Town Council - Regular Meeting

The pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America Um Dan Dval are in pre are present. Um and we are going to head right into it. Informational discussion on the following budget discussions. Um three different funds are going to be discussed. Uh general fund, mitigation fund, water reclamation fund, and this is I'm assume going to be the treasurer. So, I guess you you're going to sit there and do it.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, take it away. Great. Well, I don't know if we're going to have it on the screen or possibly. I think so. Okay. Okay. Well, we can wait a second. We get it. That That's promising. That's promising. Well, as we're getting as we're getting there, I'll just give a brief uh preview. So, tonight is the mic on. Yeah.

Oh, look at that. All right. You've got some power.

We'll see if I could uh manipulate it. Um so, tonight we'll be going over the uh general fund, the mitigation fund, and the treatment fund budgets. uh you were provided copies of all these slides as well as some additional information uh in your packets last week. I've gotten some questions from some council members and have responded uh to them uh with those individual questions, but uh any other questions we have as we go along tonight uh you know it is work session so you know please uh you know just speak up on those. So, the uh first part of the of the general fund, we'll go over the general fund budget first. Uh I've made some notes that I'm going to skip through right now. You probably looked over those and most of those will be uh referred to as we go through the budget itself. So as we look at the spreadsheets for the budget, uh what you have in the first three columns are the uh three actual uh revenues for fiscal year 23, 24, and 25. And then in the uh fourth and fifth columns you have the current fiscal year 26 budget and the actual fiscal year 26 figures through February of uh this year. So eight months of the current fiscal year and then the final column is the fiscal year 27 proposed budget which we will be uh referring to through most of the night. So as you start through the general fund, the first two pages are the revenues. Uh the first item being the real property tax revenue. Uh the rate is being uh proposed at 2977 cents which

is the current rate. Uh this is actually slightly over the constant yield rate but uh historically that is the rate that's been set. uh by setting it at 0.2977 uh it will generate an additional $82,000 in real property tax. That's because the assessed values of properties in Chesapeake Beach have increased about $27 million. So you know that because the increase assessment keeping the rate the same generates additional revenue. So, you see the real property tax revenue uh estimated $3.2 million uh for fiscal year 27 under the admission amusement taxes. And I won't go through all the items, but I'll highlight, you know, some of the ones that have changed the most. Uh that is being projected at 2,18,000 or $2.1 million in the budget. Uh the emission amusement taxes have increased about 400,000 uh from fiscal year estimated for fiscal year 26. Um so I've increased that budget line item by uh 400,000. Uh going down to the operating property, uh that is uh tax on Verizon and BG&E. Uh you can see that is at $88,000. Uh we set that rate uh tax on those properties at a $139 per $100 of assessed value. Uh the property continues to go up each year and this is property held by Verizon and BGE on the public rightway. Uh going down to permits, fees, and

penalties. Uh you see that at $20,000. We've actually broken that out uh from prior years. Included in there was the rental license fees and we've if you look at the line item under that uh we've taken $40,000 which is about what we've been collecting on the rental fees uh each year and put that in the separate category. That was at the request of a uh council member to show that separately and public has actually asked for that as well. Uh interest on savings you see a decrease there. Uh that is because we're using uh you know some of our surplus to fund the water park project. So uh the assumption there is that we are going to earn about three and a quarter percent on the reserves we have of about 15 million. So that comes to 487,500. Uh cable TV uh cable franchise fees, you see a slight decrease, which is you know kind of been the uh trend that we see as people move from cable TV services into direct TV and some of the other uh providers. the franchise fee that we get from that uh decreases. Uh speed camera revenue, I'm projecting that to increase. Uh we're in the process of negotiating a new contract with a a camera company uh to do the administration of that which would provide additional revenues to the town over what uh we are currently getting which as you can see is you know about 12 thou about 20,000 anticipated for this year and has been about in that range in the prior years.

Um, jumping down to state income taxes, we're seeing about a 6% increase in uh, state income taxes over a three-year average. Uh, it's actually been higher than that this year. So, I projected that at 1 million uh, 987,000. Uh, highway users revenue is at 579,000. Uh, which is current estimate from the state. uh they will be providing usually a updated one after the general session's complete but it should be in that range. um state aid for police protection uh at 50,360 which is where we are now. Again, that's another uh source that I'll get updated figures before uh the budget's adopted, but it won't uh vary significantly from that amount. Um the other revenue sources uh you see transfers in from fund balance for the water park of 16.9 million. Uh these are revenues that you know were you know surplus funds as well as the sale of the bonds that we will not be using in fiscal year 26 that will roll over into 27 as well as the uh general or I'm sorry the state bond bills for the water park and 1.1 million. We won't recognize that until fiscal year 27 either. Total those together is $18 million. And on the expenditure side of the uh general fund budget, you'll see that $18 million figure being used uh for the construction costs on the other side. Um the other transfer in a fund balance of 1,898,000

is the amount of surplus funds that are being put into the general fund to balance the budget. Um and you know a large portion of that is you know for capital projects that uh we're anticipating doing u which I'll go through the capital projects as we get into the expenditure side of the budget as well. So when you take all those revenues into consideration and the fund balance carryover uh the total revenue or budget will be 29 million26,000. So, I'll stop there if you want and you know answer any questions on the revenue side if you have any.

Any anybody have any questions on the revenue side? I have a question. Yep. Um the tripling of the amount of revenue for speed cameras, are we changing anything? Is that the plan or what what brought that? Uh we're not changing anything as far as what we are charging per violation. Uh apparently when the town entered into the agreement with the current vendor for uh those speed cameras, we basically wrote on the uh Calvert County contract,

which uh under that contract, the town pays a certain amount per month to that vendor, which is for each camera that the town has. And there's three cameras and they charge us $3,900 per camera. So that's roughly $12,000 a month that we uh are charged for the vendor charges us for running the cameras. Uh we make about $10,000 a month in revenue uh from violations that we collect. So we don't make any money because we pay the vendor more than what we are collecting. Um that contract has expired and there's other uh vendors out there that have different uh cost structures for how they charge for the operation of the cameras. Uh and you know so instead of paying a fixed amount for the camera, you could pay them to process the violations and they will charge. So, if the cameras, it's a $40 ticket. Is it 40? Yeah, $40 ticket. Uh, you know, the fees for processing it, uh, in the contracts that I've seen I have have at other jurisdictions, you know, charge like $15 for a violation. So, the vendor gets 15, the town would get the difference about $25. So, it's not charging any of the violators anymore. It's just how we are sharing the monies that that are collected with the vendor. So that's how we generate the additional amount of revenue.

Okay. So the speed is staying the same. Y and the price per violation is staying the same and the only thing anticipated for change is admin costs. Yep. when the when we were I believe under negotiation with uh we're looking at other companies that have or not other companies other towns that have actually bid out their speed camera services recently and are possibly going to ride on one of those contracts if it is comparable to our contracts. Okay. And which would generate the sharing as I just explained. Understood. Thank you.

Yep. Good question. I have a couple questions. Yeah. Um line item for um our site rental. It says in the notes move to utility fund. Um doesn't seem to be any revenue for 24 25 um 26. Was it uh moved be prior or do we not have any revenues coming into that?

Because it was it was uh moved into the utility fund at the end of fiscal year 23. So when we get to utility fund budget at next month's meeting, you'll see terror site revenues in there for 24 going forward. Okay. So, it's just it's still showing here because, you know, we're showing the actuals back to 23 and that's where it was in 23. Gotcha. Okay. Uh, one other question. Um, you mentioned a million something for um balancing the budget and other revenue sources. Yes.

Um, what was that exact number and what number is that lumped into? Um it's actually by itself under uh under other revenue sources. The second item down account 430135 and it's 1,898, Got it. 139. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Is is that number coming out of the capital improvement budget that we did not expend or

um it's just prior year surplus that uh you know the town has. We have over $15 million in surplus uh and uh that is being pulled from that in order to balance the budget. So it's being used to cover the expense side of the budget. And then the capital expenditures I look at as capital expenditures I think it's like $3.9 million. So 1.2 million of that is being uh covered with current year's revenue or fiscal year 27 revenues and the other 1.8 is being covered from uh savings. It's a way to look at it. So in this budget, did you assume a reconciliation of our capital improvement budget?

What do you mean by that? Like this fiscal year, fiscal year 2026, there's lots of money that went unexpended on capital improvements. Um that wasn't included in that estimated 15 million or so of reserves. that number will probably increase to 17 or 18 million because I would anticipate there's probably two to three million of unspent capital items uh this year that will roll over. So that will increase our uh surplus.

Okay. So but as of today and this budget that revenue is still available and not accounted for here. Correct. Yeah. So if you want to expend it by the end of 26, June of 30th, then it won't roll. Unlikely we will have time. But yes. Yes. That is why I'm asking.

Yes. All right. So as we um go into the expenditure side um you know some of the I've reformatted some of the uh expenses within departments I've added in some uh new line items which I thought you know after looking over the budget over the last year would made more sense. So some of the account names might be a little different on a few of them and then lump you know I've carved out a separate department for recreation which some of their salaries and seasonal staff and costs are moved into there out of wreck ops or whatever other line items they were in. I've also added a new uh section for uh committees so that you know they would all be in one place instead of kind of spread out within the budget. So I'll point those out uh as we go through as well. Um so at the bottom of the first page uh it starts out with the salary and benefits and these are for the general government staff. uh there is a separate salary schedule which I believe we do that in a closed session uh last year uh to show the breakdown you know between each employee and what's included in there but in general uh throughout the uh departments uh there's about a 5.7% uh increase uh which uh the cost of living January over January of uh 25 to 26 six is currently 2.7%. So about 2.7% of that is factored in as a uh cost of

living and then there's a average of about a 3% uh merit in there. So when you look at you know the different salaries department yeartoyear you know that's you know going to be part of the differences in there for for most departments. as we get into the treatment plant that will be a little different and we'll touch base on that and what's uh you know going on in their salaries uh when we get to the treatment plant budget. So at the top of the next page we start getting into uh operating costs. Uh again I won't touch on all the items just you know some of the ones that have some changes. So the audit uh it was bid out three years ago. It does have a increase each year. Uh so that's increased to 34,000 and the cost of that spread out amongst the different funds. So you see the increase here to 8,500 for the general fund. Uh legal counsel which includes costs for the town attorney. uh the board of appeals, the lobbyist, uh it's estimated 120,000 uh planning and zoning uh increase in the uh hours for the planner. So you see an increase under the planning and zoning under engineering. uh that cost is actually uh decreased and the reason for that is uh we're costing the uh cost of the engineer to the projects he's working on. So if he's working on the water park, it's gone water park. If he's working on uh you know other projects uh goes there. So in doing analysis it looks like you know the cost for general works about 60,000

projects that aren't underway. uh other general follow-up work um so under printing and publications uh had that as a two $12,000 decrease and you know it it looks more in line with the prior years and I was trying to figure out why we had $18,000 allocated this year and looks like we had put $8,000 in there for newsletter which I don't know if we're doing that or not. So, I don't know whether to leave that in there or not. Uh so, currently it's not included. Um under uh bank and credit card fees that was previously called professional fees, which I don't really consider bank and credit card fees professional fees, so I changed the name uh there. Um, and it was budgeted 67,000 this year, but we did have a public relations fee consultant included in there. Again, I don't know if that's something that's, you know, we didn't do this year. Haven't done it yet, and I don't know if that's going to be included, so I did not put it in. Um, the health department, uh, we are paying rent there. It hasn't been budgeted in the past in the past, but it has been incurred in the last two years. So, you know, figure that's something that we do need to budget for. Um, grants to local organizations. Um, currently, uh, it's budgeted 76,000. Uh, most of the items, uh, included in there. And let me see if we got it. Here there's the 76,000 in the in the right

