Town Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you for keeping me on my toes there, Anthony. I've been informed that it is 6.15 by one of my council members and time to start the public hearing. This public hearing is on Ordinance O. 26-14, an ordinance of the Town Council, 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 would think that, Sarah, you're the one that could probably explain this best. Sure.

So the... Ordinance that is drafted simply removes data centers as a permitted use, which it's currently permitted in the maritime commercial zone only, but it removes it as a permitted use and inserts it as an expressly prohibited use in every zone, which means that data centers would not be permitted anywhere in the town of Chesapeake Beach.

Very straightforward. That is the simple explanation. Does anybody have any comments or questions on the council? Okay, public, anybody in the public have any questions or comments on this particular issue?

Dr. Jeanette Wysocki, I live on 13th Street, so I would like to strongly encourage all of you to vote in support of prohibiting data centers. They're just not a good fit for our community. If you listened, so I am on the Environmental Commission, but I'm speaking for myself. If you listened to the Environmental Commission meeting where Natelli Holdings came and spoke to us, they looked for three things, and we have all three. Proximity to high voltage power lines, water and water treatment facilities, and fiber optics, which we now have. So removing these as prohibited will protect Chesapeake Beach for a long time. We should encourage protection of the ecosystem. I walked on the trail the other day. I can't imagine a data center being out there. So the more we can do to protect our environment, the better it will be for the future. So thank you.

Thank you. You ended with a blast of thunder, too. I wonder, how did you manage that? That was the emphasis on your point. Is there anybody else that would like to speak in the public hearing? Hearing none, we will adjourn.

I don't have a comment, no. Did you want to speak? Well, I wouldn't mind asking a question if she would. I appreciate you coming out last time and again this time. Like I said before, I'm an electrician by trade, so I've worked at different data centers in Loudoun County. About a month and a half ago, I went to a data center that was built in like 2012 or something like that. All the generators were inside. The way that the data centers are now with the hyperscaler one has drastically changed from where they were just eight years ago. When I've looked into as Calvert County and stuff like that, what I see a big item that nationally is we have a nuclear power plant and we have the gas liquefied and we have the gas pipeline. You know what I mean? I did not really and then do not really think that there's a pressing concern and worry for Chesapeake Beach. But I do know that the money that's made there is it is pretty hard to fathom how much money that are made. I've talked to Anthony about this a few times this week. I don't see this as an emerging worry and stuff like that, but I think that the moratorium that the county put made it seem like we weren't, like all of the governing bodies were there. I also think that the way, the shape, the geographical area of what Chesapeake Beaches wouldn't allow for any industry. So it's not singling out any one industry. I would say the same if it was a manufacturer. I just don't think our town has that platform for it. You know, I don't want it to be where we're making a statement in opposition to anything. I just... do not see that our soil, our environment would allow for such thing.

So it should be easy to vote to support it.

Of course. But I just wanted to add, it seems like you are very well educated in regards to this and stuff like that. So I just...

I am. I actually used to coordinate cloud training for the National Institutes of Health. So I am quite familiar with AI, with machine learning, with data centers. So the hyperscale data centers are a completely different beast than what people think of as the Internet. And with the amount of heat that they are putting out, two separate studies have come out. One that talks about the increase in land temperature and a second one that talks about the increase in ambient air temperature. And if you understand anything about how earth science works, if you heat the land, you heat the air. If you heat the air, you heat the land, and you heat the water. And that's the big issue because for... For the bay, it is very shallow. So if you do any fishing, you might be familiar with the term dead zones or hypoxia. So that's already a concern because the bay is shallow. And what that means, for those who don't know, is that warm water doesn't hold dissolved oxygen as well. And so if it can't hold oxygen, the organisms that live there can't breathe and they end up dying. So that creates a dead zone. Fish can swim away, oysters can't, right? So for us, for our ecosystem, putting something so close that puts out heat, if you watched the Nitelli experts with us, the Environmental Commission, they would not, they refuse to answer where the heat goes. If you take... heated water from 120 degrees to 90 degrees, that 30 degrees heat has to go somewhere. So it's expelled into the air. That's gonna heat up the air. So I agree that Chesapeake Beach doesn't have, first we're not zoned industrial, or I too, but it's not so much that you're making a statement, you're making sure that we are protecting our future and our kids' future. I moved here for Brownies Beach. My kids got to see it. I want other people's kids to see it the way it is. So what you are doing with this vote is not saying, oh, I hate data centers. We can't have data centers here. You are saying, we're protecting this ecosystem for future generations.

And that's the statement that I hope that is heard. I think certain areas you have the ability to have manufacturing. I think Detroit has a lot of auto manufacturing. Different places, Chesapeake Beach, it's not that place. So it's not us making a statement except for to say we love the Chesapeake Bay. That's one thing that I believe most Marylanders will agree to. The oxygen levels that you're speaking of and the phosphates. We fight so hard to improve it. Something like that can take away...

The efforts of so many people so correct and one of the concerns I've had in speaking with neighbors in town is Look how easy it was for the zoning to get changed at what's supposed to be the park and the farm and forest on constellations property went from farm and forest straight to i-2 so It doesn't take much to get land rezoned and we have all the things that the data centers want So can they come in and start buying a property and saying well, you know, we're close enough So if you if you take this statement and say we're gonna protect Chesapeake Beach the way it is now and not permit them at all then that will prevent a a developer from eyeing anywhere in our proximity because I literally said, how did you choose this park to come build a data center? And the gentleman who answered, he said it's his job. So what he does is he looks first for the high voltage power lines. They run right back there in Owings. Then they look for water and water treatment facilities. We're one of the few in the county that have them. And what's happening with these data centers is once they get into a place, they don't stop. So they keep coming and coming and coming and wanting more and wanting more and wanting more. So with voting this in, you're saying, not here in Chesapeake Beach. We're going to protect this for all of the future. There might be places that want data centers. There might be places where they look at the revenue and they say, oh, how can we turn that down? How can we put what what this whole community was built on at risk. So for me, that's the question. I think there are opportunities to develop more tourism, especially if that ferry's gonna come in. There's gonna need to be more than just the rod and reel in the water park. That's where we need to focus and build up our tourism. And you guys have done a great job with increasing the activities that are available for the parks and rec and things at Kellams Field. Those are all amazing things. Let's do more of that and have things that people want to come see if this ferry system comes in. They don't want to see a data center, so...

And it's just the infrastructure for, like, the highway systems, the transmission lines. There's so many other things that that's what I've based my work. my decisions on and stuff like that. And, and I thank you for, for speaking out, but it, we're not, we're not trying to ostracize any one industry. It's just, we're also saying we're the caretakers of our Chesapeake Bay and the Bay is, is what we all kind of find to be our important and putting that decision is sort of what makes me, Thank you.

All right. Thank you for speaking up. If there's nobody else that wants to speak up, we can adjourn for about three minutes until we start the regular meeting. So we'll adjourn for three minutes.

Sorry.

I'd like to call toward the town council meeting for August 20th, 2026. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. If you would join me, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Council, is there a motion to approve the agenda? Is there a second? Second.

Motion to amend.

Go ahead.

To motion to amend the agenda to reference the agenda that was sent to us on Friday and add under new business item number four and item number five. I can read them aloud if you would like. Was the item number four was to consider awarding We consider the award of concrete paving contract to Calvert Ready Mix Concrete Supplies LLC in the amount of $975,777. Item number five was Town Council to consider the award of rail trail expansion to KCI Technologies in the amount of $329,160. Is there a second for the motion to amend?

I would like the motion for discussion to ask why he believes that we should put that back.

I think if we're going to discuss it, we'd have to have a motion, a second to the motion.

A second to motion for discussion.

Okay.

Now you may ask your question. So please let us know why you believe that we should be able to put that back on.

According to the email, it said... Basically, we'll wait for the whole council to be here for that. I have, over the past few months, done a lot of research in regards to the stormwater management plan and our town in the process there that has slipped through that there. So I find that if we're going to alter the course for one thing, we should alter it for everything. If we're only going to have what the consensus behind the scenes vote is and not allow the public business to be done in the public, That was the agenda that was sent. Then on Monday it was revised, and so I want to stay with the one that was sent.

Okay, and may I please ask, Melissa, who sets the agenda for that?

The agenda is set by the mayor, and as long as the agenda is public.

it um of course it's subject to a motion to amend when it comes to you all you have a response to that councilman devon yeah i mean i have my vote he has his role and i have my role so i mean i've made my motion this is the motion that i would be going to vote on all right so we can vote on it i just want to make sure the paving schedule is not like time sensitive do we have a certain timeline we have to have that um

Voted on by or?

We're not beholden to any particular timeline until we sign the contract. Although, I mean, you want to be mindful that the work needs to be done in the appropriate season, but we're not beholden to anything until the council votes to approve it and the town signs off.

Okay. Any further comments or questions? No, sir. All right. Let's vote on the proposed amendment. All in favor of the proposed amendment, say aye. Aye. Opposed to the proposed amendment, say no.

No.

Okay. The amendment fails. All right. Moving along, we now need, I think, a motion to approve the agenda as not amended. So is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Opposed.

Okay. It passes three to one.

I believe we had this discussion before. It's the vote of what? The vote of the elected people. Remember we did that when it came there? So how's that?

They're absent. They can't vote. We have two members absent.

I think that's how the voting went. On the record, we'll circle back to that.

Yeah, yeah. there is yeah i didn't think so all right this is the uh uh opportunity for a public comment on any item on the agenda uh is there anybody in the public that wishes to come forward and speak to the town council you'd be welcome to now is the time seeing none I'd ask the council for a motion to approve the minutes of the July 16th, 2026 town council meeting. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second.

I want to discuss it. He said second.

Yeah, but I haven't called for the vote yet. We have a motion and a second. I haven't called for the vote yet. Now, do you want to make a comment? Yes.

In the meeting, You'll notice that I, on the approval of the minutes for the July 7th, 2026, I discussed how there was not items properly recorded. The July 16th meeting again has that. This is not the first time. At the end of the meeting, the mayor made a motion to adjourn. The motion was made by Councilman Green. The mayor called for a second, and then he goes, oh, I forgot I did something. And then we went to close session. We never pulled that off. The minutes don't reflect it. Also, when we had the lightning round, The mayor read a public comment and then engaged with a public works administrator on it. When I asked what the merits were of that, the mayor said, well, because I'm sitting in this seat and I'm the HRA president. We were told not to comment on public comment the previous month. Also, after the motion was made for closed session, I made a discussion None of that was recorded in these minutes. How would you like to rectify that, Councilman Duvall? Oh, I'm going to vote against these minutes. It's, I believe, been established that the mayor and administrator are the ones who keep track of these. I've objected last month to items being missed. I'm objecting again this month.

