Town Council - Regular Meeting

So it's a. That's the.

You going to join us?

You going to join us?

Good evening, everybody. My apologies for being a couple of minutes late. It's time to have the public hearing. regarding ordinance O-26-12, an ordinance of the Town Council of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, adopting the annual budget for the utility fund of the Town of Chesapeake Beach for the fiscal year July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, and setting rates, charges, and fees related to water and sewer service by the Town.

Okay.

Hello there, Debbie Buckingham, 3806 28th Street. I have a few questions before we start, you deciding on this ordinance. My first question is, the current fee schedule states the quarterly fixed charge is based on use and occupancy. The proposed ordinance changes that language to $50 per EDU for water, $100 per EDU for sewer. Is this a change in how the customers are billed or merely a clarification of an existing policy? Anybody wanna answer that one? Okay. Next question. How does town determine the number of EDUs assigned to a property? And where can a property owner obtain the official records showing the number EDUs assigned to their parcel? Number three, if a property has one water meter, one water count, one water service line, one sewer service line, what specific provisions of the ordinance authorizes billing more than one quarterly fixed fee? Next question. Appendix number G states that one apartment equals one EDU. For calculating capital connection charges, what ordinance authorizes Appendix G to be used ongoing for the utility bills? Number five, if a property was permanent, inspected, approved, and connected to the town system nearly 20 years ago, under what authority can an additional EDU related to charges and classification be imposed in today's society? Thank you.

Anybody else? You said put anything before the council for the... All right. If there is nothing else for the public hearing.

Maybe just with that, Dan, with the fixed fees and stuff like that, the one thing she wasn't, that didn't bring up was about the bay fees, too. You know, I know we had talked about the different fixed fees and things, but I think she brought up some valid points. That will probably be in discussions later.

Okay.

Right.

Yeah. Well, okay. So, Deb was talking about the ordinance 0-26-12, setting the utility rates. or the budget for the utility fund, which includes the rates. There's also Ordinance O-26-13, Ordinance of the Town Council, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, adopting the annual budget for the Water Park Fund of the Town of Chesapeake Beach for fiscal year July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. Does anybody have anything that they want to say about that? Okay. We will recess until 6.30 when the actual meeting will start. Thank you. Council, it's time for us to start. I'd like to call the meeting to order. If we could, I note that all the council members are present. If we could stand, please, for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance. Council members, is there a motion to approve the agenda?

I would like to make a motion to amend.

Okay.

I'll second. I would like to, for resolutions and ordinances, I would like to switch B and A. I would like to motion to move the Town Council of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, adopting the annual budget for water park fund conversation to be first and the utility fund to be second. And I want to do that because we have two new propositions in front of us that were not here during the work session to discuss.

If there's a motion to amend, is there a second? You did? Second. All in favor of the amendment, say aye.

Aye. Opposed?

The ayes have it. Thank you. Is there now a motion to approve the amended agenda?

Motion to approve.

Second. All in favor, aye. Aye. The ayes have it. This is the opportunity for public comment on any item that's on the agenda. Is there anybody in the public that would like to comment on any item that is in the agenda? If so, please come forward. And please give us your name and where you live and tell us what's on your mind.

Good evening. My name is Andrea Smith. I live at 4010 13th Street. I am coming here tonight to comment about the new business of reviewing and discussing the Planning and Zoning Commission's Memorandum Concerning Data Center Development. Now, I think as we all know, data centers are kind of a really, really big topic, especially here in the county. And for those that haven't been paying attention or aware, there are two proposed hyperscale data center projects in the southern part of the county in Lesbee. What I will say is that process has lost a lot of the public's trust. And so what I want to start off by saying is first, thank you for putting this on the agenda and thank you for putting it under new business. So me, a mom of two could public comment first and not wait until the end because I might have to leave early. So I appreciate that. I also want to just thank council members who have helped me in this process get to reach out to the community members because there really is a lot of, not a lot of people know that it's going on up this way and that's unfortunate. I think you all have in front of you data centers and their impacts. I believe you all were given a two-pager, and I hope you had a chance to go over that. I'm not going to read through it. I don't have time to. But there are so many impacts to our community that would be incredibly damaging for a data center to be built here, let alone a hyperscale data center, because where would we even put that? They're gigantic. So we have the human health and environmental concerns, obviously. infrastructure concerns, economic concerns, but like I said, I'm not going to read through those. I do want to also say I mentioned public distrust with the county level. So data centers have now become synonymous with political corruption. And what I will say is the fact that data centers were even put into our land use table back in 2022 is an issue. So it's not off to a great start. But like I said the fact that many Town Council members are willing to work with the public and explain and also try to figure out why is amazing. So I want to encourage you all to continue to dig and figure out how that ended up in there because we don't have as far as I know a record of who proposed it, how it got approved. The only place it is in there is in the land use table. There's no definition, no description, nothing. So that is a concern. So I just really want to encourage you all to continue moving forward to be transparent with this. And as a small community here on the water, it's our responsibility to take care of our resources here. And data centers don't do that. So I fully support switching from permitting data centers to not permitting them 100%. And as a charter town, I do want to encourage you all to look into how we can support and protect the rest of the county once we have taken care of our own here. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Is there anybody else? Can I make a comment? Just I want to address something you said. So we heard it loud and clear. We were at MML. A couple of us were at the Maryland Municipality League Conference this past week. So we've even talked with Alyssa regarding how to approach this. I would tell people I do AI for a profession. However, I completely understand the sustainability impacts and everything. I agree that there is no room in Chesapeake Beach. And I just want to say publicly, this is a very simple fix. You called it out, right? So we've already engaged the town attorney. We've already engaged the planning and zoning administrator. What we're looking to do is ask for an official letter to come to us from planning and zoning that says we make this official recommendation to change it from P to NP. As soon as that happens, hopefully in the next, I think I talked to Sarah, in like the next week or two, we're looking to have this on the July agenda. We can then introduce some legal language through our attorney. where we will convert that from a P to an NP, and we will put this to rest very, very quickly. I think you have the support of everybody, but I just, I know that there are a lot of people here. I'm sure that this subject is going to come up, but I wanted to just, I very much want to hear everybody, but I really want to just be transparent about what some of the steps we've already taken to address this.

That's amazing. So again, I just want to reiterate, thank you for that. And also what more can we do once we take care of that? So let's just keep going, keep moving forward.

So one of the things that are key to what you said is the definitions, right? So definitions are sort of what kind of protect things. I know that... the item in lusby about the park right the definition of what a park is can be construed and it can say a digital park if you notice in the language digital park i think um we've we've discussed the importance of having updated definitions and really protecting um that i know deb has told us more than once about our definitions. And it's not something that we have taken and just dismissed. It's something that we're working on so that we can clarify what we mean by that. Because in certain businesses, they'll have a computer. We don't want to have something so rigid we don't look at that. With the solar panels, there's Maryland legislation that came from the top down that allows for solar systems, just like ADUs are going to affect. There is not any for data centers. And there probably isn't much more of a pro, like industrial approach. Like if you were to put a council together, I'm an electrician, he works in AI, John's at the nuclear power plant, Eric Reynolds, the fire, none of us in any way, shape, or form want data centers, it's not there. It was put in in 2022. I think it was put in with a grouping of different items. And so not that this is official or anything like that, but just a peace of mind. I know there's a lot of people that are worried about it.

And I think that's what is the takeaway here is that the public has no trust. because of how it's been going at the county level. With NDAs that were signed, with the mass public finding out about these projects through job openings on Amazon website, that's what we're talking about here. And so I hear what you're saying. Obviously IQ Fiber is here now. They're gonna have small servers, right? They're not going to have a hyperscale data center. However, like you said, that stuff needs to be written out. But the right thing to do is not permit them at all and then start from there. Because it shouldn't have been there in the first place without being explained why.

And I think though, I hear you. Thank you for your comment. Thank you for your comments.

Thank you. Anybody else wants to speak to this? If you'd give us your name please and where you live.

Hello, I am Dr. Jeanette Wysocki, and I live on 13th Street. So first, thank you for the comments. For full disclosure, I am on the County Environmental Commission, but I am not here speaking on behalf of the Environmental Commission. So thank you for the efforts of the Town Council to put these as not permitted. The one thing that I wanted to say, and this was great news, was I've been reading about the passenger ferry, and all I could think about was why would someone come here with a big, giant data center, right? So to hear you say that is a great relief, and it's a great step forward. And it also, in my view, sets a precedent for the rest of the county. So thank you for taking these steps, and thank you for being the first to say, this isn't what we want for our community. So I just want to say thank you very much for that.

Appreciate your comment. Anybody else have any comment on anything on the agenda?

I'll just make a public comment that I have watched the Environmental Commission for Calvert County in action, and they are doing an outstanding job as citizens. They're doing research. They're making recommendations. And they're really thinking and I've talked to a few of them personally and they get pages and they get things last minute much like we did on planning and zoning and they go through them and they've been holding the line because I think they see what everybody sees that data centers are uncharted territory and there's a real potential for being irresponsible with how we zone and irresponsible with how we would implement it. And I think that they are looking at the build, no build scenario, which is entirely appropriate in Calvert County, given all of the waterways that our land feeds. So I appreciate them. I hope everybody in town and out of town does their research. And if you know somebody Has the ear of a commissioner sitting a commissioner running whoever it is Please try to talk some sense into them. We are not ready for data centers. Thank you All right.

Anybody else have any public comments? All right. Let's move forward. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the May 21st, 2026 public hearing?

Motion to approve.

Second. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the town council meeting of May 21st, 2026? Motion to approve. Second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? The ayes have it. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the Town Council Informational Work Session of June 9th, 2026?

Motion to approve.

Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. We're going to keep going at this pace. We're going to be out of here before 9 o'clock. We can do it. We can do it. I'm here. All right, that felt good. Next, we have a special presentation from the Huntingtown High School's Emerging Engineers, Old Rock Reef. And if you give us your names and introduce yourselves, we're happy to have you here.

Well, my name is Tom Horton. I'm one of the teachers with the Chess Packs Environmental Education Program of the Calvert County Public Schools. And we're here tonight to talk about an exciting project that happened right out here at Old Rock Reef back in March. So just to kind of give you a little bit of background on the project.

Can you have your students stand beside you instead of behind you?

I was going to introduce them at the end there of my remarks. Thank you. So as you may know, you host 1,100 fifth grade students every school year out here at the Fish and Creek Boardwalk. Every student in Calvert County starts the year learning about oysters and why they're so important to the Bay as filters and as habitat for creatures and is also part of our local economy. About 15 years ago, our students started coming here. Thank you, Mayor Wall, for our initial meeting to set this up. And this project has legs.

I'm so glad to see it continuing and flourishing. Absolutely.

So once that project got started, we always want to find ways for kids to have an authentic application for what they learned. So about five years ago, we started getting involved with the Coastal Conservation Association to build concrete oyster reef balls. And some of you may be familiar with those. They're essentially... 250-pound structures that are, you know, we have one here. That's a model. So these are two-pound ones. Ours are 250-pound. They're huge.

There's one right out front. And our property right outside here.

Right. So our students build about 240 of these every school year. Every school builds about 20 of these reef balls. And then they get deployed at various sites, including here at Old Rock Reef. One of the things that we get evaluations from the fifth graders, and they all said they want to see what happens after they go in the water. Now we can't get all of our fifth graders certified in scuba or anything like that. So recently there's been sort of this technological emergence of these remotely operated vehicles that are accessible, that are not too expensive. So we've got a grant from the National Education Foundation. They gave us money to buy an ROV. And working with our friends at the Emerging Engineers of Huntington High School, we set about making a project to get the reef balls, get some video to provide to our fifth grade students and teachers. So we've had a lot of support. Of course, our friends at CBOX. There's Sue over here. And Jay, thank you guys for helping us get to the site and finding out where the reef balls are located. And we're just so thrilled with this project. So the students are going to give a presentation and give you a little bit of background of what happened with that. with that program. I want to introduce Michael, Miley, and Mackenzie. They're going to start off with a little presentation showing you what we came up with from that project and sort of what went into making it happen. I also want to recognize Dr. Marshall Pike. He's hiding in the back there. He's instrumental in getting this project organized and making things happen. This is very good. Mackenzie, are you going to start? Yes.

