Commissioner - Regular Meeting

Okay, awesome. Moving on. We're going to go um into operating, but I think we'll just do donations first. Get that out of the way. There's supposed to be two. The arts council's here. Um Deborah Miller is also supposed to be here for the troops memorial statue, but All right. Well, if she'll be here at 7. Okay. At 7:00. Well, we need her in the budget work session. I told her she emailed me today and I said, "No, 5:30." And she said, "Okay, I got it."

So, let's Okay. All right. Well, we have Allison here from the Arts Council. So, Come on up. Uh, you guys should all have um a handout uh that I brought for you. Just a little cheat sheet with some visuals about um what we do here in Centerville. Uh my name is Allison Moffett. I am the executive director of the Come on up. Queen's County Arts Council. This is Katie Blackburn, one of our board members. Told you first few minutes. Just in time. Sorry, I have a baby with RSV. So there are you're still here. That's amazing. Go ahead.

Um um we just wanted to um tell you guys, I'm sure most of you know, but remind you of our function here in Centerville. Uh the Queen Ans County Arts Council started in 1977 and we have had the building here in Centerville since 1991. Um, not only do we run um a free public art gallery, but there's also classes, workshops, things for everything from kids to seniors. Um, we do uh, as you can see on your sheet, um, about $10,000 worth of scholarships every year uh, for um, anyone in the county graduating from high school and going into either a major or a minor in the arts. Uh, we do rock on the porch. Now, our third year is coming up right here in Centerville where we have about 500 people uh come from all over the area to see live local bands throughout Centerville. We do Thursdays in the park every year where we have um free concerts um in the county throughout the summer. I think we have six of them scheduled um this year. We have the start program which stands for students, teachers, and artists uh where we put a professional artist in each of the four county middle schools. We work with uh in Jackie Jablcky's classroom right here at Centerville Middle every year and we have um special classes for up to 10 kids nominated by their teacher. Um and then we have a a large program around that in our gallery. We do workshops, classes. I'm sure you all are familiar with the 30 plus years of heck with the malls right over on uh commerce as well as throughout town. Um we are uh expanding into the annex building directly behind ours that was given to us by the county uh in 2019. Um we're slowly chipping away at the everinccreasing cost of renovation and construction back there and hope to

essentially double the amount of people that we can serve in person at any given time on site. Um, so I heard that some of you may have some questions or comments um for our uh request of funding from the town. Just a couple. Um, so for the event, so it's your second year coming on third. So um, what were your participants for the first year versus second as far as is the growth of that? I think um, I think we went from about 350 people to around 500. Uh, we really didn't know the first year, like with any event, um, exactly who was going to come, but we got people from the Beltway to Rock Hall

and I was walking around that first year and had more than one person asked me, "Do you guys do this here every year? I've never been here." And I said, "Well, this is our first, but I hope so." Um, so we really like it as um, and we've been very lucky with the weather. So, everyone, please

cross your fingers on that in October. Uh but uh we've been very lucky in that we've had a huge reach of people um where we can kind of showcase Centerville for what it is and because it runs between St. Paul's and the courthouse square um at several locations on Liberty and Commerce throughout that loop. um the library, a couple of private homes, um people get to walk up and down the you know cutest historical part of Centerville and um we've got local restaurants that participate. Um we participate with other uh nonprofit partners up on Lawyers Row. Um, we're trying each year to get more and more local things involved as we can and really make much as we did for 30 years plus with heck with the malls grow that to be townwide so that when people will come to Centerville and spend the day here, spend their money here, get dinner here, get lunch here, shop,

things like that.

And this year we um included Heather Effind um as a kids performer. I um I am I was a uh early childhood educator. I got out of that with having children um but still very much in the realm of supporting all things children education. So we got Heather athlet last year as a children performer. We had a right in the square. So encouraging families and kids to come out. Um we just recently built a partnership um getting out our contacts with the children's council. So hopefully we can do more to include them in the children this year. Um, being that I have a young my family myself, I have three young kids, just trying to look in any way we can to incorporate kids more and art because it's definitely a a dying art form per se, art. Um, so we're trying to support it in any way we can getting involved in the schools. Um, we're doing just partnered with uh the family center. We're going to be doing something at the arts council at the beginning of May with them. Um, trying to work with the Judy centers. I know um Allison's talking to them about getting supplies up to North County and those families out there that need supplies um but all that you know we'd love all these big ideas for kids and we're trying to but it all comes at a cost. So

definitely trying to find ways in which we can increase our funding but also increasing our involvement. Do you know what your total membership as far as relates to that come to um the center as far as just I don't know if you call it membership or donors or we we have a structure that is membership where um people who want to give financially every year but we are open to the public anyone at all that wants to come at any price point. We believe that people should be able to come and experience art in whatever capacity for no dollars. Right. Um,

and that's part of the partnership too with the Children's Council is working with them to make sure that we're getting, you know, access to art for families that, you know, don't have that funding available to them. So, any kind of partnership with them would be funded by them, supported by us, getting anybody we can involved. Um, which is a membership. Uh, a a base annual membership is $40 a year, which is about $3.33 a month.

But don't ask Allison. She's never said it before. but trying to make that membership mean something. For a while, it hasn't meant something. So, we're trying to do more this year that it means something. So, you know, if you're a member, if you want to come to one of our events, you know, it could be a different cost than it would be for others who want to be want to come to one of our events, like a workshop or a class, or maybe it would get you certain extras that others who are just coming that are not a member of the arts council wouldn't be able to have access to. So, I would say throughout the year, we routinely serve, I would say, between five and 6 thousand guests. Okay, that's kind of what I was getting. What's your outreach about how many pe how many people you touch?

And we have a database that's outdated, but we need money to update our database to keep track of all these people. Of course. Of course. I forget what that cloud's called. Uh, gift works. Yeah. So, you track members and donors and then like do you have an idea? So like Small Works for example, do you guys then take all the information about people that you got on those tickets and put them in some sort of not through tickets, but anyone that we've reached to give artwork or anyone that's donated financially through that time. Um we don't really have an implicit thing where if you

spend $10, we've got your information forever. But yeah, we do we do um have a sign-in sheet where people can sign up for our um mailing list either physically, digitally, or both. But again, expanding our digital cloud base, which is money. So, it's just everything that we try to do to expand and do more, it all comes at a cost. Yep. Speaking of funding, um the annex behind the building,

uh I know there's been funding challenges for every organization. Um and uh there was there's already been some effort to uh begin that process of renovating that building. What's the status of that now? Is that on hold until you get more funding?

Did you see you say that? Uh we have gone through um essentially the first phase with that building which is to make it structurally sound and vaguely inhabitable. When we got it from the county, there were um like vines growing through the roof. There were some serious things that had to be addressed first. Um our next step um to getting it up and running is going to include um ADA compliant entrances uh which means ramps, lights, non-gravel sidewalks, things like that. And then on the interior, but we have to have electric first.

That's true. Bathrooms, one being handicap accessible and an HVAC system. So, um, as soon as we can be temperature controlled and have on-site bathrooms, we will be ready to, um, at least start the functionality on that building. And then, um, like with so many other things, end up raising money yearon year to upgrade from there. But if you know anybody who just wants to give us their electrical hand, let us know because we need to get just get electric into the building. So that's going to come at a cost. Wow. Yeah. Because what's it the service terminal? We need to get it reconnected to to Dar Power. Yeah. And to the our actual building. Do you know what that cost is? A lot, Fred. It's a lot. Okay.