column. So most of the organizations are the same uh and funded at the same levels this current year with the exception of Chesapeake Beach Railway Museum. We've increased that from 1,500 to 5,000. Uh and then we've added SmartCon in there, which is an organization we uh provided some funding for this year and then the Chesapeake Health for the birthing center at 50,000. Um the smaller amounts with the exception of the railway as it's highlighted there. I'm waiting on final allocation from the mayor. We are reaching out some of those organizations to um you know see what their needs are because we haven't gotten a lot of feedback from them or requests for this year. So they may change before um you know the next draft of the budget that you get. Um I guess we'd go back to special events. So, special events budget um you see it's increased from 195,233. Uh some of the notes on the right here will let you know tell you where some of those figures come from. I believe about 12,000 or so uh events that we've done, but they've been costed to the recreation operation line item of the budget. and we're trying to uh there's a lot of things lumped into that account. So, we are trying to uh move them out into their own line items. So, you see the ones highlighted uh say move from rec ops and then there is some other uh um events that have been added in there as well. So, you

know, it looks like a a larger increase uh from 195 233, but some of those were allocated elsewhere. Uh there are some newer ones and some additional funding for existing ones. Um go back to the deputy. Um so at top of uh page three uh you see the police deputy and residents line item uh the 1,454,000 is the estimate we received from the sheriff's office. There is a detailed breakdown in your packet. I won't and also up on the screen but I won't refer back to that. um you know they reconcile that at the end of each year and then either give us a credit back or um you know charge us additional uh for fiscal year uh 25 we did get a credit back that was uh about I think it was about 100,000 less that got credited against our bills for the current year. Uh we added a new line item in for satellite uh for a satellite police office. Apparently they had a satellite office at Fishing Creek which no longer exists. Um and so they are looking for uh a new location. Uh so we've put money in there to possibly rent space uh for them, but you know there could be other options to do that as well. Uh but that's a a figure that was put in there based on you know renting a space at current rates. Uh for that uh North Beach Volunteer Fire Department uh allocated uh 50,000 donations same as

it's been for you know at least the last five years. uh the uh salary and benefit line items. These are for public works and we also had some items here that were for recreation. So you could see the payroll taxes, recreation and recreation ops salary. I've noted that they've been moved to a separate budget uh item. So you can see I kept the prior years here so you could see where they were in prior years. And then when we get down to the wreck uh department line items, you'll see that we moved it down there. Uh salary and wages for public works uh you know 605,000. That one's a larger increase because there is a additional staff full-time uh uh staff want to say a uh labor beginning, you know, someone at the beginning of the the scale. uh going into that department or it's being proposed. And then you see the uh payroll related uh taxes and benefits for them. Uh when you get under public works supplies, first item is the gasoline and tolls. Um that has gone up uh you know currently because of uh different allocation. We're now allocating 80% of the gas uh charge. This is for the vehicles to uh public works and 20% to the utility fund. It was at 5050. Uh Jay has asked you know looked at that and uh thinks that the breakdown should be 8020 instead of 5050. So that's where part of the increase is there. Uh with the price of gas going up now that may have to be increased uh you know if it stays up high. So we may need to put additional

money there. under the public works contracted services and fees. Um the holiday lights is at 175,000. That includes the uh current contracts for the electrician and basically the installer for all of the lights and company that does the maintenance windmill farms of 130,000. Uh new displays for the coming year at 35,000 then additional 10 for miscellaneous costs. uh trash removal service uh possible 8% increase which built into their contract. Uh brings it up to 681,000. Uh trash removal uh cans at Kellum's Field is a new line item. Uh and if you need to, Jake could elaborate a little further on this if you have questions, but it's uh new service to pick up uh you know trash from the cans at Kellums and throughout the town. And I can't remember how many cans there are, but there are quite a few of those. And you know, this seemed to be an efficiency request uh uh to do this. Um so most of the other items to get down to snow and ice removal, you know, are pretty much in line with uh prior years. Under the snow and ice removal, you know, obviously 26 was an unusual year. you know, we're over budget there. Currently at 110,000 vers versus 50,000 budget. Uh prior years were a lot less than that. Um so, you know, kind of split the difference and put it in at 70. Hopefully, we'll have a you know, another uh easy year in fiscal year 27, but you know, we definitely have to allocate just in case. At the uh top of the next page, we get

into the recreation line items. And here's where, you know, we've uh generated uh you know, some accounts separately for the recck department. So, the wreck operation salary is the office staff uh that forms the recreation uh recreational uh duties. uh the seasonal wages for Kellums or for the seasonal staff that that works at the Kellums for the events that happen there. That was previously costed under wops. Uh which again, you know, I felt that we should break out and show it so you know, it'd be easier to see what we're spending uh on those costs. and similar to uh the seasonal Bayfront Park staff. So, that was under a different line item, but it was had had a different uh name to it, which I didn't really think uh told you what it was for. Uh so, we put that into a separate line item and then they have direct department has their own breakout for their taxes and benefits that you could see under there. Um it's blank for all the actuals in prior years because those were all shown under the public works figure and within the public works department uh for the subcommittees uh you know I mentioned before you know these were spread out throughout the budget in various places so I've uh went and combined them one place so that they're easy to see. Uh there was a new one added for the walkability committee of $10,000. Uh the other ones uh the opioid awareness uh committee the green team and seabbox were uh you know already existing uh accounts uh new line item under debt service uh

which is 500,000 you know by the middle of May or you know we'll know what that actual figure will be uh but you know I'm estimating it to be about 500,000 that's the annual ual debt service that will be on the water park. Uh debt service that will be going to market in May. Uh and that's based on a 15-year payback starting fiscal year 27 through fiscal year 42 under capital expenditures for the water park. That's where you see the 18 million which is the actual construction cost. The operating budget will be presented uh at the May work session. Uh we're working on that now. It'll be the first year it's operational again in I guess three years. So uh you know we're kind of starting from scratch again and you know generating that budget. So it's taking a little longer. Uh saddle replacement is something that was requested by the public works director and when I'm done I think he could probably add little or add more information uh regarding to what that request is for. And then last item is the capital expenditures which uh yeah is 3,867,000. So under the fiscal year 27 column you could see what those projects are and I'll go through them briefly. So um you know the asphalt overlay and road repairs these are the HU highway user funded projects. So it's the road work that we do within the town. Um we currently have about $1.4 million in reserve funds you know that we've accumulated over the years that we haven't used yet. So what I did is I took that 1.4 million

allocated over the next five years and then added in the uh projected uh annual HQR benefit that we'll get which you know I had touched on uh on the revenue side. So for fiscal year 27 that was 579,000. So, I just said, "Okay, for the next five years, we're going to get somewhere in that range. Plus, we have the 1.4 million uh surplus uh of highway users revenue funds. I divide that equally, and that's how we get the 879,000 a year for five years. Uh the 261 connectivity trail connection and design, uh that's the estimate that we have from Mexican Associates. uh you know to do the design work. You know, you all know the conversations that have been had with that. It could be more, it could be less. We could be getting state highway users money to help fund that. We might not be getting highway users revenue. So, I've just put it in to the budget for for discussion purposes that that the design is there if we want to pay 100% of it. Um, you know, we could decide where we go from there. Uh, the railway trail extension. Um, I had again gotten ballpark estimates from Mecan Associates of what it would cost to actually design uh the railway trail. He said 150,000. And then the estimated construction cost is 2 million. So, I've broken out the uh assumed that the design would take place in 27, probably take, you know, a while to do the design. Uh we may be able to

start construction during 27. So, I put a half a million dollars in 27 to start construction and then that would go over two years. You know, as we get closer, maybe it would only be a year. So the two million construction cost is spread out over three years. Uh the sign and wfairing projects uh I believe that's for the trails as well uh kept at 25,000. The uh boardwalk sidewalk railway trail maintenance uh we budget that at 100,000 a year. So that just continued that for the five years. uh coastal resiliency if it happens doesn't isn't projected until fiscal year 28. Uh storm drainage improvements again is uh an item that we budgeted 100,000 a year for. Uh there are uh improvements to the town hall for the chamber conference room and lobby at 85,000. uh town hall sidewalk flooring and carpet at 60 and property improvement behind the town hall which basically the house that we purchased I don't know it was a couple years ago uh if we want to do some improvements there uh that's at 50,000 uh the truck replacement in the toolk are requests from the public works director uh at 70 and 90,000 and the Veterans Park bricks. Can you help me with that one, Jay? Is that replacing the existing bricks or

including that? Um, and maybe some different technologies and also some benches and some general maintenance.

And then we get into the Kellum's Park. Again, this this is, you know, we've got the concept planned for the park. We had about 10 or 12 line items in past budgets that we were like piece mealing together. So going forward, it looks like we're going to be dealing with the concept design, refining that uh putting those uh designing the full concept and putting the building plans together. So it's anticipated that that would uh start in 27 and then the construction cost is estimated at $5 million. So again allocating part of the construction is happen in uh 27 and then proceed forward through 28 and 29 and maybe it'll be sooner uh maybe it will need to be stretched out. Um the last two items are the veterans park upgrades uh of 50,000 that includes late speakers and concrete repairs. And then there's the uh kayak launch at 50,000 which previously was thought to be done with POSOS funding but as we research POSOS funding there really isn't any POSOS monies available to do any projects at the county. Um so if we're going to do that it would need to be done oursel and therefore uh that's why it's being budgeted as the capital project. Um, so I think that's the main capital projects and I think that's the last item within the budget, right?

Yep. A lot. But if you have any questions, we'll answer those. A lot of questions. Any questions? Go ahead, Jamie. I have a few questions. Um, I'll I'm going to go through I'm gonna go page by page if you don't mind. Um, tell her where tell us where we're starting. Right. So, starting on at the top where it says legal counsel, the last six is 620600. It talks about Bank of America fees at 18,000 under legal fees. Is this just US actually board of appeals? Board of Appeals. Okay. Somebody told me it was Bank of America. That's what I was saying. That is Yeah,

I was like, that's why I Why are we paying Bank of America there? Okay, perfect question. Thank you. Um um okay and then I just had a comment. Are we I I do see throughout Comcast coming up quite a bit. Are are we going to explore uh like think big as well as an opportunity to upgrade uh the town's infrastructure? I mean we're we're going all over the community. Uh there might be an opportunity to decrease our utility costs uh and go fiber uh at the same time. As I was looking throughout a couple uh a couple of these, um I did have a question. Uh if you go about halfway down the same page, uh 624800, it says health department rent. Um what is that? I don't I don't know where that's that's at.

Could you help me on that? So, we have an agreement with the health department to share space. So we cost share the space that they have over where the old library was. So they're in a smaller space. They're currently renovating to move into to take over the space where the library was, but there are a lot of uh town residents who seek medical services there. Okay. Okay. I didn't know that. That's awesome. Okay. Thank you. Um do we have any clarity on the trash services for Kellums in the town, Jay? like what like what that frequency is going to look like.

I plugged in some money and I'm working on some prices, but basically we used to have a trash person and the the biggest role was they were semi-retired. The town didn't pay them benefits. They were able to work weekends, which when the water park opens and everything, it's our biggest demand. So, I want to look at somehow going back to there if we can find the right person, the right thing, cuz we have 40 trash cans now that we empty throughout town. We do three trashs a week, which is great. and we have the staff, but I going to have to start bringing them in on weekends again to do up and down 260, do the rail trails, the parking lot. So, I'm just exploring. I think it's more cost beneficial in the town to get a better product if we can find the right individual to do it. We used to have one Allen Brown and if he's listening, I thank you for doing what you did for many years. But, um, he was a perfect fit for it. And

so, I want to explore that. I think it'll be more cost effective to have a lower level person designated to do that. Okay. Thank you. Sure.

Um and then I'll flip over to the capital uh capital budgets page. Um so I'll start from the bottom and work my way up, but um the Veterans Park has two $50,000 uh uh pieces in here. Um, so there was a meeting uh a few weeks ago related to the revitalization of uh or whatever acronym or verb we want to put in front of that um of of Veterans Park because if you go over there I mean it's a beautiful park. It's stunning when you come down and see the bay. But if you actually get up close, there's a lot of wear and tear because it's, you know, next to the water and and it's showing its age and and there was some conversations about um how to um honor uh uh veterans more appropriately. Um so there was like a little group that met and there's some conversations that are ongoing. However, because of that, uh I think we wanted to pause. There's actually a question around restoring bricks and even finding out who's on the current bricks. So, I don't think we want to uh have any funding in there right now for uh specifically for bricks, but I would ask Jay like what do we what what would you need I know as we have to have that conversation maybe repurposing this for the design that we would like to do versus um putting it in here for Rex.

