Town Council - Regular Meeting

Order. The Town Council meeting for July 16th, 2026. If you'd stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Pledge of Allegiance.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Motion to approve. Second. Second. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. This is the opportunity for public comment on any item on the agenda. Is there anybody in the public that wishes to comment on any item in the agenda? If so, please come forward to the podium. Seeing none, we will move forward. Is there a motion for approval of the minutes of the June 18th, 2026 public hearings? Motion. Second?

Second.

All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Is there a motion for the approval of the minutes of the June 18th, 2026 town council meeting? I approve. Okay. Second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? The ayes have it. Is there a motion for approval of the minutes of the July 7th, 2026 informational work session? Motion to approve. Second.

Second. Discussion. Go ahead. I had kind of read off a statement in there, and I wanted that to be included. There I kind of deferred comment, and I thought the comment kind of had some merit to it. So if you want to give me a quote exactly, or if you want to make a general reference, but we just think we've discussed the minutes and things like that. We just approved the minutes from the town council work session that had counsel and quoted on public comment, but then something that was substantial that was during the work session wasn't done. So how would you like to handle that? Yes. So, One of the items that we've discussed is with public comment. During, so the meeting minutes we just approved had a quoted for public comment, a councilwoman that was quoted. So, which is one way or another, it's not a problem, but if someone makes a statement, has some some substance to it like what's the determining factor of what gets recorded not recorded I think that's a question has been raised many times so so on the June 18th we just approved that and in public comment of that it has it has The three public comments quoted.

However, on the July 7th work session, I had a substance of... Additionally, some things that are... Well, we had our quarterly water and sewer partner meeting yesterday with our partners from Anne Arundel County, Calvert County, and North Beach. We had our town planner on that call specifically because... of the ADU conversation just to make sure that all of them.

My first question is I noticed this logo and then I see something here that says the update of the signage and that they're at the front of the town. So I'm just wondering are we rebranding? What's going on? That's a great question.

I'm not planning on rebranding.

We're not planning on rebranding our lace-making logos. So the boat transom, which is what most people are familiar with seeing with the town of Chesapeake, which is on the mayor's shirt, the only update we made to that was to change the gold welcomes you to blue because the gold, when it gets faded, is difficult to see. So that is now blue, and it will say welcomes you on those logos.

And I didn't want to fade out.

You didn't want to fade out. So those will be on the signs. The circular logo is something that you're going to start to see more in municipal operations, primarily because the boat transom is very difficult to work with whenever we're trying to create graphics, whenever we're trying to update anything. It's just very difficult to work with. And so a true circular logo is... It's just easier to create collateral with digitally. So you'll see that in things like our letterhead. You'll see that in things like the insert that's coming out and the utility bills that will be mailed out. You'll start to see it more than in our signature lines. But the boat transom is such a big part of the personality and understanding of what the town is, the history of the town, that there's no intention of changing that throughout. It's really, that's a front-facing logo, and then the internal municipal operation side of things will have that.

Right. Can we have Sarah add comment about that memo that I'm going to submit?

I want to make sure that we have it finished off.

I just want to make sure that the speed enforcement program is a no change program.

Right. The ordinance will still be in effect. We're just changing the vendor.

None of the speeds have changed. Nothing else. I just have one suggestion for the zoning code and the comprehensive plan to put it at the top of the planning and zoning page because people rely on those two documents the most when they're coming to develop.

Doning code and comprehensive plan at the top.

Well, when you go to the planning page or just somewhere, it's at the bottom right now, I think three pages in, and somewhere more forward, more accessible would be a good place for them. Aquahawk is good. I checked that page and it's I mean, I didn't go into it because I don't like forms, but it looks like it's very easy to use, and I think that will be helpful. And then, you know I got some correspondence from residents about some of these easements, and I'm just wondering what kind of plan or is there a plan for addressing them? I know it's a weird situation, hard to do, but like, you don't have to tell me now, but it's not anything that we can just ignore.

Right. And there's no plan to ignore it.

Yeah. So I would, you know, I would be interested in knowing how we solve that. Just, just and knowing some of the details. And my last thing is, and this is not being said facetiously, but I'm glad we're getting a lot of bike racks. That's awesome. Put them throughout town. That's great. I don't think we need one at Bayfront Park at this moment just because there's really nowhere safe or legal to ride there.

Understood and the only reason why we have it there is because we have staff who go there and some of them do get there by their bikes But I have noted that and I will They haven't been installed yet.

I'm happy to make it legal And make it safe. But right now the only place that is both safe and legal is that bike path? There's no way to get there leading up from any direction to a bike rack on the front park and I just have to highlight that because I would like to remedy that situation in our town. And that is all for me. Thank you for your report.

Thank you. All right. Can we move on? All right. Time for the treasurer's report.

Remember, I was saying if Sarah... Okay. I was asking for Sarah to have some input on the question I brought up with stormwater in the memo.

Can we do that when planning and zoning comes up?

This is her report.

Is it about Sarah's report or the Planning and Zoning Commission?

I would say it was hers because it was in regards to the October email I sent her in regards to the stormwater.

We're not on the agenda on moving from the town administrator report to the town treasurer's report. So this is treasurer time. We're going to talk treasurer talk. Let's talk money.

Hopefully I won't be as long as the town administrators report, but you do have my report in your packet. Just a couple items to note. As you know, the budgets have been completed. They're all published. We've input those into the accounting records. We're starting to work on the annual audit. The auditors are scheduled to begin their field work on September the 14th. We anticipate having the audit complete by the end of October and the reports to the state by the October 31st deadline. We've also begun the employee compensation and classification plan project, so that was kicked off this last month, and we're looking to stay on target to get that completed. The other items on the report, I'd be glad to answer any questions on those if you have any.

One thing I noticed, we had been getting previous, like an itemized expenditure list, and we don't get that anymore. Why did we stop doing that?

Wasn't an itemized expenditure list. It was an expenditure list of anything over $10,000, and that's still included in there. As long as I've been here, that's all that was provided.

Otherwise, it would be about 30 pages long or something. It would be very lengthy because the amount of... money that goes to various providers and so forth is pretty intense, and I see it every month in my role.

And I have to sign off on it. So the singular check or vendor for monthly total, so is that would be like 10,000, less than 10,000 monthly total or? Each on that.

Other than that was pretty much all we went over during the partners meeting.

