Town Council - Regular Meeting

Where's the minister?

Reverend Eddie, what item did you want to speak on? What item number?

13, okay, thank you.

Linda, you're on 13.

And do you have any more phones?

Huh? Any more phones? We don't have any more phones up there.

Jean, we don't have any more forms. Okay, what's your name?

Amy Ross. Amy, what item? I'm so sorry.

I think he's on the back side.

Oh, yeah. I got to see him last year when I went to D.C. Ten.

Ten. Ten. Thank you very much.

Thank you. These are popular this time.

Oh, 7 o'clock.

Okay.

Yeah.

Calling the meeting to order, if you'll all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for the invocation.

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

Eternal God, we thank you, God, for your love, for your conscious mercy. Lord, we thank you, God, for allowing us to come here one more time. We ask you, God, to move by your spirit tonight. Touch us and bless us, God, that we discuss town business. We ask you, God, to be with us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen, amen.

Amen. okay the next item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda any revisions yeah i'd like to move item number 13 up under 7b okay there's a motion on the floor to move item 13 to 7b do i have a second second Okay, thank you, Michael. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried.

I'm going to adopt the agenda.

Yes, I'm going to adopt the agenda, yes. Okay, the next item is approval of the minutes, June 22nd. Any additions, deletions to the minutes? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Well, I made the motion. I made the motion. She seconded.

All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye.

Opposed?

Okay. Minutes approved. All right. The next portion is public comment.

Item number five.

Who wants to go? Okay, Maria. Take your time, hon.

My name is Maria Hammond, 507 North Bedford. I think I always forget to tell you that. So I have a couple of questions. The first one is, and I want to thank Ms. Ballard for telling us that you can answer questions, not long ones, but questions. So my question is, when the code enforcer goes out, to inspect anything, no matter what it is, grass height, cars on the grass, whatever. Do they just give folks a written notice or do they get a fine or is there a cost involved? Because what is there to deter them? Jean, yeah.

So the first thing that happens is they get a notice of deficiency and outlined in the town code is how much time they have to correct the deficiency. If you fail to correct it with the notice of deficiency, they get a first notice of violation and the associated fine, which is also outlined in code. If you fail to remedy it after that, then you get a second notice of violation and additional fine, appropriate time to fix it. And if you choose not to, then a summons is issued and you go to JP court and explain to the judge.

Thank you. You're welcome. I did not know that. And I did have another question about... when someone from our homeless population passes, but I talked to Chief earlier and he filled me in on that. So the last question is, I watched the last meeting, I think, from home. When you guys get up and go in the back, is there any reason for us to sit here and wait for you to come back out? Because I think you were like an hour, no. No, no. Here you go, thank you.

Now my husband had to wait because he's driving me home. Outside line, everybody else can leave.

Hi, my name is Jake Darmstead. I live on Peterkins Road in Georgetown. I'm here speaking on behalf of Amanda Perez. She was unable to come tonight. I just wanted to make you guys aware that we are having a Georgetown cleanup around the town of Georgetown next Saturday, which would be the 18th from 10 to 12. Check-in starts at 9.30, and it is at First State Community Action. Everything is provided, including light refreshments and beverages. So if you'd like to sign up, please see me after the meeting.

anyone else public comment okay next item council members comments christina you want to start off uh yes if i may i don't know if i'm out of order in this regard but on item 13 is there tabling is there some discussion in the future date no it's just relocated Also, we relocated it to what item?

7B.

7B, okay. We don't hear all the way down here.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, 7B. Thank you. Tony?

Just glad to see you back. I'm just glad to see you back.

Thank you. Michael.

Yes, good to see everybody tonight. Actually a packed house here. This is the way it should be for the town to run properly and everybody get together and voice your opinion and give us enough time to make the right decisions for you guys out there that vote for us. So thank you for coming.

Daniel. It's great seeing everyone here this evening. Well, thank the police department. I know there's been three videos out Facebook where they've been at different complaints and different people are video and I'm calling them names and they're so professional. So chief homes, thank you. And relay the message. They're doing a great job. Thank you.

All right. And I've been busy again, not as busy as I have been since the last meeting. But Tuesday I met with Jim Weller, and I had an interview with him. He has some houses for sale in Georgetown, and I did an interview there with him one morning. It was nice. Friday we met with representatives from Miracle Ice Arena that is proposing they need to be annexed in. They're on our agenda. Are they on the agenda? One of the meetings coming up, Gene, for their annexation?

They'll be before the Planning Commission, but yes, they'll be on a future agenda.

Okay. Sounds very exciting. They want to do two sheets of ice. I said, what's a sheet? They said an ice rink. Okay. They'd like to build up to 2,500 people. I said that would do wonders for our town, for businesses, restaurants, hotels. So I'm kind of excited by that. Tomorrow I meet with the Delmarva Veterans Builders. We're going out to cheer. Gene is going with me and Brian from the planning department. And we're going to meet him and a representative and hopefully we can My dream is to have some kind of grocery store out near CHEAR. We're having four apartment complexes being built at CHEAR. And then we have Sandhill Fields. We have a lot of traffic out that way. I wish we could get gas pumps out that way. The only place really to get gas is High's or you go to Milton or you go to Harbison. But I would love to see a grocery store or some kind of shop. I don't want a convenient market. Some kind of grocery store there on the corner near Cheer. I think it would be beneficial for everyone. So we meet with them tomorrow. Wednesday we have a chamber mixer at the ReStore down on Route 9 near outside of Five Points from 4 to 6. They're always a nice function. Our concerts are tomorrow night from six to eight. We have another one. Our farmer's market is from five to eight. We had a really, really good turnout. We had to cancel last week, but the week before we had a really, really good turnout. So that's what I've been doing. So I've been keeping myself busy.

So that's it.

Okay, the next item on the agenda is the Delaware Department of Transportation 18404 grade separation intersection.

good evening everyone good evening i'm george pierce with delldot i'm a construction manager for kent and sussex Oh, perfect. Cool. All right. I just wanted to give a quick overview to everyone of the project that's upcoming. We're hoping to get started at the end of the month. So please just push everything forward one month. We've had a couple of hiccups. It's construction, right? But we're getting there. So plan to break ground at the end of this month. So for those that aren't aware, I'm going to skip ahead. The last slide shows it best. Sorry. All right, so here's what we're building. We're gonna take 18404 on a bridge up and over the highway with exit ramps. If you think about the interchange we just finished in Millsboro on the highway, it's gonna look just like that, that same configuration. The coloring will be the same. We're keeping that facade. So look at that bridge. That's what it's gonna look like. So down in the corner where Boulevard and the Royal Farms were vacated, you'll have exit ramps for northbound and on the southbound it'll be in the field there adjacent to Delta. All right, just going to go quick through the phasing of the project so everyone has an idea what to expect. When we first start, what you're going to see happen, we're going to be working predominantly in northbound at night, trying to get some utilities in, and you'll start seeing us build up and dig out the dirt for the ponds and start building up those ramps in those two areas where the ramps are going to go. That's going to be about a year. I should say the whole project should be completed in about two years. So the first year you'll see that you'll notice some of the dates overlap because we have things concurrently happening. All right. So once we finish that, we're going to start the widening out on the highway on the southern portion of where the intersection is going to go, as well as having some work, some more work getting done on the ramp. So I should add we're adding a third lane through the highway through this section. Once we get done that, we're gonna jump over and this will be the first impact of detour. This is on the Eastern leg of 18404. I realized when I sent this over, I sent the version without the detour, but everyone, we're in Georgetown, everyone, I can talk you through it. So what happens is since we're building up and have to tie that new road in, we actually have to close the road in order to accommodate that. So when we close on the eastern side, we're going to be directing all of the traffic out of the circle here to Route 9. Now, I know everyone in here says there's 30 other ways to go. So you can go the other ways, but we sign it that way. We try to keep the people on the major roads. So that updates into GPS and hopefully cuts back on that cut-through traffic from people commuting through town and leaves that option for everyone that lives here. so that is scheduled to take seven months that's a long closure the good thing is we wrote this contract with disincentives to the contractor so they if they don't get it done in the time we're specifying they get penalized so hopefully that keeps them on track Once we finish getting that leg tied in, we're gonna jump to the other side in front of Dell Tech, and we're first gonna start the widening in front of Dell Tech. We're gonna kind of split this in halves, so we'll shift everybody closer to the Walmart shopping center, do the side in front of Dell Tech, get their entrances in order, and then we will flip and do the tie-in on the other side. Now, when we do this other tie-in, the same as the other side, you're looking at about six months of a closure on the west side of the highway. Now, this detour, we're going to assign vehicle traffic to take Ennis behind Deltec, but all the truck traffic will be directed all the way out to Route 9. and we'll help with trying to cut down on those trucks taking that local route to cut through. So again, we have these two impactive long detours, but unfortunately there's no way we can build a road and drop it on the road. So we will get it done again as quick as we can. After that's done, we will have the actual, I should say in between this, the bridge is getting built. The bridge should be done then. There will be some overnight detours to place the beams on the bridge where we have to close the highway. We'll work with local police and we're going to route traffic through town, but that's a small, that's just four nights, usually happens from 10 o'clock till 6 AM, so it doesn't really affect a whole lot of people, just people that are out at that time. Once we get to this point, hopefully in spring of 28, essentially we're functional on the new interchange. So you'll be able to go over the bridge. You'll be able to use the ramps. At that point, we flip and do the work on the highway to finish adding the third lane in. And then hopefully we get wrapped up in July of August or month, month behind already, August of 28, project wraps up. So that's a really quick overview of it. I don't want to take a whole lot of time. If anyone wants my, no, I'm not giving you my cell phone. I'm kidding. If anyone has any specific questions, I'll hang around until after the meeting, or if you just call the office in Georgetown and ask for George Pierce, they can route you right directly to my line. That's the easiest way. I'm between a few offices, so if I don't answer, I'll give you a ring back. for any detailed questions we have on it. And if we start getting a lot of questions, maybe we'll set up a, you know, just a pure informational Q&A session on this, so.

I have one simple question.

Yes.

Why?

Why are we?

Why is this being done? I never went to any of the workshops. Okay. And it's like, okay, you're trying to move people off of 18404 to go where? So. They want to head on 113. They don't want to come into town.

Yeah. So this helps with that because we're eliminating the light on the highway. It eliminates the crossovers for safety. This is part of a bigger. So for I've been at the department for 20 years. When I started, we were working on the what we call the U.S. 113 Corridor Preservation Project, which is trying to eliminate these hazardous crossings. This intersection, while there's not a lot of people crossing into town, there's a heavy movement heading south on the highway and it backs up with the light and the same with the left. heading west so by doing this you keep it full speed you keep it so that you're not having that stop light it gets the flow on 404 a lot better plus it interconnects the town now so the town is going to be interconnected to the commercial corridor on the west side of the highway now you're stuck with the light you're stuck with trying to cross it we'll have ped facilities i just met with dell tech talking about students that are walking there can cross this bridge safely not have to jump through traffic at the light. So there's a lot of benefits to it. This one was just earlier on the list and was a higher priority, but we have plans for all of these, 113 and 16, all the way down through Millsboro to grade separate these intersections.

I live on Ennis Road. And I can't get across the highway now. I have to go down to the intersection there and then travel, take the light. I can't get across. I'll never be able to get across now. Maybe in the winter when there's no traffic.

But you've got to remember, so once we're done, you come out the back of Ennis behind Del Tech and you go right over the highway and into town.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Yep. This, I don't have the whole, there was a lot in right away acquisition, and I don't have those numbers because I'm the construction guy. The bid on this was just under 35 million for the construction cost.

Who was the contractor?

It's Adel Construction.

All right. Any other questions? All right. I thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. All right, the next item on the agenda is discussion on possible modification or repeal of town zoning code section 230 25 permitted uses cottage housing development.

So and I requested this be put on the agenda.

So, Gene, do you want to take over or give me some background?

