Town Council - Regular Meeting

perspective. other sections of the code. They don't need a permit to build.

Have your attention, please. We're going to call to order the public hearing uh on ordinance 0-26-2, an ordinance of the town council of Ches Peak Beach, Maryland, an ordin ordinance of Ches Beach, uh a municipal corporation of the state of Maryland, the issuer providing for the issuance and sale of an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 6 million, $100,000 of bonds of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland to be known as Ches Peak Beach Infrastructure Bonds 2026 series and in parentheses they have the bonds to be issued and sold pursuant to the authority of sections 4-101 through 4-255 of the Housing and Community Development Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland as amended for the purpose of um providing all or a portion of the funds necessary for financing the following projects. renovation, construction improvement, and the pertinances 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 excuse me, other reserves. and three paying issuance and other causes costs related to the bonds. Providing that the bonds 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 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, certificates, and instruments, and the making of or providing for the making of representations and covenants concerning the tax status of the interests of the bonds. Ordinance 0-26-3, an ordinance of the town council of Chesig Beach, Maryland, amending the town code chapter 110, building construction to repeal article one fences and renumber the remaining articles. So there two separate issues. Um, do you want to do you want to say anything to start with on this? No, I think you gave a good

I think you gave a good summary of the ordinance itself. This has been talked about for quite a while. Uh these funds will be used to help fund the water park. Uh in addition to the bond funds, we also have $1.1 million from uh state bonds uh state bond bill monies and the town will be using about $12 million in reserves in order to come up with the total amount of $19 million used to fund the water park. So this is to be clear, this is a portion of that funding for the rebuilding of the water park. Correct.

Thank you, council. Anybody have any questions or comments? I I appreciated the uh the gentleman from the state that came down and talked about the program. It was informative and at least we we knew uh the reason for the the low rate interest rate is uh because the tenure so I appreciate that was uh very helpful. Council, anybody else have any questions or comments? Laura,

I'll just re ask the question I asked over email. Um these bonds are um solely dedicated to the rebuilding of the water park. Is that correct? That is correct. Yep. Hey, Alyssa has joined us via the phone because I heard her uh sneaking out uh from the audience. Anybody have any questions? Any questions or comments? Anybody else have anything they want to add to the public hearing? I just want to point out that that number includes the all contingencies and the project manager.

Correct. Yep. The $19 million is is to include all those items. Okay. Um if there's no other questions or comments, we can adjourn until 6:30, the start of the regular what's matter. You get the second one. Oh, the fences. Okay. Anybody have any comment? Who's got a comment on that? Anything to say about the fences? Thank you.

Anybody have any question or comments on Sarah? You can you explain it a little bit? Can you explain it a little bit? That would be helpful.

Yes. the um so what you're what you have right now is a repeal of the current fence regulations which are in the um building code and we're moving them to the zoning code. And so to prevent conflicts between the building code and the zoning code, you're repealing that section of the building code that relates to fences. And then you'll be introducing um regulations for fences in the zoning code later in this meeting. And the date for the repeal will be once the zoning ones are adopted so that there's not a gap in regulations. Okay. Any questions or comments?

Yeah, thank you. That's what I saw also. Um I think it's ordinance 268 that so there's no gap in coverage or whatever that is. So thank you. Yeah, I just I just had a real quick uh the fifth line down where it says whereas the town council intends to repeat uh chapter 10, I think it's supposed to say repeal. There's just a in T versel.

And I I also have a comment. Um I don't know if my motion will fail or not, but I will motion to table this until we receive the replacement code. I don't think that it is prudent to repeal something without the replacement. We could make a date for this if we vote on it um in the agenda and then something could happen and we might not see the actual fence ordinance replacement in time. So, I would prefer to take this up when we take up the replacement. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Um, is the isn't the the replacement is in the it's on the agenda today.

It's for introduction. I understand, but we're not voting on it today. No, but this this also you just said will not go into effect until that is So, I'll defer to the attorney about how it was written specifically, but she noted that it's not meant to repeal until that date. Yeah, certainly. Um, so yeah, it was written with the intention that an effective date would be one moment because I'm getting

Okay. Um it was written with the intention that a date would be inserted that would correspond to the um inactive the effective date of the replacement ordinance. Um, so it can I mean it could be tabled and simply adopted later, but it was intended to allow you to go forward um, but to defer the effective date to such time as the replacement ordinance is enacted.

I I I'm this is how I tracked how this was. I track that this was going uh and then uh we're doing this. It's there so that the planning and zoning knows our intent. We have this next ordinance. We passed that. Then the mayor signs both them at the same time and then that 20day kind of there. So that the days are the same time. So I I saw that this was just just in the order of it is but there's no lapse of coverage or whatever. Is that correct in that assumption? That that was the inclusion.

Can let me let me ref because I I I get what Loriy's saying. So is there anything that is driving us to do this today versus waiting? If we were to table it, would it impede any current um permit requests or or issues? Because if there I think that's what we were trying to do. If there's something that we can support, then we we want to. But if not, um, why repeal before the replacement's in place? Unless there's a timing challenge we could face because I think from the intent from the to planning and zoning, I think we're all on the same page. We want to fix fences like that. That intent exists. I don't see any reason you couldn't table it and because you'll have if once you set the public hearing date for the zoning you could adopt them on the same night but I don't know if staff has other it was just really the it was prepared now and we have a number of other things that we needed to get out and in front of you all. So, we were trying to get it to you as quickly as possible, but there's no administrative reason why we couldn't. It was more so just being mindful about the number of initiatives that we have coming down the pipe. This was ready now and there was a coordinated effort to make sure that it was done timely.

Yeah, that that's that's a good reason. And I think that now that we've seen it, if we tabled it, we could take it up very quickly. There wouldn't be any addition Okay. Well, we'll deal with that when we get to it. Does anybody else have anything to say about this particular ordinance? Yes, please. You you can you come to the microphone, please? We need to get you on the recording.

You just make the appeal retroactive or to be active with the um approval of the new ones. So then there therefore they'd be done at the same time. something built in to 26-3 at the bottom where it says the mayor approves it uh on and then it has a blank a date. Why not just say to be effective on the date that the new ordinance is approved? Yeah, I agree. Wait a second. Wait a second. Okay, go ahead and listen. be that.

So, this is not for introduction obviously, but if you if you were going to vote on it, the um motion would be to strike the 20 days become effective 20 days after signature and insert a date um on which you anticipated the um the uh adoption of the other ordinance. Or alternatively, you can simply say shall become effective concurrently with the adoption of um but I I do think I I think Councilwoman um Black Welder is uh has a point about the possibility of something occurring with the replacement legislation that this such that it makes sense um to defer it. Okay, thank you for the clarification. Okay, any other questions or comments on this particular issue? All right, well I think then that we shall uh adjourn the public hearing for two minutes and then we will start the regular meeting.

us moving on up. Oh, Wayne's not here tonight. No, I think he's out of town. Like to call to order the um town meeting uh for March 19th, 2026. Uh, and uh, Councilman Evans, if you would lead us in the pledge of allegiance, I'd appreciate it.

Council, is there a motion to approve the agenda? Motion to approve. Second. Second. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed. The eyes have it. Um, at this time, if there's any public comment on any item on the agenda, please come forward to the to the podium. Hearing none, uh, council, I'd ask for a motion to approve the minutes of the February 19th, 2026 public hearing. Motion to approve. Is there a second?

Second. All in favor, please say I. I. The eyes have it. Council, I need a motion to approve the minutes of the February 19th, 2026 town council meeting. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? The eyes have it. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the March 10th, 2026 work session? Motion to approve. Second. Okay. Motion moved and seconded. All in favor say I.

Opposed. The eyes have it. Okay. Um, next town administrator report. I think this report is only about 30 pages long, so be patient. Think now would be a good time for you to council.

Okay. Um, Uh, Jennifer Bennett, if you'd Oh, yes. If you please come forward to the to the podium. Um, Jennifer, we are asking the council to appoint her to the board of elections. uh she met with uh uh me and others uh and uh Randy Gutman um uh just within the past few days and u this is your opportunity council but uh to ask questions but first I'd ask you if you would like to just say a few things give us a little give the council a little bit of information about yourself and why you're interested in serving in this important position

certainly uh my name is Jennifer Bennett I've lived in Chesapeake Beach for almost 20 years or over 20 years. Um and during that time I was a federal government worker. um and have recently retired and have found myself with thank you with some some time on my hands and I wanted to um avail myself of the opportunity to serve my community and it looked like the election board was a good place to start. So,

I thank you. I personally want to thank you for stepping up and offering to to serve. Uh we had the opportunity to meet uh just within the past couple of days and uh it was a good meeting. Um and I Randy I'd ask you if you've got anything that you want to say. Okay. If you can see Randy back here, I think he is expressing himself very efficiently. Uh council, please feel free to ask our candidates some questions here. Uh so uh I think uh one of the things that I noticed with the last election is that the election committee uh they they had a pretty good group. So you have the team that y'all worked together and then there was a pretty good support of volunteers and it was a pretty heavy day and and it was a lot of stress and it was it was kind of cool and in action. So, um, thank you for it's like one of the things that I think isn't as appreciated. So, thank you for that.