Good evening, everyone. We're the emerging engineers from Huntington High School. Today we're excited to present our marine exploration project, the Old Rock Reef Environmental Monitoring Mission. Our project was built around one central driving question. Are artificial oyster reef balls an effective strategy for promoting oyster growth and providing a habitat for other creatures in the Chesapeake Bay? To answer this, our team established clear engineering rules. Our pilots fly the drones and collect live telemetry, the videographer tracks subtle environmental movements, our administrative coordinator manages safety checklists, and our equipment manager accounts for all hardware components. As a club, our mission is to cultivate creativity and collaboration through hands-on engineering. We bridge the gap between classroom theory and real-world science by focusing on project-based learning, ROV design, and marine exploration. We established three core goals for this mission. First, obtain authentic underwater footage of restoration efforts. Second, document the physical density and effectiveness of the reef balls. And third, package this imagery into educational resources for fifth grade classrooms across Calvert County. To achieve these goals, we deployed an advanced piece of technology, a five-fish M200 V6E underwater drone that we named Chessie.

You bet.

Can you hold it up so everybody in the audience can see it too? That's really cool. They washed it off before they brought it here, right? That's really cool. I'm glad you brought that. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, he's taking pictures with his phone too. Yeah, that's great. You can just leave it up here. As long as you taught me how to use it.

Okay. Before heading into open water, we conducted Chessie's maiden voyage at our local park at King's Landing. And then this initial deployment allowed us to test the tethering as well as the seal integrity and to check the remote controls in a controlled environment. Then for our training, we had months of intensive training before the mission where the pilots, both Michael and I, practiced multiple days a week in an open-air pool. Then this built the necessary muscle memory for us to handle the unpredictable bay currents. Then finally our official mission. So these are some pictures from the field trip that we attended at Cove Point to build the reef balls. We helped some of the fourth graders and we were there the day that they took them out of the seal after the day that they had made them. There's some more pictures. And then on the day of the actual mission, we had three dive coordinates. And the conditions, it was fairly chilly, being 38 degrees outside and then 45 in the water. We had limited visibility, three to five feet at about 20 feet depth. And then these are some videos.

Councilman Anthony is real good at that.

So in this cluster we we did not observe any, but we believe that they are fairly new, so they're they really get a chance to, you know, have some spat attached and actually had moisture grow on it yet. But if you fast forward a couple. think there you go play this video it's just that's just a picture so this is is there a whole video of like the other roof there isn't so in this picture you can see a little snippet of our another reef that we explored um we couldn't find any reef balls in this area but you know it's what we use to actually serve as habitat for all these oysters and actually serve as a base for reefs like these. There were some smaller organisms growing on them. So of course, if they can grow on it, then it proves to us that oysters can grow on it as well. We also saw a bunch of other organisms down there as well. We saw things such as crabs, fish, other things that live around there too. We're very happy to show the fifth graders that what they're doing actually serves a purpose to the environment. It can actually help oysters grow and bring back the population to the Chesapeake Bay. Yeah, was there anything else to add?

No.

Well, before you sit down. Yeah, I got some geek questions over here.

So we had set up the boat. We didn't know if we were going to see anything. So when they dropped it down and then that first image came on the screen, you know, we all just felt like cheering. It was just wonderful. Oh, that actually does work. And we can, you know, repeat this. It's something we can do again and And we plan to do it again. We're going to try to do two trips next year.

That's fantastic. And I'll share with you that ZBOX here in Chesapeake Beach, I had a hand in getting that started. I don't even know how long ago it's been now. How long has it been? 15 years ago. And so I guess I was a mayor at that time. So I'm really happy to see what you all are doing. And I'm really more happy to see the awareness that you're creating for the citizens that live here can understand what's going on. And the oyster, I moved here in 1985 from Northern Virginia. And The oysters were essentially gone. They were all completely gone. And so this work and what you all are doing, what others are doing to restore them, is making a huge difference for the Chesapeake Bay. And there is not only the value of having the oysters, but they cleanse the water. And so this is fantastic. And I salute you all for your work and work. And for your leadership. And please, anybody want to say anything?

I have a geek question. What's the name of the drone again? And does it shoot Chessie? I can't go on Amazon to order Chessie. And then I also want to know what frame rate does it shoot in? And does it already have lights that are on it when you go underwater to use it?

So this is the 500 V6?

Take it right over to me if you don't mind. Okay, two LED lights are already on there.

Next year, we do know that.

Let me see the top again.

Hey, take a picture of it.

I will be able to find fish. Fish is out there. And do you know the frame rate when you guys go underwater? Okay. Okay. Right. Don't worry about the rest of these people right now. We're having a conversation. Perfect. All right. Because people keep saying I didn't do the polar bear plunge every year. I'm going to make sure from now on that there's a camera underneath with me. But that's perfect. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate it.

Yeah, my son got to do this as a fifth grader last year, and he really enjoyed it, and I got to do it with Sue this year out there at the Boardwalk, and it's a really awesome program, and I hope you guys keep it going.

Yeah, it's a blast seeing all the kids, you know, being excited about everything. They have a blast. I have a sister who's in fifth grade, and She had all the field trips this year, and she had a blast, too. And she was ecstatic seeing her brother on the presentation that we showed her.

I think the video is going to make a big difference, like you said, so they can see their progress and what they accomplished. So that would be awesome. Yeah, I love it.

Yeah, that's neat that they have this to look forward to. And I just want to know, who is the best driver?

Oh, man.

Okay. Well, that was nice that they gave it to you without any argument at all. You must be very good.

She did. She's the one who actually got all the videos and everything because I broke my phone a week before this.

It's called teamwork.

And is this the V6? It's the V6, right? Yeah, V6. It's only $4,000, man. Come on, Eric. Give it to me.

Are you guys opening it up to all the fifth grades, to all the schools in Northern Calvert County or trying to get to that? Because I personally, being a little selfish here, I have a kid going into fifth grade this upcoming year. Yeah. That's cool.

Yeah.

That's cool. We grew up in a landlocked state, so I very much appreciate their exposure to this because they don't understand it as much coming from Missouri. The second thing I'll just say real quick, you guys did a fantastic job for your presentation as well. I know it can be nerve-wracking coming up here to six people or eight people, nine people staring back at you, but you guys will do fantastic if you ever go to the military because every one of you spoke in brevity, very clear, very articulate. It was awesome, so thank you.

That was a recruitment.

That was a recruitment. Go Air Force.

I will add that the person that was speaking to you is a retired Air Force major. So he knows.

Ladies, Father's Day is coming up. These drones are on Amazon. Nice underwater drone. If you haven't figured it out, no socks this year. Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it. And stay in touch with us, okay? All right. I will give you a minute to gather your gear.

Thanks again. It was only 1080 now.

I think it's good.

all right next item on the agenda shouldn't take any more than 45 minutes is the town administrator's report maybe not quite that long not take 45 minutes

All right, so the town administrators report was submitted as a part of the agenda package. Of note, I want to flag for everyone that we've got a couple of updates on RFPs. So the rail trail expansion to town limits RFP closed on June 4th. We received seven bids, and so it's currently in the process of technical review right now with hopes that we'll have a selection ready to present to council at our next town council meeting. And there are two other RFPs right now in preparation. That's for town paving. So we've begun some communications around paving projects that will be coming in the next couple of months, weeks and months, and the fireworks. So we're at a point now where we need to re-bid the fireworks contract. So those will be coming before you soon. Another exciting update is that today I found out that the town has $50,000 earmarked in the general fund for the state for Kellum's field projects. And so what appears to have happened was that this money was earmarked in 2020, but the town did not submit the application to be able to draw down the funds. And so you have seven years. So they reached out to us to say, hey, just letting you know you have this money. And so we have a surprise $50,000, which is pretty exciting.

Nice surprise.

Yeah, very nice surprise.

I like those kind of surprises.

Can we keep that? Another exciting update is that we now have, we're about to have all of the permits we need to be able to move forward with water park demolition so that's really exciting we just found that out today as well so I'll allow Wayne to give more details on that during his town engineer report but that's another point of inflection point to come back from MML to have all of these moving forward and then At the last meeting, we had the website was updated partially because it had to be updated before, right? There was a domain change that required us to update it, so we had to... quickly adjust to make sure that we could respond to those changes. So the website looks different than it did before. But we're hoping, we moved forward this, when we were processing through this process, processing through this update, to try to create it in a way that was really resident focused. We put the navigation tablets or tabs at the top of the website. That way, whenever you log on, you're not having to move through the website to find things that you would often need, like agendas and minutes or how to report a concern or pay a bill. So that is all focused up at the top of the website, whether you're viewing it on a desktop or tablet or phone. But I know that it's a new website, so sometimes it can be difficult for people to navigate through. So what we have started doing is creating how-to videos that are now on our YouTube page. So it's a section called Website Tutorial, and it will walk you through how to... It'll walk you through how you navigate to different aspects of the website. So this video, I believe, is for projects and investments. So you can see you would go to government, projects and investment. You scroll down and you'll be able to see different projects that we're working on. If you click the page, it'll take you to where we are in the project timeline. They give you information about the goals, and you can see the quick updates on timelines. And so we hope to have this page continually updated for project movements when it comes to project investments. Another example would be meeting minutes and agendas. And so the idea is that if there's someone who's struggling to navigate the website, you can go to these videos for a quick tutorial. We're also going to be having some resident focus upgrades to the lobby of town hall happening in this upcoming fiscal year. So I'll have more information on that at our next town council meeting. But this is just one of the things we're doing to try to make it easier for for our residents to find the information that they are looking for. And if there's a topic that you've not been able to find, please just email info at and we're happy to help you walk through that. I am happy to take questions.

That is awesome.

That is awesome. I would say that locating the videos is probably top on everybody's list. And locating the town code and budgets is top on a lot of lists. And you have the calendar and everything up front. So all of that's very easy. I think everybody's saying that that's easier. So that's great. But the government stuff.

Absolutely.

I could even use a tutorial for some of that.

Happy to put it together. So we'll have that in that YouTube playlist. And if there are other topics that you'd like help or videos on that would help you navigate to it, just let us know and we'll get that up there.

That would be amazing. Thank you. I have it pulled up right now. It's at Chesapeake Beach MD for the YouTube. Just like and subscribe.

Like that.

There you go. I think on the website, I've noticed the mobile view, and sometimes it's a little clouded, and I think maybe kind of a piece at a time of putting old past agendas and stuff like that there but just maybe if we could if anybody submits a request for um agendas or anything while we're transitioned just to make sure that the public knows where to access it um i know that that's with a lot of people upset about things they can kind of feel like rollers at that so um with the different things going on uh one thing i would like to have is where we had talked about a paving schedule if we could have um like the paving schedule and just kind of like i don't know maybe going into uh either once or twice a year like a report or something like that provided I think you were saying something with that but if we could also do that with like our tracking systems and things I know that we don't expect there to be any permits of any substation but there was some way to kind of have a report of any I guess applications maybe or permits so and that's sort of I guess to the lady can worries so what I'm saying is if someone were to submit an application for a data center while we're working on creating it the and stuff like that. But the council would be made aware of it.

Yeah.

Is it just a little transparent, like saying we're keeping an eye out?

Absolutely. If someone submits an application for a data center, the council will be aware. All right.

Thank you. I think those are great updates. I think you guys are doing a great job, and we really appreciate juggling us. Dealing with town, you had a staff. I think we're doing really good and we're going in the right direction, so appreciate it. I agree with you.

Can I circle back to my question number two? For the water park, you said we're ready to demo. Does that mean where are the permits at for the build?

I will defer to our town engineer.

So based on our conversation today and our progress meeting today, the only thing that's pending is a fire marshal approval and our building permit will be issued.

That's good news. That doesn't sound like something that would hold it up if it's a water park.

Fire marshal, is that at the state level? Like who, what fire marshal comes in? State level. State level.

But that means this question does not come up again when you do your report, right? That's up to you. That's right. That's right. You're not even going back.

I do have one more update. I had a conversation less than an hour and a half ago with the executive director for Southern Maryland Tri-County Community Action Coalition, who own Fishing Creek. And so they, yeah, Courtyard to Fishing Creek. And so they have submitted their selected vendor for demolition to their board last week that was approved. And so they are now submitting it to DHCD so that they can get the final approval and be able to move forward with demolition. And then they'll be submitting their applications for for rebuild. So just wanted to give you updates on that.

That was good. Good news.

If you have a question for planning and zoning, you can ask it this time.

Okay. Yeah, I do. One of the things I noticed in your report was with the state down items, you actually have that solar that I referenced earlier there, but it's also the ADUs that go in there. I wanted to kind of mention that. North Beach had invited the, was it Department of Commerce, or the Comptroller's Office. And this was a Comptroller state down initiative. And they gave a very good presentation for the reason why the state of Maryland put this in place. And it was to make housing more affordable. I spoke to Lady Anthony, met me over there, and they were very nice, and they were very clear. I think it might serve, if we needed to, to have a reach out to them. I think they seemed like they were...

