Town Council - Regular Meeting

Well, no, it's based on qualified property investment. So it's how much they put in, what they're all putting in. And it used to be... Yeah, so if you go on the town's website. Are you back?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm going to call the meeting to order if we all stand 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 kindness, your mercy. We thank you, God, for allowing us to come here one more time. We ask you, God, to be with us tonight, God. Encourage us through your word, Father. God, let us use wisdom and knowledge in your truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen, amen.

Okay, the next item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda.

Mayor, I'd like to move the presentation of the recognition of the senior league softball team above the sun behavior.

All right. So we're going to switch items seven and eight. Any questions? Christina or Tony? Any problem? All right. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Tony. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passed. Okay.

Approval of the minutes.

August 24th, town council minutes. Any additions, deletions, corrections, anything for the minutes? If not, somebody make a motion, please.

Make a motion to approve the minutes.

Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Christina. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? All right, motion passed. Public comment? Anyone out there would like to get up and speak? You're more than welcome.

Good evening My name is John Peterson and I reside at 304 North Bedford Street The town's own published guidelines state that public comment period Will typically be the next to the last item of a business just prior to adjournment that language reflects a basic procedural safeguard Speakers are supposed to hear the government's reports, explanations, motions, and decisions before they are asked to respond. By moving public comment to item five before any substantive town business, council has stripped that safeguard from the process. Speakers are forced to comment before the information necessary to make their comments responsive has been disclosed. That is not meaningful participation. It is participation in name only. The effect is predictable and prejudicial. Speakers place facts and objections on the record, and then the council may reframe, contradict, or dismiss those statements later in the meeting after the speaker has been procedurally silenced. The speaker speaks first, the government answers last, and the public is denied any meaningful opportunity to correct the record in a timely manner. The sequencing burdens the public while protecting the dais. It converts public comment from a tool of accountability into a procedural formality. For these reasons, I request that the council restore public comment to its published position as an ultimate agenda item. Anything less permits the government to control the final narrative without reply and further undermines the confidence and the fairness of the meeting process. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right, we'll move on. Council members' comments. We're gonna start with Michael tonight.

Glad to see everyone here tonight. Girls, congratulations, you represented Georgetown well, and we appreciate that, so that's all I have to say.

All right, and Christina. Good evening, everyone. Nice to see you all here today. As you probably seen last week, there were lots of activities along with some passing us some folks near and dear to the town. So I hope that you were able to pay the respects as they pertain to you. And secondly, join some of the celebrations that took place this weekend and going forward in town. Thank you. Tony.

I'm just glad to see everybody here tonight. Just congratulations, young ladies, and just thank you for just being here tonight.

I have a few items I want to go over. Return day is moving forward. We're meeting twice a month now that it's getting close to return day. So we're moving along. We're always looking for individuals or groups that want to do floats for the parade. Penuel and I attended a meeting at the village of Cinderberry last week. It was very productive. They wanted an update on So Penny and I met with them and gave them an overview of what's going on in town, what our vision is, what our goals are. And they want us to come back on a quarterly basis, and they're willing to work with us. We got a lot of positive feedback from them and some suggestions, which weren't some looking into, which I'm going to discuss with Chief at some point in time. But we were well received, and we had a packed house. So it was a good meeting. Friday, September 11th, was Delaware law enforcement ride that came to town. Well attended. They had a ceremony on the circle. They ate lunch. A lot of dedicated individuals riding bikes. So it was well attended. I attended, Clayton and I attended a Relay for Life at Sandhill Fields this past weekend, and we were honored to both march as survivors of cancer and caregivers of cancer, because I've taken care of relatives in my family, and I'm a survivor of cancer, and Clayton is too, and I took care of him, and he's taking care of me. So it was a good, I'd never been to the event before and it was very touching. And it was very, very nice. Jean, I want to schedule a meeting with Sandhill and their maintenance department and talk about the walking trail and the fence out there, the gate. if we can get a meeting together with them. Tomorrow's groundbreaking for the 18404 project at 1130. This Tuesday, tomorrow night, we have another concert. Fun Size is the name of the band at Revelations from six to eight. This Hispanic festival, of course, is this Sunday, September 20th, from 11 to 7 on North Race Street. And Tuesday, the 22nd, I've been invited to leave from Legislative Hall to travel up to Pennsylvania to visit the Christiana Care Hospital up there to see what that's about. So I've been busy, but it's been very productive, very productive. So thank you. All right, the next item on the agenda is a recognition of the District 3 Senior League girls. I have proclamations here for all the girls. And I'm going to read one so you all know what it says. And then we will award them. And if Michael and Tony and Christina want to get in front, they can hand out awards to the girls. I announce their names so we can all participate.