Certainly. Um, I'm definitely used to working long days. Um, I was an economist um producing gross domestic product and one of the days that uh we had to work was a very long day. was called lock up and we couldn't leave the building until those numbers were approved. So yes, I'm definitely used to long days. We'll try to avoid those. Yeah. And we'll try to avoid any lockup days here in the municipal government. So yes, did you have something you want to ask?

I was just going to say I know you guys have plenty of challenges to work through and I I'm sure Randy appreciates the help. So thanks for stepping up. Laura, any any questions or comments? Absolutely. Thank you for stepping up and um it's always nice to see a new face getting involved in the town. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Anthony, anything? No questions. Anything? Congrats on the retirement and then thank you. Voting is one of the most important things we can do. So, appreciate it. And I know Randy needs the help. So, he's he's said that a few times. Well, I'm happy to help and uh can't wait to get started. Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you very much and thanks and again, thank you for stepping up. I'll jump back into the rest of my report now. Okay.

Um, so the town administrator's report was submitted as a part of the agenda package. So, I'm happy to answer um any questions that anyone has. Um the biggest thing that I want to highlight and walk through and get council feedback on is the um safe routes to school project. So we um I provided council the options based on what has been presented. So it outlines where we are currently with the project. um how much of investment the town has already invested in it. And the decision point now is critical primarily because all of the work that was done before under the 30% grant was specifically for the um sidewalk that would run the distance of Chesake Village to Beach Elementary um along Route 261. The 30% design has already been completed and that is in SHA's world is considered a feasibility study. So when you do a feasibility study, if you decide you can move forward or not move forward, you don't have to pay anything back. Where we are right now is with the 100% design money. um if the town chooses to sign off on it then you are committing to build to construct the project. So right now we don't have any grant funds for the construction of the project and so the numbers that I provided you all are show you the comparison between what it would cost to build it the total cost of the project for design and construction without uh SHA grant for construction and compared to the total cost of the project if we were to get a grant. The important thing to know is that if you do not build within the 10 years that you from the date of award, you will owe the money back that SHA has spent. So, it's not

just what the town owes, it's the total amount for the project. So, we're really at an inflection point. It's not a natural decision point when it comes to this project because when we met with SHA, they agreed to for that SHA was going to eat the cost of the increase. So the town's commitment would stay the same as outlined in theou that you all saw within the work session package. However, that whether they take it or we take it, the total cost is going up. And so they are willing to go back and rework theou that is the 3 to five month time frame. However, in an effort to maintain goodwill with our grtors, if you all do not plan on signing off on theou in five months when it comes back, I think it would be more prudent to communicate that with SHA now as opposed to sending them on a wild goose hunt where they're going and updating it, investing this time when we know that the council is not going to move forward. Um so really it's asking you all what the given the facts that you all have now the history of the project the cost comparison with grant funded versus not grant funded and the comparison for all the the four alternatives that we were given what do you all want to do or intend to do um and so I don't necessarily need an answer now but I do need an answer soon because they have reached out and they're they knew that we are meeting today and so that there would be some sort of decision decision being made. Um, so I'm happy to answer questions uh about that or anything else that's in within the report.

I mean, I I'll go first. I mean, I think this has been brought up numerous times uh and and Lori has asked that we all just speak our our minds openly and I think that's what we owe to the public. So, I will say that I am a no for moving forward with this because this needs to be put to rest. Uh I there's too many unknowns with this and it's a very expensive project. I am in support though of uh looking at the alternative options and figuring out how we can still look to connect the neighborhood. I committed to that last time. There's still a lot of due diligence that has to be done regarding that. But specific to this SHA piece, I think we are doing a disservice to not only the state but to our town residents by continuing to pretend that we're actually going to move forward with this when uh the last council consensus was not met to even move forward. So uh I am not in support of that. Can I

I have a question for you, Councilman Schulz. Um, just to clarify, um, if there was a design that was amendable to the council, you would support a project in this area or you support no project to connect Chesapeake Village? Well, I think it'd be a disservice for me to play in hypotheticals because I think I'm I can't commit to something that that spends taxpayer dollars without understanding the totality of the project and the impacts and and looking at all the other ones. So, uh I am open to the conversation for sure. I'm absolutely open to there's when I looked at the work session, I know I wasn't here last week, but I watched it and I know there's multiple paths being discussed, but I think there's I talked to John. There's there's some additional conversations that need to occur. I'd like to understand what grant opportunities I know uh there's some discussions that could happen with SHA to understand uh funding solutions that could go that route versus the 261 path. Um so uh am I in support of the conversations? Absolutely. Will I commit to you today without having any numbers and understanding what we're going to do? No.

Okay. So you understand the numbers. I mean you you see the numbers. That's that's how much the project there is no there is no plan placed in front of me right now that says to build a sidewalk from or to build a trail from Chesig Village to anywhere in town it would cost this much other than estimates. So again you got to allow me to do my due diligence and understand what we're committing the town funds to do. So I'm in support of the conversation but as of the 19th of March at 6:43 p.m. there is nothing in front of me that says we are committing to x number of dollars and this is how much we would get from grant funding. This is a timeline and we and it is a feasible project.

Well, if I if I could ask you a question, Councilman, I think what I'm hearing you say is you're in support of the project, just not this specific.

Well, yes, because they are two separate things. So, this SHA effort is specific to 261. So, when the presentation was during the work session, the 30% design is only to that exact project, to that exact specifics. Correct. So if so I am not in favor of that project. So I'm not in favor of the 100% design because that's a $800,000 project that still does not guarantee us construction funds. What I am in support of is continuing the conversations about how we can look at alternatives, what grants we could get after for alternatives to do a trail and understanding with Wayne, the town engineer, what that looks like from a feasibility perspective. And then ultimately, how much does that cost our town and what does that usage look like uh overall? Because there's

Thank you for that clarification.

This this is where it gets sticky because um you're talking about usage and 3 days before we were supposed to come up with consensus for moving forward with an SHA grant project that had been on the books the entire time you've been a council person. you wanted uh youth studies and you know pedestrian counts and and you went back and you you wanted to investigate how many people walk to school and and a bunch of other things. So any project that we do in that area is going to cost money. And so the question is whether you have a project in front of you or not. Do you support connecting Chespig Village? Because support connecting Chespig Village is going to cost money. Right now we have a grant. I also believe that there are opportunities to come up with the right project, but the right project is not going to be free.

Yeah. I I would respond where I owe the town residents an answer, not you. Uh so I can see that you're trying to corner me into a political game. Uh and I don't need to answer that in this regards. What I will say to you is that over the past year, there have been many conversations regarding usage that have come up. Uh so I would say the same thing. Uh we had an MML weeks and weeks and weeks before the last discussion where usage was brought up, not three or four days. It was discussed at MML when we were in Ocean City in in July so June. So it has come. Now whether that conversation translated to your actions or your due diligence, I can't answer that. But uh I've committed that I am in support of looking at options that support it. But you trying to corner me into an answer that says I will 100% commit to a project where I have nothing in front of me that I that that's a terrible I'm not going to play politics like that.

What I'm asking you to do is commit to the cost of connecting Chesig Village. you know who lives in Chesig Village. You know what the cost of making that connection and it's not only connection that goes to Chesig Village. It also brings people into the vicinity of um Brown. Again, we can litigate that. You can try to relitigate this all you want up up here, but uh I I've stated my answer as clearly as I can. Uh and that's my stance.

I have a question follow-up question with Smeilia. Um, so Jamie's to Jaime's point that the current design grant is for this specific sidewalk design, but if we were to go after one of these potential alternates, we could potentially reapply for the 30% design grant with SHA. Yeah.

And potentially get the 100% design through SHA, but it's going to set us back uh up to three years. I'm just throwing a number out there, but that's the downside to going forward with the other design is that we're going to kind of set ourselves back a little bit. But it to me it looks like it's could be $2 million cheaper.

So the first part of your question, which is if we decide to go with a different alternate, right? One of the ones that's been presented or something that's not been presented yet. We cannot apply for 100% design fund support unless we use the 30% feasibility study. They're not going to construct something or design something full out that they that they can't stand behind the engineering. So that's why you have to have your 30% design study first. So yeah, the council decided, hey, we want to move forward with a different alternate. We can apply for design funds. That's the answer you need soon is do we do we want to move forward with this sidewalk or do we want to pursue the alternate

right and what I what I will say is this a feasibility study is in place for you to figure out if this is feasible right so you can have the 30% feasibility study done and then you say okay well to construct this it's going to be millions of dollars that maybe we don't have so then you can they give you that place to back out and say No, this is actually not going to work. So, the way that I would navigate this um in concert with Wayne is to say, okay, this is where we are. This is what the town has communicated.

