Town Council - Regular Meeting

There you are. Thank you.

I was in your neighborhood today, but I didn't over

the meeting Stephanie. Okay. And then she was reading something. She's like, "We got to keep up on this." I'm like, "What?" And then there's something about

Good evening. Tonight is uh Monday, March 9th. Uh it's 6:45. We are open for a public hearing at this time. Uh case number 2025-24. Jean. Members of council, this evening is a public hearing for case number 2025-24212 West Market Street, identified as Sussex County Tax Parcel 135-9.08-104. This is reszone application to change the official zoning map for one parcel totaling 496 plus or minus acres from urban residential 2 to urban professional business. Um, the property is identified. It is located at 212 West Market Street. And I believe the applicant is here to make presentation.

Good evening.

Good evening. So, we are here to talk about 212 West Market Street. This is the building, as many of you have probably seen it quite a few times. It has been a dental office since 1968 and is somehow zoned residential. So, we are here to try to change that. So, this is the current zoning and the map. And you can see our little green patch there in the middle of all of the orange. So it's currently UR2 which which is single family residential in the medium residential district and all of those orange properties around it are UB3. So UB3 what we're trying to have it zoned is business neighborhood business district which we feel like the property is perfect for. It is a dental office in the neighborhood. um neighboring properties. These are our direct neighbors to the west and east of us. 216 West Market Street is now the Hunter Emory State Farm office and 210 West Market Street is residential with a business out of the back of it. And then pretty much you can go down West Market Street, you can go east down the street and you have realy company and I'm not sure what that businesses but proper property management. Okay.

All zone UB3 as well. This is a shot just looking down the street towards our office which again shows all the signs which we feel like is in alignment with the surrounding area. And then this most importantly, if you look at the town's future land use map, if you see all of basically that strip of West Market Street is planned to be UB3 in the future. So we are just here to present to have it done officially sooner rather than later, I guess, is the thing. And that's it. Council, any questions or comments? Nope.

Open it up to the audience. Anybody pro or neg against it? All right. What'll happen is this will stay open to for two weeks and then it to come uh for a reading for before council in two weeks on the agenda and we'll go from there. Okay. Thank you very much for coming and presenting. Good job. What did she go? Your dad I don't think I've done one of those since college. I think your dad did send you to college, didn't he? Dental school doesn't make us do powerpoints. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Here, Jean, I'll give you this. Have a good evening.

That was all right. At this time, we're going to move on with a regular meeting. Uh let's all rise for the pledge of allegiance and the invocation. Jean. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Neil, eternal God, we thank you God for your love, your kindness, your mercy. We thank you God for your grace. Lord, we ask you God to bless tonight as we conduct town bench. God move on us. Move by your spirit God. Give us wisdom and knowledge. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can be seated.

Evening council. Evening. Hopefully you've had a chance to look at the agenda. If there's no uh deletions or addition and entertain a motion to accept. So moved. Thank you. Penal. Second. Second. Eric. All in favor signify saying I. I. Opposed. So carried. Council members, hopefully you've had a chance to review the February 9th town council minutes. If there's no additions or deletions, I'd entertain a motion to accept. So moved. Thank you, Christine. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Tony. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? So carried. Number five, council member comment. We start uh tonight with ward three.

I just like to welcome everybody and I'm glad to see you all made it through the storms. Um that wasn't fun. And I want to thank the town. I think they did a pretty good job cleaning up the streets as they went. So, the employees need to have a had a boy in their pocket. Thank you, Eric. Paniel. No, it's good seeing everyone here this evening. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Christina, uh good to see everyone here today. Thank you again to the the um town folks for all that they did to uh get us through this storm. and um I looked out my window on one particular day when everybody was off and they were out there unclogging the uh drainage. So, thank you,

Tony. I'm just glad to be here tonight and glad to see everybody else here tonight.

Thank you very much, council. Moving on. Resolution number six is 20262. Members of council, resolution 2026-02 is a resolution authorizing the preparation and submission of an application to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control for participation in the surface water matching planning grant program in order to receive up to $50,000 in matching grant funds. And this would be used to prepare mapping and review of private storm water management facilities within the town's municipal boundaries. Pleasure of the mayor and councel. Council members, any comments, questions? If none, I'd entertain a motion to move forward with the resolution 20262.

I'll make a motion to move forward. Thank you, Pendle. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Christine. All in favor signify saying I. Oppose. Roll call. Ward one. I W two. I. W three. I. W four. I.