Well, I will let you know that Councilwoman Michelle Crosby is the one that invited her in. So it was a council member that brought her in to speak, and I think you can connect with her if you want to see if you can get the information, and we can have a presentation here as well.

Thank you, yeah. So with our ADU policy, I did not see anything. It seemed like it didn't mention rentals. kind of skipped over that. And I know we've kind of done a rental subcommittee and kind of done a lot of stuff. We were hoping that maybe you had a chance to review that to kind of...

I'm sorry, can we do this during the planning and zoning portion of the report so that we can...

So the planning and zoning administrator's report is submitted as a part of mine. So unless you want to move it to the planning and zoning...

Well, there might be more questions for that. So is this something that's just for this one question for now, or do we need to get more information, period?

So I asked Amelia if the time to ask Sarah questions was now. She said yes, because they've moved it inside of the same report. Okay, have at it.

So I think your question is about rental, ADUs as rental units, which ADUs are inherently rental units. Whether they're allowed to be short-term rental units, right, because that doesn't necessarily reduce the cost of housing. That reduces the cost of vacation homes. Your short-term rentals are part of your land use table, and that determines where short-term rentals can be. You can... make sure and i believe actually that planning and zoning commission recommended that adus not be used as short-term rentals um i have to go back and look at that but i think that that was one thing that's in yours you can decide to remove it or keep it but generally short-term rentals don't significantly reduce the cost of housing

Well, so I didn't think currently the short-term rentals were allowed in town of Chesapeake Beach. They're not part of our rental program right now.

They're allowed in... Give me a sec. I think they're allowed in the town commercial and one other zone, but I want to look specifically.

I think our charter prohibits them.

No, they're allowed. Oh, your charter prohibits them, then I guess that's an issue. They are? For terminals. They're called vacation homes. They're tourist homes. They're called tourist homes.

Are they code? Are you sure they pass code on that?

Sorry. poorest homes are permitted as a special exception in the TC, PC, and MC right now.

Yeah, and I was just, so that's where I think with the intent of what ADUs were, because I think there's a lot of back and forth within even our discussion at our work session about what your, I guess, the part that came down. And we just want to make sure we're kind of

I see what you're saying because so I'm a planner and I'm getting my direction from the Maryland Department of Planning and the Maryland Department of Planning is kind of talking about how they're meant to be a place for your kids, you know, because housing is unaffordable or for your mother-in-law or your mother. And so that is what Maryland Department of Planning is communicating to planners is the intent of the ADU regulations.

Okay, yeah. So, yeah, I just want to make sure that I think some of our – I think it was the home occupation. It seemed like there was – from what came to us to what we passed, it was a little bit – it was a little bit different. I just – maybe just posing questions and stuff to you in this manner isn't meant to – Meant to be helpful not to be distracted. So yeah The one thing I did hear you say when we had talked about it our work session was in regards to you're saying emergency Homes don't have access for emergency throughout town If there's a an item you can circle back to but if there's areas through town that I issues with fire and rescue we should as a town so I would appreciate out an itemized list if work with J or however so that we know to kind of be front-facing not to say oh man first fire personnel couldn't get to areas I think that's something we should address

Yeah, that's not my area of expertise, so I wouldn't want to try to provide that because I don't believe that I have, you know, fire access. I'm the best person to assess fire access.

I was commenting on what you're – so that's what you said, the reason why certain places weren't allowed to have it was that –

Off the alleys, yes, because the alleys, because they're so narrow and they tend to be in areas with limited parking, a lot of times when there's like an alley in the back, people are parking sort of into that alley. We know that a fire truck generally can't get down that alley depending on how long the alley is and where the house is located along the alley. That's sort of a known fact of alleys that there can be access challenges. And so that's why the state allowed that language regarding alley access.

Is it because it's called an alley or is it because of the width of it?

It's because of the width of it and because it's actually referring to pre-existing structures. So if someone came in today to build an ADU and the only access was through an alley, then we would advise them to provide different access or to locate or we would work with the engineer and the county to make sure that the location of the ADU still allowed emergency access. When you're converting an existing ADU, you don't have as much flexibility. You might not have a sprinkler system. So there's just more risk in the converting your shed to the ADU on an alley than there is in another situation. And so that's why that language is in there.

So would that same restriction be used for if someone were to subdivide their parcel? So you have a house, and then if they had land, they would subdivide it? Or if there was a lot that didn't have a house, they would be allowed or not allowed to build?

So subdivision is a separate ordinance. And if you subdivide your parcel, the house is no longer an accessory dwelling unit. It's its own dwelling unit on its own parcel. So it would be subject to a different set of rules.

What if the lot was already established and it was in a road, but the width of the road was what you're saying is an alley?

So you're saying if there's a pre-existing lot with only a shed on it... No, with nothing on it. Okay, then if there's a pre-existing lot... then if they come in and ask to build a house on it, they'll be subject to the zoning ordinance. And I'm saying that specifically because there's different rules for lots depending on how big they are and what time they were subdivided. And I can't say specifically whether they'd be allowed to build a house or not.

Would it be more beneficial to get, like, an email with all the questions that he has, or you guys can have a conversation and suss that out, and anything that needs to come back before the council can come back?

So, no.

I mean, it would be beneficial for the other stuff that we have to do. And right now, you're hijacking the meeting because you keep asking questions after she answers something. There's nothing that's going to satisfy you right now. We got into Larktold. We got utility and water park. budget funds in front of us we have to move forward right now you're having a private conversation and I'm asking on the behalf of everybody else up here that we can continue that conversation so that you can get the information needed in an appropriate manner so that we can move on with the meeting and not hold up everybody else who has to have a report and I mean that with love because you know I love you but for right now Sarah needs to sit down we got to move forward because we got things that we got to get done we got you don't want to talk money Dan is next. We got to talk budget stuff tonight. We got Jay still there, Wayne there, Josh there. We got to keep moving. Right now, this is a conversation where you guys can talk one-on-one, and you can get all the questions and answers you need, and then you can report it back to us, and we can have what we need to be ready for October. But for right now, we're just all sitting here listening to the two of you have a conversation. And I don't mean that in a negative way. You know I respect and love you, brother. but I do wanna make sure that this happens in the appropriate way where it's beneficial to all and we still get the work done that we need to. No problem, just one more question. So. One more question, one more. Oh, and see.

Sorry.

I discussed. paved sections, right-of-ways. I know we have a petition here in regards to another area, but over on B Street, on the south side of town, there's a building permit that for a new house is being built on a lot, and B Street there is an alleyway. It's not a street. It's called B Street, but it was the alley according to the plat. So how is that?

B Street is a street, but also it's not an accessory dwelling unit. It's a house. So we're talking about slightly different things. So in the accessory dwelling unit regulations, there's a specific regulation that says you cannot convert an existing shed or garage into an accessory dwelling unit if that shed or garage only has access from an alley. It's very, very specific and narrow, and it's not related to new construction. And again, for all intents and purposes, B Street is a street, and that's how it's seen by the town.

Well, that's why I was asking. That was one question. Correct. But that's why I asked about what defined that, and that's where I talked earlier about definitions being very important. So if we're saying a street is defined as a street because it has a name, that's something that would be load-bearing for us as a council to know. So the definitions, which I've circled around many times, how important they are to have. Thank you.

Just you do I just want to note that you do have a separate ordinance that's not the zoning ordinance that regulates What's a street and what's not?

Then I'm not totally familiar with that Or you have a question I just have Maybe three questions or comments There's a table of uses here. Yes. Is this what's being proposed to us? I So this is what planning and zoning is getting ready to work on.

Are you looking at the data center memo?

Yes. You want to talk about that later? I think it's an item on the agenda. So, yes. Yeah. I don't specifically want to talk about only data centers, but I can do that at that portion. And then I just want to make the comment that with really anything that's going to affect the HOA, such as the ADUs, I think a proactive approach would be very helpful. I know a lot of times we like to be hands-off with the HOAs, but the HOA presidents are volunteers. They are not familiar with all the changes in our codes and how it can impact them, and they have to deal with the public probably as much, if not, maybe not more than Amelia does, but they have to deal with their public. And so I think as a town, it would be the right thing to do to reach out to them and have either a working session or a conversation and explain to them how the town and the HOAs can work together when things are being implemented that impact them, because it's really not fair to expect them to decide whether or not somebody and their HOA can construct a house or can do different things. So if you could just keep that in the front of your mind when you're doing these things, just have a plan for the HOAs and how to communicate with them and support them.

I think you bring up a good point because I've been HOA president in Chesapeake Station for the past five years. I still am. I can't seem to get rid of it. You know how that goes, right? But I do think that communication with HOA presidents makes a lot of sense, and we'll take that under advisement. Maybe we can come up with... something where we can meet with the HOAs to make sure that they're familiar and can get their questions answered. And you want to add something?

So the only thing I would say, because I think it's a point well taken, we just have to be mindful about how we communicate because HOAs are their own separate private entities. And so the town is not wanting to be in a position where we are dictating or telling them this is how you should administer your process. And I think the attorney can probably speak to that better than I can. But I think there's absolutely a way that we can to navigate through that where the town is within the town's rights and roles to communicate what's happening without overstepping into a place that opens the town up for litigation.

Absolutely. That's all I'm asking. It's just some communication and support for them. Yeah.

Makes sense.

Yeah.

I'm just going to echo a comment that Dr. Okbuda just made, which is that you need to be careful about providing legal advice to third parties. We can't do that. They can be educated about what's in the ordinance, but we can't tell them what they can and can't do that. They have to consult there.

Okay. Thank you. Let's move on. Time for the town treasurer's report. Take it away.

Mayor, you have a copy of my June report in your packets. Nothing real urgent to report. We will be discussing the utility fund and water park budgets later in the agenda. So I will just ask you to accept my report and I'm open to any questions you have.

Does anybody have any questions at this time for the treasurer?

At what point are we going to

Apply for the bond for the water park is that coming up soon of the state bond That's under In process now. I've already submitted for it waiting for them to come back with Approval or non-approval move to the next steps okay right now.

We're looking at 15 years

Oh, I thought you were talking about the bond bill. You were talking about the borrowing?

Yeah.

The borrowing was, I think you missed that meeting. The borrowing was completed, and I provided documentation as to what the rates were and the payment terms and everything, and I can share that with you after the meeting. I'll forward it to you. Thanks. The rate sheet, but we did get good rates, 15 years. I think it was 3.92%. Great. Great.

Thank you. I'll just follow up on that. I think his question was, did we start paying on it yet?

No, you pay semi-annually in October and April. So the first payment will be due in October and then April for the next 15 years.

So what is the intention as far as where we're going to document that in the budgets? I don't think it's in the water park budget, correct?

The debt service is documented in the general fund that was approved last month.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Yep.

Well, I think it should be in the water park budget, just as ENR is in the utility budget and so forth.

Very well. Moving along. Public Works Report. Jay? I see that your reports are, you've been taking some cues from your buddy right behind you there. Glad you noticed that.

I got some outside help. I heard my reports are kind of dry and short, so I appreciate the help. Hopefully they're a little more entertaining. I will tell you, I think the photographs help a lot. I really do. And I tried to add some, you don't want to see some of them, believe me. But one thing notable, we replaced some boardwalk. We replaced the benches that were missing on the trail. I did add one bench to Bayfront Park Trail that's under the shade tree on the corner. We did spread 100 tons of sand on the ball field, Bermuda sprigs, and June's the time to do that. So we should be in pretty good shape come football season. Nothing else too notable. I can take any questions.

Yeah, I was out there when Les was spreading the sand. That was quite an operation. There was a lot of sand too, wasn't it?

And I will say this, the town did, we used to borrow that sander from the county. They needed it at the same time we did. Logistics was rough. It was an older machine. So the town did buy their own at a really good rate. We have it. We have it at Public Works. So now we can do it at our convenience and spot do it when needed. And I think it'll be way more effective and pay for itself very shortly.

Great. Any questions for Jay? Okay. Thank you, Jay. Wastewater treatment plant. I still get that wrong. Josh, how are you doing?

Not too bad. How about yourself, sir?

Good.

So I want to start off. I did watch the work session from last time around in the discussion regarding ADUs. I just wanted to bring something to council for consideration. When we're looking at ADUs, you're adding on flow to the tree plant. So in some way, shape or form, we're going to need to account for those, whether it be we Just say an ADU equals 0.5 of an EDU and actually document that. We need that to keep track of the allocated flows that the plant has along with what the partners have. There is a given amount of flow that the plant is allowed to have and a given amount of EDUs that are allocated. And if we don't do that, we're going to run into some problems further down the line. So just something for consideration. For the next council meeting, I can work up a memo with my thoughts and what concerns I have for the council to go along with my regular memo.