Sure, so some of the information that's in your packets and is also posted online is a copy of, bear with me one second, make sure I get it in the right order. sure so there's copies of the affordable housing production task force that's their final report that was issued in april of 2025 i would reference recommendation series 2 which was all local zoning reform resolution 2025-06 which was the town's participation in senate joint resolution 8 technical assistance for zoning and land use reform Senate Substitute 2 for Senate Bill 23, the Housing for Every Delawarean Act, which did pass both houses this last session. It's awaiting action by the governor. And we did receive a letter in opposition to the modification or repeal. So this was brought before the Planning Commission back in September of last year. There was a public hearing held on September 17th, and at that time, the Planning Commission voted, and it was one absent, four in favor, to recommend to Town Council approve the proposed amendments to Article 6, UR1, Urban Residential District. Section 230-25, permitted uses of the town code. And this was also modifying Section 194, which is subdivision of land. Then there was public hearings held before the mayor and council as required by code. Then there was a formal vote. And then it was passed on December the 8th, I believe. And I apologize, I gave the sheet with the actual date to Councilman Neal.

okay I hate to say anything against Eugene but I was at that Planning Commission meeting and it was correct there was one absent and the four voted against the rezoning of the property that was not the reason I was talking on the ordinance 2025-07 not the rezoning not the reason yes yeah all right okay here's the minutes Okay. Anyone want to speak up? I'll start with public comments. First one I have is Lisa Rothling.

I'm Lisa Rothling. I live at 2 Sweetgum Court, Cinderberry Estates, Georgetown, Delaware, in town. Good evening, Mayor. and members of the town council. I'm here to express my concern regarding the cottage living zoning provisions adopted under Ordinance 2025-07, which became effective December 8th of 25. I respectfully ask that the council repeal this ordinance. I understand that our country is facing a housing shortage and I support efforts to provide more affordable housing opportunities for Sussex County residents. However, I do not believe the sweeping zoning changes made through this ordinance are right for Georgetown. Allowing up to 12 housing units on one acre minimum lot size is simply too dense for our existing neighborhoods. These changes do not reflect the character of our community and they place additional pressure on the infrastructure and services that our town already relies on. It's also important to recognize that Georgetown has already approved a significant amount of residential development. Greenleaf Place, a 126 home rental community, has already been approved at a density higher than was previously permitted and is ready for construction. Shortleaf Preserve has been approved for more than 200 homes. In addition, James Place, Admiral's Landing, Penn's Grant, Savannah Grove, the Oaks Phases 2 and 3, and the townhouse development currently under construction on Route 9 behind the Edison and Melrose properties all provide what the state itself defines as missing middle housing. The town also approved the little living development with 20 units on just two acres adjacent to our Main Street, West Market Street. When you look at all of these approved developments together, it's clear that Georgetown has already taken meaningful steps to address the need for additional housing. Middle housing options are no longer missing. The pipeline of approved projects will bring hundreds of new homes to our community over the coming years. This is just the approved projects already. Because of that, I do not believe these broad zoning changes are necessary. For that reason, I believe repeal and not revision is the appropriate course of action. A revision would leave in place an ordinance that was adopted despite these concerns expressed by many residents who attended those past public hearings. This community spoke, yet the ordinance moved forward anyway. I believe those voices deserve to be heard. Tonight, I would also like to submit an additional 100 plus signatures to be added to those previously presented in support of the full appeal of Ordinance 2025-07. I respectfully ask the Council to listen to the representatives that you all represent, or excuse me, the residents that you all represent. Repeal Ordinance 2025-07 and allow any future zoning changes to be developed with meaningful public input. and careful consideration of Georgetown's long-term character and growth. Thank you for your time and consideration. And at this time, I'd like to submit the two petitions of over 100 residents.

Thank you. All right, the next one up is Linda Dennis.

Good evening. I'm Linda Dennis. I live in the village of Cinderberry. My comments about this repeal are basically based on the comments that I made when the proposal was built first before the mayor and council. There's one thing, and Lisa, I do thank you for that comprehensive inventory of all of the projects that are already approved because there's a significant number, hundreds of homes that are already approved for our town. What's missing here in my mind is also an important inventory. We have other affordable housing options that we don't talk about here. They include Dunbarton Oaks, Acorn Acres, Georgetown Apartments, CHEAR, and its significant expansion of four other buildings that will bring several hundred more apartments for those who are financially eligible to live in those. So without a full inventory of what's already been approved on the planning process, and those existing facilities that we know are here, I want to also add one other item that we don't talk about, and that's the 40 homes that provide specialized services, either sober homes or whatever. There's at least 40 of them here. So if you look at an average of just three people, and there are some facilities that have up to six, but if you look at an average of at least three people, you're looking at an additional 120 additional beds. Speaking to the people that operate these facilities, Some of them charge $125 a week. Most of the people are employed, so they don't pay. I mean, they just pay a flat fee of $120 a week. They don't pay for any utilities or anything like that. So in my perspective, you're looking at under $500, $600 a month who live in these facilities. So why aren't they included in our inventory of affordable housing? It's a significant number of people that we just don't count. So I would add to what Lisa is saying in terms of the inventory of what we already have. We're pretty much done as far as I'm concerned. My other concern about these small living arrangements, I don't like the architectural presentation of what's out there. I understand that there have been some modifications, but I have looked as many of you have, I'm sure, if you look at tiny homes online, even through Amazon, you'll see facilities that are really very, very attractive. I think any one of us, if we had to, we would consider living in one. Those two facilities out on East Market Street are just reprehensible. I'm sorry. They are not attractive. If we're going to do something like this, We need to do it right. And those two facilities are not right. My objections to the whole project was before. It's already in my comments. I don't like the location. I don't like the plans for the parking. I don't like the way they look. Architecturally, there should be design standards that are entirely devoted to this specific type of living arrangement. And they should be very, very strict about what we would like to see built. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, Maria Hammond.

I'll say ditto and ditto. But I already told you I live at 507 North Bedford. I don't get to come to all the meetings. But what I don't come to, I watch online. One of the meetings that I did come to about the small houses, and we did visit, Jerry and I did visit the houses, and we pointed out lots of things about them. They weren't handicapped, accessible, et cetera, doorways, et cetera, bathrooms and all that, ramps weren't allowed, but gravel for sidewalks or whatever it was, and the parking is so far, I couldn't walk from where the parking is to a house. But what I didn't like at one of the meetings was how they brought in all the people to represent the veterans. My husband's a veteran, my in-laws are veterans, my dad's a veteran, my aunt was a major in the Air Force. Our whole family has people throughout that served in the military. But the people they brought in, I think the commander was from another town, some people were from agencies. To me, they made this presentation as if this was gonna be a development just for veterans, and we know it's not. If this is such a great idea, I don't know why they're not doing it where you live. I don't know why if this land was free given to them, I don't know why the town didn't take advantage of the land that is free and do something with it for themselves. that many houses in one spot. If you ride around with any firemen, Jerry and I go for rides, and if you go through any development, the one out by North Georgetown, cars are parked on the road, cars are parked in the driveway, cars are parked on the grass. You go through any of these developments or apartment complexes, it's like that. How are you gonna get a fire truck or an ambulance in and out of that situation? When we first moved into town, gazillion years ago we have almost i'll say three-fourths of an acre gene knows how much it is i don't i'll say three-fourths to an acre and we asked about putting a small house on the back of our property for one of our dads we were told we didn't have enough land we don't have enough land but they have enough land to put up how many little houses And we didn't have enough to do that for my father or my father-in-law, even though we had access. There was a, oh, you can't access off Bramhall Street. It's not enough turning area. But I've ridden by other houses in town that have two entrances off their property, both on public streets. So I just don't see how you're going to get that many people out of that development on the street across from a ballpark and across from apartment complexes and a bike trail without creating more hazards for everybody involved. So if this all goes through and I have the land that I have, I'm guessing I can put three or four little houses in my backyard. But I don't know. And then anybody else here that has land could do the same. And is that what we want to turn Georgetown into? I mean, some people have a quarter of an acre lot. Some people have a half. Some people have more. Do you really want to turn it into that? And I don't like that you're presenting it as a veterans facility when it's not.

Thank you. Reverend Eddie Justino.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, members of the council. And thank you for the hospitality of Georgetown. I don't live in Georgetown. I'm a pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Rehoboth Beach. We happen to be the sister church in relationship with the Georgetown Presbyterian Church, which was founded in 1850 something, 59 or 56. So we have a long relationship. I want to speak in support of the project. I want to acknowledge the two speakers that came before me. They made absolutely a lot of sense. So I am very torn about the choice and the decision before all of you. But I'm a man of faith, and I will speak with literature that I know. I don't think any of us need to be religious to know the story of the Good Samaritan. It's the only story that shows in the Gospels about a man who goes on the road and he's beaten up and robbed and led to die. A Jewish priest walks along, sees that that man was almost ready to die, and looks and walks the other side of the road. The Levite does the same thing. They didn't want to deal with it. The Samaritan, the least expected, stays on the path, goes out to the aid, heal the wounds, and loads him on his donkey, takes him to the inn, and on top of that leaves some money to the innkeeper and tells the innkeeper, if there's more expenses when I come back, I'll settle it with you. And there was a trust factor by the innkeeper and the Samaritan, and so it happened. I don't need to tell you because you're very familiar in Georgetown with the issues of unemployment, homelessness, but I do want to raise to our attention a few facts. Thirty-nine percent of Delawareans do not earn enough money. These are people that are working, do not earn enough money to afford their basic necessities, 39%. Nationwide is 57 to 60%. We're not doing too bad, but 39, I think we could do better. We all know that there is a shortage of housing, shortage of rentals, private investors drying up the market, and taking advantage. In addition to that, it makes things a little more complicated. Delaware faces an eviction filing rate of 10% annually, and that equates to about 11,000 Delawareans face eviction. At the beginning of our conversation, Mr. Briggs very thoughtfully said, that you are here to make the right decision, if I can quote you correctly, Mr. Briggs. I would encourage all of you to discern and to make the right decision to become the good Samaritans that I know is in the heart of this town. I know it because we work with Georgetown Presbyterian Church, which has been a beacon of light in this town since its foundation. And it is through that church also that we work collaboratively with Love, Inc., as a matter of fact, which you're gonna hear from Love, Inc. later, through the Purple Code Homeless Shelter. We collaborate with them. I happen to sit on the board of LRAC, Louis Rehoboth Association of Congregations, representing about 13, 14 congregations in that corridor. We're looking to expand, of course, to add from other towns as well. But the point is that through that process of grants, we bless Love, Inc. in that process with $15,000 recently. They do a terrific job. Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. That's the same thing that I plead on behalf of Springboard, Delaware, and their housing. and teaming up with other organizations like the Presbyterian Church here in town and Love, Inc. and others like that to make life manageable, accountable, and transparent. We have a choice tonight that lays heavy on your hearts. I know that. because you're gonna have to deal with your constituency. I know that. But I would pray and I would ask that you will consider being good Samaritans. The choice, you may have to live with your conscience thereafter. In my prayers, I'm with the town, I'm with the council members, and I thank you so much for being patient and listening to me.

Thank you. Brett Carpenter.

Hi, Angela. I didn't think I would get a chance to speak tonight. I'm not from Georgetown, I'm from Frederica. At the January or February, maybe it was the December meeting, representatives from the Little Living Village said that there was a great deal of interest in the Kent County project. I don't understand how they could have said that when Frederica Town Council did not approve it on May 3, 2017, January 18, 2023, April 16, 2025, and May 7, 2025. I would know. I'm on Frederica Town Council. I had the meeting minutes right here. And as sitting here tonight, Kent The president and vice president of the Kent County Levy Court have told me that there's been no Kent County deal made either with the little living village. It cannot be annexed. Frederica and the county is not buying it and it is outside of the growth zone. I would, so whatever you guys decide to vote on tonight, I'd at least like to know that somebody knows the truth about what Kent County and Frederica have done. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Next one is Laurence Raflin.

I'm actually a member of the town planning commission. And I did vote in favor of this ordinance. When this ordinance was being presented to the town, the town had already put those houses out there, made promises to Little Living and Prior Town Council had a history of overturning decisions that were made by Planning Commission. The evening that ordinance was presented, I made some suggestions to try to make the ordinance as favorable to the town as possible. The presentation that was made showed two samples of what this community could look like. And the samples that they provided, like Linda said, this could be a beautiful, small community. I don't think that's what Georgetown's gonna end up with. And You know, the town's conflating two different things. We have the ordinance and then we have the rezoning of this particular property that you stated earlier. Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny that rezoning because even if we had a good cottage community project, that's not the property to put this on. Thank you.

Thank you. Dennis, I'm gonna pronounce your name wrong, I'm sorry. Wisendry.

Wins and Reed.

All right, I was close.