And I'm an I. 50. Thank you very much. Moving forward, uh, departmental reports. Okay, members of council, just a couple items. Uh, first is a project updates. The salt barn is complete. The final payment requisition has been received and processed. Uh, the circle advisory committee recommendations. The last piece was the installation of a radar speed feedback sign. That was installed on North Bedford Street heading south into the circle. It's on the right hand side right in front of County Bank. And on the pump station rehabilitation windows have been installed at the big park pump station. We are still waiting on doors for that project. uh US13 at State Route 18, State Route 404. Uh the advertisement for bids took place December 16th of 2025. The bid due date was February 10th, 2026. The estimated notice to proceed is anticipated for June 1st of 2026. The completion time is 764 calendar days, which is approximately two years and one month. Anticipated completion is July of 2028. Um there is some work going out there with some of the advanced utility uh relocations that they can do. We did receive word from Delot that they had completed a study of South Bedford Street and the Zor Road intersection. As part of their safety and operations studies, they are recommending that um no lefthand turn from Zor Road onto uh South Bedford Street and the extension of the 35 mile per hour speed zone along South Bedford Street from Park Avenue all the way south to US13. upcoming events. The America 250 committee will meet tomorrow 10 uh tomorrow, March 12th to March 10th at 3:30 p.m. here at Town Hall. Hill Day is Wednesday, March 18th, 9:00 a.m. in Washington DC. Georgetown Community Alliance will be meeting on Thursday, March 19th, 6:00 p.m., and that'll be at the Bethl United Methodist Church. Legislative update, the Joint Finance Committee did finish its budget hearings. General Assembly returns uh tomorrow, March the 10th. Uh last week, Governor Meyer did issue Executive Order

18, which is the Delaware Permitting Accelerator. A copy of that executive order is in your packets. And then I'll just update where we are with some legislation. And I'm only going to do the ones that are new. Uh Senate Bill 241 is um introducing project labor agreements. And this is for any public works project that ex is in excess of $5 million. uh this would add significant cost as well as push out folks that are not um not um unionized on some of the projects. So we are currently opposing that piece of legislation that was introduced on February 26th and assigned to the Senate Labor Committee and Senate Bill 247 uh which will allow municipalities to deposit funds similar to the way the state does it. We support that. That was introduced to the Senate Banking Business Insurance and Technology Committee on March the 5th. And that's all I have.

Thank you. Any questions, council? Nope. Boy Scouts, it's been a quick night tonight. We didn't have a lot on the agenda, but uh I'm going to entertain any questions from you right now at this time if you've got any that you'd like to have answered in the back. Yes. Is there what?

Any problems? town hall meeting just like this and you wonder if there's like any form of like problem around town that I have to call local government to deal with

well there's there's always problems in a community and each town addresses them in different ways. You know, we're we're not a beach community where we've got high-end rentals and high-end houses. We're we're in the middle of the county where we're at the average uh uh intake of everything. So, we have to deal with the housing. We are the county seat. We are an a company or a business or a town where all the social services are. And social services attracts your people that are uh abusing alcohol and abusing drugs. So, they come here every day for their counseling. They come here every day for treatment. and some of them end up going down the wrong avenue and doing things they shouldn't do. So, every town has to deal with these things differently. So, we're we're working with the the agencies right now to try to put things together so we can make sure that some of these people aren't doubling up on some of their benefits and so we so we can take care of that problem. So, we're here to help people. We're a public service and that's what we try to do.

Okay. Anybody else? The Boy Scouts. I want to thank you for coming. I wish you got here a little earlier because we'd had you lead in the pledge. You can always come back again. Okay. So, now we're going to open it up to public comment for the people in the in the audience. So, uh now's the time to hear from our public. We welcome your comments which are very important to us. Note that all comments are limited to three minutes. As a reminder, please go to the podium to comment. Please give your name, address, and address your remarks to the chair. Note that we will not be entering into dialogue at this time. The purpose of this agenda items is for you, the public, to inform us, the council, about your views.

I don't get to come to all the meetings, but I do watch them from home. My name is Maria Hammond. I live at 507 North Bedford Street. So, couple of weeks, couple of the last meeting, I think it was, there was hatred addressed. Um, I'm not sure who exactly brought it up, whether it was Bill or somebody else, but it came up that the hatred in Georgetown is giving us a bad rep. And I would like to fix that, that I don't feel that there is a lot of hatred in Georgetown. We don't want our town to go back to where it was in 1960 where nobody locked the doors, nobody did all of that stuff. But what we do want for our town is for the residents to feel safe. For the residents to not be accosted at a grocery store like the guy in do was today at Rners who um was attacked and pulled out of his car and they stole his car and beat him up and took his phone. So that was on the news. Um but we don't want that. We don't dislike Pallet Village. What we don't like is that a lot of people in town feel like the Pallet Village doesn't serve the initial people of Georgetown. Maybe they moved here. Maybe none of you were from Georgetown except for Tony. Maybe you weren't born here. A lot of the people that live here are born here, but we do have a lot of people that have moved here for retirement purposes. But they don't know what Georgetown was like. They don't know what it used to be like that you could feel safe in your own town. You didn't have to put a lock on your shed. You didn't have to put cameras around your house or a fence around your property to keep people out. So, this young man wanted to know what kind of problems we have. That's the kind of problems that we have. The other the other problems are that people come to our town and they tell us what we should do in our town. We should put up the little houses out there on East Market because they will serve the veterans. Well, I don't think it's going