It's it's it's five figures. Um Yeah. I think I can't remember what was quoted. Um I mean my husband went and did a walk of it and it could be like $250,000 just to do that. It's a lot. It's a lot. And as with everything else, costs are going up all the time. And overall in the nonprofit space, funding is down. Um especially in the arts, um a lot of our normal funding sources, places like United Way, Midore Community Foundation, whereas normal years, they would be um more able to give to the arts. They're currently a little bit more concerned about people who are on a food and shelter level

um which is entirely understandable and those people absolutely should come first. But we want to make sure that the arts are not lost in there, especially in things like schools, early childhood development through high school as much as we can take care of. It's vital to education and often the first thing that gets cut when money is low. And I think just to say it, and I know she wouldn't want me to say it, but Allison gives so much of her time and her life to the arts council and we're not even able to pay her as much as we should be paying her for the time and dedication she gives because it's not in our funding. And so just even meeting that point where we can pay Allison what she's worth, which is way more than we could ever be able to pay her, you know, funding. So we're just at all points

we're in need to keep making it happen. So, it's just it's so coming at us from so many points and any little bit just helps. I could I'd like to attest to your good work from my little community. Every year with Fred's better half, we do a Veterans Day activity where we give our 10 veterans up talking about. We really appreciate that. It does it very well and you pack the house. Okay. The other thing Fred's also we had an art contest among veterans. Now, can you imagine 50 men and women, old veterans, drawing pictures of their war experience? It was hysterical, but it turned out to be a quite a good event and some interesting art. And do you do the tea is a tea party? Yeah. Yeah. The annual.

I want you to know the highlight of my year is when I get to pour tea. Usually spill it on my wife or somebody I know. But it's it's a great event. We love having you. Okay. Awesome. You may also want to create a plaque for President Kaiser because she has a whole room devoted to Oh, I know. They know. The small works that she's collected. Allison's on the wall. I'm trying. I am on the Oh, I'm not on the wall. You will be on the wall. I will be on the wall, but Allison's on the wall with her ode to the toilet. Yes. No, I mean I You guys know I love the arts council and all that you guys do and thank you. I think you bring a lot. I just wanted to share that it's out here.

It's very difficult. We don't really have a an elevator pitch unless it's a very tall building um because we are our umbrella is so broad with the things that we do and a lot of people who are involved with us on any given level are unaware of several of the others at any time. Um lots of people don't know that we're in the schools and the people in the schools don't know that we're doing free concerts and the people with the free concerts don't know that we have an art gallery and the people who come into the art gallery don't know that we're having a concert outside later that year. So, um, we try to reach as many people as we can and, um, our numbers are are are very successful lately for people that we get to serve.

And I seem to town, I mean, gay as far as just whenever there's events coming as far as just getting the word out more, too, just from our Yep. We head up to town hall, we talk to gay, we talk to Carol Dagastino, we talk to uh, we coordinate with the police for rocking the porch and things like heck with the malls. The town was sharing our social media post. So that's exciting. I'm trying to get us out more on social media. Alison knows I pushed and pushed her on Instagram. So, and you can VMO us now, too. So, that's exciting, right? Great. Venmo has been great. Yeah, we're moving into this century with some stuff. It's We're pretty excited about it. I VMO the arts council as I walked up to Small Works. That's how I knew you were coming. So, Allison was like, are in my hands.

Well, thank you so much. This was really helpful to understand the full scope because even I'm a big supporter and I don't really know the full scope of what y'all do. It's big. I mean, I I think we've had people that have have joined our board that it takes them a year of our programming to find out everything that we do. Me and um my information and our associate director who um was our executive director for nine years. Both of our contact information is there on that sheet. If you have any more questions, comments, anything that we can flesh out or answer for you guys, we're always there. Thank you for the last minute um packet. I know we changed the process a little this year, so thank you for getting that so quickly. Sure. Absolutely.

Once the council gets through the budget um and approves what donations will go out, I'll sign the the sheet and and reach out to you then. Much appreciated. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We have back to a gaggle of a pretty hefty packet tonight. And depending on how much um I'm going to try to zoom us through work we get done in the next 45 minutes, but we can always come back. Uh next week is our is our maybe day. So I don't want to rush, but I do Yes, I do think we've gotten things into a decent place um over the last few weeks of meeting.

Um so the first page you'll see just a uh an agenda kind of the same as it's looked each week. Um I do have Crystal on Zoom, so if you wouldn't mind, could we start with health insurance? Let her do her. Okay, sounds good.

So, Crystal, we have Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. So, in your packet, actually, not in your packet, there was a sheet handed out to you separate of the packet. It's colorful and it says health ser holiday proposal. Um, and so what Crystal was able to do was take what we got in the surplus this year and do a calculation on how we could spread that out. Crystal, are you able to talk on that? Um, good evening. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Way way. Okay. It's

so holiday proposal. Um, you know, we we've done this um for the last couple of years uh when the town uh or when our health insurance medical insurance receives a surplus. Um this year um we are going to be receiving uh $60,399 back um as our claims were um under what was uh originally anticipated. And um the sheet that I provided to to you this evening kind of gives you a an outline um of what the breakdown would be for our hourly and salary employees that are participating in the town's group health insurance. Um based on the the numbers um you know we're asking uh for consensus from council uh if they are willing to apply that surplus um pretty much giving back to you know the hourly employees for two pay periods and uh for the salary employees two pay periods. Um, and with a a cost of $2,55 left over to remain in the the general fund. Um,

what did we do last year? Last year we had almost Last year we had almost double this. So we were able to break it out and did four for We did the same thing, right? The same the health holiday. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. So last year we had $96,72 in service surplus. So that was we were able to spread that amongst four pay periods um for hourly employees I believe and I think two pay periods I think for salary. Okay. It was hard to come up with one similar with the lower I understand that. Yeah. Okay. So what we need is a hopefully a consensus. Thoughts on this y'all? I think it makes sense to return the

the money to the people that put it in and then and then didn't use it. I' I'd also like to see I know $2,000 isn't a ton of leftover money, but could we use that to do some sort of wellness incentives for absolutely compet? I mean, I'm in wellness contest at work. It seems like every other day, which I assume is totally aimed at keeping our insurance cost down. So, can we do something like that and buy some incentives with that 2,000? I would like to see that. Um, actually Tanya and I have been working on ideas to to really emphasize wellness and I think if if we're you're okay with us utilizing those funds um for that, that would be very

Yeah, I think we've made some pretty significant investments in town staff wellness with how much we pay of the health insurance and the Y memberships. And so think to the extent that we can do some things that incentivize folks to use the things that were, you know, whether whether we straight up have a contest related to going to the Y or whatever it is, Caroline, you could like go to your thoughts are very similar to what we were thinking about. We were trying to figure out ways of okay, you know, you go to the gym 15 times that month and you can come and, you know, grab out of a like a goodie bag thing or go, you know, be put into a drawing for something. Um, yeah.

Yeah. I think you guys are creative. I just I just think yes. Every to me every penny of the health surplus should be then invested back into those employees and the health of those employees. So, you have my support on this. Do we have consensus or questions about this? want a motion or just consensus? No, we just need consensus. Consensus. No, I mean I agree. I mean just I think it's just important just because again there's a connection back to employees relating to they have an impact on our health care costs as a town and so it's an incentive as far as the payback to them. So yeah, I totally support it. Fred, no I think it totally makes sense. I mean it it all originated with them. It should go back to them. So employe

Okay. little support. Sounds like we have consensus. All right. Was there anything for Crystal so we can set her free? There is one other thing. Crystal, did you just want to get the approval for the So, the current rates have

Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, yes. So, our current rates have been applied um to the Karen uh the the new budget um that Karen had printed out. So, we had a um we originally anticipated 14% increase. Uh thankfully, it wasn't that high, but we did have a 12.8% premium increase. Uh 10% of that is due to medical and prescription uh cost trend. Um and the 2.8% is based on uh like higher claims um from their actuarials. uh research estimates um and usage uh utilization that we've had. Um but the numbers have been updated in the budget. Um and I went over them with Karen, but what we're asking for this evening, I guess, um we don't have any plan changes for the medical, dental, or vision plans. Um, and I know Tanya and I, uh, you know, we typically do this every year where we try to get a a health insurance approval prior to final budget approval just so that Tanya and I can prepare for open enrollment in May. Um, so we can get the health benefit packets together and get the plan documents in order um, and signed.

Okay. I have one question just about the medical insurance. Um I know it's always disruptive for every employee whenever there's a change with either a company or a policy. Uh but is is this something that we do go out whether it's annually or you know periodically for competitive bids.

