons. I think one is we've had um OBGYNS who have retired and so we haven't been able to provide in the past the same access. You have to get in with the doctor in order to deliver in our family birth center. And so as part of our whole women's health strategic plan, we made some early investments ahead of this large capital investment to try and make improvements there. So last summer we started a laborist model which gives us physicians in the hospital and then physicians in the practice instead of what was the historic or older way of delivering care where doctors were running back and forth between both. So that's really helping us with our recruiting. And then we also recently, this last summer, opened a 15,000 square foot women's health center on our campus. So that's a great place for outpatient services for women. So already with just those things happening, we're seeing a dramatic increase in women who are choosing to keep their care here.

Thank you. You're welcome. I just had a quick question. When is the target date that you're trying to hit the 10 million by in order to to break ground? Well, the whole project is $10 million. We have um as I mentioned, we have 3.9, I think, coming from the state. We have a responsibility to match that 3.9 and um we'll do that obviously with with funds from the hospital and then our foundation is just beginning their conversations and grant work to try and pro provide support for the additional dollars. 2 million is the goal. Okay, that's public math. if I got that wrong.

Well, we probably ultimately would like to not take too much out of the bank at the hospital. You know, I I think the challenge for all hospitals across the state, and we talked about this a little bit in the strategic planning process as well is, you know, the economic headwinds for hospitals are not that great. There's a lot of changes, policy changes coming down the pike. So, we're doing a lot of work to make sure that we're as efficient and effective as we can be to maximize access to care and quality care, but also be financially sustainable. So, every dollar that comes out of the bank is money that doesn't get used for something else. And we have to be thoughtful about how we spend our resources. For sure. One of the things I've always been so impressed with in Calvert County in the years that I've worked here is, you know, when you're in the hospital, you know, there's not enough money to do everything that we want to do. We have to invest in routine capital. We have to invest in new programs. We have to invest in the workforce. There's never enough. So, our list of requests every year when we go into the budget, we can never fulfill all of them. But I have just been amazed by the remarkable generosity of people in our community who feel very passionate about health care in our community and want the best for their families in our local community. So, we've been so grateful in that way and so fortunate.

Yeah, I apologize. Is there, for lack of a better term, um, like a payback or like, hey, we're going to we're going to pay for a portion of your school and then you come volunteer at the the hospital or any of those programs in place. You know, I might have to ask Lissa because I will say we have not always done that, but I think now there's been some transition in thinking about that. Okay, very cool. Thank you. Welcome.

Other questions? Oh, thank you so much. make a comment on the uh on the uh improvements um the existing conditions and the improvements um the renderings that were given. Um, so I've been through well I've been a support person uh three times and um I can say that one thing that I think you might have dropped the ball on if my wife was here she'd be rolling her eyes is uh the the little couch there that's you know next to the bed where the delivery happens. It's always very hard and it's always too short for like a regular dad to sleep on.

Regular dad and uh I I didn't see any changes there.

Well, so I will say it's maybe it's because the rooms are much bigger now that the couch still looks small, but we um actually have those same folding sofas in the patient room, the new patient rooms upstairs. And my husband, who is 6 foot three, stayed on there comfortably with my mother-in-law when she was in the hospital. So, they are a lot longer than they probably look in that picture. And I totally agree with you because I remember having my kids and I went to get a shower or something. I came back, my husband was asleep in the bed and I got the little couch. So, so we do have to make sure that it's a great environment for dads and for everybody that's there as support people. and the larger rooms also will allow for more family members and more space to spread out. So, thank you for that feedback. I will say also when we did our la I don't know what we're doing this time, but when we did our last expansion project, we set up a an area where staff could go through like a mockup of what it was going to be like. And that was super helpful because, you know, sometimes the architect will put a plug somewhere and then you're like, "Oh, I got to move the whole bed to get to that plug." So, we're really going to make sure that we work not only with patients and families for their feedback, but also with our team members to get those rooms right. So, thank you.

Makes me want to have another baby. Well, come on. We'll be ready for you. Okay. Quite ready. Not quite ready. Not quite yet. Okay. Dug it out. Yeah. You have the voice of experience here. That was great. Well, thank you all for being here. Anybody help? Anybody uh else have any questions or comments? Thank you. Thanks for bringing Bob Carpenter back in here. We couldn't get him in any other way. Very grateful for his We just have so many great people in our community. This is really a wonderful place to live. So, thank you all for the work that you do to contribute to that as well. We're very grateful. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We appreciate you being here. All right. Next. Okay. Mark Wagner from IQ Fiber is here. This is the company that has been uh building infrastructure all through the town. So, welcome. And uh what's happening? Hi. Uh well, thank you. It snowed on you for a month, right?

Noticed. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you. It's great to be here in one of my favorite places ever. Thank you, council, Dr. Dr. OPado. Um, so we wanted to come and give a sort of a quick update of where we are from our perspective, hear from from you guys, from the town through you guys. Um, your perspective, maybe a line on some things. Um, I know I have the voice of truth here to my right. So, um, uh, but from our perspective, it's been going really, really well. We anticipated this was going to be a great project. It has been. So, how we've been building it, how we build is we build around cabinets. Cabinets are where we're going to get the light that we then use to light the equipment and our customers. In the town of Chesapeake Beach, there's ultimately going to be four cabinets. Um, one of them is our larger cabinet, which call Point of Presence. That's the one on is it Bayside? Bayside the road, right?

261,

right? 261. Um, and then smaller cabinets within the community. So, the the the cabinet on 261 is all installed. Um, we are anticipating finally BG& power hookup honestly maybe even by the end of this week like tomorrow or definitely next week. That's a whole thing you guys. It's like it's it's as though we built a house in Chesapeake Beach and then we had to permit electricity. There's no difference. So, we went through all of the steps and that's finally going to happen. But that's really huge because that's our main point of presence. We need to light that. That's where we have our generator battery backups. That's where we have our hookups by fiber to um the outside world to data centers. So that's that's really important. As to the other all of the other cabinets are installed. And in terms of installation in every cabinet area, we are at least 65% complete with all of the construction. Most of what is left is county roads. We found uh working with your awesome DPW and in the city to to be going very very well. Um and the county roads will go as well too. We do a lot of work with the county, but it's just a bit bit more of a process. There's more of a bonding requirement which we're going to work through. So, that's that's next to come. I know that we are um in regular communication. I I just checked in with our construction coordinator. I don't think we've communicated with the town administrator in a couple of weeks, but it's it's because we haven't really done anything in a couple of weeks. Um but it is our intention and I think we've been pretty good with that. If we haven't, you can let me know. But um letting know you know which roads we've done and which roads are coming up. Um but we are coming towards the end of the you know the major construction. We are now south of the bridge. We're about to next week we're going to install through the conduit on the bridge. Um and we will be knock on this wood uh lighting our first

customers at the end of next month definitely in April. um and then working to complete everything by the summer tourist season. We know we have had some incidences. I don't think anybody has told me about any major catastrophes. At least we didn't um term them that way. I'm looking over Jay here. I don't um and we, as far as I know, we have been taking care of those as we go. Um there's going to be a lot of restoration work towards the spring. We probably are more muddy and more torn up than we'd like right now in some places, but that's our intention is to fix all of that. We won't leave, we're not done until you tell us we're done, right? So, um, so that's ahead of us. Um, so, but just circling back from our perspective, it's fantastic. One of the best places where I'm just I'm being totally honest, one of the best communities we've ever worked in. U, we've had great support. Uh, and we're super happy and we're honored to be here and we're hoping that it's from your perspective it's going well as as well. But if it isn't, um, I can I can take it. You can let me know. Um, and then, uh, we have, as we're transitioning into real customers, um, we're going to be transitioning into some more education events. There's going to start actually tomorrow. It's called Fiber Fridays. And in just two minutes, I'll I'll bring AJ up here. She's our community rep and she can talk to you about u what fiber Fridays are unless anybody has any questions.

Yeah. Um so I think you said 261 but I think you meant 260 correct? You get I've been Am I right? You know where it is. Yeah. It's 260 and Cockro G3 Tree right there. Yes sir. Yeah. Across the street from his house. One thing I noticed, the guys can be better at putting caution and and displays for when they're working on the highway, especially if you're going to be on 261. There's not a shoulder here. Correct. And if they're working there, they need to make sure that they're providing lane closures and all that stuff because people come over the hill, you have a school there. So, I don't know if you can relay that message.

I absolutely will 100%. So if by your from your perspective, we were lacking in some of our traffic enforcement. Yes, very much. Okay. Yes, sir. All right. Yes. I will convey that immediately. I can testify. I was one of the incidents you were mentioning at in front of my house, but I just want to testify that you guys took care of me and everything went well with the customer service side of it. So, thank you. I'm glad to hear that. Thank you. All right. I'll turn it over to Thank you guys. AJ, bring on AJ. Hi, good evening. How are you?

So, I will be well, my sales team will be here Fridays to educate. We're going to do internet safety. Uh we're going to talk about pricing just to get more of an information about why we're here and how we can support all the candidate um all the residents far as the fiber service they need for their home. Any questions? What time is that going to be? From 2 to 4. 2 to 4. And that's here at town hall. Yes. And we have some giveaways for you guys. Oh, do you know if they'll uh I saw some people in the community saying uh will you have like later in the day for people getting off work? Will you have more opportunities? We can. Yes, we can next month or Yeah. Yeah.

As we get closer. Now, what's the what time? What time would they have? Guess after 5:00 p.m. We can do a 5 to 7. That would be perfect. Absolutely. What did you get? Little uh squish ball thing. All of us one. Anything is outside. We'll get one. Thank you. Thank you. So, it's all in all in the foyer, right? Okay. Absolutely. And then we'll be like, we'll be here tomorrow as well. Okay. I just I assume you're going to do maybe some mail mail cards or anything like that with pricing to res.

Okay. you know, are we able to do door hangers? So, thing we do because we want to make sure I know a lot of communities and we're not able to solicit. So, we can get um a list of places that we can door knock and put hangers. Please let us know. Okay. Do we have any no soliciting policies? Not that I'm aware of. Okay. That's

Yeah, I think door knockers would be great because I know a lot of people are not as plugged in to the town as we are or as politically active people are. So, a way to get to reach out to those people directly at their home, whether it be mailers or door knockers or anything like that, I think would be a great idea. That's good news to our ears. So, we can get out our sales team, get out there and start knocking. Thank you. Maybe just be maybe be mindful if people do have no solicits on. That's about it. Yes. Yes. We definitely respect that. Anybody else have any questions from the council? Are there any questions from the audience? Can I get one of those polos like his? Just just stand up.

Stand up and and tell everybody your name. I know it. You'll find us directly based on our email to you and I'm your local rep. So I'm I'm your girl, okay? So remember me, okay? If you want to come, we can sit and talk if you're if you're 2 to 4 and it's we're here um through March, you know.

Okay, perfect. Anything else? That was easy. Correct.

Right. Stay in front of the community. That's what we're here for. and you whatever is out there that has contact information for you directly on it. I'll give that to you. Okay. Cards. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you all for being here. Thank you. This is exciting.

Next item on the agenda. We lost a council member. out there coughing. So, just getting us all sick. Well, we'll go ahead. Um, stay.

Next item on the agenda is that we have a proclamation, and I'll just read it, um, of the mayor and town council of Chesig Beach officially proclaiming the fourth Saturday of April as Celebrate Trails Day in the town of Chesake Beach. Whereas on the fourth Saturday in April, the walkable committee advisory group, which is otherwise known as WAGG, WCAG, how do you pronounce it? WCAG, I didn't name it. It sounds like you would entertain that.

The WAG group and Rails to Trails Conservancy invite the town invites the town of Chesake Beach to join Celebrate Trails Day, an annual springtime celebration of America's trails. And whereas the the WCAG is dedicated to making Chesig Beach even more connected, pedestrianfriendly town, we're working to enhance um access to our beautiful Chesig Bay shoreline, local businesses, and community spaces for residents and visitors. and rail whereas Railstora Conservancy which is the largest trail walking and biking advocacy organization in the United States is the national organizer of Celebrate Trails Day. And whereas Celebrate Trails Day is an opportunity to showcase the many ways that trails are connected, trail networks bring joy and impact to people's lives. And whereas the town of Chesig Beach has approximately 2.5 miles of walkable trails in town. And whereas trails, especially when connected, provide ways to access the outdoors and safely get around by foot, bike, and mobility device in the community. Now therefore, be it proclaimed on this 19th day of February, 2026, the mayor and town council of Ches Peak Beach do hereby proclaim the fourth Saturday in April as celebrate Trails Day in the town of Chesapeake Beach and urge all citizens to celebrate and participate by using, enjoying, and helping preserve the town of Chesapeake Beach's trails for current and future generations. So, um, what we will do is, uh, pass this around. I will, uh, sign it first and then we'll pass this around and this proclamation will then be in effect.

Thank you, mayor. And especially, thank you for reading that for me. I appreciate that very much. And, Similia, and your staff, I appreciate you writing it and supporting it.

Thank you, Lori. And thank you for your hard work, Lori. Really appreciate it. And I I like to I'd like to uh take a moment of self-indulgence and uh say that um I am very proud of the Chesapeake Beach Railway Trail. Um I spent 22 years advocating for that trail when I served before and uh it it took it took a lot to get it done. We had the support of our uh delegation in in Annapolis and and uh um it was uh it was challenging due to the topography and everything else. What we're talking about now and Councilman Laura and I are uh we've been recently discussing extending the trail. Um there was a piece of it um that we did not complete uh at the time it was built uh back in the day because of the uh Maryland's critical area commission which otherwise we had 21 approvals and one disapproval uh from the state and um that was frustrating and that's the part that's just south of Richfield station the rounded off part where the railroad rightway took a bend and that also happens to be the only place where there was ever a wreck on the on the on the railway if I'm not mistaken. Um, and that that goes almost out to the town limits. It would be great to extend it further. Uh, when I was younger and and uh in better health, I I walked most of it all the way up to uh upper up through upper Marboro where uh our town zoning official lives and serves there. Um, and uh, it it has a a unique history. Uh, I've

lived here for almost 41 years now. A lot has changed in 41 years. And the the the in the piece of the railroad rightway that runs north from upper Malboro is uh, I think you can still find pieces of it, but it's it's been built over a lot and shopping centers built where there used to be trail and all that kind of stuff. But our piece here is still in great shape and we need to just celebrate that and and continue to uh enjoy that. And I know that the trail gets a ton of use. And now it's your turn.