Is there a way that we can potentially fasttrack a 30% design? Because we we know we want to stay in this area. We just want to look at a different path, right? Like whatever you all decide, we I will find a way to move it forward as efficiently as possible and to figure out if there's a way to tag on to what we've already done. we might be able to get 30% designs faster than was done in the past. I can't speak to that because I don't know the SHA like I don't can't speak to what they'll do. I just can tell you what how we'll handle it one way or the other. I mean, it would be kind of silly to in my opinion to miss out on uh 80% grant to save a year or two.

Agree. Like I would I would still try to go through SHA for the grant with these alternates if that's the consensus of the council.

Yeah. And I'm a little bit confused about people being against um going around going along Route 261 at all. That I understand there's the area of the marsh that's that's challenging and an awkward type of design. Um, and the way Wayne's not here, the way that he explained it was that SHA can go that route because it aligns to the side of the road um in their rightway and that's that's why they can do that. But it everybody's correct in that that brings about an awkward design just because of the topography. Um, when the choice is that or no design or no connection, I would say a connection is better than no connection. Do I believe that there what might be a way to work with SHA to get a better connection? Yes, I do. And I don't believe that that involves missing out on an 80% grant. So, um, you know, every we've had this on the books for a year. Everybody that I've talked to has been in support of a connection from Chespig Village to town. Um, it was news to me when I heard that that was not the case. And what I hope that enough of my colleagues will do to connect Chesig Village to the town is support a project that connects us and that connects um you know the area of Brownie's Beach

because that is all residents in town can go to that beach and there's not a lot of parking. There is parking at Beach Elementary and school's out in the summer.

So, there's there's a lot of reasons why this um this grant is important to us. Like I said, people that um people that earned a lot of clout and a lot of respect over years of showing up for people um year after year have gotten behind and supported this connection and um got us into the grant pipeline. and to exit that I think uh I I just think it's irresponsible and um and it disenfranchises an entire neighborhood which is not appropriate and not what anybody ran on that I ran with.

I I Okay, so I want to provide some clarity real quick because because you both just said something that's that's not accurate. So like we we need to make sure it's it's clear. The 30% design is done today. That is complete. the 100% design is not done and that is the only thing that we would get. We would get a piece of paper that says this is what the design is. We would then have to go back and recompete to get funding. There is no construction funds. So even if we have the 100% design today in our hands, we do not have approved funding to move forward. Thus, we do not have 80% loss of funds today. So when we go around saying we're losing a grant, no, we have not lost a grant because we haven't even applied for the construction grants. All we are asking for is the 100% design grant. When we get that done, if we were to do that, we would then have to go back and reapply for the construction grant. If we did this other project, we would do the same exact process. We would apply for a 30% study grant. They would do the 80% 20, then we would apply for the 100% and then we would apply for construction. There is no the only thing we're doing is saying we are suns seting this project here because we no longer want to move forward. We want to start with this project over here. We have to start the process with 30% again. So you have to make sure that we're we're transferring this information correctly. The sec the second one is we are conflating multiple efforts in this conversation. The question from Similia is are we in support of the 261 route? We need to give her a yes or no answer to move forward with 100%. the alternative routes. If we go that way, we have to go apply for a 30% grant. Brownies Beach isn't a part of the conversation because that's not a part of the feasibility study that was done for 30%. So, if we were to do something with that, we would also have to go back and do a 30% study or do something completely different.

Allow him to finish. Thank you. So, but but for you to there's nothing with Brownies Beach in that current project as it stands. So when we answer Smelia's exact question, she her question to us is does this council want to proceed with spending the funds towards a 100%. And if we don't support it long term, we are throwing money away. That's the problem here. So my again going back to what I stated earlier is we need to put this to rest. We need to all just speak up and say what we're saying instead of hiding behind whatever we want to do. I am not in support of the current 261 SHA. I am in support of of looking at and exploring alternative routes.

Okay. And and let allow me to to step into this. I I've been involved in this path walkway um longer than anybody that's sitting up here at the DAZ. I went with the Governor Larry Hogan. I when he made a visit to the town, I actually rode in his car with him down there. uh to see the the path that we were talking about which is just on the west side of of of 261 and and explain the challenges to them. And we I had hoped and there's a there's a picture that's floating around here somewhere of a whole bunch of us standing up in front of the Chesapeake Village sign including Governor Hogan and former mayor Pat Mahoney and others and council members um to get this done. I would love to see a path that gets people safely from Chesapeake Village to the rest of the town. I've spent a fair bit of time here over the course of the past month or two exploring um and looking and getting my own eyes on everything. I've driven um every street uh on the south side of Old Bayside Road um as far as you can go over to where it drops off and goes down to the the cliff into the cliff or the the steep hill into the swamp there. Uh so I think this is a project that has merit. I think it is not a simple project. It is not a simple project just due to the topography. it gets further complicated by the involvement of state highway and following all of their regulations. So, I can understand why we're in this

position. I can understand why we, you know, I think, you know, I know you your goal is to get it built and I get that. Um, I think Jaime's goal is to do it appropriately and and and carefully if if we're going to do it at all. And so I don't think that there I don't think that that's a reason to have a a disagreement. I think that we all want to get this done one way or the other as best we possibly can. But I also think that the complexity of this project, I mean, we've talked about this for months on end here now. And so obviously if it were simple, we would just do it, you know. So, um I'm hoping that we can just work for move forward that we can that we can do the best we can to try to figure out what we can do, what can be done, what's really feasible and and work from there. And I think that we probably can find a way to do it. Um but it ain't going to be easy. So, I I would appreciate it if the council members would just, you know, think positively and let's see if we can't work collaboratively to to try to see a way to move this forward. And and I'm going to leave it at that. I'll now for other council members that haven't spoken, if you have something that you want to say. Eric, you want to say anything about the project?

I know you just came in late, but just put them on the spot. You know, you can count your blessings, too. Maybe I could. Yeah, maybe. Okay.

Should have came later. I mean, well, I do I mean, I think I share a lot of the concerns that I'm sure a number of my um fellow council members have already um expressed um you know, and what we've been the information that we've been given and how um working with these grants with state highway has not been fruitful for others and it's a difficult process and um I do have concerns about sunk costs um because of the phasing, how each how each uh phase is considered a separate grant and um you know approving costs now doesn't mean that we'll get approved again or again or however many phases there are. Um, so I I do have concerns about about uh that pathway and um but I am interested in connectivity and I do uh want to further explore options as far as you know connecting with a trail like we talked about in the work session. Um

we talked we talked about it the last time you and I served together too. Yeah. So, um, you know, long time ago. That's where that's where my head space is right now on it. Thank you. Uh, Anthony, do you want to add anything?

Yes, sir. Um, with the conversations that I've been having, there have been a couple of things that we've glossed over. The first thing I want to do is thank you our town administrator for being so diligent with explaining this and getting all the information and getting us caught up to speed. That really helps a lot. Um, and it makes a big difference. The more we informed and the better we can make a decision. Um, I think a lot of us lose sight that something big happened between 2017 and 2025. It was called CO which means everything that you thought you were going to get done probably did not get done in a time frame. So we have to be a little bit more um relaxed with blaming others about things not going forward the way that we would like to because the world did stop and I think a lot of people have forgotten that. Um, right now the biggest thing for me is that there were four alternatives put on the table, which means that this conversation was had before about moving forward with SHA for 261, what the alternatives could be. And just like I said before, us having an alternate to that plan if it failed or if it wasn't feasible or if it wasn't actually quote unquote legal to do was important. and to know that we had those already means that we're already ahead of the ball on moving in a different direction. Um, I would like for us to commute to to connect the town. I think it's a very wise idea to work on that. I do not think it should be as it currently is now and that we should take what the work was already done for those alternate routes, identify that and move forward in that wing. Um, but this is

the town administrator's report. It's the longest one I've ever sat through and we need to move forward. I think that we can work this out without going back and forth up here and we can get this meeting going so we can all go home and enjoy our lives. Thank you. Thanks, Anthony. And I'll give you just a minute because you did already speak, but but if there's anything else you want to add, I'll give you a minute. They all support the consensus, it sounds like, to um move forward with a potential alternate design. Okay. All right. Then let's uh move on with the conclusion of the town administrator's report.