Okay?

This one goes to McKenna Blades. Is she here tonight? Okay.

She's here, okay.

McKenna, these are all the same as I said, but it says a tribute to honor the Delaware District 3 Senior League Softball All-Stars. McKenna Blades, whereas the Delaware District 3 Senior League Softball team proudly represented Sussex County and the state of Delaware as the host region in the 2026 Senior League Softball World Series held at the Lower Sussex Little League Complex from August 3rd to August 9th, 2026, and whereas these exceptional young athletes from Georgetown, Lower Sussex, and Millsboro demonstrate a world-class team work, skill, and determination, capturing the top seed in Pool A with an unblemished, undefeated run through initial tournament play, and whereas... The team advanced through grueling elimination rounds with grit and sportsmanship, ultimately securing the title of 2026 World Series runners-up in a fiercely contested national championship game. And whereas their historic performance brought immense joy, pride and unity to our municipalities, local businesses, and thousands of fans who cheered them on, both in person and on national television. Now, therefore, let it be resolved that the mayor and town council do hereby extend their highest recommendations and heartfelt congratulations to the players, coaches, and families of the 2026 Delaware District 3 Senior League softball team for their monumental athletic achievements and for outstandingly representing our community on the global stage. Thank you, girls. So the first one I have is McKenna Blades.

Jordan Bowe.

Here, Christina. There's Jordan's. Sophia Bowden. Ava Brock. Michaela Eikenberry. Kenna Klass. Is Kenna here? No, okay, we'll hold that. Kimora Harris. Journey Hearn. Journey here? No, okay. You'll see that the girls will get them. Emma Jackson. No Emma? Carly Krueger. And this one goes to Kylie Krueger. She was the team advocate. Sierra Lewis. No Sierra? Adeline Lutz. Kira Centarelli. No. I'm trying, I'm trying. Anaya Taylor. Chloe Tung. Autumn Wiley. No? And we have a coach with us tonight, Jeff Bowden. Paul Kruger, coach. And manager Clint Lutz.

Here, Tony.

So thank you, girls. As I was saying outside, I attended the games. I was there for the first one and the last one. The first one, I was amazed with the talent. The last one, you girls should have won best sportsmanship. You showed people what Sussex County was about and what true players are, and you girls are fierce when you play. So hopefully some of you can play again next year. But thank you for everything you did. We appreciate you. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you. Okay, the next item on the agenda is a presentation by Sun Behavioral. The clicker.

I was like, all right, you said there was a clicker. Where did it go? Okay.

Well, good evening. Thank you so much for allowing us a few minutes to speak to the council. I am Darcy Lignarowicz. I am the new CEO for Sun Behavioral Delaware, and with me is Laura Bardus, who is our director of business development. And we had the pleasure of hosting the mayor just a few weeks ago for a site visit, and she graciously extended us some time here. So we'd love to give you an update on the last eight to 10 years of Sun Behavioral Delaware and hopefully just shed a little bit of light on some of the accomplishments that we've had, some of the impact on the community, maybe dispel a few rumors, and hopefully just share a little bit about how we're working to really be a part of the fabric of Georgetown, Sussex County, and Delaware as a whole. So thank you very much for the time. Many of you may have visions. If you have never been in a psychiatric hospital before, you may have visions of what that looks like. Often those are influenced by movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I can assure you that is not what we're talking about. But, you know, for people who don't really know what happens in a hospital, it is often a mystery. So it's important that we kind of talk a little bit about what happens and what we do if you've never been there. Some Behavioral Delaware is a 24-7 hospital. So we operate much like a psychiatric emergency room. Think of a medical emergency room where you can go at any given time of day when you are in a crisis That's what we do, but for behavioral health conditions. It's not a drop-in center, it's not a shelter, it is a hospital. So when someone comes to the hospital, they're going to be seen by a medical team for a thorough evaluation so that we can assess what level of care someone needs for that particular crisis and make sure that they get connected with that. And we see folks from all walks of life. We see folks who are teachers and coaches and lawyers and who work at the chicken processing plant and you name it. Everybody is, you know, one bad situation, one difficult day away from needing mental health services. And so we see folks from all walks of life in our hospital. And when people come to us when they get that assessment, sometimes people don't need the services we offer, and we'll talk a little bit about what those are. Sometimes they're not ready for those services, and so we also make sure that when folks come in for an evaluation and they don't get admitted to the hospital, they're not leaving empty-handed. They're leaving with a recommendation, they're leaving with a connection, because we want to make sure that no matter what, they get connected to something, even if it's not at SUN. The other important thing is that when someone does get services with us, we work really hard to make sure that they are set up for success when they leave. Importantly is, you know, we are one piece of treatment, but there's a lot more that goes into someone's healthcare journey over time. So safe discharge planning is something that we also really work on with folks who come to us as patients. So after someone has completed their treatment with us, they're leaving with a plan for next steps. They're getting connected to aftercare somewhere in the community, if not with us. We're getting them transported to what that might be if they need a ride there, and we're making sure that we have closed those loops for them to try to set them up for that next step.