Can I add to that? Because since I sat in on that meeting, I want to say that I'm really proud of one thing. The first partner meeting after this administration took over was very hostile. and the partners were very upset with what's going on. The meeting yesterday lasted just about an hour, and it was completely cooperative and great communications among all four entities, and I want to commend the staff and everybody that has been instrumental and improving that because they deserve a lot of credit. We've come a long way since this administration took over. And that was a really good, productive meeting yesterday. No disputes. We just worked our way through issues. And I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of the staff.

And what I'll add to that is, just from the ADU standpoint, it seems like As Josh has said, Calvert County is already very clear about how they're going to do it. Their situation is different than ours, though, right? Because they're dealing with the full county. They have people who have three acres. Maybe the house is very large. So ADUs there are going to potentially look different than ADUs here. And so I think that's just something to take into account as we continue this ADU discussion into the next work session, that our solution – can and may need to look different because the landscape here is different. Our footprint is much smaller.

I just wanted to ask, who are the representatives for the other partners? I know North Beach would be like the mayor and the town administrator.

Oh, it's not the mayor. It's the town administrator and the head of public works. Okay.

Who are the other?

Anne Arundel County, it's, I don't know. Five different people. It's different people. And then from the county, it was the public works, right? Public works director. Yeah.

But everyone, the county administrator and town administrator, county administrator from both counties, and the town administrator from North Beach. and mayor are all on the calendar invite so whenever we send out agendas and memos they all get that information as well but i'm just i'm i'll repeat myself i i'm i'm glad to see a very cooperative meeting with our partners and i know i asked this before but the five-year plan does that involve a capacity increase is that part of any of these So I'll say this and then I'll pass it to Josh. So right now, I believe the state mandates that if you go above 80% capacity usage, you have to upgrade. And that was something that we shared with, we're not there right now. That's not where we operate. But that is something that we shared with our partners that they need to be mindful around how they implement ADUs because we have an obligation to stay within our capacity limit. And so that is because if we go above it, we have to do it and then it becomes an expense that everyone has to share and that has implications at so many different levels as you all are aware of. So we have stressed the importance of being mindful and my understanding is that the state has provisions in the mandate that they have given that allow you to control for what your capacity limitations are when it comes to water and sewer. So we are aware of it and we have been forthcoming about our expectations with our partners and how we're all applying the mandates that are coming down from the state.

it sounds like the goal is in all the budgeting right now is not and to stay within practice that is the goal i hope we stay there you and me both but i'll let josh add to that as well

80% of your design flow, which we are 1.5 million gallons, average for the year. So we would take every day during the year, what was our average daily flow. If we exceed 80% average for the year, it has to be three consecutive years, then we're required to go into stages of looking for upgrades for the plant for capacity.

And so roughly where are we now?

That's a good question. It's been very dry this year. We're averaging about 440,000 gallons a day. Because of how dry it's been last year, I think we were up around 550,000 to 600,000.

And so that's over a three-year average. So in other words, what I'm hearing you say is that we're nowhere near it. We're in good shape. We're in good shape. So far.

That's what I wanted to hear. ADUs, whatever way we wound up accounting for them, we still account for. This is based on the actual flow coming into the plant through the flow meter. So regardless of how ADUs are counted, that really doesn't affect us. It's actual flow coming in when it comes down to that. ADUs and EDUs and how we calculate that just gives us an idea of what we could be expecting to happen. received from all those properties should they be giving full flow.

Does that exclude stormwater then since it's just flow coming in? It does not.

It is whatever flow goes through that flow.

Oh, because that has its own flow from somewhere, the stormwater.

Well, normally it doesn't go into the plant unless there's a leak. Yeah, we do not have a combined storm sewer system. We just have a regular sanitary sewer system. So stormwater should not be going in there. It does invariably get in there. And we try and mitigate that. And that's part of my efforts to keep up with partners when we see significant increases in flows as related to tidal events or rainfall. And I give them monthly reports on that. If we have a significant rainfall where I saw significant increases in flow, I'll go back and pull the data on an hourly basis and give them that report also.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but we have individual flow from each of our partners. Is that right, measured?

That is correct. We have one flow meter from Anne Arundel County. We have a flow meter at three pump stations in town, the primary ones that come to us, along with the gravity flow coming in from town. North Beach and Calvert has a shared flow meter up near First Street, near Neptune's. And then Calvert County has six individual flow meters on their... branches coming down through up along a rough line that travels north-south along Greenwood Avenue.

So it's a lot better than it used to be is what I'm hearing.

Yes, Jay. Just because I had a resident not too long ago bring that up, and I want to be clear that our plant that Josh operates does not treat stormwater intentionally. There's no stormwater receptacle in town. There's no dead end. There's no anywhere that stormwater is designed to go to that plant. How it happens, someone may have an illegal sump pump in their basement. Someone may have a town that floods, is underwater, seeps into the manholes, broken clean out. So I just want to be clear that our plant does not treat or intended to treat stormwater in a town for our stormwater collection and everything we're permitted by, we have no facilities that take stormwater and treat it.

I was thinking more along the lines of when we have, like, I&I events. Correct. And Anne Arundel was having issues with some of their... And it sounds like you got it, you understand.

I just want to make sure the public, when you said, like, hey, we treat stormwater, not intentionally.

I was just saying that excludes stormwater. Gotcha.

And the one big issue we do run into with the stormwater is that is not water that really has nutrients that would normally come through from regular wastewater. When it comes in, it tends to dilute our mixed liquor and our aeration basins, cause the alkalinity to drop. If our alkalinity drops, then we're no longer doing the magic with converting ammonia to nitrate and then nitrate to nitrogen gas. So there's a lot to it where we do not want that coming in. We want regular wastewater coming in.

Right. So I like the fact that even at our 80%, we're at really healthy numbers. We're in good shape. Yeah. Could we expand? How would an expansion happen?

It would have to be creative. I did make a recommendation a couple of years ago that the town may want to start looking at other properties. That's what I'm getting at. It's not a pretend scare. If we had to increase capacity, we would have to increase the size of the basins. We would have to add more filters depending on how all the PFAS stuff goes. We may even be required to add RO systems and reverse osmosis systems, whatever way the state starts saying you have to mitigate PFAS. Basically, if we need more capacity, we're on a really tight footprint there at that plant.