Sure. So, I think the original 50,000 where it says lights and when it's when the mayor first became mayor, we went back over there. It used to have lights in the fountain. They used to have a few things that we were going to try to restore. The second 50,000. I'm not 100% sure if that was allocated just to the bricks or something else. Just to the bricks. Just to the bricks. So, that may have been from the original plan to replace the bricks and now we may moving may be moving to something different. Okay. So, I'm wondering then if that's where we would maybe look to you want to remove it or just have it say veteran park revitalization instead of specifying bricks.

I would probably swap it to that so we can use it for the design discussions. Uh and and that and it's not to I don't mean to catch the council or anybody offguard. It literally was a conversation we just had and there's a lot of things we had to it wasn't ready to be presented. So, um but obviously we're at budget time. So, um, yeah, I think just swapping it to that and we can partner use it for I think that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. Um, and then I'm I'm so sorry. I I went um I skipped one piece on the council member. What is it we want to do? Change the name or you lump it together with the other 50,000. You could just um I think you could probably just remove the bricks and lump it in with the veteran park upgrades and make that 100,000.

Yeah. So you don't have two line items. I'm not an accountant, but that sounds simple. So um and I'm sorry, I I did make a mistake on um on the grants piece in there um to local organizations. Mayor, if you remember, uh I'm going to advocate for the Bucks a little bit here. There was discussions about a one-time increase, uh to 10,000 versus 5,000. And the the purpose was they were going to uh purchase the concussion pads that go on all the helmets for all the teams uh moving forward. And I and I think they were going to cost all share a piece of that, but uh I would encourage us just for a one time. Uh, I know we I know it's pretty steady across the board. Everybody's around the 5,000 mark, but for a one time to to support youth safety, um, increasing that from 5,000 to 10,000,

I think that's fine. Get that down. I think they missed their 5,000 payment like two years ago anyway. Yeah. And there's some nuances to it where it was only allowed for like scholarships. Um, and I I think collectively as a town, you like safety equipment is a very important thing in in a contact sport. So, allowing them to do that uh would be really nice. But, okay, thank you. Uh, that's all I have. Thanks. Anybody else? Eric, you got anything? We probably should have something in here for uh goals over at Kellum. Soccer goals.

We're going to hold you hostage. Maybe we can put uh maybe we can put a a singular line item in, you know, for like $5,000 for soccer goals at Kellum's Park. Where' that go? It goes when the capital Yeah. Yeah. When you vote for the capital, I got it included. think that I propose that we add a line item under the already two existing KMS Park items that says uh soccer goals $5,000 bullet point or that line item

I don't think it needs its own line idle. Yeah, it should have its own line item, so it gets done. It's like, well, it was already captured in the revitalization plan. There you go. Own line item. He wants to see No, he wants to see not vote for the other one. Um, we might actually also have funds this year to where we could explore that. But, um, I would appreciate it if there if it had its own line item. Oh, really? I'll add a separate line item. Thank you, Mr. Treasure. The Are you done, Eric?

The uh John, I'm just thinking about that. Yeah. I'm just thinking about the satellite. Um, so they lost their satellite office over here, the sheriff's department. And I was wondering what the purpose of that property is that we purchased over here. Like what could that be a satellite office possibility once we refurbish that or I think there a lot of things that are possible but their need is more immediate than what we would be able to produce if we refurbished the place that we have behind us. And the idea is to bring um a satellite office that's more front-facing because when they were back in Fishing Creek, a lot of people didn't know that they were there.

I didn't either. Um so the idea is to have space potentially where the health department is in that same complex that would have signage and then it would be a place where Chesapeake Beach residents would be able to go and interface with the police department instead of having to drive all the way down to Prince Frederick. Gotcha. Okay. So maybe more of a longer term idea could be to restore that building. Well, or do we have another purpose for that?

I think at this point there has not been anything determined uh for the use of that building. The only thing I've heard is reports from staff that have actually been in it, which I have not, is that it's in very rough shape and uh it probably needs to be Okay, Wendy just gave me the high sign back here. She went like this. Um, we have 50,000 in there for that this year, right? Did we do anything? We talked about um engaging like an architect to figure out like what our options are and I'll defer to Jay about some of the conversations that happened in the past when they actually acquire the property.

So, just just inform the council, it's an older house, has lead paint and asbestous and it may not be cost effective to rebuild. So, I think the 50,000 has been rolled over um year after year to actually demo it and just have open green space until we have a plan. Dog park. Just want to throw that out there. Get a dog park. All right. Uh yeah, I think that's it for now. Thanks. Great. Councilman Laura, you did a very good job answering most of my questions. I just Good.

Yeah. I have all these notes and and none of them are needed for the most part. Um I'm going to do like Jamie and start just go page by page. He's just not close to it.

Take your times. I would like to see the newsletter come back if that's something possible. So, I'll just make that comment.

Printed newsletter. You mean printed newsletter? Yeah, I like that idea. Yeah, I think that would be great. Um especially we've been going through this history stuff for our project and it's very difficult to locate um recent history. Agreed. Because the newspaper went away. I like that idea. Unspent ARPA funds. Where where's that going from fiscal year 2026?

So technically there are no unspent ARPA funds. Uh they've all been spent. So um I'm looking at that as surplus funds. It's okay. Unreserved surplus funds that could be used for whatever purpose you want. So we should probably start stop talking about ARPA funds because we don't want anyone to think that we have ARPA funds. Right. Right. I I know the story behind that. They were spent on something else but but tracked as ARPA. So, okay. So, now we're just going to go back to tracking them as surplus. Yep.

Why is the trash increasing by 8%. Uh, it's built into their contract. An 8% increase each year. Um, I'm not exactly sure what that amount is, but there is a increase built in there. I'm not have to look at it again. Okay. See exactly what, you know, if it's spelled out, but that was what the increase was the prior year. I would guess based on the increase in cost of fuel that they're going to be losing money on that. They might have a fuel adjustment in there, too, because I've seen cont. Was there a fuel adjustment as well? There might be. I I don't know, but I do. Can you take a look at that? Take a look at those contracts. Y appreciate that.

Yeah, that would make it more reasonable, but a 8% increase is a pretty huge increase. Um, generally speaking, um, and then a, uh, the $35,000, uh, trash pickup. I just can we get a picture whenever we do make that contract, which I agree with that contract. Um just to make sure that all areas are covered. Um that that would be great. And really um getting some community input on that would also be good because myself I'm not home anymore during the summer during the day but my neighbors are. Just an idea there. Um, we have the street sweeping landscaping contract that we're reducing. And I guess I'm just wondering why.

I don't think it was reducing it. I think that note that it is quarterly uh was from when we did go to quarterly. Apparently, we're only doing it quarterly. Um because I think the 8,100 on that goes back a ways. Um yeah, so apparently we added it on in fiscal year 24 and it's been 8,100 since then. So that note uh reduced accordly I think goes back to the fiscal year 24 when it went to 8100.

Gotcha. So it's no change in the street sweeping right now. Yeah. Yeah. And I know you know when the summer's really getting rolling um there were comments about a need for street sweeping. Um, I guess mostly when it was windy a lot of times. So, I don't I don't know if we can find a way to accommodate some kind of clause or or some kind of way to make sure that we keep up with our street.

Maybe allocate for a change order if that's feasible. And then um the green team has been asking me if we could look at the landscaping contract so that they understand what um is covered and not covered with watering and evasive removal. And an area was caught up out at Brownies Beach that seems to be getting bad. And uh it really would be good to be proactive there. Hope it'll take over quick and their reports are that it was successfully treated previously. We want to treat the other areas

if it's in that contract. There was actually uh items added into uh the landscaping numbers that includes uh a request from the green team to do native garden at town hall areas on 17th street at boardwalk including trees trees at Chesapeake Village Water Tower and Buffer Garden at Kellumsfield parking area. Um I don't Invasives can can be a little bit pricey. So if they're in the contract, we would want to know that

probably not to provide all labor equipment materials and supervision necessary to maintain those areas planted by the green team, which includes fertilizing once a year, removal of excess mulch, edging and mulching of all beds and trees, and any necessary pruning to native plants and trees. to those four areas that I touched base on. I think the general request is just to sit down with with Melanie who's a master gardener and so that um you know I see your note that it's coming back up too. Yes. So capturing all that would be

chime in here just because it's not a Dan question that's a more administrative question. So, we've sat down with the green team as staff and we've sat down with Less, the contractor. And so, the next step is to bring us all together to make it all the same. Okay. So, that's already happening. Yes. Okay. So, pointless conversation, but thank you for the update. But just letting you know that we're it's on our radar. It's good to know. It's good to know. So, thanks for asking the question.

Um And then my last question is um I see saddle replacements in the general fund budget and I'm just wondering why it was placed in the general fund budget. There's a reason. um instead of the you you you could go ahead and start a little more history on it. Yeah, I told Dan I just need a half million dollars. Put it in there. No. Um

and he did it. That is what I told him. But uh when we talk about I know it's not ARPA fun anymore and I wanted to bring back the last administration and what I will do is share with the council the meeting that was recorded is the best way to look at the project when it was started. I don't know if you probably have seen it.

So it's a PowerPoint that shows the problem in Richfield. I had saddles in here and different things and I I will have uh forwarded to the council members the minute and the meeting date to watch. But at that time it was like a we had 5.8 million ARPA funds and we are I had asked for about 2 million and we only spent 1.1 and we've done some research and some spot saddle checking in-house public works and kind of came up with what we need to replace as part of that first phase of that project. So, there's some areas left that I I have here and they're basically finishing up the areas in Richfield Station and the rest of Bay View Hills to proactively replace the saddles. And the reason I said do it out of the general fund because thinking of the ARPA funds and um the original scope of work that I thought I had from the get-go, but I understand now that the ARPA funds were spent and I understand um so I'm not going to call it ARPA funds, but that was the intent from the get-go. It's the council's pleasure where it's funded from, but I do think if you watch it, you'll see the need. And it does save if we do it proactive. It's going to cost us about 376,000. I budgeted 500. If we do it reactive, it's going to be 750,000 and sprout out over time. So,

and these are explain briefly what happens when the saddles fail. Uh, the PowerPoint shows it in way more detail, but basically if we go in proactive and these saddles are failing, I brought some in. I called it showed and tell. It's it's electrolysis in the ground. There's a lot of different things that lead to it, but it's a cast iron saddle. It's a copper lateral, creates a battery, if you will, and it cannot follow a ductal iron pipe because it's plastic. So, the charge goes end to end. It ends up eating the saddle underground till they blow. Anyone that lives in Richfield's station has seen the Yeah.

So, when they blow, first of all, it's in the middle of the night. It's not exactly safe and the ground is compromised. It costs twice as much because you got a bigger hole in the road. um you have to haul off the material, it's saturated, and then you have to put it back in the middle of the night. And it also gets people uh unscheduled out of service. The proactive approach is you pick the street, which we've test pitted and replaced one saddle in each one of these streets, so we know the condition and we know what's coming. Um and then you hire a contractor that proactively goes in and does one street. They do about two to three saddles a day. you know, it's a shut off at 9:00 a.m. and we're back on by 2 PM. Uh the PowerPoint shows the process, but but that's it. So, basically in Richfield Station and Baby Hills, these saddles are failing and they're going to fail. It's a proactive approach of replacing them.

That helps. Thank you. Any other questions? Um, not about that. As you know, I I believe it belongs in the utility fund. I

I know. I know. Um so going to the capital programs, uh we have the highway user funds across the board and last year we had an asphalt overlay line and we were supposed to get a schedule of how that was spent and I don't believe that we got that but I think it was spent. Um, but I do think that knowing where large expenditures such as the ones in the highway user funds are spent is something that we have should be doing. Um, so I'd be interested to know where they were spent last year and um

and and and honestly that's on me because we produced a scoring sheet in the road report so I can follow up with a with a map in the footages for the public and the council of where we did spend that money and what we plan to spend this year coming up. That that would be good. Um because there's a there's a lot of need in for those highway user funds. Um, we all know that I have a a project that I would like to see done. Oh, really? Really? A lot of people would like to see it done.