Yes. So because we are self-insured and we um participate in the um health co-op through legit uh legit every year um goes and uh reaches out to other insurance companies to make sure that the insurance carrier that we are using is we're maintaining competitive rates. So legit is the one that will go and reach out and submit like RFPs or you know bidding to uh see if there is a different insurance carrier that would provide um either better services at a lower cost or similar cost. Um so they they manage that for us.

Excuse my ignorance, but is legit uh local government insurance trust. I'm sorry. Local government insurance trust. They'll have a big presence at MML if you want to learn more about them. Absolutely. Yeah. They're like the main Thank you. And Crystal is our current split 8515. Is that still correct? So the current uh cost share is 85% employer uh pays for the premium and 15% of the premium is um paid for by the employees. That's good.

Yeah, because probably Yeah, that's that's very reasonable. I think it was 9010 when I started. Yeah, 9010 when she started things cost less things cost less back then. Caroline still have a 9010 split. That's why we can retire, right? So, do you just need how does she need an consensus? Yeah, we've done consensus in the past that we all good. Yep.

All right, Crystal, I think that was it. Unless you wanted to She does have um in the packet um it was separate from the packet. It's the estimated position cost sheet. Um and this was um with the changes from last week. So before she hops off, um it added the economic development manager fulltime. So, I didn't know if you guys had any specific questions related to positions before we finish with her. What page want to find that? So, it would be page three. Uh, that'll be on page two. It says three. Three. Three. Oh, because the cover sheet has page on it. Oh, the cover sheet has a page. Oh, no, it shouldn't. No, it doesn't.

Page three, but it's page two. Yeah, that manager would be. So, I did uh small. Hold on. Hold on. Am I looking at the wrong one? Hold on. That's what I get. Yep. I'm sorry. It's page three. Okay. I apologize. I looked at the old one. So, that's proposed for 2027 fiscal year. Yes. And so all of these what you have in this packet is already inclusive of the budget you have tonight. So this is just calling the positions out separately and then it's full it's one line of salary and whatever in the big

packet and Karen can I just these salaries moved us from that 40% up to about 50%. Percentile, right? Well this is the we included the 40% and then we're phasing it in. Yeah, phasing it in. Yeah. Yeah. The 40% is in there. Okay. All right. If there's nothing related to health insurance or personnel costs, Crystal, let Crystal go. Have fun. I was going to say if you guys had any questions, um I I didn't know if you were going over the the 10-year history. Yes. Department of Public Works, the public works 10ear history. So, that would

I don't know if you have any questions regarding that as well. packet next to the or if you just need additional time to review those in the actual paperclip packet that I gave you guys. Okay. So, it's the contractor right before the contract. Thank you for that was something um I know Sandy had um had asked. Yeah. So, then 13. I'm sorry. Yeah. So visiting.

Yeah, this is just a this is what I requested because there was two FTEs that were be requested um by public works to kind of give a history of just FTEES and again as far as just great summary on notes relating to and then at the bottom too the number of streets deeded. So that kind of tells like the streets that have to be maintained by public works which as I reviewed this in 2021 there was 11 streets coming on and there was a budget of 15 and actuals of 11 and then budget went up 16 and then it looks like in 2023 is when budget went down by three as far as budget.

Yeah. and just budget because it you know and I just wanted to see from my own perspective is like what has the worked FTEES been compared to budget because if you budgeted FTEES you're putting cost in your budget you're you know impacting the budget so I thought this was very helpful from that perspective um just to see what you know FTES and it's been running about you know 12 or 11 for the last three to four years um in total and the request this year is to add two FTEEs which would make it 14.5. Um, and right now I think yeah, number of needed industries three in 2026.

So yeah, that just gets us back to like the number of employees from 10 years ago with a whole bunch of more work than we had 10 years ago. Yeah, but again, you know, I think it's important just again from what the F how can you st I've had this in my career as well. How well can you staff? Are you able to staff for these employees? And this just gives some training about the ability to staff. I think it gives that and you know Kip, you're welcome to come up and talk more about it, but as far as just what your vacancy rate has been, you know, over the years as well. Yeah. What is the number for the actual like is that at any point during that year or

so? I did it based on kind of more of like a July once the budget was approved. This is where we stood. There were um and I noted it in the notes. There was a time period um in what 2018, 2019 uh where there was high turnover uh where

it was very difficult to to to have a static number uh in those years because we couldn't keep staff on longer than three or six months. Um so but with the last what few years it has been pretty consistent.

Uh so I would look at okay July one or August um you know where were we if there was a position that became vacant um you know how long was it vacant? Um, so that's where you'll see a lot of the drop in numbers is because the vacancy was over six or seven months. Got it. Okay. I I have one question. Uh, did anyone have any questions about any anything?

Of course I do. Sorry. Um, and it may be an ignorant question just from lack of knowledge, but if there's a proposed increase of two full-time employees in the next budget year, is there any offsetting cost savings from contracts or, you know, you work that we're contracting out or is it really based on a justification? Come on up. We did we did talk about this last budget session this question um in that no it's it's based on it's based on the increased volume of work and the and the services that were you know asking for

I assume it was I just had to ask that question yeah no fair I just is Crystal on PTO I just really want to be respectful of Can we let her go I think Kip and Karen can handle any questions I appreciate you being here and I appreciate your dedication but I also just really feel very very strongly about restricting respecting people's time off and so I would like you to go get out. No worries. I just want to make sure if you had any questions, please reach out. Um, you know, especially when I get back. Your family's more important. This is very good. Thank you very much for doing this. Well, have a good evening. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Crystal.

Okay. Uh, you had asked the question if contract services would go down. No, it's not going to. The first thing is um it would be different if we paid enough money to hire skilled uh and trained people. Our budget doesn't allow that. That's part of the reason that we're working like we do and trying to get two more extra full-time people. Um, so that means they're going to have a couple years of getting trained enough that they'll be up to the point that we'll have enough crew to take care of everything. Um, that's one of the the issues with it. Um, right now, and I've said this several times, our uh public works crew does excellent. They've come a long ways uh with the folks that we have on staff now and everything. Um they're doing more in-house work. So, we've already cut back on some of the contract uh work and that those type of things, especially when it comes to emergency repairs, emergency call outs and those kind of things. So, it's you can't expect to just automatically we put two more people on board and you're going to eliminate everything. It's not going to work that way. Um, as you can see from the numbers and everything, you know, uh, can't say it enough that we haven't had to budget the whole time to not only keep people, but get enough people to uh, to take care of business. basically is what it comes down to.

Appreciate it. Yep. Okay. Are you still short person? Yep. We do have uh some applications in now. Uh we're hoping after the spring break time to get some of them on board for interviews and such. So, but yep, we're still still down one body. Okay. And I guess while while Kip's up here, the sheet behind that in your packet has the 18month contractor um cost. I didn't know if anybody had any questions regarding that. Um is that for the year before million for 18 months?

For 18 months. 18 months. Yeah. Yeah. I think this vendor payment summary, especially for rookies getting on board here, really helpful. We get a lot of questions. And someone says to me, "Fred, what are we paying Ches Washington College $2,400 now? We know what they're doing." So, thank you. Very useful having that report. Yep. Yeah. And I know this took the staff some work, but I do think it's a good exercise to have this information. Yeah.

Yeah. I think it's one that's good, too. is that even when you're in your budget process to take more of an overview look versus just again you need to look at a departmental level but bring it up and say well what's their total and just it's a good exercise for the staff right why is this why is it up and when you do trending like year overyear of your well we're doing what wastewater treatment plan we can talk about that all the time right or whatever's going on right it's like well that's why our costs are up but it's just helpful inflation I think it's just a good exercise for the team to see how their trending is going for contracted services as well.

Dear staff, um, we've all been here long enough that we see that side. You folks don't deal with it every day, so we understand these type of things are what you need to ask us for. Um, and I can't thank our staff enough for all the time that they put in on this. I agree. It was a lot. It was Yeah. Kudos, Ashley. Yes. Kudos, Ashley. Thank you. It's nice to be able to go and all the department heads that went through. Yeah.