The footprint is shrinking almost a little bit too, isn't it?

We're pretty solid there. The location of where we're at, if you're talking in regards to coastal, we're actually, through the coastal resiliency plan, we were our own little island right there. Jay would be underwater in the back, but we're good to go where we're at.

So there was a garage in the back that if we needed space, we'd have to relocate that and all that other stuff. Is that what would have to happen? It's an in-depth project.

That would possibly be an option if they were able to expand in that capacity to put stuff down there. But that's probably not where that's at. Yeah, exactly. We're seeing 400,000 gallons average a day. We're 1.5 million gallons. You need to see 80% of that for three years consecutive. If we have two years at 80% and then we have one year where we're not, hey, that timer restarts.

We could be 20 years out and there could be different technologies.

So why are we even talking about it? So cost of chemicals, how is that looking for you?

Osteochemicals, really not too bad. Our aluminum chloride that we use there was a little bit of a expected increase based off of aluminum tariffs. Methanol really has been pretty static. I have been tracking our chemical costs for years at this point, and it's really not a huge spike. When you see issues with other municipalities talking about their chemical costs, and I've dealt with that with Anne Arundel County, I've dealt with it with North Beach saying it, it's usually in regards to chlorine. And Jay can probably speak to that. Chlorine costs have gone through the roof. We don't use chlorine. We have UV banks for our disinfection. The only chemicals we use at the plant is methanol, aluminum chloride, and polymer. Those really haven't been huge increases. And we've made a change with the aluminum chloride last year to a cheaper product that's a little more stable because we were having some issues with the chemical we had. And that's actually doing pretty well so far. And is that welding project going good? That one, they came out, they've done some site visits to get some measurements. The work is expected to be completed in late September with punch list completion in October. Thank you. All right, if we can move on. We have Wayne's... I actually didn't even really get to my memo. I'm sorry. Sorry. I really didn't get to the memo. I was in a partner meeting, and one thing I do want to mention, I want to give my apologies. I want to give congratulations out to one of our staff members, Chris Hall. He recently took the Waste Water 5A exam in May at the Maryland World Water Conference in Ocean City. It was a paper exam, so MDE somehow takes him nine weeks to score Scantron. But he actually managed to pass the test and so is now qualified to become an operator, and that gives us three new operators within the last year. Based on seeing that, I've got a feeling we're over target right now with how we're doing our training and what our methods were going on. So our last two trainees I'm at talked to the last two guys, including Chris, that got their license and said, hey, give all the study material you were using to these guys, show them how you were going through it, and we're going to – The last two are in an apprenticeship program. Chris will be dropping out of the apprenticeship as he no longer requires it. Weekly, I give them a couple hours in the afternoon to go through and do their RTI training where it's videos and classes they need to go through. So that third day, I've said, okay, if we're able to, the two of you will be in a study hall in the break room just quizzing each other, going through everything because I want to be able to – I really don't want to have to have them screw up my budget this year, but I would be completely willing to stand before you all and say, hey, we need to make a budget adjustment for the salaries because I got two guys that became operators that I was not expecting them to become operators. Chris, I did have budgeted. I had budgeted for one operator promotion in the year. These guys are getting it done right now.

That's great. I mean, you should be proud of yourself, too. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, we really appreciate what you're doing. Go ahead.

Going into the memo finally. As I had indicated, we went through and we're doing all of our regular maintenance for our asset program for procedures and work orders. During the recent heavy storms, we had no identified high flows from severe rainfall. We did have, like you were having with lightning strikes, we did have a couple of electrical issues where I had to have staffers respond because of power fluctuations. It wasn't a full power outage. A lot of times that causes issues with our variable frequency drives. Just built-in safeties that are in them. You can't reset them remotely. You have to physically go out and press the button to reset them. So there was, I believe it was two storms where I had to have them go out and do that and just take a walk around, make sure no issues.

And I know it's a hike for you to get here, but do we have, are any of your employees, do they live nearby?

Chris actually lives up in North Beach. Eric lives down right off of, I can't remember the name of the road. That's okay. He's within 10 minutes and Randy is over in the willows.

Okay. So you, yeah. So you've got people that are close. Yeah.

I can get guys in here real quick. That's good to hear.

So that's reassuring.

So we did our lockout or we, We recently did compliance-based training at the plant through Maryland Rural Water. We did training at the plant instead of up here at Town Hall. It's just easier for me to do that rather than pull. I can't pull all of my guys out of the plant. I have to have at least two guys there, so that means two people that didn't get trained. So what I do is I figured, okay, we'll just have Maryland Rural Water come in, do the training in our lab. We've got a smart board up on the wall. do the class through there, and that way everybody can get trained. We had a couple people from Public Works come up. We had lunch, everybody was good to go. We have a lockout tagout training scheduled for July 29th, and a hazard communications one scheduled for August, and I'm completely forgetting which date that was on. Another thing we're working on So from MML, I was did a little bit of research trying to figure out options for funding for the head works project, as we've discussed as a $3.2 million at the last estimate project. I didn't want to put that in the budget because I don't want to put that service on the Citizens in town, North Beach, Anne Arundel County, Calvert County. So we've been looking at trying to find a means of funding. We had looked at MDE grants, USDA grants. Both of them we were told were ineligible because of the medium household income for the town. So that has completely shot us down on that. When I checked with some people at MML, one person from our K&K engineering team, had said there was an option through congressional directed spending with the U.S. Senate or the community project funding through U.S. House representatives. That would be looking at, let's see if I can find out where it was, targeting EPA state and tribal assistance grants. They don't have the limitations that some of these other grants have for the medium household income. So the possibility is there that we could do that. The federal government would take care of 80% of it, the town and partners would be responsible for 20%. So that's going from 3.2 million at last estimate to 640,000 split among the partners. So that's a little more palatable than where we were. We got a lot of work to go to get through that. I'll just go down what I have on here.

May I ask a question about just that? Yes, sir. Are we using the lobbyists that we use for other... Yes.

So we just reported out on this yesterday. So we'll be following up with her because that firm has said that we can reach out and they'll help us navigate it. The biggest thing that we shared with our partners yesterday, that because it could relieve such a large financial burden for everyone since it's a shared amount... they would need to start the process of sharing with their counsel so that we can get letters of support. Because when it comes to congressional request, a part of your package is submitting letters of support that say everyone wants this. And so that's a part of why we shared it with our partners yesterday and we'll be employing or reaching out to our lobbyists for further guidance. Also keeping in mind that it's at a federal level. It could be different people that we're dealing with when it actually comes down to making the requests given the timeline. So we are aware and working it.