Um, but those are big expenditures. Just not knowing where that money goes isn't really appropriate. So, um, look forward to seeing that. Um, I'm happy to see the $68,000 in the connectivity trail design. I um, you know, if if it's my choice, which clearly isn't, I would say get the state grant, pay it back if you have to, and move the project forward. I think people have been waiting long enough. Um, but that's all I'll say. I hope we do move it forward. Um it's been a very long time with that project and um it's unsafe. So that's all I'll say there. Um signs and wfairing. I think we would like to use this year's um just a heads up. Don't roll that back in because I've already have been working with the green team a little bit and I think we're going to spend that money to refresh some of the signs that they already have information for. Um, I think that's it. I mean, the the Kellum's project isn't really broken down. I like that project. You won't see me not voting for that project. Um,

Kellum's just just to help you out. it. So, it's just with Wayne's team right now to to give us the master plan back based off of the feedback from everybody. And then there was some additional Sumeilia's already found like potential grant money that could supplement some of the activities we were trying to do. Um, so what's in here is just the estimate if we were to pay 100% out of pocket with no support, but I don't that's not realistic at all. We're going to go for open spaces money. we're going to go for some additional grant funding and then the council will get a presentation soon of like here's the iteration two of the master plan that they're working on. So Jenny Jenny's still working on so you'll see a a breakout of what all that entails but this is just Wayne giving a notional knows that we're going in the budgeting cycle putting something into the budget.

So I appreciate that. Um, I would appreciate support for my neighborhood because currently nobody can get to Kellumfield. So, I I hope we can reopen those conversations. It looks like we have enough money for everything. Um, and I'll leave that there. And then I'll just ask the question. Um, does the plan include pilings? Does it include? I mean I think it would if it require if something required pilings maybe but I don't think any I don't think there's anything I I don't I mean I'm not we'd have to ask Wayne that or Jay if you know

so preliminarily before that discussion I did tell him any permanent structure would need piles there and he is understanding of that but um

so if we're talking about pilings now we're talking about a lot of winds and a lot a lot of coordination which goes back to my original thought that we should be master planning the entire area. But as I said, if we're going to get something done in Kellum's Field um to beautify the area, I am all for it. you won't see me voting against it, but um I think there is a planning point in everything we're doing in the center of town that we need to be aware of.

Noted. Agreed. Anthony Dan, sir, I have no general fund budget questions for you. Thank you. You're breaking the mold here. Okay. Are you happy with the opioid awareness committee? Actually, yes, because a lot of things will end up going into events anyway, so it pretty much evens out now that I thought about it. But thank you. Okay. All right. Oh, your time. Can I have your time? Well, all right. I have a follow up.

Just this time.

All right. Real quick. Um, and just uh so I don't have to do ask for a budget amendment. Um, I think maybe if we could make that soccer goal uh line item um 15,000 because um for the for permanent goals that are sturdy that won't be uh ruined by kids hanging on them or anything like that. You know, high quality goals. talking about two large goals on the side and another four for short field. That's six goals. So, that's kind of I think that's a more realistic budget line item. Um I'd like to see that if there's any if there's enough agreement. No.

Do they have something to light up at night? I don't know.

You should look into that. I mean, look, if it doesn't cost that much, we pay what, you know, whatever whatever the least amount is, but I think maybe 5,000 probably won't be enough to get it done. Um, so, uh, I'll say that. And then I do want to comment on, um, Lor's, uh, intent or desire to, uh, have the saddle replacements, uh, move to utility fund. I actually, I concur with that. I think that's probably where it belongs. Um, and in the same vein, I think that um the the capital expenditures for the water park and the debt service for the water park probably deserves to be in the water park fund. Um, along that same line of reasoning. And I mean, those are my comments.

Thank you. All right. Anybody else have anything before we move on? C can I just ask Jay one question on capital projects? I know uh you had mentioned a storage facility that you wanted for public works, which as I look through the capital project and think about the budget and all the conversations I've had with various people, I noticed that is not there. Is that something you want to advocate for or is that something that could be done in subsequent years?

I actually and I'm glad you mentioned that and I did I know we discussed it. So up at Chesig Village which is uh the water tower property that the town acquired for free thankfully um working with the developers. So we have the land and we have built already a lean to there where we currently store our vac, the little town boat, the seabbox oyster projects and a few other things. It is basically twothirds of it has been taken over by Christmas displays. And now moving forward with the new stuff we're getting, we have actually closed it in, created wall. So I lost my storage. And what I would like to do is build another public works building. It'll be a multi-purpose. Uh it's not a building. It's not a Yeah, it's not a heated or electrical structure. It's it's what exists there today, but now I want to build one on the side. The only addition will be there will be one closed in bay. One thing we suffered from this year uh with the snow events is we had 17 days in a row where it never got above freezing and it's very hard to wash your truck outside literally without it freezing. So we made like a make two shelter. We could at least get ice and salt off. When I build this new thing up there, it'll be one bay closed in that we could heat and have a place where we could if we have a similar situation. We have a wash down that's heated. Um, and it's $75,000.

So that's not in the budget at this time. That's not in the budget at this time. He had asked for it and I didn't want to talk. What? I'm sorry. What did you say? I had not included in the budget. Something he had talked about a couple different times when I discussed his budgets with him. But reflecting on it, I noticed that it's not there. So I left it out. So, we could put soccer goals on each end. Mhm. They can be heated. We add it. Add it. I think we should add it. Why wouldn't we add it? Yes. So, if you'd make a note to add that, please. Thank you, council and mayor. Yeah. And Dan,

anything else on the general fund before we move on?

All right. Time for the mitigation fund. Here's the mitigation fund. Um, again, doesn't have, you know, a lot of activity. Apparently, in the past, it was used for, uh, larger projects. Uh so the only thing we have here on the revenue side is interest on uh some uh savings that we have included in that account of about $3,000. A critical area grant that we uh seem to get each year. and then some uh tree planting and maintenance expense associated with uh work done that's needed in order to get that $2,000 grant.

I don't know anything more about it. Now I have one comment about that. Um the green team has just been awarded a tree city um I guess for the second round in a row and part of the requirements is to have a certain amount of money based on residential population designated for trees and we found it in the mitigation fund last year. I just want to make sure that we have the right amount in there for them to maintain their effort. What's the actual amount that they have to have?

I don't know because we need to base it on the number of residents we have. Is it for new trees or is it what's it need to be for? It's just part of the the tree city program. you have to have a certain amount of money per resident dedicated for the maintenance of your tree of your trees,

right? So, we have the you know the landscape landscaping budget and things like that. It's not a mitigation fund, but we spend you know monies for maintenance of the trees and trimmings and things. So, I guess we need to figure out what that dollar value is and see if what we're doing within the uh tree maintenance budget would be enough. And if not, then you know, we allocate more to the tree maintenance budget versus mitigation fund.

Yeah. And it could even be a zone line item set out in the general fund. It can be anywhere in the budget. just I'm just asking staff to um be aware of that program and make sure that the wording is accurate in the budget so that they can maintain there. Joe, are you familiar with that? I work with you on that. Okay. Thank you. Dan, I have a might be a silly question, but why are these like five line items not just rolled into the the general fund? Like why is it certain thing? My knowledge uh of past is not great enough to answer that question. It's just so small.

I get the idea. It's such a small fund. Why don't we just add five line items? I I can try to research it a little better and see if what the history is of it and why it's there. I mean, yeah, Sarah might have an answer. There's one less fund we would have to deal with. Why is it a separate fund instead of putting those five line items into the general fund? It just feels better after spending an hour on the last one. Yeah.

I mean, let's just be It just feels better like we got something else done and then we can go on to the next one, right? Some good reprieve for the beans.

Maybe we'll make up for it in the next one. Let's move on to the wastewater treatment plant fund. Oh, I'm sorry. I got that name wrong again. I always will. Right. So, um, most of the information within the treatment plant fund I got from Josh. So, um, I'm going to turn it over to Josh because he knows a whole lot more about what individual costs are in there. I did share with each of you the uh detailed spreadsheets that Josh used to come up with these numbers. Uh they got sent over like late this afternoon. Uh so you will have those as well, but I'll let Josh uh take over from here.

Good evening. Um so going down I'll kind of go off of uh Dan's uh presentation he has here. uh going into the engineering professional fees. Um that's basically includes known contract services. And then we have the um an average for project engineering fees. And what I did was I looked at what our expenditures were for the last three fiscal years. Averaged that out and put that amount in there. That came out to about $45,000. Uh all the rest of it, like I say, is for our SCADA systems. uh Pacina doing network backups for our computers um flow meter calibrations and scale calibrations which were required to do but for MD um interjurisdictional agreements.

Sure. So the other thing that you might not see now but you will see potentially if our partners are aligned is that the inclusion of the um reworking the interjurisdictional agreements which are currently um probably over 40 years old um and need to be revisited but we need to get partner alignment on that first.

So Anybody have any questions regarding the uh engineering professional fees line item? We'll just go by line item by line item if we want to. Just I had a question on what Sam just said. Is that something we need to add to this professional line item now or wait until we have we have ourations? We have our partner meeting next week and so I think it would be most prudent to wait till we hear back from them to make sure they're aligned and then add it. Okay. budget at all right now. I think there's value in going over it now.

Yeah. And this budget was actually as shown here was given to the partners a month ago. So they're going over it as well. And you know, they may have some questions next week. So there could be changes from them as well. But this is the actual budget that they were looking at. Um so

so next item it would be our safety line item. Uh we have no major changes on there. Uh generally that's just going through our annual hearing testing. Um replacements for reagents for our portable eyewash stations. We have a number of those in the plant. Uh personal PPE. Uh spill response materials and then OSHA training during the year. And that line item hasn't changed since last year. Uh for lab analysis and supplies, we did have a significant reduction uh as a result of the lab services RFP that we did recently. Uh we've cut that by about $66,000 uh year-over-year. Uh we did have an increase in cost for our um lab equipment. uh some of the uh materials that we need for our testing. Costs are going up on that. Uh we're making a change to our u daily uh testing for our nutrients. Uh we had been using two different types of tests. One of the tests has been being very inconsistent over a period of time and didn't see any reason to continue with that to do the other test more frequently. had a little bit of cost increase um but it really didn't make a huge change on the budget year-over-year and we had a lot of savings with the uh lab services. So, equipment repairs and maintenance. Uh as our equipment gets older, we're finding that we of course need to do more maintenance. We're having equipment that's um needing to go out for rebuilds, uh stuff like that. We have our generator service contract uh for two annual checks on that along with a load bank test annually. Uh we have a project for replacement of a block heater on the generator. It's going to be about $5,600 to do that

work. Um that's already been quoted from Kelly Generator who handles our uh generator service. Uh chem service contract that's our chemical analyzer for our denitrification filters. that controls the chemical application. Um, HVA service contract, uh, annual RPZ inspections which are required by plumbing code, uh, and a service agreement with Zyllem for our dry prime pump and also annual, um, service contract for our, uh, lab desktop equipment. And since, again, since the equipment's getting older, we did increase that line item to try and compensate for that. Right now, we have about $10,000 left in that budget for the fiscal year. Started at 90,000. Any questions? Anybody got any questions or comments?

You had a comment. This beard is looking good, man. Second. The beard is looking good, man. I I tend to agree. I'm proud I'm proud of him. I'm proud of him. I think Jamie does, too. and John is the uniform. Jay, get with it.

All right. So, for TP office expense, um doesn't look like Dan had in the presentation. That's just generally our annual training. Um uh janitorial supplies, office supplies, break room supplies, uniforms. Uh that line item is hasn't had an increase year-over-year. We are trying to get our operators out as frequently as possible for their um certification exams to try and get that knocked out and see if we can get more license operators. And that makes me uh realize I did not go over to salaries, which was one of the topline items. Um I'll go ahead and backtrack on to that. Uh for salaries, we did have an increase this year. um that primarily is for the three trainees that we have in the uh apprentichip program. As part of the Maryland rural water apprentichip program, we're required to initially pay them at 65% of full operator pay and then after their completion of their first year, which would be an F FY27, they are to be paid at 85% of operator pay. So, that's a significant pay increase over where they were as a trainee.