It's nice to be able to talk to the public. You realize when you look at these sheets how difficult, how complicated it is to run even a town like our size. A lot of things have to be done that the public just completely misses. So, thank all the staff. This is gives us value information so I don't have to call Carolyn every day. What the hell's going on? All right. So, thank you. And we'll still be there to answer those questions, but I love you and you know it.

All right. So, your um the front of your packet just gives us the agenda. Obviously, if we just high level operating in capital and property tax rates, I always leave that on there just so that can be a discussion. The next two pages is just a summary of the changes from the prior session. I'll briefly go over them if that's all right. Um we updated the health insurance figures with the new rates. um that Crystal had received. So, they're baked into what you have. The planning and zoning, we um pulled out the parking study project for 65,000. Um for admin, we have added the full-time economic development/Main Street manager. Um we've got the historical staffing um context, the 10-year history from Crystal, the contractor usage for the 18 months. So the current budget now with all these changes leaves the general fund with a surplus of 137-286 and the enterprise with 66.85. Um and just the last piece of that were was some capitals um that was moved from 27 to 28 if we if you guys wanted to revisit any of that with some of the surplus in the general fund. Those were the um priorities after meeting with Kip and his team.

Okay. So that on that capital request, that last bullet, that $49,000 risk management. Yes. Are we and there's an actual Let me tell you where I put it at in the packet because there is a breakdown so you can see what what that was actually to cover. I just got to see where I put it in. I might be wrong, but I think municipalities are now eligible for FEMA security grants and they are working on um Tanya and Janal have been reaching out for grants. I wanted you to just be able to kind of see what was possible. Yeah. No, I just

and I can look it up on the break between meetings, but it used to just be the FEMA not it's called the nonprofit security grant program, but it used to be just for religious institutions. Then it expanded and I believe in the last expansion municipalities were included. Okay. You have to essentially you have to do a security assessment. Sounds like CPD did that. And it's about largely about domestic terrorism, but frankly that can be defined as those first amendment auditors we get.

So, and I did after the green capital sheet I did put so you could see. So, if you look you got the operating budget, then you'll have the green capital sheets before the five-year capital. You'll see the breakdown. just if you wanted to see what was inclusive of that. So, it's going to be Ashley, what did you what grant did you call it? FEMA what? FEMA. NPSG it's called, but it would be administered through MIMA here. It's just worth looking into. And I could be wrong. You know, I don't really do capital improvement type stuff. We'll look at it, but it's a possibility. I mean, listen, to the extent we can get the federal government to pay for a few things, why don't we?

Absolutely. Karen, can I just ask a question because I'm going to be asked. Uh let's go down to the general fund capital uh compact tractor. Is that tip or what? What's Yes. Yes. All of that is public works. Okay. Except for the last and the 20 foot trailer. Okay. What does that total to? I'm really bad at math. The um you think I would have to all these numbers. I'm getting into it right now. Pretty close to 150 like 128 plus

because what we just um everything without the risk management is 781 120 and then when you ask the risk man add the risk management it is 127 28230. All right. So, let's get through the budget and then address this. I think does I mean we have to have a discussion about donations still like there might just still be changes in the budget. So, let's do that and then we can address like this is the surplus as current who knows it could change either direction and then address that if that works for everyone.

Yeah, that's fine. Just a question you know a technical question. So, these are capital items correct? capitalize them. So when you refresh the budget, your excess will not change because it's capital. Or am I wrong? I always you just put them in here just to do it. I put them in the summary sheet so you guys can So they are c but I put them in the summary just so you guys can see bottom line like after we pay for capital here's what would be left. Okay. So everything in here your excess has got all your capital in it as well, right? But I do capitalize the capital pieces. Okay. It's more of a technical. So, it's more of a cash flow. This is cash flow. Okay. Thank you.

All right. So, um did you guys want to just kind of go quickly department by department um and just especially starting at A10 because the donation and um request line we should definitely address if you guys had. Yeah. Okay. Help us with pages as you go. Yep. We are on page five and this would be A10 legislative year budget. Do we have the donation trend you sent us? Yes. So the um Yeah. Was it last time? Was it in the packet last? I think it was in the packet. There is a donations tab in the bind last time. And then um and so they'll show you No, the trend from before.

Oh, yeah. That 10-year trend. Did you give that to us last time? Yep. It's in the the back the very back of the last of the March 12th budget. Okay. So you tabbed it for us. It's okay. Sorry about that, guys.

All right. So looking at at this so it and and this was based on the ideology of an individual council person. He would he would freely say that that it dropped out of the budget almost completely in 2020. I I do not share the point of view that nonprofits shouldn't get money from the government. That's literally my entire job. Um so I do think we should build in something. I I also think we should have some guard rails around the way we do donations. And I appreciated having the form and the deadline and the requirement of good standing and all of the things that we asked for from people, but I think we should have a couple of things that have to be true. So projects need to be projects or whatever it is need to be sort of ready to go for me. I feel that way about the colored troops memorial that I super support and will definitely personally donate to, but like I don't know that the town should be one of the first funders in and then taxpayer money get held by another organization while we wait for them to raise the rest. That sort of thing. I met with Carolyn today about a whole bunch of stuff, but one of the things was the historic society's request, which my mind is still blown at the cost of staining that building. I just

I'm in the wrong business for sure. But I think we can help them with facade grants. So I I also just want us to be really thoughtful about how we spend money that could be paid for elsewhere. And I know we've helped them with facade grants. I'm not saying we haven't. It just to me would seem silly to give if you're considering it like general fund dollars, just regular budget dollars to an organization that we could if we get the facade grant program again, we could help them through that. Um, so I don't know how we want to do it. Make a donations line, put some amount of money in that, pick some organizations. You know, I'm kind of open to whatever. We got, you know, just a couple of requests. Nothing says we have to if we didn't have it today we can't do it later in the year

right I mean we have a process but nothing says the pro you know also this was the first year and people didn't necessarily know about the process yeah about or that even this was an opportunity I mean we have for six years now basically told organizations this isn't what we're going to do um you know done very minimal giving I would like us to continue doing character counts, for example, but they're not going to fill out some huge application for us to give them 250 bucks, nor should they have to. So, would love to hear folks thoughts on the donations line. Can I make a suggestion? Let me just clarification, Karen. Right now, for donations, we're budgeted for $1,000. Is that correct?

Correct. So, that figure I think is going to have, in my opinion, has to be increased.

Yeah, I agree. uh we've had uh two presentations technically I guess we have three so I would like to see personal opinion that I think thousand doesn't work that we go way up let's go six to 8,000 and the feeling is being as following you've had I think you have three potential groups you might want to look at and more down the road but if we gave them some type of funding then would still have some extra money if character counts if somebody else comes up and asks for money. Uh, I think all the people that have applied are pretty legit. I do want to say, uh, truth and advertising, I don't have to recluse myself anymore. Today is my last day as the veteran as director, so I'm out of that. So, I can speak to it.

Uh, I've done it five years. My wife, it's either divorce court or get my wife would prefer divorce court. I think

uh, multiple reason something if I prefer my preferred McNeel, just to put that on the record. I thought I thought I thought it was the bear. Come on, Sammy. Uh, if I can, I think we should go as much as $8,000 because I think we've got three terrific groups. Let me just address uh because I can talk about it now before I'd have to recluse myself. The uh about four and you're going to have people talking to you at the public session rather than take up your time to attend. 4600 African-Americans from Queen Ans County volunteered for the Civil War. From Queen Ans County. Yes. And we did have that presentation.

Okay. Let me just finish up and do it real quick. Uh the total cost of a statute, we've already raised $270,000. We got $100,000 last week from the state. Oh, awesome. Yeah, that wasn't it. That wasn't stretching it now. We're within 30 or $40,000 of being home. We're not asking you for anything like that. No, that's a way different ballgame than what's in the application. I think uh last week we got House of Delegates and the Senate each gave us 50,000. we'd already raised uh about 150. That puts us to 250 probably of a total cost of 311.