But after the objection, will you be making sure that our town clerk gets what you want to have reflected in the minutes?

Well, according to the email sent by the mayor, everything has to run through him. Okay. Where will you be? Submitting to the mayor? I've submitted different things to him. I get no response.

So in all due respect, I hear what you're saying, and I respect that. But the course of action to correct it or anything that has to be done on our end has to also be a part of the conversation. So I hear what you're saying, and I understand it.

There needs to be a specific motion to amend the agenda to say X or Y.

Right now. That's the point, yeah. Okay. Okay. You ready to move on? Well, let's, I guess... We could, uh... They're incorrect. They're incorrect. Okay. So we can make the vote here, move on from here. And if you have something that we want to make sure that's in the minutes thing, we can put that in and make sure it's reflected. Or you can turn that into the mayor to make sure that you do have it documented, that you have your changes where you want them to be. All right. I'll make sure. All right. Cool.

All right. You have a motion, second?

You got a motion?

Second, all in favor, aye.

Aye. Opposed? Approved the amendment, yes.

That's where I thought we were, yes. Get a little off track here. All right, this is the time that the public can make a comment on any item that's on the agenda, if there's any. I'm sorry, what?

No, we did that already. We have to do the closed session and the informational work session approval.

Oh, okay. All right. So that was the, that's what we just did? Yes. Okay. So now we need to approve the minutes of the July 16th closed session.

Motion to approve.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor, aye.

Hold on. Discussion that the closed session minutes are incorrect, too. There was a lot of items that were misinterpreted and

The attorney has just informed us that it is inappropriate to discuss any minutes of the closed session in the public session.

So the way that would have to be handled if there is an objection on closed session minutes I think would be that the motion would be to defer approval of the closed session minutes and then comment would be directed to the clerk as to what a particular member believed was missing or incorrect in those minutes. And then that contact can be communicated to the council. And then in the next meeting when the closed session minutes come back on, you can either say that the minutes are amended per the comments of the council member or not.

So no action at this particular time?

There first needs to be a motion to defer the vote.

All right. Is there a motion to defer approval of the minutes?

Aren't we in the motion to approve it so we'd have to remove that motion?

No.

We already motioned and approved, but she came in. So your motion is to figure out if you want to defer on that right now.

Hearing nothing, can we have a vote on approval of the minutes of the closed session? All in favor say aye. Aye. Laura? Three in favor, one opposed. The motion passes. All right. Next approval of the minute. So the August 11th, 2026 informational work session. Is there a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Is there a second? Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? The ayes have it. All right. We're down to petitions and communications. Town administrative report. Amelia?

The town administrator's report was submitted as a part of the agenda package. Of note, just wanted to flag that we will be, we've updated the neighborhood connectivity page on the Projects dashboard that you can find on the town website And there's also a new survey that's been added there so if there's public interest in areas that have not already been highlighted you can submit your thoughts on that page and Additionally, we will be talking at the work session more about software that the town has been acquiring. It's a program called Violytics, and it will help public works with our asset management. So it's a really interesting software, and we've invited the representative from Violytics to come and give a presentation at our next work session. Thank you. Outside of that, I'm happy to take questions if there are any questions.

Yeah, I had asked for a compiled list of all outstanding Zendesk tickets, especially after the multiple-year item that was brought forth to us from the residence on 15th Street and the closure of the stairs. I don't see that there. I mean, we are in the thousands. Pretty sure we have not resolved them. We should be aware of what items are being given attention and what items are not being given attention.

So I believe that it was shared with the council that we have been in conversations with 15th Street.

I was discussing the Zendesk, having an open Zendesk ticket summary. That's what I was saying.

So with Zendesk? There is a section at the beginning of the town administrator's report that tells you the number of tickets that were created for that time period, the number of tickets that were resolved in that time period, and the tickets that remain outstanding. So because Zendesk is used for a multitude of reasons, I don't think it's appropriate to list all of those tickets that come in. So if there is a request to change the way that it's presented, we can talk through that. But I don't think that it would be appropriate to display all the outstanding tickets, specifically because some of them have sensitive information in them. If there is a specific ticket that you have a question about, Whoever submitted it is always welcome to email in to get updates on their tickets, but they also are able to log in and see the status of things, if it's in progress, if it's been closed out. If you are referring to 15th Street, which is the example that you used, the council has already been provided an update as to what's happening with 15th Street, and we have been in communication with the residents that... flagged concern and are actively working and scheduling resolutions as it pertains to that.

I think what I'm discussing is that the fact that it had been going on for years, the fact that there was, I guess, the survey, the last administration, this administration, there was the It was in the report, but it was in the report so vague that who could be reasonably expected to piece together the breadcrumbs of it in the report. I feel that if there's items like this, we don't need to list important or confidential information. We should have a summary of lists. So there's 67 unresolved tickets from here. So after August 13th, they just... There's no update on these tickets. So the unresolved tickets, they just sit there, and it gets forgotten. And I think that's what I've been saying, where people are feeling that they have to fend for themselves. The Zendesk is a great asset. I appreciate it. But I think that in light of the situation, it's been three or four years in the works. We should definitely get a... current status of all these open categories or whatever, kind of see what's going on. If we have somebody that's X amount of years engagement, we should know about that stuff.

Thank you. Just, I receive your thoughts and I appreciate your perspective. Um, just so that we're clear when it came to 15th street, the ticket present desk did not come in. Until very recently, however, the 15th street topic has been on the town administrators report for more than a year. So, I receive what you're saying, and I understand your perspective and other people realize it or not.

This is in support of what you were doing. I mean, this is. It's such an example that I've told everybody to use the info ticket. Info isn't just a dismissal. It has substance to it. This is me advocating for that. You're correct. It wasn't. I was like, you have to use the info. Until it has the info, who's in charge of it is... Whether it's even going to an email, it's registered, you know, so.

All right, folks, that was your Zendesk commercial. So please use it. Thank you.

Info at Chesapeake.

All right.

I have two things mostly related to the water park. One is I just wanted to request that we had a couple of requests from the water park committee meeting to add the concept plans to the landing page. Yeah. That's pretty straightforward. And the other one was for the, what's it called, Biolytics. I was wondering if we could, that's for asset management. So I was wondering if we could maybe request Schiebel or Paddock to give us some sort of preventative maintenance program for the water park features so that we can add that to the asset suite management program. that we know what the budget for and what what stuff needs to be refurbished and maintained so that we can budget and keep the park going for 40 50 years uh wayne or not josh what do you guys use for the treatment plant for your asset management uh we utilize antero offered by from allmax

For the water park, it would probably work. If you start adding, we found issues when you start adding too many items in there that the database would start to bog down. But for what would be at the water park, it may be effective.

Okay. So maybe we could look at that, Antara or Biolytics for the water park, whatever works best. All right. Thanks. That's all I got. All right.

Yes. Just because it's not .

Can you, is your microphone on?

Thank you. Are there any, can you just provide the latest update on the Chesapeake Village sidewalk?

We have not heard back from SHA regarding our grant yet. They told us that we could expect to hear something mid to late September. So that's when I'm expecting to hear back from them.

Okay. I just wanted to reiterate that because it's on the engineer's report, but it's not anywhere on the town administrator's report that we are in application for a grant. That is correct?

It is on the – it should be on the – I think it says site visit or something conducted. Yeah. Because that was the last – update that we had. But they came and they did the site visit. We spoke with them. They said, we will follow up with you mid to late September. So it's reflected on the report. That's the last conversation that I've had with them.

Okay. So you expect to hear from SHA in September? That is what they communicated with us when they were on site. So that's my expectation. Okay, so if we don't hear that before the September meeting, could you please add that update that we're waiting for them in September to your administrators? Absolutely. Thank you very much. The $120,000 program open space allocation, has a project been identified for that yet, or have we, when will that come? Because I know there's some people that maybe could use that money.

I will need to follow up with Dan right now because he is our point of contact for Program Open Space now. But the last update he provided me was that that was what we were expecting to get once the money was allocated, and I haven't received the official notification that it was officially allocated yet.

And is it general or earmarked?

And I don't have a preference specifically. I'm just curious if it is. It's general. I mean, we do submit in our application projects that we would like to apply the funds towards. In the past, I think the way that the grant was administered, you just kind of said, these are the projects of interest that we're focused on, and they would put that in the letter as a whole. So what I would anticipate is that they would expect for us to apply the funds to the money that we identified in our application as priority projects.

Okay.

But there's no, like, set amount that we have to apply to each project. Gotcha.

Okay. I'll have to review those again. Okay. I recall some, but not all of them. Kellams was included on that, correct? Yes. Okay. For the 15 street steps, are you willing to put yourself on some kind of decision matrix so that talk isn't, like, the constant... Like, if we arrive here, then we have these two decisions. It's got to go forward somehow.

Yeah.

Okay. All right. Any further information that the town wants to provide can only help my understanding of the situation.

Okay.

And then I saw that the courtyards were on the code enforcement report, and I've refrained from asking about them for a long time, but there is a very conspicuous situation over there. Can you provide any updates on that? Do you want to?

So the town has a responsibility to make sure that we are enforcing these code violations that come up. So they were cited to have a code violation because they are currently violating code. We have spoken with them and understand that the nonprofit that owns the courtyards is having some challenges moving through the cycle with DHCD to get the approval to demolish. And so we met with their president on Tuesday. Wednesday to figure out how the town can partner with the courtyards to The company that owns them to move the project forward From the town's perspective. I think their their hold up is they need Architectural renderings in order to be able to get the approval to demolish and so and they don't have or didn't have the funds to procure that. And so they were kind of between a rock and a hard place is the way they explained it to us because they couldn't get the permission to demolish until they had this architectural rendering and then they couldn't get the money to get the architectural rendering unless they had the money that comes from DHCD. And so it's kind of this vicious cycle. And so the town is trying to do what we can to help facilitate and convey the importance of addressing this quickly, or as quickly as possible, given that we're almost at a year of the incident, understanding that we have a unique role because it is privately owned.

Yeah, I'd be interested. I mean, it's another one of those things that needs to be sped along, maybe needs a little bit more attention, and... effort and an understanding of what other places have done and what is the real expectation to have a end at this point, building standing in that manner.