And as I recall, each of the four entities has a certain number of EDUs. Correct. And there's even been some dispute about whether they're properly allocated. But that number is important. Yes, sir. And go ahead. Did you have something to add? Okay.

So on to the memo. so the imax is working on our plc project i reached out to them they're at about 95 completion right now they're just finalizing all the input outputs tagged into the program and just finalizing all those connections MDE has confirmed receipt of our PFAS reports, and I'm awaiting a response back from them regarding the influent and effluent numbers if they had any concerns. If anybody has any questions.

Yes, so at the end of the day, It's about the amount of water or sewer that comes to you.

That is correct. We are allowed 1.5 million gallons a day. If we exceed 80% flow over three years, we need to submit to the state for improvements to the treatment facility. So every gallon we have coming in, we need to have documented. Everything that's proposed needs to be documented. If there's added flow, we're looking at ADUs at up to 75% of the size of a property. One property is one EDU. We need to take account for those flows. If we're looking at increasing over and above what is proposed in the zoning ordinance of, I believe it was two bedrooms, bath, whatever, needs to be accounted in some way shape or form at least to a number that's being tracked on our end so inside of our

Four different partner agreements and their connection. We have Anne Arundel County. Correct. And their allowed amount of gallons per day is... 137,500 gallons. $250 a gallon a day.

They're at $250 GPD per EDU. Every other partner is at $190 GPD per EDU.

I thought North Beach reduced theirs. They're at $190 GPD per EDU. Okay, so if we're at 190 per day, are we using that for everyone? Yes, we do. Okay, but I know I personally don't use that much per day per month on average for the quarter. So if everybody used 190, would we have a functioning system? I'm not clear on your... If you're saying it's about the amount that comes to you, right? Correct. The flow. So at 190 gallons per day average, right? Correct. The amount that Chesapeake Beach has, the amount that... I guess let's start with each one. Chesapeake Beach... The amount of customers that we have times 190, what's our number? I can interrupt.

I have the actual EDU allocations and the EDU reported in use. Chesapeake Beach is reporting 2,490 EDUs. Multiply that by 190. That's our allocated flow. We do exceed that on occasion. And principally, that's caused by rain, isn't it? That is correct. Not as significant as other partners, but we do have that.

I think he's saying if everybody hits the 190 all on the same day, would you guys be able to... We would be fine. That's the number we're working with.

But if we're going to add additional flow on, we need to document it. We need to track it. How many years did you say? 2,094?

2,490. We are allocated 4,276.

Right, so you're saying that ADUs would cause us to need to allocate more.

If you're looking at an ADU at 50% of an EDU, that's 95 gallons per day. You multiply that by multiple ADUs, you're going to see an increase. You're going to see a change. We need to document that because, one, you're going to need to have that money coming in for the revenue for that added flow coming in. In some way, shape, or form, that's going to need to be tracked.

Do you have an estimated, like what our buffer is right now in layman's terms? As for? Like our maximum capacity for the plant versus our actual?

The plant is 1.5 MGD. We average, I'm thinking right now we're doing about, with how dry it's been, about 450,000 to 500,000 gallons a day.

And on your worst day, it was just over a million, I think? Our worst days, we've exceeded 1.5 million gallons.

We've been up over 2 million gallons because of I&I. Right. And that's what Anne Arundel is working on currently. That is correct. Right. And those have been, the days where we've seen that have been substantial rainfall in excess of an inch and a half, along with significant tidal inundations. That would be the storm, it was October of 22, I believe. And then one this past January.

I have one more question about the PFOA and the PFOS. It's like the limit is 25 combined and we were at about 21. I was just wondering, like, what happens if we go over that 25 parts per billion?

That I will. That goes into how Senegro handles the salads. There's a documentation from state guidance, or from MDE, and there's also a Senate bill or state bill, I can't remember which, that was put out along that. The numbers were at... um they start restricting how those solids can be applied by centigrade it doesn't really affect what we're doing on our end because the solids are coming out of the plant they've got to come out of the planet it just dictates how they can be land applied okay well that's good that we're under the number anyway so all right thanks what's the plan then because i believe that we would have more

As this policy goes into place, we would have more units that would be allowed than would be available.

We have a finite number we can use. We need to account for all the ADUs at some number, whether it be you look at it based off of the size of the current property up to, say, if it's 75%, okay, we say that ADU is 0.75 EDU. Or do we say, okay, every ADU is 0.5 EDU. Or do we go through and do a fixture count or... Square footage count, the ways that they use for commercial property to identify. But most of those calculations don't scale down well enough for a unit that's smaller than a residential property.

And if I can just jump in really quickly. Part of what we will be talking about with our partners in July is preparing for this very thing. And this will be part of the work session in July for council for you all to talk through it a bit more. Because the other aspect of bringing ADUs is that you can restrict if you don't have the capacity at your plant, right? So you just would not give people the permission to build if you don't have the capacity for flow at a plant. So that's something else to take into consideration. The other side of it is that, I mean, we budgeted in the... in the water treatment plant budget for an EDU study so that we could make sure that we are approaching our EDU allocations appropriately together with our partners as well as allocating funds to be able to look at our inter-jurisdictional agreement because right now it doesn't, I'm not sure why the decision was made for us to be at 190 one of our partners to be at 240. It makes it difficult because you're not really comparing apples to apples, you're comparing apples to oranges. So just put all of that out there because it is a conversation that needs to be had. And the reason why I asked Josh to bring it up now is because it's really so you guys can start thinking about it to have a more robust conversation in July at the work session.

Thank you. All right. Now an engineer's report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll apologize for the dry brevity of my report. Sorry. I grew up in a military household, Jamie. I'm dry, quick, and brevity. All right. You have my report. Just some updates since it was written. As Sumilia mentioned today, we had our water park progress meeting. She gave you the good news. Thank you for doing that. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. But in essence, your permits are on the doorstep. We are looking at the updated schedules and budgets, and we will get back to you once we've had a chance to review those. On the Kellum's master plan, we had a meeting. We've created some additional drawings. We're creating some additional budgets. We'll get those to you shortly. I actually looked at them today. They were looking pretty good. Beach Elementary tennis courts, we're getting ready to do some paving out there. I'm expecting that Mid-Atlantic will get to me by July 4th with a date. So it'll be sometime in July they'll be out here. That's something that happened since I wrote this last week. Also, as Samilia mentioned, the rail trail RFPs are in. We're doing the analysis. We'll get back to you on those once we finish that. And I think that's it for updates. So if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Yeah, quick question on the Seagate pump station and floodgate. Am I reading this right, that we're actually going to be able to discharge directly into the bay? Yes. That's excellent news. I mean, when we have flooding conditions, right? Now, that's excellent news. I mean, we have fought that battle for decades. So, I mean, this is huge.

So as you've read, MDA has said we need to do pretreatment before we discharge into the bay. We have to have a three-way valve. But, yes, they're willing to approve the scenario.

Makes a lot of sense. That's awesome. That way we won't flood out Baycrest. Seagate. Seagate, yeah, Seagate. Right.

Paving at Beach Elementary Tennis Courts is a parking lot, not a court, correct?

That's correct. Okay. I want a question real quick. Kellams Field on the first page, Kellams Master Plan on the second page, Kellams Field on the first page, action permit release is in progress as built process completed.

Yep.

What's the reference there?

So that's the tot lot and the storm drain pipe that we completed last year. You have an active open Calvert County grading permit, which, by the way, I may not release now. I'll tell you about that in a minute. to release the permit, we have to turn in as-bills, and we have done that. The as-bills get reviewed from a stormwater perspective to make sure the stormwater volumes we built match what we proposed. We've finished that. Now I'm waiting for Calvert County to release the permit. However, we're getting ready to build a sports court, so I may just revise that permit instead of releasing it because it would be a lot faster.

Okay. Hey, Wayne, I don't know if you've got a chance to – heard anything back from our last work session but it was a exercise equipment and it was sort of outside the draft and in 25 plus years and construction I know that certain things budgetary and in certain things the reality so I I saw what was proposed as this is the equipment that's coming and getting dropped off and we got to have a plan from there also know how helpful it is to have a good staging area and how certain areas of jobs are absolutely more important to a flowing of projects identified a few different areas just from looking at it that that would be more strategic to have a staging and phasing of projects and and I don't think starting and doing things without sort of an overview phased approach to know what is and isn't going to be done I know I'm just got it works in the the field you know I mean I'm not an engineer but I've many times seen how the reality of building things and the discussions that went into them kind of didn't have that so that's the sort of that that kind of time trying to identify if there is a plan making sure that where you are looking at how the actual production on, in reality of putting something in, like, I think the bleachers there is a, is a kind of a key staging area. I know we're, we're using it all the time behind that for whether it was the IQ fiber staging area for, I think we did it for the trash cans. They were loaded there. So, um, What's your plan about that equipment?

We are currently working on the revised master plan based on comments we received from you all and as well from the committee. It includes that sports court. We are also working on, we started looking at how we're going to build the sports court because we have to have that done this year. We're working on design of that area as we speak. Well, today we were. We'll be again tomorrow. So if you're talking about how am I going to stage the equipment to build it, I expect that as I complete the design, I'll figure that out. But I think that back parking lot is going to be pretty integral to that. That would be my staging area. But as the plans develop, I can give you more information. As of right now, we have a revised plan, which includes the sports court, and we are working on a design to revise the permit to get it permitted and get it built.

So before I usually start projects, there's phase one, phase two, phase three. So you kind of know the whole plan first and not figure it out. Figuring it out, I don't think if we are going to just figure it out over and over as a town.

Remember, that's why we're doing a master plan. And we'll finish the master plan before we build the sports court. But if we're going to build the sports court this year, I've got to get working on designs and permits.

Are you good, Dan? The Chesapeake Village, so it sounds like we got good news from, they came out, they walked around with you, they said they agree that it looks good and safe.

I wouldn't say they made any commitments. They certainly understand why we're making the change and what we're doing. And I think my summary of her comments were, yeah, this makes sense.

The downfall is we kind of have to start over with the grant process, but it looks like now we have three opportunities for grants. Are we able to apply for all three of those, or do we have to choose one?

They're all three part of the same grant process. The state makes the decision which one or which two or which three they are awarded out of.

Okay.

They get awarded out of all three grants if they choose to, and that will be part of the committee discussions they have between now and September. Now we're pretty much waiting for September for that?

Right. Okay.

Okay.

Do you need a discussion on the alternatives at this, or does that come later? It comes later.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. You've been busy. Love every bit of it.

I'm glad you do.

All right. Sheriff's Department.

So nice to see the Sheriff's Department before 9-15. How you doing, man?

We're making progress. We're making progress.

Where are you all this evening? My report's in writing, but the highlights is I had 158 calls for service. It's down from 159. All right. That's a major improvement. One less call for service from 159. April. Other than the calls for service, self-initiated items were 693, which included patrol checks, follow-up investigations, traffic stops. There was four DUI arrests, destruction of property, a few assaults, and violation of protective order arrest. Any questions on it? None? Wow. Thank you, sir. Why don't we leave? That's the only one without any questions. Oh, no, go ahead.

I had to do that. Thank you for that report. North Beach Volunteer Fire Department. Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Greetings from Chief Stanton, President Chee. I guess, did everybody get a copy of the statistical? Because I know it got delayed.

I don't know that I have that.

Okay. I'll make sure nothing jumped out, nothing special on it. I'll make sure I just got mine like 10 minutes before the meeting. That's better than 10 minutes after the meeting. Yes. Everything's pretty uneventful, pretty quiet. That's good. I believe we were going to discuss about the – Fishing Creek, and I guess there was a little bit of communication mix-up. I thought you guys wanted, like, a tactical kind of briefing, like, you know, this engine pulled up to this, this engine pulled up to this. But then I understood, speaking with you, that you were more or less looking about, like, what's going on with the property, which we have no control. But I heard you guys just got some good news. You got an update on it, so...

One thing with regard to that, though, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the fire department is willing to go into the property to pull out people's personal property and get it to them, and nobody else can do that. Am I correct? That is not my understanding. And I said, correct me if I'm wrong, but please correct me.