Okay. Um well, first of all, I'm so excited that um mayor is in support of this project. This is my passion project and um a lot of people are passionate about this trail. So, um celebrating the trail and and the value of trails every year is um a great opportunity to to get the community out to appreciate the trail and also to um advocate for connectivity in general and all the benefits that that brings. So, um, this year it's going to be a small committee run event and and the reason for that is because, uh, we just learned about this opportunity to make this day, um, a celebration for our town. Um, and additionally, there's some other events going on, um, around that time that require our staff. And so, the committee is going to celebrate this in a way that celebrates the history. We're going to have some history displays. We're going to clean up the trail a little bit and um you come out to the trail and learn its history. We might have some things to give away for you. Um and I think you'll really enjoy learning more about your trail this April on the 25th. So, um we also had a lot of excitement about ideas for future events and we were, you know, we're really excited about those ideas, too. they are going to be future events when we can involve staff and more support. We have a rockstar committee but it is a small committee. So, uh we need to make sure that we can man our own event. Um but uh stay tuned, come out, learn about the trail, learn the history of the trail, learn about the nature on the trail on that day and celebrate it. please take a picture with us so that we can help the Rails to Trails Conserv Conservancy

um which is the organization that will help us advocate for the extension of our trail um and help us get the momentum going for these projects that are going to benefit us all. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Next item on the agenda is the town administrator's report. Thank you, mayor.

The town administrator's report was submitted as a part of the uh full agenda package. Um so I am just going to highlight a couple of topics and I'm happy to answer any other questions that may arise. Um so the first topic is around uh town communications. Um, so I wanted to we currently have a communication survey that's live. It'll be live until um the beginning of April. And the idea is that we're trying to better understand how uh town residents want to receive information. So uh thank you to everyone who's already responded. Um and I encourage um any and everyone else to to submit their responses so that we can take that into consideration uh as we streamline how the town communicates with town residents. Um and we're also working to uh launch a new website. So right now our launch date is March 2nd. So uh the information that we receive from the survey will be really uh critical for helping us streamline that website and it is going to be a diff it's going to be a new look. um we'll share the the highlights of the the March town council meeting, but it's um all in the name of making uh it easier for residents to get the information that they need, but also to communicate with the town. The next uh area that I wanted to highlight is around uh emergency management, public safety, and the response to the snowstorm. Um so just wanted to highlight during the week um January 26th through the 30th uh town hall received 263 service calls and 102 service tickets submitted online via Zenesk which is um info at email address. Um and our we have an incredible team uh who was able to they were able to answer all of those calls um mostly from working remotely right because we were all snowed in. Um, so I uh just want to flag for you all and

have a special uh message of appreciation for the town hall staff who worked diligently to make sure that every need that was flagged was responded to and uh was given to public works so that they could respond to it. Um I also want to um to acknowledge and rec recognize our incredible public works team. Um, I've had the opportunity to chat with a number of, um, municipal, local government leaders from all over the state, and I, uh, am very proud to say that, uh, our public works team, uh, did an amazing job, um, responding to, uh, the needs that arose, but, also just making sure that the town um, was never in a position that we weren't able to, uh, have emergency needs met. And so, um, Jay and his team did a fantastic job. And it's not just about, um, their ability to respond. It's his level of understanding of how to, um, to address the snow as it was coming down. I think a lot of people, not for they encountered issues, not for lack of effort, but just because you have to know how the elements are going to interact and, um, and and our team was able to do that. So, uh, they cleared roughly 25 miles of road that does not include HOA roads, um, and 3.44 miles of sidewalks, water towers, pump stations, and ensured that school bus and warming centers um, all had access. So, I just want to bring attention to that because it's critical, and it's one of the things that makes our town uh, amazing.

I I want to say thank you and I and I'm proud of our staff and contractors, and I'll pass that on. Yeah, I just can I add to that that uh they the town and the public works does service HOA roads also and I want to thank them for that. Yeah. And and uh let me add because I actually rode on the snow plows quite a bit. Um and I just wanted to have my own eyes on what was going on. Um our town really um who

survived the storm very well because of our public works crew, but one thing that was kind of funny and I don't know whether I should say this or not, but I'm going to. Um, but as soon as they got the the roads cleared, our town crews started clearing the sidewalks and so the sidewalks got cleared all the way up 260 and all and so you could walk otherwise you'd be walking in the street. And I heard anecdotally that the mayor of North Beach found out that our sidewalks were cleared and his weren't. And and then he went and said, "We, you know, Ches Beach has cleared their sidewalks. We got to clear our sidewalks." So they went and cleared their sidewalks, too. So you had a good effect in both towns. And thank you for all your hard work and thank the crew once again.

Go ahead. Um, and then I also wanted to thank the county because they uh I don't know that this has happened before, but they included the town in all of their um emergency coordination calls. And so we were able to make sure that there was a coordinated effort. Um, and we also, as many people know or maybe don't know, there's no county warming center um in Chesapeake Beach other than the Northeast Community Center, which operates on the regular government hours. And so we were able to provide um work with Bayside Baptist Church to provide additional warming centers um for community members who may have needed it and we were able to share that resource with the county as well. So um there was a lot of uh of coordinating and partnering happening during the snowstorm and I think these hard times um oftentimes give us an opportunity to to form closer bonds. So um I'm appreciative of the county for that. And the last thing that I wanted to flag is that um the town is working with BG to improve the electric reliability um by installing antennas on the East Street water tower. So these antennas will support BG's automated grid devices, helping reduce power outages and provide more consistent service for residents in the area. Um, so if you have questions about that, public works uh will be able to field those questions for you, but just wanted to flag it so everyone was aware that it's coming.

Thank you. Um, how is the survey respond? Like what are you at with that? How many people? We've got close to 100 respondents right now. Obviously, we'd want a little bit more than that just so we can make sure we're hearing from everyone. Um, so it's it's still open and I would encourage people to to give us the feedback because we want to hear it. Yeah. Any other questions for the town administrator?

Um, I have a a few. Um, would you uh I guess one are info tickets. Um, so if we have uh like previous ones where we have them cleared out, if we can kind of just say x amount of leftover because it just goes to December. And then um also with the we're not going to where we were talked about not doing that 20% discount and stuff like that. Kind of just talk on our communication plan or something like that if this is the time for that or not.

I would say this is not the best time for that. Although we are we do have internal discussions around how we're going to communicate the upcoming changes when it comes to the water and sewer plan, but I think that's better situated when the council starts to discuss what the new rates are going to be. Okay. And uh the next bills that go out, which will be closer to April, will have those inserts so people can look for that there. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions for the town administrator? Okay. Um next town treasure report. Dan,

thank you. Mayor, uh, you have in your packets copy of my report. I would like to just add a little bit more information on the first item on the report, which is related to the borrowings for the uh, water park project. I want to report that we did submit the official application today with related backup uh, to the community development administration for uh, the official funding. Uh you also have in your packet ordinance uh 026-2 which is the introduction uh of the borrowing ordinance. That ordinance needs to be approved and adopted by the March 19th meeting in order for it to be effective by the April 17th date that the state's looking for. Um, and if you remember when Charlie Day was here, he said that the bonds would be priced in the beginning of May and issued by about the 21st of May. So, just wanted to give you an update on that. If you have any other questions on anything else in the report, I'll be glad to answer those.

Any questions? Anybody? I just sit with you and I think all my questions are answered. But um well for the the open space grants um listed in this report are they fiscal year 2026 or can do they get extended? I I know you answered this once but I went home and thought about your answer and I wasn't clear anymore. Yeah, they're currently in the uh county's annual plan. Uh so they will carry over into the next year. Okay. So we don't need to do anything then to have this money beyond fiscal year 2026. Is that

right? The money is sitting there for us to use but you still have to make formal application for each of those projects. Okay. So the money is there but we have you know it's just reserved and then you have to actually submit your complete project for what you're going to use it for. Okay. and and it's reserved. Is there a timeline on the reservation of the money? Um, I believe the county can change it if they want, but I don't think they'll do that without our, you know, discussion. Okay. So, I'm just trying to make sure there's nothing I need to do to make sure that this money doesn't disappear. That's correct. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? I'll probably just let you know. I'll follow send you a few emails on the line suggestions with the rental licensing and the license fees and the inspection stuff like that and maybe we can correspond and have a followup next meeting or something like that. Just let you know that's for come on by and you know probably better just talk offline on those things. No, no problem at all. Thank you. Just look for the fancy truck in the parking lot. It's actually in the shop. Oh, don't look for the fancy truck in the parking. I got something, Dan. So, we'll know around May about like what our interest rate and our financing looks like for the water park.

Yep. And the uh if you look at the borrowing ordinance, it actually has maximum rates for each of the different tiers of financing. And they the m you know, the maxes, you know, we agree to go to funding if the rate is at that or below. So, you know, those should be a little higher than what we're looking at, but they're pretty much in line with the estimates I had given uh you know, four or five months ago. Um, so the the maximum rates are about in line with that. So, I would expect it to be slightly below that. What was that looking at uh 10 or 15 years?

Um, the 10-year rate was max at 3.9% 15 years was at 4.5. We haven't decided which which one we're going to do yet. Right. Thanks. Any other any other questions for the treasurer? Thank you. Yep.

Next public works. You got anything to report? Sure. I'll I'll I'll start off with a couple statements and I'll answer questions. But I want to follow up um with town amen administrators report that it was incredible to have the help of staff even though they were remote. They could field phone calls. We had citizens send pictures to me while on equipment or out in the field to so I can decipher, hey, do we need to send a truck? Do we need to send a Bobcat? So it was tremendously helpful boiling down the my mother-in-law's coming over. I've been with my brother for three days. and all those things you get that Jay you need to go over here and can you do this? So that was tremendously helpful um to be efficient in and mobilizing because it takes a while, you know, to get over town. And then um the I do want to thank our staff and guys. There's a lot of staff members stayed three days at our shop sleeping in a cot and different things. And and I appreciate the mayor and town administrator riding around firsthand in the heat of it all to see, you know, I I made some notes like back in 2006, half of Richfield Station wasn't there. We didn't do any HOAs. You know, give you some examples. The price of salt was $35 a ton where now it's $86 a ton. And you know, snow plowing spreader back then was 7,200 bucks. Now it's close to 20. And the reason I'm throwing all these plugs because budget season's coming up. Remember that. Um, but I do think, you know, I I didn't leave this town for 6 days. I finally went out of county to my mother's house, dig her out, and I do think we served the citizens well, especially within 48 hours, which was, you know, it took a team, and we and I think we did good.

Um, I and I saw the I saw the pictures that you sent me of going to your mother's house. She's in Prince George's County, right? And and uh it looked like nothing had been pl Yeah. I thought I'd have to shovel out behind her thing, but no pling. I I got stuck in my four-wheel drive truck getting to her house the following Saturday. But anyway, um seeing that,

so in the middle of that also, I think that I want to thank the town. I knew just like IQ Fiber what we're going to run into because we've done it before. There were going to be water leaks and frozen pipes, but the town reached out. There wasn't as many as I thought, but I but we did respond to 31 citizens or entities uh with frozen and burst pipes, which is tremendous burden on public works in the middle of snow plowing and now you have to pull three crew members from wherever they're at in some pretty this was a a unique storm as we all know teens. So when water hits the road, it's frozen, your tools freeze the ground. It was just um it was still quite a bit. But I do think our proactive approach eblast mailings and we reached out to HOAs helped mitigate a lot of that. If you survive this one, you're probably good for a while because this was the historical sustained below freezing temperatures, but that doesn't mean next year won't be worse.

Um and I think Similia gave the facts of what we do and all that. And um that's it in a nutshell. And I included some cool pictures so you know what we had to deal with on the sidewalk. And I and I also want to especially thank Windmill Farms and we also had Martinez concrete. Our contractors, you know, it's kind of like they're doing for this weekend. It's such an unpredictable storm. State Highway in the county has more pool than the town. They can commit 72 hours before and say, "We're going to start paying you today. Come over here and park your truck." We've all seen them on the side of state roads. The town's not in that position. So I have to make a a prediction. commit this contracted uh people and I also tell them hey it's supposed to start at 11 get here at 10:30 it's not come 24 hours before so I appreciate they're willing to do that and they also are very um efficient at running their staff so we're getting value for the dollars spent I just want to recognize them

sure yeah and I'll and I'll just add that I spent a fair bit of time with the public works crew while all of this was going on and and uh I I think we are very very lucky to have the the crew that we do and the leaders in Jay's leadership uh and and I think that manifested itself and was very obvious as as that incredible storm hit us. So, thank you Jay. Sure.

I saw a lot of positive feedback for you guys. Uh you guys did a great job. Um the frozen pipes and stuff, were they like clustered together or were they kind of all over the place? I uh we had seven in Richfield, we had five at the courtyards, three at Seagate, 16 residential, so a total of 31 um burst and failed pipes. We had probably close to 50 no water. So, so it froze but didn't burst, which was mostly residential. Um usually like crawl space areas or

Yeah, crawl space and attics. Um, some attics are unheated and they have fire suppression, so they break there and mostly elevated crawl space areas. Yep. Yeah. I learned a lot about that riding around. Yeah. And it was it was just, you know, it was an extreme cold sustained and there was no uh I I try to explain a lot of people, you can put all the insulation you want on anything. If there's no heat source, insulation just delays the transfer of temperature, right? If you don't have a heat source and you have 10 days below freezing, I don't care how much insulation you put on anything, it's going to freeze. EJ, sure.

Yeah. So, I think you uh you might have missed the fun one Kristen was telling me about over our neighboring town. They had a they had a little bit of a a hunt to find their water pipe there. Um

happens, too. So, you were talking to me and we talked a few different times about, you know, there's pretty much some offs and and I I actually want to give him a little bit of shout out shout out. He just doesn't do this announcement. He proactively calls people that have had problems in the past or places that he's worried about. And and so it's not just here. He goes above and beyond and and I think like a lot of times people don't realize and see that type of thing and I was pretty uh pretty proud of you here you did that and know great job you know. Well I appreciate that and be honest it's to save me the midnight call. So I'm looking out for them but I'm really looking out for myself.