If the municipal infractions process takes time, there's a when there's an infraction, I'm not addressing these particular PROPERTY MAINTENANCE PROBLEM, A CODE COMPLIANCE PERSON ISSUES A NOTICE TO THE PROPERTY OWNER THAT THE VIOLATION EXISTS AND GIVES THEM A REASONABLE. FOR 30 DAYS, THAT CITATION GOES TO COURT AND THEN IT GETS SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW. SO IT HAS THINGS BUILT INTO THERE THAT I mean, they just are what they are. So I don't know where these citations are in the process, but they will go to court if they remain unpaid. There are processes that can be invoked outside of the municipal infraction process in some circumstances when you have a building that is un-inhabited. Again, that is a conversation. There's just other sides that we need to keep.

I understand, and I'm for collaborative and creative solutions to solve a problem, but it's...

It can't be heard. I'm sorry. I'm getting signals from the back that nobody was able to hear you. Okay, now... Okay, so... All right, I can't...

I know you can't.

It's in my face. So that particular building isn't habitated, so that's not that problem.

Could she repeat it so the public could be heard for reporting? Because nobody heard what we heard, but the public didn't.

What I said was the municipal infraction process takes time. There are time frames built into the process that are just what they are. It can only be expedited so much. So when an infraction occurs, the code compliance officer, and I'm speaking generally, I'm not speaking about these citations, a code compliance officer will issue a notice to the property owner and give them the opportunity to correct the violation and then if the violations aren't corrected, a citation is written and that citation goes to court after a period of time and then there's a trial scheduled. a process over which the town has very little control. I also said that there are certain circumstances under which other processes outside of the municipal infraction process can be pursued, but I don't know that this particular situation is one of those, and we want to be careful about pursuing remedies that result in displacement of people. And then I suggested that I would have further conversation offline.

Thank you.

That's fine. And my point in bringing it up is because it does need some attention. I haven't heard about it in a long time. So if you're addressing it, that's great.

And we met just this week with the property manager or the president of the corporation.

And just for clarification... We were under the what in the last conversations that we had with them in July, June and July, was that they were going to present their bid for demolition and repair and that they were going to hear back the middle of July. Right. So we had this conversation in June and that's what we were expecting. And when they heard back, they got the news that they couldn't move forward in the way that they had originally anticipated. And so that's part of what the delay has been is that they were expecting to be able to do something that they did not get approval to do. And it took them a while to hear back from them. And so when they reached out to us and said, well, you know, we understand, we're working, we're trying to do everything we can, but we have a limited staff, we have limited funds, and is there anything the town can do to help support? And so that's where we are now. And we have been trying to approach it as humanely as possible when it comes to navigating this process with them because we understand that it's challenging. They're trying to navigate through what the requirements are with the town, the county, the state. And they're trying to do that with limited resources. But we got to a point with the code enforcement violation that we have an obligation to make sure that we're stewarding the town well. So that's kind of why we are where we are now. We expect it to be further along because they were communicating that the plan they had in place would have taken root earlier.

Sounds good. And I would just suggest that like any of these types of updates that you could just send to us without bringing every single issue to a public meeting will only help us inform the residents that care. I think this is an issue that a lot of people care about, which is why I brought it up. But there are many issues that only certain people might care about. And the more we know, the better we can.

We received that update in the town administrative report last month about what happened with where they are right now, actually.

No, we didn't receive all those details or we didn't receive going forward details, but we missed it.

The item that stood out to me with Fishing Creek is that you have to look at the surrounding. You have a tot lot. You have the buildings around there that have children that live in. And there is no fencing around that building that burned down. It needs to be demoed, but it also needs to be safe. Kids are curious, you know. It should be at least the minimum is to have a fence in place. If you go on the rail trail towards Ridgefield Station, they just have stub-ups, plumbing stub-ups, and they've had a fence there for years. I know they want to cut the grass and it's inconveniencing, but I think our job is to make sure that no curious kids get hurt.

All right.

Is there any comment on that or just ignored? A lot of times I just get nothing that gets answered.

It is heard, Dan.

Can I interject for a moment, man? Please do. I think the question is, if it is a public safety hazard, does the town have any jurisdiction or ability to step in based on the idea of making sure the public is safe, or is that something that we defer to the owners of the property? I think that would be an apropos question so that it could be an actionable item from the topic you just brought up. Do we have anybody that can answer that today, or can we get the answer at another time?

I think there is an answer to that, but we can get it another time. Exactly, yes.

Thank you.

Okay. That's how you do it. All right. We're going to move on to the treasurer's report. The treasurer is on vacation, but you have the printed report in your packets. And I think from what I see, we're okay. Anybody got any questions or comments on this printed report?

Yes.

I have my questions to Dan.

Okay. That'll be great. All right. Well, let's move on to the next item, which is public works report. And Jay is here to give us the public report. Go ahead, Jay.

Nothing too notable. A lot going on. I'm just saying that you have the report. I'll take any questions. I mean, there's a lot. There's always a lot going on, but there's really a lot going on. So maybe some of the questions we'll answer. If I answer, I'll answer everyone's question. If there's no questions, we can move on.

I don't have any questions for you.

Thank you. You're welcome. I presented some information in regards to the stormwater management plan and the administration of that. I've asked about the inspections. I know Wayne wasn't here at the last meeting. Where are we at with inspecting our stormwater management on our town roads and making sure that things are in operating condition? There was no last month. It was... No inspections are being done. That was the status. I followed up with Calvary County because they were the administrator of our land. That's what we deferred in 2003. Have you done anything on that?

I can speak to that, Wayne, if you want to follow up. So I wouldn't necessarily say they're an administrator. We adopted their plan in 2003, and this is the first year we did budget $100,000 this year for stormwater inspections before there was really no budget for it. Am aware working with Wayne on 28th Street 27th Street. We've done some surveys. We replaced some culvert projects There are a lot of storm waters that are older in town. We have inspected have encambered some working with the engineer, but it comes into a global situation of Areas what we need to look at It involves a coastal resiliency, especially on the north end of town. There's a lot of pieces to that puzzle and We can, as public works, kind of go and camera and inspect, which we do known deficiencies or broke pipes, but as far as the ultimate infrastructure plan and how we implement it and what we do, that's something that's going to take collaboration, council, where they want to start, what they want to focus on, what's the highest priority, and then we can initiate, I'm going to say, a global plan if that's what we want to do. As far as what we do now, if it's broke, we fix it. I'm not looking proactively to go out and install major infrastructure unless it's something we decide to do.

From when I talked to the guy at Calvert County Public Works in charge of stormwater, he looked in the Public Works administrator there. It sounds like The process and the procedures that we're doing, we're not following the plan as outlined that oversees us. That's the plan of the operating, how we're supposed to handle, and we're not doing that. Where you propose to pave D Street, there's no way that's not even allowed. That shouldn't even have been proposed according to Calvert County's plan. So we're not following that.

supposed to well I would advise you put in writing what you think we're not following and how you would fix it otherwise I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing otherwise if you have a plan or something you want to do or someone specifically you talk to where the town didn't do something right let me know because I'm not aware of anything we did on D Street are you there was a petition

But that's fine. Even the proposal of that has an entire process before you can even propose to do something like that. And for that to have come and to take our time as a council, for you not to know that, that's concerning.

Well, then maybe you should run for mayor, Dan, and do something about it. That's your answer? Cool. It is. Thank you.

All right.

And I just, I don't get to... race Jay publicly enough. And I did pepper him with a lot of, um, background questions for, um, you know, budgetary items, which is my job.

I understand.

But, um, thank you for the benches. Um, they're all new and that, you know, and I know all of those things take time and work and, uh, they look great. Um, the maintenance at the tennis courts has been outstanding. Like The trash is never full. Everything's clean. It's great. And everybody appreciates that. Thank you for that. I'll ask you all questions about other things later, like lights and all that stuff, because I know you've given updates on that already. And then the maintenance of the Kudzu this year has been way better than so many other years. So whoever's managing that is doing a very good job. And I did not make it home today after work. So I'm just wondering what's going on with the sidewalks in our neighborhood.

So that's just failed pieces removed and replaced where there's a trip hazard. We go out once a year, look for issues over a half an inch discrepancy. And if we can grind them, we have a company that does that. If they're settled too much or cracked, we replace them. So I will say, compared to Richfield Station and other developments, because we were there, I was there during the inspection phase, it's very nominal compared to other developments. Because Wayne and I worked with developers, the prior engineer, and I'm going to say they were installed right. So it's just something we do as a maintenance.

Okay, so are they done now?

Well, they were actually supposed to pour them today, but the concrete truck broke down. They notified me, and they're set up to start pouring tomorrow at 9. So they'll pour them tomorrow. It'll set up, and they'll probably remove the forms Friday or Saturday morning, and that'll be it.

Okay, so that's just normal maintenance, nothing from IQ Fiber or anything like that. It's just regular routine maintenance?

Correct. They were actually scheduled to do it last month, but they had some prior commitments and different things that fell behind, so they're out here now. Next, they're going to the Heritage.

Well, thank you for doing that maintenance, and thank you for all that you do.

And thank you, and I would like to say, Lori, I appreciate the fact that you recognize something and you say, hey, Jay, I recognize this. Here's what I want to do. You tell me how to fund it. You know, I can only make so many decisions. I think anybody can sit out here and point out every problem the town ever did for the last 50 years. Does that move us forward? I'm not sure. But if that's your focus, let me know, and I'll tell you how I can go back and fix that too. Okay. Thank you. Thanks.

The fitness court, it might be more of a Wayne thing, but I see we've got most of the parts and equipment here. Is the location of that pretty set in stone? Have we talked with the beach buccaneers? What would work best for them on the location of that?

Yeah, so we submitted a plan to the columns committee to show where that is. In general, it's the same location we showed it in the last master plan. We did refine it a little bit as we get into detailed design, and I can talk a little bit more about it in my report to get into details. But yes, it's defined. Yes, it's graded. Yes, it's ready to go be permitted. We just need someone to review it and approve it and make sure that it's where you want it.

And to add, the beach buccaneers were definitely considered in placement. So that was a part of that, the work that was done.

The beach buccaneers leadership about it.

So it's waiting on the state right now for permanent or?

No, I'll just do it now. I was going to do my report. We were waiting for a geotech report. My report says it was due on the 14th. We got it on the 15th. We are working on the foundation. As we've talked about over in Kellums, even with the tot lot previously, there's base stabilization issues. We've heard about it at the water park, right? The ground out there is not the best ground. In fact, for the tot lot we raised at two feet, we're doing something similar here. We received the geotech report last week We're working with the geotech now to figure out what the best solution is to stabilize that base The last thing we all want to do is put a fitness pad there and have it crack up and that's not what we're gonna do So we have a solution for that and we're implementing it now And once that's implemented, we'll be ready to go for permits and get that thing built.