Thank you. Dennis Wins and Reed, 23365 Park Avenue in Georgetown. First off, I understand that this is a discussion. It's not up for a vote tonight. Correct. The consideration has to be I urge everyone to please read very carefully SB23 and Senate Substitute 2 for SB23. This zoning ordinance is in compliance with that. It's for affordable housing, not mid-market housing. And it also requires that 20% of your housing be considered affordable housing. The remedies or the repercussions of not having that are that infrastructure improvements will not be funded by the state. They will have to be funded by the town. So what will happen is all of these developments that were brought up that are forthcoming, 20% has to be considered affordable housing, and the definition of affordable housing is there. So the implications and the ramifications of overturning this ordinance or repealing this ordinance means you're going to have to go back to the drawing board and come up with something all over again. And you don't have time because this has to be accomplished by the time that the comprehensive plan is up for review this year. You have it in place, you're going to be doubling up and redoing the efforts all over again. And there are considerable implications for the town, considerable costs to come forward. And I don't think taxpayers really would want to have that cost coming up. For instance, there are currently Rust Avenue in town. You have half an acre of property with five houses on it. That density already exists in town. Not saying that that's ideal, but it's there. So changing the nature of the town, no. It's something that has to be done. It's something that's coming down the pike. It's something that is going to be law in Delaware. So you've already got it in place. Why get rid of it? That's all I have to say. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Sharon Pitcher.

I'm Sharon Pitcher. I live at 16 Elderberry Street in the village of Cinderberry. I almost can't believe that this is on this agenda because so much heart, so much caring went into this at the time it was brought forward and there was a lot of support. When I listen to all of these things that are being built in Georgetown, I think The people that might have signed that petition don't have any idea of what the cost of living in any of those places are. They start at $2,000 a month. Most people that need the kind of housing that the small houses are going to provide cannot afford $2,000 a month. They don't make that much money. They have to eat. They have to do other things. They can't afford to live in those fancy apartments or the townhouses or the houses. They can't afford to live in any of that. And then we have the other option. We have the option of all of these alternative houses we have in town. Maybe you need to go look at those alternative houses before you make this decision. I worked with people that lived in shelters for years. Living in one room where you have to be worried about your possessions because You don't know who's living in the other rooms. That is not real housing. That is not a little house that's just your house. I thought the little, having worked with shelters for years, I thought the little houses were inspirational because for the people that can't afford housing, the people that are losing their houses, and you have to realize You really have to realize that with the way things are going, I don't know about all of you, but even the grocery store, every time you go, it's another $50. You know, everything is going up. With everything going up, people that have lived in Georgetown all of their lives are gonna be losing their houses. Where are they gonna go? That was the concept behind the little houses, was that was a place where people can go that are losing their houses. Elderly people that can't afford to keep the houses and keep the mortgage up on Social Security. You really need, if you're going to vote for this, you really need to think about that. You know, I go with the minister that gave before me and go back to the Bible. The Bible says, do unto others as you would let others to do unto you. Well, I want to ask each of you on the council, how would you like to live in one room? How would you like to be living on the street? Wouldn't you rather live in one of those little houses? I know that there's been controversy about how they look and the people have said that they're not going to look like the demos. They're trying to create a community that I think could really be adding to our town. And probably there will be other places in town because of that ordinance that maybe other places could add small cottages. Wouldn't that be 100% better than apartments after apartments after apartments? We keep approving these apartment complexes and they're not cheap to live in. They're not always safe. So before you turn down an ordinance that really somebody said that, somebody before me said that there wasn't a lot of support for the ordinance originally. There were so many people here testifying for support of the ordinance. And I think most of those people think after all of that work that it's going to go forward. because we trust that one council builds on the next council, not tries to take away what other councils have done. I think it would be so much more powerful to do more in looking at what kind of housing we do have than to take away something that's going to make a difference in this town. So I'm just going to ask you to pray about your decision. Don't make it for political reasons, make it. I don't know why you would make it, but if you're going to be against this, Make sure that your reason to be against it is not political, but that you're really thinking of the people that would be living in these little houses. Thank you.

Thank you. Next one, Eddie Wise.

Eddie Wise, Old Park Avenue. When this ordinance first came up, I was against the whole ordinance. I'm still against the whole ordinance. I'm not against the tiny houses in general. I think the ordinance could have been written better if it were applied as a conditional use. Being such a broad area, labeled in UR1, it allows too much of our area to fall under this code. If it's under conditional use, we'll have say on where and what can go. There's been people come up here, say it has to go. I don't think repealing it is the right decision. But I do think putting it in a conditional use area. And I don't think a lot of time was spent writing this code because it was handed to us by the state. Now, did we have some input? Probably. But I think a lot of it came from the state since the state is paying for us rewriting the codes on things. These tiny houses, we've been lied to from day one about what they're going to look like, who's going to be in them, and this and that. I don't know what the right answer is, but I don't believe repealing it. I think rewriting it would be a better choice and putting it in conditional use. That way we still have the ability to put these in town, just not in you are one. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Council discussion opinions. I was here during the. Workshops the public hearings My problem is I can see the need I Did not like the location Affordable housing to me is not nine hundred and fifty dollars to twelve hundred dollars a month to me. That's not affordable housing That's more than my mortgage payment. It was on my house. I but the location of where it's put. It was a brownfield. We had a gas station there. It cannot be paved. I don't know about grass. It's going to be stones, but we cannot really, dictate or do anything against the project that is on the books now. We can't touch it. If we do, we're in for a big lawsuit. But we can move forward to put perhaps a conditional use in order for any more of these that come along and dictate where in town we would like to see them put. Versus on our main street and they were coming into town if the need is there. Hey, I'm for it, but I don't like the location anyone that has a you are one property an acre can put 12 houses on it and I believe there there was a study done how many parcels they came up with but I would like to see Jean and I would like to see Lisa Roffling, and I love Eddie's idea, Eddie Wise's idea about conditional use, to sit down and Michael, he was on the planning commission at the point in time, to sit down and look at this ordinance and see what we can do to make it better instead of living with what we have now, because it can go anywhere in town. So that's my idea. Any other comments?

I agree. The funny thing is I feel there's more people that live outside of Georgetown that are for this than there is for people that live in town. And that's a big issue. Because obviously there's money being made here somewhere. And we really need to think about that. Why don't they go to another town? Find another piece of land somewhere. I'm not saying it's wrong. But I'm the same way. It's the location and what it's going to look like. Just like Larry said. you know right now until we get this town cleaned up to where it's supposed to be what do you think that's going to look like there's 12 or 11 homes out there on that acre of ground so i think that's something we really need to look at and i do like that idea of a workshop with a few people that have been dealing with it to look at the ordinance again so that's all i have no i agree when the ordinance was passed the flood gates were open and if you had an acre of land and you are one

You could put 12 houses on it. Well, that's not good for the town. What's done is done, but I think it's time to relook at the ordinance, and the conditional use will work, but the town needs to make the decision on every piece of property approved versus I have an acre and you are one. I can put 12 houses. That's not good for any town, let alone Georgetown. Thank you.

Okay.

Christina? I think that when new ideas are brought forth, they touch people in many ways. And this ordinance has touched a lot of people in many ways. Some has been sensationalized, criticized, Other comments are based on facts. Others is on the fear of what this could be and that's And that's okay because it feels different. It feels different. It's going to look different. And the history that most of us have had with new projects, et cetera, even when you hire some contractor and you have some miscommunication and you end up with this thing that you thought you were going to have in your mind and you end up with something else. I have, all of you here who have spoken have restored my faith in the fact that you have made this opportunity for people to talk and talk in a manner that is both a dialogue, a smart dialogue, and it does contain some of that fear. I am in agreement that There's a lot on our backs to consider with regard to housing. I recently read, I think I went crazy reading a lot of stuff in preparation for this, but somewhere I read that we have thousands of people facing foreclosures. So you have an elder population living from Social Security paycheck to Social Security paycheck You have people that have been ignored for a very long time and don't have a roof over their heads, and we could be putting roof over their heads. I mean, people like Love, Inc. are conducting financial literacy class, and I'm one of those advocates of financial literacy. But what happens when you put them through the battery of tests that presumably these people have to go through in this curriculum and then to have their hopes shattered? I've talked to people who have children themselves, our generation, who can't afford a home unless we fork out for some of the payments and possibly some insurance in case something happens. So you have sweeping changes going on outside of housing that includes jobs, that includes people not having the same protections they had in the past with regard to insurance. and they're having to pay for medication, they're having to decide. So I am thankful for the Good Samaritan speech. I think that we are all, that we all have within us, I mean, after all, we do go to church to feel for someone, but we do have to be smart and we have to depend on the people who are smart to contain the sensationalism and speak about facts. And lots of facts were brought up here tonight. And a lot of those facts need consideration. I'm all for affordable housing. Most of you know my first five years in town as a volunteer, full-time volunteer. with Habitat for Humanity, and I think we have a former Habitat here who was in construction, and I've seen what they've been able to do here. But even they are feeling the pinch. They're having to revise their programs because they cannot afford to build the homes that they were building for the people who are at the income brackets. Furthermore, they can't even attract the people who come and work as volunteers in those properties. So there's a lot that's going on right now. We don't know how many houses they'll be able to put out in the future. They put up 11 houses here in Kimmytown that made a huge difference. So There's a lot of work to be done and you name the right people to be at the table to make the decisions or to at least make the considerations and as it was said before, do the right thing for the town.

Thank you. Tony.

Respectfully, I just appreciate everybody's opinions and thoughts about everything, but I just, I'm like Eddie about the repeal part. It bothers me a little bit. I don't know, I'm always about trying to make things better. We need housing, you know. It's tough right now, and it's not getting any easier. But I expect things to be done the right way. It kind of builds you everywhere you go, even with the guys that's homeless or whatever. I expect them to do the right thing. I don't know about this conditional release thing, but I'm going to ponder on some things. And I'm not going to speak so fast and put it out there that I can't take it back. But I'm just a firm believer that I have confidence in the council when we pass this order. So I'm not going to sit and tie it down. So me, I'm going to ponder on things and just work with you guys the best I can do. I'm not trying to repeal nothing, but I'm here to try to make things better because in this town, any town, people need a place to live. It ain't easy like that because I once was homeless before of my own self doing, but it will work to get back on my feet. So I just believe people can get back on their feet for a little bit more. influence and encouragement and they see people in the town trying to work to try to help them i'm not talking about giving nothing just try to help them out a little bit so i'm upon the wrong thing to try to do i can do the best to help this town okay all right gene your recommendation how do we move forward on this

Can we meet? I don't want to drag it out.

Sure. I think the folks that you identified, the first starting point would be to read the Affordable Housing Production Task Force, especially recommendation number two.

Okay.

Then the next thing would be to become familiar with Senate Bill, Senate Substitute 2 for Senate Bill 23, which will become the law shortly. And then we can meet and go through it.

Okay. But I don't want to draw it out. No. You know, so.

I've set a timeline. We're in the process of trying to wrap up supportive housing. So maybe at the second meeting in August, we should have our final report and maybe start right after that.

Jean, I just have a question. You're up for your five-year comp plan interim report, I guess, this year? Is that right?

It's a five-year renewal.

So what do you need to provide to the state in that document as to housing?

So I believe, according to Senate Bill 23, I believe we have to incorporate it effective November 20th. november 15th of 2026 but we have to go through this bill and understand exactly what it's there but there is a requirement of the 20 there's 11 items the municipality has to identify five of them that they're going to do so again that's why i would like the folks on the committee to take a look at this stuff and see what potential we can do and i do want to clarify one thing this ordinance came about before we were signed up with senate joint resolution 8. this was not drafted by the state It was done by our own internal community development staff, and it was based on cottage community ordinances throughout the United country.

Thank you. So you'll take care of that?

Yes, I'll make sure those individuals get a copy of these documents.

Tony, would you like to also serve on that committee? So you kind of understand that we're not taking away the possibility of having affordable housing, but it's just where it's located within town.

yeah i'm going to probably work it on the committee okay all right okay so can i just just further you have gene lisa um councilman briggs councilman neil and eddie weiss yes great okay and when it comes time for drafting anything i can you know step in and serve meetings too okay lisa you willing to serve Well, they're gonna have to consider whatever the task force comes up with, so it probably is, it's probably more appropriate that they not be part of drafting it, or they might have, whoever's on the committee might have to recuse when it comes time to vote for it.

Okay.

All right, thank you. Okay, next item is health initiative presentation, Charles Kistler. Oh, okay.

All right. All right, good evening. I'll be quick. Mayor, council, just before I start, I just want to make a point about the project that DENREC's doing. So what I see in the fall of 28, a bunch of cars swinging around that project, that cloverleaf project, and going to those two sheets of ice with a bunch of kids in the car that will learn how to play hockey and be the next Wayne Gretzky of Georgetown.

Right, you got it, you got it.