So I can speak to this from both sides because I spent the prior 10 years of my career working for Children and Families First, which is a social determinants of health children's nonprofit, right? And the first thing that really became evident to me when I came on board at Sun was the complete misunderstanding of the differences between the two.

There are no volunteers. Use the microphone. Yep.

I'm usually pretty loud and people ask me not to use microphones, so I'm mindful of that. Sorry. But it is. It's the differences between the two. So we are an evidence-based clinical program. That means I don't have volunteers running anything in my hospital, let alone a program. I don't have volunteers at the front desk. Everyone in my hospital is licensed, is clinically trained. We're talking psychiatrists. We're talking pharmacists. We're talking registered nurses, family practitioners, teachers, mental health technicians, all of the things we do. have some form of medical background to them. And that is important because it's a needed service. We would not be here in Georgetown if we weren't the ones that are serving the people of Georgetown. It's part of the fabric of who we are and what we do.

An important part of behavioral health is that while we are one hospital, we are the third largest, actually, health care organization in Sussex County. And behavioral health is really essential to all of health care. You don't have mental health if your physical health is impacted, and your physical health is impacted by your mental health. And I think it's really important to talk about the impact of having a behavioral health Hospital in Sussex County. We wanted to share a little bit of progress of what we've done. And just in the last year, we have had over 4,000 patients come through our door for services just since August of 2025. Of those, 73% of them were Sussex County Delaware residents. And of those, a quarter of them have an official Georgetown address. So these are truly our neighbors. These are our kids. These are the people who live here who are coming for services. The next closest hospital for this is up in Dover. Imagine that, right? You're in crisis. You're dealing with a struggle for your child. You don't know quite what to do. navigating the system is really hard. And when you're in crisis, to then think about having to leave your town, leave your kids somewhere 45 minutes away, that's really not a great situation. So we're very grateful that we actually have a footprint in Georgetown so that we can be accessible to people who live in Georgetown and in the surrounding areas. The other thing that's important too, I hope I'm not jumping ahead, the other thing that's really important is our hospitals, our medical hospitals, are not equipped to handle behavioral health crises as their main focus area. And when you've got a lot of folks coming in crisis to an emergency department, that is really tough on the ED to try to find a good placement for them. And it's not treatment for the individual. I don't even like to wait for my Netflix to load, let alone to wait for care when I'm in a crisis, right? So it's really important that our med surge hospitals aren't having to spend a whole lot of energy and time looking for placement. We are right down the road. So our big focus is making sure that we're accessible to folks who live here in Georgetown and in Sussex County. And to prove that,