Um, and it's all dependent on them completing their required 2,000 hours of OJT and I believe it was about 150 200 hours of relevant relevant training hours uh classes. So, more than likely they're going to meet that. They had uh quite a few hours uh for previous experience, previous classes they had taken that they got credit for. Um, but that is something that's going to occur this fiscal year as required by the apprentichip program. And ideally once they complete this next year, they'll pass the license pass test and we'll have three new operators. So that's one thing we're shooting for. I also figure into the budget um for possible increases for um one more oper or trainee to become an operator. Uh we have one uh trainee who's taken the exam the last two times. you need a 70 to pass and he's gotten a 69 the last two times. So, he's very frustrated and as soon as he comes back and doesn't pass, he's filling out an application to retake that exam and it takes about a month for MDE to process it and get him lined up and then he goes back out and takes the exam again.

So, um anybody have any questions regarding the salary since that was questions? Yeah. Um so, I don't know. So you got salaries here and then uh under the notes it's um personal schedule and then notes continue on under that is are those are those notes of 50% of salaries the notes on Zach treasurer and um town administrator percentages are those associated with the salary line or the plant benefits and taxes line they're associated with the administration down at chest to speak beach line.

Okay. The 50 Well, take that back. The 50% of salaries is 50% of the treatment plant line. The administration TCB is the Zach 28% treasur 20%.

Um yeah. Okay. And um just for purposes of expressing an opinion um and been expressed before, I'm not uh for breaking these salaries out um and adding expenses um that way into the um treatment plant and utility fund. Um but uh thanks for clearing that up. Julie noted. Thank you. Anybody else got any questions or comments? Anything else, Josh?

Uh, we do have two other line items. The, uh, chemicals and then the, uh, landfill tipping fees. And then getting into the capital projects. Uh, for chemicals, I was able to reduce the budget by about $90,000 this year on that. We were just over the past couple years looking at how many deliveries we needed of chemicals. I was able to reduce the estimated number of deliveries for each year. Our usage just has not been at that level. Uh we've also had a change with one of our chemicals which reduced the cost um by close to 10 cents per pound. Um and each delivery would get 32,000 and that's when we get almost 10 deliveries a year. So that was a significant reduction in cost. Um yeah, that was basically the biggest part of the cost change was for our aluminum chloride uh in that process. Uh for landfill tipping fees, uh that's going to increase by about 30,000. And that has to do with just the contract cost increases and predicted sludge production through the plant. Um as we get more flows, we're going to have more sludge production. Any questions regarding the last part of the operational budget going into capital projects? Uh didn't have as many projects this fiscal year. Uh just some of these other projects needed a little bit more time to be able to get processed into. Uh the headworks project, we're still working on funding for that one. So that's been pushed out to FY28. Uh for this year, we've got 80,000 for equipment purchases. That's just been a recurring line item over the past couple of years. That's for purchases of pumps, uh, any other major equipment we need. Um, building our spare parts inventory. Uh, every year we're having to buy spare parts, replacements, re restocking inventories. Uh, the majority of that

we're finding is our UV components. Those are fairly expensive when we do have to get those, but we do need to retain stock on the shelf for those uh, during the fiscal year. Uh we have two projects for um repairing our basin mixers and our um SPT mixers, shellfish protection tank mixers. Um those are going the plan is to take them, get them pulled out, send them over to the motor shop, have them fully rebuilt, and that will get us extended life on those uh pieces of equipment. Uh the plan for the basins is to replace pull six of them, have them rebuilt, put back in. That will uh redo half of the mixers we have, and then probably next fiscal year, we may try and do the same thing. Uh depending on what the rest of them are looking like, uh the shellfish protection tank mixers is going to be a larger project. Uh due to the height of the tank, tank is about 25 ft high. Uh we're going to need to have a crane set up in uh Jay's lot back there to be able to get those out of that tank. have them hauled off to the uh uh motor shop, rebuilt, rewound, put back in there, and we should be able to get another number of years out of those. And then we have a $5,000 for a clean out aluminum chloride tank. We had a issue with the last chemical that was causing a lot of precipitation in the tanks. Uh one of the reasons what besides the cost of the chemical, that was one of the other reasons why we moved away from that chemical. Um, that's going to be a onetime project to get that precipitate out of the bottom of the tank. Uh, we're going to use a known uh, septic hauler and should be able to get that pumped out pretty easily and then we'll just feed that back in through the plant.

Questions? Any questions? I just have a comment. Can we just where it says build inventory spare parts, can we just say spare parts inventory and remove excuse me remove the build because you've been building for a while. I think you're just replenishing now. Yes. Uh so yeah, just for uh naming convention integrity.

I have a question that might be more for um Dan. Like I know we did the enhanced nutrient removal a while back and I think we're about to stop paying the debt service on that in a year or two. I was wondering why that wasn't in this budget and why it was in the I think it's in the um utility fund budget and not in this budget. I don't know. Maybe you can get back to me on that one, but you don't have the answer. That's where it's always been is all I know.

Yeah, seems like it's a treatment plant expense, but it's in the utility fund and not the treatment. I think within the treatment plant those are called share with the partners and I think everyone paid for their own share separately. So instead of showing it within the um treatment plant and

the cost not being shared whereas everything within the treatment plant now is either a fixed or variable cost that's shared by the partners and it looks when I did look at it before it looked like we paid for our share of those upgrades with the bonds. So therefore I think that's why it's a utility fund. I think there was another one that was dropping off in a year or two besides the nutrient removal. Can't remember what it was though. Yep. There's three bonds and two of them come off the next three years, I believe. So, is that why we're targeting the headworks for around that time when those drop off we're going to take on the headworks probably that service? I don't know if that was considered. I think that's just when they need to be done based on need.

So, it's good timing then. Yeah. Yeah. I never quite understood that either. If there are improvements to the treatment plant, why aren't the costs shared with the partners? I mean, we only have one or two more years to pay on those, but that's something that should have been a long time ago. I'm sure it was agreed to 15 years ago, whatever the breakdown was. And I I think everyone was paying their own chair directly. All right. That would be that would be a sub that's a substantial amount. All right. Any other questions?

All right. Think we're done with the the budget discussions. And I think this was very productive and I thank all of you that prepared material and I thank the council for their thoughtful and uh questions and comments. It is time to move on to item two uh on theformational discussion and that is the election board uh briefing and Randy Gman um is here to uh bring us up to date on what's happening with the election board which is actually quite a lot.

Thank you Randy. Okay. So, you got you got your read ahead, but I'm going to start out with uh introducing the uh the election uh committee. So, so I have uh Aacia Flores and and and I have uh Gordon Mat. And and Chris Martinez. Thank you. these have worked very hard and Anthony say the other two I'm waiting for my table there you know so

so so al also there there are actually three more people to talk about so but but uh Eric Reinhardt Councilman Reinhardt and and uh Councilman Anthony Green that was the committee addition to that we now have a new member uh Jennifer Bennett which uh you back here. Okay. So which you appointed as board of elections uh at your last meeting. Okay. So I needed a little bit of space here for all those people. Um in in case needed if you guys want to move up a little closer in case you need to come to the uh microphone. So, I tried to do this as a as a re read ahead like you do a lot of your other things so that you could uh prepare. I'm not really planning on going through it as a as a uh a brief. Um let's see if I figure out how to use this thing. Do I point it any particular direction? Okay. So, so uh wanted to you've read it, you thought about it. I'd kind of like to to uh you know hear your questions if there's a particular slide or something you want me to go into more detail in uh or a answer more questions. This this was my attempt to put a whole lot of information into your heads and and and I I I probably rewrote this thing about what 15 times Chris or something like that and try to figure out the best way to present it or to give it to you.

Yeah.

Uh I I can start. So I Well, first Randy, thank you very much for putting this together. We talked earlier. This is absolutely fantastic. Um, I will just say that, uh, I concur with the committee's recommendation. Uh, I appreciate the the work tied to this. Um, where we would have a townrun election with contractor support. Uh, I know that's what North Beach is doing as well. I concur with that. I appreciate that it's on uh, election day, so it ties when most people are going to be voting anyways. Um, I am sad. I told you and I I will say this is a precursor so I'll say it in public uh where it says Randy May stepback is listed multiple times throughout this document. You didn't you did not sneak that one past me. Um uh but you did have an ask in here regarding uh multi-day elections. Uh and one of the re and and I'm I went back and forth on this. I googled a whole bunch like you know and and I think you could I think there's easily an argument for both of them. However, this uh option targets national election day uh and sticking with that. So, I think that's what led me into saying and I would lean into a single election day because that ties to the ex actual plan that the committee uh put forward. Uh and then I will just call out I do appreciate you answering my question regarding paper ballots because uh North Beach is not going to do paper ballots. However, we have a code requirement to do both. uh and and Randy just kind of explained uh maybe some integrity type things uh and and it just makes logical sense uh in current state. So I appreciate it.

Thank you. That was good. Um since I was on the committee, I'll pass and then loop back around at the end um if need be. Yeah, I just want to echo Jamie and say that this is very well put together and you'd already kind of answered my question about what happens if you step back and maybe you can just brief everybody real quick on what does happen if if we lose our certified um so so when we finish our little thing here the second part of this is you're going to appoint Aacia

as the other board members so we'll have Jennifer and Aacia who I who over the next two years, I will train to be able to run the 2028 election. Okay. Hopefully the machines work out this next time and we don't get the last minute uh hiccup.

Well, the the the uh the whole thing about going over this and look looking at whether we go on their ballot on on the county's ballot or whether we do it ourselves. And one of the things that really went wrong the last time was poll book availability. Well, part of the thing the committee did, we looked at, we looked for what contractors were out there that provided and what other municipalities were doing. And we found out that Alche uh was through through the Maryland Municipal League. We we got in contact and we found out that Elect has actually been supporting 28 different municipalities with election support. We had a we had a uh Zoom meeting with them where they went over and talked about what they could provide in poll books and stuff. So, there's actually three companies that I believe could could support our 2028 election. Um the the uh ESNS is who we've been using in the past to get ballots and stuff. Uh heck, I I can't remember the other name, but I've got it somewhere in there. they won the poll book contract for the uh county and and then elect is another one and and uh the key thing was getting poll books that could beworked that could have the Maryland municipal uh registry on I'm sorry the the the the uh the Maryland registry the statewide registry which is what we're part of. So the Chesapeake version of that on the poll book so that we can easily look them up and that the the the poll books were all networkked so when you enter one name in here it automatically go so nobody could vote twice so you can track and count them and and also so you could print a voter authority card. The voter authority card is very important in that

it's that's what we use to take to the scanner so that only one ballot, one voter authority card so we know and those numbers have to match at the end of the night. So, so that's kind of keeping with the integrity and making sure we are u voters only vote once and only registered voters vote. Great goal. Um, you guys, it's just amazing how many people actually were able to vote despite all the hiccups you guys had last time. It was a huge turnout and hopefully we can get even more at the next election. So, thank you.

Um, great job. Uh, I like um what you've done here, your ask multiple days. I'm a no multiple day person. I like election day and I also think it's a heavy lift for the town. So, uh, that's my comment

and and you know, multiple election days, we were 5050 split on that. We we uh we couldn't decide that one ourselves and and uh we we were not looking to extend the the November election date. We were looking at the potential of of adding maybe a weekn night or a or or a or or a weekend kind of like the you know uh um the county does eight days of early voting and and and uh um the and those are full 13-hour days and I was I I looked at or proposed as an option of doing a six-hour week weekday night and a six-h hour Saturday. Um but but uh I also found that when I got a a cost estimate from Altech that it was another $4,200 for each day that you added. Uh so I I don't know that it's really important to do that. We did get 41% the last time. Um, you know, one of the reasons I I added it was because if if you look looked at the uh um our our election that that multi-day um one So if you if you looked at the voters the our Chesapeake beach voters, 70.1% of them actually voted in the 2024 election for the for the general for the president for the general election. We had 41% of those same voters vote in our election.