Just thought I'd throw that in there.

You got it.

All right, so Charles Kistler. Charles Kistler, I'm the executive director of the HELP Initiative. So we've been a nonprofit since 2016, and we started in Dover doing a program called Lights On Dover Strong. right and we got so successful at putting this simple light bulb on the front porch of a home to make people feel safe but also to improve the ownership of homes as opposed to the landlord tenant model because people felt safer so we went through different municipalities within the state of delaware and to this date we've installed 21 000 homes 21,000 homes with these light bulbs. So the comment to everyone here, don't overcomplicate some of these solutions. So we were able to demonstrate with hard data out of Milford because we did the same lights on, Milford Strong. We did the same program in Milford and we demonstrated 11% we contributed to an 11% reduction in crime over a 12-month period just by lighting up these neighborhoods. Nobody wants to do bad things in well-lit places, right? So we took that concept and now put it on kids using these kind of things to make them feel safe in homes based on domestic violence situations. We work with the Delaware State Police to be able to provide food pouches through the food bank so when law enforcement goes to domestic responses, they have these food pouches in a go bag in the backseat of their vehicle. And so when they go in and see children, most times, Most times they're hungry, so they'll go back out and bring these food pouches in. Changes the whole dynamic of a law enforcement person coming to a home with food as opposed to some kind of a disciplinary action. And it worked. It worked. So we created hot spots within the state of Delaware. And then we got the food bank to respond to these areas using mobile pantries. I've gotten off subject, but there's so much to talk about. Anyway, so this is my team, part of my team here, and the young lady holding the sign. And we try to capture this stuff all the time. When we go into homes, it's a trusting relationship to walk through that front door. And it's not easy. So you have to really demonstrate trust and be able to deliver on the commitments you make one home at a time. Remember now, 21,000 homes, right? And we try to get this type of testimonial before we leave. So this is a snapshot of Georgetown. So back in the day we were here doing lights on, Georgetown strong, right? And we installed 396 homes with these kind of measures, LED measures and solar motion floodlights in the back of the house because that's typically the most vulnerable place. But, you know, we're a very metrics-based company. These are key performance indicators along the borders, you know, in terms of lights installed, floodlights, wattage. The most important thing here is savings, both in kilowatts and in dollars based on that area. So that's called a geofenced area. All right, so these are our objectives. We wanna come to Georgetown, we've been to Seaford, we've been to Laurel, we've been to Ocean View, we've been, actually this morning we just indoctrinated the customer service center in Dover. And in each case, we ask for a letter of authorization to be able to do this. This is where our big ask is going to be today. But we improve public safety by doing something really simple, again, in terms of being able to promote energy efficiency lighting on the outside of the home. We also try to lower the energy bill. We work closely as a trade ally with Energize Delaware. So we're offering up to roughly around $240 worth of lighting measures Same kind of things with this, but inside the house, pipe wrapping, insulation. We provide a lot of education and we actually create a report that's a roadmap for you to be able to better utilize your own home and get the most out of it, right? Education is a critical piece of this. So Smart 911, I mean, we always make this point. This is a free service to everyone here, everyone, right, to register. using this smart911.com, and what it does, it allows you to create a profile on your home as you were sitting in the 911 center, as though you were sitting right there creating this profile. Saves roughly eight to 11 minutes in response time by first responders, EMS, fire department, law enforcement, because they all know the profile and what to expect as they approach the house. Anyway, that's just one small piece of that ABC on number three. We do a really good job of a clearing house effect. So not as good as you, Manny. In terms of trying to determine disposition of need and then creating a profile, determining where that need is, and then downstreaming that individual and the eligibility of the individual service providers like DENREC and the weatherization program. Right? And then also the heating repair and replacement program and summer cooling program. All those programs a lot of people are not even aware of. So one of the big things we do is come here, ask for a letter of authorization, we go out there and we make everybody aware of these things that they're eligible for but they have no idea what they are. Right? Clearinghouse and then we collaborate with So the faith community is critical pieces and my brother over here pastor Miguel is going to come up and talk about community and the village But if we don't come together, especially during these times and leverage each other's core competencies we're really not going to do much to impact the problem we have and it's a big problem and So collaboration, increased neighborhood engagement, trust building, this is what we're all about. And then we have a Department of Labor. So my brother and partner, Harold Stafford, who was a former Secretary of Labor, we have a contract with the Department of Labor to create jobs. So we had a pre-apprenticeship program for two years that ran out June 30th. We have another contract to train six interns in a specific trade. The area that we really want to concentrate on, Lead-based paint. We've got a huge problem in this state with lead-based paint. So we want to identify a lot of elevated blood level children coming out of this town. Be able to train and certify and build capacity in the companies that remediate lead-based paint, especially in rentals built before 1978. All right, workforce. all right this is our ask this is this is where we get right to the you know the bottom line i need this letter if it makes sense there's no cost to the town to do this what we do need is support you know we need to be able to identify and we have a very specific phased approach that we take identify people at risk right now People that have high utility bills that can't afford their bills and they're bordering on disconnect. Those are our priority one people, right? And we talked about marginalized people and marginalized communities, also a big area for us to go in and knock on doors. Man, we knock on a lot of doors to get 21,000 installations over the course of I don't know how many years in this state, right? You know, we just went through education with Dover, but, you know, the customer service side and being able to educate everyone here in this town about what we can do, not just with energy efficiency, with public safety. We measure indoor air quality, all right? So indoor air quality, clean water. If there's a well and a septic system, we find in some of these communities it's really difficult because you have leaching between the two. Bless you. See, that's the truth. And then we have... Tabling events, so anything, so I already, Chief, I already hooked up with the Deputy Chief there, and we're gonna table right next to each other in this community event in August. That's awesome, by the way, to be there. And then data. So we're gonna lean on the data coming out of the criminal data category one, category two types of crimes, because we need to know impact. We need to be able to measure it after we spend time and money here in this town to see if we made a contribution to anything positive, right? That's our timetable. It's called Plane of Actions and Milestones. So the key thing here is start. Start is based on a letter. And then we identify, again, this is the critical area, identify residents that are in high utilization of energy. And then, you know, identifying geofenced areas. So we have three focus areas, open street, geographically concentrated, and organizationally unified. Organizationally unified HOAs concentrated as apartment complexes. Open street is basically just doing a geofence around block by block area, right? And then, of course, working with the faith community in particular, because there's a tremendous. So Loving is going to come up. My brother here is going to come up and talk. But we're working in Seaford with Loving. And we're using our call center, our QR codes, our intake forms. And we're working hand in glove with the connection center at Loving. And again, being able to cross-pollinate the needs, people coming into the call center there, and how to respond to it using our services. All right, I think that's it. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And you're the one that was talking about marginalized people, so I wanted to give you this one. All right. Sorry it took so long. Questions? Or maybe. Yeah. Heather. So Energize Delaware, Energize Delaware has funds through RGGI, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative funds. It depends. Who's your utility provider? Delmarva Power. Delmarva Power, yeah. So they're the big one. So they have what is called the Customer Relief Fund. Delmarva Customer Relief Fund, right? Right. But everybody here has a right to have these measures installed, $240 worth of all these energy efficiency measures. And then we go through, provide you with a report, and then we determine eligibility for up to $300 and a one-time credit. But we're also working in the community solar field because that's another area that's of interest or should be. No, we're unique. I tell you the reason why we're unique is because we're a street company. A street company. So to get to 21,000 installations of these kind of measures throughout the state, you've got to go into communities, and some of them are some of the worst communities in the state. And you've got to knock on doors. You've got to do door hangers. We have posters. We have rack cars. We have all types of stuff to make people aware of it. But back to your point. So Energize Delaware, RGGI funds. Delmarva Power, customer relief fund. That's $4.5 million. They've spent down most of that already. Now whether they come back and replenish that, which they should, is up to them. The Delaware Energy Fund through Energize Delaware is good for three years, two million a year. How's that?

Yeah, well, yes.

Criminal Justice Council, we did a lot of stuff around community violence intervention on the west side of the state in particular. So we know enough about how to bring this public safety using energy efficiency and lighting to be able to support that.

Yes.

There's money for remediation, and in two phases. One is in New Castle County, they just released a bid. No, no, I know, but I'm just giving you an example. New Castle County, they just released a bid to be able to remediate up to 20 houses over three years. 20 houses over three years, which is ridiculous. Too small a number. House Bill 70, which was signed into law by the governor last year, also has money attached to that. Five million a year for the next three years. And that's statewide. Right.

Thanks.

How do you get people to open doors? I mean, there are a lot of companies in Florida. these alternative energy proposals that all get back to Delmarva Power and these companies.

So how do you propose to educate the public to allow working

Yeah, so we do that now, and we're proposing to do it here in Georgetown, but it's all about starting here, getting the council and the mayor to provide us with a letter, and we then take the logo from this town, put it on all our material to make people aware of the fact that this is a sanctioned type of an event, and there's no loopholes, there's no guessing, it's pretty much a straightforward proposition. and it doesn't cost you anything. I know, I know, and this is why our campaign, our campaign around awareness is such an easy issue. I'm taking up a lot of time.

Get closer to the mic. We're having online, people can't hear.

One thing is I believe in Georgetown you would need a solicitation permit to do any door-to-door work. so that would be one i'm not sure they're soliciting because they're they're not you don't seek funds from nobody pays you right yeah i mean i'd have to check the code it's a gray area but yeah that might be something that would might be able to legitimacy when you go door to door right good consideration yeah so all right we good we're good we're good we're good thank you okay council questions

I'd like to support this project. I think we have areas in the town that could use something like this. I know for one I'm constantly complaining about lighting. Some of the lighting that there is in town is kind of dull. There are communities And I'll specifically talk about Kimmetown because I spent a lot of time driving through there. I think this group has the elements to implement this fairly quickly because they rely on other organizations to help them out. And people now can use their phone and look up who's doing this and why they're doing it. I know that Habitat does also energize Delaware and so you piggyback to a lot of these programs and they can help get the word out and get people to safely do that. One of the things that I had thought about that I was told that there was also a program out there for cameras. for homes. So if they hear something similar to that, should we sign up to do something like this year that we can also find ways to put more cameras in the neighborhood so the police can help themselves to data around crime in some specific areas that we all know about? Any other questions?

Okay, Christina, then I'm going to ask you to make a motion to provide a letter of authorization.

I make a motion that we write a letter supporting the program that was just discussed and that we go forward with the plan.

All right.

There's a motion on the floor for a letter of authorization for the implementation of the project Safe Neighborhood. Do I have a second? No second?

No second. second okay all in favor say aye opposed motion carried thank you this mayor can we go back to 7b real quick just to this is just a question should we make a motion to halt the projects or upcoming projects under that ordinance until we look into what we're going to do and what there's one there's one project that's already approved but I don't want to see someone else start paperwork on another project and then we change the ordinance then they've spent all this money so is there something that we could make a motion to halt it until

no you can't i mean that's what the code says until you make it say something different i suppose you could tell planning to suspend site plan reviews pending you can't change the code without going through the process but but if we change the ordinance i don't think you have one application and you can't right stop that one correct um

but for future ones.

Well, but then you're effectively repealing the operation of the code. I think you could ask planning to suspend approval or denial for a reasonable period of time. It's not the same. Because then they could potentially try to compel you if it took too long or something like that.

Well, I think you made a comment regarding, someone did, regarding risks to the town. I think that was you, Angie, with regard to how we approach this. this recommendation. So I'm specifically interested in knowing what the risks are to the people here, money-wise, should we be in a situation or find ourselves in a situation where we are being litigated for some action that we took.

I'm not sure what you're asking me. What's the risk to a project that hasn't come in yet?

No, a project that is already and then placing a moratorium.

I don't think anybody's suggesting a moratorium on the pending application.

No.

I don't think there's a great deal of risk if nobody's done anything in reliance on the current code yet. However, it'd have to be for a reasonable period of time. Otherwise, I'd say you're effectively repealing the code without going through the process of repealing it.

Thanks for the clarification.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, that clarifies my concern.

So we need a motion. But what do you want the motion to say? Or what do you want the effect of the motion to be?

I would say something about the planning department halting or holding off on approving or denying any new applications on that ordinance.

No, I don't think so. Yeah, I think you could do that. Suspend review and... Yeah, suspend review, I would say. You could accept an application, but suspend review pending. Do you want to target a six-month time period for potential changes to the code? And then any potential applicants on notice that this may not be able to go forward.

All right, I'll make a motion to have the planning department suspend review on all new applications on this ordinance until further notice.