And we'll still be working with the same folks that will be boarding for the tennis courts and things like that? Potentially. Potentially, okay.

So, like, tennis courts was through state allocations?

I'm talking about the lobbyists, not the... Oh, yes.

Okay. Yes. They are well-versed on those types of requests, legislative requests.

So... Yeah, I believe in them. Okay, perfect. Go ahead, sir. My bad, Josh. Okay.

So going down, I have a little bit of a to-do list of the stuff that would need to be done. We would need to draft a white paper describing the project, focusing on health, safety, and the environment benefits of this project. We'd have to address the issue with the town MHI, the medium household income, and stating that the added full cost of the project would require a rate hike on the residents, which would be, in a sense, unsustainable. We would probably work with the treasurers of, well, town treasurer, North Beach treasurer, Cowper County, and Anne Arundel, though the impact may not be as high, just to get an idea so we have those numbers to say, hey, this is how much of an income or rate increase is gonna be here. This is where it would be over here in town, North Beach, just so we can fully elaborate on what's going on there. We would have to request a meeting with the district director or field representative for the U.S. Senator and the representative to get them to come out and take a look at the site preferably in the fall so this is kind of a tight timeline we need to get all this done before February of 27 if we want to get in be able to get our application in as some of you said we need to secure letters of support we'll be reaching out to county representatives town represents wrote Chesapeake Beach North Beach Chambers of Commerce, local environmental groups such as Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Maryland Association of Counties, MML, Maryland Clean Water Act, and Southern Maryland Oyster Cultivation and Commercial Fishing Associations. The more letters of support we got, the better it's going to look. Our timeline is January, February 27. The Senate and House offices are going to open their online portals. March 2027 is the deadline for applications. Summer 2027, the committees would release their preliminary lists and then December, the budget would be signed and funds would be typically available from the EPA in spring or summer of 2028. So it's likely this project would get bumped from looking in FY28 to being in FY29 to FY30 just because of how long it's going to take to find out if we got the funding. I don't want to put the project in there and we don't have the funding at all. So that's basically it, what we got going on there. It's going to be a little bit of experience. I think we can get through it.

Well, I'm glad to know you're not going to be bored.

Oh, absolutely not.

I never try to be bored. And your reports are always thorough, and I appreciate that. Anybody else have any questions for him? All right, let's move on. Next item on the agenda is the town engineer's report, but Wayne is not here. We have two documents from him. One of them is his regular engineer's report, and the other one is regard to the pre-construction design and progress meeting for the water park. But those are in your packet. If anybody's got any questions, I'm not sure anybody can answer them, but go ahead, Jamie.

I don't have a question. Just a comment. On the second page of his regular report for the Seagate pump station and floodgate, just the last sentence talks about routing scenarios for the direct discharge if the town wants to proceed. Is that just something that's still being worked internally on? Or is there something that needs to come to us to make a decision?

Okay, my knowledge is still internal, but I'll have Jay give a quick update.

I think we've got permission, if you will, from the agencies. Now we have to do some realistic budget numbers, come up with that number, and then see where we're at as far as the town implementation. Okay.

I just want to make sure there wasn't something slowing it down outside of that. Okay. Thank you.

Sure. And I think Jay and I could share with you how long that we've been working to, or he continuously to get this done because it's really kind of crazy the way it is right now. And so this would just be a huge improvement if we can get this approved to be able to discharge water into the bay instead of behind the gate, always behind the gate the way it is now. It just doesn't make any sense is what it comes down to right now.

I mean, I like to point out just in the engineer's report, there's at least four different examples how stormwater is in his report right here. Yeah.

Okay, good. All right, let's move on to the Twin Beaches Patrol. Lieutenant Phelps is here. Good evening, sir. Welcome. Good evening. Anything exciting going on in town?

Lots of things. I didn't want to hear that. Mostly North Beach today, but Pacific Beach was quiet. That's what I was just dealing with on the phone back there. In June of 26, we handled 172 calls. It's up from 138 or 158 from the previous month. Also, they had 561 self-initiated calls. Out of those calls, we handled four thefts. One was a vehicle. The stolen vehicle out of Horizons was targeted is what was determined on that one due to the vehicle itself. And then there was some traffic-related, and there was some DUIs and assault and some other items. Any questions?

Okay. I don't have any questions, but I'll just say, I know you guys deal with a lot of nonsense. Uh, so I just want to say, no, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying in general, you guys deal with a lot of disruption on some, some stuff. And I know you guys are involved with it's North beach, but I saw the significant improvement there, but just, just in general, just thanks.

Thank you. I just wanted to thank you for this entertaining report. I'm reading through this. There's a couple of things that, uh, Quite entertaining.

Thank you. I think that's what's been keeping me doing this job as long as it has. It's never the same every day. It's always... You're saying that you don't get bored, right? No.

The ESPN Top Ten, right?

Yeah. 9-1-1 hang-up calls is 24. Yes.

9-1-1 hang-up calls are what we've seen over the past multiple years, and we have to respond to them. is cell phones, a lot of, especially iPhones, will automatically dial 911 a lot because of buttons and things. If you don't, you can set them not to, but a lot of people don't do it. And also smart watches will do it, dial it, depending on what the way they hit, if you aren't paying attention to it, and they'll dial 911. And a lot of them are, not many of them are actual calls, but we still have to respond to them because you don't know what they are. A lot of them's no answer on callback or very few 911 hangups or people, I'm not saying they don't exist, but are people that actually need our services. They're usually a false call.

All right, thanks. Any other questions? Thank you very much, sir.

We appreciate it. We appreciate your service to the town. Thank you. A great deal.

All right. North Beach Volunteer Fire Department.

Good to see you, sir. Good evening. Good evening. Greetings from Chief Stanton, President Gee. First thing I have, the letter that you had requested about the tax credit we had spoke about. So I have that if I can bring it to you. It's a You know, it's amazing. I've lived in this town for a little bit over 20 years, and I never realized I was a boat transom.

Really?