Okay. So, we're home stretching now. We're there. Okay. So, so to clear that up a little bit, but uh I think Okay, let's go back. We've got to increase the amount. $1,000 is totally insufficient. Uh if we go to eight, then we if we have three groups, maybe you want to give 2,000. That'll be decided by the council. But then you have a leeway. if someone does knock with something special. Anyway, I've had my little my I agree that the line needs to be increased. I'm I'm open to discussion about the number. I I do I want to help the historic society, but I do think we need to do that through facade grant. What was the number before we lowered it? Wasn't it five grand or

It was So, they spent 6,500, then 5,100, then 4,200, then 6,900. I think it was a little all over the place, but you can see like the arts council for example was getting 2,000 a year. The Rotary Crossroads like and then it just stopped. When will we know about the facade grant? We won't apply it. It's this summer that we apply for it and if and then we hear about it in usually around January. Okay. So that would be time that would defer that to and that's only because they're already getting money in the current facade grant cycle. I would still give you time in the that FY27 budget to readjust or give if you need

and and to me we could I wouldn't be opposed to giving a portion. I I also think again this was a new process and so the historic society said oh the town likes to fund facades let's talk about a facade. they might benefit from a $1,000 donation from us that could do something gamechanging for them that they didn't think we wanted to know about, you know, and so, but I think the $6,900 price tag to me, that's like extreme. I wouldn't be in support of that. I I do think $1,000 isn't enough. In my mind, I was thinking 7,500. That's And then is that what you were thinking? 7500

and then we could address the requests that are in front of us right now individually. You're thinking 7,500

total. Total 7,500 total in the donations line. And we could address the requests we have in front of us on their individual I don't want to say merits because that's not how I mean it. I mean anytime we're being asked by a nonprofit for money, we're choosing between good things. Just like when the staff is asking for us to purchase things, we're choosing between good and needed things. It's not easy. I think $7,500 against the town's total budget to do good things in the town that then return benefit to the town. When I think about our goals around arts and entertainment district and economic development, these donations to me should make sense in meeting larger goals of the town, that is what I see as the role of government in funding nonprofits is when it's then, you know, reflected in the greater good. So there are some nonprofits and some things that you might be like, "No, because that doesn't return a larger benefit to the collective."

But I would be in support of I know we're running we're running really tight on time here. We have like seven minutes left in this budget session, but I I think 7500 is where I am. I think there's room in the budget to do that. I think then we can have a discussion about what we fund from that. Even looking at the requests from staff, we would still have a balanced budget if we funded every one of those requests and the 7500. I also think we could approve some of the the capital requests from staff like the town hall improvement pending attempts to get grants and there are definitely security grants. If it's not the FEMA one, there are other security grants,

you know, that we could definitely try to get and I think I don't know. I think the town should play a role in expanding good things in the town and we can't do it alone. We can't attract people here to spend money at our businesses alone. We need partners to do that. We currently have what three different organizations that have requested Historic Society, Veterans, and Arts Council. And we anticipate there will be others that may come in because they weren't aware of the

Yeah. And occasionally we'll get you know so like character counts we they don't ask us we they ask the world at large to be businesses of character and we've elected to be one the last two years we sometimes groups come in because they need event permissions and things and don't even think they can ask us for money because we've said now for years that that's simply not something we're going to do. Would you like a motion to the $7,500 figure? I think we need discussion. So, I mean, I think I agree. I think we can move and then discuss if we want to process-wise. Yeah. Move it and then discuss it. So, if he wants to make a motion, he can. Yeah. Okay.

May I make a motion that we increase the donations line item? If you don't like the way I word it, change it out to $7,500 up from,000. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Now, we can discuss. Yeah. I no I I agree it's between five and 10,000 was in my mind as far as just where this should be. We hit it right in the middle

and we're right in the middle which so I don't have a problem with the 7500. I agree which I've said at prior meetings that this is about in community engagement um with residents um feeling proud of our town bringing people to our town and economic development. it all ties together and so it's not a frivolous thing. It's it brings people to our town and it helps with the economic development. So that's why I'm, you know, I think it's really important relating to those organizations. Then again, we'll talk about what we support and does it align with those values which are which I believe

I agree with everything you just said. I I also think that we're not going to be able to satisfy every request, right? Clearly, I mean, we all have budgets. Uh we have to live within uh where we can't satisfy what some of the requests are. Uh I think sometimes if we can support them in their efforts for grants by writing a letter of support coming from the town. Yeah. Sometimes that carries weight, you know, from a And we do that. You just had me sign one recently. Mhm. We do that. We do that. So I I would just suggest that we entertain that, be open to that, you know, and uh it would be on a cause by cause basis. But um

I agree. I also think there's connections that the town can make and that each of us can make. I mean, the arts council, they talked about meeting with the children's council and Mike Clark. I mean, that was literally from them asking me for something and I was like, well, I'm a no. But the county might do it through their children's council efforts. And so there are things we can do collectively to connect. I also think we can hold businesses to a standard of corporate citizenship too when they're in here asking us for things. Not in like a you must sort of way, but in an encouraging them to be in the community. And we've done that with developers and we've done that with others. And so I think we have to put our money where our mouth is a little bit. But I also think yeah, there's more we can do. All right. So, do we have consensus on the 7500?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. I know you guys only have a couple minutes to close session. Is there any other line items you wanted to look at adjusting or anything different you want to see before next week's work session baked into the budget? Karen, can I ask you uh my Fridays are ruined now. We don't have a line item for first Fridays. Am I correct? Correct. It's in the events line. It's in the events line under admin. But what do we have? It's not It's not fair that Ashley and Harry help old men like me put up tables, tear down tables, get all this work done. Yes. And that's the one thing I forgot to talk to you about today, Caroline, when I was I actually was talking to Gay later and I said, I meant to talk to

Yeah. When I got home, I was like, shoot, first. So, with a couple minutes we have, Karen, can we You and I have talked and uh Cash, you're going to have to chime in here. Uh, for a $3,000 figure, could we not run First Fridays? Wait, but you you and I We can run it for less. We can run it for less. And we just need to I just need to talk to you. I just forgot to talk to you about it. So, let's chat tomorrow. Put it on next time. Yeah, let's chat tomorrow and then we can discuss it. But the music is a total budget for the season of $1,000. It's the the real challenge is, and this is like going to sound so silly, but it's like the physically getting the picnic tables off the curb into the street. And maybe the solution there is instead of the tables being moved twice, we closed the street earlier and public works just drops them off in the street.

And this would be a staff responsibility, not an individual council person. I think that's real clear. A couple things I go to is the farmers market and Saturday where you have young and old. You have a wonderful mixture. So that's fungus. I think it's really important. So that will come up next time or do you want a motion now? Yeah, we'll talk about the practicality of it, but it's in there. It's in it's the fun the thousand is in there in the events line and it's in A9 gays A92 budget and that's enough of the thousand. So it's not that's not the money isn't really the issue. It's the time

and we just but I do think if we're trying to get an arts and entertainment district designation if we're trying to like these are things we should do and it's also the arts council is a huge player in first Fridays. Maybe there's things other partners can do to help with the on the ground of it all. So all right. All right. All right. So, I'll adjust for next week. The only change I'll make is the $7,500 to the donation line. Remember, we meet next Thursday, 5:30 at the Vincent building for the final work session. If we need to add a work session, we can. Um hopefully I think it's good when we have the work session and no council meeting. This trying to get as much done as we were trying to get done. That's what next week will be. So,

I appreciate everything the staff does to get us ready for this. Thanks, Kip, as always. You know, no one could appreciate you more than I do. Whatever. I'm sorry. All right. Oh, citizens forum. Okay. And do we have a motion to adjourn this budget session? Motion to adjourn. Second. Adjourned.

We'll now convene this April 2nd, 2026 meeting of the Centerville Town Council. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence. 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.