All right, we have a motion. I'm sorry, you're saying the ordinance, you're saying applications under section 230-25H, just for the record.

Okay, there's a motion on the floor. Do I have a second? Second. All right, there's a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

Opposed.

Okay, Christina? I'll poll the council. Ward one?

Aye.

Ward two?

Opposed.

Mayor, aye. Ward three?

Aye.

Ward four?

Aye.

Okay, motion passed. Thank you.

Thank you, Penuel, for bringing that up.

Okay, what's next? Love, Inc. presentation. Giovanni Otero. Good Italian name.

Yes.

Awesome.

Thank you so much. You guys have been so detail-oriented. I'm grateful for my teammates that are detail-oriented because I am not. So grateful to see that Georgetown is doing such a great job. I wanted to start off with just saying thank you for allowing us to speak. We're going to have a few of the stories throughout. This first one is Troy's story. Not to be confused with Toy Story. But he was living in his car with some friends. So let's see if we can hear it. And then if it doesn't work, then I'll kind of give a summation of that. Which one do I press? The media button? Okay, let's see. That's okay.

That's okay. It was on there earlier.

Yeah, that's okay. I can share the story. So essentially, Troy is, funny enough, we've helped, as of today, 100 people escape homelessness in the last few years. And it's come with a lot of hard work by the people who want to make a change. So Love Inc., Love in the Name of Christ, is a partnership of groups working together to hold people accountable when they ask for help. So Troy was someone who would come to Code Purple year over year at the Seaford location. I live in Seaford. I'm not from Georgetown, but we do a lot of work in Georgetown. And one of the things that he says in the video is that he felt like the walls were closing in. He'd been living in the car for two years with a friend. And then finally, he accepted the offer to go through case management. And as he was in case management, he finally gets a call and they say, Troy, you've been approved. And he just was overwhelmed by the amount of time that he was working. and day after day of making the right decision and doing what was right and just being very patient. And so over the last three years, helping 100 people escape homelessness through love and accountability and over 1,000 people avoid homelessness. So both of those being very important because there is an existing homeless population that we're trying to help escape. But there are also, as we've mentioned as well, people who are at risk of becoming homeless And the stark contrast, just highlighting the fact that it is much easier to help someone avoid it than it is to get them out of it. And so our mission is to, well, and then we have the impact here. For 2025, we were able to meet over 51,000 needs. And like I mentioned, the over 1,000 people that we've helped prevent homelessness. And as of today, 100 people that have escaped homelessness. If anybody, you don't have to memorize all this. If you are interested in having this, we have some of these impact booklets in the back. So please don't leave without one if you really want to see it or have it with you. Our mission is to mobilize local churches and transform lives and communities in the name of Christ. We believe that change comes through Christ. He's the one who changes the heart. And if you can change the heart of a person, which none of us here can do, you can change the trajectory of a person's life. Right. And we believe that it is through local churches working as one that this can be accomplished. And if you can change enough lives, you can change a community. And so that is what we believe. And we do so through our partners. Right. So when you look at Loving or you visit Loving, we represent more than just, you know, 15 staff and staff. 250 active volunteers and a roster of 1,000 volunteers. We also represent about 100 churches in the area, and we also represent over 120 businesses as well, all believing that it's important to journey with people and hold them accountable, because if you truly love someone, you will hold them accountable, and it can be more difficult this is we're not saying this is the only way we are just a way to help people we understand that not every case is the same and so we have a lot of businesses that have come for a tour and seen firsthand and met the team and understand that there is a high degree of organization and accountability not just for the people that we serve but for us as leaders within the organization And they want to come alongside it. So this is what a community usually looks like. There's a lot of good happening already. We understand that there's a lot of organizations and churches doing good. And so what we want to do is make sure that it is a coordinated effort. And so that's where loving comes in. We want to make sure that, and we actually have about 10 church partners in this community who have already agreed to moving forward, unless it's a personal relationship type of situation within their church, that they would work through loving to hold people accountable when they come to their church to ask for any sort of financial assistance or help moving forward. they are agreeing that through Love, Inc., we will work together to help them come up with a plan for those who want to make a change. Because you can't force, you can't want it more than them. You can't force people to want to change. We are here to help those who want to make a change. And so through our partners and together through love and accountability we have a system and here i would share the story of donnell and this is the usual trajectory of the hundred people that we've helped escape homelessness people usually come to us through a need met donnell was coming to us for food for quite a while and as we got to know his story we said donnell we would love to help you more than just with food I'm sure you have other needs and so we told him to call our connection center and he agreed and so through the connection center we have a very High-level system kind of in three parts where all the calls are routed through there it's one of the main reasons that churches and businesses partner with us because this is the service that we're providing for them we are vetting people's needs to make sure they're legitimate and We are holding people accountable. We know if it's the first time they've called or you know if it's the 50th time they've called. We know what they called about every time. Is it the same thing? Is it a different thing? Do they call the same time of the year every year? Or do they go church to church asking for the same thing? And so with Donnell specifically, we were able to get to know his story and found out that he'd had the same job for over 12 years and was homeless for six of those. Working and kept his job for over 12 years, and six of those he was living out of his car. We said, Donnell, we would love to help you find your own place. He's like, sure. Not a drug addict, not an alcoholic, just A super laxie daisy guy. And so through case management, we got to know him even more because the level of accountability rises to a greater level of detail. Come to find out as we get to know him more personally that he was just overwhelmed and he just could not look at forms. Like he needed help walking through, filling out all the paperwork that you would need to move into a place. And so in about eight months of coming up with a plan and pairing him with mentors and a mentor and teachers for faith and finances, which is one of the two classes that we offer at any one of our partner locations and mentoring, a lot of people would never had someone in their corner saying, you know, Angie, I believe in you. You know, like you got this, I got your back. Right? You're not on your own. Some people have actually had the opposite. People telling them you will never amount to anything or you're not worth anything. And so to surround someone with people who care for them and want what's best for them and want them to succeed, That alone can be a turning point for someone's life. And so it was for Donnell. And in less than a year, we were able to help Donnell get a bike, get a car, and eventually move into his own place. And like that, we have 100 people that we've also helped, like I said earlier, a total of 100. And then we also have the story of Melita. So I won't try to play the video, but Melita is someone who's a different case than Donnell and Troy. Troy was living in his car and got approved for senior living. Donnell was living in his car, kept a job, and eventually moved into his own place. Melita was unique in the sense that she qualified for housing that we have through partnerships with other nonprofits. We partner with Laurel Community Foundation. They have four transitional units. that they had tried to help people but they were so tired of getting taken advantage of. They tried to help people and they came and they saw and they said, you have the system, we have the property, can we work together to help people? The same happened, and before that, we were partnering with Nanticoke Rotary Club, which is in Seaford, and they have four transitional units, but they allowed us to use two of them. Same thing. We've been trying to help people, but they were tired of getting taken advantage of. And so in partnership with these two nonprofits, we've been able to continue this transitional housing program. She qualified for it. And, you know, they had, like I said, the assets but no system. And so we were able to journey with her and she was able to get, you know, a new job. And within that job she got a promotion within like a few weeks. And eventually she was driving around and she saw the sign for rent and she says, I think we can do this. And she did. And we were able to help her move into her own place. And Melita is still there to this day. And so through partnerships, like I said, over 120 business partners, about 100 churches in the area. We have a really strong, really strong sense of community and a system that holds people accountable because. Journeying with people is harder than giving them a bag of food. And I'm not diminishing the immediate needs. We have a four-part system that covers immediate needs, mentors and teachers and case management that focus on long-term change, and another area that focuses on the coordination of all the existing resources, both within and outside of Love, Inc. And through that system working as one, we are able to journey with people from point A to point Z, helping them build the skills that they need to be successful. And so what we are proposing is that You would just, we would work more closely like we already have with other nonprofits, like we have with the Rotary Club, like we have with Laurel Community Foundation, like we have with the Good Old Boys Foundation, like we have with the Marvel Adult Teen Challenge. We have very close working relationships. We have about 100 churches working as one who want to see people's lives changed. But we need to do it together. And so we need to be willing to be with them in the good and the bad. It's like raising kids, right? We would hope they make all the right choices. I have two of my own, one on the way. I hope that they make the right choices, but if they don't, I will be there for them. And that's all we're saying is we will be there for people, even if they don't always make the perfect set of decisions, but they need to be held accountable. And like I said, we're not here to solve homelessness. We're not saying we're the only way. We are just saying we could do so much more together. And so this is the connection center number. People leave a message with who they are, where they are, and what they need, and then we're able to call them back. It gives us a little bit of time to do some research and actually get to know the person before we talk to them and just focus on getting to know their story, not necessarily fix the problem. And so Love Your Neighbor partnership plug here. If you would like one of those, please support the mission with monthly giving starting at $39.95. But I would love to take questions at this point.

I took a tour. And I was very, very impressed with the organization. And I love the idea that they make their residents accountable. They just don't hand out free items. They have to be accountable for their actions. But one difference I think with your organization is your clients, your residents, people that come to you want help. We have people here in Georgetown that don't want help. They like their lifestyle. And that's been something that's very, very hard to work on. You know, when somebody's addicted to drugs or alcohol. When I went into the encampments, I was asked, you're mayor, what are you gonna do for me? I said, I can't do a damn thing for you. What are you gonna do for yourself? You gonna get off the drugs? You gonna get off the alcohol? I can't do anything until you do that. Now, I had a meeting with some of the pastors at churches. Are you gonna have a case manager here in town?

We also have a church that's already agreed to house a case manager here in Georgetown. So we already have that. We've partnered through Code Purple for about 10 years now through Georgetown Presbyterian Church, like Pastor Eddie said earlier. We are here. We've been here for 10 years through Code Purple.

We are putting a case manager here within the next month.

Okay. Can you say what church it's going to be at?

Yes, First Baptist Church, right by Walmart.

Just north of Walmart? Okay, all right. Now, I was so impressed with the tour when I went, and I thought it's a win-win situation. We need to get you here in Georgetown to help.

Yeah, and we have been. It's good to have better partnerships. Sorry, Christina, you had a question. Go ahead.

Yeah, I'd be interested to check out some of your data with regards to intake. How do you, essentially, what is the process? What's the fallout? What do you consider success? And those kinds of things. More of the ins and outs of how it works. But my other question is funding. Could you let us know, how do you fund your operation? Is it totally volunteers? And are these volunteers trained volunteers?

I can answer both of those. So the first one being intake process, they leave a message at the main number. It allows us to make better use of both of our times because then we're not kind of You know, OK, so what's your need? Where do you live? You know, we can kind of gather that ahead of time. But then we go through a series of questions. I'm always impressed by impressed by the Connection Center staff because that I was there for a few months and I was thankful that I got moved out of there because the people, the questions that you think to ask that I never think to ask. And so it's very thorough. If you're asking for financial assistance, one of the first things they're going to ask you is, do you have about five to ten minutes to go over your budget straight away? Because if it gives you at the very end of the questionnaire a green number, they're going to ask you, well, why are you here? Well, you know, the money that would have gone for utilities or rent, you know, my car broke down. If I couldn't fix a car, I would have lost my job and I would have had no income. Gotcha. We understand. So this is kind of like a one-off situation. But if it gives us a red number, what's going to happen if we help you today 30 days from now? you're going to be in a worse situation than when you were today. And the key question is always what needs to change and how can we help you make that change. So that's on the financial piece. They're asked where they live. They're asked what their need is. And I would encourage anybody who's interested in learning more to coming for a tour. We have an open house next week on Thursday, July 23 at 5.30 PM. So if you're interested in seeing the Connection Center or a mock station, that would be a great opportunity. Now, in terms of funding, We have about a million dollar budget. We grew from $300,000 budget about four years ago and have grown now to a $1 million budget. And it's mostly supported by private donations through individuals, churches, and businesses with, as of right now, less of a 5% support from the government. So we believe that we have a very strong case for support. We have the impact, not just the output of what we're doing, but the impact of the change that we are enacting in communities. and the change that people can tangibly see in a community when it's working closely together through the leadership and the collaboration of Love, Inc. And so, yeah, the CFER community has changed a lot. We like to say that wherever our partners are, there we are too. So we have partners in Salisbury. We have partners in Milford. We have partners here in Georgetown. And what we want is a closer level of collaboration so that People know that they're cared for and that there is a way out, but we just have to be patient with them if they want the change, because we can't force change on people. They have to want it for themselves.

So how do we get the word out to people that are interested in your program?

I think she had one more question.

Oh, did you have another one?