I've looked at that thing thousands of times, and now I'm sitting here going, why didn't I recognize I was? I have a boat. I've had my boat. Anyways, thank you for that. Pretty uneventful. Thank you. Good. I want to commend the town and everybody with the fireworks. It was a good time and went well. We're just ramping up for our 100th anniversary. It's really starting to take shape. We have our big parade, which actually is going to affect North Beach, but we invite everybody to come by August 8th. We have... People from all over the state, fire trucks, antique fire trucks, should be a pretty big thing. And then we will be back to doing a carnival August 18th through the 22nd in the parking lot of the firehouse. It's been a long time. It's been a long time.

Do you know when the last one was?

I don't know. I know my timelines get mixed up. I know for a while it was moved down to the big vacant lot down in North Beach, and then it bounced back and forth. So it's been a long time since it was there, but we're looking forward to it. Anybody who has kids that want to get their wristbands, they're on sale right now. I think $15 cheaper than if you get them the night of the carnival, stop by the firehouse. Anybody would be happy to sell you one. One thing I want to bring up, I always like to be able to brag about this. Four days ago, our crews ran a cardiac arrest. It was actually right outside of town. And they brought the gentleman back, flew him out on a helicopter, and by the time he was at the receiving hospital, he was sitting in bed talking about his medical history. I always like to be able to brag about that kind of stuff.

And that's well-deserved. Kudos to the department and the individuals that were involved in the rescues. So I know I can speak for the entire council and express our gratitude, especially having been through that myself about five years ago.

And one of the things about this particular incident, it happens with a lot of our incidents, but I was looking at the personnel. We had about 10 of our volunteers, two people in the career EMS paramedic unit. But out of those 10 volunteers, I think eight of them were volunteers. probably under the age of 25, and all came up through our cadet program. So kids that we latch on to at 12, 13 years old, we bring them up, and by the time they're 16, 18 years old, they're out there doing this kind of great stuff. That's wonderful. So any questions?

What was that event on August 8th that you said?

The August 8th is going to be our parade. It is going to stage. It's so large they had to stage it up at Windy Hill Middle School. So it will come down Fifth Street and go through the town of North Beach, and it will ultimately end at our firehouse. But most of the viewing and judging and everything will actually be – Towards the boardwalk down on North Beach. Okay, and afterwards we will be having a big muster at our firehouse So there will be a lot of history memorabilia on display. There'll be food trucks There will be the antique fire trucks will actually be out pumping water. They like to get their older fire trucks going and shooting water so a lot of stuff for the kids to do and A lot of stuff of our social media pages if you want to check with the events.

I saw one today, but it said August 3rd, so that might be a typo?

I think August 3rd may be the... Chief Tippett has a lot of historical talks. He's been going through our records for a couple years, old stuff. He's actually just published a book that's at the publisher now. But he's, I think the one August 3rd, he's doing a talk and a presentation down here at the... Chesapeake Railway Museum. And then he has, I think, two of them scheduled for the library. He's got about five of these talks around town. Bayside History Museum, there will be a talk. So that's a different event. Thank you. And when's the carnival? The carnival will be August 18th through the 22nd. Did you know Smokey Ward? Yes, I did. I just spoke with him about a month ago. Actually, Smokey was one of the senior firefighters that was going to ride on the antique fire truck through the parade. We just took him down to Waldorf, got his dress uniform all buttoned up and squared away.

Smokey passed away a few weeks ago. And I knew him very well. The first time I ran for mayor, which has now been a dozen years, more than a dozen years ago, Smokey walked the entire town with me. He and I together walked the entire town to do handouts. He was a great guy. He was dedicated. And I had an opportunity to stop by his family home earlier this week and spoke to his wife. And I didn't realize how frail she is at this point, too. So, any of you that ever knew Smokey, his service is coming up on a couple of weeks from now, I think.

Yes, I want to say it's like the 29th or something in July. There will be a large celebration of life for him at the firehouse. He's well decorated, not only as a volunteer firefighter here, but as a... homicide detective at the Metropolitan police department. Uh, he had some wonderful stories. He would tell you, he just would talk your ear off. And yeah, you can't do that anymore.

But, uh, but he, he did, he and I shared a lot and this was quite a long time ago. I haven't seen him in quite a long time, but I, I did see his wife, uh, earlier, uh, And I was shocked to see that she's in as rough a shape as she is as well. And we're going to be in South Carolina, but I'm going to try to get back early enough to come to that celebration in life. But I just wanted to mention that because... He was a good friend, and he just gave. He gave to the community. And, you know, both as a professional and as a volunteer.

So I wanted to mention that. His brother Wayne is still an active member. He actually drove the fire truck on a call this morning. So Wayne is still very active with us. Great.

All right. Anybody got any questions? Thank you for your report, sir.

Thank you. I'm sorry that you have to wait until the end of the meeting.

Okay. Always interesting listening to that. Okay. You're so polite. You're so polite. I've kind of, as far as the mayor's report is concerned, I've kind of scattered that all through our conversation tonight, so I don't think I will take up any more time on the mayor's report. Oh, this is the pictures of the water park being excavated. These are cool. Did you do these, Jay?

I did.

Yeah, these are great. I forgot about this. Yeah, looky here. We're digging up the water park. Cool.

I have the snake in the... Thank you.

The staff always covers for me. But, yeah, I'm just really tickled to see that moving forward. I mean, it was a big deal. The council all agreed that this is what we're going to do, and we had our two years in a row establishing our priorities and so forth. And so it's great to see it happening, and I'm just really happy to see this move forward. And I'm looking forward because now my grandkids are old enough to serve as lifeguards, see? And your kids will be old enough to serve as lifeguards at some point. A few years away. A few years away. Well, they'll have a lot of swimming practice, right? All right. But I don't have much more than that. It's been a lot going on, but we'll just keep on moving on. All right, at this point, we are going to introduce Ordinance O-26-14, an ordinance of the Town of Chesapeake Beach, amending the Town Code, Chapter 290, Zoning. Article 3, Zoning Districts, Section 290-10, Land Use Table to Prohibit Data Centers in All Zones. And I... Yeah, we're going to set the public hearing for August 20th at 6.15 p.m. All right. Reports of officers, boards, and committees. Planning and Zoning Commission.

Hi.