All right. Next up is agenda review. Council, are there any changes to the agenda? Okay. In your packets, you have several meeting minutes, a couple of budget work sessions, and the last regular meeting. Are there any additions or changes to the minutes? I have none. None. Okay. Is there a motion to we can approve these in a batch? Yeah, it's good. We approve all the minutes in a batch. Okay. Is there a second? Second. All right. All in favor? I

I All right. Next, I'll read a close session statement. The town council met in close session on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss personnel in accordance with the Maryland Open Meetings Act. Five members of the town council voted to close the session. The authority to close the session is found in section 3305 of the general provisions article. The town council discussed the following topics. Personnel board and commission appointments. No actions were taken. The following members and staff were present. Ashley H. Kaiser President, Jeffrey D. Keel, vice president, Frederick E. Bu, Fred M. McNeel and Sandra Lee Huffer, members Carolyn Brinkley, town manager, Gay Adams, town clerk, and Sharon Vanberg, town attorney. The close session meeting adjourned at 6:56 p.m. All right. Next up, we have a citizens forum. Are there any citizens that wish to address the council? Yep. Okay. All right. Next up is new business. We have resolution 042026. This is a resolution of the town council of Centerville in support of House Bill 1142 establishing the task force to modernize county and municipal revenue sources. We've been asked by Maryland municipal league to support this bill along with all the other municipalities in the state and we've all gotten I think several emails and lots of information about it. Um is there any discussion about this?

How about a quick 30 second overview? Can someone do that? I know we've got emails, but the public probably doesn't know what the heck we're talking about. Yeah. So, it is um about Oh, yeah.

It's a task force to research the ways that municipalities get revenue. You know, currently our main source of revenue is property taxes. the county has some additional authority that they can tax things that municipalities don't have. Um, as more and more businesses and development and everything comes to municipalities because those things need to center around infrastructure, the state needs to modernize its tax code to allow municipalities the opportunity to make to raise funds. So, the fact that the county could tax a business inside town limits that we couldn't similarly tax is a little bit bizarre in Maryland's tax code. This would study those opportunities and make recommendations to the legislature about ways to diversify the revenue sources of municipalities so they are not so solely dependent on property taxes.

Thank you. Thank you. And it's been a discussion for years. Yes. So, it's just I think there's finally um some headway happening on this front, which is which is great. All right. Do we have a motion to pass this resolution? Make a motion. Resolution 4-2026. All right. So, Jeff seconded by Council Member Bu. We're going to do a roll call vote as we sort of always do on resolutions and ordinances. Council member Bu in favor. Okay. Council member Huffer, approve. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Okay. All right. Next up is resolution 05 2026, which is adopting an investment policy. And I think Karen's going to explain this one. All right. Um, and I received an email from the state of Maryland about six months ago requiring now municipalities to have some sort of investment policy on how they invest their funds. I mirrored our writing um off of the state's um policy that they have in place um to allow certain types of uh funds to be invested general fund revenue or special revenue enterprise funds how we're allowed to invest those funds which would be with obligations of the treasury when we do the bonds investment accounts like MLGIP what we currently have with Shore United and ICS. Um, I had Sharon review the policy to make sure all was good. Um, and she had just made a couple changes based on some percentages I didn't fully put in there. And so all this does is um allows us to or it tells us how we can invest, what we can use those funds for. Most municipalities invest for infrastructure um those things to help build like Ashley was talking about with the revenue. We don't have lots of um taxing authority. So, right now we currently only invest our funds in the Shore United um insured cash reap account. Um that is one that not only gives us a locked in rate, right now we're at three and a half%. Um we locked in in November, so that will expire in May. I've reached out to Abby just to kind of see where that puts us at come May. Um but it actually fed federally insures all of our funds. And so Miljip's interest rate is actually slightly higher right now, but only 250,000 of our investment would be federally insured. And so basically, this policy

mirrors the state of Maryland's policy and puts it in place based on their new guidelines that municipalities must now have it. Are these longer term investments or what what kind of instruments are we investing?

Like right nothing right now. Like at the moment, our fund is in one account. It's at the bank in the insured cash suite. All of our funds are invested there and it's earning us three and a half percent. So for the longest time, we didn't have any investments. We had talked about going into MilJIP. Um and Milip had a good rate when I first started here. It still was less than this three and a half. Um problem is most investments don't allow for fally insuring of funds. And so being we, you know, have property taxpayer funds, we try to invest the best way we can so that we're not having any issues with that. That was my recommendation for the insured cash sweep. So we know it's all insured and we're, you know, we were at a point where we were getting over 5%. Now we're

um in the threes. Interest rates are going back up a little bit. So once we get out of this lock in, I'm interested to see where we might might be able to go at that point. So this just puts us in compliance with the state of Maryland. And then they're investing because when you have a sweep, they're investing funds. This may have been a question perhaps too, Fred, like money market account. However, they're investing those funds when they sweep every They're sweeping every night. Yes. They get swept every night. And then as far as just your rate that changes every So you said when this is locked in, was it locked in for? Yeah. So we locked in November 7th. They gave us a sixmon lock in. Yeah. So for a long time we had the variable because the rates were so good and they kept going up. I mean we like I said we were at 5.38 for six or eight months straight

right are there restrictions on when we can withdraw if we had a there are none so if we had a budget requirement you know for some kind unexpected capital expendit correct we can have easy access yes and that was another reason with millip and such the process to get those funds usually takes 14 to 21 business days whereas each bank account has its own ICS account and it's like she said it sweeps every night and Every dollar is earning interest. That's good. Okay. Do we have a motion for this resolution? Uh I say that we pass the resolution. I don't know what the second 0520.

Council member McNeel makes the motion in support of resolution 052026 seconded by council vice president Keel. We'll do a roll call vote. Council member McNeel. Yes. Council vice president Keel. Yes. Yes. Yes. Council member Huffer. Council member Bu. Okay. Do not run out of here when this meeting ends. You have things to sign because we've done I thought you were telling me. I was like, "Oh, no. You You may go. They may never leave." Okay. Thank you so much.

All right. Next up, we have a couple of proclamations. Um, first is Arbor Day. I I'm not going to read these, but this is your chance. Arbor Day and Trails Day. So, if you hate trees or trails, this is your moment to let it be known. Alternatively, someone can make a motion for us to pass and sign these proclamations. Okay. Both proclamations. Okay. Is there trails? Is there a second? I make a second. All right. All those in favor? I. Any opposed?

I'm hugging trees and hugging trails. Just let it be known I gave you all a chance to go on the record with your feelings about trees and trails. All right, next up, we're flying through, but we've been here for a long time already. So, um, reports of boards and commissions, Maryland Municipal League, the big thing they were looking for is that resolution in support of that legislation. So, we did that. I know several of you are attending the conference in a couple of months and I look forward to hearing everything you guys learn there but I have nothing else from ML Council of Governments. Nothing. Got a meeting in May. Okay. And how often are they meeting now? Quarterly.

Quarterly. Yep.

Okay. Economic development. Uh we made real progress uh tonight and over the last couple months uh interviewing uh just for the audience um multiple qualified candidates or uh we went through that process of qualifying those candidates to be on CEDA the Centerville Economic Development Authority and we will be moving forward with those select people uh at the next council meeting. Um, and then we'll be moving forward with that process. Uh, also I I I guess related to economic development, Sandy, Council Memor Huffer and I uh will be going on a um a sponsored two-day tour of Delm Marva uh looking at different communities, what they're doing both from economic development but also uh land preservation, water preservation, that kind of thing that can also relate to economic development. So, uh, that's in about two weeks over a Thursday and Friday that we'll be spending two days, uh, touring the Delm Marva Peninsula with that. Um,

Peter, our zoning administrator, is also attending both of it. Great. Go ahead. U, because of the night, the Thursday night of the first day, we're supposed to end up in Easton. Uh but we we're making arrangements to leave a car down there, drive back here. We're not going to be going to the dinner or staying there so we can come back for the uh council meeting. That Peter is staying down there. We have a hefty agenda on the April 16th meeting. So we need a full compliment up here being here. Well, so yeah, we we're driving back and then we're wonderful. We're doing that. So I'm excited to hear about it.