We had an incident where some of the residents came down to the firehouse probably a couple weeks after the fire, and wanted us to go in with them. And somebody at the rod and reel told them you had to get somebody from the fire department to accompany you to go in. And we had no knowledge of it, no information on it. We really didn't want to get into that business because this person walks up and says, that's my apartment, that's my jewelry box. We have no idea whose it was. So I actually spoke with Lieutenant Phelps. I gave him a call when that person was there, and it was the responsibility of the management to let people go in or out. We didn't want... people walking around inside the project because it's dangerous.

It's not safe.

Yeah. We didn't know what could have happened. So we have not. accompanied anybody in or out. I know we'd had some people ask us.

Okay, because I had heard that anecdotally. Obviously, that wasn't true.

Yeah, the residents that talked to me said they talked to somebody. It sounded like from the insurance company adjuster or something that was down here at the rod and reel taking care of all the business, but that was not something they had talked to us about.

I can't speak to that because I'm not sure, but I do know from the conversations that I've had with the the owners of the property that it was the liability risk and the amount of insurance it would cost to cover. It's an unstable structure for people to go in who are not trained. And so I'm not sure if maybe they thought, oh, well, the fire department might be trained and then they went down there. But the property owners have communicated that they don't have the liability insurance to cover people going in to try to retrieve it since the building has been condemned.

Yes, fair. A tactical video would be pretty cool, though. I think one of your guys posted some videos right after. It looked pretty interesting.

Right, and Chief Tippett, who was the one that... Put that all together. He just got back in the country last weekend. But he's, like you said, if you guys do want some kind of a little tactical thing.

John is going to have a cookout, and you can bring it to his house. We'll all come over there, and he'll provide the food and the beers and everything, and we'll watch it there.

Bring the fire truck. Just take it to John's.

Get your fire truck, put it right on his lawn. We'll watch it at John's house. That's the plan.

Chief Tippett said he'd be more willing to meet. Like I talked about earlier, you know, there's some stuff that they don't actually release to the public, but he could do something during the meeting or for you guys. Just let me know either way. Any questions?

Thank you for your report. All right.

Always great to see you.

All right. Time for the mayor's report. I... It was great to see our Dragon Boat team win, although we didn't have any real competition. But it's still, it's a win. So congratulations to the Dragon Boat team from about a week and a half ago, a week ago, out here in front of North Beach. I just got back from the, yesterday from the Maryland Municipal League Conference in Ocean City. And what we got, oh, we got my granddaughter up here right now. She just graduated from high school. And on the left picture, that's her mom, Michelle, my stepdaughter. And then that's Olivia, who just graduated. And then on the right picture, it's her buddy, Keely, who is a year older than Olivia, but they both are horseback riding fanatics. And so anyway, it was just great fun to see that. Um, this was, uh, this is something I had these, uh, they're scanned, but I have them up here, um, that, uh, my wife received, uh, and that is from the, that one I think is from the school board. Um, and she was, uh, named, no, actually, uh, that's, that's from, um, Mount Harmony Elementary School. My wife has served as a volunteer at Mount Harmony Elementary School since the previous picture that you saw Olivia started school there, 12 years. And she was awarded the volunteer of the year. And then to cap that off, then the school board itself uh made the present this presentation which you can see on the screen or this one right here to becky for her 12 years of being a dedicated volunteer once a week while school is in session so needless to say i'm pretty proud of my wife and so can we give her a round of applause She's watching right now. Hi, Becky. Yeah, well, she's not watching. She does not watch these meetings. Oh, there we go. Okay, and so this picture is our Dragon Boat race team. And they did really well. North Beach didn't beat us this year. Oh, North Beach didn't race this year.

But I did get to race against my wife in the first race. And that was interesting. My church was like, why aren't you racing with us? I was like, sorry, man. She was with the church, right? Yeah, and I was with the town.

So at any rate, their dragon boat races are a lot of fun. And so that was really a good thing. This is my wife just last week when we went to Ocean City for the Maryland Municipal League Conference. And we were just having some crabs at Hooper's Crab House. If you've ever been to Ocean City, it's on the main drag as you go in on the southern entrance. And man, we had some good crabs there. They were good. They were fun. That picture on the left is me with Scott Hancock. Scott Hancock is the retired CEO of Maryland Municipal League. And when I served as president of the league, he was the CEO. And we spent the whole year together. Actually, we spent three years together. Because you spend one year in training, you spend one year doing the job, and then one year in follow-up. And so I got to know him very, very well. In fact, it's really funny. When I first met him, his kids were about this big. Now they have their kids. So this goes back way. But it was great fun to see him there. He's not always there. And then the picture in the back is the people that have served as past presidents of the league for a very, very long time. I'm sure there's at least 200 years of service to the league represented in that picture. And you'll notice the old guy on the upper left there. So that was fun to get together with them, too. What do we got next? Oh, that was it. Well, I got a couple of other things then. There were some vendor displays that I attended and got some good ideas. And those of you that were there, I know, had done the same thing. I think you all walked around quite a bit. So hopefully coming back with some good ideas that will help us do what we need to do here in Chesapeake Beach. The only other thing I had down here, and this is stuff that may have already been covered, but IQ Fiber is up and running. The new seasonal employees are now at Bayfront Park in Kellams Field. Kellams Field Renovation, I mean, we saw when Les King was out there working on that. I just managed to be out there. And I'm looking forward to July 3rd fireworks and all the events that we've got planned at Calum's Field. So that's my report. All right. And so now we're going to move into resolutions and ordinances. And we're going to reverse this order, right? We're going to start with... B. Okay. We're going to vote on Ordinance O-26-13, an ordinance of the Town Council, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, adopting the annual budget for the water park fund of the town of Chesapeake Beach for the fiscal year July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. Is there a motion for approval? I'll motion to approve. Second. Second.

Discussion.

Discussion.

i think as we enter into our this chapter with the water park we should clarify and and have discussions of what we are doing with this uh for the next to get it up and running that the proposal is is for um the budget the revenue we're not really expecting this revenue to come in um if if we're i think the park at best case would be open for 30 days so by saying that the revenue for this much would be open for 30 days if we were open in by June 1st, even if it was 45 days, are we really saying that this would be our revenue? So if this is our revenue, we're approving this expense. There's no guarantee for the revenue. The best we'll be open for in this fiscal year is 45 days. And for us to say that we think we're going to have $806,000 in revenue, I'm not sure how we get to that. I think $176,000 is a grant from the general fund. But if you take that away, $500,000 is what we think we're going to make in 45 days? I don't know. I do know that we're going to have to make sure we put pieces in place to have a successful start. And I think discussing that is appropriate before we pass an expense. The only thing we're approving really is the expense. We don't have any control over the revenue. We're just approving the money to be spent.

Right. So I believe the start date was factored into their calculations when Dan and Marilyn worked on the budget. Is that correct?

The start date was assuming that the water park would be open for the full season. So the full season was 72 days. Thirty percent of those days were estimated to fall within fiscal year 27 and 70 percent in the fiscal year 28. I had given you in a detailed spreadsheet what those costs would be for 27 and 28. But the budget you're adopting is just for the 27 portion. You know, so if the date of opening is going to change, then I would agree that the revenue would change, and so would the expenditures, because the majority of your expenditures or a large portion of them are related to salaries and benefits. You know, there's other costs here that, you know, are based on the operation of the park, so your supplies and chemicals, if they're not... If the park's not running, you're not going to be expending those. So, you know, that would be reflective of the days open. Utilities, you know, reflective of the days open. Insurance, we pay that anyway, 100% beginning of the year. So, you know, insurance is not going to change. We pay that even when it's been closed. You know, so most of the costs would be reflective of the days open as well.

Right, and the day that it opens is kind of out of our hands right now. We don't have any indication that it's going to open in July or August at this point.

Well, so this starts July 1st. We know it's not going to be open July 1st because we don't have the permit yet, and it's under construction. This is saying if everything goes good and we open in May of next year. Right. I don't think we're planning on opening it May 15th. But May 15th, if we opened and everybody came every day, that would be maximum 45 days of operation. I don't think we usually open until Memorial Day. Memorial Day is like on the 31st next year. So I think we would have 30 days. possible days that this revenue that we're approving for the expenses that we're approving is based on 30 days of this fiscal year correct of this fiscal year so may 31st or whatever 25th however it is 2027 to june 30th 2027 so that many days is what we're approving the expense So $800,000 were approved to be spent for them 30 days.

Is there a motion? Let me add a real quick note. I get what you're saying. The challenge is, one, it's not $806,000 in the 30 days because $220,000 as season passes, and that will go live like Black Friday or in January and stuff as well. So there's a significant chunk of that. I think it's closer to like $395,000 to $400,000 is what would be condensed. But I get what you're saying. It's just not $806,000.

Correct. But I'm saying we're voting for the expenses. We have no control over the revenue.

Well, of course we have no control over the road, but we're voting based off of what we approved for the construction of the water park. So I think for us to assume we would budget against a missing a date, that doesn't exist.

Is there a motion before us regarding this ordinance to vote on to change anything before voting on the ordinance? Is there a motion?

So I would say the motion would be if it's based on, you said 75 days?

72 days for the season with 30% of those days falling in fiscal year 27. 30%.

So 30% of the budget is what he says.

Yeah, but individual line items may happen whether or not, you know, as Jamie just stated, season passes would all happen in season. This fiscal year, if the park is slated to open in this fiscal year. I don't think you could do a straight 30% reduction. I think the budget as adopted would be the best case scenario. I haven't heard when the park's opening from anyone. If the best case scenario is it opens Memorial Day, then this budget would apply. If you cut something out

then you're going to have to mend the budget during the year and if i recall correctly um and marilyn you may be able to help out here these numbers are based on past experience with the park as far as what comes in when am i not correct yes okay and so i there's a model for this that has you know, the 30 years it was open. So we do have that history to fall back on.

And I think this will be the trickiest year of the whole water park life. This particular fiscal cycle is going to be the most difficult to kind of guesstimate. But I think you guys did the best job that you could with the information that we have. There's just a lot of variables that we don't that we still don't know. And the opening date's one of them, but we can't... I don't know what we would change it to if we were to change it.

So in approximately 365 days, we'll be at the June council meeting next year, voting on the budget expenses for the next fiscal year, which we'll have... And the remainder of the season. just as if it was open right now, we would be voting for the remainder of the season. So it's the same situation, except the park will not be open July 1st this year. So there will no be revenue and there will not be expenses. But we're approving expenses as if it were.

Well, no, these expenses are going to be the next calendar year at the end of the current fiscal year. At the end of the current fiscal year. That's what these expenses are for.

This is fiscal year, which starts July 1st, correct?

Correct.

Please make a motion and then I have me sitting through another work session right now.

Okay. I make a motion that we postpone this budget because...

Okay, is there a second to that motion? Motion fails for lack of a second. All right. Is there any other questions? Can we move on? Can we take a vote on this?

I would just like to make a comment that I would email Dan to clarify. There was a note in our work session packet that indicated max capacity by one of the revenue lines. And he did confirm that we are not figuring our numbers on max capacity. And he cited a number of 550 to 700, I believe. So I just want the public to understand that we are not planning on max capacity.

Okay. Thank you. No motion. Quick comment. A couple of times in the work session and maybe other places and here tonight, I commented that I believe that the debt service should be reflected in this budget, so I just want to make that comment again. And also, I just wanted the public to know that we did talk about in the work session ways to make the rates more affordable for the residents of Chesapeake Beach. And those rates are still being developed, but we are leaning into that.

All right. I can make an additional comment. So also in your packet, I provided you a memo dated June 11th with a summary of recommended changes to the ordinance that I had discussed at the last meeting. These were mainly related to the administrative salaries, FICA taxes, medical life insurance, and retirement. The spreadsheet attached to that shows you what those adjustments are and what accounts. And also the budget that was introduced and what the changes to that budget would be if you incorporated these changes into it. So the 806,302 budget includes those adjustments. The first draft of the budget that was introduced is $767,606 and does not include those. So if you approve the budget that you just made the motion on, you will be approving Budget Draft 1 with $767,606 unless you make a motion to make these changes to the original draft of the budget. So just wanted to make that clear.

so the okay i'm gonna make sure that i'm on the same page here because the okay what about the this exhibit a here seems to match draft two uh exhibit a is the actual budget itself yes that so that draft that you have was based on approving these This is exhibit A that's attached to our ordinance, and this is not what we're voting on.

Correct. You're voting on the original one.

And we don't have what we're voting on attached to the ordinance that we're voting on.

It hasn't changed. It was the same one that was introduced two months ago.

We didn't make the added motions. We need to amend it based on the additional expenses.

I'm still trying to get clarity here. So we've got draft one is what was introduced, correct?

Okay.