You did not have to say that. Yeah. Take take the win. Take the win. Right. Um but yeah thanks for that. Also, I heard uh I saw you guys like clearing the sidewalks and stuff like that and it piled up, but I've heard from different places where they actually had to remove the snow from the uh from the side of the road and different with different rules allow that to be. So, that that was a that was a I worked very hard, you know, I just let myself melt out have four-wheel drive and it's like long as it was long as I could get out, that's all I was worried about. But but uh thank you very much.

Sure. Thank you. Absolutely. Fantastic. Um and I extend my thanks to you and your crew and all of the contractors and everybody and and I I think I speak for the entire council. Please pass that along to to everybody. I definitely will and I and mayor, I appreciate you driving around firsthand and seeing it. And then this council has always been when I say we need something, they give it to us. Do you supply us with the right equipment which makes a big difference? We have the stuff. We just have to use it. Well, you had a good opportunity to use it recently. We did. We did.

And then let's move on to the the wastewater treatment plant. I'm never going to call it water reclamation treatment plant. Um, and Joshu, uh, thank you for being here. And I want to say at the very same time that you and your crew manned the plant and had everything running smoothly the entire time of the storm. And for that we are also I speak on behalf of the council and all the citizens. We're very grateful for your service during that monstrous storm.

Thank you. I will say I'm glad that there's no more brown uh icebergs floating around in plant now. Now we're finally coming up. This is all progress. I don't mind the cold, but I that was a whole different thing. So, um, in light of that, uh, we had two staff members put in 46 hours of overtime during that storm. We had one guy came in that Saturday night at 7 o'clock, uh, in preparation for any snow that came in through the night. He was a weekend on weekend duty on call uh, staff. He stayed through the night on the couch probably in my office. Uh, and then we have another staff member that came in at 7 o'clock morning. the P. Did you all pick I don't know.

Yeah, we had public works pick uh the other person up because he doesn't have a four-wheel drive vehicle. Um and then the two of them stayed through all day Sunday through the night, Sunday into Monday. Uh and we were able to have one more person come in on Monday and they worked through the day and then all went home after that. Um and we still were chipping and chopping for a week after that just trying to get stuff cleared. Um the last council meeting there was a question about the highlands. I provide a little bit of information in the uh memo. Uh there's been no no new information on that since that time. Um going through we had the information about some of the reports that gone out that I had sent to MDE. Uh we're working on that PAS study plan that's required for the state with uh the lab that we're recently contracted, Europens, and we're hoping to have that done here in the next couple weeks hopefully. Um looking at INI, um we haven't seen any improvements on the INI coming into the plant. Uh, I've been sending out I've started sending out reports monthly to each individual partner showing just what their flows are as related to um title levels and rainfall. So, I sent just their data for that individual entity. Um, just so they're aware, especially with an Ronda County, they're doing a lot of work up there for INI and I don't know if they're what they're working on is going to address it. I think the problem is going to come down to being sump pumps in the properties and that's a whole other mess they're going to get into. Um, we've had a longunning project that we're finally finishing for our rad pump replacements. Uh, we've had issues with the startup and just getting the controller to work properly. Uh we had Sherwood Logan out on the 12th and they

coordinated with uh IMAX which is our controls company to finally figure out the issue and and get the problem resolved. Uh so far we've been operating that pump since that point and have not seen any issues. Everything seemed to be in good order. So we should be able to finally close that project out. Um we just finished up the painting project for the piping. Uh I added some pictures in the project. uh or in the memo for that as it was going along. They finished that on the 12th. Did a final walk through. Everything looks good. The only concern I had was if you took your hand and rubbed on the piping, you get just a little bit of color transfer. Uh the vendor reached out to the paint manufacturer and they said just be it. It's just pigment transmitter uh transfer from the amount of pigment they had for that color that safety orange. Uh there's no concerns about the quality of the finish. It's just a little bit of color transfer is going to come through that. Um this coming week, we're supposed to have zero draft starting on our site lights at the plant. Uh that probably will be pending whatever happens with the winter storm that is pending right now for Sunday into Monday. Uh we've had to postpone them on two separate occasions because of the weather and we're hope we don't have to keep postponing them on that. And that's basically it. If anybody has any questions,

council, any questions? I guess so. I guess I'm always going to have a question for you one way or another. Whatever. Um the item that's happening up on Clarabart Parkway and correct. So, where would our largest um failure spot be? And do we have a plan in place? That would probably be a good question for Jay. I don't handle the uh collection system. I quit. No.

Um so, so the town is fortunate. We have knowledge. We're nowhere near as big as that. We can shut off towers. We can control flow. But our biggest failure point would be if you think of the plant as the trunk of the tree. Everywhere else being a branch, it would be at the trunk and it would be right in front of the plant by horizons. That's our biggest line coming in from the north and south. The the good thing is the town has proactively uh retrofitted existing plants. For example, Richfield station, if you think of the logistics, how far away it is from the plant, it used to dump at D Street and then gravity up to 61 turn into the plant. Well, we spent money proactively and took it straight to the plant. So, that controls 850 residents, right, that we can turn off at any time. Uh we did the similar thing with Mir's Avenue. It used to gravity to the north side of the bridge. And when I say gravity, what I mean is we can't control gravity, right? You don't know what gets in there. So we proactively spent money, took it straight to the plant. That's another you think of the hotel, everything south of Fishing Creek, we could shut off in an instant. So we we're vulnerable like anyone else. We inspect it. We have we have uh good reports. We have engineering firms and we're in good shape. I don't know of anything that's going to catastrophically fail. That could change at any moment, but I feel much better. We have so many small entities that feed the plant in different ways. is even our worst failure. We could do we may have to shut a street down, but we are prepared. He has a backup dry pime. I have a backup dry pime. I have a plug for every size line we have. We have discharge hoses within 6 hours. I could run a bypass anywhere in this town on any line as long as it wasn't something catastrophic miles long. A typical failure is going to be isolated. And we are both prepared, I'm prepared to run a bypass within 6 hours, automated running itself while we figure out the plan. And

that's happened. We had a line fail at Richfield Station. Um, I have retrofitted fittings for everything I know in the field. We plug into our dry prime. We hooked to one end, pump to the other, and run a bypass. It may go down the street, but um, we stand ready if you know it's not we're not just going to be in the dark if that happens. Well, thank you. I think you probably couldn't have had a better answer on that. Good job. Thank you. Anybody else? I'm sorry. I had the mic off. Any other questions for Josh or comments for Josh or Jay?

Great. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. I I appreciate everything that you your team and your team has has done for the town through the this incredible storm that we've just gone through. All right, it is time for the town engineers report. Wayne,

thank you, Mr. Mayor. You have my report. I'll just add uh three highlights that has have occurred since uh this report was written a week ago. uh at the town uh work session. I think it was last week I reported to you that there was a u on this is on SRTS safe school 261 sidewalk that there was a proposal from Rossi for $68,000 um that was all inclusive and it was going to require uh your uh agreement to move forward because it was over 10% higher than estimate. When I had reviewed that then I questioned whether this this was a complete proposal. I have received an email back yesterday from the state saying it wasn't a complete approval that the they have now gone back to Rossy one more time asked for another best and final offer if you will and that their subcontractor uh their price alone was over $600,000. So, um, the state in their email yesterday said that if they can't get, uh, Rossi within and their and their sub, more importantly, within a reasonable number, which even the state's subject matter expert said was unreasonable at this point, uh, they're going to move on to to another uh, contractor and ask for another bid. Just update on that. Also, on the water park, um, we have design plans uh to take a look at and we're setting up meetings to start talking about details there. So, we had a meeting tonight before before this meeting to kind of coordinate communications on that. That's something that came in in the last week since this was written. And I'll just highlight that we did have a a meeting was although it was virtual with MDE on the Seagate uh pump station and floodgate. We're waiting for comments back from them. Just highlight that it's been a long overdue uh meeting that was finally happen. So, any questions? Happy to answer them. Obviously, I have questions about um getting more additional conflicting

information. Um explain what you just

when we were here at the work session last week, I said that they had a proposal from Rossi which was supposedly all-incclusive for $68,000. And I said it said in that meeting, I'm not sure the survey component is in that proposal. I had previously before that meeting sent an email to the state saying, can you please confirm this includes the survey component because I don't see it. They came back yesterday and said, in fact, it doesn't include it. And they're asking for a best and final offer. Um the I can look at the numbers in detail but in essence it's more than $68,000 which is already 10% more than 10% over the estimate that we meaning us and the state had previously prepared. When the state re realized I was right, they went back to Rossi and said, "What can you do?" Asked for a best and final offer. Because even their in-house reviewer who helped me and he and I prepared the uh NJ estimate together said this is unreasonably high. So that's where we stand. So we don't have an an don't have a total price at this point. What the state did say, however, and they don't expect this to come to come within reason. If they don't, they gave them five days from yesterday to give us a final proposal. If they can't get a reasonable proposal, the state has other subcontractors, other contractors they will reach out to to start the bidding process over again.

Do we still have the ability to do the the hybrid option that you were talking about a month or two ago? We do not. We don't. Okay. What can be done to um end the cycle of updates and um reversals of the updates because it has been going on for quite a while and and unfortunately this has been the process of the entire project for the last several years. Um, and unfortunately we're not in control of that,

right? So, is there any way that council can start getting the emails from SHA so we can understand what's going on? Because I don't think that the community is is really weary of this type of thing. And um this was very definitive um several times and several times last year and yeah I'm extremely disappointed that we are not um putting pressure on them to be more definitive about their process. I know that there's sentiment among council to not support this.

Putting pressure on who exactly? Putting pressure on SHA? I mean, we we we have a lobbyist that just said that she was working with SHA. So, that's contradictory to what what we're hearing about the numbers. We were told we, you know, there were definitive numbers last time. Um so yeah maybe if if we could know the names of the people in SHA and we

they about to get some emails. I will personally take, you know, take those names to some of our representatives. Um, or if if the mayor or the town administrator could, how do we get this project over the finish line? Because I I would be surprised if this happens to every town. So I it all I can say to you is we are at the mer at the mercy of the state. This is their project and we're just just a we're just a partner in it.

Okay. Well, unfortunately it's been that way the entire interesting to have. Um, yeah. I I don't I don't know that people really believe that it can go this wrong for this long.

Well, my experience working with the state is it took me 22 years to get them to agree to build the railway trail. So, I mean, you have you just have to be patient and keep running for office. So, you're still here to keep pushing on it. There you go. Would it be possible to set up a meeting like you did with the uh the gate over there by MDE? Yeah, we we have meetings once a month with SHA. And so, again, unfortunately, we are a sidelined partner. We don't control it. So, the last when did you have this information about? Yesterday at 3:44.

Yesterday at 3:44, SHA informed you that their final offer that was on our agenda last month was not the final offer. That's that's what they told you. And so, you have an email with that in it that we can see. Okay. Um, well, please forward that so I can read it.

And, um, so I would ask the mayor and the town administrator, how are we going to deal with this? If we're at the mercy of the state for a federal grant, what exactly are you looking for the town to do to make them do their jobs differently? It looks like Wayne and everybody here is doing their due diligence to at least get these answers. What do you I mean, do we do we mountain up and go up there and smack people around? Like, what do you what do you want us to do? Do you think maybe it was with the like the board of education like where the sidewalk's too long and the rules? Maybe it's not that it's is how things work that we don't have control over. This is the state and a federal grant and this is what they're doing. They gave this information to Wayne. I mean, and the Rossy company is doing the things that they're doing that's making it harder for us to get that direct number. And then we're also dealing with it being overextended and them charging us too much. The only question to pay attention to right now is what exactly can the council do? What can the town do when we don't have the power on that end so that we can stop wasting time going back and forth with the performative stuff and move on instead of just asking Wayne a bunch of questions that he already answered? Well, my experience when I first took office with SHA, um I was on a call with SHA and our town administrator and I had no impression from the people that I spoke with that

um there was a problem on SHA's end. They were very grateful that there was finally somebody from this town that wants to get something done. Um they were very responsive. They informed the town administrator that um they need monthly reports to keep the grant alive. They and and they were working towards the project. So you already have the names um

because you because we started making a lot of progress and then um and then the town administrator asked for uh me to give the reigns to her and then at the same time there was a switch of the SHA contract uh contact. Should we get back on this after the reports um since we do have it in our agenda for new business? So,

I got a question for for Wayne as well. Um, I I I was under the impression, and I could be just conflating a couple different the projects that we've we've seen come through, but um it wasn't Rossi also the recommendation from the state is the most realistic vendor uh for this project and that they were concerned that no other vendor or they were all astronomical or I could have sworn that you had said there was concern. So, I I bring that up because if we do end up having to pivot to a different vendor, we might be chasing an even larger number. Um, I can't tell you if it's a larger number or not. Um, and quite frankly, I think Ross, he's getting the raw end of the deal here. It is their subcontra subcontractor, AB Consultants,

who has the outrageous number. Um, but the way the process works is the state has a select list of consultants they have selected. Rossi is one of them. Yes. The state came to us and said, "We think Rossi is the best suited for this project. Therefore, therefore, they went to them first. They've now, in my opinion, nearly exhausted their hopes that Rossy can bring this through because of their subcontractor. We actually asked, "Can we change subcontractors? Can we do the work?" The answer is initially was yes, you can do the work. The latest answer was, "No, you can't do the work." We can't do the No, you can't change subcontractors. AB Consultants is Rossi a subcontractor on the contract. So, okay. So, will somebody else come in cheaper? I have no idea.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I appreciate that. I I would then just say like uh to to Anthony to your point then um I I I think it's hard for us to hold you accountable to uh a state and federal uh bureaucracy. Um I think you know I spent 20 years in the government and I'm not shocked that it's a broken process. Yeah. We're pretty much locked into the the piggy. We're using Rossi for the piggybacking, right? We're pretty much locked into that.