Unless you all have other questions. All right. Thank you. That's the longest town administrator's report I can ever remember. Don't Don't give in to Anthony. Don't give into that. Must be going to troop. All right, let's move let's move to the town treasures report. Dan,

I'd be a little shorter. Um, so you do have a copy of my report in your packet. Do want to note that on the expenditure page, it's titled January. It should be February and the expenses are related to February. I think they're pretty straightforward. Uh on the narrative part of the report, the only item I wanted to comment on was the that the mayor and I attended the tax differential hearing before board of county commissioners about two weeks ago and they have set the tax differential rate at 36.2 cents which is 2.6 6 cents higher than what it was the past year, which means our residents will get 2.6 cents less county tax on their tax bill uh from the county. So they originally uh they they've got new people in their finance department there, new finance director, new staff in the finance office, and they've realized that um they needed to take a deeper look at the how the tax differential was calculated uh before they combined our rates with North Beach's rates. We're only two municipalities in Calvert County. uh they took a broader look and looked at them separately. So we ended up getting 2.6 cents more on the diff differential. Uh North Beach did not get as much and one of the reasons why is we've got a larger uh tax base than they do. So you know and the services we provide are different than what they provide. So in the past they were lumping us together and giving us all the same both the same rate. uh they've agreed to uh take a deeper dive in this over the coming years and actually have a task force which they will invite uh you know the

finance people and I'm sure elected officials to those meetings to you know drill down further into the differential and how it's calculated. Subsequent to that meeting, I did have a call with the new finance director, uh, Miss Brookshshire, uh, and walk through that with her. And, you know, so I have a better understanding of, you know, how they've calculated. Uh, for the year that I've been here, I've contacted the the uh, finance office and talked to five different people. No one was a ever able to tell me how it was calculated. So, I do appreciate the opportunity to meet with her and look forward to working with them, you know, as we move forward. But, you know, the good part of that is is we get a little further tax relief uh to the residents than what we had before. So, that's that's good information.

Thank you for that. And and and I'll share with you that the first time I attended a county commissioner meeting on tax differentials uh rates was 18 years ago. And um it was a completely different administration at the county level and and here as well. And uh I want to assure you that it was very different than what you and I have encountered recently. And I think what we've encountered recently makes a whole lot more sense than what we encountered 18 years ago. and I want to commend you for the fine work that that you're doing uh for the town because I I feel like it's really been great to have you here. It's a blessing to have you here. So, thank you, Dan.

Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for the So, long story short, so we're our tax rate was decreased of the county and do you think that's because we have long town council meetings? Maybe we spend more money on that in lie of the county spending the time. I don't know. That was a really good question. Okay. Any any any other questions for the treasurer. What is the uh what is that SL FRF grant? What what's that grant for?

Fund monies. State and local fiscal recovery fund monies. Uh so there was a close out process uh that you had to submit to the treasury department and that is what I uh took care of at that point. So uh they will take the information that I submitted and hopefully say everything looks good and notify us that our grant is closed out. uh if not they will request additional information which um I'm not anticipating that but you know it has been submitted and you know we did expend monies appropriately you know $5.5 million over you know the four-year period.

Same thing with the tennis court grant. We're waiting on that and um the the playground still. Yep. Yeah. All right. Thanks. I have a question. You do have a question. Is prepared a list of delinquent utility bills and submitted for tax sale?

Yep. So, the county asks from uh the municipality uh list of any properties that you want to basically put up for tax sale in order to receive the money. It basically places a lean on the properties for which they are owed. uh you know we went and certified it was about I think 12 or 15 properties that have not paid the utility bill in over a year. Uh that was kind of threshold that we used. It's looks going back through the records that looks like the criteria we have used in the past. So we submitted those 15 properties approximately 15 properties uh to the tax sale process that the county will conduct. I I'll add to that also. Um the countywide has started doing that. It's not selective to Ches Beach, right? So the county at their last tax sale was delayed because they incorporated that into the tax sale. So I believe

they're just having us join along with the county. So I think it's it's something throughout the county that's being done. Come from the county. they, you know, they're the ones that put the lean on based on the bills. Um, you know, for real property, it can be done the same way. And the county does do that for real property under their guidelines absent of us certifying anything. So, this is an addition to um real property tax bills. So, these are for utility bills. Okay. Thank you very much, Dan. Appreciate your report. Yep. public works report. Jay, what you got for us?

I got threequarters of a page and I'm shooting for a half a page next month. I like that. I I did say on the first line we had a uh force main sewer leak in Chesig Village at the time of this report. We weren't sure what it was. It was on the town side uh broken valve and we've since fixed it. But I'll take any other questions if there are any. Well, you've got his report in your hands, council. If you've got any questions, please uh feel free to speak up. Go ahead, Dan.

Jay, I like to thank you. I mean, like I mentioned at the uh work session, uh me and Jay have been sort of having a couple different interactions and stuff like that. Um, I mentioned the uh cleanup program or the idea with that and uh it it looks to be a a win-win situation and uh I just had a few things um worked on. Would you like me to mention that here or Okay. Um, but thank you for all your input with that and looks like we have some amendment to it. So, I appreciate

No problem. Thank you. We all appreciate you, Jay. Thank you, Jay. Where are we at with the uh the water meters? Is everybody online with the new the readable meters? I I think there's like five outliers, bankowned, house, and some other things, but yes, 99 point whatever is online. Okay. Uh do we know I know we were talking about being able to read them online or are we still moving forward with that? So, we're in the process of uh integrating with our Tyler system. So, there should be updates on that within the next month or two. I did see the new website. It looks pretty good.

Thank you. Thanks. That was quite an effort. I think it looks good, too. Okay. Anything else for Jay? All right. Let's move on. Um, water reclamation treatment plant report, wastewater treatment plant report, whichever one. I'm fine with either. Um, trying to keep this relatively short. Uh, we, as we've been doing, why should you be different than anybody else?

I like to be odd. So uh basically we've gone through staff has continued to complete all preventive maintenance checks and services as as indicated by the asset management program. No issues identified there. Um do want to mention that we're operating well coming out of the extremely cold temperatures earlier in this year. Uh we're in the process of making some seasonal adjustments that are typical for a wastewater plant where you start going from cold to warmer weather. Um, example what we're dealing with with our process temperatures for January, we're averaging about 14 degrees Celsius in the actual treatment plant process 12 degrees in February and 15 in March. And as a point on their biological processes will slow significantly at temperatures around 10°. So in February, we were pretty cold and we were fighting the plan a little bit just to make sure we continued to do what we needed to do. Um had no issues with the permit on that. Uh few updates. Uh long fence has completed the fence replacement from the damage that occurred in November. Uh they finished that on March 12th and had an inspection with of the gate operator and all limit switches conducted on March 13th. We're waiting the invoice for that work so we can submit that for a reimbursement from the insurance. Uh our filter cleaning project was completed on the 12th. Uh, filter 4 was put back on service on the 17th and overall filter cleaning seems to have been effective with improvements to filter operation being pretty noticeable. Um, we do have a slight decrease in filter denitrification which was expected because we killed all the bacteria or all the biological growth in that filter. So, we're operating on slightly degraded uh state right now. Normally, we're at about less than 0.2 two milligrams per liter. Nitrate, we're seeing about a uh concentration of 1 milligram per liter and the permit

allows us to go up to four. So, we're still well below the permit, but we are seeing that we're not operating quite as efficiently as we did before. That should improve over the next couple weeks as the biological growth builds up in that media. Great. So, any questions on the Anybody have any questions? Well, I just say the lighting looks really good. Um, looks like it made a big difference and looks like it'll pay itself off in about 5 years based on my calculations. Yes. Great. I'm digging the beard, man. Pretty swing with everybody else. Yeah, I like that, man. Yeah. What's What's wrong with Jack?

That would make for a really long meeting. Watching beard grow. Watching the beard grow. Okay. Uh, thank you very much. Um, town engineers report, we have the written report, but Wayne's not able to be here with us tonight. Is there anything anybody wants to say about this? Is there anything? Uh, I'll just add that in for the Kelms piece, we did I did take everybody's feedback. So, thank you very much. I I got feedback from I think everybody and and inserted it. So, they'll come back in weeks, months with an updated plan for columns.

Great. That's good. And only thing else I would add is that um for the railway expansion, we are uh nearing a place where we'll have a a draft that's ready to be reviewed for the railway expansion RFP so it can go out to bid. Awesome. That's great news. What what part of the railway or just is it like a generalized RFP? Well, I haven't seen the RFP since it's been with town hall, so I can only speak on what we wrote. So maybe um maybe you could speak on

I haven't received the the finalized RFP yet. So when I get it, but it's the same sentiment that we've spoken about before. Okay. Um so I I think the best thing would be to receive it from town with their edits and then speak about it. Another meeting. Yeah. be in a month. Okay. So, plan is to do have it available next month. Awesome. Piggy back on that question. Just specifically one little piece. Does it include the completion of the bridge over Fishing Creek to the rail bed?

Believe that's the case, but I haven't seen it. Do you know? I believe that is the case. I mean, and you you know the sad and long story of that as I recall. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm all for completing that.

Me, too. I mean, it was it was approved by 21 of the 22 state agencies that had to approve things and the 22nd one was the critical area commission and they said no. So, that's why it stopped where it did and don't ask me why because there's no reason. Well, can I just clarify real quick if are you all aligned on that being a part of it? Is he's in Wayne and his team are building it based off of the conversations that he's had with council members and the conversation that he will have with the mayor next week. So, if that is something that you would like to be included, we can include it. I think everyone is and that same assumption like let's like going to the spot and seeing the polls there like everyone is expecting the bridge to be done like that. That's like I don't know that's what I always thought the intention was.