But if you look at the election day absentee ballot, provisional and early and and early voting breakouts, the reason they had such a high percentage is not that they all showed up on election day. You can see we actually had more show up on election day to ours, but it's because they had an early voting opportunity and a mail-in ballot opportunity and that's that's how they got up to 70%. Do we really need to do that? Like we've we split 5050 as to whether we we did or not and and and uh I was one of the vote one of the ones that voted for it and I'm kind of leaning against it. So I don't you know it it it's it's not something that we have to do. The real decision I I I need from you going forward is is uh do we hold our own election and get contractor support or do we or do we go onto the uh county ballot? And and uh one of the things I have I I I recently asked a question to the uh through the county to the state uh as as to which which municipalities are going to go on the county ballot in their county for the November 2026 election. Zero. No. Nobody. Uh the only ones the only the only municipality I know that that I'm aware of that has gone on the ballot is Baltimore County and they I guess they've always done that. Uh but no other municipality does that to my knowledge. Uh, one of the things we were able to do is is in 2023 this the state put out a requirement pass legislator legislation so that we so that municipalities had to submit their election results to to the uh state and then the state puts them on

a website. Well, all this information about the other places that voted and uh you know, so I got you percentage of of when elections were held that came from that state site. I can actually go on. I can't look at 22 because the law wasn't in effect there. But but you look at 23, 24, 25. And I gave you some examples of 2025 of when they uh one of the other options we had looked at is we could have rented equipment from the state and done anou, but they would have made us change our election date. So I gave you information about why we shouldn't do that because the the five that I looked at, the five different municipalities, they were under 12% voter

Yeah. uh on a non on a non-election non county election day. And I recall you and I talked about this at some length and and I think that makes all the sense in the world to leave it on the same day as the the general election just to improve the turnout and and and the percentage of our voters that actually vote. And I think 41% is really good. you know, we're we're we're basing that on active active voters.

Uh the county uh the state county, they clear up and they they they have a uh um they have different categories of active, inactive, they'll if someone doesn't vote or they don't respond to them when they send correspondents, when the state sends them correspondents, they'll move them to the inactive list and they'll stay there for a while. that if they don't answer anything for uh a period of time, they'll take them off the list. Uh but but uh updating that Maryland Universal Registration, that's the term I was looking for earlier, uh is is uh takes time. Uh we can't do it. Only the only the state and county can change that. Did your committee talk at all about putting the question to referendum about how we would vote? Like obviously we can't do that right now, but um like on the ballot, a question on the ballot for how we would do our elections. Did you all haveation about that at all?

I know you said North Beach maybe did. They they they voted to do that. The town council voted to put that on their November 2026 ballot. We didn't really talk about that because our next ballot is in 2028. So, you would be talking about a special election, right? Or or or just a newsletter or something that goes out and asks for input, you know, or I would be interested because I am for, you know, the one day of voting. Also, from a campaign perspective, it's hard to campaign for multiple days um when you drag out the election too far and things change.

So, so, so I was not I don't think that we should go to what the county does, which is prior to election day, they do eight not eight days of of uh that's a lot,

but nothing after the normal election day. So, that ends it. that that election day ends it. Okay. What takes place after that is just the counting of the absentee ballots, the the the canvasing of the provisional ballots, just stuff that takes place. That takes time to get that done. It takes the county several a week for absentee, a week for provisional to to get their actual numbers. I was only proposing prior to election day like the a Saturday before or the or a Wednesday or something before. Uh that's what I was thinking about in multiple elections. And again, I don't think we have to have that 41% is a pretty good turnout. I would say if you wanted to accommodate more people and you got that feedback from people, if you kept it close together so that the people that voted on this day have the same information as the people that voted on the other day. I think that's the problem when they're spread out.

If you spread it out too far and and also the the other thing you don't want to do is that you would not do is you wouldn't put out results until after election day. So, so you wouldn't you wouldn't be saying how many votes each candidate got. I probably wouldn't be able to do that with the machines anyways. You have a tough job. He's been doing it for a long time, too. And we appreciate that. I do have a couple uh things now. I was going to call on you before you interrupted me. Sorry. Get left out. You are you good, Anthony? Okay. I'm sorry to interrupt. Go ahead. you have something. Go ahead. Okay.

Uh, I just wanted to highlight a couple of things that the committee u looked at that are I think are important that it really hadn't been said yet. And one that's super important I think it was to our committee was that if we went with a county or state ballot that uh there's no there's a law that says that it cannot be a nonpartisan election. So, uh, we would have had to had partisan elections or have a fill out a petition and get 200 signatures or whatever to get on a ballot um as a nonpartisan candidate, 250

or 250. So that that was kind of a a a really big deal to the committee um and one of the reasons that we made the decision to uh that we to recommend um that we go with the town run elections and I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of that point. Um the committee split 50/50. I am definitely for a single day election for multiple reasons that we've already gone over. Manpower, cost, different information. Uh, all good points. Um I wanted to say that uh oh regarding the Zoom call um that we had with Elect was a great call and they did demos of the equipment and the process and the pull books and the machines and everything. And I believe that that call was recorded. So if anyone is interested in that information that type of you know richer information on machines and and programs and process and stuff it's it's there and available.

Yeah. Do you have an estimate on how much that might speed up the like process from last time having those machines having the pole books? Yeah. Or the upgraded computers that areworked and all that. Well, like the whole thing, how how much do you think it'll improve? Cuz I know we had long lines and people were leaving and stuff. So, that's what that should be that's one of your goals, I'm guessing, is to improve the

If I can add it to it took a a minute and 45 seconds per person to check them in the the poll book or reg the laptop that we were using. We had four laptops. The maximum number that we could get in a 13-hour day was about 1755. I think we had like 1693 that we processed plus about another 100 provisional people that came through that we had to rule out for provisional about another 80 I guess. Uh so

it doesn't take that long on the poll book and it and we had to handw write the the voter authority card. We had to print that for each voter and and that that's what took a minute and 45 seconds. The machine will do this. The the the reason I wanted to go to townun contractor supported is that I could I found out I could get machines from probably any one of these three contractors and there may be more out there too that we'll you know investigate in 2020 you know as we get closer to 2028. Uh but but it's because that could be done and it'll be fast. Uh the the county uh uses uh I think six machines and and um um they don't they never have lines or you know you'll always have some lines but it it won't we can get we can probably just do four. We could do four or six and and we'll be fine. It it'll it takes less than a minute to do that. It's almost half half the time.

Oh, and and I'm probably exaggerating in the minute. Wow. It probably doesn't take that long. A significant improvement. Dramatic improvement if I'm not mistaken because it the the I don't remember if I remembered if I mentioned the printer. Each pole book has its own printer and and and so what's your name? What's your what's your uh date of birth? What's your what's your address? here it is. I got that person. Print, get them to look at it, verify their address, and sign it and and give them a ballot, and they move on. They go vote. I think the voters will be happy about that. Yeah. The way we were in 2020.

Yeah. And and and similar in 2016, the state 60 days out for 2024. They they they were supposed to be given to us 60 days out. They took them away and we didn't have time to find I didn't find other ways. I didn't know Elect was out there. I didn't know other things were out there at that time. You guys did you guys did great. So, the the committee did that. Other questions or comments?

Well, yeah. And also just wanted to say uh of note that um you know the $16,000 for to run to have this this election with this equipment and run this way I think is well worth it. But it's also of note that they provide a technician on site, you know, on election day here. So that's an extra person to make sure everything's running, make sure the equipment's, you know, go running smoothly, an extra person cuz we're, you know, we we are struggling to uh field an entire uh board of elections and everything. So it's nice to have an extra person there and especially one who is uh an how the equipment runs.

Yeah. Yeah. So I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that also. Right. I'm glad you brought that up. I would I would like be before I move forward, I I would like to see if there if any of my uh committee members want to come up and add something. Actually, I I would appreciate it if they would. There's your answer. And by by the way, one of your next items is agenda items is is she's going to be appointed. So, yes.

Good evening. My name is Aaca Flores. I am on the election committee and um hopefully after your vote tonight, we'll be on the board of elections for the town of Chesapeake Beach. Um I have had the pleasure of uh serving with Randy for about since probably January, correct? When we started this or maybe a little bit before that, November. Actually, it was in November.

November. Okay. So, uh so yeah, I've I've learned a lot in the past five months. Um I um have also been learning a lot about different processes for voting in elections and things like that. And it's been kind of something that I've been interested in learning more about election integrity and what kinds of things we can do to make sure that we don't have outside interference in in our processes and things of that sort. So, I'm hoping that I can learn a lot more from Randy and be able to serve on the board to be able to um help with our uh keeping our our town uh voting integrity intact.

Appreciate that. Okay. Any questions for me? Yes. And and uh I think that you'll be introduced at the council meeting at the next council meeting and then we vote the following council meeting. Is that right? Am I wrong? So you guys have the opportunity to ask questions ask questions at that time so that she can be if you all decide to appoint her it would be at the upcoming council meeting on Thursday next week but she's here now if you want to ask I'm here now be a good opportunity and we had some good conversations so I I don't I don't we talked a lot when I was campaigning so I'm more than appreciative of what you're here

no I I support you 100% more more than appreciative you stepping up to this I appreciate a lot.

I echoed that sentiment. Uh I do want to say that um for the council's purposes and everything understanding we did talk about during in the committee we talked about because there are going to be some changes that need to happen in the in the code and I don't know if it's charter and code or or or just one or the other but um we decided as a count as a as a committee that we thought the proper place for that discussion and fleshing out those types of issues was in the board of elections, not the committee. So, this is going to be something that um any new comm any new uh um board members will be tackling

uh in the near immediately. Yeah. So, I appreciate your as do I. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? All right, we good. Anybody else got any questions? Are you done? I just want to say I know Aaca and her husband and they're they're good people and now you got to get Joe to come on a committee.

I know. I'll talk to them. I'm glad you I'm glad you stepped up. I'm sure you'll you'll be great on that. Um yeah, we we all appreciate that. Thank you. It's critically important to our municipality to have a great board of elections and everything way above board, you know. So, uh thank you so much for stepping up everybody. You too, my friend. Oh, I'm I'm uh I'm hearing that we want to go town run election contractor support. Was there any

Okay. And and I and I'm also hearing no multiple election. I I think that that's necessary. Okay. And and that's something that could be changed by code at a later date, but it's not something I will be that we will be looking at. and the fact that we're going town run election contractor support. There are not that many changes to the code that have to take place. U there there's only a few tweaks that have to be done. There would have been a lot more if we went with the uh going on the county ballot there. We would have to pretty much rewrite our election code.

I do have one question. Is was there a law last year that we had to accept mail-in ballots? Some reason I remember something around there is there is there is nothing that I'm aware of that that dictates the municipalities have to do that. But we did do it, right? Didn't did we do we have absentee ballots in our code. We we don't really call them mailin. They they changed the term from absentee to mailin for for the uh county and state. Okay.

Ours is absentee ballots. However, there's not a big distinction. U the we we you don't have to have an excuse for doing an absentee ballot. You don't have to be going away or something. Ours basically allows any registered voter for Chesapeake Beach to decide to do an absentee ballot if they want. which is another reason why having a multiple election days is not really necessary. If they want to vote and they can't make election day, they can still vote by absentee ballot. Okay, that's that's what I thought. And the confusion that I had wasn't around any communication by you, but there were confusing conversations there

that happened. There have been I I think there there's been talk in legislation and stuff for the county, state, federal, but that doesn't apply to us. Gotcha. Our code applies to us. Understood. Thank you. All right. Well, then if there's no more questions. So, I'm thinking I have my answer, which is downrun election and and no multiple days. I believe that that is what I'm seeing a bunch of thumbs up here. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. Yes. Appreciate your time. Well,

and I and I I will take one more. I it was very helpful to to have uh um Anthony and Eric on on the committee because it it really when we start looking at whether we want to go on the county ballot, the thing I was most worried about is is uh what happens to the candidates that we're going to get because it would most affect them. It it would most affect somebody that wanted to run and and so it was very helpful to have their insight. Thank you. and and I do appreciate every member of the uh committee. They did a we did a lot of work together

and I especially appreciate you. I know how much effort you put into this. So, thank you. You're not moving, are you? You'll still be around, right? You know, you know the re the reason I I had to put my name in in the uh brief is is because Eric kept pushing me to do that. Well, yeah, because it is important to know that he plans to step down and you know that is a factor in our decision-making process. It is. You'll still be available for advice, right? There you go. Town council.

There you go. Sounds good. Town council, mayor, town council, mayor, mayor. So much experience. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. Um, all right. We're moving on to the next item on the agenda, which is state highway updates. and uh Dr. Oak Padu is going to brief us on that.