So there is no pig this is not a piggybacking contract. This is a they have an open-end contract with the state of state state state of Maryland. Rossi does. There are other consultants that have the same contract because the state of Maryland SHA put it out and they selected select contractors. Rossy's one of them. So if we decide to go with this expedited procurement, I know it's kind of funny at this point. Um that's the process. You use the state's contractor, they go to contractor number one. If we can't come to an agreement with contractor number one, they go to contractor number two. I have no idea how many they have, but um that's the process. And and again, we're a partner. We're not running this show.

Yeah. I'll tell you, I I think I've talked about as an electrician working in all the different municipalities and stuff like that and just sometimes there's a gridlock. And I've I've done some things and it's been four or five years before I could get to the hard no. And there's been seven or eight months before I could even get to access to things. It's there's so many things that are outside of our control, you know. I think sometimes the more we force it, the more resistance they can be. So, I don't know. Thank you.

Anything else for Wayne before we move on? Thank you, Wayne. You're welcome. Uh, next, Calbert County Sheriff's Office. Lieutenant Phelps. Good evening, sir. How are you? Nice to see you.

Yes. Um, you all had the report. Uh, we had 137 self-initiated calls. All together was 876 calls. Um, or 137 calls and 176 self-initiated. um together. Uh there was a a theft fraud. The identity fraud on there kind of brings to mind that um identity theft, identity things, people calling you soliciting your information. Do not answer them if you don't know them. Um I get calls. I I don't know. I wish they'd quit calling me. Um luckily the phone nowadays identifies most spam calls, says potential spam. I just like go to voicemail. But um if anyone calls and asks your information or anything or it just doesn't look right, emails, anything, don't answer them. Um then you'll end up with identity theft and all that. Uh some DO DOP, some emergency mental things, and then uh three DUIs, a DUI with CDS, and some assaults, and some uh other calls. Any questions?

How you doing, man? doing all right. I'm doing well. Yeah. So, the snow's gone and uh yeah, snow. All right. That's what it was. It was uh Yeah. I do have one question. Yes. Um when you bring your reports to us, um are they like everything that comes across your desk? Are they complete with all of your attachment with the numbers? It's the second page of the report. Every call we answer is the numbers. Is that what you're talking about?

Yeah. I guess the question is um if something were to have happened, we could expect to read it on the report. There's no editing of what is happening in our community. There's no editing of of things that can be released. Yes. If that question answer your question. Okay. So, does every criminal activity fall on this report or it does not? Any criminal activity that we can release? So, we get the calls but not all of the minutia of the things that happened. We do know all the calls that you've gotten. Yes. And that's we get that because that's what we

that's on the summary that we get. Second page has all the calls. the the the summaries are things that we can release. There are there is information in law enforcement that's sensitive to investigations and things that we just can't make public. Are you referencing open investigations and and asking if like that would be on that's what I'm if it's an open investigation it's not going to be released. Right. My Right. My point is is everything that happens in town in some fashion on this report. And so what I hear you telling me is read the numbers. It will reflect in the numbers on the report no matter what.

Are all these calls the summary calls everything that happens? No. It's the highlights. Um I guess if that's what you're saying were there in fact from when I was here before it's got actually more. I didn't used to put like domestic arrests because I figured they were more private and things like that and I didn't the EPS are listed on here which I probably wouldn't put on a report because that's kind of like not really I mean it's someone having a mental crisis but things like that I mean since I left it's kind they've kind of added more things to it. Um it's more I guess are you asking is do you want a complete report or are you asking

asking you to share details or personal things all over a report and have a big piece of paper with bunch of gossip on it but um it is a report and and knowing what's going on in your community um is important. So if it's an incomplete report that doesn't really lend itself to people having a lot of faith in it. So I'm just asking well this is in what way is it complete? How do we read this report? Complete as in it's information that can be released. I wouldn't say there's anything hidden from this report because I think on that second page with all the numbers it's all there

as far as the arrests that were made and things like that. It's if it is under investigation, we can't include it in the report. You can't include it in numbers at all. So everything that's under an investigation is not in the report. Correct. Okay. because it's it would show up that we had received a call in the call log and that numbers of calls, but it actually announced like details or listed anywhere. If it's an investigation, number one, if it's an ongoing investigation, there'd be no arrest

because it's an ongoing investigation or no anything. So, it wouldn't be even on the on the numbered summary sheet. But if it's an ongoing case, we can't publicly really release information that would infect the investigation. And there's nowhere on the report that says X amount of cases are under investigation. Not necessarily. There's no way to know. We could have a hundred.

There's no investigation. I mean, if if I mean, deputies are constantly I mean, it could be a, for instance, they might be doing a a CDS investigation. They might be doing a a theft investigation. What we list on here is actually thefts that are closed. They could be actively investigating thefts that occurred in the beach that didn't make this report, but they happened. and they got a call for service and it either isn't closed or it didn't, you know, it's once the investigation is complete, we can list it on this report, but until it's complete, we really can't release it. And sometimes it flows from one month to another month to three months later, we're not going to go back and say there was a theft investig a theft investigation from January, we just closed because we're kind of doing the monthly summary of what happened. I mean, if if you if there's an ongoing thing that ends up being closed, that's an important thing. We can let you know, but I mean, it's that active investigations are not going to be listed on this.

Can I wave of crime going through our our area and you all were investigating that? How would we know

that signal? I mean, it's not like we going to just go come out there and be vigilant and help with this, but I I would like to say that there is a police accountability board and they have a meeting next week. So, if people do want to have a say in making sure that they get certain kind of information or say something that they feel about police investigations and things like that, that's a great place to put it. I sit on the police accountability board and nobody shows up for the most part for those meetings. They should come in and have those conversations with us. to see if things need to be changed on this level. I know about that. Where is that? Hurry. You tell me. And you can watch them online. You can watch them online.

Can I can I interject? I would say like in the because the line of questioning is really it's a challenging because I think that they would be impossible for you it to not to but if it's a wave, we're going to say, "Hey, uh I just saw an email and they're g it's out on the FA that there's a bunch of package thefts going on. We're going to announce to the community, hey, keep an eye on this. But it's not I mean, yeah, it's not it's information is released by social media on a regular basis of crime waves

that of things. So that's what you just if you're the follow the sheriff's office. Now, the sheriff's office has eliminated any. We used to have a Twin Beach patrol Facebook page, but the sheriff's office now they have a social media manager and all took and combined them all into the sheriff's office main Facebook page. So, that's the only one that will release social media and I guess I think they have an Instagram and things like that also. But um if it's a crime wave, then yes, you're going to be notified if it affects safety or it's something the citizens need to be aware of. Yes.

Um we're not going to hide, hey, there's a bunch of package thefts going on. We're not going to hold it to our ourselves our things or uh there's uh you know, someone going around doing I mean, if you watch, we we put out things all the time on there of skimmers at gas stations, things like that. That's that's the crime waves you're getting really. I mean, honestly, we're lucky to live in Cal County where we don't have the serious crime crime going on. Knock on wood. Yes. Um that that we and here in Chesapeake Beach, the fact that, you know, we you all pay to have more service than some of the other communities, we're here and and we kind of keep hopefully a thumb on it. Um, but I I think what's not to uh overlook the there's certain things that we can't release if it's, you know, if it's going to affect an investigation.

Yeah, I I can appreciate that. I'm just trying to understand how we read the report and how we understand um what is going on in our community from the report. And if you have any questions ever, yeah, call me. I will I gave everyone my which is a good thing. I I gave everyone Did everyone get my business card? My birthday here. Yeah. So, call me. I'll be more than happy to talk to you about anything. Okay. And answer any questions.

And if you have some questions, I can release enough that is allowed to be released. But it's that public dissemination of it is I can't do. So I would I would add in here like may maybe like flip the question a little bit is is so because when we look at the report 137 calls 876 selfinitiated 137 calls by others and then uh you know it's it it's a lot of calls the report would be 100 pages like if you're if there's something in particular you're looking for like ask that versus saying what am I missing because I think the lieutenant has said that here's everything I think that is reasonable for you to be given. And so whatever is missing, I think that's that would be the I would recommend that would be the ask flip versus saying what am I missing?

Yeah. My my ask is really just how do we understand the report? How do we how do we recognize trends and um understand what's going on in our community from the report? and I haven't completely figured that out, but um I'm glad you offered a phone call and um

you want to sit down and and review it and and and you know and sit look at the numbers and I can explain um I if I I would say going if your concern is trends or things that there there is no trends there's no like this is something going on on a regular basis I mean we have thefts on a regular basis, but it's not a like the same person or the same thing going on. We have assaults, we have destruction of properties. It's not an ongoing thing. If it is, then it's highly investigated. We've had in the past where we have a bunch of DOPs and we we investigate and things. I mean, a bunch of thefts from the same person figure it out. And

Gotcha. Just for clarity, um I appreciate the law enforcement in our area. I do feel very safe here. So I I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to beat you up in any ways. Um but uh yes, we are very safe here. I hope we keep it that way. Um a a trend or a a wave can pop up at any time and it doesn't necessarily mean it's the fault of policing, but it can pop up. So, so that was the reason for my line of questioning and and like I said, my phone is always available if you I mean I appreciate that. If and we can, you know, if you have any questions, I show up as a spam caller. Thank you very much. I show up as a spam.

If if it shows up as a spam number, it would go to voicemail. You have to leave a voicemail. Um just make sure to let us know if it's a trend or a wave, sir. I will definitely. Thank you so much. Um, when are you all getting back on live PD? I saw you guys on there the other day. I think that was a uh shield. Um, hi Lieutenant. So, yes,

I guess a couple things. I know it's not in this report, but in February report, I called and talked to some of the deputies and they looked over and uh watched over a few things uh at nighttime. They personally wanted to say thank you for that. Um, it was a piece of mind and that's a lot of times what people don't see is uh and I know it was uh was much appreciated.

Appreciate it. Uh, one of them I know that there's been some stuff on social media and and I think the key takeaway if I read between the lines is is to be thoughtful and mindful to not uh spread false information to participate in rumors to hinder law enforcement. um we as a council have your number and reach out to you directly. Uh if there's a question, if there's a concern, if something happens in the town, hey, we can reach out to you. I I know uh myself, I reached out to uh someone and I got uh Lieutenant Colonel Payne and I got some details of it and uh you know, it's uh thank you guys for everything you do. Appreciate it. And like I said, and if you give me a phone call, we could talk offline. I'm more than willing to give you details I can. I just it's there's certain areas that just it's public versus other things. So,

well, thank you very much. And by the way, next time you see your dad, tell them Becky and I said hello. Thank you. Take care, man. Put up the bass signal when you need me. Next. North Beach Volunteer Fire Department. Good evening, sir. Good evening. Greetings from Chief Stanton, President G. Uh we're still uh moving on on our 100th anniversary and with the permission of the council, I'd like to approach and uh and uh feel free. All right. The first public relief of challenge for All right. Thank you, sir.

Very nice. First one is the best one. Thank you, sir. General public. That's nice. Very much. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Let's go. Well, as a uh very grateful as a victim of a house fire, I appreciate everything you do. That was that was quite a while ago, but uh I think it was 2013, but uh you never forget it. People want to go through. No,

it's terrible. Um first thing I want to do was I wanted to echo what everybody else said with public works. They uh we we had the storm. They were amazing. They worked with us. We ran a lot of the broken pipes. Uh we had a couple times the streets were flooded. They were immediately there with trucks to salt and sand the road so we weren't all stuck there. Um roadways were kept clear. We saw the impact immediately like when we left the town for calls and we went outside of town limits. And uh it's just it's amazing what can be done. Like I said, thank thank all those. Um

I think that uh just kind of acknowledges that in Calbert County there's only two municipalities and we're right next to each other and with our own government and our own capability of dealing with problems, it's not like having the entire county to deal with. And so our crew focuses on on our town and North Beach's crew focuses on their town. And I think it's a great place to be.

Yeah. One of the uh good things that came out of the storm was uh we saw something that we probably haven't seen in 10 years, probably won't see for another 10 years, and that's everything around here icing up. And we took advantage of that with our dive team. And uh we actually Sunday morning before the Super Bowl went and cut a hole in the ice and practice our ice rescues, which was something we had like believe four to six inches of ice over there. Something pictures of that. That was awesome. you don't actually get to really train. You can train and train and train, but to get out there on the ice and do it. So, um I trust everybody got the statistical report that was sent out. Yeah. It was that in Was that in Fishing Creek that you did that? Yes. Okay.

Yes.

Um we have uh a quarter auction this Sunday. Our ladies auxiliary at 1:00. If anybody wants to come out, there's a quarter auction. All this should be on our spo our social media pages, too. Um then uh Sunday, March 7th, we have our sports in bash that uh is our big fundraiser for the year. There's still a few tickets left, but uh not many. So if you want a ticket, uh you can reach out somebody at the firehouse, come by the firehouse. I'm proud to say that uh our CTA cadetses for the high school, uh they did the Skills USA competition for the regional area, which is I guess St. Mary's Charles Calbertt and uh we took uh first and second place in the fire competition. Two of our cadetses down there. So they will be moving on to the state competition and like last year we had uh three of us go to the national competition in Atlanta. So hopefully they they will go on to that. But unfortunately Atlanta moved their time. So the competition is the same week these kids would graduate.

Wow. So to have to make a choice to go down there and compete or to walk across the stage is just unbelievable for him. But we we'll cross that bridge when it comes. They've actually tried to petition Skills USA to move it, but there's a big I think a World Cup soccer tournament something going on in Atlanta and taking too long. Skills USA is just not not gonna compete with that.

We uh finalized our run count for 2025. We had 2,254 runs, which amazingly enough, if you look at like a fiveyear average. Our our calls stay right within like 10 to 20 calls the same each year. Last year was an anomaly. We were a couple hundred calls less last year, but if you look at all the rest of them, we're right in that same same area. Uh, like I say, a shout out to the public works. Also, shout out to our members of the firehouse. We had uh we had people that were there 24/7. We at any given time probably had 12 to 15 volunteers on the floor responding on calls. We were quite busy. We had uh the high school kids that are they're I say high school kids, but they're fully trained. They're EMTs. They're firefighters. They can do everything anybody else can.