Go ahead. The volunteer, so what's your success rate with volunteers? In other words, how long do they stay? Where do these volunteers come from?

So our mission is to mobilize local churches to transform lives and communities in the name of Christ. Now, that doesn't mean that volunteers are exclusive to churches. We have a lot of business partners that want to give back to the community as well. So through our 120-plus business partners and organizational partners and 100 church partners, that's a lot of people that want to give back to the community. And they go through an onboarding process by our program director, Mandy, who's phenomenal. And, yeah, there's just a whole onboarding process depending on which of those four areas they're going to serve through, which is immediate needs, long-term change, or the coordination of resources. So depending on where you land, you're going to have a different onboarding process and a different level of time investment that you're going to have.

Okay, so the rest I'll get from your online data.

I just want to say something. I love that you keep highlighting volunteers. We have a volunteer here, Ms. Shirley. She's been with us at least four years since my wife and I took over Love, Inc. And she represents over 250 active volunteers like Gio has mentioned. But we have mobilized over a thousand volunteers the past four years. So a thousand people have become active in their community through Loving's coordination. And without volunteers, we wouldn't be able to do what we do. We have a staff of only 15. I usually say 20 because there's a staff. Actually, there's a volunteer here who volunteers over 40 hours. Jacqueline is right here sitting down. So I count her as one of our regular teammates. So it's about 20 regular teammates who are coordinating efforts of 250 individuals at a very high level so that they can continue to provide their services for free to the community. So just thank you so much for highlighting the volunteers the way that you're doing, because without the volunteers, we will not be able to do what we are doing. We will need a budget of at least $3 million. And we've been in the black the past two years, and we want to remain that way.

So you do have some free things. Yeah.

Yeah. So highlighting the process for case management usually is a discovery meeting. A discovery meeting where people who have expressed the desire to want to make a change, we will set up a meeting with one of our case managers and having one here in Georgetown will just give people greater flexibility. We've been covering eastern and western Sussex and now having one stationed here will just give people greater access. I would say most, if not all, of our staff is very mobile. So it's not that we've just been in Seaford or Lewis. We go to people where they are. But just having a physical, established presence here. So the discovery call is one. And then asking them, what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish? And how can we come up with steps to, you know, get from point A to point B? Because, you know, maybe they have dreams and they want to accomplish those dreams, but they just don't have the wherewithal because they're in survival mode to come up with the steps that they need to get from point A to point B.

existing providers in Georgetown? To meet your needs, how are you going to do that?

Are you going to be making referrals for case management? We have case managements now.

What needs in particular are you talking about?

Well, I mean, if somebody's coming to the case management program earlier, and they're saying, well, I need some outpatient drug rehab or something

So let's say that's a great example. We partner with individuals who deal with that. We don't deal, yeah. In that situation, our connection center will refer them to case management. Our connection center will refer them to the experts, the other non-profits or the other organizations. Yeah. So just to give you a quick example, if somebody calls the connection center, let's say you guys start referring people to the connection center. You all give people in need that number. Instead of giving them $10 or $20 in the corner, you say, call Love, Inc. So somebody who actually went from homeless to a place to live called the connection center asking for a gas card. So we got to know her a little bit more. and she needed more than just a gas car. We got to know her story. We verified that she needed her gas car to go to work. We called her job and she needed to get to work. But then we also got to know that she lives in a car. So now she lives in a car and now she has work. But this person's making an effort. She has a job but lives in a car. but she called for just a gas car. Then we'll transfer her to our case management department, who then breaks out, hey, you have a job, you're trying. Let's come up with a strategic plan to help you get a place to live. Then that strategic plan gets broken down by week. Because if you don't teach somebody to be accountable weekly and daily, guess what happens? If I don't show up to work tomorrow, I'm fired. If they don't learn the accountability daily, then they're not gonna be able to make it on their own when they find their own place. And then the last department is mentorship. Mentors come alongside this individual who calls for the need. But also we teach them classes, faith and finance. We teach them life skill classes according to the volunteers. So according to their need, they're not gonna get to case management. They might just call us for food or something and they don't want any more. So that is just, it depends on the need. It's not a just, but it can be many different things that they can call for.

Thank you. All right, we're losing people.

I think the day I, were you done, Christina? Yes, thank you. Okay, the day we took our tour, you gave us, it's like a postcard with a number and information on it. And can we get more of those to hand them out if people are interested in the Loving program? We're almost at three. Okay, thank you, thank you, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I will comment. I live in the super community. I've lived there for 15 years. And the transformation that Loving is doing, it's not even just transforming the person. It's literally transforming the community. We're holding the community accountable for what is going on in the community. They're avoiding an individual accountable, like they said. You can't go there and get a meal without an ID. So it's just that basic, simple, OK, you don't have an ID? OK, we're going to help you get that ID. But if they come back in a week and they don't have that ID, it's a lesson. It's accountability, just like those mentorship classes. They can finance them. They are all accountability, not just for yourself, but for the community. You're avoiding the community economical for coming to volunteer to provide any other materials for those individuals or neighbors. Like you said, it might just be a mom that needs a couple meals, or it may be that a mom that's living in her car with her two kids. Every person has an individual plan and goal. So Lovey is going to take those couple minutes, those hours, and work with you as long as you're willing to work with your goals and their mission as well. I have worked with them personally and professionally. And like I said, I've been on town councils. I have been making those deals for them. My children have. So when you're ready to transform yourself or the community, There's the number. It's right here. You can volunteer during the winter. Make a meal. You can go on their Facebook. Volunteer. Bring your kids along. There is every aspect of loving that every single one of us in this room can make a impact.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Amanda. Good seeing you. All right, next on the agenda is Georgetown Navigation Center Springboard Judson. An update. It's quick, isn't it? Your update's quick. Good. Good, good.

It's not really my place, but I almost want everybody to stand up and stretch for a minute. But we'll proceed, and we'll make it quick. I'm going to give you an overview and an update, starting with the history. Hopefully it won't take more than about five or 10 minutes. And then I have a few people that come up who are going to talk to their experiences, either as our providers or as our former residents and so forth. So let me get started. Again, my name is Judson Malone. I'm the executive director of Springboard Delaware. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak about the Georgetown Pallet Village and what this project has accomplished over the past several years. When the village opened on January 31st of 2023, it represented something new for Delaware. It was not simply a collection of 40 small cabins. It was a test of whether a community could could offer people living outside a safer, more stable alternative than living in encampments and in cars or repeated emergency room interventions. For this project, the town was a crucial supporter to get the project going. Additionally, First State Community Action Agency made land available through a lease agreement behind the Kimmy Street facility and facilitates very important wraparound service support for us. Other support comes from public agencies, foundations, businesses, faith communities, individual donors, volunteers, but not nearly as many as Love, Inc. has. Service providers all have contributed. No single organization could have created the village alone. The capital investment has been substantial. through July 2026, approximately $2.58 million has been invested in the Georgetown site. The 40 pallet sleeping structures themselves, about 500,000 comes from the Georgetown ARPA grant that was made available to them during COVID. The balance of the funding paid for with, paid for foundations, grading, utilities, electrical service, water and sewer. None of that infrastructure was there when we took over the site. A new community building, which is open just this year, we're very proud of and everyone on the council is invited to come and visit. Operating it depends on a stable source of ongoing support. And that support now comes principally through a four-year contract with the Delaware Division of Social Services. The agreement is important for two reasons. One, it gives the program the multi-year footing that interim housing requires in order to plan, retain staff, sustain the services, build a service network, and it establishes the state as a committed partner which has been our effort from the very beginning in an effort that no single town or nonprofit can afford to carry alone. The contract also allows for the cost of the program to be stated plainly. The state supports each occupied cabin at a net cost of approximately $40 per bed. For a program that provides a private climate-controlled unit together with round-the-clock staffing, case management, coordinated access to healthcare, treatment, and housing navigation, that figure is modest. And it is well below the daily public cost of the alternatives that people experiencing homelessness would otherwise cycle through. Whether it's emergency shelter or hospital care or incarceration or stays with state vouchers at the local motel, those are considerably or somewhat more expensive than what we have to offer. Since we've opened, we've also evolved and learned. What began public as the Pallet Village has now increasingly become known as the Georgetown Navigation Center. The change in name reflects the evolution of the Navigation Center model that we've drawn from practices around other states. The Pallet Company, the Pallet Village concept started in California and there's over 100 of those villages across the country now. And we've studied a lot of them very closely. And as Gene can attest, as we've matured, other communities have come to us to see how we're doing it. The physical sleeping unit provides privacy, safety, heat, air conditioning, and a secure place for personal belongings. We didn't fully appreciate how important that was. Our very first guest who came to live with us recently from very harsh living in encampments When they came to the village, it was almost an immediate change in their demeanor, behavior, attitude, and willingness and hope. The larger purpose, though, is navigation. Residents need help replacing identification, securing benefits, finding employment, addressing medical and behavioral health needs, entering treatment where appropriate, and reconnecting with family and finding permanent housing. Our navigators plan an individual plan for each resident according to their needs, but always with the emphasis on finding work, finding housing. Springboard has worked to bring services to the village. Partners have included First State Community Action, Lorette Health Center, Brandywine Counseling, Beebe Healthcare, Bay Health, state and other state and behavioral health agencies, workforce and education programs, financial institutions, and even animal support, we allow pets. And we do have pet care that comes on site. Residents are expected to follow standards of conduct. Violence, threats, theft, property damage, drug use, and dangerous conduct are not permitted. The program is designed to promote safe community living standards of behavior. We have been very successful with that. There has been no violent crime since we've opened. There have been no drug overdose deaths since we've opened. And if you come into the community, it is very peaceful, very peaceful, joyous place to be. Since opening, 229 people have been served. Residents have moved into permanent and supportive housing, obtained jobs, identification, enrolled in Medicaid and other benefits, entered healthcare and treatment, and reunited with family. In the last 12 months, 47 people have exited the program. 42% have moved to permanent housing situations. Another 23% moved into programs with a higher level of care. We are looking at a population that is chronically homeless and many have very serious not addressed issues. And sometimes we get people to come in that are more than we can help and need a higher level. So we address that by finding the appropriate program for them. One thing we cannot do, We cannot create deeply affordable apartments. We cannot expand the supply of housing vouchers. We can't solve the shortage of treatment capacity or compel other communities to share responsibility. We can stabilize people, prepare them for housing, and help them move forward, but permanent exits depend on systems beyond the property line. If there's not available places for them to move to, their stay is longer where they are now. Residents and businesses have raised concerns about visible homelessness, trespassing, litter, behavioral health crises, people walking through neighborhoods, and the concentration of services in Georgetown. Those concerns deserve to be heard and addressed. Not every public incident involves a village resident. The village houses only a portion of the people experiencing homelessness in Georgetown and Sussex County. But because it is visible, it can become associated with the entire problem. So it makes it essential on us to communicate and provide accountability Springboard continues to respond promptly to complaints, track incidents accurately, enforce rules consistently, communicate with neighbors, and report both progress and problems honestly. Georgetown, the town, should also not be left to carry a regional burden alone. Homelessness in Sussex County is not solely a Georgetown problem. It requires county-wide and state-level participation in funding, treatment, housing, transportation, and additional programs such as Love, Inc. Their presence in Georgetown and Seaford and other parts of the county creates a natural mechanism for that lacking coordination between municipalities that needs to happen in a much more robust fashion. The Georgetown Navigation Center has shown that people living outside can find safety, regain stability, connect with services, and begin rebuilding their lives. The work has not been simple and has been not without concern or controversy, but it has produced a model for the future to humanely address homelessness in Delaware. So with that, I would like to invite just a few people up to share some of their experience and perspectives. I want to start with Maquanna and Gabby Brady. Key, would you escort them up? And Key Good is one of our staff members. He's the site supervisor.

Hello. My name is Gabrielle Brady. So I would like to say they helped me a lot. I got my own apartment now. They helped with my deposit and my rent and stuff like that. I've been there for about a year. Like they said, if you can put more into it, they'll help you. But if you're not doing anything, nobody's going to want to help you. You know what I mean? So they do art classes and stuff. They make you feel like home. It's like your little house, but it's home. And we were homeless. Our car was repoed and stuff like that. And they were there to help us with the homeless situation. They feed you. It's home, basically.