Yeah. So, those are the highlights in economic development. Okay. All right. Park Advisory Board. Uh, National Arbor Day, April 24th. We're going to work out our program next Tuesday. But as a little tease, chief said if I put any more pictures of trees, he's going to shoot me. So, what I brought you all is a St. John's wart. Okay? It's not a tree, right? But the price of a mini tree is like 25 or 30ucks. I love you all but not that much. Okay. So anyway, give you more information just the same. Awesome. Please keep all of us posted. Arbor Day is such a fun

time in town planning commission. Yes, they had u there's a work session last night and last night it was about the uh fence fencing policy and ordinance. Um Peter again he did a nice job walking us through there was amendments to it. It had been discussed at a prior work session. So, it was completed last night and I think it'll come to town council the next will come to town council the next meeting. Is that right, Chair? Are we uh the first meeting in May? First meeting in May. Peter won't be here on April 16th to Okay. We're going to have the the planning commission will do their formal recommendation on April 15th and then we weren't sure when it would come. Yeah. First meeting in May.

Yeah. So um so that's been finalized which is great and it was also discussed as far as future meetings for um the work sessions. ADUs um accessory dwelling units is the next big thing that would be discussed in policy and Peter is actually drafting something relating to that because we need to have that done by the fall um for compliance with state legislation. So um yeah that was what was discussed last night. Awesome. We will move on to reports of department heads. Town manager.

Um just a quick couple things um I wanted to announce which I know the council is aware of but uh Centerville was um included in the capital the state's capital budget uh for 600,000 towards our wastewater treatment plant. So we're very excited about that. That's awesome. Um and um I attended the main street market study focus group last week. Is that last week? And um so I'm looking forward to the results when that when that comes out. And then I'm I don't know I don't want to steal anybody else's thunder other than I will also be attending Touch a Truck on Saturday. So I'm sure either Gay or has a

treat. Yes. I'm looking forward to it. I didn't get to make it last year. So either I'm so excited. Yeah. Me too. Oh, good. All right. Chief of police. Good evening. Hello. I have nothing for council tonight. Uh, however, I just wanted to uh mirror what the town manager said. The Centerville Police Department will be attending the Touch a Truck event this weekend, which fabulous event. Their first annual event was well attended. I expect the same in this event as well. Unless the council has any questions or concerns. I think there's some races going on Saturday, too. There's some I've heard rumors

rumors circulating. I mean, and we will have picture we will have people available to take pictures if necessary. Oh, we can post on Facebook, too. Yeah. Yeah. I somebody pay attention. We'll see who wins. Well, I got another race, though. We're going to have two races. We'll race the dog and then we're going to race up the ladder of the tower. No, we only 100 feet up in there. I haven't run in a while. Oh, well, we'll see what happens. I'm just I couldn't do that. I'm afraid of heights, so I wouldn't Yeah, hard pass. You win. Can I go back to Carolyn real quick? Carolyn, uh, the mill,

you drive by now. The building left looks worse in the building that was originally torn down and Porsche 911 is there covered up now, but there's three vehicles in the back. What's our status of that? So, he is um Peter's actually been working with the contractor um uh and we were working with MDIA to figure out exactly what was needed. So, they are getting ready to submit a building permit. They have to put up a uh steel beam um I beam um across the building inside and once they get that they'll be putting metal covering. Originally I thought there was a door but I think that all is just going to be um metal on that side facing the and then there'll be a fence.

So we won't be able to see that building. You might be able to see some of it but yeah they're continuing to make progress. That's all we want. Last thing. Thank you for the water bills. You and I have this contest with people stopping me insured, picking avocados out. Thank you. I think we've clarified that situation. I appreciate that. Also, thank the staff through you. Uh 10:00 a.m. or 10 a.m. this morning when I got the list of all the consultants and uh even though I couldn't read it, they're going to make large print for me. Thank you very much. You're welcome. There's a big help. You're welcome. That's all I apologize. That's all I got. All right. Well, I'm not calling on you during council round table. Use your time. I'm just getting warm. Divide your time. All right, Chief. Anything else?

Uh, and thank you, Council Person McNeel, for the wonderful gift this evening. The the spring of life there. I know you didn't like the peaches. Pitches. You're killing me. Thank you very much. To be clear, the chief does not make threats of political violence. Me, too. All right. Town attorney. I have nothing. Wonderful. All right. Director of public works. Oh, he's got his book and everything. Oh, man. It's when Kip's got a calculator, we really need to be worried.

I'm sorry. I'll try and keep this short. Uh you folks already talked about touch truck uh that's going to be Saturday at the high school. Uh just want to let everybody know hydrant flushing's going to start next week. Uh we've got some places uh chief was good enough to let us borrow his uh speed trailers that can also be used as message boards. Awesome. I got more compliments you and the chief for that sign up people now. Great job of just putting everyone's going to pass the old courthouse and see it. Good job both of you. Good job. That's chief's work. Thank you. Thank you.

Um uh phase three of the warf. Uh you voted to uh approve the bids. That's going to start next week actually. So for the band shell,

the band shell itself uh won't start right away. Um there's about 12 weeks between the time of notice to proceed and the delivery of the band shell materials. But the parking lot's going to be prepped uh for this phase. The water and electric um part of it's going to be done. Uh they're going to prep for the band shell by setting the pad or pouring the pad and the foundation for it and everything. So um it's going to be it's going to be nice looking very

going the parking blocks going back down there. Your curb and gutter around the parking lot going to be good parking blocks, right? Yeah. No, there's no curb and gutter for it. Just uh the bumper stops. Okay. So, just a question interruption to people enjoying the park. Is there anything need to be done on that front as far as just Yeah. Uh, we're going to make sure it's out on Facebook and everything because parking lot will be shut down while they're uh doing excavation work right there and everything. All depends on how the weather plays out and everything, but uh we should be okay with it. The the playground portion of it will remain open. It's just the uh parking lot

or parking lot. Okay. So they can use the party room. Okay. People come and then they can park there at the warf, right? Yeah. In the other parking lot. Y Thank you. So um also uh the request for bids for the trash contract and uh those bids are due next Friday. Okay. hoping we're going to be able to get through them and possibly can get you a recommendation by the following council meeting. Okay, great. Wow. Great. Okay. All right. Thank you. And we're excited for Touch a Truck. Thanks for what you do to put that together.

There was outside of my house and around town there was crumbling curbs and all of a sudden overnight a magical orange strip appeared which is great. Is that us? Who's doing that? Yes, we're doing that. Could they get the pieces of the there's existing parts of curb that were broken? Can they be picked up or something? Yeah, the it's been on the guy's uh list of uh jobs. They just they're coming back. They're going to break out the curb and then they'll take those pieces with them. But we'll see how things go next week and lay out. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you,

town clerk. So, if you remember last time, I couldn't find my updates that I had because there was so much paper. Um, so some major um events coming up um for our Maryland 250 commission on May 15th from 6:00 to 8. There's a reception for the opening of New York to Yorktown exhibit. This is at Queen Ans County High School in the auditorium before the auditorium in the main entrance of the school. Um that's the reception um for the opening. May 16th from 10 to 4 is the exhibit as well as May 17th, noon to 4. Um there'll be 20 to 24 full-size panels that provide Centerville and Queen Ans County stories, contributions, and what you should know about the Revolutionary War, but you didn't.

Very cool. Um the 4th of July is a pretty much an all day event. It starts at 8 8 am with the reading of the Declaration of Independence. Um I know Ashley you participate in that. Um there's 13 in total and it's the 10th anniversary of the reading.

Um there'll be coffee and breakfast. Um then exhibits open after the readings, tables from nonprofits. Um and exhibits line the entire lawyers row side. They're having music food trucks and recommend picnics and there'll be special presentations. The first series of presentations by young people will start at noon and the second series of presentations by eighth grade and high school students starts at two. The third series is by college and adults at 2:45 onward. So that event would be pretty um historically intensive and um it also I believe it kind of ties in Thomas Jefferson to the town center. That should be interesting to to hear. Um we've been working on um budget obviously the fireworks. Yes, the fireworks. We're in major plannings for the fireworks. July 2nd, that's a Thursday, from 6:00 to 9:00, fireworks at 9:15. And um we'll have more to share as more vendors come on and um you know, we're looking for nonprofits to help us with food, etc. But

awesome. That is my all for this moment. Okay, great. Next up, we have another citizens forum. Are there any citizens that wish to address the council? What? Oh, she already went. Never mind. It was very invigorating. You forgot. I forgot. He loved it. All right. Next up is council roundt. Council vice president Keel. The citizens may have wanted to speak. I'm not sure. I mean, I've called it twice and I they can't hear citizens forum if citizens would like to. not any she said citizen forum would you like to speak

come on up can you move the microphone over for Mary Margaret here Mary Margaret you can stay there we'll get the microphone to you we'll bring a microphone to too.