So the Planning and Zoning Commission is continuing to work on their... modernization and simplification of the land use classification table and standards for use. If they have a quorum in August, they believe they can get this to you by September. If they do not have a quorum in August, they're requesting until October to get it over to you. They are also beginning to bring back the coastal resiliency implementation piece a little bit at the end of each meeting because they want to get that in place to move forward. And they'll be reviewing the parking study and the parking waiver recommendation so that they can provide you all with any comments they have when you look at them.

I have. We can't let you go with nothing. We've got to give Dan a little bit of time to think a few things. Where are we with the – I know that there's been some discussion back and forth about the home businesses and allowing an FFL home business. And so I just wanted to see – and I did see your email. Can you reiterate that and just kind of let us know what kind of path you're suggesting we take there? Sure.

Sure, and I will ask the attorney to correct me if she disagrees with my evaluation, because it is a technical process. The Planning and Zoning Commission submitted to you home occupation changes. They did not include the phrase regulated items. They heard from the gentleman who is interested in this specific type of home occupation, and they still didn't, you know, they didn't see the issue with it, and so that's why they sent it to you the way they sent it to you. You added the regulated items. And so in my opinion, and correct me if I'm wrong, it wouldn't need to go back to if the town council wanted to change that regulated piece. It would not need to go back to the Planning and Zoning Commission for review. It's something you could bring up yourself. That's correct.

It is on the work session for the next one.

Now, is that subject to the... clause in our charter that says once we've brought up an issue, we can't bring it back up for whatever amount of time.

You know what I'm talking about?

What were you going to say?

Well, I'll fill some time.

um motions where somebody has made a motion and it has been voted one way or the other um and then you can't bring it if it's fail if something fails we can't bring it up again for a certain amount of time just my recollection i will before your meeting at which it is an issue i will address your question and answer it for you and sarah if you have something to add

Sorry to everybody. No, no. I was just going to add that with the modernization and simplification that home occupations are being converted into major and minor home occupations. And so... If you, your language is going to come back into the planning commission, but there are also some additional changes they're recommending and looking at it more comprehensively. So you will look at it three times if you bring it up again, but one time will be part of this bigger package.

Oh.

But, I mean, if you want to.

So if we don't bring it up independently, it'll come back up. It'll be an opportunity to amend what's there anyway. Is that what you're saying? Yes.

Yes. I don't know how long it will take you to get through the materials for the land use classification table.

I got you.

Because it is quite a number of pages.

So you might want to bring it up independently. Okay. And then the only other thing I have is, and I know I've asked you this before and you told me, but I can't remember what you said because I think it was two, three months ago. Where is the ball in our court for the yard birds?

Household hands. Yes, the ball is in your court. You could just adopt the zoning ordinance, but that would not allow people to have chickens in their backyards because you have an ordinance that specifically prohibits it. And there's other things to consider, right? Noise, nuisance, that kind of thing. You might want to think about an addition before you just allow it.

So you're just a... a statement or majority of the council to say, hey, we wanna go, we wanna move forward with this so that you can, So that you can look at how it affects different zoning things and then come forward with a recommendation? Is that where we're at?

So my part is done. It's for you all to work with Dr. Somalia on the work plan. And when you want to move that forward, I'm happy to provide advice. But every other change you need to make is outside of the zoning ordinances. And so it's not really my place to make those recommendations.

So do we have...

effects Things that need to be Revised if we want to move forward with this you have what was presented by the Planning and Zoning Commission So if you guys want to put it on the schedule Whenever you want to put on the schedule that we would have that discussion and we can go through But what ended up happening is that the state came, timing-wise, there were other priorities, and then the state came out with these mandates. So it got put on the back burner. But if you're ready to move it forward, if the council is aligned on that, we can get it scheduled. It really just comes up to how you guys want to stack your schedule.

Chicken's on the front burner.

That's a good one. I can't believe you said that. Now look, this is serious business here.

They're for egg laying.

Put the eggs on the burn. Okay. Can we move forward?

All right. I see for the Board of Appeals, no hearing was held, so presumably there's no report. CBOX, you have a written report.

And I just want to add really quick regarding oyster cultivation and oyster restoration. The county reached out to work with the town. I know that they're already engaged in working with North Beach. And so I have forwarded the invite. We're scheduled to have a meeting with the county to hear their presentation the last week of July. I've forwarded to Sue from Seabox. And so they'll be looped in if they so choose to be looped in. So we'll have more updates on that, but it has to deal specifically with oyster restoration. So just wanted to add that as a part of this section.

Fair, obviously.

Yes, I forwarded her the invite, told her, given her the information that I have, and made the, it's an open invitation if she so chooses to join. Okay. Yeah.

All right. Do we have anything on economic development? Oh, Dan.

I guess the one thing that I have is me and Anthony had put together the rental subcommittee recommendations and the status of that. believe is being handled through staff and if we could kind of get an update of that I think we're looking to sort of have ADUs and that all kind of come together and that's what my assumptions were I knew that there was some comments and that was submitted to the The Zendesk, I don't know if anything else has come in after that time, but I was under the impression that everything that I submitted with the transcripts and everything sort of had covered anything that was outstanding. There was a lot that we had talked about. We had our transcripts or minutes and everything like that. I think everything that was outstanding was covered through the Through the subcommittee. And if there's anything that's needed from us to kind of get that across the line, just kind of let us know.

Depends on what you mean across the line, right?

So legislative action, most of it was administrative, you know what I mean?

So I don't want to micromanage you, but like most of it was... We received the recommendation, so we received it. But if there are things that you want to bring forward to the council to decide regarding... legislative changes, that would be important for you to make known or at least say you want that to be a part of the work plan discussion because I'm going to make the administrative changes that are appropriate. However, if you change the legislation, that's going to potentially impact how we administer it. So if there are things that you found from that subcommittee discussion and that you want to put forward to your council colleagues to say, hey, I'd like to suggest that we change the code in this way so that it reflects the finding from the rental subcommittee, then that would be a council discussion that would then subsequently impact the administration of it. But we received what you guys put together.

If possible, maybe give a little feedback saying what was there, if there was anything that... Most of it was started to kind of already be implemented. So maybe if there's a way we can get some feedback on the recommendations to see if there's something for us to do.

I will write down the request.

Thank you. You know, I'll make a comment on that. You did provide a nice report and everything, but it wasn't given any – we didn't do it at a work session where you had time to explain it or put your slides up and kind of go through the motions of your report and kind of give a little bit of depth to it. So if we want to, we could add that to a future work session so that we can – Digest that report a little bit more thoroughly as a council Yeah, definitely.