We had to actually physically put a couple of them out of the firehouse because they had been there five days in a row and handle that. And we said, "You need to go home and take a break." So, uh go ahead to staff it. Yeah. It was But it's something that, you know, we'll see the snow, but we'll probably never see the ice and everything, the cold temperatures like that. Uh, knock on wood, we didn't have any major catastrophes with with fires or anything. We were able to uh mostly ambulance calls and people falling and and a lot of the broken broken pipes and stuff. So, any questions? Any questions? Anybody?

I've uh I uh Yeah. Um, so I wanted to uh I actually I I need you to publicly confirm that this gift has a value of less than $25. It does. They will be uh on sale for the public for $15. Thank you. So yes, it does. Okay. Dodge the bullet. What the threshold is? 25. All right. Any other any other questions or comments? Mayor, may I make one comment? I wish you would

cuz while I was here today in a meeting with Similia, the fire department was at my shop cuz our flu caught fire for the furnace. So, I appreciate the quick response. They came over there, took care of it, and I'm grateful. Y and it adds to one of your calls for next year's report. There we go. And when and when that came in, I was on my way here and heard about it and quickly drove down to the I it said that it was at the wastewater treatment plant. I know it's the water reclamation treatment. It's a wastewater treatment plant and I drove in there and says, "No, no, no. That's Jay back in Jay's shop." So, and it was under control. I couldn't get back there anyway because the fire trucks luckily were walking away. Wasn't anything more than a backup flu. So,

yeah. So, but uh it's I guess that's another thing to say is that it's nice to be located immediately adjacent to the fire department. Right. And you you you hit us on a good staffing. I was in St. Mary's County getting my taxes done, but they were I think probably when that call came out, 10 or 11 people on the floor. So, they were able to, I think, get three pieces out immediately. Fully staff, right? Yeah. It was pretty good for a weekday at that time in the morning. Yeah. Well, great. Anybody got any questions? Any council members? Well, thank you very much and thanks for your patience. Thank you, sir. And keep up the good work.

All right. We uh traditionally uh the mayor uh will present a state of the town address. Um but we're we're working on a more elaborate report. So um because of we had a very full agenda tonight. We've already been here for two hours. Um we're going to truncate that and give you a little break. Uh I want to share a few things. Um, in the beginning of our term, uh, over a year ago, a little more than a year ago, Tom Reynolds, u long-standing, uh, staff member with Maryland Municipal League and somebody that I've worked with for a very, very long time, the council and I, he came here and the council and I looked at what would be our first u year priorities. And we spent about a half a day doing that. Uh, had them all posted up on the wall over here. We worked in the conference room and um and it was interesting because we repeated that at this most recent event uh that when he was here again for an update which we had in in my prior uh service to the town, we had done that once at the beginning of of each term, but we hadn't done it uh a followup like we did this time. And so I I thought it was really fascinating that when we went and went through the exercise of identifying the priorities uh of all of the council members and myself um that it it almost came out to be exactly what we did a year ago. Um and that we had one item I think that we did not continue or didn't it didn't reach the high level that it did before. But I um and and those the the concerns the top three priorities was understanding the water bills uh which resulted in and in and what we've

been able to accomplish over the past year is a reduction of uh 20% on water and sewer bills to give residents some relief as we looked at a res for a resolution to the problem. So that was temporary. Uh number two item repair and reopen the water park. And I'm I'm pleased to say the contract is signed. Um, and we're seeing signs of work beginning. Uh, and we have an uh an anticipated open date uh of n of 2027. I started to say 19 uh 2027. And uh I did actually see a crew over there working today. Um and finally um an upgrade for Kellum Spark. And so this is uh some work that uh Councilman Jamie Schulz led the effort on. Um and uh we saw the design concept uh at our work session last week and if you would like to elaborate please do.

Um yeah so the the idea here is really like creating a you know one of the biggest pieces we heard was creating this community space that would really entice uh everybody in the community. So, uh, if you look on here, we still keep the essence of the the football field as as we're advocating and supportive of the Beach Buccaneers and their 30 plus history, uh, in the community. Um, but but, um, uh, one of the inspirations was every time you go to Dunkirk Park, uh, just 15, 20, 30 minutes or 20 minutes up the road, uh, the park is always completely full with kids and just having a blast at the at the, you know, the larger kid park. So, uh, what was it last year? uh we opened up the tot lot, but what's missing from that is maybe the big bigger kid uh type park. And then um we had done a survey and you know while this is a very uh uh kid focused area, one of the big uh asset we got from the community was a walking path and uh some exercise uh equipment. So you can kind of see all the light brown uh is it would be like walking space. Uh and then in different portions we'll have um exercise. I I guess I should have started with saying that this is a draft, right? We're still tweaking this. So, please if you want it, you can have it, but just know it's probably going to be tweaked and changed slightly as we go through uh uh all the designs. Um and then, you know, we have over here uh uh Dan had talked about, you know, having some kind of uh performance stage. I won't call it an amphitheater anymore. I got got harassed for that one. Um but a performance stage of some sort. So maybe we could invite, you know, the high school band or we could have a community play or some kind of engagements or, you know, something that the town is hosting and, you know, we do taste of the beaches. Maybe we can have a band up there that plays uh so they're not kind of tucked away uh underneath. And then really some of the designs in the front was um uh I'll say it anyways because I get my hands

slapped for this all the time. When you walk to Kellums right now, it looks slightly like a a low security prison. Uh because it's just got a giant fence on it. Uh and then it's got like, you know, my Air Force times call it Creech Brown. Every building's just like, you know, minus the mural that we just did, but it's just a very bland building with a a dark fence around it and some bleachers that you see. So, you know, really creating that ambiance to invite the community in. Uh inserting a bunch of greenery in here uh uh as well. and then positioning us to um really take advantage of the space to have a a true spot within our community that's going to like bring us together uh to be a little bit closer. So again, it's in uh um it's in draft right now, but we're in draft with the desire to start executing the funds that we put aside starting this year. This will probably be a multi-year project just because um something of this nature is not not cheap. Uh and then there's quite a few talking with our town engineer there's quite a few permitting challenges that will have to hurdles we'll have to get passed. So uh appreciate the opportunity to speak on

well and I I appreciate all the work that you all have been doing. I I when this project started you know I was involved in getting Kellum's field from what it used to be to what it is now. And that's been a couple of decades ago. It's been a How long has it been Sharon? Do you remember? Been a while. Been a while. And so to see I I I was I was frankly a little bit skeptical about how this might look, but then when this plan was presented and explained, especially once you had the chance to explain it, uh this to me is very exciting. I think this could just be a a brand new multi-use attraction for the town. And uh I I commend you and your your colleagues for all the and all the work that everybody's been doing on this. So

yeah, I'm sorry. I I should say thanks to Jennifer from Wayne's team. Um I drew a very ugly PowerPoint slide with boxes on it and he made it look good. So I appreciate that. Great. Um she keeps me straight. Um, there's a whole lot more we could talk about, but I I just want to make sure uh that we recognize the uh the work of both the town council and the staff and moving us along on these priorities that were identified during the election campaign and we really and truly are making progress. I I think everybody on this DAS should feel very good about what we're getting done and yes, there's more to do. Um and and we will we will do it. We're just moving ahead. Um so at this point we're here, right? Okay. We um we are up to the point um on for resolutions and ordinances. Um, so you have in front of you, um, council members, uh, ordinance 0-26-1, an ordinance of the town council of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, amending chapter 196, parks, and public areas of the town code article 3, Boardwalk Park 196 through 20 or 19620, skateboards, bicycles, and other conveyances prohibited to permit bicycle riding on the town boardwalk under certain conditions. Um, is there a motion for approval? Is there a second?

Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing notice. Yeah, there's there's some discussion. Pick it up. Pick it up quick. Now you almost lost it. I think it's uh changing the rules when there that legislation hasn't been passed just yet. Uh kind of have a little caution even though they say it is whether has a vote or not. Uh I don't know. It would have been nice to maybe wait or have that legislation all the way done. I'm not in favor.

Any other questions or comments? I just want to know which legislation the access to the uh municipal that's uh municipal beaches. You know, it's it's going to but it'd been nice to have that done. Um but we're on O-26-1. Mhm. That's that's the one on parks and public areas. Yeah. Um so he's talking about Representative Long's bill that is that has that's a separate issue. No, but he's saying that's influencing his decision on on this because it's not removed yet and could introduce uh factors that would change his mind.

I I have a commitment from Representative Long that he is going to remove that uh withdraw that uh that legislation. Uh, and I have he he introduced that I think as a misunderstanding when he and I had a conversation on it, but that has nothing to do with this. That's this. Yeah. I I'm not trying to defend him. I just I'm trying to understand what he's saying.

Yeah. So he he councilman Dval is not saying that it has a direct or it that this is that he's just saying that he's being his decision is being influenced because while uh the representative may have committed um politicians commit all the time uh and and don't do what they say they're going to do. So uh I think that that's am I correct? So I think it's yeah in effect the reason that it's still there means that there could be overcrowding which means if you let more people in that area you will have more traffic on the boardwalk. So that's what that's okay. Well I have every reason to believe uh our representative uh at his word

okay that will be removed. So any other comments? No. All right. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Post.

Okay. Those in favor raise your hand. Two in favor. Those opposed raise your hands. Four opposed. The motion fails. Ordinance fails. Okay. Next. Ordinance uh 026-2. An ordinance to the town council Ches Beach, Maryland, an ordinance of Ches Beach, a municipal corporation in the state of Maryland. The issuer providing for the issuance and sale of aggregate principal amount not to exceed 6,100,000 of bonds in Chesake Beach, Maryland to be known as Chesig Beach Infrastructure Bonds 2026 series A. uh the bonds to be issued and sold pursuant to the authority of sections 4-101 through 4-255 of the housing community development article of the annotated code of Maryland as amended for the purpose of providing all or a portion of the funds necessary for financing of the following projects. renovation, construction, improvement, and agences, necessary property rights and equipment related site and utility improvements and other related activities to the town's water park. Two, funding a portion of a capital reserve fund and or other reserves. and three, paying issuance and other costs related to the bonds. Providing that the bond shall be issued upon the full faith and credit of the issuer, providing for the dispersement of the proceeds of the sale of the bonds, and for the levy of annual taxes upon all accessessible property within the corporate limits of the issuer for the payment of the principle of and interest on the bonds as they shall respectively mature. Providing for the form, tenor, denomination, maturity date or dates and other provisions of the bonds. providing for the sale of the bonds and providing for related purposes

including without limitation the method of fixing the interest rate or rates to be borne by the bonds. The approval, execution and delivery of documents, agreements, certificate and instruments and the making of or providing for the making of representations and covenants concerning the tax status of the interest on the bonds. and we will set a public hearing for 6:15 uh of the of next month's meeting

March 19th. on March 19th. Next, we're going to introduce ordinance 0-26-3, an ordinance to the town council, Ches Beach, Maryland, amending the town code chapter 110 building construction to repeal article one fences and renumber the remaining articles. We will set the public hearing to follow immediately after the previous public hearing that was or ordinance or introduction. Um, is this on everybody's agenda? Okay, so

Okay, so we're down to E now. Introduce and vote on EO-26-5, an emergency ordinance of the town council, Chesig Beach, Maryland, amending town code chapter 268, vehicles and traffic, article 3, speed monitoring system 268-9, operation of systems to increase the fines for certain speed violations. Who can talk about that?

Yes. Yeah. So, this is um an implementation of authority to increase uh the fines that you can charge for violations for speeding violations that are caught through your um speed monitoring system, your cameras. Um, and it's an emergency because your um, company that you work with to process those citations has begun to implement the change. Um, and this has happened through the through the state, but we need to catch our statute up to the authorizing legislation. Um, you have the option of choosing to hold your uh, fines across the board at $40, which is their present. um limit. Um or you can uh increase them up to the number provided by the uh new authorizing statute, the version that you have before you um implements the the full authority of the authorizing statute. Thanks. Would we be able to have some?

This is an emergency. This is emergency. So there not there will be no public hearing. Well, you could have your public hearing. All right. We're going to have a public hearing. Anybody want to say anything about this? Um,

wait. Can can I take is it fair to is it fair to explain like what the changes are because I this is something that uh listen and myself talked about because I didn't understand what what this was and and correct me if I'm wrong but this is basically the the company the legislation changed and then the company was like hey we're just going to go ahead and introduce these changes uh it was not us who introduced the changes and the fines would go from $40 uh and then they continue to raise from 40 to 70 to 120 to 230 to $425 if you're caught doing 40 miles an hour. So, I think you'd have to be doing 70 in front of uh elementary school, which I hope if you're doing 70, you're getting arrested, but uh I'm pretty sure you are.

But you getting the upgraded 70 and I have not seen I'm relieved. Thank you. People are already getting charged this

that it's already approved on. I don't know what the company's doing in the back end. I don't know because it'll be recorded. While he's walking up, Lori, I think to your question, based off it was, yeah, they started doing it if somebody was caught, and then it's now up to us to make the decision. Do we want to uh put into the code what they increase these to, the ones I just listed off, or do we want to keep it at 40, or would we want to change the language to be something else?

The state statute didn't say these are the fines. It says a local jurisdiction has the authority to set the fines up to this amount. Previously, it said the fine is $40. Now, you can at your discretion increase them for fines as set forth in the draft up to those numbers that are in there for specific brackets of how fast you're going.

But what I think I'm hearing is is somebody got charged $70 already. Did that happen? they we're approving the citations with the new form because that is what is in their system whether they're sending those and collecting the 70 or not. But I don't think I've approved many of those and none over the 70. Most of them are the $40. Most most of the citations from the cameras are the it's 12 and over are between the 12 and 15

miles an hour. very few are the 15 to 25 over which is the next level of 70 and there's none that are more than 25 over will be cameras in Ches Beach by Beach Elementary School. There's three. There's one southbound on 261 at Beach Elementary and there's two on Old Bayside. I think they relocated. There used to be one northbound on 261. They relocated that to um the uh Old Bay side.

Oh, I will say that 20 m an hour sign is um uh point of order. I think we're into uh public comment right now. So, if we could like conclude public comment and then we want to have discussion, we can have it in the proper place. We are I thought we were public comment. You said we were going to have public comment and ask for public comment. Everybody started uh having discussion from the from the DAS. Well, that's because we're learning from the police officer who writes these. I'm just trying to get us, you know, moving through the process properly.