Yeah, but the ordinance that we have has an attachment, Exhibit A, that matches Draft 2, which is not what we're voting on.

If you would like, we can make a copy of Draft 1 and provide it to you now so that you would have a clear copy of it.

I think that's a little too late. That wasn't provided during the public, like, the meeting had already started, so we can't amend it. The agenda would have to be amended. We already approved the agenda.

You've already approved the agenda.

Well, that's not what was introduced here to vote on the public meeting.

The only thing that you can approve is what's been introduced in meetings.

I think we need to have a little better discipline in place when it comes to ordinances.

If I'm reading this right, um the or what's attached to the ordinance um is the 806 302. meetings was the 767 606. okay introduced by motion and then

This attachment for 8.06 was based on adjustments to be made tonight. So what you should have had in front of you is the 7.6. Yeah. Oh.

Well, we kind of do because you provided us with everything we need. We have the draft and we have draft two. So we do have everything we need to either make the motion.

We do, but I'm just... It shouldn't be attached on here until we make the change and approve it and it becomes part of the ordinance through amendment.

Sure.

So right now we have to vote to, we made the motion a second that he wanted discussion. We can vote on the original.

Well, what we need to do is, if I could have the floor back, please. What we need to do is to make a motion to incorporate the change into the budget. Okay, so that's the first motion that we need to make. And somebody please make that motion.

I'll motion to amend the budget to reflect the $38,696 revenue and expense discrepancy.

All right, is there a second for that motion?

Second for discussion. Second.

Well, I need a second for the motion, then we can have discussion. Did you second it, Jamie? Jamie seconded. Discussion on only the amendment, the change.

I just want to understand why the amendment is needed. I mean, this is largely a... projected very ambiguous budget. So do is there a reason why we should and need to make this motion that is helpful?

I believe if you look at the document in front of you that on the expense side it shows you the four line items that are increased and do you want to elaborate on that? Can you Dan?

She was asking if it's necessary. I'd say if you feel that we are going to expend these salaries through the entire year, then yes, you should make the motion. If you feel that we're not really even opening the water park until July 1st, then you probably don't need to make that motion. So this would reflect actual projected salaries if the water park was open from Memorial Day through June 30th.

That's what the current contract is.

And if you don't do it, if you don't make the change, it's not going to, you know, make a huge difference. You know, if we are open on May 31st, you know, Memorial Day, and we need the money, we could come back to the council during the year and ask for it then.

there you go so you feel like you will be able to hire on time and do everything as planned whether we make this motion or not yes i understand it you're saying that that it is expected to spend this entire budget amount

For being open for 30 days. But I thought when I previously spoke about it, you were saying that it was less than this. So if it was less than this, because we're not going to be open in a few weeks on July 1st, 2026, if this is only for 30 days operation, I thought you said it was going to be 30%.

which is, some things, like I said, are for a full year, some things are not. So if you look back at the spreadsheet, we went over in detail at the last meeting, we took the whole operation cost for the water park for the entire season, and 30% of the time that it was open falls in the cost we think are going to fall within fiscal year 27, or shown in fiscal year 27. The 70% that are going to fall in fiscal year 28 fall within fiscal year 28. So the numbers we're giving you are based upon the best information we had at that time and the revenue and expense we thought that would be recognized for the 30% of the time it was open and the expenses that are going to be expended for that 30% fiscal year 27.

So you think that it's going to be $224,000 in salaries for the 30 days?

Yes, and the total salaries for the entire season is going to be $561,734, which was provided at the last meeting with the documentation broken out fiscal year 27-28. What you have in front of you tonight is what I thought you would need in order to make the motions tonight.

So the utilities are $60,000 a month?

It'll be an estimated $5,000 for the season with $60,000 coming in fiscal year 27 and $25,028. The reason for that is utilities, water, sewer, electric, they're all being paid throughout the year regardless of whether the water park's open. Maybe more, maybe less, but those are the estimates we came up with.

I think the attorney has something to add.

The discussion right now is on the amendment, correct? So in the amendment, we're not discussing the utilities. It's this additional amount in administration, FICA, medical and life, and retirement, correct? So I want to make sure that we're not saying just adopt it with whatever numbers and we'll come back with an amendment sometime at the end, like a reconciliation amendment. If we think we're going to spend this money in the coming fiscal year, then the amendment needs to be adopted now because you're not allowed to expend money you haven't appropriated.

That's what we're voting on right now. All right.

So... We also need to amend the general fund to do this or no?

I don't think so.

We do not.

Do we vote on the amendment or just vote on the amended budget?

Neither vote on the amendment.

All right. All in favor of the amendment, signify by raising your hand. I see four in favor. Those opposed? Okay. The amendment carries. Now, any further discussion before we vote on the budget? All in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Order to it carries. Thank you counsel.

All right.

No, it was an easy one. Yeah, it was the easier.

all right that's right we're going to vote on the ordinance um 0-26-12 ordinance the town council chesapeake beach maryland adopting the annual budget for the utility fund of the town of chesapeake beach for the fiscal year july 1 2026 to june 30th 2027 and setting rates charges and fees related to water and sewer service by the town is there a motion for approval motion to approve second all right discussion

Motion to amend. Okay.

Do you have a second? Can we discuss first and then we do amendments? I already made a motion.

I think motion to amend follows.

Yeah.

What do you want to do? Well, first I want to get in the recommended motion and So I would move to amend that we adjust the rate schedule to indicate amend Appendix A to add the wording cost varies based on request to include application fee, meter cost, and inspection fee per rate schedule to the sub-meter section of Appendix A and remove the reference to see Appendix E.

And that's provided in the memo of June 11th regarding.

Second that.

Is that a?

It's a memo. It's a recommendation from Dan.

It's on Appendix A, the fee and rate schedule. And if you look at the top of page 123, the copy I provided, I don't know if it's in your packet, it has the yellow, highlighting yellow as to what the changes would be from the current Appendix A, yes.

Everybody found it? Give us a quick explanation on why we're doing that.

So the, I think Council Member Blackwater brought this up when we first introduced the budget. The sub-meter as currently stated in that appendix says see appendix E. Appendix E is actually the application for the sub-meter and references nothing regarding cost, so it didn't make sense.

Okay.

So the cost actually varies based on someone's request, what they're requesting, size of meter, things like that. So we can't actually put a cost to it in the rate schedule. But we wanted to refer them to, you know, that it would include application fee meter costs and inspection based on their request. And, you know, we would calculate that at the time they request it.

Yeah. All right. That makes sense. Thanks. No. Comment I'm in favor of this of this amendment, but again we have the ordinance that we're voting on in front of us and The appendix a that's attached to it already has this information removed Yeah, you should have gotten both copies of the ordinance one with him on without it.

So I'll try to do better again next time I

Are you voting?

And you said that this amendment refers somebody back to Appendix A, which is the rate schedule.

Well, this is part of the rate schedule. Yeah. So it is in the rate schedule, so it doesn't refer them anywhere. It's just written into the rate schedule.

All right. Any further discussion? All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Okay, as amended. Any further discussion on the ordinance itself?

Yeah, I think we had a couple different models introduced in front of us. I want to make sure we're allowing for them conversations.

We'll have to make a motion.

Okay. We're in discussion, though.

You'll have to make a motion to adjust.

I understand. I think we're in discussion of the ordinance.

We are in discussion of the ordinance.

I'm not making a motion. I'm in discussion.

If you're going to introduce a new chain.

I'm not. I'm in discussion. Is that allowed? Okay. Can I discuss?

He wants to talk.

Okay. I mean. So we have a couple different models from the council. I think there's been some. some work that has gone into this entire item. Myself and... There's only one other person that's been on the council before us, Eric. So... Really? We... Only one other person that has a vote in here unless there's a tiebreaker. Right? I only served 28 years before. But in the voting of this, in the voting of this, are the council votes. So within that, the amount of work that we've put into this, I don't think this is new to the council. We're trying to... reinvent a wheel continuously. I think there's the 20% discount that we gave out, I thought was an offsetting amount, but I thought was too much. I think that was the 10% was the target goal. The 20% overall was, I think we sent a letter out that identified that that was a timed period, and this ordinance and the rate structure that we're putting together is our best attempt to create a balanced and predictable approach for the utility rates. Look forward to the different proposals here, but at the end of the day, I think that we've put a tremendous amount of work into this and hopefully we move forward together.

Thank you.

Very sweet of you.

Thank you, brother.

All right.

Are we ready to take a vote?

Go first.

I'll go first. I move to amend the budget by in Appendix A under Fiscal year 25 water sewer rates billed quarterly. I move to remove this entire, what is here in its entirety and replace it with a flat rate of $25 per thousand gallons So that would be eliminating the fixed fee and eliminating the tiers. And I did give each council member, the mayor, and the town administrator a worksheet. We did not go over this worksheet. I gave it to you all tonight. But I have been talking about flat rates forever. And I did not believe that there was an appetite here on this dais to pass flat rates. But I want to keep them in the front of everyone's minds, and so I am making this motion. Can I get a second?

You can have a second.

Any further discussion? Yeah.

Inside of the discussion tonight, we've heard many different things. throughout the meeting one of them was ADU Josh spoke of at the end of the day it's about the amount of sewage that comes in the amount of our consumption the one thing that I hope that we have out of our thing is that we don't have people feeling that there's an unfairness done one way or another within the bill. I think the fairness and the predictable. I think we are, need to be considerate of cost of an inflation and cost of goods so that we don't have to have dramatic changes to the bill like that were previously done. Didn't think that I was going to entertain the The fixed cost and and I think if we had the fixed usage The numbers look The numbers look like it makes sense I think maybe having a Use it or lose it part of that would be something that would provide that Predictable cost no matter what Whether that was a thousand gallons or two thousand so whether it's You get you the bot use your first two thousand gallons are you or you don't but that's AUTOMATIC BUILD ON THAT. I THINK THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING THAT WOULD MAYBE PROVIDE A WAY FOR US TO NOT HAVE CONTINUED CONTRADICTIONS OR CONTROVERSIES REGARDING HOW WE SHOULD SET UP OUR TEARS. you pay for a gallon of water, whether you drink a gallon of water at your house or your neighbor's house, a gallon of water costs the same.

Just real quick, I told Eric before, I'm very open to this conversation. However, we've talked about it, but nothing's ever been proposed until today when we're voting on it. So I appreciate the proposal. I can't validate any of the numbers in here. The water and sewer is one of our most significant infrastructures, and I personally can't vote favor of a motion to change our entire water and sewer rate structure without validating any of the information here and then I do think that it always comes back to that same question that we've had over the last year is is is there a fixed fee for access to water and sewer or is there not right so if you turn your tap water on whether you use Water or not should you pay the baseline cost for us to maintain our systems? And I in I'm interested in the conversation.

I've just Eric we talked about as I'm not in support of this just because it's been prevented and I'd like to I'd like to go on to that because a lot of the cost of the system is maintaining the infrastructure and And whether you use water or not, the infrastructure has to be maintained. And that's what we're paying for with the fixed rates. So I think we need to be careful here, but I just wanted to point that out.

i was going to say something similar to that i wish we would have um maybe brought this up to new gen so they could maybe explain that possibility a little bit more but yeah my understanding is that like you said the fixed fees are important for budget stability and making sure we we capture um at least a certain amount of the

And whether you use any water or sewer or not, you still have to have all of the pipes in the ground and all of that infrastructure. And then there's the master infrastructure for the town that we amortize that across the users. So I think that the current proposal, in my mind, is a good one.

a good option. You know if any other towns are doing that?

I just want to say whether you're for it or oppose it that is what it is but to say that this is something new is crazy to me. It makes me laugh because I've been talking about this since day one in office even before we did the new gen stuff I sent around proposals and Excel spreadsheets with these exact

ideas on them a year and a half ago and have brought it up continually every time we talk about the water water rates, so all right Yeah, I think the reason why I think that it definitely took traction Now is because where I thought we had solved it it it still feels unsolved and And that's my number one goal To have one the right priced items. So it's not too much, not too little. It's that we take care of our system, that we take care of our infrastructure, but also that we don't have to have our residents guessing of, oh, did that person get a better deal than that person? And I thought we did put a... I think Jamie did a great job putting it all together. I mean, everyone did. We engaged so much. But I... If we're going to go back to ripping apart that work, I'd rather just go back to a simple structure of fixed fees than anything else. That's sort of, if I was going to make an adjustment from all of that, it would be to end the argument and just go with a flat rate. It's sort of where I'm at with it. I don't know. I just, that's where I'm at with it.

Okay, so we have a motion for amendment. I'd like to call a question at this point in time. Those in favor of the amendment, please signify by raising your hand.