Um that might be best to do it that way take some most of it was administrative and if we could Maybe have that whole part the input from town staff and then their feedback and then I'll saw look at it together That works

Do you want it as a work session, the topic, or you don't want it?

We can talk about it on another time.

Sounds great.

All right.

All right, green team, we have a written report. Do we have anybody here to speak to it? Oh, Laura, you are. Laura, you've got the floor.

I was going to give the floor to Jay. I just wanted to say that the green team is very excited about the food forest and they were kind enough to CC me on some of the emails. So I know, Jay, if you have problems with funding and you need somebody to bring that up here, then I would want to add it to our work plan if they need the funding. But if you're working that out with them and the town, then I just want to say everybody's excited about it.

Agreed, and thank you for the insight. There's been a lot of volunteers, a lot of input from our volunteers has gone there, and I think it's an opportunity we're going to approach. We've kind of finalized. We're at a last step. You added something to it. I'm going to find out, too, a possible water fountain, and we're going to get it to council and move forward with that. I think it's a great idea that we can implement, just a matter of making it happen.

I just wanted to point out that it looks like Taste the Beaches got scheduled for the 19th of September. I guess we haven't come up with a location for that yet, right? I know last year it was at Kellum's, and I think it went really well there. So that might be something to think about to bring it back to. Elms. Are you guys talking about that still taste of the beaches? Yeah, like the location.

So that's a town driven event. I assumed that it would be at Kellums. I think it works the best of Kellums, but it's definitely not my decision. We can chat more about that later.

It says they're talking about plan specifics at the next meeting.

Likely pending. Pace the beach is not planning it.

Okay, gotcha.

Yeah.

I'll just give you the input that I think it worked well at Kellum's last year.

Part of our official record. Thank you. All right, moving along. Twin Beach Community Health Coalition.

We are getting ready to start promoting this weekend. We are giving the town something to do while they get ready for the parade on August 8th. We have talked to the folks at our North Beach Volunteer Fire Department to make sure that our events don't clash with each other. So we have the Uplift Calvert Wellness Festival August 8th in the morning. We'll have outdoor exercise activities, peach squat, boxing, pilates, zoology, and John's favorite, meditation and journals. So we will have those things happening in the morning. And then immediately after that, we'll have a couple of speeches. And then we'll have the Red, White, and Warrior Challenge where I worked with Mr. Cristobal Martinez. And we got with Scott Deacon. And we are having people come out and do an obstacle course where they're raising money for the local post. Wow. And we also have Be The One Foundation that's going to be a part of it. Calvert County Health Department and a couple of other community organizations are going to be a part of it that day. And then we're going to be wrapped up just in time for everybody to go watch the parade. So that stuff will go out this weekend. Two-person teams for the obstacle course. It is a bouncy obstacle course, so nobody should kill themselves trying to race. But they do sign a waiver, and each team, team of two, $25 a piece per team, and that money is going to be donated to the Legion for veterans dealing with any type of PTSD or things like that. So we are going to start pushing that this weekend.

As a member of the Legion, I appreciate that. And I speak for Colonel Martinez as well, I'm sure. Okay, Walkability Committee.

There's nothing really of note. We're just readjusting for fiscal year or for year 2026. We have a couple things from 2025 that we will continue to track and we're just making our our plan for this year Coming up our next meeting is on the 28th of July 30 at the library Great any questions

right water park committee uh we haven't met in a few months we haven't really had anything of substance to uh discuss but we'll definitely be meeting next month on the 20th at 5 30. all right plenty to talk about uh we have no unfinished business on the agenda does anybody have any unfinished business i didn't think so

New Business Town Council to consider the purchase of saddles from Exeter Supply Company in the amount of $35,910. It's a budgeted item. Jay has presented, has given you this document that has multiple proposals in it. This was the low bidder, if I'm not mistaken. And anything you want to add to that?

If you look through it, the other proposals, it's a little bit apples and oranges because this product comes, all the componentry is fused in one piece, the saddle, the flange, the curb stop, versus I had to price it out piecemeal from the other ones. But same vendor we used last time, that was the cheapest, same vendor. North Beach is currently using them there, saddle replacement, and we're getting the same prices we had last time, which were, if we move forward now, we can. If not, they went up just like the other budget. So I have to I can entertain any questions. But just for clarification, this is just components of the project. The bigger part of this project is going to be when we contract to do the work.

Any questions? I'll just say thank you for doing your due diligence and having three quotes here for us. Appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Is there a motion for approval?

Motion to approve. Second.

All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. It's now time for public comment. Is there any public comment? Please come forward. Are you holding up? Hmm.

i'm going to hopefully not be down at the pickleball with the lights on when i do this again i'm just here tonight because i'm really appreciative of all the hard work that the council does but i'd really like to also talk about the staff i've started looking i read all the minutes i read i go in the website now is It's terrific. It's much easier. I love the projects page. Very great information, especially on the water park. I really like that. I know more about water reclamation plants than I ever wanted to know, but thank you, Josh, because the pictures are great. I get a feeling of what goes into all the hard work that's being done here. Jay's report, I love the financial aspect of it. The sheriff and the fire department, I love reading their reports. I think what I'm trying to say is the transparency that I'm seeing here is much different than it was a couple of years ago. I gave up reading the reports because there was nothing there. And if you don't come to the meetings and sit through three hours, You don't know what's going on. But I think people in the community, if they really want to know what's going on, read the reports. The reports are awesome. And that's all I have to say.

Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

I really appreciate the hard work, everybody, the staff, everybody. Samelia, your reports are excellent. I really get a feeling of what's going on. And if I need to get involved, I'll get involved. But if I'm reading this and I don't feel that I need to, I'm good with that as well.

I'm glad you're available and appreciate your comments and your support. That's very helpful. I do.

I read everything, and I appreciate it. Thank you. All right.

Oh, and by the way, you need to come back just for the record and state your name.

I'm sorry. Teresa Nelson. You need my address?

Across the street.

I'm right across the street. One word case.

Thank you for reminding me of that. All right. Any other public comment? All right. Lightning round. Nothing? Dan? Dan, you got anything?