Yeah. And actually and yeah I mean you've got the document in front of you that has this specified and so this is what this what is what we are going to going to vote on. Go ahead. Can I just I just so you're more comfortable. We are working on the problem you are identifying. Okay. About the citation that or citations that have been issued. Okay. We just we want to get this in place to cut off any additional problems.

I I will circle back. I I I we were open up to public comment and then I just said I think if the public's going to comment, they have to know what in the world to comment on. Uh so that was just trying to frame the conversation for them. Uh so I think I think we should allow uh as as you open it up to public comments to give them an opportunity to speak. Okay. Thanks, Tom. Yeah. and and well may we move to discussion. Does anybody have a comment? All right. So that means public comment is over. Okay. No more public comment. Go. My one my one question is now we need a we need a motion

to discuss. I give a motion for us to discuss this. Can somebody please second it? Second. All right. Let's go. All in favor? I I Okay, fine. Let's So, my my one question for this is when we change these amounts, do these amounts still double the same as it did when it was 40 and then go to 80 and so on and so forth? So, does that mean now when somebody gets $70, then after a certain time it can go up to 140? Like, do those things still stay in place? The answer to that yes, the answer is yes, Mr. the goodie two shoes. If you don't pay the ticket, it doubles.

No, at first it was just 40, then it can be 80 or something like that. But if you do anything else, then they're all going to double.

Okay. A couple problems with this. Um I got, you know, I I got my packet. I don't think this came over uh email in our packet. So that I read this for the first time when I read my packet. Um why is it an emergency ordinance to make sure that we don't have a continued situation where citations are issued by your company that exceed the amount of your uh ordinance. Oh, right. But we can set the rates. So, I guess question is,

right? Well, they're set at 40 right now. Yeah. So, they should the company should be abiding by our current rates. So, it's not an emergency. The company just needs to abide by our current rates. That's my that's our option to to say we do not want to go into these new rates and we want to stay at the 40 and then this is an alloy. We don't why do if we're already there and we make no proclamation then it stays what it is. So it's I don't I agree with you. I don't think it's an emergency. I think the company just needs to abide by our current rates and they jumping the gun. So they need us to

So we're basically saying we want to unless you want unless you're in favor of raising rates, we're we're just saying we're going to kill the emergency order. We would keep it at 40, the current one, and then we would need to notify the company that that is what they need to go to. Correct. Well, you could strike the emergency declaration, introduce it as a regular ordinance, set it for public hearing as you would any other ordinance, and have a discussion about the numbers in the future, which I think might be what you're looking for. Um, or you could in fact just kill the ordinance and say we're good with staying with our 48. Yeah, my intention is to vote against this. Would like to see the rate stay the same? All right. We ready to vote? We don't have

My intention would be to have law enforcement suggest if I know that we have this as a tool if we need to. And if law enforcement says that that's something that they would recommend, I we could follow their recommendation. But it sounds like that everyone is if they're drifting over the speed limit, it's not extreme. Um, so we did just get um word that it's not really hasn't been that egregious here that we're not having people that's going over the speed limit in that limit. So, well, why don't we just take a vote on this? I think I know how it's going to go. All in favor say I.

All in favor to to kill it. No, no. I'm saying all in favor of this say I. And I hear crickets. Okay. Chirp chirp. All oppose say no. No. Okay. Done. All right. Reports of officers, boards, and committees, planning and zoning.

Hi. So, um, the planning and zoning commission has met. They were a little delayed by the snow. So, they've met in February. They'll be meeting again next week and they are reviewing the land use table and uh the conditions and uses. Uh we are looking at revamping the whole thing to make it just a lot easier to understand but also more detailed. Um and there will actually be some zoning ma there will be a zoning map amendment that will need to go along with it uh due to some issues we've identified with the RV1 and RV2 districts. So coastal resiliency is on hold. That's where they're at. Any questions?

Any questions, council? I have a question. Um, I'm I read in the administrator's report and I think your section, um, there's temporary home occupation permit policy that's going on. So the council asked the planning commission to provide a fix for home occupations in 90 days and the lane use table and conditions in in six months, right?

And so we made an adjustment to the existing home occupations that addresses the issue but it is not the same solution that we are looking at for the long term. Right? I guess my question is like um I don't know did anybody even ever change the old home occupation rules? So I'm reading that you're giving permits. So you're giving permits under some authority but we haven't proved anything yet. I'm not giving permits for home occupations. That was my question. Yeah. I can't issue a permit for a home occupation until we pass something. Until you pass something,

right? And you're sure that that the old rules were removed? So the the old rules have always been present in the conditions. So the the conditions for a home occupation were present, but the permission to have the use in residential zones have been removed. the the table passed

something happened to the table um that removed home occupations. However, the planning commission was concerned that the conditions for the home occupation might not be appropriate in residential areas because of the amount of traffic or parking that they might generate. So, we established two different sets of conditions based on the district that they're in. So, that's your that's the ordinance that you're going to be looking at for home occupations. Now, what we're doing with the larger land use table is actually creating two categories of home occupation. That's a longer and we probably adjust some of the regulations in there. That's just a longer discussion that would have taken more than 90 days. So, we got you something quickly while we work on it in more detail.

Gotcha. So, we're going to get that ordinance in a work session soon or So, you we we discussed it at your work session earlier this month, but it did have to go through the lawyer for review. So, Okay. And then the lawyer will give us words. So I have some some things to pass to you based on the comments I made last time for consideration. Right. And we we discussed those understanding that the audience is not coming back to work.

That's my understanding. I I mean I don't I don't drive the process. So it's, you know, you could theoretically bring it back to work session again, but um I understood that I was to take the uh discussion that you already had and prepare the ordinance for agenda. Okay. But you listen to the discussion and you're aware of all the concerns that were brought up. I am. Okay. And and we discussed them as well. Okay. Great. Thank you. And I uh I was actually washed in and and then uh it was an HDMI cable that went bad. So the the video wasn't working, but yes.

Um I had actually uh noticed it during it and I just went and I think I came by the town hall and got something. I saw you guys there. I just It wasn't It was just a bad cable. Thank you, Wendy, for getting it fixed up. That was it. Thank you. Um sir, I just wanted to say thank you because I uh one of our goals coming out of the the retreat that we did was uh revision of the uh town code and I you think you today we had a good conversation and really trying to simplify the code because I think you you have to have a at least a almost be maybe a PhD student in rocket sciences in some sections of the code to understand it uh or be you. Um but uh no, in in all seriousness, I I really appreciate because I think this is extremely important. The home occupation is a good example of trying to open up and allow businesses to operate at their home as long as they're, you know, allowed by the state. Uh and in the current economic climate, I think that's extremely important to to provide those opportunities. Uh and I just appreciate what you and the team are doing. So, thanks.

Um I had an opportunity to speak with uh Mrs. green gold um at the Christmas party and she expressed how excited she was to be discussing uh backyard chickens and so I thought I'd take this opportunity to bring it up and so we can keep it going and uh see where we're at with this. So you have a backyard chickens ordinance that been provided to you from the planning and zoning commission. So whenever you all add it to your agenda for review, the issue is that for you it's not just approving the zoning.

Um if you approve the zoning, it doesn't really change anything. Um because you have other appeal to do. I believe

you have appeal and then you also want to consider noise um and other code issues that might arise from backyard chickens. So it's not necessarily like the same way the fences and home occupations is kind of like here's the recommendations you asked for and you're it doesn't require as much discussion. Backyard chickens is requiring more discussion from all you all. So that's probably why you haven't seen it on the agenda yet because you have it's budget season for one and you have a lot of other stuff going on. Um but that's that's for you guys.

Yeah. Some meetings ago it came up that it wasn't necessarily necessarily a priority at that time but didn't make our board make our man green stickers. Let's get the chickens going for Miss Green. Get that on. We got to get some green stickers on that. Right. Make a list there. All right. Thank you.

Anything else? Okay. Thank you. Uh note that the no hearing was held with the board of appeals. Uh Sabox, do we have a Seabbox report? We have no report for Sabox economic development. We do have a report from Dan. Dan, you want to fill us up? Pull us in.

Yeah. Just kind of an overview. Um we broke it down into uh like three larger sections. Um long-term rentals um then ADUs and then short-term rentals. Goal is to uh look at them individually and then after we get them all done uh work look at them all together. We have a little homework and uh kind of communicate the way we've agreed to and goal is to uh have everything done and before April 30th and give our opinion and insight to the council and let you guys take it from there or I'll take it from there.

Thank you. Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Dan? I just want to thank you for heading this committee up. And um is there like a a reason for the April 30th date? Is there something that we need to do by a certain time or just ambitious? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. It is ambitious. Good. And I got a great great team that is willing to put the work in. So, thank you to them. Yes. Thank you. Great. All right. um next election. But do we have anything? We don't have a report from the election committee. No,

it won't be until next month. We'll give a presentation on that in March at the March town council meeting. Okay. Uh green team, we have a written report. Uh Lori, you want to fill us in?

Um well, the green team is um Melanie wanted me to pass along. She always appreciates when council comes to her events or the green team events. It's not just her, it's the whole green green team. Um their next event is at the Twin Beaches Library on February 28th from 10 to 11. uh they're going to have a tree expert there and that expert will provide tips and strategies for selecting, planting, and caring for trees. Anybody got any questions? Thank you very much.

Just want to highlight that that uh information is in the weekly eblast if anyone has any questions or wants more details about the event. All right. And do we have anything from for Kellum's revitalization? I went through the the presentation, but I'll just announce here. So, the Kellum's revitalization committee. I'm going to stand it down. Uh it's it's no longer necessary because we've already gone through all the prep work. Now, we're working with the engineers and the town staff. So, I will be working directly with uh town staff and then uh communicating updates through the uh uh town administrators report just to streamline, be a little more effective. Thank you. Uh, anything from the Twin Beach Community Health Coalition?

It's too cold. Okay. Too cold. Make sure that's in the back. Stay healthy. Walkability.

Yes. Um, I will I will pass along to the Walkabil Community Advisory Group that um the bike slow ordinance was voted down by council. Um, I will say that the entire committee was disappointed to learn that there are council members among us who are not in support of the bywalk to Ches Peek Village. Um, and that sentiment is um, echoed in my community and throughout several areas of town. I would be interested to learn from council members why that ordinance was voted down since none of you called me to let me know. Um, and I'll just leave it at that. We have an RFP with the town engineer and the mayor and the town engineer may take that up when they're ready to expand the railway trail.

That's in the report. Awesome. Thank you. Water park committee. We Yeah, we didn't meet last month or this month, but I intend to hold a meeting next month on the date of the council meeting at 5:30. Thank you. Okay. Down to um unfinished business. We're looking for Markup. Okay.

Well, there's no unfinished business that I'm aware of. So, new business. Um, an updated proposal from Rossi has been received for the Maryland 261 sidewalks projects in the amount of $68,000, which is more than 10% above the original estimate. However, the total project budget and the town share remain within the approved town budget. If acceptable to the town, SHA will proceed with requesting a project funding increase. Staff are seeking council alignment to move forward. So, council and then there's one more thing I'm supposed to read discussion. If you if you um would please council members, if you would reach out to Smelia individually by the close of uh business on Monday to respond yes or no for consensus to this, but do that offline, right? Okay.

Why are we doing this offline? I don't know. Yeah, we did have a discussion about this. We does not we do not want to make this performative theater so that you can point a finger at somebody. that needs to make sure that we have a talk about this and especially since today we have information that we do not actually have a price yet from Rosie. Is that correct? That's correct.

Okay. So, and I'll say this while we're here at this moment. There have been people emailing me about voting yes and I don't have to vote tonight on this. There have been people that I have talked to that did not have all the correct information about this. We don't even have the actual numbers from Rosie to be able to go into consensus to say to move forward or not. And one thing that I've realized is that when somebody hands out pitchforks, the first person that comes to pick one up doesn't say, "Hey, inform me about everything I'm about to go out here and march with you with." So, I will ask that people still be civil. Reach out to us. have conversations with us. Make sure that they can get as informed as possible and then we can work on this together. There is no council member up here who is against that sidewalk in there. There may be some that have issues with how much it may cost. There may be some that have issues with the federal grant and how that sidewalk is supposed to be paid for under that initiative and how it's actually going to be used. And there are also alternative means to make sure that we can make this happen. But we have to work together to do that. And utilizing the people to come after us without the proper information is a mistake. And that's where we end up where we are tonight without the actual numbers to even come to consensus on and no actual vote to make. And I hope we learn from this and do better in the future. So what I also say, Councilman Green, well said a request for consensus is on the agenda and I think everybody up here knows that if it came to consensus on the agenda without the public being notified, this project would have died. This this town's been trying to kill this project

for a long time and there are council people who are not in favor of it. I think people need to know

those people are. I didn't have a chance to speak to Charlie Finkel. This was underneath that first when me and Mr. Mahoney. He talked about that at length. Nobody's trying to kill it. In 2019 when they were making the school, this came up. It should have been taken care of. Then the administration changed. Things happened with the state bureaucracy again. It pushed things back. Nobody has actively been trying to kill it. But right now it's trying to be shoehorned. And that's a problem because now we're looking at from three million to six million to now not even knowing how many millions. And if you want us to make consensus today, that's fine. We can say, "Hey, go ahead and ask for more money and then they can turn us down." But my question is this. What's the contingency plan if SHA says no? What's the contingency plan if we found out to safe route to schools? Having a sidewalk for safe route to schools doesn't work in this instance because the students in that area are outside of the the mileage to actually walk to schools. What's the contingency plan? I spoke to Jenny about speaking to SHA. I asked her to step up to do that when I was on that meeting. What's the contingency plan? Are we looking at lobbying to having this paid for so the town does not have to pay for it? Does the HOA know that they can start their own 5013C and go for that sidewalk themselves if they wanted to? Do they have all the information? And if you do not have all the information, I can't email 30 people all of the stuff that I learned because I did the research. And I think that if you're going to step up and want to lead people and ask people to do things for

the betterment of the community, please educate them as much as possible because now things become divisive. It takes up more time of the staff or the other council members and things are not completely thought through and now we got to deal with misinformation and that's not fair to them nor us.