That's my wife, Gabrielle Brady. I'm Marquand Brady. We just recently got married. We got married July 8th. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, for a good while, we were homeless. We were living in our car, going from hotel to hotel. She had a job. I also had a job until I lost my job. But we were trying to do the best we could. Family wasn't cutting it. Family wouldn't keep us around, even though we were paying the rent. You know how it is. You pay the rent, they still take you wherever they want to take you. So we were looking around, trying to find somewhere to go, trying to find resources, weren't getting enough conversation with people that had those resources until we came to what we came to know as the Pallet Village. The Pallet Village helped us sort through our financial issues, whatever it could be, like we could have a mental issue about our finances, wondering how we were gonna save, what we were gonna save, when we were gonna save, but they helped us figure that all out. Now, we weren't on drugs, we weren't drinking, We didn't have any gambling problems or anything like that. We were just normal people who fell in hard times. So when it came down to that, my own issue was that I felt like I was just not ready to be asking a whole bunch of people for help. I had my own pride, but I set my own pride aside, and I had to ask. A lot of people are scared to do this out here. Some people, they're... capable of just staying how they are, but we weren't. We were just in a bad spot, but they helped us out. A year later, we finally came to get our own apartment. We live in Milford now. We pay our own electric, our own rent. They helped us with a good portion of the rent from the beginning. did a lot for us, really. It surprised me because not a lot of people do that, you know what I mean? But the ones that do, we're the ones that are thanking you from the bottom of our heart because without y'all, we'd probably either be back on the street or frozen stiff. There's a couple people that we've heard throughout the news, they couldn't make it. They just couldn't make it. They couldn't find a place to stay. They froze out on the street. Or somebody took their car or whatever the case may be. So just take this into consideration as we speak to you guys. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Dora is Dora here and then I had Amy Amy wanted to speak I'm sorry.

I'm calling up people on the program. I mean she filled out a form to speak I know we can call afterwards. But first I had some people we're going to speak. Okay There's Dora here Okay Angie Scott

Hi, I'm Angie Scott. I am the program manager for the mobile outreach unit at Beebe Healthcare. I was asked by our friends at Springboard to come and just kind of share with you what we provide to the community at large and how that transfers over into the Pallet Village and kind of what we've seen. So our mobile outreach team is funded 99% of the time through grants, so it costs The hospital, no money. It costs the public no money. And we provide all our services free of charge. In the community, anybody's eligible for those services. You just meet with the mobile unit. We have a provider on board that can prescribe both medical information a medication for like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, those sorts of things. She is also dually board certified and can provide mental health medications and substance use treatment. So it's a really unique situation where we can bring healthcare to individuals and provide a wide array of care. I think that the big, Part of why we were asked to come is just to kind of share with you that the services that we provide to the community at large are the same services that we provide at Pallet Village. These are our community members. They are members of Georgetown. They are your community members, and so we provide that same care to them that we would provide to the rest of the community, and it's needed. It really is needed, so I hope that was good. Okay.

Is Amy Rust here? There you are. Sorry for the confusion. Did she sign up? She was also on my list.

I just did what I was told to do. I signed up. So my name is Amy Rust. I'm actually a co-chair for attack addiction here in Sussex County. Recently, we received a grant from DSAM, Delaware Substance Abuse and Mental Health, And one of the peer supports that are at the Pallet Village has also been going out in the community. What that did for me is it also gave me a chance to visit the Pallet Village, which I have to say, it tricked me. In the very beginning, I wasn't 100% that I was on board for it. I've worked in substance abuse and mental health for 15 years, and it has to be something very tight, structured, overseen, and managed very well in order for something like that to work with this type of population. When I went, it was tremendously clean. The gate was closed. When I went inside the building, there was a peer support sitting in the day room helping somebody fill out applications as well as a Medicaid application to start getting their success. I toured some of the houses. I was overly impressed in the pride that these people took in their cabin. They decorated the doors for the holiday. had little gardens outside, they had their cats, and you could just really tell that they really felt like it was home, and they probably haven't felt that in a very long time. I know with the population that I work with, we can say however many out of whatever statistic you want to say does not want help, and at times that is very, very true. But there's not always truth to that. Another piece of the truth of that is that they don't know you. They don't trust you. They have been hurt so many times. They have been let down so many times that they feel like that where they're at is the best that they're ever going to do. I believe that this, that springboard has given some people in this community a chance to realize that They do matter, that they are important, and find their self-worth again. So I was very, very impressed. The staff was very nice. It was very clean. Their little store shed really impressed me. It had clothes and hygiene products and you name it, all the way down to their tumbler cups and cat food and cat litter and everything anybody would need that somebody hasn't had in a really long time. So for me to say that I have walked Georgetown these past five weeks, I have been in the woods, I have walked down the tracks, I have seen some absolutely horrendous, horrific things in this town in the past five weeks. My first day out, I drove home with no radio on and had to reflect because it humbled me. It reminded me of why I've gotten to the field that I'm in. we hand out trash bags we hand out everything that we can to try to help clean up this town um the chief your police have been so amazing and you know let us know if we're they let us know that if we need anything we can um so after being able to go in these woods and on these tracks and seeing what the town is really complaining about um and then being able to compare that these people were on those tracks and were in those woods and now are here I met a guy that was actually getting ready to move in to an apartment and they were giving him the money for his down payment to help for, you know, to get his lease. We I heard somebody here say that, you know, about listing all of the low income apartments around in the area. Like I said, I've been doing this for a very long time and yes, they are available. But what we don't understand is there's a year, two year waiting lists for every one of those apartment complexes and very tight stipulations to get in. So I think that if we could ever expand something like that, I believe that it would be very beneficial. Thank you. Thank you.

Lisa Lincoln.

Good evening. My name is Lisa Lincoln. I'm a social worker here in Georgetown. I also happen to live here in Georgetown. I've worked with the homeless population over 30 years on and off. In the last four years, I've worked with the population here, the homeless population. Worked with Paddle Village, love ink, and it's interesting, we all seem to work together, but it's a small community. My thing is, the reality of it is when you see someone homeless, like you see the guy, the people by Walmart, there's a mess, you think that's what homelessness looks like, and it's not. Homelessness has changed, and one of the biggest things about Pallet Village that's so incredible is you can bring your pet. I have worked with people who have lost their home. We're talking children and families and family pets, but they have to give that pet up because there's no shelters that would take that pet. A lot of times the family has to split because you go to one shelter or another, right? You can't keep families together. Palo Village actually lets couples stay together. And I've worked with you guys from the beginning and they have really evolved into this home-like thing, and it's incredible because a lot of the people that go there are literally off the streets, right? So they're going fresh into these environments, okay? A lot of us, too, the reality of it is a lot of us are a couple paychecks away from being on the streets, and that's just the reality of the world right now. It's always been that way, but it's gotten worse. So what I really want you to take away from this, if anything, is The people that are intrusive, the people that are out there asking for money, that's not the face of homelessness. That's a little part of it, right? So in my opinion, if you have 10 homeless people but one of those people want to get off the street, they want to do better, then it's worth it. So please remember that. It's not, you know, it's not just they're out there begging. These people, you know, there's a stigma of being homeless, right? And you don't want your children doing that. I've met more people who are living in their car as families. And it's really hurtful to see children in that situation because that they're going to carry that for the rest of their lives. So if we can stop them from being homeless or at least get them off the streets as quickly as possible, that's the thing I think that we have to do. And I want to address a couple of things. Somebody talked about the sober houses and I've worked with them. You do pay utilities, right? Well, I heard the guy told me after a while they add the bills up and they pay a percentage.

I think we're probably talking about another

landlord that has the same kind of situation because he specifically told me about the lights. So I think we're talking about a different sober house. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And also too, I think you brought up a good thing about the income, um, earned living houses, the apartments and all that. Okay. The, about the apartments, We don't, they have a years waiting list. People can't afford to wait that long. So with Pallet Village, it gives them an opportunity to get themselves back together because sometimes they are homeless before they can get into those apartments. So that's what I really want to say is please think about the face of homelessness. It's not like you think. I know we can't want it more than they do, but just remember the house, the face is changing.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

OK, the last person I have on my list is Sharon. And at that point, Madam Mayor, I'll turn it over to you for anybody else that wants to speak.

I'm Sharon Pitcher. I've had the opportunity to go to the Powlett Village. And at the very beginning, I had worked before I moved here, I had worked for eight years with homeless shelters. One of the homeless shelters I worked in was right near my house. And I remember teaching a class in the homeless shelter when I first started, coming to my house, pulling into the driveway, and just crying. You do not realize what it's like not to have a house, not to have a home, not to have any place. And what I saw at the Pallet Village, were people that finally have a house. And they're so proud of it. The first time I went to the homeless shelter, went to Pallet Village, my community decided to bake cookies for them at Christmas time. So I went and we had cans of cookies for them. I got to meet all the people that were going in to dinner. That was still when they were using the tent. And I was so touched by the people. You have to meet some of these people. I mean, they have stories. that are incredible. And so many of them were thanking us for the cookies because they never had that in their life. They have no family that supports them. They don't have any other way to get support. And you could see that the Pella Village was becoming their family. I recently, I've been there a couple times since then, and I recently came back, again it was at Christmas time, to see the new community center and they took me on a tour. I was blown away by that community center. It is beautiful. It's so wonderful. There's a place with computers where people can learn and people can actually start doing things like resumes. You know, what do you do if you're homeless? If you have no house, you have no place to even try to get a job. It's unbelievable if you think about that, what happens when you have no house or no home or no apartment or nothing. And the other thing that I was really touched by too was the Healing Arts. Basically, they took what was like a shack, right, and made it into this art studio. And the stuff that's coming out of there, it's all over the walls and the paintings and the things that people are producing just really touch your heart. It's showing the emotion and that, that they're feeling with being in a place that they feel comfortable at. So I thank you for what you're doing there. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone, at this late hour for your attention. That concludes our update.

That's it. If there's any questions. The only one I have is Amy. Council, any questions? No? All right.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, next item on the agenda is a Public Works Agreement, State of Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Stokely Center Campus.

Members of Council, before you, you have a draft Public Works Agreement that's been reviewed by the Town Engineer as well as the Town Solicitor, and this is between the Town of Georgetown and the State of Delaware Department of Health and Social Services for providing sewer services to the Stokely Center Campus. Pleasure of the Mayor and Council.

Questions, council? Can you give us a little background on this, Gene?

Sure. Actually, I'm going to defer to the town engineer. Stokely was prior to coming to us going to Millsboro. They're now coming to the town of Georgetown, and they'll be doing all the upgrades, and they will be paying the out-of-town rate.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Reg Laudner, engineer with Davis Bonner Friedell. The public's agreement before you is the Stokely campus currently discharges their wastewater to the town of Millsboro through a six and a half mile forced main through wetlands and through woodlands. It ties into the town of Millsboro system near the interchange as part of the Millsboro bypass. Given the aging infrastructure, that's high end point. They were looking for an option to discharge sewer into the town of Georgetown. So the state approached us. There is capacity in the existing line that currently serves the schools, the South Central High School in that area there. So in reviewing that with the state, they only need to purchase right now 20,000 gallons. Per day for the year, their impact fee is based upon that fee as well. They'll pay it out of user rate. And within the agreement, there's options to increase that flow rate up to a certain point. And then at that point in time, they have to do upgrades to the system to continue the evaluation. So this request before you is to allow Stokely Camp to tie in the town of Georgetown and not in the town of Millsboro.

Okay. Thank you. Questions?

No questions. No questions?

Right, right. Would you like to entertain a motion to approve the Public Works Agreement? I'll entertain a motion. Okay, let's get this thing moving. I entertain a motion to approve the Public Works Agreement between the Town of Georgetown and the State of Delaware Stokely Center.

Second.

Second. All right. There's a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion passed. Very good.