I mean the bridge is done. It's just a matter of connecting it over to the trail, right? Yeah. It's just putting the boards on the piles that are all your drove. I mean, it's for me that's the we could get it taken care of in a weekend and ask for forgiveness kind of plan. I won't beat a dead horse or maybe I will. Um, but the fact that the critical area commission made us stop there is just to me I still don't understand it. But you know what? It's a whole new critical area commission now. It's not the same people. So I but I hope we don't have to go through the same approval process to do that one piece that we did to do the whole trail because it'll take years.

Let's just make it go across, turn left, and go to Chesig Village and we pro solve that problem. Like the way you think. All right, let's move on. Calbert County Sheriff's Office Department.

Oh, we're going to defer that because uh Lieutenant Phelps, I guess, is going to be coming a little bit later. Okay, we we will hold off on that for now, but we can move forward with the North Beach Volunteer Fire Department. Good evening, everyone. Great to see from uh Chief Stanton, President G. I trust everybody got their statistical report in the email. Yes, sir. Got it right. Um, knock on wood, pretty quiet since our last meeting. We really haven't had any major incidents. Please don't jinx us. Uh, no. Uh we did have our installation banquet, a a toned down installation banquet that we've

had compared to others because we're having the big gala banquet in August for the 100th anniversary. But uh we were able to recognize some of our uh members. Our top runner for the year was gentleman by the name of Gabe Balmy had 727 runs. Wow. Uh top ambulance runner was a high school student named Oliver Fox. 577 runs. Uh our firefighter of the year, proud moment, my son, also a high school student, uh Matt Kaiser, and rookie of the year, who's also a high school student, is uh Cody White.

So, uh we were able to honor them, give them some nice recognition, nice well-deserved recognition. We had our sportsman's bash went well, went without a hitch. I think I seen a few people there. Um that's our biggest fundraiser. Our 100th anniversary stuff is still rolling on. Just keep a lookout on our social media. This Sunday from 1 to 2 o'clock, a little bit up north at the our neighboring town hall in North Beach, Assistant Chief Tippid will be doing a history talk for an hour between 1 and two if anybody's interested. Uh we had the pleasure of getting a tour of Rod and Reel with their management, invited us down. We did about a three-hour drill. We did a walkthrough, looked at all the hazards, everything that we have to look forward to if we have an incident there. and pre-plan it so we're not worried about it when it happens. So, I appreciate the uh hospitality from Rod and Reel. And uh last but not least, I'd like to just go on record and tell people, please don't apologize for calling us. Uh we went on a call this morning and I just I know people don't like bugging us, but that's why we're there. You know, we had a a gentleman had fallen out of his bed, elderly couple, they needed help getting back into the bed and just uh kept apologizing, kept apologizing. We tell them, you know, that's why we're here. Call us. Please, please call us. So, any questions?

No, but I appreciate that sentiment. I mean, as as you know, I had a house fire about I don't remember 2000. It was a while ago and uh we were away from home, but uh I'm very grateful to the North Beach Volunteer Fire Department and always will be. So, you've got my support. We're here for him. So, what did you say the numbers were for the for the year? You had 570. What was it for the year? That was that was an individual person. The He ran for one person for the 12 months. Yes. He ran 727 calls. our top runner. So, and then the uh North out of North Beach 700. Yes. And what?

727 calls. 727 one year. Right. We had about I think about 23 24 2500 calls for the year for the entire station. Wow. And then the other one, the top ambulance runner was 577. And he was on about a third of those calls. He was a high school kid. And uh did he skipping school? No. play plays plays on the Northern baseball team. I mean, he's a busy kid. Very involved with his church. Nice. Put a lot of time into running the calls, too.

And and as a volunteer fireman, uh there's uh I think different programs through the state and and county stuff like that. There's a uh what is it like 60 calls a year or something like that to be active? What's the what's the threshold for uh being active? So there's a there's a program with the state called LOAP which is a length of service awards program which is basically a retirement and you have to earn 50 points a year to get a to get credit for a LOAP year and then once you hit 25 years credit and you turn 50 years old you collect a basically retirement I won't say a retirement stipen from the that would be from the county the uh state if you make your 50 points, you get a tax credit with the state. Unfortunately, these are all kids, so they are way way off from LOAP and uh don't won't be getting that tax credit.

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh a one call would be a credit. One call is a point, but you can only earn out of that 50 points, you can only earn 20 of those points on calls. On calls, you have to earn other points by attending meetings. you have to and earn other points by doing collateral duty hours or getting training. Okay. So, there's a whole Yeah. hit the whole thing with just running calls. Yeah, that's a lot of calls there. Yep. Yes, it is. Well, thank you. Thanks for the information. Anybody else got any questions? Did they ever finish the report for the the condo fire over here?

They were Chief Tippet was heading that up and last I heard he was supposed to be doing an afteraction report. I thought he was going to have it ready last week. We have not seen it yet. So, I don't know where this I know he was planning on having it out at least for and uh after action report for the department, which I'm sure is open to anybody on a council, they want to know. But I could definitely find out when we're going to do it, when that event is going to happen, and I can appreci we'd appreciate it if you would do that. And I I'm fairly confident that all of my members of the council would be interested in seeing that report.

Okay. Maybe uh if you I'll be maybe willing to have it down here or if you want to come up the firehouse and we have space up there. Either way, but I will uh notify you when that happens. I appreciate that. Yeah, we can talk about the how we're going to do it a little later. The excitement from Dan. I think we just need to go down to the fire station. Let's do it. Let's take Dan to the fire station. Let's go. Right on the fire truck. Well, you know I now you said right on the fire to a free cup of coffee. There you go.

But when I when when when the when the first ladder truck, which is not the one that's there now, was purchased, the town contributed a great deal of money toward that event or toward that purchase. And one of the things that happened was that my wife and I got on the ladder truck and they took it up and took us way up in the sky. We could see the Eastern Shore like you wouldn't believe. It was an amazing experience. So, the ladder trucks are cool. Can we do that again with a drone? Can we get them up there again with a Well, see, this predates all the drones. Come on. We got So, we uh we we parks and wreck does their uh summer camp at the firehouse. We take the kids up for a ride in the tower and Yeah.

We don't take them all the way up, but uh we take them up and that's one of the highlights of their day. They enjoy I can confirm that. Enjoy going up there. Some people are terrified now. Uh my wife and I weren't terrified. It was pretty cool. Thank you. All righty. Appreciate you being here. Okay. Um it's time for the mayor's report. Wow.

Anybody need to take a break before we start the mayor's report? Okay, I'll dig into it. Um I just have two two ma two may items that I want to mention. Uh the picture that you see in front of you is on the steps of the state house. And if you look over to the left, uh you'll see somebody with a baseball cap on it that says Vietnam vet. Uh you might recognize him. Um but this is the Maryland the annual mayor's um association annual meeting. Um that was on March 4th through 6 in Annapolis. and I had the privilege to be able to attend and unlike what I had done before this time I actually got a hotel room so I wasn't driving back and forth to Annapolis to get there for 7:00 in the morning breakfastes and things of that nature so that was very nice um had a great opportunity to meet with uh a lot of other elected officials and everybody in that picture is a mayor um and um that's what the yellow banner uh represents um I met some knew uh as many of you know or most of you know I was president of the Maryland Municipal League a number of years ago uh about a dozen years ago. Um but they have moved the headquarters from West Street down to State Circle. So it's at 47 State Circle which is on the east side of the state house. It's just right down the hill from the state house. And I was talking to some of the staff members there and where they were on West Street was about maybe two miles away or something like that, but it wasn't nearly as convenient as it is being across the street. And they're saying that that's enabling them to interact with uh official, you know, the elected officials and so forth a whole lot better. Um and so uh that was just a real treat to see that too. Um although

the new headquarters is really quite small compared to the other one. Um there was a reception at the governor's mansion um with uh Governor Westmore and Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller uh that I was able to attend and had a chance to spend some time talking to the governor uh and other uh officials there. Um, and so that was really um a a uh a treat for me to to do that. And if you go to the next slide, this is uh Stephanie Zan Stephanie and Xanelotti. Uh and I've got a a little piece that I want to read to you that was actually prepared for me by uh Connie Odell, if any any of you remember Connie. Um, Connie and Stephanie were close, but I was also quite close to Stephanie. And on February 24th, 2026, the town lost longtime volunteer Stephanie Anne Xanelotti. Uh, Stephanie did not live in Chesig Beach. She resided in Breezy Point, but her heart and soul were always here in town. Stephanie uh became active in Chesig Beach Events in 2012 when she was instrumental in the development of the Stars and Stripes Festival and served as co-chair and eventually chair of that committee. Stephanie was president at every town event to promote Stars and Stripes including the Easter Festival, uh Independence Day celebrations, um Halloween, Pat Carpenter holiday parade, and the light up the town. Stephanie worked tirelessly each year to attract guests and speakers to participate in the Stars and Stripes Festival. Near the end of his previous term, now I I'm reading something that somebody else wrote. Uh Mayor Bruce Wall presented Stephanie with a key to the town, an award of which Stephanie was always proud and eternally grateful. Stephanie was also an active member of

the Twin Beach Players and served in the American Legion Post 206 Ladies Auxiliary. So, moment of silence for uh Stephanie Sean, please. Thank you. We'll come back to um the town engineer or the uh sheriff's report as soon as we He's not here yet. Okay. All right. So, we're going to we're going to move on to resolutions and ordinances. Um, I've got some. Am I getting horse? I'm not going to read the whole resolution. You want me to?