Thank you. Anything else? I think that the consensus that I received um was I don't walk as much as everybody but I I walk quite quite a bit and this last storm I was concerned how steep that hill is and the danger that public works go I've driven by there. I've looked at the property. I've looked at the height of the hill and the backyards that would be taken from the citizens. Have you reached out and talked to the properties on the road that said that we would be taking some of their property? Have you done any leg work and talk to people? because I think that that should be at a forefront before we're pushing forward to do something to somebody's private property. I wouldn't want my backyard taken. I don't know many people that would. I see sheds up there. I think there's as we look at it, the further we get down, we realize, man, are we forcing this or is there another plan? I've looked at some ideas and I I can share them and it seems like your neighborhood would be supportive of it. Well, there could be a great trail. We just did a proclamation for trails. I see property that's mo mainly owned by the town of Ches Beach or Chesig Village where we could put a trail. It would also connect to other neighborhoods in Bayside Old Bayside Road. I think there could be a cheaper way in more a greater number of people. Yeah. So like yes, there's a resistance, but I think the resistance gives us a chance to take a broader look and help

more people. This is I don't know. It just seems like you're upset. We're just trying to look out for everybody in the town. Not we're not Nobody's targeting you.

Um I I'm not concerned about being targeted. I am concerned about this government serving its people. You all just received 30 letters, maybe not 30, quite a few letters in a matter of two days um in support of this project. This project has been vetted over and over again. We were right at the doorstep of getting a grant and now we are getting yet another update. Our town has been through this for years already. Nobody thinks that this is functional government at this point. Who is nobody? You

are. You got a tennis court sitting right there. That's that just opened up. We got a water park that's being worked on. We not functional now. Talking about a sidewalk. Yeah, that's right. You're talking about a sidewalk, but you just said the government is not functional in this instance. It can't be both ways cuz you're upset about one thing. is either we are functional or we are not. We can work together to make sure that sidewalk gets there the right way at the right price.

We have no problem with that. But right now, we don't have an amount from Rosie. That is the fact. And I will say this about the people who emailed. I had an incredibly good conversation with a gentleman today because I did reach out to some of them. I couldn't do everybody. I got a life. Come on, people. But I had a very good conversation. And this gentleman said to me, "I didn't know about this until yesterday." Which means that if you are spearheading this effort, why are they just hearing about it yesterday? Right? Why are we just hearing about it yesterday?

If you're spearheading this effort, why are they just hearing about the initiative yesterday? And the reason is because you thought that the other councilmen were in alignment with caring about them getting something. So you sent them after us misinformed. No, that's not what I didn't send anybody after anybody. There is a a a decision point on the agenda. It says get consensus, right? We're going to have consensus to move forward or not on a number that we were told was the number that is what was on our agenda.

So, I would I'd like to chime in and give you my perspective. So I I and I I got all I think everybody here I I got some maybe that just came to me as well. But uh and I I did respond to every single person uh and I gave them uh a perspective. I will say it was a canned response because by the like the fourth one, fifth one that came in every five minutes, I wanted to make sure there was consistency in my messaging. So I wasn't, you know, act I was responding like 11 o'clock at night. I want to make sure I'm not giving a bad answer. I I think my problem with this, Lori, uh isn't the concept of a sidewalk from Chesapeake Village to the town. I think when you say that out loud, of course, like we want to connect every I want everybody to feel connected to the community, I think that makes complete sense. The problem is is when you start peeling back the onion on this and and you know we we were letting you run this project and you were doing the due diligence of uh making sure the town staff was doing their work. Um however the problem was is for the past little while I've been asking one simple question and that question was is do we have any information regarding usage? And I asked that question for a specific reason as we started digging into this a little bit more. Is this is this funding from the state is for safe routes to school. And when you look that up, it it is saying that we are trying to establish an opportunity for kids to walk from their community to school. The only school that would be in range is Beach Elementary. I have a fourth grader that goes there right now. The distance from the first house inside a Chesapeake Village to the front door of Beach Elementary is.7 miles. There is no way that any parent that I know of is going to allow their child to walk.7 miles from the first house. When you go just to the first street that curtains off inside of Chesapeake Village, you're at a mile. I cannot fathom that any parent will allow their their elementary age student to walk alone. And to be honest,

when I started doing some more research on it, the American Pediatrics Association says that you shouldn't let children who are under uh the age of 10 or typically in fifth grade walk alone because it's unsafe. They don't know how to maybe navigate the space. And that is a dangerous space. That is very dangerous. The cars come flying down. It is extremely dangerous. And I think that we're we're talking about a sidewalk for kids. Now, the counter to that is going to be there are parents or grandparents or relatives who or or you know there'll be a community that will walk the kids together and and I think that's fantastic. But I think the problem we run into is this project is not going to be $6 million7 million. This project is going to be over $10 million. It's going to go into the earliest when I talked to our town attorney our engineer said it won't kick off till 2028. So we're looking at another two years of cost increases. And the the problem that we're going to run into is that nobody's going to use it in that manner. But we are claiming that this is for safe routes. And and the can chat GPT or whatever AI bot tool you use when you gave your community misinformation when you gave them information. I have all the you know we I have friends over there too that I reached out to and say hey am I wrong on this? And when you gave them a whole bunch of information that you said, you know, we're we're literally just trying to avoid this and we're there's there was never doubt. No, we've been asking questions. The pro Well, let me let me let me finish. Let it's on the Facebook page. Uh but but you you're not listening to the simple ask that the council is your pitch to the council to date to date is that the previous administration has failed. this project has been in works for 12 years and that my neighborhood wants it because we want to be connected to the town then that is it. You have you have not brought any additional information to this council to say that is worthy of

a 8 to10 million project and I understand the impacts to the community. I get it when you say I want to connect the town. I want to connect that neighborhood to the town. But when you start using safe routes to school, which is designated for explicit program, you're not using that in the correct way. You're you're you're you're trying to leverage a program designated to put children to school that is not going to be used. And also, Calvert County has a rule, anything over a half a mile, they're going to send buses anyways, no matter what. So, we're going to have buses going to a school. We're going to pay $10 million for a sidewalk that a handful of people are going to use. And so, no, let me finish. The the other problem that you're running into in this, and I'm going to call it like it is. The other problem that you're running into is the failure to collaborate

when you sit up here. And the reason the reason you asked me why why haven't you heard anything new? I talked to you on Tuesday. You bered me. You belittled me on the phone. You told me I've never talked to you about this. I've been telling you this the same thing for a year. You got to get out of your own way. You got to stop talking down to people and you got to learn to collaborate because that's the only way this council works and there's not division on here. I have a letter that you wrote uh in 2023 to to former mayor Mahoney says, "Please do not reward efforts to create divisions within our community. You ran off to your your HOA Facebook page and tried to create division, not to drive support because the support is there. I would love to build one. I want to use the right funding. I want to make sure that we're doing the appropriate thing to use the right funding, but I don't want to go and lie on an application because I feel it is a I do feel like it's a lie. I don't want to say to the state that we're going to spend upwards of $10 million to send kids to school when in reality we want to connect your neighborhood to the town so people can walk, you can walk to the pickle ball courts or somebody can walk 1.6 miles from the front of Chesapeake Village to Roland's or to Kellum's Field. So, I I'm I'm I'm very passionate about this because the amount of times you've said that we're lying or that there's council members who are purposely trying to avoid No. When you failed to give simple information to show that you've done baseline due diligence on this project like John has done with the water park when he comes in here or we've done with Kellums. Think back to the water park conversation. You asked you asked the town staff to compare prices of water slides on GSA gov. You asked the town staff for explicit numbers of costs for vendor contract. You've asked the town engineer for specific like down to the inth degree of details. And when we ask for a little bit of information regarding this project, you bulk. You bulk and you ran into a group of people

who I had fantastic conversation with. I actually love the fact that they they stood up and said, "I'm pissed off." But the problem is is they were fed a bunch of misinformation on purpose to drive your agenda, and that is not appropriate. Okay. Can I interject? May I respond? You may interject, but I I would like to respond to that. No, I've I've I've actually Oh, man.

Uh first of all, this was communicated to me by everyone on this council as a priority. I had absolutely no reason to believe that it was not a priority, that it would not be supported until 3 days ago when Jamie informed me that I did not have the votes to move forward. There is consensus on the agenda. So if we need consensus for the staff to move forward and I will say I I do believe that the staff did move this forward and I believe that it can be done. I think that that we now have some interesting updates um just like there's been interesting updates often before. Um, but when I see consensus on the agenda and I know that my fellow council people are not going to provide that consensus and this project is going to be dead in the water, I'm going to let my community know. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. And if you want to talk about teamwork and communication, my committee worked very hard on the ordinance for the bike slow. You all got that in October. You said nothing in October. People tried to make it about adding motorcycles on the boardwalk and all kinds of other stuff without calling me, without telling me. Um, it didn't go that way. I had to do extra work to make sure it didn't go that way. And we brought it to your attention. Not one single person let me know that that ordinance was in danger of failing. Nobody. Um, I have not done that to any of you with anything. You have gotten

everything that I've put on the table in advance um for comment with time to comment. You never told us why you changed the fines. The staff has briefed that the safe routes to school project even though it's not safe routes to to school. is transportation alternative program and the program names change often. I'm quite sure Smelia is not going to put in an application with a lie on it. So that was uh a little bit hyperbolic of you. Um program started in 2005 under the name Safe Route to schools has been the same name since then.

Well then Lori the question is is the purpose is the purpose of the sidewalk to get to school or is it to connect the community? Because in the messages that we have received, every single person that used the can phrase, which was probably 95% of them said an investment in our community's connectivity and that the last thing mentioned was the elementary school. So what is the purpose of this? Is it to connect to the school or connect to the community? It's to connect to the community and to provide a safe sidewalk. If you all had all these problems with semantics, you could have been asking me this all year long instead of

having a consensus item on the agenda with plans to fail the consensus and no communication. This is a project that the town has had on its radar for a very long time and the community has been promised a sidewalk for a very long time for good reason. It's very dangerous there. I know that John wanted to say something. Can I say something after him, please?

It sounds like the goal is to connect the community. So, if this Rossy thing doesn't work out, like Dan was saying and Anthony was saying, can we start working on a contingency plan? I know um I think Charlie Frink mentioned it at one point, running a boardwalk. I just want to know if that's something we can look into. Like, I think that's a brilliant idea to have a contingency plan and we should have had that from the beginning. I think we need to look at alternate ways to make this happen because when it's all said and done, we want this sidewalk to actually be there. We want to connect the communities and we want it to be right. That's and and it be right. You see what I mean? But we have to do the work for it is all I'm saying.

Yeah. You know, once I received a public comment, I quickly went on topographical map. I looked at a couple different possibilities and came up with a contingency plan. When I heard it wasn't about the school, but a path to for the neighborhood, I I think I I'm looking to have a a meeting scheduled about that, but it's okay. I'm I'm looking out for a contingency plan so that it is connected.

Let's just go to this. If for some reason the contractor comes back or SHA comes back, the information is that there is a contractor available within the amount, the 10% amount, and they can hire the contractor. Who will be in favor of pushing that sidewalk forward and voting for it and putting it in place? Are you asking us? I'm asking for consensus.

You're asking us for consensus that if Rossy comes back with a number, will we decide to move forward with SHA for safe routes to school? That's the consensus we're looking for. Yeah. Well, that information isn't in front of us. I just want to chime in to say the reason why we need consensus was because SHA requested that we get the town consensus since it was over 10% of the total project amount as it if there was no increase and they were within the budget you the council has already budgeted for the design and we wouldn't need consensus. Exactly. So just wanted to make sure that that was clear.

If they came back within budget how we would move forward design. Yes. Where do we go from here? Yeah. Next agenda item.

I think we've we've discussed this enough for tonight. I think it's food for thought. We need to uh figure out if we can can make this work somehow. Um and and uh and let's uh do our best to collaborate with each other and and uh uh the email blast frankly upset me quite a bit to be honest with you that came from that that you initiated and I I felt like that was inappropriate to be quite honest with you. Uh in fact if anything that gave me a negative response to what you're trying to do and I'm just telling you the truth. Okay? I'm just telling you the truth. I I did not I did not appreciate that. Um but let's let's uh we're not dropping this. Um but we're let's move on with the rest of the agenda and we will bring this up again.

You have this is your last this is your last word on this subject. Okay. Thank you. Um, so I thought that um I I don't see a problem with the email class and I'm sorry that everybody does and it I think when important issues are being discussed um it is important for the community to weigh in and I because people emailed in favor and I don't think anybody was disrespectful not me and not anybody in my community. They asked for support of a project they had been promised. That's all that happened.

I I I I don't disagree with what you just said. Nothing was disrespectful. What I didn't appreciate is I have a lot of other things going on at the moment and I did not appreciate constantly receiving these emails. Uh and I just thought that that was the wrong way to try to get my support. Okay. So, and I'm just sharing that with you. Thank you. What was the right way though?

Um, I don't I don't even know right now off the top of my head. I I'm I'm I just I think at this point I'm ready to move on. If we can move on, please. So, the next item of new business is um Mexican Associates has identified a construction manager uh owner rep consulting for the water park project and plan to move forward. So, you want to fill us in, Wayne?

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. In your packet, uh, there is a proposal that came from Owner Rep Consulting. I have the three owners with with me here tonight. Uh, Jim and Tim Gardner and Liam are here to answer any questions you have. Uh, they're in my opinion, they become very uh they come very highly recommended. You guys can come on up if you want, Jim. Um, I recommend them highly. They have many, many years of experience in this arena. Uh, they can give you their experience better than I can. uh their proposal was received by me was forwarded to the town uh for your consideration is is within the budget that we set um as I expected it would be. So from that they're welcome to give you a presentation love to have uh any any questions or comments you have. I brought them here because you've asked questions. When's our construction manager coming? Here they are.

Well, thank you for being here and thank you for your patience while we deliberated all these other topics. Uh welcome. uh if you'd like to introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your company that would be great.