Eric? I'll just say I haven't seen them yet, but I've heard that there are soccer goals at Kelms Park, and I'm excited about it. I'm going to go look at them as soon as we get out of here. Sounds like a plan. It'll still be light. And expect them, make sure they're good to go, but I'm sure they're great. So I really appreciate it, and I know a lot of people in town will appreciate it as well. Great.

John? Um, yeah, like I said, I went to the glow party. That was fun. And we got a summer nights festival tomorrow night. So hopefully the weather holds up for that. Laura.

Um, I'd say I was invited by Lydia Wells, the deputy director of parks and recreation for Calvert County meeting this morning. Um, and we talked about the, uh, the land outside of Chesapeake beach. And of course I brought the opportunity of the railway trail to their attention. There was also several other people on the call that brought to their attention, a need for facilities for theater and other arts. It was a really good meeting and I appreciated that I had the invite, that they invited such a diverse group of people and that they're doing the outreach for long-term planning because I think when you do that and get the community involved, you understand what's needed, and you don't need big, huge moves to move towards something. It was very clear that capitalizing on our rural character and some agro-tourism and some of the things that a trail can provide would be very beneficial to Calvert County. to Chesapeake Beach and the entire area. So it was very exciting to be in that meeting and talk about that stuff.

That's great. I appreciate that. Anthony?

You guys did really good tonight. Thank you.

And so did you. All right. There's one more thing here. There was one public comment sent to us via the Internet. via email. It's from Frank Douglas. It says, to whom it may concern, I want to inquire about the removal of the barrier between Roland's Backlot and 18th Street. This has already led to an increase in through traffic from a commercial area into a small residential street, which is often used as a major footpath from the neighborhood to the shopping center, there are no sidewalks. I realized that the blocking bars were on the property of Roland's landlord and they removed it without consenting with the town. 18th Street is not meant to be a commercial entrance and the exit coming out of the lot is a blind curb and a one lane exit. 18th Street is labeled with a no outlets sign at its entrance from C Street, and it seemed to be the town's intent for it not to be a through fair. That's the way they've written it. Safety is a concern, as already there are cases of commercial trucks using the exit entrance. The residents of 18th Street would like to see the town block this road in some way on town property. that's submitted by Frank Douglas at 3908 18th Street and this is something that I'm familiar with because I live in Chesapeake Station and when you come out of 18th Street you hit C Street and this is a problem that's been that has been blocked off ever since the shopping center was built I don't know And I actually did not realize that it belonged to the shopping center. That's correct, right, Joe? You want to speak up?

Yeah, to save 100 emails and communications if I can. So it was passed by ordinance in a town to close 18th Street. It was closed with a barrier that the fire department could get through. I don't know who took it down, but it is within Roland's property. So if we want to reinitiate that closure, we'd have to build a structure out on Town Road, and I could walk anyone through it. But that's where we're at. So they took down a gate that was on their property. If the town wants to enforce that closure, then we'd have to build a structure that's out on the road, and we can look at that.

And I will speak to the owners of Rollins and find out what caused them to do that. And then we can talk about it during the coming month. But I just wanted to make sure that that entered into the public record because it was submitted to us.

What triggers discussion on public comments? Because I thought we were not supposed to have conversations last month. We talked about not having conversations on public comment. Now we are. So what triggers that merit?

Well, that probably is because I'm very familiar with it because I'm the homeowners association president there and I'm sitting in this chair and Jay works for the town and we had about three extra sentences on there and we're done. All right, is there a motion for adjournment? Motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Oh, wait, we still have. Hold on. We need to go to closed session. All right, we are going to move to closed session. And, okay, let me read this. It's a motion to close the regular town meeting to go into closed session under the statutory authority of the Maryland Annotated Code pursuant to General Provisions Article 3-305B, subsection 7, to consult with counsel to obtain legal advice concerning potential litigation related to annexation documents. Okay. Is there a motion to go into closed session? Motion. Second. Discussion.

Second. Discussion.

Why is there a discussion on a motion to go into closed session?

Looking back at the minutes that were approved, what item is it that has us go in there? Where on the minutes that were submitted and approved does this come up? Is it to be in the minutes?

It doesn't have to be in the minutes.

What's the context of this?

You requested it.

Where at?

You requested to go into closed session via email. You said that you had some things that you wanted to discuss, and due to the nature of those things, it has to be discussed in closed session.

That's not what I said in the email. I can publish that email if that's what we're saying. I request it not to.

I will also validate that you have requested on multiple occasions to discuss this, and it needs to be in a closed session. It's literally in the subject toxin annexation documents.

Yes, I believe I requested that there was an item for us to discuss and kind of ask for the mayor and town staff support to put some things together. That hasn't happened. So if there wasn't that... What's the information for us to go to closed session? Make a motion to withdraw?

No, I will say that this conversation has come up, and you've been talking about it for months, and there's questions that need to be discussed with the attorney in a private session, and because of some of the issues that are brought up, it needs to be discussed. We need to have a conversation on it. So I will then say, like, I want to have this conversation.

I would like to have the conversation, too, but I would like to have it front-facing to the public. And then the parts that need to go into closed session, allow them parts to go into closed session. Because, like, that's what I would like to do. The items that need to be discussed in closed session, I haven't talked to any of you all about them.

Well, that's not true. You've talked to Anthony and I on multiple occasions about this, and it's something that we've expressed to the rest of the, hold on, before we express to the rest of the council, and the problem that you're addressing is that this could potentially put the town at litigation, and because of that, we need to have a closed session discussion so the council is aligned before we put the town at litigation possibilities in the public. That is the whole point, so we'll talk to the attorney, and then it's up to the council after we have a conversation in closed session to to determine if we're comfortable coming into the public session and have that discussion. We are responsible to the town to not publicly put us at a spot where we're going to be litigated for our discussions. That is a fiduciary responsibility that we have as council members. So I get you want to have a conversation in public. I would love to have this exact conversation in public, but we have an obligation to our town to ensure that we don't do something that's going to put us at financial liability.

I guess that's what maybe the lawyer can explain.

All right. We have a motion and a second to go into closed session. I'm going to call the question. We're either going to go into closed session or we are not going to go into closed session. All in favor of going into closed session indicate so by saying aye. Aye. All opposed indicate by saying no. No. No. All right. We have four ayes and two noes. We are going into closed session. Thank you all for being here tonight.