See, again, I'm just used to being loud. Really, I have years of report cards that say she talks too much. Now I get paid to do it. 925. That's how many patients came to us from the local hospitals here. That's a big deal. That's a big deal to all of us who have spent years knowing that it's difficult for us to go and get the care that we need. It's difficult when there are huge backups in the emergency departments, in the walk-in clinics, when we can't even get in to see a primary clinician because the wait is so long. We're serving that need. We're trying so hard to take that weight off of our already strained and stressed med surg hospitals. We are the only behavioral health hospital in Delaware that allows direct intake from our police department and first responders. We have a great relationship with the Georgetown Police Department. They can bring any referral calls directly to us i recently attended a cit training with a bunch of them and it was jarring the numbers that came out of that meeting of 911 calls that they receive on a regular basis that are related to mental health or substance use and they have to go They have to go. And the prior trajectory before we existed in Delaware would be they would go and then they would bring them to the emergency room or then that police officer would have to stay until they deescalated that situation there. And that's no longer a situation. They can simply transport directly to us and we will do a direct intake from them. 207, that's a big number. 47 students from our local middle schools and high schools. Yeah, think about that, right? We know, again, your average school social worker has a caseload of 300 kids. We've got a whole slew of kids that are still coming out of the pandemic, coming out of that learning experience, and they can be incredibly in crisis in a classroom and therefore disrupt the classroom, disrupt the teacher, disrupt the other ones, impact their own education and learning. That's what we're there for. We have both inpatient and outpatient programs for adolescents 13 through 17, and we partner with an external service to bring in tutoring while they're with us. So they're working on their schoolwork, and they're getting direct support, and they're getting the mental health counseling that they need so they can go back and continue to be strong citizens, so they can stay here, so they can thrive here. That's really important. That's what we do.

On the business side of things, because we are also a business in Georgetown, we're really excited because we have a tremendous group of people who work for us, and a huge majority of them are from Sussex County and Georgetown proper. We have around 250 employees now, and what's really interesting, we have a lot of folks who have been with us since the beginning, which is not an easy feat in healthcare. because it's hard work and it takes a lot out of folks. But we have a really great team. The other thing that we're really excited about is that we have, I think that tenure speaks to a lot. We have a lot of people who have moved through a career path with us. These are sustained jobs. There's actually a trajectory even for entry level jobs. I can count on, I can't even count probably on both hands, the number of folks who came with us as a tech role, which is one of the entry level roles, and then went on to nursing school and are now employed as nurses with us. So there's actually a career path that they can develop with us. We're working really closely with a number of schools, including Delaware Tech, which is conveniently right across the street, but working to offer internships because we want to have that pathway for people to have jobs when they get done with these programs, especially for people who are passionate about working with people who have behavioral health struggles. We want to give them an entrance into this job, and we want them to be able to stay here locally and have viable employment. So we've got a great team of people, and we've got some good plans there. We're also crossing our fingers and super hopeful for the proposed medical school and hoping to draw that down here towards Sussex County. There is a huge need for physicians and so to have that program accessible in this area would be an amazing opportunity for us again to really highlight the skill and to give an opportunity for people to move to this area. And lastly, of course, we're very proud to be part of the Georgetown Chamber and really working hard to figure out how we can continue to learn what our community needs, how we can continue to be innovative and pivot where we need to and continue to help the health of our community, particularly with our mental health and substance use folks.

So at the end of this, what we want you to know is that we're not. We're not what you see on TV, and we're not what you saw in movies, and we're not that scary building on the hill. We're Darcy. We're Laura. We're your neighbors. We're part of your community. You're going to see me walking down the street. Jean does all the time. You're going to hear me because I am really loud. And we want you to. We want you to feel comfortable coming up to us and talking to us and asking us questions and figuring out And make us a bigger, better part of this community, because that's what we built here for. That's what we came here to serve is Georgetown in the greater area. And we've got the numbers to show we're doing it. But then we now also need people to really understand who we are versus who we aren't. We're not part of the problem. We're part of the solution. And we want you to be able to contact us anytime and talk to us and ask us any questions so that it's just a constant open door.

Thank you again. We appreciate the time and we appreciate the support that we've had through the years from all the different, you know, police department, from the chamber, from everybody, I think on this council, and we welcome the opportunity to continue to serve. and please let us know if any of you would like to actually take a tour. I think it was super helpful for the mayor to kind of see in action a little bit of what we do. We would certainly extend that to the council. But again, thank you very much for your support, and thank you for the opportunity this evening.

Thank you. Thank you. Any questions?

I have a question. I have a bunch of questions, but I'll limit it to just a few. Of the 200 folks that you have working for you, 250 employees that you have working for you, how many of them live in town?

We're estimating, I need to run the numbers again just to double check our zip codes, but it's over 25%. Over 25%.

Yeah. Okay. That would be much more. Do you have any sort of incentive for your employees to live close to home?