Three, two.

Two, okay, we have two in favor. Those opposed, raise your hand. Okay, so the amendment fails, four to two. Now, I'd like to call the question on the budget.

I'd like to move to amend.

Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry.

So I would like to make a motion to change the proposed rates, reflect the following rates.

That's this. Water. Is that this? Yes.

And I'm looking at the first. I did provide options if anybody was interested in adjusting this amendment. But I would like to propose the water rate at Tier 1, 2.192. Tier 2, 2.328. Tier 3, 2.472. and tier 4, $3.21. For the sewer rate, I would like to amend it to tier 1, $6.784. Tier 2, $6.992. Tier 4, tier 3, $7.224. And tier 4, $9.37. to make those rate adjustments. I'd like to adjust line 400-6900-825100 to read 235. A revised budget column to read 330 488 and for line. And for total revenues. And for line. 400 Dash 440010. to reflect to be subtracted by $176,781. The revised budget line would read $830,796. And then in line 400-441010, subtract that line by $58,875. And the revised budget line item would read $281,454. So that's the formal motion. And my reasoning behind this motion is... Second, thank you My reasoning behind this motion is this Reducing the water rates was one of our campaign promises and we did do that Effectively It wasn't exactly the way any of us wanted to do it, but we did do it another thing that we did do is we more accurately than previously reflected the utility fund budget. And again, it was not exactly accurate. It still isn't, but we are moving in that right direction. And I think that it would be a mistake for us to raise the rates as much as the newly proposed rates have been proposed. I think that I think that we had a lot projected in our capital improvement budget that in the general fund that that went unspent and so We have the saddle in the general fund, and that's fine. We voted on that. That's the way it is this year. We also projected reserves into this utility fund budget, and we do have the ability to not raise rates on our constituents in the area of necessity use. So I did propose what equates to a 20% reduction of Councilman Scholl's proposed rates in tiers one through three, which represents essential use for most households. And then in tier four, I left that rate as proposed. And I think that once you get into the higher use of water, you do have that ability to make choices and conserve. And in some cases, you are making a profit off of it. But even if you aren't, you are expending so much water that you can do things like double your load or you can... not fill your pool up so often. All those things in the higher usage would apply. So that last tier is designed. It jumps a little bit faster. I didn't apply a 20% reduction in the proposed rate to that last tier for those reasons, but I did apply a 20% rate reduction in the other areas, and I left the fixed fees alone because I think they are important for stabilization so that is what this motion includes it would be a reduction over the rates that people pay now in the tiers not overall um But I am open to discussion. I even suggested some alternatives on this piece of paper to keep our campaign promise, continue to stabilize the budget, and provide maybe a different sort of relief elsewhere. So I'd appreciate it if you guys take a look at it. It is based on Councilman Schultz's tiers that he suggested. And so that's my motion unless somebody wants to amend it.

Just one quick question. When you said the rates, did you say 2.568 or 3.21 when you were saying your motions? Because I thought I heard a different number than 3.21 during the actual motion.

For the water rate...

I see from here, but I didn't know if you said 2.568 or 3.21. That's why I sat up, because I knew you wanted to keep that fourth tier where it was, but I thought I heard a different number under the actual motion that we'd be voting on. So I just wanted to make sure that the 3.21 was said that we would be voting on for the motion.

We need an instant replay. She did. When she verbally read or stated her motion, the fourth tier numbers remained the same as they are in... But she did say 3.21 is what you said?

Yes. Okay.

There you go. There is one proposal that represents a 10% decrease in that number.

Okay. Well, but that's not what we're talking about.

That's not what I motioned. Right.

I have a question for you. So the reduction in the reserve, is that the 235-656 number? Correct. Okay. How do we know that the reduction in these rates would result in that number?

Because every user pays. Every user is included in most of those, and they're based on projections from Dan. So we have numbers in those.

But you provided numbers of the number of users in each tier?

No. I can maybe give a better explanation for it. So all of the other expense line items are projected to happen no matter what you do with the rates, salaries, you know, everything on there. The reserve is basically a surplus of funds in the budget. So if you are reducing your revenue up above, you're going to need to reduce your surplus because you're not bringing in.

Yeah, but how do we know that that's the result of that reduction in revenue is the result of the changes in the rate?

Because I've taken the rates that she has given and plugged it into a spreadsheet that calculates how much revenue will be generated.

lost on the water and sewer usage based on those new rates okay so somewhere within that formula has got to be the number of users in each tier roundabout yes that was all taken you've done the math you're telling me you've done the math okay thanks here but we did

Tier 1 through 3 definitely has the most amount of users by volume, obviously.

I don't recall offhand, but the amount in the budget that NewGen proposed was drastically higher, I believe, than... and was proposed. I don't have it handy. I don't know if anyone does. But I thought they had recommended that we had a certain amount in reserves. Like, as an accountant, you kind of have, like, what a good budget, like a good baseline budget. I think we have that emergency or the rainy day fund. That's based off of, like... 10%. Is that based off anything?

Yeah, it's based on 25 percent of your general fund budget. But the general fund is different from the treatment or the utility fund. Utility fund, you know, you need to plan for the capital expenditures. You know, if you just did away with the treatment or the I guess the. water and treatment plant you know you would not have any expenses related to that that's not going to happen general fund so in general fund 25 is a rule of thumb to keep in reserves for a rainy day so it's the reserves that nugent calculated were based on what are going to be your capital needs as you move forward and we're way below what they've said to do do you recall Member Schultz was more into the... And, Laura, I can appreciate...

I think we all want to keep the bills as least as possible, but I just think... That's what happened, and then it went to the huge increase with the last time. I just, I would be more, I would have been interested in trying to hear what our, that number with new gym was way higher that we were supposed to hold in our reserve. So I think I'm hearing you say that you want to pull some of that money out of that. Am I hearing that correct?

That's what this motion would do.

Yes.

I'm Okay with that for a couple of reasons. The first reason is we didn't actually reflect an airtight, accurate utility fund budget. We still have salaries that aren't in there. We still have projects that are in the general fund. So really, to say that we are budgeting the utility fund in the manner that NUGEN recommends vastly inaccurate. But we did make progress towards going there. So, as a happy medium, rather than put a large burden on the residents and their rate structure to meet the one goal, which is the reserves, I think that a more gradual approach, since we're taking a more gradual approach holistically to stabilizing this fund, is more appropriate than raising the rates higher and as high as proposed right now.

So what I was understanding, and remember, I wasn't a party. I didn't join until August. You know what I mean? So I wasn't inside of all the different conversations. So if I'm... So what I remember is the reduction in, like I said, I wasn't part of what went into that, but what I understand is where the rates were before the 20% discount from the general fund was given. I am under the impression that the rates that we have are sort of like a 10% reduction from that rate, generally, in a general sense. So our rates that we have right now have a 20% discount. Our proposed rates that are... that are in the original motion here are an increase, but they're not a 20% increase. So they still reflect a discount or a rate recalibration or however it's going to be, whatever that, I guess, clarification of it is. So I think that's sort of the best we can kind of... I just, I'm not sure what went into the 20%, but I thought it was a little too grand.

I'll recognize Jamie because he's the one that really did that analysis.

Yeah, I'll respond to that. There's a couple challenges that I'm having with this conversation. And to be honest, We keep saying that there's a rate increase. There is not. The rate table presented in the ordinance today is lower than the rates in 2025. Again, the lowest rate in 2025 for Tier 1 was $3.27. The highest rate being proposed today in 2027 is $3.21 for Tier 4. So for example, tier one has a 53 cent reduction in its rate in the proposed table. So when we continue to say that there's an increase now, and I use this example during the work session, it's like when you join a new phone company or you join a, you get your internet somewhere and they give you a promotional rate for the first year and then you'll pay the actual rate. So we decided, We decided 18 months ago to give a 20% reduction in rates while we took the time to understand how we got to this huge spike in rates. And that's what we promised on the campaign. We did that. It's time now for the discount. that is not grounded in any value or any information. It's just a discount that we notionally came up with, which, by the way, I would point out was lower than we were trying to achieve. I was trying to get a 25 or a 30 percent discount or even roll back to 2024, but that was not concurred with. uh so that's there the the math numbers though are not aligning so the proposals that you're offering is 20 off of the already reduced numbers so for example your tier one actually is a 33 reduction your tier two is a 30 reduction your tier three is a 28 reduction so when we start talking about pulling from the reserves i i don't understand the impact that that's going to have and then the number of times lordy i'm a challenge on this the number of times you have sat up here and said we are draining the general fund, or we're pulling from the capital improvement projects to pay for this, and then now when we're still offering a reduction in rates, you're saying let's pull from the reserves, which are for our future. So if we think of, If we think of what you called out salaries, right? We removed a couple hundred thousand dollars in salaries from the utility fund. You brought up saddle projects a few, a month or two ago. That was a half a million dollars. And whatever else you think belongs in there, we're getting close to a million dollars that would go back in the utility fund. We would be, in next year, when the same conversation comes up again, We have to explain to residents why we're about to add a million dollars potentially back in there or how you're going to spike up. So when we had that rate spike in 2025, this is that. This attempt here was to balance the budget, reduce the rates, and balance the budget over a handful of years and not look at it in a myopic view where we're just looking at it year by year. You have to look at the rate structures in like a five-year view because if you look at it in 2027 only, well, we may have a ginormous capital improvement in 2028 that we need to prepare for. And we do. I mean, Josh, we have some big projects that are due in, I think, 2028. So if you take that money today, we have to pay for it in the future, and that will have to come from somewhere in the budget. And so I had asked that question, where do we pull it from? And the answer is the reserves. And we are reducing the rates. I'm not for taking from the reserves because that was a huge point of our work with NewGen. So thank you.

So I will respond to that. First of all, this is a complete 180 on everything you campaigned on. But... Point of order.

I don't understand why there's a partial attack with that.

Well, because now we're prioritizing reserves where we spent the whole year discussing whether or not we should accurately affect reserves. reflect this fund. And this was one of our initial conversations.

I'm sorry. I don't follow that because what he just explained is how we've gotten to this proposal, which has nothing to do with that.

Okay. Well, when I look at this proposal, what I see is a 30, I'm looking just at the final sewer line, a 31 cent in what was a huge rate spike for everybody. And in the lower tiers, that's household necessity youth that absorbed an enormous rate spike. People were enraged. People up here on this dais stoked those fires. And to say that one year later, we're going to go back to those rates minus a little $0.31, basically, and effectively, from the rates that we gave them when we took office, they will be raised in that category $1.87. So to me, that is unconscionable, and it's not appropriate right now.

I'm so sorry.

Another thing is... Just a minute. I don't know what the big expenditure is in 2028, but I really hope it's not a data center on the builder up site because that has nothing to do with what we're talking about. Absolutely nothing.

All right.

I want to put this burden on residents when Right now, is that what we want to do? We want to be happy.

we want to come to a consensus on what we're going to do about the rates. And I think it's time to stop discussing it. Now, we have a proposed amendment. That's correct, right? That's correct. Do we have a second to that proposed amendment? And we did. I think we vote on the amendment. Yes or no? If you're in favor of the amendment, signify by raising your hand.

Aye.

right we have two in favor if you're opposed raise your hand we have four opposed the amendment fails okay all right let's move on so now can we go ahead and vote on the ordinance as presented motion motion to amend seriously yes seriously okay let's hear it motion to amend

revenue lines four zero zero dash four six where it says fixed fees I would like to have fixed fee water fixed fee sewer fixed fee Bay in in in our revenue oh we and then also in our expenses so we see the money second Maybe add parentheses to the bay fee stating that it's not a town imposed fee Oh, so I was saying and then have that on the expenses so it would show that The money in and the money out so where we just show fixed fee now as one item It's basically just a little small fix that creates a lot of easy transparency, like when we did with the rental licenses, where they just have that as its own line item. I know Eric doesn't like line items.

So that's...

Okay. So that's what we were discussing at the work session, Dan. You said it wasn't that difficult to do, correct?

Yes, but I didn't calculate it. figures for tonight's meeting, so I cannot give you a figure for those. I mean, if you pass it, it's not going to change from $1,678,000. It's just going to break that out into two accounts. Bay restoration would be adding a new revenue line item for bay restoration, adding a new expense line item for that. So I think that's what your motion...

Yes, that's what my motion was about. Okay, and we had a second.

I would have him in numbers, then

It should all equal out.

I don't have those numbers now.

Understood. We understand the intent. I think it's like $15,000.

It's about $30,000 or something. It's nothing. But it's in and out.