Thank you. Um it's a pretty brief brief. Um it's we in order for us to officially um withdraw from the grant that we currently have. I have to submit a letter. So this is really letting you all know that that is what the next step is for um for the grant that we currently have. Um the the grant process is open now for transportation alternatives. It's open through the end of April. And so uh the town engineer and I have a meeting scheduled um for later this week when he returns um to work through the application and move forward and submit.

Um do we need to know like which alternative we're thinking about for the to submit for the grant or

Yes. So my understanding from the last time that we had the large larger conversation was that everyone seemed to be largely on board with alternative one and so that is what we would be moving forward with. Um the transportation alternative grant is slightly different now than it used to be. So before you would have to apply once for a 30% grant and then again for 100% grant. They don't do that now. It's just one 100% grant which will streamline the process. Yeah. Um and so they've shared that's the federal grant. Um and they've also shared that there may be opportunities to apply for some state fundings as well. So um we are looking into that.

But we are going to get out of the grant pipeline and hope that we have a grant. Is that what we're talking about doing? we are going to withdraw the from the grant that we currently have because that was my understanding of the the council's will and we will apply for another grant. No guarantee on another

there's there is never a guarantee when you're applying for grants. So that it's not like they're saying yes we're going to earmark these funds for you. Right. So, so this basically could cost us the same $68,000 that is currently budgeted, but we could move forward with the grant that we have, stay in the grant pipeline, which might line us up for the construction grant as well. And the only risk to that situation is that we pay exactly what we're saying we're going to pay anyways. It's it's just to me it's really poor decision- making. It's going to set us back in time. I think that we do have a 30% design that is um viable according to the state um viable according to rightways and easements and um takes everybody on a safer route and eliminates an a situation of unsafety that will not be eliminated by going through Woodshshire Avenue. Um, I would argue that going through Woodshshire Avenue introduces a whole lot of foot traffic to a neighborhood that may not want it. Um, it also takes people on a path that is not visible by road or by by common traffic. Um, I believe that there's a reason why SHA rightways along a roadway exist and why they will build those connections along those areas. And

I can see where this the whole step situation by the marsh is um maybe not ideal, but it also will be it's we have a guaranteed route there and there's no reason why we couldn't get the same open space grants that we are unsure whether we can get or not and add them to the burden in hand that we have that we just dismissed. Um, this project has been going on and on and on and on and what I see is this council, even though we are funded and we have the ability to do this project, sending it back around in a circle and it really it it's hugely frustrating to me and it's hugely frustrating to everybody. Um, I know you hate being called new, but you are new. Um, many many people

Well, I I don't hate being called new. I just This is This has already been litigated like 80 times in this this like the question is just an update. This isn't us re redisputing this. You're you're literally bringing back the previous work session and the previous council session. So, I would ask that we move uh to strike this conversation and move forward because this is not a we're not revoting. This has already been discussed. It's already been set in stone. You agreed that we were going to look us. You said we were going to look at alternatives. You supported alternatives. Alternatives go. So like this is ridiculous.

One one one person at a time, please. And um I think that it's not valuable to spend time to re reitigate this. This is where we're headed. Um is there anything else, Amelia, that you want to add to this? Not for SHA at this time. Okay. You never got approved for the 100% design grant, right? Cuz it was two separate grants. We got approved for 30% but not 100%. We we had the approval. So we completed the 30% which was the feasibility and we have the the 100% design funds. That's what was right. But they went over budget and all that. Okay. Yeah.

No, they didn't go over budget. All right. Again, again, we're we are Okay. giving away a grant. We're going to reapply for the new grant and we will wait for it. That's the plan. Thank you very much. Let's move on. Um, next is the um rail trail expansion and the concept plans and you have do you have a it's not for the slide is

so you you have this um and had recent discussions with Similia and other staff uh regarding this. Um and so after uh this is really a little hard to see, but after uh discussing this um as as you all know, I was I advocated for the the current rail trail for decades and finally got done what has been done to date, which is now over I don't even remember how long ago it was. And and I I know I'm repeating myself, but I'm old, so I'm allowed to do that. The piece that's shown in red down here, and I can barely read it, but it it it's the rest of the right of way. That was the that was the big cut in the hill coming down from Richfield Station. We had approval from all of the agencies except one to build that. I think uh that agency recognized that they made a mistake as soon as I took them out and showed them the trail, but those pe that that goes back I think 22 years or something like that. So they're those same people are no longer there. So my thought was in discussing this with uh the engineer and with Sumeriia uh it was to re-energize that bottom part of Richfield Station and build it around. Another concept that was presented there was this additional trail that goes uh back to the northwest and then loops around and goes back up into Richfield Station. So you could actually make a circle all the way around through Richfield Station. I'm not opposed to that, although I think that it's got a lot of challenges, but I'm not opposed to doing it. And as far as con

continuing it on the right of way, uh the once you get to the town limits, that's not a town issue, but I will be happy to advocate uh to the county um and and try to gain support from our county commissioners to consider uh conducting or you know, building the trail further on out. Um, and as you know, Route 260 where it goes from two lanes to four lanes is once you're on the two-lane part, that is the railroad right away. And there are still several existing buildings along Route 260 that were there in the heyday of the railroad uh back which went out of business in 1935. So anyway, that's where we stand with that. And uh Similia, do you want to add anything to that? Uh the only thing that else that I would add to it is that we're in the process I'm expecting to receive the RFP um by the end of this week for the rail trail expansion um so that we can move forward with bidding it.

Council, I have a question. Yes, sir. Um I love this project. Um the glad to hear it. The uh so I just have one question. the um in the phase one proposed phase one here in the diagram. Mhm. It looks as though the um proposed phase one does stop short of the town limits. Is there a reason it doesn't go all the way to the town limit? Yeah. And the reason is because it's overwater. We're not building a bridge there. Mhm. And so that would there's be no point in building a bridge to take you to the town limits because all you would do would be to get across the bridge and you would be at the town limits. Makes sense.

And so if we can ever encourage the county to build it all the way on further, that's when to build that bridge. Okay. Makes sense.

Other questions, Eric? Um and so yeah um and so we looked at this in the budget on uh capital budget general fund uh line item rail trail extension construction. We have in there budgeted um it looks like a a budget of 2 million for the entire project over three years. Is that something we got from Wayne? And that's

like a throw up kind of number. I think once we once he's done um with the design portion, then we'll have a little bit more to build. There's some existing tieins there. Anybody else? Yes. Question.

Um, so just um for the record, I have no desire to pursue pursue this project before um a connection from Chesapeake Village to town is underway. Secondly, there is a 200 acre parcel that is still in possession of Mr. Repky um that he owes to either Richfield Station or a public entity or a covenant. I'm not a huge fan of phase two of this proposal, but I additionally have concerns about um legalities associated with building on Mr. Repy's property before he acquiesces the 200 acre parcel that he should not be allowed to keep. So, I would just urge the town to cross their tees and dot their eyes. This this really isn't my project anymore. Um, of course, I do support a railway trail expansion, but there are several things that concern me. And um again, I I I thank you for the railway trail that you did build and you have a vision, but I have very deep concerns about the 200 acre parcel and the safety of my neighborhood that supersede my desire to

Thank you for your comments. Anybody else? Yeah, I just wanted to say that I would like to see the connection from like right where the blue and the red line meet. um like the end of the existing trail uh to connect to Beach Elementary as part of one of the projects. I think that was already thought of before. I just want to voice my support for that connection. Okay. Anybody else? Not sure. I What can you explain that? Well, maybe not where the you know like where the trail te's off and you can either go right or left.

It's right where you go left. right where the sidewalk starts, there's a clear path to Beach Elementary. I think there's already a there's already some kind of concept plan for that connection. We just have to request property from the uh the county and they've already agreed to do that once we're ready for it. It's just a a boardwalk connection to the school, but they can do their field trips.

Are you speaking about down where the water well is or are you thinking about up over the big hill once you go across the bridge? No, no. Right when you hit the tea, you can go right to Richfield Station or left takes you on the trail. You go left and then right where the sidewalk starts, there's like a clear straight path to the school. I'm We would just need to build a boardwalk

real fast. We did a feasibility study with the walkable communities and then we actually took out there. So yeah, line of sight it is, but elevation wise it's like 70 ft cuz you're at sea level 6t above it at the trail and you're like plus 75 at the school. So we walked that actually for feasibility and they didn't know how to figure that out cuz that wasn't one of the initial phases. I'm not saying to exclude it, but the hurdle was the height difference uh cuz it's pretty level until you get to the school and it's it's steep and they abandoned the two trails that they did have because of they failed on the hillside. I was going to say I thought there were some switchbacks in there or something.

They were, but they've been abandoned for a few years. They used to come down to the old well site and come through, but they failed. The slope failed. So, not saying not pursue it, but that was the hurdle when we did the initial feasibility study with a third party and they just thought it was not possible at that time. And I think it's safe to say there's I I I would be willing to bet you that there's not a single person on this council that wants to not have as much walkability as possible within within our town. I mean, everybody wants to do that. It's it's not a matter of what we want to do. It's a matter of what we can do and how we get it done and what's feasible and what's not feasible. And so this is this piece that's being proposed here is an easy win because it was already approved by 21 agencies of the state.

And uh I think Wendy's been pulling all the documentation from the original uh all of the stuff that we put together for the state and the joint evaluation committee that I testified in front of and all that. So we're gathering all the information. we'll represent it and and I I believe that that's doable. Uh not that we don't want to do anything else. It's just that this one is probably doable and gets us to the town limits and that, you know, hopefully that sets a pattern for a whole lot more walkability in the town. Does anybody else have anything they want to say about this or questions about this?

I'm just going to push a little bit. Are you arguing that this is more feasible than a state verified grant to connect a neighborhood to town where it's unsafe? I'm I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that this is something that was approved over 20 years ago and I want to see it move forward. It has nothing to do with the other project that we're talking about and it's not an eitheror situation as far as I'm concerned. We we pursue both of them at the same time. This one I think we can get done as opposed to the other one. I'm sorry.

As opposed to the other one I didn't say. Did you hear me say that? Those words never left my lips. I said this one can be done. It was already approved. That's all I said. I didn't say anything else. Thank you. Can we move on to the home occupations discussion? Sharon.

Hi. Good evening, sir. Um, so you all have in front of you and you've introduced for um approval the um updates to the home occupations that you requested. Um, just a reminder, these are a quick fix, a 90-day fix. They are not how the planning commission is looking at for a long-term solution in the the six-month process of the land use classifications being updated. Um and so uh if you have any other questions or concerns, I'm here to answer them. One, um only one thing for me um one a where it says and has minimal negative impact

on the neighborhood where the business is located. I think that is very subjective. When you say the words minimal and negative, those are not definitive things that you can define or explain and it opens it up to a gray area to be a person's opinion on what is minimal and negative. Um, when you go to J, you have it here where it says uh establishment of or operation of a home occupation is harmonious with the character of neighboring residential uses and does not create traffic, etc., etc. I think that kind of covers that.

So for me to make sure that we have codes that you can actually enforce and is not opinionated, I would ask to remove that verbiage. But that would be my only um from going through this. That's the only thing that I had concern about. I would like for our codes to be as succinct as possible so that there's not a lot of questions or opinions or or push back from people saying well I didn't have minimal imp you know it wasn't negative it was positive impact so that was be my only thing that I would want to bring up okay good call

council anything else agree with Just just want to make it as easy as possible. If it's wrong, it's wrong. If it's right, it's right. No opinions, no favoritism, you know. Just make it simple. And I I'm just

up here so you get recorded, please. Nothing in this code is going to supersede a homeowner association governing documents that will limit what kind of businesses or what kind of occupancy can be in their home. Correct. That's correct. That's my question. Thank you. I'm glad you asked that question. I just wanted to ask a procedural question. Is is this something that would need to be brought up for a vote at the next meeting? Is this something that can be voted on now? Can can be voted on comments.

Yeah, it has to be brought up in the next meeting. I think we're all in alignment with So, yeah, I think that what's presented at the meeting um doesn't have to be this document. It can be something different. And if we all agree that we would like a c to see a certain change, that change can be made before before before a regular session. That was my question. So So I have a couple questions about this.