All right. Thanks All right, let's move on to the water reclamation treatment plant work sir

Good evening. Y'all have my report. I don't really have any updates on anything that was in there. So if you have any questions.

I'm always impressed with the level of detail that you put in your reports. I think it's very useful for us to know. And I'm glad that Jay is following in your footsteps by putting more photographs in his reports. I think he learned that from you. So I'm glad to see everybody working together. And it's all for the benefit of the citizens of the town. But this is... For those of you that haven't seen this report, it's very detailed and... If anybody's got any real questions about it, he's here to answer.

Just want to point out, it looks like the control system upgrade went well, and you're seeing some benefits of that. So that's great to hear.

For both the PLCs for the main system and also we had an unplanned project we got done for the aeration blowers, and that's actually working quite well now.

That's great. And you had to use the overflow, the big tank?

Yes, that rainfall on the 21st. That was pretty substantial rain. Everybody here is probably aware of that. We saw what the flow issues were. We did my hourly data from each flow source, and I sent reports off to each partner just saying, hey, here's what we saw just for their information.

And we had a recent partner meeting. Yes, sir. And I sat in on that. And I want to say that from when we took office to now, things have settled down a lot. Our partners seem to be happy with what's going on. And so I'm actually kind of proud that we're moving that forward. And I appreciate everything that you're doing in your leadership role.

I really love this. It's like really my wheelhouse. I kind of nerd out about it a little bit.

Well, for me, it reads like an action adventure.

We had some interesting things. The issue with that number three filter effluent valve, the whole visualizing what occurred there, I couldn't help but go into like something straight out of, oh, now my brain ain't going to work. Action adventure. Yeah, pretty much. That was an interesting evening on that one.

Yeah, you did some investigating. Was that under warranty or no?

No, that's not under warranty. Those actuators have been there for a long time. It was just an unfortunate series of events. That eyewash station had been there for 10 years. The way that you drain and refill those eyewash stations every six months, you pull the caps off and the water drains across. So somehow over 20 times that being done over 10 years... was never an issue. This one time was a problem. We got it moved. It's not going to be a problem in the future.

Well, if anybody buys you a Christmas present this year, it should be a sleuth hat.

Troubleshooting is fun.

Yeah, yeah. And then I wanted to say that I think you said two-minute or five-minute training is such a great way to train, and I Red, that's how you train each day? Do a little quick five-minute training?

Yeah, we do it once a week. We have a whole slew of different topics that we go through. And sometimes, like, for electrical safety, it'll be a topic a week for about a month or two where we're going through different small topics on that, just overview what the operators would need to know in regards to the OSHA 1910 standard, which is the one that we follow, and then multiple other things like heat exposure, cold weather, try and set them up to where they kind of fit with the time of the year. We have stuff for... hazardous animals you may run across, snakes, spiders, stuff like that, that usually do that at the beginning of the spring. Same with poisonous plants. I mean, we go across a whole wide gamut of stuff.

Yeah. Very cool. That's a super smart way to train your staff with, you know, not taking up too much time and... Right. getting some repetition in, so yeah. I'm always interested in your report. I never comment, so I made a commitment to highlight and comment. I also want to say in... Just highlight.

It's just for real.

I don't always highlight, but I don't know if you miss it or not, but I will take up Larry Jaworski's mantle and say congratulations on no SSO spells. Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Every month.

That's great.

Anybody else got any questions?

One more.

Do we have any movement on the grant for the headworks? We're slowly working on that. I did reach out to McCrone. There's some documents we would need when we start moving forward with looking at the congressional directed spending, just documents that they would need to provide that would have to fit to qualify for that. We're slowly moving forward. We're hoping to start having some site visits in the fall is what's recommended. So hopefully we'll be getting going on that and hopefully it'll go in the right direction. We just got updated cost on that. I'll go off the top of my head. It went from 3.2 million to about 5.4. So the costs are not going to go down, but that project we need to get going on it because we're going to wind up having an issue eventually.

Any other questions? All right. Thank you, sir. Good report, as always. Now the engineer's report.

Wayne? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You had my report, just a couple updates. The water park continues to change weekly since this was written 8-12. In this report, it talked about value engineering meetings we held with Scheibel for Phase 2 construction on 7-23 and 7-30. We also had one last week. Don't have a final budget yet, but we're getting close for Phase 2 construction. Phase 1 demo, of course, is continuing, getting ready to do pile re-strikes and test piles should be happening this week. Other updates I already talked about a little bit with the Kelms Master Plan for the fitness pad. We already gave you that one. Rail Trail RFP, I did hold the interviews with KCI, who you'll see is recommended in your packet. It was. It's now removed. So we can have that conversation when you're ready. I'm ready to have that conversation. I do recommend that they be awarded the contract. And with any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Yeah, I'll touch on the Kelmsfield top lot storm drain project. The Zendesk ticket I sent was 3033. What that did was, as you said, you had some challenges with the top lot. You built it up over two foot. We are within a waiver that allowed that to go. You pulled that permit from getting done so that you could attach the fitness pad to that waiver.

I'm not familiar with your term waiver, but go ahead.

So, well, your word. So you said you have impervious area expand for the permitting of it when we discussed it.

I'm not familiar with your word waiver.

Okay, what word is it that you were using?

So we had a permit, a grading permit of Calvert County, to install the tot lot and the storm drain project. The typical process is to close that permit out, you submit as-bills, which we did. They review the stormwater side of the as-bills, then we submit our final as-bills, which we did. When the fitness pad came up, we asked them to not release the permit at this time because we will likely revise it to include the fitness pad.

So when I say waiver, what I'm referring to is the allowed area up to X amount of square feet, right? I believe it's 5,000 square feet? No. Okay.

Wait a minute. Let me explain. That's not correct. Up to 5,000 square feet does not require grading permit. This project has a grading permit. Every grading permit you can disturb as much as you want. It has limitations up to 20 acres where you have different sequences for construction. But what we're talking about here is a grading permit, not something under 5,000 square feet.

Okay, so we talked about raising the two foot for the tight lot. So one thing we don't realize when we're at a town council meeting is is after it rains and where water stands. I rode around. I submitted that ticket. It had the pictures. The pictures, the drain's not working. So the top lot and the water, it's standing, and people would have to walk through it or walk over where the building's on fire next to that to get by without walking through the water.

Let me respond. I've not seen the ticket. I'd love to see it and have a conversation with you offline about that. There are areas where the building caught on fire where those parking lots that are private parking lots have sunk and there is standing water in the parking lots. It has nothing to do with the Kelms Tile Lot.

The pictures I have are pretty good. You can see there's soil in it and then I also showed the other side of Kelms where there's standing water after the rain has stopped so that you can see after a rain event, not even a big rain event, Where are the water standing? So then we could say, wow, are we going to push that flooding to people down the road?

So again, I'd love to see the pictures and have a conversation offline, but those devices are designed to hold water for 48 hours. They're required to filter the water before it's released. But happy to have the conversation. I don't have the information.

No problem. It's ticket 3033. I'll be sure to get a copy of it.

The water part, we're doing 13 test piles. Is that right?

We're doing three test piles. We're doing 13 restrikes.

Three test piles, 13 restrikes.

So we're restriking the old piles to confirm their capacity, and we're doing three new test piles.

Okay. And can you just let the public know, like, what are the three new test piles? What's the purpose of those?

So when you have a pile foundation, you need to figure out how long and how big your piles need to be to support your weight you're looking for. So the only way to really do that, you have geotech reports which kind of project it, but to confirm it, we actually go drive three piles before we drive the rest of the piles. We do that in three different areas of the park because the soils may be different in different areas of the park. And that gives us our pile capacities, which tells us how long our piles need to be and how big our piles need to be before we order them. That's what we're doing.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that where the water amenity was is where the piles were in the existing, but we're going to expand that. Is that not correct, Jay?

And just from dealing with members of the public and being over there every day with other stuff, just to, you know, layman's terms, everyone thinks you drive a pile down and you hit a substrate, clay or something, and that's the bottom of that stilt, if you will, and now it's holding. But there's also, these piles are so long, there's what's called the friction load on the outside of the pile, whether you hit a hard bottom or not. So in the restrike that's been there so long, they want to understand if we change, if we add weight, and you change that friction load, does it increase, does it not? And the new piles, the test, hey, we're going to beat it, and they have a dimension. When it stops moving so much for each hit, they know they've reached that friction. Then they come back and hit it another time. Talked to too many people about it lately, and there's different technologies, but it's not a, it's a matter of, okay, how wide do they need to be? How many do we have to add? Are we going per plan? I think everything I've seen so far is in good shape, but the proof's in the pudding, and the equipment showed up today, so the thing will be there to do it. I've just had that conversation with a lot of public, and maybe it'll save me a few more conversations saying it here, but thanks.

How long does that process, you said the equipment's here, and then how long do you expect that process to take?

I don't want to speak for Wayne. So the restrikes, they actually, if you look at the construction site, the demo contractor left the bottom of the river so he can travel this crane along with a good surface and not damage the grade beams. He thinks he can do the seven or the 13 restrikes in two days, driving the new three piles in one day. And it takes about a week to get that done. We'll have the information. But once they mobilize, the intent is to then fill in the gaps once they learn that study.

Gotcha. And so if I remember, it's a long process, but once we take the top off, we have to hurry up and get the bottom. We need to get back on very quickly. I imagine that's planned as the owner's representative says. Does he have, like, a date by, or how's that being tracked and predicted?

So we received a draft schedule today from Scheibel, now that we know that the pile driver is on site. I haven't looked at it yet. But I know what you're talking about. The concern is if we leave that place open, a bunch of water gets there and damages the bottom. The way they're demoing that, they've actually crushed a lot of the concrete, and they've made their own pad. So that's good. We're preventing water from getting in there. Once these restrikes are done and we can order the piles, they're ready to go. So they will be in there putting piles in and additional screw piles in and finishing that floor as fast as they can.

My last question, the budget discussions is just so that you have the books in front of you to watch or is there...

That's one reason.

My understanding was we approved a big price.

You did. You did. You approved a budget, and as you can imagine as you go through design, things change. Numbers change. If you'll remember, there was a contingency in there, and we were able to share some. That's what we're working on. So now that we have the final design, we have final numbers, we're just adjusting those to make sure as we go forward we can track those numbers.

Okay. There's no big budgetary concern to speak of.