IG fiber agreement members council next on the agenda is a an agreement between the town of Georgetown and IQ fiber this is for high-speed internet and I believe they have a presentation they want to go through the clicker should be up there and then the agreement has been reviewed by the town solicitor the significant change that the town wanted was for five facilities that their connection passes by we get free service

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Gene. Do I just click to begin? Here we go. Thank you. We are IQ Fiber. I'm Mark Wagner. I'm the Vice President for New Markets. Joining me is my boss and the boss of the entire region, Deanna Sobczak. She's the Senior VP and runs our government relations. So we are building a fiber optic network in Delaware, call it South Dover, all the way to the Maryland border. So a good bit of the town's in Sussex County, including Georgetown. We are already building in the DelDOT right of way. We want to include the residents of Georgetown in what we're doing. That's the purpose of the MOU that you guys have reviewed, and that is the ask today that we get permission to work in the right of way pursuant to the agreed upon MOU. Here's what, real quickly, because I know we've been here forever. The reason that we are interested in Delaware and Georgetown in particular is that you currently lack a fiber optic broadband option. I believe here's Comcast, is that? Yeah, so Comcast is your incumbent provider. And what Comcast and a traditional cable provider company does well is they bring content into your home. It's a giant antenna, right? It's an electric system that provides. It does a good job of bringing contact, particularly as it was built for TV, cable services. It does a much less good job of streaming contact from your home. So the other side of the equation. We call that a synchronous connection. They are asynchronous, fiber is synchronous, meaning it's the same speed up and down. Use an analogy of a 10 lane highway between here and Dover. Eight and a half lanes come, you can use from Dover to Georgetown, but you can only use one and a half to go the other way. Fiber is five lanes each way, so that's a synchronous connection. This is a picture of what an asynchronous connection looks like. The green colors is a very slow upload speed. So this is the type of problem that we are going to solve with our connection and our type of service. Again, this is, you know, a fiber optic connection is the best in the business. It's state of the art. The system that will be put into Georgetown will be the equivalent to the best system in any town anywhere in America. We're certain that our speeds are faster than the file speeds that already exist in Delaware. The connections that will go in, we will be building 100 gigabit network on our backbone, 10 gigabits of connectivity to each home. but right now we only have equipment that can service up to five gigs, that's a lot of bandwidth. If you think 100 megabits is a billion bits of data, a gig is a, 100 megabits is 100 million bits of data, a gig is a billion bits of data, so the math is insane. It's certainly all the bandwidth that you guys are gonna need for now and into the future, and if you ever need any more, The line itself is future proof, and we'll just install new equipment. It's passive, so we don't have an electrical system, meaning that the only electricity in the system is there'll be one cabinet in the area that services 5,000 folks, so essentially all of Georgetown. That will be battery backed up, and that needs electricity, and then the piece of equipment in your house. And that you can plug into a simple battery backup unit that will keep it alive for probably a day or more. So that's it. And I'll turn the rest over to Deanna.

Sure. Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much. So basically when you're here in Sussex County, I guess everyone knows the population growth and what's going on. Sussex County is the sixth fastest growing county in the nation. And to not have up-to-date infrastructure for internet is not a good thing. Governor Myers put out an executive order at the beginning of this year. It was Executive Order 18. And basically it was for any project that was coming into the state of Delaware. that was going to provide either economic value or economic growth or infrastructure upgrades. He wanted to put them through a permit accelerator so that the project could deploy in a timely fashion. We are pleased to say that, you know, we did apply and we were the first company to be designated in their priority project. So now we're working very closely with the governor's office in other areas in order to be able to have this project deploy in a pretty quickly fashion. This is the build plan, this is Georgetown, and basically, it's hard to tell from this map, but we try not to leave anyone behind when we come through on a project. Anywhere that we can get to in a right of way, either by way of underground or through the poles, we will build it. The way that we let everyone know that we're coming, we do do pre-construction door hangers, and we give people on there the details about what we're going to be doing. On the backside of the door hanger, there's a QR code. That QR code, if scanned, leads to a person, a construction coordinator, that if there are any issues that happen as we're building, that they have a contact information, both telephone number and email address. We also send postcards. During construction, you know, here's where the postcard, you will also get a postcard in the mail saying that it's underway. This is what a cabinet looks like and this is what one of our drilling machines looks like just to give you a feel. The cabinet that you see in there, you're not going to see it in the middle of the community. We always try to put those in right aways kind of out of the way, you know, away from traffic, away from everything because we don't want anything to happen to our cabinets. Um, when we come through and we construct, we come back and we do all the restoration to get the property back to where it was prior to us being there. Um, everything is underground board underground, so you're not going to see us trenching and digging up your lawns. The only place you're going to see where the lawns are dug up is where we put our hand boxes in, which is how we can splice folks into our network. how we are different and and this is what got us here um you know we want to be anti-cable and what does that mean number one we have better infrastructure fiber optics we have stress-free guarantees we have no contracts we have no hidden fees no data caps and we give free wi-fi equipment so when we come into your home We will bring in our ONT, which is the router. And then if the signal is not going all throughout the home, we will put mesh units in there free of charge in order for you to experience the whole Wi-Fi experience all throughout your home. So we make sure you have wall-to-wall coverage. We have our own in-house call center that is actually answered by human beings. which is great. Anybody that has called any of the larger companies in the past knows the frustration of, you know, having to hit one and two and three and whatever, wanting to throw your phone because you can't get through to someone. And we pride ourselves on our time to answer. We actually monitor how fast we answer, how quickly every day, and there's a readout at 9 o'clock every morning. on how many calls came in through the call center and how quickly we answered and we responded. We also do some creepy things where we monitor equipment. And if we see that you're having a problem and you haven't called, we will call you. And a lot of times we have, we hear stories where they'll call and somebody will be at work and they said, you know, let them know that their internet's out. And person says, well, I don't know, I'm not even home. And, you know, sure enough, we can schedule an appointment, be there when they get home and get them back online. We're very competitive with our pricing. Again, there's no hitting fees, so what you see up here listed is price. That is the actual price that's on your bill. It's a subscription service, much like Netflix. You know, you pay at the beginning of the month, and then the next month you re-up. We have plans going from 250 megabits per second synchronous all the way up to five gigs, and they range from $65 to $125. We also have small business packages, 150 or 250. And then for larger businesses, we have what we call DIA packages. So basically, we work with the company, try to figure out what their internet needs are, and then we work together with them to come up with a plan that works for them. We are backed by private equity. SDC Capital is our private equity firm. They're a digital infrastructure firm. We are right now, IQ Fiber is currently operating in five states. Delaware was our fifth state, so we're growing rapidly. Anywhere from Florida, we're Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware. And again, the governor has been very supportive. He came to our ribbon cutting for our warehouse, which is up in Dover. And then also the bottom picture is when the governor gave us our priority project designation. That's it. Happy to answer any questions. I'm sorry if I sound tired.

Questions? Council?

Now, you guys are just getting to Georgetown now, or have you presented this before to us in the past?

So we've presented to the town manager, to Jean, and then also to Angie.

Okay. And they've also presented at Delaware League and SCAT. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.

Michael, any questions?

No.

Christina, questions?

We'll have to study that.

Tony? No? Okay.

Well, we have an agreement already with Comcast, right? A franchise agreement? Yeah, a franchise agreement. There's nothing in there. They're exclusive, right? Okay.

Yes, we have to get right of entries with some communities in order to go in. Well, so we do not provide TV services, but a lot of people do streaming, right? So there are many different streaming products out there, and it's not a requirement that you come, that you actually subscribe with us, right? So it just provides competition. You know, it gives... For the internet. But you can get phone. It's called voice over IP. You can get voice over IP. You can get phone services over the internet, which are very inexpensive. And then there are many different streaming packages out there. YouTube TV, Hulu, Sling, Netflix, Amazon Prime. And there are certain packages, the YouTube TV, DirecTV, Hulu, they all have your local stations along with, you know, the same TV packages that you get with. Okay.

I need a motion.

Well, actually, the impact would be as Comcast generates less revenue, then the town would get less revenue from the franchise. So that would be the only downside.

But there's still Comcast?

No.

And I believe all the other municipalities that you're in have Comcast or Mediacom. That is correct. Very similar. because they're the only person that offered the service we did so there's tariffs just like delaware electric co-op and delmarva power so they had agreed upon areas that's why which water treatment plant was media com and the town was comcast i i was just saying that nobody has an exclusive the town could grant an exclusive right to one provider over another And in fact, just for the police building that was, I believe Delaware electric co-op territory. So we petitioned to have it switched to Delmarva power because they had the resources that we needed in order to power the building.

Okay.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second.

We got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No, motion passed. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, and thank you for your help, Dean and Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Have a good night. All right. Sorry for the late hour. It's okay.

Okay, members of council, a couple of updates. The Police and Public Works building, so the masonry work continues. The stormwater management is in process and the sanitary installation is already started. So these pictures show you as of last week, some of the walls being put up on the exterior, one of the column locations, and then one of the sewer manholes and the lateral coming in. Chad Spicer and Harvey Gregg Monuments, the foundation digging did start today. The barricades on the center of the circle show you where Chad Spicer's going in. That will be followed by the concrete work. Once the concrete's poured, it's approximately a 30-day cure timeframe. Once that takes place, then they'll schedule the installation of the two monuments. That'll be done by crane, coordinated with the police department as the section of the roadway will be closed. And we did have $30,000 appropriated in the fiscal year 2027 bond bill from the General Assembly towards the cost of the repair and the reinstallation. Parsons Lane Trailhead and parking area, we did sign change order number two. That added $201,183. That covers the fencing, electric landscaping, the amenities, and the benches. DelDOT is anticipating their completion of the final section between Cool Spring at the Fisher Road to the Airport Road this fall. We did not receive, although we put in for $85,000 through Community Reinvestment Fund, so there's a request this evening for $79,000 from Realty Transfer Tax That will be the last piece that's needed to complete this project. Upcoming events, the Planning Commission will meet on Wednesday, July 15th, 6 o'clock p.m. here at Town Hall. Supportive Housing Issues Committee will be meeting Tuesday, July 21st, 4 p.m. here at Town Hall. The next Town Council meeting will be Monday, July 27th, 7 p.m. here at Town Hall. Delaware League and Sussex County Association of Towns remain on summer break. The legislative session did end on June 30th. Actually, it was at 531 on July 1st. And I'm just going to run through the bills that changed since our last report. House Bill 130 with House Amendment 4 deals with forgiveness of fines and fees. That did pass the Senate on June 30th. House Bill 294 with House Amendment 1, this is parking spaces for pregnant persons at state buildings and facilities. That was signed by Governor Meyer on June 24th. House Bill 295 with House Amendment 1, dealing with parking spaces for veterans at state buildings and facilities. That passed the Senate on June 30th. House Bill 310 with Senate Amendment 1, this deals with large energy use facilities, and that's excluding them from tax credits. That did pass the Senate on June 30th, and then it passed the House on July 1st. House Bill 363, 20 mile per hour residential speed limit, did pass the Senate on June 24th. House Bill 339, allowing for a staff person to be the virtual meeting anchor, was signed by the governor on June 24th. House Substitute 1 for House Bill 407 with House Amendment 1, this is funding for brownfields, that did pass the Senate on June 25th. House Bill 413, expanding green light usage, did pass the Senate on June 24th. House Bill 426, this is electronic submission of state aid to municipalities for streets. That did pass the Senate on June 24th. House Substitute 1 for House Bill 450, reforming opportunities and accelerated development, the Roadie Delaware Act, Road DE, did pass the Senate on June 30th. House Bill 500, the bond bill, was signed by the governor on July 6th. House Joint Resolution 11, creating a housing opportunity and poverty elimination, the Hope Court Working Group did pass the Senate on June 24th. Senate Substitute 2 for Senate Bill 23 did pass the House on June 23rd. And Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 161, dealing with behavioral health treatment oversight, did pass the House on June 23rd. Senate Bill 233 with Senate Amendment 1, removal of snow and ice on vehicles, did pass the House on June 30th. Senate Bill 249, substance use harm reduction, did pass the House on June 23rd. Senate Bill 310 with Senate Amendment 1, establishing a disaster recovery fund, did pass the House on June 24th. Senate Bill 312, data center nondisclosure agreement prohibition, did pass the House on June 24th. Senate Bill 322, repealing the school district's ability to increase their tax rates up to 10%. That did pass the House on June 25th. Senate Bill 335, the fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill, was signed by the governor on June 30th. And Senate Bill 336, one-time supplement, was signed by the governor on June 30th. Some bills that we had hoped would have passed certainly was Senate Bill 338, which would have removed the cap that was placed several years ago on poles and wires. That's been locked in for several years, unfortunately. And other than that, I'm happy to say that the Homeless Bill of Rights did not advance out of committee, either one of them. So all of these bills are now dead. They'll have to be reintroduced in a new General Assembly. All of these bills are now dead, so it starts a new General Assembly. The first term will be in January, and that's all I have.

Any questions, Council?

No. We promise you that we will review the minutes. I say we promise you that we will hear the recording so we can get the rest of the story.

I'm going to thank everybody for sticking with us this late hour. So I need a motion to enter into executive session. Oh, the money approved?

$79,000. I'll make a motion to approve the $79,000.

Oh, OK. All right. I'm sorry, Gene. OK. I have a motion on the floor. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? OK. Michael is absent. OK. Now, let's move into executive session.

Make a motion to move into executive session.

Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, everybody. You can't leave, Clay. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you, great job.