Um so this contains two sections and one of the sections contains home occupations that are not permitted. And I did a little research and I did not find home occupations that were not permitted in common code. So I'm I'm curious about um the section of this code that does not require a permit. Can you be specific about where a permit is not required? where it says there's

so in the first um customary home occupation um it has a long list of things and pay is a zoning permit is obtained then it has conditional use in the RV1 RLD RMD R HD and RPC um and I don't see that same language in that um if I were reading the zoning code. Uh I would assume that I do not need a permit. So if you are planning on requiring a permit for um section two,

I would say that we would want to include that same language that it requires a permit and requiring a permit for a home occupation is the common practice from what I can tell. Um, so that there's that in general. Um, additionally, can I add on to that real quick because it's that is a good call. Is there a difference because it's a zoning permit versus home occupation? Is there a difference between the two? Are they representing the same phrasing?

We kind of weren't sure why that was in there because everything needs a permit. Um, we did leave it in there. I will tell you that the planning commission is discussing not requiring a permit for a minor home occupation which is what is um comparable to two. And while it isn't sort of established practice to do that, it is the more sort of modern new pro approach to allow these home occupations you can't even tell are happening to happen without a permit. And so that's why that is. So I think that it's worth a discussion here. might make sense since this is the shorter term fix to just add an I that says a zoning permit is obtained to two and put a pin in that discussion for when you get the bigger

I would I think that's what Lor's getting I would concur with that too just for continuity uh as well and then addressing when when they do the full table uh review. Thank you. I have three more things. Can I just say one more thing to this one? Right. So the zoning permit and the home occupation permit are two completely different things. So I think making sure that that's defined and understood before moving forward with that verbage is really really important because you don't want to get caught out there with a person having a zone impairment when they're supposed to have a home occupation because they are two different things.

What's what's the difference then? I mean, I get it, but like what would be the difference in the language? Why we would put one the word zoning versus home occupation in a home occupation ordinance? So, again, we were we we did this in one sitting and the planning commission if that that's helpful for perspective. Um, and so it typically a home occupation is going to want a use permit, which is still a zoning type of zoning permit, but it's not the same as the larger permit.

So, I think it might want to just say a permit is obtained so that the administration of what the permits look like has some flexibility to make things more simple. um as needed. What's the difference between uh 2 E and 2G? 2 and 2 G. So 2 E is that you can't sell anything, right? And to F is that you can't display anything.

Uh G or sorry G. Okay. Oh, I guess there's really not a difference. Well, if you if you have a hair care place, you can't sell radios out of it. So, it's like no commodity, no if you if you're doing hair in your home, you can't also sell remote controls. You know what I mean? So when they're saying no um article or commodity is offered on sale on the premises, if you have a a business, a home business that's specifically for a specific thing, you can't also sell other things out of your home. Wouldn't that be covered under G though?

Well, not necessarily because you still you you still have to say you can't sell other things except the service that you're supposed to give. And then when you get to G, that's like you can't have a shop set up where you just in there just selling goods instead of having an actual service. So it's kind of the same, but then again, specificity. Somebody could take one thing and put it under something different. So it covers all bases. So this says no article or commodity, right?

Which does bring me to my second question. Um, do we have a cottage industry law that would allow somebody to sell their baked bread, their I mean we're we're those are the kinds of things needle work in my wife's case

different things. Um, so trying to conflate the two, a home occupation that should require a permit and business license and all this other stuff and a cottage industry is is a little bit um confusing. So I I would very be I would be interested to see the modern code that you're talking about because I couldn't find any. So you're you're talking about what my reasoning for advising the planning commission on the permitting is is it's not based on current a current a specific current code. It's based on discussions in the planning practice about making home occupations more accessible and best practices for that. So,

I would just be interested to to read about it to educate myself if you have something on that from somewhere. Um, because to me, we should be permanent in these home occupations. Um, which brings me to my third point. Um, permits do a couple things. They they make sure that you know what's going into the neighborhoods where home occupations are allowed. um they make sure that those uses are compatible. When you have those things not permitted, you don't know. Um I know you had somebody visit the planning commission that wants to do bun repair.

Um and then we have this definition for an adult bookstore in our code that we need to approve as well. Um, I think that having controlled items and substances be serviced in commercial zones rather than residential zones is something that I'm for and I did bring that up when you first brought this to us. Um, I I don't know. I'll just I'll just say I don't know that I can approve this based on no permitting or no regulations related to controlled items and substances. So, um but I would like to know why because people are going to ask me and if you get somebody um that is unhappy with the home occupation that they're forced to live by Mhm.

I want to be able to answer that question. So,

can I just add real quickly though? So, like the adult bookstore, it's already existing in the current code as written. Um, the real push here was I guess you a handful of years ago, it removed the RV1, RMD, all the people who could have true traditional to include cottage, right? cottage still requires permits with home occupation. Usually the county actually doesn't require it but the town the town does. Uh so it there was this change where it removed it and the quick fix was why would we not why not just unreal and nobody can Sarah correct me if I'm wrong nobody can nobody can explain why the code was adjusted to remove the areas where true home occupation would be. So, we had all this code and then somebody where you see in section two where it says conditional use in RV1 that was eliminated and went um it was converted to NP versus conditional and the conditional drives that you have to have a permit uh to do that. So, for example, because I know you had brought up like uh like marijuana like sales or something like that, somebody would still have to come here and request a permit and if it doesn't live in the zoning uh rules that we have, they wouldn't get permitted for it. Now, if they go and sell on their own, then then they have a business that doesn't comply with with the town code, but but that's a whole different discussion uh on on enforcement. Um, but this here is really just actually enabling the community to have those home businesses and those cottage laws. Uh, and then there was even Dan had even brought up a discussion. You know, there's a gentleman, John, right next to you sells uh his shoes, his Nike shoes and Pokemon cards and basketball cards all the time. You know, what about that? It's like a

popup that he does as he see fits. He puts a table out, puts some cards out there, people will will stop by. uh that actually conflicts with the home occupation, but that's not a home occupation. That's kind of like a temporary when you do when your son does paw paws, you know. Yeah. So, there's there's I I think there's other aspects of this that would be addressed through that we were working with Sarah on addressing through uh the the land use table and some other codes in there, but this specific ordinance is just to add back in the the zoning areas that were removed. I don't know. They just magically disappeared a couple years ago. I don't know how. So, how would

And I don't know how either. But this isn't addressing any of those things that you just said. No, it does. It adds it in section two. It puts it puts it back in, right? But it removed I remember it was removed an item 10 that had uh and I don't have item 10 in front of me. Um Oh my. And the the situation has come up. I mean you we Chesby Village can't even ride a bike to town now because of what's item 10 that you're trying to

Well, what I'm saying is we are addressing this code now, right? Um we were very picky about some other code that really had no impact. But this code does have an impact. It is going to put certain occupations in residential areas where residential use and the people who move there for residential use rely on that zoning. And so um for me like what though like can give me give me

I would say that that a a person who repairs firearms right there are a lot of reasons to repair firearms firearms and of themselves are not a bad thing. Um I would prefer that that particular type of business though is in a commercial zone. I might be a person that lives next to that business that um doesn't feel comfortable around guns. Additionally, you might be there's all kinds of people who are associated with guns. That person that is repairing the guns might not have control over who is coming to his business in the residential area to get their firearm repaired. I think that removing the ability to have controlled items and substances sold in residential a neighborhoods or or be associated with a business in a residential neighborhood would eliminate most of my concerns with this in addition to requiring a permit for a home occupation. Um,

well, this policy does require a permit. We can put the language in there basis for denying certain things. Well, if it's not allowed in the code if it's not allowed in the town code, then you wouldn't be allowed to have a there is or do we need to adjust? But you can't you can't have pharmaceuticals in your like I can't just start making aspirin in my house and sell it like that. like it's got to follow state code for like pharmaceuticals and like the mar like Maryland's uh like like for marijuana dispensaries is a very very strict code. So it's not like you could just stand up a dispensary in your home or anything. The gun one is an interesting one. I I don't know the answer to that. But like the medical stuff, marijuana, but we need to know the answer to that. Well, that but that that

the problem is is that if there's a list somewhere that's already been made with things that are not allowed, then find a list. If the list is not there, then make the list instead of going back and forth over conjecture with our opinions. Exactly. So, that's the thing. So, if we don't already have a list, then let's stop talking about it and make a list. But doesn't the land use table

because we're wasting the time right now. We have something in front of us that opens us up to get something done that was taken away without any purpose. Now we want to move on to say, "Okay, well, we got this straight. Let's make a list of the things that we don't want in the neighborhoods because we deem them unsafe." Then make that list and let's vote on that because right now this is just the conversation. It does say needs to be harmonious with the character, but that's open to I might go to the guy that that fixed guns, I think. So what's the character? I think we just need to be it's subjective and specific. If we deal with subjectivity and opinion, then what are we going to actually get to? Because we all can feel a certain way about something.

They tried to accomplish it with two H, but it just needs to be more specific. Well, I would say that there is a list of controlled items and if we said controlled items that would account for most of PE most people's concerns, we just need to listen. If there's a list already in place from the smarter people that was here before us, then let's go to that list. If that list does not exist, then let's go ahead and move forward and then we can get that list in front of us and we can vote on that when we're ready. There's code on e-code library that looks great to me and it's

but is the code on chess. You have an alternate proposal that is our code. I just wonder why why we are being so creative. You don't need to be and and I'm always going to defer to protecting residential use in a residential area. Are you about to say something, Eric? I Yeah, I guess I'm um so my question is same back to number two, right? Um, and going back to uh, Councilman Evans comments about um, E and G.

Mhm. And, um, how they seem to be the same? They do seem to be the same to me. But my question really is uh so are we saying that only services and not not the sale of any physical item is allowable.

So you can't conduct sales on premises. And this may be those two may just be sometimes when we do stuff at the planning commission we'll add stuff in and then the next time we'll realize they match up. Um but we like we did this pretty quickly. Um so we could probably remove one of those but you can still sell items just not on premises. So only via the mail. Okay. So just a really simple question. Is this require a permit to have a lemonade stand?

A lemonade stand is not a home occupation. Um, it's a temporary use. It's not permitted or not permitted in your code. Um, a lemonade stand is technically the sale of food and beverages, which the county regulates. Um, so it's a little more of a complicated question. Uh, and I don't think that a zoning permit would be required. There's no zoning authority over lemonade. So, don't call the county on my

No, that this expl this ex exact question was emailed to Sarah and the attorney and that is where we would add in something in because what we do not want to do I don't think I don't think anybody in here wants to be on the news as the town who shuts down a nine-year-old kid's lemonade stand like it happened a handful of years ago. Uh, and so there was discussions about adding some language into the zoning ordinance that addresses that. And that's why I brought up the example of the gentleman next to John who sells Pokemon cards,

right? And so it, you know, we can't just say, oh, except for lemonade stand. It has to be a broader uh clause so that because there are other absurdities that you can come up with, I'm sure. Well, and the planning commission is working on that language. We worked on it a bit. I'm working on it to present to them again um for April's meeting. So, they do want to make sure people kids can sell lemonade or Pokemon cards or whatever.

And I just want to comment that I I concur with uh um Councilman Green's um opposition to a a broad controlled substance clause. I it I'd like to see a specific list um because and it's the same thing. I can go to the to the uh to the situation that we talked about the last time at the meeting or whatever it was. I I brought up the idea of someone who does some uh small batch micro brewery and sells it to you know a local establishment um through and they can sell it there to individuals. um something like that I don't think should be um banned with some type of broad controlled substance uh clause

you have a micro brewery standing in front of the house right next to the lemonade let's progress a big part another county all right all right I think that we I think we talked this out pretty thoroughly I mean is does anybody else have any final comments before we adjourn. Thank you. I don't hear any. Uh, all right. This your last chance, Laura. Your last chance. Okay, everybody. Good. All right. Is there a Let's see. We're not going to do item six because Dan's not here. Not here. So, uh, the next item on the agenda is a motion for adjournment.

What took you so long? All in favor say I. I. I. Thank you very much. Very good meeting. Uh, I appreciate everybody's input. We covered a lot of territory and we got a lot done. Thank you.