We don't at this time. Most people do just from a practicality perspective. We are, not to brag, but we are a very attractive employer for people who want to be in behavioral health. We actually have people who used to work at a Dover facility, a competitor, and they drive down here in order to work at Sun because they know that it's a good work setting for them. And I think that word of mouth certainly travels around that. We can certainly follow up though with you and get you the actual numbers on Georgetown residents.

And regarding your presentation here today, I know your ask is that we help dispel some of the myths. And some of the myths that have circulated, by the way, and I've been through the tour of your facility. It's a very impressive facility. I hope that this increase that you're having of people is due to the awareness campaigns around the country on mental health. So hopefully that's taking care of some of the issue. the contention that some of the people have or some of the people in my community is that they feel that folks misuse sometimes your services and there's that revolving door kind of thing between one service and another. Can you address that? And when you address that also regarding your relationship, it hasn't always been a fruitful relationship between us and yourselves. So how do you see that moving forward and what is truly your ask?

So I'll answer your first question, which was, can you speak to the kind of revolving door or the misuse of services? I think that the reality in healthcare in general is that we have a lot of people with a lot of needs that are not met through any one organization or any one aspect of care. And so there are people who have figured out how to get their basic needs met through different systems. It's a survival skill that they have learned. It may be unhealthy. It may be unhelpful. But for many people, that is how they have learned to survive. And there is no one system that can fix that. And I think that is a challenge for the medical hospitals. It's a challenge for us. challenge for the police it's a challenge for the social service agencies i think that there is a huge struggle for us all to figure out how do we break cycles how do we build systems that are going to be able to address that and that is very much a community challenge everywhere that i think i have worked and i don't have a great solution to that one of the things that we do to address some of that as you called it, like the revolving door, folks who have repeated admissions, for example, We have processes internally that when we have someone that we identify who has been with us multiple times, we have specific treatment teams for that. And we bring that person in with their team and we talk about what broke down? What didn't go well last time? What did we miss? What are we thinking about? Because at the end of the day, we can all have great plans that we put together, but if it doesn't resonate for that person, then we're all just spinning our wheels. So we do make a lot of effort to try to figure out is there something we can do differently this time? even if it just moves the needle a little bit. It's not going to probably be a magic wand, but if it moves the needle a little bit and gets them a little bit further down that pathway of recovery or keeps them in the community a little bit longer or avoids negative things happening after they leave, moving the needle progress is still better than nothing. But it is definitely a real challenge for a lot of our folks. The second question you said, we have not always had a positive working relationship, and I said this to the chief's department when I was first here. I apologize because that is absolutely not the intent. I've been here a couple months now, and if you've worked with me at all yet so far, you know I don't roll like that. We need everybody in this room. We need the community as much as we need to be a part of the community, and I'm a clinician by background, so I believe very much in coming up with solutions versus sitting in my brick and mortar building and waiting for people to come to us for help. We really, Laura and I keep talking about how we want to figure out how do we become a better part of the fabric of the community. If you pull that thread of some behavioral health out, people should feel that there's something missing. I don't know that that's always been the history, but that is certainly our goal. And we've heard from a lot of folks that that has not always been the case. I am here to assure you that we are very much here. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason, right? We're listening. We're trying to hear from the community. Where do we need to be more accessible? How can we be more responsive? How can we be a good team player in the community? And I think we're working very hard to repair some of those relationships where perhaps some damage was done and to make sure that people know who we are, what we stand for, what we can do, what we can't do. We are not all things, right? But we're trying very hard to make sure that that access is there.

and that people know if there is a challenge how to get some attention for that thank you thank you because i know when i went i was very blunt because some behavioral had a bad rap all the rumors that had taken place you know somebody shows up high drunk whatever they're turned away walked outside sat on the curb and you call 9-1-1 and is draining our emergency services. I was glad I took the tour. Linda, I know Linda has a question.

I may have misunderstood something you said before. Do you serve adolescents and children? Adolescents, yes, 13 and older.

And second, as an answer to that, do you see yourselves being able to provide more return to psychiatric treatment in non-involuntary places?

Ooh, that's a really, that's a huge challenge because you're dealing with two things. One, you're dealing with regulations and you're also then dealing with people's insurances. And there are a lot of insurance companies that simply do not pay for that. And so our job is then to figure out, you know, if some, Very often we hear this, where families say, I want a 30-day program, or they need to go to a 60-day program, or back in the olden days, they could go to the state hospital and be there for months, maybe even years, and those resources just really don't exist much anymore. Yeah.