Let's take a vote on the amendment. Okay. All in favor of the amendment, please indicate by raising your hand. It's unanimous. Okay, so now... Sorry, Laura did not return.

Oh, I thought you did. Yeah, I think I understand. I didn't understand the part of the difference in price because... Because the base fee is not currently...

Represented in them I reflect as revenue or an expense because when we actually book it it's booked as a liability It doesn't show up as a revenue or an expense because it's something that we send to the county so we book it as a liability when the bills go out to the residents and when the residents pay the bill we reduce the liability by The amounts they're paying on the Bay restoration fee. So therefore it's not shown as a revenue or an expense but That's an accounting thing, and that's why it's not shown there currently, but it's something I could do.

So you're adding in a revenue and an expense of the Bay restoration fee that is dictated to us anyways. Right, which is $30,000.

I'm going to negatively affect financially.

All right. Are we ready to vote? Yes. All in favor of the amended ordinance signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

All right.

All right. So give me a show of hands. All in favor, raise your hand. Okay. That's four in favor. Opposed? Raise your hand. Okay. For the 2 in favor, the motion passes. The ordinance is as let's have a party. You know what as painful as it has been to go through this, this has been a good discussion and I'm, I'm grateful for the council to. Being so involved in and and. Working so hard to do the right thing and I mean that sincerely. We are done with resolutions and ordinances planning and zoning Commission. Reports of officers boards and committees and commissions.

Do you want me on data centers or on the? Okay, sorry.

Planning and zoning.

Planning and zoning is continuing to work on modernizing and simplifying the land use table and the standards for use of that land use table and other pieces that have kind of gotten pulled into it. We would like to request if we can have sort of a timeline of when you'll be bringing it forward, and we can continue to work on it until you're ready for it. That way we can make sure that it is tighter. And then, of course, if there's anything you see in it that you think we kind of got the wrong end of the stick on, if you could let us know, that would be helpful.

I guess I can follow up when you just meet up and I'll go over.

Okay. I would maybe say that we would bring it up line by line because I know that we can – well, I don't know, actually, because I would just ask us. We need to think through that because I think it might be harder to do a full table to get concurrence on a full change versus trying to address individual items that may be easier than others. That could be painful, but I'm just being honest.

So I was hearing you were asking for input. Was that correct?

I was asking for input. Partly it's timeline on when you're going to bring it up. I think you do have to look at it cohesively as a whole unit because it is actually a repeal and replace because of what we've done to make things simpler. Instead of, like I was up here kind of scrolling through the land use table trying to find a specific thing, we've rearranged the whole land use table to make it easier to find things.

All right, well, I rescind my comments. They got lost ourselves as well.

So I think you all have to look at it as one whole package. And I think that the Planning and Zoning Commission can make continued improvements to it. And so sending it to you now, if you're not ready for it, means that there might be some missing improvements. So that's just my request on behalf of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

So that's not what we talked about at the beginning of the meeting. We talked about getting at least the data center piece through.

So there's another item on this agenda about the data center piece.

Okay. So we're not there yet. We're just on this table of uses?

No, we're not on that table of uses.

So that table is part of the data.

This is the planning and zoning report. Normally this is somewhat... So our planning is one of those. So what I'm kind of asking for on their behalf is more time to review public comment, make adjustments to what they're working on, unless you're ready to bring up this big 65-page document and start working on it.

And part of why Sarah is bringing this up now is because there was a request before for the planning and zoning to kind of fast track the review of the land use table as a whole. But it needs a comprehensive discussion. And so what she's asking for is if the council is not ready to review it at the next work session or town council meeting, if the planning and zoning can continue to work on it. refine it so that when they present it to you, it's more ready to be reviewed as a whole and the council can look at it as a whole, as opposed to trying to meet that fast track deadline that was requested for by council a couple of months ago.

So I'm never for fast tracking anything, but I would say that If there are things in this table and I did highlight some because it was presented to me that were included by the previous administration that might need to be fast tracked, then you might want to pick those items and bring them to us. I don't think we should be permitting anything with a P that we don't know how to regulate. So I don't only see data centers in here. I see bio-manufacturing and I see That's the one that stuck out, but really anything with a P that doesn't have...

So biomanufacturing is something they've already made adjustments to. What you're looking at is some attachments to the memo on data centers, and those attachments are provided just for illustrative purposes to show you that currently data centers are allowed and that a part of the chart that the Planning and Zoning Commission is working on now is... No, for data centers. So that's it's just to illustrate that it's not done. It's draft form. And so we can discuss that at the data center discussion. And then maybe there are additional things you all think should be fast tracked, we can fast track them the same way that we're going to be fast tracking, theoretically, fast tracking data centers, I think you all are united on that. So we can absolutely do that. This is a 65-page document. You're not going to get through it in one work session. It's not going to happen quickly. There's things you want to do quickly. We should do them quickly. But if the Planning and Zoning Commission can have a little more time with this until you're ready to bring it up, that would be helpful, and you would get something cleaner. Right.

So you are retaining the special exception and the special exception with conditions. Is that correct?

No. So I have a very big problem with that. So the Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending a reduction in the types of the way the table is formatted. Right now, there's permitted with conditions. There's special exception. There's special exception with conditions. So there's a whole bunch of different abbreviations when you're looking at the land use table so in simplifying what we said is okay right now you need a conditional use because you have you have your land use table and then you have a section called conditions for it's like called conditions and standards for conditional and special exception uses What the Planning and Zoning Commission said is like, how can we simplify this? And so instead of having a section called Standards and Conditions for Special Exception and Conditional Uses, we have a section called Standards. Every single item on the table now has standards. That's not currently, well, not now, in the draft that the Planning Commission is working on, will have standards. Right now, every use does not have standards and conditions, and doesn't even all have definitions. So, we're correcting that, so you don't actually have to say it's a conditional use, because it has to fit the standards so if it's permitted it's permitted but it still has to meet all the standards in there so it's automatically conditional and easier and simpler for people to look at so that's the thought behind that so that works for some things um but as you know the the special exception as a that's still in place so you can still write special exception there are still as

way that it's permitted yes rather than okay yes because that's important because there are going to be uses that are not straightforward that we might maybe want to permit but they might have some nuances to them and they'll go to board of appeals wants to direct or you know review at least so yeah so I'm happy to hear that you're not getting rid of the special exception because somebody did try to get rid of it at one point.

It's just not a special exception with conditions because there's already conditions for every single use.

Right. But you can still, instead of a P, for example, under biomanufacturing... That's not going to exist anymore, so... Okay, well, say there's some other land use that we don't really want, but maybe there's some one-off situation where it does comply or whatever... you could write special exception rather than P. And even those uses that maybe we want, but we want to have some oversight on, should say special exception and not P, because P gets you in a lot of legal problems in some cases.

Right, so the Planning Commission... has thought about all of that on all of the uses on the table. And so when you get it wherever it's at, you're going to get the planning commission's thoughts and votes on that particular issue. There are less special exception uses coming at you because, again, we were asked to simplify and modernize. And some stuff that was a special exception doesn't in a more modern, doesn't have, in a modern ordinance, doesn't feel like it still needs to be a special exception. That doesn't mean you agree with the Planning and Zoning Commission's recommendation. You may say, hey, we asked for this modernization, but on this use, we're really not comfortable with it, and we want to keep a special exception. That's why we are going to go through it together, and it's going to take a while.

So... sarah i i think uh i i would actually flip the question back to planning and zoning and say when would they feel prepared to start sending stuff our way so we could have a quality conversation instead of trying to guess at what we think is coming i think that's exactly what you're getting towards lori um that said i do want to clarify because i i was the one who made the motion to for us to to ask planning and zoning to expedite some stuff But it was surrounding ADUs, but that was tied back to the fact that there was a state legislation occurring at the time. I know we didn't have a lot of clarity, but we've moved forward. There was home-based businesses, which we've already solved. And then there was discussions around short-term rentals because we were doing... uh some of the work that dan and the team were doing um but i think the intent was modernizing and simplifying the language in there but they're outside of that it wasn't just russia something that's not of quality so that's why i would flip the question back about that on wednesday of next week so here's here's a suggestion that might be really simple

If we have a definition of what we consider a permitted use of data center and have a, like size-wise, right? Because if we could say a data center where it's permitted and we have in the marine area and we have a maximum size So it can be a reduction, and we don't have to worry about some super big thing for us all to have to feel rushed through this thing. I don't mean to piss you off. The data center is the next one.

This is just land use table in general. It's in there. I know, but we have a specific discussion around the data center. I'll be back up.

That's what this is. This right here.

That's Cindy's report or Chair Greenville's report.

Thank you so much. Go ice your knee.

All right. Moving along. A Board of Appeals no hearing was held. That was a short and sweet report. CBOX.

Nothing other than what's in the report, but thank you for having the Huntingtown guys up here. They were really excited about coming to present. They were really excited about being able to have the opportunity to do the drone thing, but to come here was was special. So it was cool. Thank you all.

Thank you. Thank you. Please run away.

Please get away from now.

Let's get away from them. You did great. We can read this. Get away from them. Thank you. Thank you.

Economic development. No report. That was short and sweet. I like that. Thank you very much. Green team. Green team.

The same team provided their reports, and it was an agenda for reading. I did not talk to Melanie to find out what she wanted me to highlight, but Sue is here.

I wrote the report. Not supposed to be the representative anymore, but I did write the report. Not too much. We are working with Jay on planning for the pocket park at the end of Kellams Field. We're going to be putting in, proposing a food forest, which is going to be more of an educational setup than a real food forest where people can walk through and grab cartons of fruit. But what we're planning to do is get native fruit species, one or two of each, set them up, set up some signs that say this is why it's important. They're native. You can grow these in your backyard. It's good. It's healthy for you. That kind of stuff. So we're in the process of planning that now. We're going to come up. We had to get some measurements. We're going to come up with a budget and combine it with the budget that Jay has to propose for his end of it and the landscaper. So that's our big project we're working on right now.

So the watering part about plants or something getting watered, it'll be addressed. You'll have that. I think there was some things that I was hearing that there was plants that were wanting to be watered more often or not. You'll have it addressed.

That's that. Well, for that specific area, yes. We're working with that. But just in general over the years, we have planted some gardens and the watering hasn't. We haven't. We've... miscommunicated with the landscape or on the watering. So we've struggled with that, but we're working on having communications set up and a process set up to make that happen should we plant more trees or plant somewhere, develop a garden somewhere. There's nothing specific right now that we have an issue that needs to be resolved.

All right, well, however we can help, you know. Yeah, yeah.

No, the food forest, we definitely have a plan on the watering for that. We're working with Jay on that. So going forward, we've got a better plan for... resolving those issues up front with the landscaper before we go off and do stuff.

Thank you. I love the food forest idea. That's cool.

We had a really nice conversation with the lady from the company that's proposing the Helms Field whole thing, the whole refresh, because we just would like to be included in the loop on that in places where landscaping is going to happen. And she is very, very, very big on doing food for us. So we're thinking she's going to do some proposing in the grand scheme of Kellams Field to expand that. And anywhere where we're planting trees, it might be a combination of just trees and more food forest stuff.

I'll tell you, though, I have a peach tree. And every year when they get ripe, the landscapers take them all. You better talk to Jay's guys. That's true. They don't eat all your fruit.

we'll it's getting about that time of year we'll be there tonight so well thank you again thank you all right twin beach uh community health coalition okay fine that's a good report walkability committee That's a good report. Water Park Committee, have we talked about that enough?

No report. Maybe next month we'll have a meeting.

That's a good report. Thank you. We might get out of here before midnight. All right. And new business. Consider... and approval of a motion authorizing the mayor to execute the National Fitness Campaign purchase order for the Studio Fitness Court project in the amount of $185,000. You have the document in front of you, the purchase order, I believe. Is there a motion for approval?

Motion for approval.

Is there a second? Any discussion?

All in favor? No, hold on. Like I was talking with... I'm sorry, go ahead. Like I was talking with Wayne, having a full plan in place before we spent $185,000 to get equipment when we... Like, it's not ready for that. I'm not in favor of purchasing this equipment.

I'm going to say that I understand your concern with that. We did talk about that at the work session. Since that discussion, the master plan with the fitness park on it was shared with everybody. So I feel a lot better about that concern, and I'm ready to vote for this.

Okay. I just want to clarify the $50,000 that you guys found, I guess, we can use that for this, correct?

We can use it for anything that is associated with Callum's Field.

Okay.

So this would qualify?

Yep.

Sounds good. So the plan for when, if we say we get it, it gets delivered, where does it get stored?