Yes sir. Thank you very much. Uh Jim Gardner um the founder. We're been in business since 2010. Um these are my partners Lane Fe and Tim Gardner. So Tim handles the pre-construction. So we would dive in. Tim would be the primary contact and Lane is the vice president of construction. So we work uh we work a lot with towns, municipalities. We are currently uh Lane's heading up city of Buouie. They have a new ice rink project. Um, we've worked with Mr. Ben in the past. Um, we've worked for city of Rockville. Um, so enjoy it. Pleasure to serve. Thank you for Absolutely. Okay. They good.

How excited are you to work with Ches Peak Beach? That's the real especially after this meeting. I care about democracy and action. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. That was that was smooth. Council, any questions? Just for the community's sake, like big picture, what are what are your like goals for managing this project? Like keep it in budget, obviously on time. Those are the big two probably. Yes, sir. Okay. Well, that's that was easy. Pretty cut and dry. Thank you. And you understand? And go ahead. And you understand that it needs to be open for a year from now, sir. Yeah. I

you've reviewed uh like some of the sample specs and stuff like that kind of see the the grade of the product that we're getting. We've seen the contractor scope. So with the limited it's a design build project so it's very preliminary and I understand from what they received some drawings. So we've seen scope uh whatever the specs that were available to us. We've reviewed that and tried to put as much together for you off before y'all got here. So, thank you guys for coming in. Late, a little late to the game, but I appreciate you guys coming in and and looking out for us and representing us. Appreciate you guys. Thanks very much. Thank you. Well, thank you for your patience. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you for being here. Look forward to working with you. Thank you very much.

Take care. Thank you, council. All right. Um, it is time now for public comment. Anybody in the public wish to come up and say anything, please come forward, sir, and uh give us your name and your address. And welcome and thank you for your patience.

Oh, certainly. Uh my name is Robert Jones. I live in the Chesapeake Beach Village neighborhood. I think I talked to a couple of you guys. A couple of things that jump out at me, and I'm going to be brief. Uh first there was a there was a vote on this in 2019 which is really a remarkable thing and there was town widewide approval of that project and you know I think that's something that can't be set aside and it seems to be and it and it worries me a little bit about that. The other thing that strikes me is it's a false choice to say are you getting to school this way or is it a walkable you know community thing is it to connect your community because of course it's going to do both. I mean, I don't I I don't know why you would you would phrase the choice that way. I really don't. Um, but in any case, I mean, I think this can work. And I mean, I think I don't come here often, but what I've seen is that you guys can get things done when you want to get things done. Uh, does it mean that it's going to be difficult to do? Does it mean that there, you know, aren't going to be hurdles? Yeah, there are. and as you would expect them to be. Are they insurmountable? No, I don't think they are. Um, that's my two cents.

Well, listen, I want to thank you very much for making your comments. That's helpful, sir. Thank you. Anybody else? I see a hand in the back. If you'd come forward, please give us your name and where you live. Thank you for being here. Yeah, thank you. Uh, my name is Tyler Stephenson. I live at 7315 Bayside Road. So, I'm not in Chesapeake Village, but I am in the affected area basically. Um, and I think I kind of came in here a little naive tonight. I actually knew none of this was going to be a topic of discussion. Um, and you just got lucky, right? Hey, you my wife, who is eight and a half months pregnant,

and I, we moved in here in 2020. Okay. And so that survey was going on and we were very excited to have that project move forward. Um, and so, you know, hearing about alternate routes doesn't make me real happy, but I understand I'm just one household right there. But I will say being right on the very top of that hill overlooking Brownies Beach. Yeah. I see people walk over that hill all the time and it it's terrifying, you know, when trailers slide back down and stuff. But um

um the other thing I was going to say is um you were talking about um people, you know, losing their backyard and I I think the plan is probably to have it on the the west side of the street. You know, I would say I would be more than happy to have that run through my front yard if that was an option. I'm I'm not saying it is, but Well, your your house is on the west side. I'm on the east side. You're on the east side.

On the back side. to be honest, it would actually be easier on that side, but then we would have to have two road crossings and the state high won't won't let us have crosswalks. I mean, that's that's the that's one of the difficulty because you look at you're great. I'm glad I'm so glad and thankful that you you came here. Um I'm sorry, mayor my go. It's his it's his public comment. I'm I know where you live. Yeah, that's uh right at the top of the hill and you kind of Yeah. So, that's that's great input. Thank you. Um, so the sidewalk would be proposed on the other side and so you see how tall that cliff is and so we would have to have the retaining wall go back to support all that. You know, you know that I guess when did you move here?

2020. Okay. So remember the uh the tree that fell on the gentleman uh just right down the street from you when he was driving on the truck. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was out there helping him. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, there's definitely some some things that need to happen on the shoulder, but and it's not just it's not just straight it's not as easy as it seems, you know. Yeah. Yeah. But thank you. I didn't mean to suggest it was easy. No, no, not at all. Others may also be, you know, more willing to share their property as well. Your comment. You can say whatever you want. Say whatever you want, Mike. I'm finish. Thank you. No, that's all I want to say. So, well, thank you for coming up. Thank you. Thanks for coming out.

Great. Any other public comment? Lightning round. Laura, you're first. No, this is the lightning round. The lightning round.

Um, I would appreciate any support, mayor, and working this through SHA so that we can get this project done. It is an extremely important project to the community and connecting the town has been a long time for everybody and safety should be it should be something that a town as rich as ours and um it's it's something that a town should be able to do and I think it would build a a lot of trust in this government if we could get that project done. So any support that you can provide getting that done.

Well, it's not it's not just me, it's the whole council. So that's what we need to work on if we're going to get it done. And thank you very much for your comment. Uh you want to go next? It's been a long night. I have nothing else to say really. Okay, good. Oh, I pretty much echo what Anthony said. It's been a long day. I don't have anything.

Uh yeah. Um, I've been pretty quiet on this and uh, but I will say that um, I think this is really a great I really love this idea of uh, looking at a uh, a secondary plan and um, looking into trails and some type of collaboration with the uh, with the walkability committee and and this new um, proclamation that we did here with a trails day. We could uh all come together and and explore this idea a little bit more. So, um I fortunately was informed about uh this uh peace for walk for peace on uh Sunday and I've been working at Union Station for the last uh I don't know close to a year and and I had the these vulnerable monks walk 2,300 miles from Fort Worth, Texas and through all the cold weather and I I left work and I walked over and I met them at this church and I saw them at St. marks behind the cap and then I waited where um Independence Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue is and they walked by and I joined in. I walked with them and I don't know they were maybe from here to just past the back wall over there or not far and and and I hadn't really done much like knowing a lot about it but we walked and we were shouldertoshoulder and we just walked so quietly and it was so it was such a beautiful moment. Um, I

knew when I was walking down and you just saw just the street filled with people behind me. I took a couple pictures. I sent them in and it was just some of the things that they were saying were just a mindfulness like if we take a mindfulness and we we choose just a simple thing is today is my peaceful day because that's what we have control over what we choose to do. And then if someone does something to you, you wish them well and wish peace upon them. It was a it was a beautiful message and and I know it wasn't anything like when Dr. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke, but I felt it was maybe a similar it was a it was a very special moving moment and uh was happy to share that and maybe take a little more than my minute but

well I'm glad you did share that and u you know I'm old enough to remember when Dr. King was assassinated. I was old enough to remember when JFK was assassinated. In fact, when JFK was assassinated, I was selling newspapers right when his funeral cortees went by because my father worked for the one of the three daily newspapers in Washington. So, those events like that are special and I appreciate you sharing that. Um, we've been here almost four hours, so I I'll keep it quick. Uh, I, you know, I we do this up here and I do a ton of research to understand all the the issues and the problems. So, I actually just want to thanks Mr. Jones for the we had like a 45minute call this afternoon. Uh we we may not be aligned on every single point, but I I very much appreciated all the context and the feedback you provided. It definitely went into my personal analysis and uh you know there's a lot of feedback and inputs. There's you know close to 7,000 residents and we we got to take it all. But, you know, I I appreciate you just taking the time. Um, and I appreciate you calling back because your phone makes you uh say your name and what you're calling for. And I I was a little worried when I said council you would just be like uh uh yeah, pass. So, appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

Couple people. I was really impressed. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Bear with me one minute, folks, before we uh break. I believe we've gotten one Um, did you and you folks did you want to say something? Please come forward. I'm Forgive me. I'm forgetting your name at the moment. Both of you. It's Kelvin, right? Yeah, I thought so.

Well, I know the role. Well, thank you for being here and and uh we've gotten to know each other over the past year and a half or so, and I appreciate you being here tonight. Uh and share some wisdom with us. Um um one of the residents that was here, Miss Adrian, she had to leave. So, yes, she caught me in the restroom and asked me to bring up some issues that um are still going on at Fishing Creek for the residents. We're residents ourselves. We've been there since 2000 2014. 3935 Gordon Standard Avenue.

Yep. So, forgive me if I I'm just trying to stay calm and get everything she asked me to present to you guys. Um, so you'll know what's still going on over there. Uh, management is still not fixing uh simple things as, you know, toilet issues, maintenance issues. You call them, they won't come and fix it. Um yet instead they're still taking rent, taking people to court. Um some of the residents have come to us and voiced their opinions. Wonder residents got taken to court for 5 cents. 5 cents. He was humiliated, embarrassed. The judge dismissed it, but it's still on his record. So if he goes to move someplace else, 5 cents. I mean, you can take five pennies. and then they finally found it, but it's embarrassing to them. Um, also, um, the first building, um, from from what I understood, Miss Adrian was telling us that some of the residents were told they were allowed to go back into the first building, even though it was boarded up to get their stuff by management. when they went in there to try to get it, you know, then they were, you know, told that they weren't supposed to be there.

So, you know, they're trying to fight. I was allowed to be in here. They told us I could come in here, but now you're telling me I can't come in here. So, um, and then also too, um, management has also tried to move people into apartments, especially in Miss Adrian's building, um, where there she has she actually had pictures, but she couldn't send them all to me cuz she had to go. Where there's mold, there's things going in, and people are saying, management is taking them over to these apartments, taking their money, saying, "I want you to move in, and it's not cleaned. Mold is everywhere. uh if they had pets, stuff is still in the apartment where the apartment is dirty. Um so people are being um offended with that. The biggest thing that she wanted me to express is the dignity, the dignity part of residents. Um and you guys know what dignity means is worthy of honor, respect. We're not getting that over there yet. Instead, they still have their hand up. They want rent every month, which rightly so. we live there, but could you just fix the general issues that we bring before you? Um, and the latest issue is rodents. Now, um, my husband and I have been trying to kill one little rodent that popped out last night while we were on the sofa. Freaked me out. They're not going to do anything to come over and help us. So, we have to do our own thing. We have to go to the store, try to figure out to kill the rodent. And we all know rodents carry diseases. It's not fair to us. It's not fair to our children. We have elderly people over there. They don't want to come over here and speak because they feel like they're their concerns are falling on deaf ears. And it's it's really sad. All we do is sit and we they're knocking on the door constantly coming and telling us telling Miss Adrian. It's just it's got to stop. And um I've been trying to figure out

what can we do to get them over here. They're not coming. So, we have to be a voice for them. She has to be a voice for them. And we know that your office is very open to hear these things. We just need help to figure out how we can do this because, you know, it's it's it's embarrassing. I felt for the gentleman when he had to go to court for five sets. I mean, we've had to go over there several times and case dismissed. I mean, you have you have people that know your name and you're not even in trouble. Okay, case dismissed. And you're just like, okay, thank you. So, I just wanted to bring those concerns that are still going over on over there. We don't know what to do and I'm bringing it for everybody and um I just hope that we can get some things resolved.

Um, thank you for coming and and sharing and actually it's good to see both of you again. I mean, I I consider you to be friends and uh and I know Wendy does too. Thank you. um at your convenience, why don't you just uh sometime make call Wendy here at town hall, make an appointment, and let's sit down in my office and talk some of this stuff through a little bit more. I don't necessarily want to do it here in the public meeting,

but um I appreciate your willingness to stand up for your neighbors and uh I I want to assure you that that we are we are making some progress and I'll just leave it at that for now. Um, but uh I I know that that I and the administration and and this council, we are all cons concerned and and working toward getting these issues resolved. And I know that you know this, the public probably doesn't know this, but a couple of decades ago, my wife managed that property for seven years. She was the property manager for seven years. And um it was good to have I mean she was there full-time so it was good to have someone there full-time. You don't now. And so um uh I get it I get it from her too. So anyway, but thank you for coming and speaking and and and council. I mean, I want you all to understand that this is an issue here in the town and this is something that that that we need to pay attention to and to do what we can as the as the municipal government to make this better.

And thank you for listening. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back in here to come to tell you guys. But thank you. It it really makes us feel good. So when we go back and we talk, the residents are like, "Well, did you say something? What did you feel?" Say, "I sure. I sure did." So thank you so much. Appreciate you guys. Thank you for coming. Yes, sir.

I want to thank everybody that uh supported us in our crisis that we had uh when we had the sprinkler systems and all the the problems that we had. Jay, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank y'all town for cleaning up our facility, our parking area and all that. Thank you so much. That meant a big deal. Did you see me out there that day? Yes, I was at it was interesting to see that one car that was completely iced in under what? This much ice. They finally got it. You have to be careful when the ladies Adrian steps that one of them set of steps over there. Real like you can fall. I don't know what's going on there. Falling on. Yeah. Like make sure you're careful on that one. Yeah. And you have too, Wendy. Thank you.

Wendy has too. So, thank everybody for I just want I want to assure you that we are we are moving forward and and making some progress. I there's nothing I can say publicly at the moment. Um but but we I feel like we are making some progress and I appreciate your willingness to speak out and don't ever hesitate to reach out to me or Smeilia. Yes. Or the I got to make an appointment. So yeah, you bet. All right. Good. Thank you. All right. I think we're right down to time for Oh, we have Oh, yeah. We did have a little video to share with you. One more thing. Just one more thing.

We're old Jake video. I see that as far as green. There you go. Let's give him a hand.

I like that. Whoever put that together. Thank you. That was pretty cool. Now I have nightmares again. That music was nice, man. Reminds me of you. All right. Did we get a motion for adjournment? That's motion. I I motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I. I. All oppose. You're nuts. We're out of here. Thank you all Jack.