No. And there has been some value engineering things. As you get the designs and the engineers suggest things, the electrician says, hey, why don't we do it this way? It'll save you some money. Or the mason says, why don't we do it this way? It'll save you some money. When you see my report, we're talking about value engineering. That's what we're doing. We're trying to whittle that price down to get it as low as we can to start and then watch it as we go forward.

Thank you for answering, both of you, for answering those questions.

Wayne, I forwarded you an email just now with the rest of the council that supports what conversation I was saying, especially with this D street widen. That's not, when I'm talking to the administrator, like the people who kind of work on that plan. I'm hearing that's not, there's a whole process that's supposed to take place, and I don't think we have that administrative process in town for this D Street widening project I see on your report.

So since it's in my report and you commented on it, the D Street widening was part of a pavement widening program in anticipation of getting approval of that from the Chesapeake Bay Curriculatory Commission. We have submitted it to Chesapeake Bay Curriculatory Commission. The requirement when you add paving in the curricular area is to provide stormwater management. And Dan, I want to clarify, there's a difference between stormwater management and storm drainage. I think you're confusing the two, but I'm not going to go into that. We'll have a slight connection. In a critical area, we have IDA, which is what you are, intense development area. The entire town is intense development area. You have to provide and prove that when you add impervious area, you reduce the pollutant load to the bay by more than 10%. And that's a computation that we do. We've done that. And we provide stormwater management devices to provide that pollutant reduction. In this case, our design was to add plants along the edge of the road. That's been completed. I think it's been submitted to the Critical Area Commission. so that once we get that approval, we can do that widening. But we'll have that conversation offline.

Yeah, I've submitted a lot of that stuff. Everybody said they're looped in on that.

All right. Let's move on to the Twin Beaches patrol sheriffs. Sergeant Norton, welcome.

The month of July, the Sheriff's Office responded to 189 calls for service, slightly up from the 172 that we responded to in June. Out of that, we had 645 self-initiated activities such as patrol checks, traffic enforcement, traffic stops, and follow-ups. Of the 189 calls for service, some of note, we had several thefts. The one I'd like to speak on was from July 24th. A couple of my deputies responded to Richfield Station for active subjects breaking into vehicles and all subjects were caught. I don't have the figures in front of me on how many vehicles exactly they broke into, but they identified numerous victims and they were all charged accordingly. So I would like to commend the deputies for that one. Had several DUIs due to heavy traffic enforcement, few assaults. There was a burglary on there, fourth degree burglary. I figured people would have a question about that when they see that word. Everybody gets a little uneasy. This was a subject. We arrested him a couple times over in North Beach, and he made his way down here from PG County. We're not sure how. We were able to get in contact with his sister in PG County. He has a multitude of mental health issues. We were able to get them linked back together and get him into a facility. But he did receive several charges over here on Chesapeake Beach side and North Beach side during his one or two week visit here with us. So, but just to let everyone know that was an isolated incident subject, you know, not walking down the street, actively breaking into houses. This was just a mentally ill subject who entered someone's home. So, any questions, concerns?

You guys do a great job. Thank you. And I had something stolen and not only did you catch the person, this is a couple years back. Everything somehow got returned to me. It was strewn all about my neighborhood. And all day long, people brought little pieces of my wallet back to me. So we don't have much crime here, and I'm very thankful for that.

Try to keep it that way. I do actually have an open case right now that's a theft, and the gentleman keeps contacting our property manager to get his stuff back. And I said, has it gone to court yet? That's evidence right now. We kind of need that to prove our point in court. So we always ask citizens to just be patient with us. It's the judicial process when we're handling stuff like that. Court takes a while, and as soon as we're done, you'll be able to have it back.

I know this is North Beach, but I do want to say the first Fridays, I think, is going really well with the new layout, and I've seen a lot of positive feedback. We don't want to jinx that.

It's the last two have gone smoothly, so we've increased deputies there. Feedback from the citizens is very positive. I've heard good things about summer nights, too. Citizens are enjoying that, and we did have good feedback for July 3rd. It feels like it was months ago, but last month, well, it was fireworks, but that was a successful evening as well. We didn't have any major incidents during that. Thankfully. Yeah. Well, we can talk about it now. It's past.

Assist motorist, that was a little higher. Is that normally higher in the summer or was it?

Depends. I mean, that can be a number of things. The assist motorist, sorry, I'm just trying to pull up that spreadsheet.

10 for the month, 58 for the year.

Yeah, so I mean, that can be anything. You know, we see a car with its flashers on on the side of the road. I get it all the time up here at the top of 260. They'll turn from the light here. Their phone will ring. They'll pull over, and they put their flashers on. Well, I come up the road a few cars behind them. I pull in. to check on them, make sure they're okay, see if they need assistance or anything. I have to label it as an assist motorist. It's just how we categorize certain calls. So it's just letting our dispatch know, hey, I'm out with a vehicle. They might be broken down, so they're prepared for me to ask for a tow truck or certain things like that.

So no tire change service. I had a flat tire. I haven't had one. I was like, oh.

Could have had. I've changed a few tires this summer. I will say that. I don't publicly announce it. I've changed a few tires, folks, this summer.

I see that's always a highlight. You know what I mean? So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. It's always good to see you here. Yep. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. North Beach Volunteer Fire Department. Anything going on at the fire department?

A little bit. Good to see you, sir. Good to see you. Greetings from President Gee and Chief Stanton. And I guess everybody got their statistical report emailed to them. Yeah. Yeah, have a, you know, knock on wood. As far as emergencies go, we're slow right now.

It's a good thing because you're busy otherwise.

It is. It is. Very much so. But, yeah, we haven't had any earth-shattering things go on. It's been relatively quiet out there. Just wrapping up the 100th anniversary stuff.

Yeah, that's great. When we get to the mayor's report, I've got a few things to say about the 100th anniversary and the parade and the carnival. So stick around for that. I'll be here. I'm not too far, not too much further down the road. Any questions from anyone or?

No, I bought your book, but I have not read it yet, so I don't want to talk about it because I'll look really dumb.

Are we talking about this book?

Yes, we're talking about that book.

I do have it. Amazing piece of history. This was recently published about the first hundred years of the North Beach Volunteer Fire Department, which is the oldest department in the county. And company number one. And despite the fact that they're the North Beach Volunteer Fire Department, they've been located in Chesapeake Beach ever since I've moved here in 1985. But we don't hold that against them for not changing the name. Thank you for being here. It's always good to have you here.

All right.

Have a good evening.

All right. All right. Here's report. And so what you have on the screen there is some photographs that I took with my phone. And guess what? I was up in the air. Can you tell that? I was on the Ferris wheel when I took these with Becky, and that was a lot of fun. And you'll notice on the left-hand picture that the ladder truck's on the backside of the firehouse, and it's all the way up in the air. And there's, I think, two members of the fire company in the bucket up there, and they were shooting pictures from the backside of the firehouse. And so, okay, go to the next one. Now, I took a trip to South Carolina to visit my daughter and her family. Becky and I did. And on the way home, we were coming up Route 85. We were in Western South Carolina. We were coming up Route 85, and I hit Route 29 in North Carolina that runs in through Virginia and turns into Lee Highway in Fairfax County. And I was just talking to Becky, and I said, well, you know, I finished my last year of high school at a military academy that's very near where we are right now. And so she says, well, why don't we go up there? So we did. And it's in Chatham, Virginia. It's called Hargrave Military Academy. It's opera. It is related to the Southern. It's Southern Baptist ministry. And I went there voluntarily in my senior year of high school because I had I needed a class. In summer school, and I went there at the recommendation of somebody to do this summer school. I was in Fairfax County at the time. And when I got there, I really liked it. So I decided to ask my mom and dad if I could do my senior year of high school there, which I did do. And I'll be honest with you, that changed a lot of things for me because it's very strict military school, very disciplined, male only. And I did very well there in all of my classes. And I was kind of didn't pay that much attention in public high school at Fairfax County. So anyway, we stopped there and we got a great tour. The picture on the left and the right is the same image. It's in the new chapel that recently was built. And so we got to see that. Hit the next one, Wendy. Oh, and that was it for that. But at any rate, it was good to stop by there and to rebuild that relationship. And I really enjoyed that. Now, Anthony, do you want to say anything about this?

Yes. Well, that was during the Twin Beaches Community Health Coalition Red, White and Warrior Challenge, which was a part of Uplift Calvert Festival. And that is a part of the 140 foot obstacle course that I really tried to get Bruce to run. He kept telling me he was too tired to do it. But we had people to come out to compete. We had a nice group of teams, and we were able to raise over $1,400 for the American Legion post up the street. So we did pretty good. But next time, we're definitely going to get Bruce to do it. He was a little shy. He really wanted it. I had shorts for him and everything.

I heard Chris did it, right?

He did do it. He did indeed. Anybody who did it did a good job. I was there. He was there.

Yeah, and I thought that that was a great event, and I think a lot of people had a lot of fun. And Chris, did you want to say anything? You don't want to add anything further to that? Chris. And she did a really good job. But that was a lot of fun. And I commend you for putting this together. I really think that this is the type of thing that the citizens of the town and the area can really embrace and enjoy. So thank you for your thoughts on that.

Thankful for the people who came out.

And again, we mentioned, we talked a little bit about Fishing Creek already, so I don't think I need to say anything more about that. And then we talked a little bit about the... the water park already. The 100th anniversary, this book was published by, John Tippett wrote this book about the fire department. And do you want to come back forward and comment on this? This thing is absolutely spectacular and detailed and they're available.

They are available for purchase. It's $60 a piece. The chief tippet just put in a ton of time, and it seems like he would go home pretty much every night and write this book. I mean, he wrote this thing by himself. And he went through old file cabinets and old – and everything. And it seemed like every time he'd get something done, he'd find something brand new. Um, and it's amazing. He would point out that, uh, 60, 70 years ago at their business meetings, they were discussing the same things that we discuss now, complaining about the cleanliness and people aren't picking up after themselves and this and that. And it's just, it's amazing how history just keeps repeating itself. And, uh, I bought one of the books, but I have not had a – I've looked at it, glanced through it, but I haven't had time to sit down and really go through it. But you've been a little busy at the fire department. Yeah. It's quite the accomplishment what he was able to put down in that book. Like I say, they are for purchase. I think the Bayside History Museum has some where you can come out of the Chief Tippett put this whole effort out from his pocket. So he fronted the book and he paid for it and everything. So if you go and buy it and... They say make the check out to John Tippett. He's not committing any fraud or anything. He's not making a profit off of it either. If there is any money that comes out, it's going to go back to the firehouse. He wanted to do a hardcover book, which would have been outstanding, but it would have been, I think the publisher said, $300 to $350 a piece. So unfortunately, we couldn't pull that off. Right.