Yeah.

in the medical field, do you see that as something Delaware has to deal with?

That's the question.

I do think it's, yeah.

I also think that, yes. There's a difference between us advocating for things and us being the sole hospital with 250 people who can go up against federal regulations on health insurance. We do our best and we will be bold and loud about what we think is clinically best because we are the clinical experts. And we still have to exist within the parameters of what's defined in front of us.

That's what I was just going to say. Absolutely. So people are going to look to you. I mean, you're one of a kind, so to speak. And it's kind of actually disappointing that the people

Yeah, I think the system can be very fragmented at times. We work really closely with a lot of community providers, so chorus comes to immediate mind for me because they do. a lot of longer term treatment, including like residential, not necessarily everything, but that's where we do rely really heavily on the community to try to put for every single person who comes through the right plan in place as much as possible because for some people they do need more wraparound treatment or they need a residential placement. and we try to work really closely with partners who do those things so that, as I talked about those discharge plans, Laura's team knows pretty much all the resources that are there, and we work really hard to put those together into a plan that makes sense for people. I do think there's opportunity for more cohesive collaboration within the behavioral health space in general, and I think that's incumbent on all of us to do. The challenge is that and I don't want to go too far down a rabbit hole, but in Delaware, finding places where those exist is really difficult because there's not a lot of funding for that. We're a small state. There are not very deep pockets to fund like community behavioral health centers and things like that, that other larger states might have. And so that's a huge challenge for us to try to figure out how to pull all of the pieces together and create those longer term programs. That's why we do offer our partial hospitalization program because that's a, You're shaking your head. You're familiar, I can tell. It's way more than weekly therapy. It's intensive day treatment program for people. It's almost a hospital without a wall, right? So that they're getting intensive treatment for a few more weeks, going home at night, but still getting that intensive wraparound, daily eyes on them by a nurse, daily work with a therapist. trying to make sure that we can maintain those gains. Sometimes it works really, really well. Other times it's not quite enough. They might step back up. But I think it's a very real challenge for all hospitals to figure out is if it's not something we're doing, how can we connect with those partners who can come into that space?

Thank you. Thank you.

Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for the question.

You need to take a tour, Linda.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll take a tour too. Do you guys have 24-7 security out there?

We do not have security, no. Behavioral health typically does not use security. Very often it actually works against the therapeutic milieu that we're creating. All of our staff though are trained in a therapeutic de-escalation model which includes physical intervention if needed. And we have various different tools that we can use to manage unsafe situations. The whole facility is secure. You can't even get through the front door without being buzzed in, and all of the units are secure. Every single door has a, Angie saw, every door has a swipe pad, so it's a very secure facility.

And what steps is SUN taking to help out the American Legion Ambulance? Because they're already overwhelmed, and they're out there a lot.

We just had a meeting with Deanna last week, I think. So we've got some great conversations that we're having. We've already implemented some things, too, to try to make their processes easier when they do have to come. The challenge for us is we're a freestanding psychiatric hospital, so it's not a medical hospital like a lot of people think of. So if someone has, let's say somebody's having chest pain, we don't treat those types of things. That's a medical emergency. So we do rely on them to help manage those emergency situations. We're also working with our staff to make sure that they're very equipped to handle the lower level things that we can deal with at the hospital so that we're trying to minimize the number of runs they have to make.

That's all.

Any other questions? All right. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our contact information is there. Please, anyone, feel free to reach out to us if you would like.

Take a tour. Very interesting out there. Take a tour.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Where's the fire, Michael? Okay, out of town. All right, the next item on the agenda is a Board of Adjustment appointment. We had one letter of interest from Eric Evans. It's in your packet. he's been involved with the town of georgetown either the board of adjustment planning zoning or town council for approximately 24 years he's taken all the planning series um worked in the planning field for milton and millville for over 20 years sometimes in the private sector so

Council like to add that he was also very instrumental in getting I understand the code written between two of the towns of Doing ourselves and I forget the other towns. So he's very familiar with the code book. I had another comment

Do you want to make a motion?

I'd like to make a motion to accept the solicitation to serve on the Board of Adjustment Committee for Eric Evans.