to be a veterans facility. We have doctors coming from out of town. The Veterans Club uh commander came from out of town. All these people came from out of town. Even the people that want to put up the houses to tell us what's good for Georgetown. The problem with that is they're not doing it in their own town, but they feel like it's good for this town. And regardless of sitting here and hearing what we say or don't want, they don't care. If I'd have known that man was going to donate land, I'd have took it. The town should have took it. You could have made it a Dart bus pull-in bus stop. I don't think it's sold because there's people afraid of what chemicals are in there from it being a gas station and they don't want to have to pay for that cleanup. But we're not a people full of hate. And I resented the fact that Billy, beat your gavvel if you think I'm attacking you, that Billy goes to these dinners or meetings and people say that about us and instead of agreeing with it or saying that it's because of something posted on Facebook, then what I feel like you should say is these people in Georgetown are passionate about their town. They're passionate about their lifestyle. And what they don't like is that they feel like their town council and their mayor have let them down because they feel like they're not heard. And I've heard that repeatedly sitting at home listening to these meetings that nobody in this room feels heard. So it's not that we're people that hate other people. We want people to have their own homes, but these people are not going to own these little homes. They're renting them for for quite a high dollar. And there's other places it could have been put, but that land was given to them. That's why it's there. They don't care about the other people in this town. They don't care that the people in town don't necessarily want that project where it is. There's other places they could put that development. Lots of other places, lots of other towns, but they're going

because that place is free to them. But I resent the fact that people think that we're people full of hate because we're not. And it's up to you guys to change that opinion because you're the ones that get to hear those comments and you should tell them that's not how we are. We're passionate about our town. We want to be heard and we want our comments to be validated by you guys. Is that you're waving at me or my time's up? Your time's up. Okay. You can only talk for three minutes, young man. So remember that.

Joel came in. I have to Good evening. Good evening.

I'm John Peterson. I live at 304 North Bedford. Uh the Confederate flag displayed at the Georgetown Historical Society is private expression. However, because the flag sits in a place the public understands as part of the town civic space, people can easily assume the town approves of it. That assumption is misattribution. When the public attributes a private message to the town, the town is treated as if it endorsed the message. The town is not required to accept a message it did not choose. and it may state clearly that the message is not its own. The Georgetown Historical Society is an independent private organization and is not an agent of the town. Under the government speech doctrine, the town alone controls its own public message. A municipality may adopt a message, decline a message, or disclaim a message. It is not required to carry private expression as its own. When private expression is positioned in a way that appears to be municipal expression, the municipality must correct the record to maintain the integrity of its public voice. This clarification operates solely within the government speech doctrine preventing the attribution of the message to the town has not been has not adopted while avoiding any regulatory effect on the private expression. This action does not regulate private speech. It does not burden private speech. It does not evaluate private speech. It simply separates private expression from municipal expression.

The town is required to maintain clarity regarding its own message. The resolution identifies the flag as private expression and affirms that the town has not adopted it. I respectfully ask that the resolution be placed on the next agenda. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Adam Bachowski, 200 South Bedford Street. Um, I'll once again point the light fixture is falling down. Um, still not. It's like three meetings in a row, guys. Come on. Uh, but I'd really like to address the Boy Scouts tonight. Um, it's awesome to see you guys here. Um, don't underestimate what one person can do in a town. And uh as you can see, I'm kind of an oddball out here. Most of my fellow town members are a little older than me, but I hope when you guys move forward in life, being active in your local government is something that you take an interest in. Um and far too often it's kind of just let to uh you know, life gets busy. there's excuses on why it's hard to come to these meetings or be active in the town, but uh don't underestimate yourselves and your abilities on what you can change um by being an active part of the town. So, really awesome to see all you guys out here tonight and wish you guys the best in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Adam.

Anybody else? Wow. real quick tonight. Yeah. Yep. The weather. Well, thank everybody for coming. Boy Scouts, thank you for being here. Uh I've got How many Eagle Scouts have I done, would you say, in the last uh six years? How many years? Yeah. Probably.

Yeah. So, it's important. Stay with it, guys. Stay with it. It means a lot. It's it's nice to have that Eagle Scout uh logo with you as you carry on in life because there's one or two in this room that are Eagle Scouts. So, may God bless everybody and I'd ask for a motion to adjourn. Penel second. Eric. Thank you. All in favor signify by saying I I oppose. So carried. Have a good evening people. Thank you. Oh, just in time. How you doing?