Well, thank you. And there is a copy of this in the back. If any of you here that are visiting tonight want to take a look at it, just look at it on your way out. Yeah. In other words, see them before you buy them. But I would encourage you to support the fire department. I mean, it's instrumental here in the town. And then, of course, I have a special connection to the fire department because I did have a house fire that put me out of my home for a year. And I was talking to the previous chief. I'm trying to think of his name.

Chris Mills, Chief Mills.

He told me at the event that if the call had gone in just another minute or two later, my house would have burned right down to the ground. You don't realize how valuable the fire department is until you have a fire. Unbelievable. I mean, because we were out of our house for an entire year to rebuild it. And my house is a duplex, so it's attached to another home. And the home that was attached to it wasn't damaged at all. And they're volunteers. They're all volunteers. So I can't say enough about how lucky we are to have the North Beach Volunteer Fire Department, the first one in Calvert County, located in Chesapeake Beach here. And these people are willing to serve. And another thing that's interesting about that is, is my great-nephew is a professional firefighter for Prince George's County, and he lives outside of the town limits but with a Chesapeake Beach address, but he is a member of the North Beach Volunteer Fire Department as well. He just recently had a baby, and he's been a little preoccupied.

A little preoccupied with the baby. We're seeing him more and more every day, which is great. He's great.

Yeah. So, again, a round of applause for North Beach Volunteer Fire Department.

Thank you. Another interesting thing in the book is there's a lot of pictures of the town from way back in the day. So if you just like history and nostalgia to see what this place used to be, there's a lot of pictures in there of that also. Yeah.

That's great. And I just want to comment that the carnival is really well organized. I'm seeing a lot of positive feedback on that. I took my kids last night. We had a good time. And I understand that the fire department gets a portion of that back.

Yes. Well, we're hoping that it comes somewhat close to being able to offset the money we've spent on this 100th anniversary. Oh, okay. Because we've had to spend quite a bit, too. We had a gala over here at the Rod and Reel that – It wasn't cheap, but it was, you know, we're only going to see 100 once. So we decided we might as well do it up. But a shout-out to Will Callis, one of our members. He has been working on this thing for a year, and I've been working with him on a lot of the stuff, and just the amount of time and effort that he's put into it is incredible. been incredible. So far I've heard, I honestly haven't been down there yet. I have had everything this week. I've had to take care of different things. I had to go to a seminar last night, wife's birthday tomorrow night, Orioles game Saturday. I don't know if that's going to happen or not, but everything I've heard has been really, really good feedback on it. I take my word for it. I've been there apparently more than you have. I was amazed. I didn't think they'd be able to pull it off and get all those rides and everything in the lot, but they did. Hopefully, we can make this a tradition and we'll keep it up. Maybe not in August. Maybe more in the fall or more in the spring, but we had to plan it in August for the 100th. We're going to go back and look at everything, and hopefully we can pull it off and keep it up as a neighborhood kind of thing.

As I recall, it was done since I moved here in 1985. It's been done before there.

It has been done at the firehouse. I never saw it at the firehouse. I've been here for about 20 years, and I remember taking my daughter down to the gravel lot down there when they had the carnival down there. But they did do it at the firehouse, and they pulled it off again, so...

That's great. Well, congratulations. Thank you. And please extend the council and my congratulations back to the chief and everybody that's responsible.

Will do.

Thank you. One other note for the mayor's report. Well, we have some pictures that I shot today. No, that's not today. Because it's down further than that. But that's some pictures I shot. of the construction or, or demolition that's going on at the, at the water park. And the, uh, the only place that, that, uh, you can take pictures is through the, uh, the fence right on the street because the rest of it's got a shield around it. Uh, yeah. And that one looks like it was today because the top of that was down. But, um, I, I, uh, I shot a lot of stuff, but these are the ones that we picked to show you tonight.

Uh, okay. Well,

Oh, no, that was a video. Oh, it didn't play enough there. All right. Well, then the only other thing I have to mention is a couple of birthdays. This coming Saturday, you've heard of Roland's Grocery Store. Roland himself, Roland Pelletier, will turn 88 years old on Saturday. And you can always find him at the American Legion. If the black Cadillac SUV is up there, Roland is there. And he's there a lot. And there's a little story about Roland that I'll share with you. It is working. Oh, you got it to work. You're good. But just let it roll. Roland, when I was... After my one year of college, I went to drive a truck for my dad for delivering newspapers in Washington, D.C. and in Rockville, Maryland, two different times. And the Washington, D.C. route that I had was southeast Washington on the inside, away from the Anacostia River, up toward the Capitol and so forth. And on, I think it was either 4th or 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast, there was a delicatessen there that was one of my stops where I put newspapers. It was called Roland's. And yes, it was Roland Pelletier and his family. And so I didn't get to know him then, but when I moved here and then the store was built, I approached him and I was actually there for the groundbreaking. There's a picture of us at the groundbreaking. And and also there's a shovel that if you go into Roland's and you turn in toward the vegetable side, you know, and you look up on the wall, there's a box, a glass box that has a shovel in it. And there's a hundred dollar bill up there. And that hundred dollar bill has my signature on it because I was the very first customer at Roland's. And so I just wanted to share that with you. And the main reason that that came to mind is that Roland Pelletier's birthday is Saturday and he'll be 88 years old. And so if you ever go to the American Legion, he's there most of the time. If you see the Black Cadillac in front, he's there. And if you do happen to see him anytime in the near future, wish him a happy 88th birthday. And I'll also mention that yesterday, I have one brother. His name is Barry. He lives in Northern Virginia near Manassas. And yesterday was his 80th birthday. So I'm just proud of my brother having his 80th birthday. Thank you for indulging me and Commissioner Grasso. I'm happy that you're here. Is there anything you want to say to the public? No, no politicking. No politicking. Welcome. We're so glad you're here with your husband.

Well, I'm glad to be here. Just wanted to mention that National Night Out, I was here, and I had a citation for all of you. I have that.

It's in my office.

Okay. And as usual, you all do such a great job. It's always very well attended, the vendors, everything that's here, the fire department, the police department. It's just great. And I just wanted to announce, if you did not see our meeting on Tuesday, We did vote to put a moratorium on data centers. It's a six-month moratorium. It's not long enough. It will be extended, but we were glad to get off the ground with some safeguards in place and to get the six-month moratorium. The end of September, we will be in motion to reverse the zoning from high height Industrial, high industrial, back to what it was, which it was 2Fs, farming and something else. So I think those two together, but I think the zoning is the most important aspect of the whole thing. Once we get that back, it is really going to hamstring everything. anybody who wants to come in here, and I think the new board is going to be a lot more transparent and cognizant of what the people want. The people did a beautiful job. Before I became a county commissioner, I was them. I was behind that microphone raising hell about what I didn't like about what was going on, and I was pretty consistent with it. Even though as an elected official, you know, you want everything to be wonderful and everybody to like you, it ain't going to happen. And if you don't have the strength to be a leader, this job isn't for you because we work hard. for the people and our people let us know. Seventy percent, I think, is the amount of individuals in Calvert County that are not for data centers. I read recently that Governor Abbott, he's put a stop to them. His parameters are he doesn't want anything else in his state unless they bring their own electricity and their own water source. And one thing that I thought was very interesting, he does not want data centers in rural locations. Hello, that's Calvert County. We are 100% rural. So I hope everybody's happy with that. I'm so glad that we were finally able to get that through. Dr. Jeanette Wysocki, she's part of our environmental commission. They gave us some really good advice that was not taken, but now there are reversals and I told her I'm going to need her help with the whole board is because what we want to do, what we want to have in place is studies that are not off the shelf. but studies that are unique to our small county, our county that is a peninsula. So our studies will be done just for Calvert County. So I think that's really good news. Also want to say that our sheriff's department, our sheriff's deputies are second to none. They keep us safe. I can't say enough good things about them. And also I've been very fortunate to participate in all the 100th anniversary activities with the North Beach Volunteer Fire Department. It's a great group of men and women. I have always, since I've become a commissioner and got to know them better, I have always been a great admirer of them. They have a cadet program. They have young people who are there. I've seen the older people say, did you do this? Did you do that? And I think to myself, what a great discipline for them. What great examples. for them to work with the men and women North Beach Volunteer Fire Department. I can't say enough. I think that's about all. Thank you all so much for the job that you do. And as I always say, I work for you. That's why I make the big money. So if you all ever have anything that you need me to help you with, anything you're a little ticked off about anything you're happy about, don't hesitate to call me because I work for you. Thank you so much.

Well, thank you for joining us tonight. Great to see you. Great to see you both. All right. We'll call that the end of the mayor's report. Now we're going to move on to resolutions and ordinances.

Mayor, if I would ask, I would like to ask a clarification question in regards to this before we get started on this in direct relation to that May 21st, 2026 meeting and the definition and understanding of the quorum. C-306 quorum, a majority of the members of the council shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but no ordinance shall be approved, nor any other action taken without the favorable votes of a majority of the whole number of members elected to the council. I thought in May we understood that to be four, and now... Tonight, we seem to have a different understanding. I'd just like clarification before we start this next bit.

A majority of the whole members of council is four.

Correct. So for any business, it takes four to pass, correct? Correct.

Majority of the council is four.

Elected to the council. So the majority is four. Correct.

So it takes four votes to pass. Are you speaking definitively for ordinances or are you talking about agenda?

I'm speaking for clarification so we make sure we're... Because on May 21st, there was... I think John was on vacation, and there was a lot of ripples about that. So if we're saying that for business, so it says ordinance or business, right? So business, I was told that, nope, three is the vote.

So I'd like to have what that understanding is before we move forward with this. Okay, so council, I think the question is, is there a difference between voting for agenda items, so on and so forth, versus ordinances on what the actual vote count should be with foreign attendance?

You can't transact business without a majority of members of the council. An ordinance... cannot be approved, nor any other action taken. I read that to be with respect to an ordinance without the favorable votes of the majority of the whole number of members elected to the council.

Thank you, council. So that means that you have four votes to approve. Okay. Does that answer your question?

Did we have four votes for the agenda? So that's business, right? That's business.