All right, do I have a second? Thank you, Tony. I have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, passed. Congratulations, Eric, if you're listening. Okay. Next item on the agenda is the second reading and adoption of ordinance 2026-05, James Place.

Members of council ordinance number 2026-05 an ordinance to amend the code of the town of Georgetown chapter 230 thereof entitled zoning to change the zoning map for 21.92 plus or minus acres located at 644 North Bedford Street. identified as tax map 135-14.00-87.00 from urban residential UR1 to residential planned community RPC superimposed over urban residential UR1 and review and approval of the RPC concept plan. Whereas the Town Council of the Town of Georgetown received an application to amend the zoning map of the Town of Georgetown from UR1 to RPC overlay in UR1. The property located at 644 North Bedford Street identified as Sussex County Tax Map and Parcel 135-14.00-87.00. And whereas the Planning Commission of the Town of Georgetown has reviewed the application and has recommended approval by the Town Council. And whereas the Town Council of the Town of Georgetown held an advertised public hearing on August 10, 2026 to allow for public comment on the application and has considered any public comments received. Whereas the Town Council finds the proposed use is compatible with the Town of Georgetown Comprehensive Plan and the permitted uses described for the area are consistent with the intent of Chapter 230 Zoning Article 11A RPC Residential Plan Community and whereas the Town Council finds the proposed use is compatible with existing adjoining uses, and whereas it is the opinion of the Town Council of the Town of Georgetown that the amendment will not have an adverse effect on adjacent properties and is in the spirit of the Georgetown Zoning Code and should be approved. Now therefore, the town council of the town of Georgetown hereby ordains section one, the Georgetown zoning map be amended by zoning the property located at 644 North Bedford Street identified as Sussex County tax map 135-14.00-87.00 with approximately 21.92 plus or minus acres to a classification of RPC over UR1, residential planned community over urban residential. Section 2, the Town of Georgetown approves the RPC concept plan as presented during the public hearing held before the Town Council on August 10, 2026. Section 3, this ordinance shall take effect immediately upon its adoption by a majority vote of the members of the Town Council of the Town of Georgetown. Adopted by the Town Council of the Town of Georgetown, Delaware on the 14th day of September, A.D. 2026. Pleasure of the Mayor and Councilman.

Any questions or comments, Council? No. Anyone want to make a motion?

I actually have to recuse myself from this as I do business with Jordan Ashburn and benefit off of it.

All right. I make a motion that we set the ordinance as stated by Town Manager Gene LaVarnick. All right.

Tony, can I have a second?

Second.

All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Motion passed with Michael recusing. All right. Next item on the agenda is department heads. Jean Dvorak.

members couple quick updates to police and public works facility so the concrete is uh... complete that's the picture on the left hand side of the screen steel is going up that center picture and we have framing underway on the walls that's third picture georgetown to lewis trails making significant process a significant progress uh... they have crossed park avenue So they anticipate December completion. The photographs are on the left-hand side is directly behind Sports at the Beach where they've got the footers in for the elevated section of the trail. The center one is the paving that's taking place right now at the Park Avenue crossing. Town would be directly towards the end of the photograph. And the last photo is the raised section that goes behind Steiner Road. And that's in the process of being completed now. U.S. 113-18-404 grade separated intersection. Utility relocation has been taking place. Most of it's been the aerial lines overhead with Delmarva Power. Site demolition of the former Boulevard Ford and the Royal Farms. That's the picture to your left. Upcoming events, the Planning Commission will meet this Wednesday, September 16th, 6 o'clock p.m. here at Town Hall. The fiscal year 2026 Great Fund Committee will meet on Monday, September 21st, 5 p.m. here at Town Hall. And the Delaware League of Local Governments will be meeting Thursday, September 24th, 5.30 p.m. in Cheswold. That's all I have. We do? I didn't think we had any more meetings. It's not on my calendar. I'll fix it.

You're invited.

Because the work's not done yet. They're going to be doing the amenities and the fencing and the benches and parking. So the parking lot's the only thing that's done there now.

Any questions, council? All right. Next item on the agenda is adjournment. And look, it's only 7.19. Early. Woo-hoo. Make a motion to adjourn.

So moved. All right. Do I have a second? Second.

Thank you, Tony. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passed. Good night, everyone. Travel safe going home.