Thanks.

Okay. First of all, I hope that you have been made aware that I had another but this time a really very serious fall and that has caused a lot of medical problems for me. Not the least of which is occasional difficulty even in speaking um because unfortunately it was the top of my head that opened up. So um sometimes I'm a little bit backwards as far as the 4th of July. First of all, we have not yet that is under a county grant. So, we will be having the meeting with the county on sometime late next week when their schedule and my medical schedule can be put together. In case you didn't know, Barb Pivik is here with me because not only is she working with me on other projects, but representing the Queen Ans County Historical Society. I'm partnering with them for the 4th of July. So, I'm doing the morning time and the historical society will be doing the

afternoon. However, we're actually each doing things within the other's half. So one of the things is a competition for well let me go back to when we hundred years ago when we did the 1800 1876. It was an really big all day deal and they had a parade in which all of the people in the parade were members of some portion of the Revolutionary War. So, General Washington came, but his wife came as well. And Lafayette came, he was without his wife. She was still in France. But different important people were all in the parade and dressed up in they really went into the clothes business to do this. So instead of trying to do a parade, which would on the 4th of July would be really difficult now to try and pull off, we're doing presentation competition. So, we're still inviting all those same people and to have them come in their proper period clothing,

but at the same time, they also get the opportunity to do a presentation as that person about the most important things they think they did in their life. So Washington, of course, will talk about becoming president, but he can also talk about his battles. And we're having a children's and then a college and then an adult level of competition. So, we're hoping that all of that will be that lots of people will participate.

That's really cool. And I'm going to the board of education to go through it be so that we get the teachers to get the kids in the classes before school after everybody's gone away that the kids will choose who they're going to be and really get involved. And of course we're going to do the publicity and so forth. And then people will apply to the historical society to enter. And Barb and somebody special will come and be the mistress and the master of ceremonies in the afternoon for the competition. And then of course we're going to have period music as well. In addition, the whole of Lawyer's Row will be lined with very important exhibits involving the courthouse history and involving um black history, which unfortunately in the early years was not good history, but it's history and we still need to recognize that. So that's what's planned and of course food trucks and

and stakeholders. We have lots of different stakeholders. Yes. with the opportunity for tables for getting people involved both in the history but in the sons of the American Revolution SARS with all of the people that

yeah so that is what is planned for the 4th of July well before the 4th of July is a major exhibit on the 15th and 16th of May. It's like right around the top of my head. Yes, Gay just gave us the details. The 16th and 17th from 10 to 4 and 12 to 4 at the high school. I It's the 16th and 17th at the high school. Right. Gay just let us know some details about that. That sounds really exciting.

The the evening on Friday evening is by invitation only. It is not open to the public and we may have a special person with a brand new book. But we don't know for sure. Wonderful. Pardon?

Wonderful. I appreciate everything that you do, Mary Margaret. I think I speak for all of us that we are very grateful for you. Well, honestly, you don't want to even get me started because not only do I not feel supported in terms of not not I'm not talking about finances. I'm talking about the feeling that this town cares about its history, which is really so great. And I see what's going on in Easton in Tarba County and I see what's going on in Cambridge and it just and what's going on in Kent County is phenomenal. This town on this street of Commerce Street is was originally called the King's Road. It's the most historic street in this county. Period. And right now, forgive me, but not really. North Commerce is a mess on our historic street. We have totally ignored the history in terms of not only the neighborhood feeling, but taking a hulking monster building across from

one of the most historic houses in this town on Commerce Street. It was so wrong. I need to see a lot more care about history in this town. And I have told Fred both that what I'm looking for at the end not the end of 2026 at on the first day of January 2027 that I want to see Centerville become what it really really was and is a town born of the Revolutionary War. And when you get to see this Revolutionary War history exhibit, you'll have an idea and a better understanding of what this town participated in and contributed both. So, I've had my say. Thank you.

I look forward to it. I love Revolutionary War history. So, I'm excited to learn more from you as always, Mary Margaret. So, thank you. Well, thank you very much for coming and sharing your plans. Uh we all know how much you've been working for the last two or three years for, you know, this big celebration. We appreciate all your hard work and your, you know, your total commitment to the historic history. I

Thank you. I really just want to be sure that this town gets its do because as I've been doing a lot of Maryland history as well and I see who did what over all the years and I see how much southern Maryland and what kind of not historic um contributions that get deep embedded into the tourism in southern Maryland. And it nothing makes me more upset or angry than to be on my porch on a Saturday morning and see car after car after car with their bicycles, with their boats, with their baggage, whatever, and car loads of people. seriously going to Kent County, going to Chester Town because Chester Town does a big deal so many times during the year. We need to be doing that here. And I don't know h how many times you try to do some kind of economic development if you ignore the history of this town.

Short of bringing in real tough unacceptable his um commerce. If you ignore the history it it's for nothing. So that's all. Thank you. Thank you.

I just wanted to say that the Queen County Historical Society is very very happy and proud to be co-hosting the 4th of July. It it means the world to us. Um and um we lost our Aspen location years ago for the Mary Margaret has welcomed us to co-host this one. We're just this is the 10th year. This is a decade that this going on. So awesome. Thank you. She also keeps me straight. I don't think anyone does that. Mary Margaret, I will say this. I'm quieter around Mary than I am without her. Wow.

Thank you so much. All right. Any other citizens that wish to address the council? Pardon? Any other citizens? You're done. She said it, not us. All right. Council round table. Council vice president Ke. I have nothing. Council member Bu. There was an email that came into the town today and I and I don't know the history about the permits of the food trucks and stuff like that. I don't know if there's something we need to address about that. I I saw your comments which were very immediate. I just don't know the history. town staff sent a little bit of history, but you can meet with Carolyn Oray and talk about the peddlers permit process and the rationale.

Okay, I will say we we received an email complaint about peddlers permits and the cost. The cost is just to offset. It's not a revenue driver. It just offsets the cost of the background check. And as a mother of young children, I'm certainly glad we background check people that are going around town to sell their wares to people. Like it's particularly like an ice cream truck, for example. Feels good to me that we require a permit and background check those people. Okay. But yes, town staff's always available to help provide history. That just came in late today. I was reading it just before the meeting. So all right. Anything else? Council member McNeel.

Easter egg hunt 11:00 Milream Park. Brent and Linda Carroll been doing it for about 30 years. A wonderful event. Little kids get to run out and get stuff. It's good time. What day? Tomorrow. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Keep thinking today's Friday. It's going to be a real bummer tomorrow. Fred, what time is that? 11 o'clock. 11 o'clock. Okay. Council member Huffer.

No, I just um um relating to the Main Street focus group which happened u meeting was March 25th. I thought was very good. Brought in different stakeholders and businesses and residents associated with our our study and discussion on that front. Um, so next, so one of the things I like as far as just kind of next steps because people are interested in this as far as her main street. What is next steps? Is it the steering committee? Can you just kind of speak a little bit to that as far as the next step on that? Yeah, the steering committee met with um Lisa

met with Lisa um there and she's going to be putting together the the um I want to say transformational strategy, but the steps that we need to take based on all the feedback and the survey results to get to the main street that we want. So, we'll wait for that and she will come back here and present and that'll be in July. July. Yeah. Awesome. So between now and July. Yeah. And they will meet a couple times with her to Okay. get that that report for you know more better. It's been a long it's been a long evening, you know, to get really dialed in and then we'll have a a transformational strategy that Main Street can carry out, right,

to get those things done. Okay. So that's all. Okay. I have nothing. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Okay. Don't go. You have stuff to sign. That's fine.