Respect to the ordinance. Otherwise, the first part of Section C-306 would be meaningless. So you don't, it is a principle of statutory interpretation that you don't read a legislative provision to make any part of it Superfluous or without meaning so a majority of members of council shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business We're talking about general the general business of the council a majority of members of the council shall Shall constitute a quorum no ordinance shall be approved or other action taken without a favorable votes of the majority of the whole number of members elected That answer your question And I believe that that interpretation is consistent with the way council has operated for the last, well, since I started it, since before I started in 2010.

Does that answer your question?

Yeah, it just does seem to be contradictory until earlier.

No, our increase was not an ordinance, and that's what... Well, business and ordinance is a... Different words. One starts with a B, the other one... 100% but you got to remember you got to understand that the council let us know that when it comes to an ordinance That's what you're talking about anything else is for us to keep the meeting moving forward So I understand what you're asking and what you want to make sure we got correct But our council just said we got it correct. Okay transaction of business.

So that's the word with the starts with a B right there Gotcha All right again the business at hand

is to vote on ordinance 026-14 an ordinance of the town council chesapeake beach maryland amending the town code chapter 290 zoning article 3 zoning district section 290-10 land use table to prohibit data centers in all zones And that's really, in the code itself, it's a minor change. But it gets to what you were talking about, Commissioner Grasso, and so forth. So I'll call for the vote. Motion to approve. I'm sorry?

A motion to approve, and then we can go on. Are we approving the vote?

Let's go through the right transactions. Motion to approve.

Yes. Okay. We'll turn the microphone back on.

Just on page four.

Of the ordinance itself?

No. My comment is on the next one.

All right. So we're ready to vote on this.

Yes.

Yes, to prohibit data centers in all zones.

All in favor of... A motion to approve. I need a second.

Motion and a second. I'll second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Here we go. Yeah. Any further discussion? Yes.

The discipline we need to, I think, keep on our ordinances where they're introduced and that item's written in and are a little bit of housekeeping so that the uniformity is there. This wasn't and isn't all the case. So if we look at the different ordinances, some of them have the introduced pass an effective date, some of them don't. I think we should be uniformed when we're legislating.

On this ordinance, have we met the legal requirements to enact this?

Yes.

Any other questions?

What was the introduced date?

It was introduced last month, right? It was introduced at the last meeting. July 16th. All right.

If you look at the end part of the ordinance where it says as certified, it recites the date on which it was introduced.

Yeah, there's just a few of them that I had objections to from May that didn't follow that discipline. So that's what just trying to make sure we're staying disciplined.

Maybe we could bring it up in closed session to discuss. The other ordinances.

All right, we do have a motion. We do have a second. All in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? No opposed. The motion passes. The ordinance is approved. Thank you. All right, now we're going to introduce ordinance number O-26-15, an ordinance of the Town Council of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, amending the Town Code, Chapter 290, zoning. Article 3, zoning districts, Section 290-11, conditions and standards for conditional and special exception uses to implement certain state requirements regarding accessory dwelling units. We'll set the public hearing for... September 17th at 6.15 p.m. Melissa, was this the order?

Yes. There's just a typo on page four. So there is, and it has to, it's because I deleted a section that you all had asked me to delete at the work session, and I left an or there, a straight or, at the end of 3A sub... on page four.

Oh, yeah.

I just crossed through that.

Also, the table on page two for the .5 EDUs, I think that 501 needs to be changed. 651, right. I think that would be, they can fix that before the next meeting, right?

If I Can we fix these things before you vote on the introduction?

Oh, I see.

That's better. We don't have to show it as inert lineation, so that's just why I brought it to your attention. Having noted that, if you would, when you introduce it, introduce it as perfected, as we've just said. in those two respects, that the or will be removed and the 501 in the chart will be changed to six.

I thought we had a consensus to remove M, letter M as in Michael, one M. I thought we had a consensus on that at the work session.

I'm going to let Sarah address that, however. I went back and listened to the audio from that hearing when I was doing the amendments, and I don't recall that there was that consensus. However, if that is the intention of council, we can make that alteration as well. Sarah, did you have something you wanted to say?

I was just going to say that there is an extra period in front of the .5 EDUs. I don't know if that matters or not. But since we were fixing things. I do not recall whether there was consensus on this piece or not. I do recall saying that I had been presuming that the state put this in here for a good reason and have been spending lots of time trying to think of what that good reason is, right, and leaving it in out of an abundance of caution. But I have not been able to in the last eight, eight months, nine months, come up with why it's there. So if you do vote to remove 1M about the alley access for converted accessory dwelling or converted structures, I don't, I have not been able to come up with

any negative impacts so it is up to you whether you leave it in or out yeah maybe maybe if we can have I thought we had a consensus that maybe take one less thing off the uh the plate for next month so we just corrected this ordinance and explain how we should be introducing it either now or next time

So it needs to be introduced as a corrected ordinance?

Because you haven't introduced it yet. I mean, I don't physically have a new piece of paper to give you, but if you all accept those corrections as editing issues, then acknowledge that what you're introducing is the corrected version. It's not an amended version because you haven't introduced it yet. I'm just, if I had a piece of paper to give you as a substitute, I would.

So if we are introducing this, we just agree here that it is in the corrected form, as you and Sarah described, and then it will come out and be published by the town for the hearing? In the proper way, yeah. Corrected. Okay.

I would just say that the issue of 1M is different from correcting.

Yes, that is different. I'm not removing that unless you all decide that it goes correctly.

I'm fine for them to motion and vote if there really was a consensus.

I believe there was a consensus on that.

Probably save us some time next month.

Clarifying, what you're saying is Not to take him out at this point. You're saying when you all come to vote on him, to take it out, for him to motion, and then if he has the votes to remove it, remove it at that time after it's been introduced. Yeah. Okay.

All right. We can consider that introduced.

Mm-hmm.

We do? No, we just set a public hearing. And we'll set the public hearing at 615 at the next regularly scheduled town meeting. September 17th. Okay.

Sharon, I'm sending you the revision. It will have today's date on it so you can distinguish it from that.

All right. Moving along. We want to introduce Ordinance O-26-16, an ordinance of the Town Council of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, amending Chapter 263, Urban Forest, Section 263-4, prohibited acts and permits to limit restrictions on property owners in managing trees on private properties where their actions do not significantly impact the tree's canopy. And we're going to set the public hearing to be just immediately following the previous one we discussed on September 17th. It will follow after the hearings will start at 615 and go sequentially. And then we're going to introduce Ordinance O-26-17, an ordinance of the Town Council, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, amending the Town Code Chapter 290, Zoning. Article 3, Zoning District Section 290-11, Conditions and Standards for Conditional and Special Exception Uses to Permit the Sale of Certain Items Incidental to a Home Occupation. We will set the public hearing to follow the previous two public hearings on September 17th, which all three commence at 6.15 p.m. All right. It is time to move forward to reports of boards, officers, boards, and committees, planning and zoning.

So the Planning and Zoning Commission is continuing to work on the revised land use table and standards and conditions. They did take a moment to review the parking study and waiver for the ADUs and give you a recommendation on your ADU. Ordinance as is required by law They also have begun discussing the coastal resiliency overlay This is part of implementing the coastal resiliency plan. I want to say that was 2023 but I might be mixing it up with another one and so they they're going to do that through an overlay in the critical area zone that will Reduce lot coverage and allow some more flexibility With height and base flood elevation for housing and maybe more flexibility for flood proofing as well One thing that I've noticed In like coastal towns is parking Just has for your tires.

So it's less impervious space So maybe a concrete strip and a concrete strip versus paving the whole thing, too, which, I mean, we're having potentially certain areas would have more development than other areas in town that are ready to use. I like we're discussing some of that, but maybe they also have like some pavers that I know we have like no grass paver, right? But they have where you can drive across grass and they have like, I don't know, yard pavers or something like that that can handle a truck or something like that. And I think they're somewhat... impervious, but they have less of a rating to them.

Are you familiar with what I'm... Not grass pavers, but permeable pavers. Yes, I'm familiar with that. Right.

and something like the two strips uh parking is really kind of governed by the lot coverage so when you have a lower lot coverage permitted you may choose to do that for your driveway okay thanks good question about number two towards the end um short-term rentals i know they were discussed pretty heavily in the last administration i was just wondering what like what uh are people coming to you and asking if we can allow them again or like What's the discussion behind that?

That's just part of the land use. The way we've done the land use table is now instead of just things that have conditions being regulated in it, it's going to be everything, everything standards are going to be in there. So they just want to discuss the short-term rental issues. standards and get those solid for you all i will say that the most frequent short-term rental requests i get are permit consultations people who would like to build an adu and rent it out as a short-term rental and so that concern comes from right yeah okay thanks anything else planning a time all right let's move to the board of appeals uh no hearing was held so we're done with that

Seabox. Hello there. How are you?

I'm good. You have the report. The only thing I would say is we are starting to kick into gear for the fifth grade field trips. They start in two weeks. We're getting the oysterarium all set up. We've got our spat ready to go, and we'll be out next week actually getting the live spat into the tank and running the pump and the water stuff. So we're good for that. That's what we're working on.

That's great. I remember when we started it a long, long, long time ago. So thank you. Anybody got any questions? Anybody got any questions for Steve?

Is there anything you need from us to make your job easier this season?

This time, no.

Great program.

Thank you.

Great.

Well, thank you.

All right. Economic development. No report. No report. All right. Green team.

Green team.

Green team. Okay.

Oh, I saw Jan in the audience and Sue, so I assumed one of those two wanted to speak.

Hello, Jan.

We have the report. Again, we're just doing our stuff. We have a proposal before the town administrator, I'm not sure where that it stands, to put in the refreshed pocket park out at the far side of Killam's Field. We're waiting on a response on that and whether we can move forward. Oh, we have Paddle and Pathways picking up in September. That's, oh, I don't have the date on top of me. September 26th. I believe that the registration form has been put out by, it's actually run by Parks and Rec. We do it in conjunction with them, but they take the lead on it. They have a registration site set up if anybody wants to register to come help us out that day. They will be running kayaks up the creek to do that part. We've got people who are going to be working the trail. We have people who will be doing the whole community center and Kelms Field cleanup, depending on how many volunteers we get to come out and help with that. So that's coming up soon.

All I know is that I dug a tire out last year. He was out paddling and paddling. That was a job. They might have a little trophy over there with the dragon boats, but I'd like to see who can get the biggest item out in the rain and then clean up. What do you think there, John and Anthony? It's my calendar. You win every time. Is it on your calendar? You won. I already got my, what I'm picking out. I'm going to fly the trophy. You're going to fly the trophy?

So that's all I can think off the top of my head that we've got going on.

A lot of good things going on. That's a great event. Yeah.