Are you sure? I can I can You already read it.

I Yeah, I I'll read what it says on the agenda here. Um, we're going to vote on ordinance O-26-2, an ordinance of the town council of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, an ordinance of the of Chesapeake Beach, a municipal corporation in the state of Maryland, the issuer providing for the issuance and sale of an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $6,100,000 of bonds of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland to be known as Chesapeake Beach Infrastructure Bonds 2026 2026. 6 series A the bonds to be issued and sold pursuant to the authority of sections 4-101 through 4-255 of the Housing and Community Development Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland as amended for the purpose of of providing all or a portion of the funds necessary for financing the following projects: renovation, construction, improvement, and a pertinent 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 for the dispersements, I'm sorry, 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 accessible property within the corporate limits of the issuer. Separate the pages here for the payment of the principal and the entrance 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, certificates, and instruments, and the making of or providing for the making of representations and covenants concerning the tax status of the entrance on the B of on the bonds. So, you have the ordinance in front of you. A motion.

Is there a motion? You you made the motion. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Do we have a second from Jamie? Uh, is anybody going to read the whole thing out loud? Not me. You want to read the whole thing out? Okay. Any discussion? Is there any discussion? I have a comment. Yes. Go ahead, Eric.

Um, I just want to say I'm not here to soap box. I just want to explain my vote because I often get constituents asking me why I voted a certain way. So, I'm just going to explain it here now. Um I I was in opposition of the of the bid process um of the price of the contract type and um and didn't like the way historical ledgers um pan out for the water park in the past. And so I do plan to vote no to be consistent.

Okay. Anybody else have any questions or comments? All right. Uh, is there a motion for approval? Motion. Okay. A second. Did we already do that? Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Okay. Let the record. Is there any abstensions? Okay. Let the record show there were five motions in favor or five votes in favor and one opposed. Thank you. Okay. Next. This one's not nearly as long to read. Uh, vote on ordinance. I'm sorry. Is this the one we were going to

I think we were going to table. Table it. Yeah, we're going to motion to table it. 26-3. Well, okay. Is there is there a motion to table ordinance O-26-3? Second. Okay. Any discussion? Uh Eric wasn't here when we uh initially talked about it. I saw I saw Lori's email. I think I'm up to speed. Okay, good. Okay. All in favor of uh tableabling. I opposed. It's t the motion was tabled. Scheduled.

Just to clarify, we're tableabling it to line up with the in the one that we're introducing tonight. Right. Right. Okay. All right, we're going to introduce ordinance O-26-4, an ordinance of the town council, Ches Beach, Maryland, amending chapter 257, taxation to add article 5, tax credit for disabled public safety and surviving spouses and cohabitants. Um, and we will I'm sorry, April.

Yeah, we're at our next meeting, April 16th meeting, we will set the public hearing at 6:15. All right. Um, that's Yeah, we're going we're down to date. Okay. We're going to introduce ordinance 0-26-7, an ordinance of the town council, Chesake Beach, Maryland, amending the town code, chapter 290, zoning, article 3, zoning districts, section 290-10, table of uses to permit certain home occupations as a conditional use in certain zones to amend article 3, section 290-11, conditions and standards for conditional and special exception uses to revise the standards application to the conduct of home occupations and to amend article 11 uh definitions sections 290 section 290-43 definitions to revise the definition of the term home occupations and set the public hearing. So we set the public hearing for um 6:20 p.m. on April 16th or thereabouts. Okay. All right. We're going to introduce ordinance 0-26-8, an ordinance of the town council of Chesig Beach, Maryland, amending the town code, chapter 290, zoning, article

5, dimensional requirements, sections 299-9 tables, requirements, exceptions. Subsection G to alter the requirements for permissible fences and subsection J to clarify the location of front yards on corner lots. 6:25. Uh, we'll set the hearing at 6:25 p.m. on April 16th. All right. The ordinances Pardon the delay. Um Maryland municipal league has uh brought forth this resolution. It's asking us to consider it. Um, so resol resolution R-26-1, a resolution of the mayor and town council, Chesig Beach, Maryland, in support of House Bill 1142 Senate bill uh establishing the task force to modernize county and municipal re revenue sources. Um, is this something that we're voting on tonight? No,

this is to be all right. So we vote on we will consider if you'll make sure that you have the opportunity to read this before the next meeting. Um this is uh essentially making sure that we uh I think this is asking for changes in the way we can get our uh sources our revenue sources. So at any rate this is brought forth by the Maryland Municipal League. We will vote on this uh next month. Um, all right. That's resolutions and ordinances. Now we have reports of officers, boards, and committees, planning and zoning commission. Sarah,

thank you. Thanks for being here. Of course. Sure. So, the Planning and Zoning Commission is continuing to work on modernizing the land use table. And Am I not talking about it? Yeah.

Okay. They're continuing to work on modernizing the land use table and all of the uses so that the zoning ordinance is easier for people to interact with um and cleaner. We are also because we are reviewing it at this time. We are trying to incorporate uh state requirements with regard to cannabis solar energy systems um and the new ADU guidance into this so that everything can just be ready and done in time to meet state deadlines. What are the state deadlines? So um it depends on which so solar energy systems I think you know we might have we pass that deadline but that we don't really have space for the solar energy systems but we have to adopt regulations about them anyway. So we just need to put those in there. Uh the cannabis regulations were pass you know our our our regulations with cannabis are out of line with the state requirements. Um, and the ADU regulations need to be updated by October.

Okay. So, these are all based on legislation that was passed last year that is due to be implemented this year or we're not we're not meeting deadlines um to anticipate leg legislation. No, yeah, that this is all past legislation. Um the town wanted to previously wanted to keep the regulations the way they were. Um but it has we we are choosing to comply with state law. Now

and we choose not to comply with state law. If someone comes in and asks for a permit and our law says we can't give it to them and state law says we have to, I could deny it, but we won't win that lawsuit. So, I I it hasn't happened yet. But if it happened, I would consult with the town administrator and the town attorney as to how to move forward. It would be better if our laws just matched state laws so that we weren't put in that position.

Hi, Sarah.

So, we we are not um we're not compliant with state law and it's not because of any other law that allowed us not to be matching up. I don't know the historical reasons. I just know that the ordinances need to be updated. Um the ordinances probably haven't been updated because it hasn't been a priority because neither social solar energy systems nor cannabis uses have a lot of pressure. There's not a lot of cannabis licenses. So people aren't lining up to open those businesses. Um and there's nowhere to really put a large scale solar energy system in the town of Chesapeake Beach. So that's why it hasn't been a huge priority to get them into the ordinance, but we're updating the ordinance, so we might as well get them in and be in compliance compliance with state law while we're updating everything.

Hey Sarah. Uh so yes, state compliant law. Yeah, like that's what we're doing. Uh one of the things it's actually next Tuesday. uh the rental subcommittee we are starting our conversations with our ADUs. Uh Deb is actually here she's kind of really we're following and using the state law and uh plan on having that ready by the end of April all the rental overview and it'll have the ADUs with it. Um, well, we're going to be compliant with state law. That's like our first priority that we've we've done. So, not to have any spoilers, but we're going to be in line with what the state says. Uh, I know that the one thing that's hanging out there with the parking regulation. We're going to be in line with the state's rule because we're not going to have the uh the review done beforehand. So, because we won't be able to have an adjustment to that. So, whatever the state law says, that's where we're going to be making sure we're in line with that. Um, just so you know that.

Yes. So, the the planning and zoning commission and the town council are the sources where the zoning amendments have to start and we have to be compliant by October. So, we're trying to adopt these regulations now so that we are compliant by October. I think if the subcommittee makes recommendations and then the council wants to adjust it based on those recommendations, then that process is allowed for in your code for you all to do that. Um, but I know that uh Jay is looking at getting the parking study done because there are a few areas of town where um just not requiring parking is going to make things very difficult. So,

right. Thank you. Yeah. And um I guess thank you, Eric.

I just want to make a comment that uh I I don't think that um Councilwoman Black Welder's question was absurd. I think it was fair and intelligent. I've asked it before. Um and what happens if we don't comply, if we choose not to. and um you know bringing our code up to date with up to up to uh parallel with the state um I don't think is a is a no-brainer. It's something to think about and um so I just want to say I appreciate the question. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. And and and to clarify, I um sometimes there's a grandfather, you know, if when the law comes out and and people can um opt to enact legislation in a certain period of time, then that legislation is is legal. But thank you, Eric, for for your comments. um you know I don't and that is the case with the cannabis legislation but the town chose not to adopt the legislation in the time frame so we don't have a grandfather

right okay um okay well and and I appreciate the sentiment of um why rush certain things so thank you for your comment too great well thank you very much thanks for being here

all right board Hill Board of Appeals is the next item on the uh agenda, but there was no hearing held, so there's um the Chesapeake Beach Oyster Cultivation Society submitted a written report. Uh so you have that in your packets. So we will pass move along from there. Um economic development. Uh Dan pretty much just gave a rundown on that. Nothing else to add? I just thank you to so committee members that are here and we're we're making headway. That's great. I'm glad to hear that. Um, election committee.

Congratulations on getting a new Oh, yeah. Well, and and this is really significant because Ry's been flying solo for a while. Um, and and so he's he's twothirds of the way of having a full committee now. And I will it be next month that we can probably in oh in the work session we'll meet the next one.

So So I've given you a read ahead. Probably the best slide to look at is is uh slide two which which is my notes to you right now about you know please please review the slides in this presentation uh before the 7 April work session uh if and if you have as you're reviewing it and going over it if you have any questions um please email me or call me uh mayor made me get a ches beach.gov gov uh email. So, I have that on there. Um the election committee will be present at the uh your work session to answer any questions that you have. And and and just I want to take a couple of seconds here to to uh introduce the uh committee. We have uh Gordon Mat back in the back there. We have Chris Martinez in the back. Um Acacia Flores is not here tonight. She's working uh ambulance emergency ambulance thing. Uh she has also uh been appointed uh by the mayor to to uh be a member of the board of elections. Uh but she wasn't here tonight. So you'll be able to talk to her during the work session on on uh April 7th. Uh I there was a couple of other things I wanted to uh point out. Let me interrupt you real quick. Yeah,

we got Anthony my town council members. Anthony, I I did have it written here. I don't know why I forgot it. And and Eric, both of those have been great contributors. That that's the committee.

You should get shirts so we know. And then there's the, you know, there's the committee which was which was uh formed under under the mayor's uh allowance. Uh and and uh then there's the board of elections which has to be appointed by the mayor and then confirmed by the town council and and and so for Jennifer, you you you got to interview her, but I didn't hear a vote. Does that go to new business? they it has to, you know, per the charter 602,

the it's appointed by the mayor and approved by by the town council. So, that sounds like a a vote to me. Um, I don't know if you're saving that for new business. I just wanted to point it out. And then the same thing will apply during the, you know, the work session for Acacia later. Um there was one other thing I wanted to uh point out uh that's not really covered in the brief because uh um you know we went out with requests for information contacted many different people county uh went to state for us and asked questions. I got a new answer back. Uh and and another answer back which is from the the state has reported to the county that there are no municipalities in Maryland that are going to hold their election on November 3rd of 2026 on the on the they're not going to go on the ballot on on the counties their appropriate counties ballot. They've chose not to do that. Mhm.

So I I don't know how many that is that normally holds their election in 2026. I know North Beach does and they already I've already told you they voted not to, but I I tried to go state I I tried to answer the ask the question to state as to whether hey has anybody done it so that I I could in November go look and see how theirs went, but nobody is. Uh let's see. I think that is all the things I had and we will see you on April 7th. Do you have any quick questions for me? No. Thank you.

Hey, I have one comment. Thank you. I you I I think you do an amazing job and I I appreciate it. I know the whole the whole town appreciates all your hard work, Randy. Thank you. and and thank you for the advanced um packet and and I I apologize for forgetting to say Anthony and Eric because they have been a real great thing to have, you know, their input knowing, you know, having two of the town council members with the committee has been very positive for us. That's great. That's great to hear that and I appreciate their service, too.

Mr. Mayor, are we so are we going to wait to see about Okay, under new business.

All right, the green team, we have a report that was submitted to you. I don't think there's anybody here to deliver that report. Um, and now Gwen Beach Community Health Coalition. Anthony,

uh, no submitted report, but we do have a couple of updates. Right now, we're uh we did talk to the American Legion Post 206 about uh being able to have people who sign up for the American Ninja Warrior uh battle to be able to use money to go to the American Legion so that they can donate it to a veteran service. Um so, we're having a fun time right now of figuring out what the obstacle course is going to look like. Um, I'm trying not to make it too grueling so that like know parents and can go out with their teens and stuff like that, but we want to make it as fun as possible. So, we're we're looking to go big. Also, where do you think that obstacle course is going to be?

It's going to be on Kennelsfield. Okay. Because, uh, I know at Ches Church where a number of us and they they used to run obstacle course and man oh man, I'll tell you what that was. Well, you were there back in the woods. Yeah, back in the woods and through the mud and over the sliding down trees and all kinds of stuff. So, I don't think we're going to do that. No, we not going to do that unless we do it for Halloween and we can get somebody to dress up as Jason and chase you through the woods,

but you know, we can talk about that later. That'd be good for mental health, too. Um, and then also we have um our person that's going to oversee the exercises. They have peach squad, boxing, pilates, and yoga that's going to be out there that day. Um, so we're getting everything together. We're going to have our next official meeting next month and get everything ready for August. Sounds good. Appreciate everything you're doing. All right. Next item on the um agenda is the walkability committee.

Okay. So, um we are looking forward to celebrate Trails Day. It will be on April 25th and we're going to um have a history display in the center of uh the railway trail. Everybody can learn about the history of Ches Peak Beach which um really coincides with the history of the railway trail. So um we're excited about that and my committee members are working very hard on that and we have some um we got some ideas from the public um and some volunteers for some cadetses that are going to clean the trail, make it nice and shiny for us. Um, and I appreciate um that was grassroots volunteered to me. It wasn't a request by me. So, I appreciate um that volunteerism and in that offer. Um, additionally, uh I am going to put a meeting on the calendar, I hope, with uh the town administrator and potentially the mayor to talk about the RFP and um some options for the Chesapeake Village sidewalks. So, I will reach out to do those two things, the two of you. Um, and then the final thing um about my report is um I will be reaching out to um all the council members to um determine if there's a way to bring back the bike slow ordinance or at least get an answer back to my committee about why that motion didn't pass. um they are a little bit confused about um a thumbs up in a work session and a thumbs down in a council meeting. So um I will be calling everybody to talk about that and to talk about any other walkability issues that um you guys have on your minds. So I hope that we can make time to do that. And that's about it for us.

Thank you very much. Okay. Um, next is the waterpark committee. All right. Yeah, we just met for the first time in I think three or four months. So, it was nice to catch back up with everybody and now we're all back on the same page and um we'll be putting out the minutes whenever we get a chance. Thanks. That was short and sweet. I have a question. Sure.

Go ahead. Um just I noticed that uh in the treasur's report there's a 27 uh $100,000 uh dollar payment there to uh Shel the general contractor and so I'm assuming that there's work in progress. Are we going to get progress reports about what work is actually being done? That would be I think that would be cool. Are you asking them like as a part of how often? Let's see. Are you

Well, uh I mean this is this project's going to going pretty fast. I mean it's got to go in in in what a year. Uh so they're going to be making progress. Uh they're going to be making a lot of progress per month. I mean it would just kind of be nice. It's a big project for this town. If we could get uh, you know, an update or just a progress report about, you know, what's what's being accomplished so we can be, you know, up to speed on everything. Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

We do we did speak about the current progress update. Uh, they just met on I think it was Monday. Marilyn, do you want to do you want her to share a progress update or we can include it in? Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Uh, good point, Eric. Thank you. Um, mayor, can we uh can we fit in um the sheriff's report now? Um, I want you to look at my notes. That's where my finger was. Great. Okay, fell. Great minds think alike. It's true. It's true. Welcome, sir.

A day of meetings. It went long. So, and so you're ending it off with another meeting. Yeah, another meeting. Good evening. Um, in February, the sheriff's office handle 144 calls in Chesake Beach. Uh, they in addition to that, there was 130 self-initiated calls. Um, breakdown. There were a few thefts that includes a fraud. There was a CDS arrest. uh found property and a cardiac arrest. Um and that is the report. I know about those cardiac arrests. They're no damn fun. Yeah. Anybody got any questions?

I do. Okay. Go ahead, Eric. Can you please stay after the meeting and talk to me? I want to talk to you about um a internship program that uh is published out there that apparently the uh sheriff the Coward County Sheriff's Department um conducts. Okay. So we can talk offline. We'll be here. Thank you, sir. Sounds good. Anyone else? Another meeting. I get and I thought my meetings are now I'm here. So this one was easier than last meeting. Okay.