How much trash did we get last year out? That was a good one.

Back to back to back.

At least 20 bags, and I would estimate about, you know, it is covered in mud. There's about 500 pounds of trash. And that was like just a few hours. Yeah.

A lot of the stuff, particularly the storms keep rolling in. We're getting a lot of stuff washed into the creek off the boats and stuff. So the end of the summer is always a big time to clean up the creek. The trail gets enough of trash, but a lot of people are pretty conscientious because the trash cans are out there. It's not as big of deal. We pick up a lot of trash around Northeast Community Center. I know that was a big deal last year. Kellam's field is intermittent. Sometimes it's clean because they've picked up after themselves, whoever's using it. And other times we do pick up trash there. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you.

Your voice is for us. I hope you feel better.

Twin Beats Community Health Coalition. Anthony?

Yes. So we did just have the Uplift Calvert Wellness Festival. We had a morning with exercises outside. I did peach and boxing, but I did not do the yoga and Pilates because I'm a tough guy. But it was fun. A lot of people came out, and I had a great time. We had the... the championship, our first kind of American Ninja Warrior obstacle course. And like I said, I did bring shorts for Bruce, but he declined to actually participate. But we were able to raise a good amount of money for the Legion, thankfully, along with the people from the community who signed up to participate. Ron and Real cut a check for $1,000 as well. And that is on the way to them as a donation. So it actually worked out pretty good. The folks at the Legion are very happy and appreciative. And we do now have a be the one representative here in Chesapeake Beach for anybody who's a veteran that's dealing with problems with PTSD. or need somebody to reach out to talk to, so we were happy to facilitate that and make that happen. Also, August 31st is International Overdose Awareness Day. We'll be right over here at Kellyn's Field at the Hope Mural that was done by Katie Brinkley, who you see has done a couple of other murals out here in North Beach and Chesapeake Beach. I started that. But the great thing about it is that we do have people that are sending in names of anybody who they've lost, first and last names, and then for every year, we're going to keep it on that Monday evening. We're going to start at 7 p.m. We have somebody from the health department coming out. We have a pastor there to do the vigil and then we'll say the names in honor and give folks some time to think about and respect their loved ones. And that's August 31st. If anybody would like to be there, please be there. If anybody would like to have a loved one's name said, please email it to me, and I will make sure that they get their honor. Other than that, that is it for me. Thank you.

What time does that event start?

7 p.m. All right.

It's on my calendar.

Thank you. Walkability Committee.

I'll keep it short because this has been a long meeting, but my report is basically tracking our much-needed infrastructure, and I look forward to any updates on that every time, and that is our group's main focus. But we also are looking forward to Walktober and coming up with ideas that can support the habit of walking within our community, and we have a new member She's in the audience. I don't know if she likes to be called out or not, but she brought a lot of good ideas to the table. So our next meeting, we're going to talk about some of the ideas for Walktober and then our next Celebrate Trails Day. And as always, our primary focus is advocating for our very much needed infrastructure, bicycle, pedestrian infrastructure.

Great. Thank you. Waterpark, John. Have you had a meeting recently?

We had a meeting tonight for the first time in three months, I think. We finally got some movement with the demolition and everything. And I've been coordinating with Jay on trying to get some items to the Bayside History Museum. And we also got some bricks from the old waterpark we've been giving to committee members and the community. So if you'd like a brick from the old waterpark, let me know.

I think I would. I don't see any unfinished business on the agenda. Has anybody got anything they want to raise? I didn't think so. New business. Town Council to consider the reappointment of Amy Everett to the Board of Appeals for a three-year term. Is Amy here? No. Anybody got anything to say about this?

I think she's a great choice.

Because we've got to wait for a deal.

That's what I was going to also say.

All right. Smoke him if you got him. Oh, no, you can't do that. That's what they told us in the Army. There he is. He's back. I'll read it again. Town Council to consider the reappointment of Amy Everett to the Board of Appeals for a three-year term. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Town Council to consider the appointment of Lawrence Taub as counsel to the Board of Appeals. And you're here. That's you, right? Why don't you come back to the podium one more time? And we did meet at the work session. Yes, sir. There weren't as many people in the audience at that time. And just briefly tell us again your background. I know it's extensive.

Sure. Thank you. Yes, I've been a land use attorney predominantly in Prince George's County for, I hate to say, but almost 50 years now. But in the past number of years, I've also served as the city attorney for the city of Laurel, in which time I've advised the Board of Appeals. During my practice years, I appeared before the Board of Appeals. I've also been counsel to the Board of Appeals in Sykesville and Carroll County. So I've had good experience on both sides of the table. That's great. And looking forward to working with the Board of Appeals for Chesapeake Beach.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Welcome aboard. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. All right. Town Council to consider the approval of the purchase of replacement benches of Veterans Park in the amount of $30,560. Jay, is there anything you want to say about this?

Just that their benches we removed, honestly, a while back because they were deteriorating and safety issues. And we looked at other benches and things that would fit and really didn't find anything. So these are going to be from the same provider, Victor Stanley Local. And when we get them, it's about six weeks. Once we approve it, make payment, and we'll install them.

How long do those benches typically last?

They differ. The ones more exposed to the sun are shorter, but the park was built, I remember going there when it wasn't quite done with the original 9-11, so 15, 16 years.

That's pretty good for that environment.

It is. They're not cheap, but Veterans Park has a certain style. The teak benches we just ordered for the trail and the boardwalk, obviously cheaper. but it's not the same flavor.

All right. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Town Council to consider authorizing the mayor's signature on a lease agreement with BGE for the rental of space on the town water tower. Is there a motion for approval?

Motion to approve.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? The ayes have it. It is time. You're okay? Okay. It was a mental approval. Right, Dan? Telepathy. Telepathy. All right, great. This is the opportunity for public comment. If anybody has anything that they would like to bring to the town council's attention, now is the time to come forward. Is there anybody that wants to come forward? All right, seeing none, time for the lightning round. Let's start with Dan.

You mind if I start? I want to say something that's really important. Do you mind, Dan? But I want to think, and I know this really goes to what Commissioner Grasso was saying about leadership. Councilman Duvall had a good long conversation with me this week and told me his concerns about how we were looking at the data center, making sure that we weren't just looking at this as a form of appeasement or getting caught up in the fervor of what everybody is looking at from a political standpoint without having knowledge of it. And it's really important to listen to and try to understand and come to common ground with your fellow council members. And I appreciated the hour and 30-minute conversation that I had with Dan because I was counting. that we got to the consensus that he was able to understand why I really was pushing for him to make the vote that he did tonight. And I really want to thank you for partaking in that conversation with me, giving me the chance to understand where you were coming from and you understanding where I was coming from because that's something that needs to happen when people who are elected or put in positions of leadership That's how we lead as a group. This is not a solo effort. This isn't something where somebody should be calling another person out or making them feel uncomfortable or saying what they should be doing. I have to do, we have to work together. So I appreciate you taking that time to really talk to me and us coming to a common ground so that we can do this for our community. So thank you. That's it for me.

Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? comments to close with? Laura?

Yeah, yeah. Please.

Is it four pages?

Mm-hmm. So I am so relieved, impressed, and grateful for how our county as a whole navigated the data center issue to date, implementing a six-month moratorium on the approval process and approvals for site plans proposing a data center development projects this past Monday. Thank you. So many local governments have made the same missteps while entertaining the rapidly evolving data industry for their areas as ours did at first, but not all citizens do or will have the same outcome after engaging as Calvert County citizens can. This is thanks to informed citizens who took the time to further educate themselves and then to engage the public and our government with their concerns. It is also thanks to leaders of all types and from all corners of the county being willing to lend their skills, influence, and wisdom to the cause of protecting our county, the Chesapeake Bay, and its tributaries. And it's also thanks to elected commissioners who are willing to prioritize the voice of their constituents. And we are so lucky for that. I can't think of a better testament to America's 250th anniversary than what I witnessed in the Board of County Commissioners meeting on Monday from the citizens, from the staff, the county staff, the elected leaders who will remain sitting and the elected leaders who will be leaving it was a class act and it was the outcome that we needed and that people that worked very hard petitioning their government it is a very complicated issue we do have a unique we have a unique County and it's precious and I'm really glad for that vote and all the actions and immense amount of work that led up to that vote to protect our county. So thank you to all involved. I enjoyed being a spectator of that. I followed it, but I didn't have to do anything because everybody else was already doing so much. So thank you to all involved.

Yeah, I agree. I'm glad the public is showing up. I'm glad like our meetings seem to be getting more well attended. And I hope that people feel that they have a voice and they can come to us with their concerns. And I hope that we can address as many as possible.

I'd like to thank the public for coming out and speaking. I think the The role of the elected person is to be a collective voice of the body. So we have, I've said many times, about 1,250 people we represent with this seat and engaging with the public. and getting feedback from them directly is what I try to do. I bring forth some hard questions, and a lot of these things are brought to me from citizens and residents and constituents, and I try to hear them. As Anthony said, I spend an hour and a half on the phone with him. to make sure that we weren't doing something that would have inversed actions. You know, the county, I appreciate on Tuesday, you're being just set the moratorium and it's, For us, it's simple. We don't have it that complex. We can just say the geographical area just does not fit. For Calvert, I think taking the steps that evaluate it so that we don't put ourselves in a legal situation, I think that's the appropriate steps. I like how outspoken Calvert County is. We are very strong, and we vote strong in the primary. I think that's one of the things I'm most proud of is how strong we vote. And have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. That's coming up. Happy Labor Day.

Thank you. And I'll just say that... I want to reiterate that the carnival is still here, and that was a lot of fun. And then also recently the hospital had the Soiree by the Bay event at the Rod and Reel Hotel, which I was able to attend. and decided to attend with my wife. And that was, and Marilyn, I won't tell anybody about your dancing. I promise I won't tell anybody about you dancing down on the dock.

I'm not going to say a word about it.

But it was a lot of fun, and I haven't heard any results from Bob Carpenter or anybody else about how much money they raised for the hospital, but I suspect it was pretty substantial. And so this just speaks to us living in a small town in a relatively small county and the fact that people work together to get things done. And it makes me proud to be here. It makes me proud to be here. serving the public and working with this council to get things done. I'm very proud of it all, and especially our third district county commissioner, who I've gotten to know quite well by now, and your wonderful husband. So that's all I have. If anybody has a motion for adjournment, I would certainly entertain it.

Motion to adjourn. I knew it would be you.

Is there a second? Is there a third and a fourth?

Yes.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? You'd be nuts. Thank you all for being here at Council.