Yeah. We don't I don't see any unfinished business on the agenda. Is there anybody anything anybody needs to under new business? I'm sorry. That's under new business. Okay. So, all right. Now, we will I want the council to consider approving uh Jennifer uh Bennett as a member of the Ches Beach Board of Elections. Is there a motion for approval? Motion for approval. Is there a second? Second. Second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Oppose. The eyes have it. Congratulations. And thank you so much, Randy. Congratulations to you, too. Okay. Um All right. Now, we're down to the public comment section of the uh of the agenda. And um I have in front of me u a uh petition from the residents on to Forest Drive to have bamboo removed. Um and Richard Gerard, are you here? Okay. is the one that wrote this. I'll I'll read it to you. Uh it's signed by a whole lot of people that live on DeForest Drive, which is, you know, on the the southern end of town, um on the right side of 261 as you're headed south. Um past the school. Um so this letter is to notify the town of Ches. It's it's not past the school. It's before you go to the school. uh the town letter to notify the town of Chesig Beach about the concerns of residents on the eastern side of the Forest Drive between 17th and 19th Street of the overgrowth of bamboo and how it is impeding on all of our personal properties. This invasive species is out of control in this area and any and beyond what us as home owners can control. It is in what is considered a critical zone due to the close proximity of the bay and the wetlands. So chemicals to control or stop the growth of the bamboo is not an option. This neighborhood has tried to control the growth of this bamboo from spreading onto our properties, but we are losing the battle. The bamboo is also impeding access to DeForest Drive and along the boardwalk and sidewalk on Route 261 between 17th Street uh and 19th Street,

therefore making it a safety hazard. We are asking the town to take action to remove the existing bamboo and to stop it from um spreading onto the roadway, sidewalk, and personal properties. This issue needs to be brought up at the next town hall meeting so it can be addressed. The state highway administration has also been made aware of the situation, but they stated that it is the responsibility of the town and it's signed by Richard Gerard and also the signatures of I think uh six other people that live on the forest. Um I don't know what action we can take here. Jay, would you would you please jump in, Jay?

Sure. And I'm glad you read it so the council could understand it. And I' I've met Mr. Gerard on some other occasions, very nice gentleman. And I've seen, we've all seen the bamboo that's by the boardwalk. Um, but the way I understand it in that area that the town doesn't own any of that property. Now, we'll have to maybe have a pow-wow at the state. I do know after the state installed sidewalk along anywhere along the state highway in the municipal government, we have to maintain that. But this is kind of beyond the sidewalk between private property um to a state road that the town owns none of the property. That does not mean I don't think the town should help. It's just we're not the agency that owns it. So even if we had well intent go there and do what we want. There's a couple concerns. One is you know what do we put back? That's a steep slope. You know bam bamboo is an invasive species. So there are chemicals and you can control it with other methods even though it's within the critical area. you're never going to get rid of it manually. Um, but there's a concern of that slopes like more than a 45. What, you know, if we remove it with good intent, what do we put back? It could lead to

keep the hillside failure of our kind of already canal levered sidewalk. So, want to help the citizens. I'm very familiar with it. I don't know the answer. I think we as the body need to sit down with the state first of all understand theou because I know there's one for the sidewalk. But, you know, if we go acting on a town rightaway, does that mean that's our rightway moving forward? They approve recently the fiber lines and anything that goes through their rightway. So, I just want to make sure we help the citizens, but we follow and we have a plan that's united with the state. So, I would lean on the mayor or someone. Let's set up a meeting and figure this out.

And myself and Jay, like after we received this, we've been linking up. We talked about this at the work session. You one thing I talked about was there's four or five areas that have this bamboo. Where you live, Jamie, going into your neighborhood, there's some bamboo. Have you noticed that? Yes, I've noticed that bamboo. I noticed it, too. Yes, we do. Yeah. Yeah. Right there. It's pretty invasive.

Over off 14th Street. So whatever it is, it's something that I know that people have complained in the past, but there is erosion. We don't want to like we have to be careful and thoughtful and I think then it's the right approach. Well, and and I I think you characterized it perfectly. We have to be careful and we have to be thoughtful. I mean, it's not something that we can go willy-nilly and just tear it up. I mean, that's not going to cut it. So, uh, do you have any ideas how we can move forward, Jay?

So, I I'll reach out to our state contact. We have other, uh, have a great relationship with Jeff Kirby, who's probably who they talked to, and we can maybe have a preliminary meeting, even though we've met out there before. Uh, they've done some work on the trees on the north end of town and different things that are within their rightway. Okay. Um, I'll start with that, see where we go from there, but it sounds like it's going to have to step up above there with some coordination. Okay. So, so then it's going to boil down to who owns the property, right? Um they have to make a decision. And although bamboo is invasive, doesn't mean that the state's going to act and go in there and kill it because then they have to put something in there to stabilize. But we we can definitely take it from no action and move it up the chain.

I got you. All right. I think we are at the point for public comment. Any other any other public comment?

Well, it's good to see you. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. I just wanted to address uh the walkability company or committee and the fact that in 2009 to 2011 the study was done comprehensive plan back then and it addressed through the state of Maryland's highway association. They came in, they studied it, and they decided it was unsafe to be on the 261 parkway. And at that time, they suggested a trolley for extra transportation from Chesmic Village over. So, I thought maybe that would work out a little bit because you're going to increase parking, which is already a problem for Brownies Beach on B Street and I think it's Woodchuck. So you might check that out first. Okay. But check out the 2009 2011. Thank you.

Just uh make one comment about about those comments. The town did have a trolley. Uh the last time we were in office, Mr. Mayor, and uh I think it wasn't the town's though, but it was run by Bob Carpenter. Okay. Who was a council member? Yes. And as as I recall, I I might have read it once. I think I was the only person on it. That's why it didn't last. That's that's my point.

But it was a great idea and I mean it went to nor between North Beach and Chesapeake Beach and it was it was a great amenity but it didn't get very much use and if you look around you can still see the trolley signs are still on post somewhere around. I Yeah, there's one on my road.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I've seen a bunch of them. I I I wish of course if you wish that you had enough traffic that uh that it would justify having a trolley then you probably have a whole lot of overcrowding too. So I mean you you know you gota got to take take it as it is. Okay. Uh lightning round. Lightning round. Anybody got anything? Anthony. Um just uh for our town administrator, our staff, um our council woman, uh this is March. This is Women's History Month. We thank you all for all the hard work you do. This does not go unnoticed. I do try to make um my part in this as easy and flow smoothing and helpful as possible. And I hope that it does help. But I really appreciate you all. and you are doing great work. Thank you.

Uh I I didn't prepare anything. Um well, off the top of your head, off the top of my head, um I I would also like to thank the women of Chesig Beach. Um Lori just kicked me.

Well, just saying. my statement. I really appreciate um the cooperation of Similia and working through this um chest village sidewalk situation. Um I am viewing tonight's meeting as saying we are going to find I hope that we can work together. Uh if anybody can you can so um uh you know, I look forward to working with you on that and pushing it through and I appreciate you keeping us in the grant pipeline until we do find that solution. So, thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, I guess I better uh thank the woman as well. He's kind of written here. That's scary. No, I echo both of their comments and I'm happy to see such a good turnout tonight and all my water park committee members in attendance. Thank you, Eric. I'm not gonna thank the women.

I'd be embarrassed. But the what I want to talk about is um I had a conversation with Jamie um last week I believe it was might have been two weeks ago um about Kellums since he's been kind of heading that up and um I also had a conversation I've been involved for um many years in youth soccer in the county and um I was talking to I was at a tournament travel tournament I talking to Gary Litka who is um the director of coaches at CSA and we were talking about referees, shortage of referees um in the county and one of the main problems is that we don't have a facility that can um house a training an inerson training session which is required to become a certified referee at US soccer and um we talked about he's like well you know I said what about Kellum he's like well it would be great because you have to have a building so the uh the Northeast Community Center would be great but then you also have to have a field nearby with soccer goals um and we don't have any soccer goals at Kellums and I think it would be something that we could really do easily that would cost almost nothing to put some soccer goals out there. Um, the kids can use the field for practice and it can also serve as a way to get more referees in the county for the for the for the soccer youth soccer program.

You just want some soccer goals. I just want soccer goals. Okay. Well, I I I think as we bring Kellum to the the council when it comes time to vote to fund Kellums, you will be a Yay. Now we know how to do it. Yeah. That's some soccer goes in there. We got As a as a thanks to women, I will defer my lightning round to Smelia. Yeah. Yeah. Work for

I think the only thing I really want to say is I I love living in this town. I love serving the town and um we will get much farther together than we will apart. So, I'm just looking forward to doing more good work together. Well stated, Jamie. How can you follow better? How you follow? I'll just say next month is I think we start budget stuff, so bring a snack.

Well, uh, I'm going to take the the last word myself. I want to thank uh all of you for being here tonight. Um it really tickles me to see how many people are sitting in this room um and are participating in what this municipal government is doing. I want to thank every member of this council who I think are doing a fantastic job. Um because I've never ser I've I've served 28 years before this time. I've never worked with a council as great as this one. And I mean that in all sincerity because we talk things through. We don't always agree. We don't have to agree. We don't have to get nasty about it, but we don't ha, you know, we're getting things done. I'm very proud of this council, this staff, and I'm very honored to be here to serve you. And with that, I would accept a motion for adjournment.

Motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? All in favor? I I oppose. The eyes have it. Thank you for being here. Thank you for coming.

Was the sh It's something motion