Town Council - Regular Meeting

Dear Lord, we submit ourselves to you as your servants and the servants of the people of Hamstead because you trust in us. Please allow your word that is spoken and every action taken to be in the best interest of Hamstead. For everyone gathered here tonight to be a stabilizing influence in these unsettled times. Please watch over and bless our troops who were involved in the The Lord bless this meeting and our town. Amen. To the flag of America to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all.

Okay, Jim roll. Council member Barrett is unable to attend us tonight due to the illness. Council member Painter Thomas here and I'm here too. All right. Minute approvals from the public hearing on April 10th and the council meeting on April wish February 10th. Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor? Anyone opposed?

Jim, when you're ready. So, uh, as far as the water system project, uh, the pipeline side of the project continues to move right along. Mel Atlantic Utilities is currently working on pipeline number four. They're installing the pipe under Shiloh Road, actually in the section right under the bypass, and that'll go up into the woods and go back and hook into the work they've done back on WA. Um, they'll begin working on pipeline number five shortly. And pipeline number five runs along lower Beckleyville from existing pump house to the new water treatment plant which is to be built on the chief site park property. These are the two last two pipelines in the project and pipeline side of the project should be done in late May. On the water treatment side of the project we have received the first projected work schedule from Kanago. has the grading for the North Carol Farms facility taking place in late April. That will be the first dirt move. So, Ko's initial schedule has a finish date of July 6, 2027. That's well ahead of what was anticipated, what the uh projected finish date was. So, that's very good. Uh last month, I informed the council of the plan to develop a solar facility down south in town on the Patmos property. As I had mentioned, we sent the developer numerous questions and comments we had regarding the project and requested the opportunity to meet with the developer and the engineer. I received an email last week from Melissa Hall. She's with Hall and Bower who are working with the developer stating that the plan may have to change. They're planning to conduct a phase two bog turtle survey during the April to June window. She stated they'd like to work wait on scheduling the meeting so they have the results because After that study, plans may change. So, I'd expect to hear something about that late July or August. Until then, the

project is on hold. So, today it was 80 degrees with the weather turning warmer and longer days. Several projects uh will begin construction shortly. One of those uh they're both water main projects. One is to be constructed along Oldfield Drive and Hamshshire Road, Roberts Field. They'll begin construction probably in early April. About the same time, the new water man for the mill project will begin construction. The mill water man is being installed by the developer of the mill to replace an existing 6-in man with a new 8 inch main. Uh the increased water flow that we'll get with a 2-in larger main is necessary for the fire suppression system and the new apartments being built in the mill. Finance department preparation of the 2027 budget has begun. and I will meet with public works in the next couple weeks to discuss their anticipated expenses. Also, Cheryl will begin training her successor Dana Mangus on March 23rd. Dana Mangus is currently the clerk treasurer for the town of New Windsor. Um, town of schol town of Hamstead is pleased to once again offer three scholarships, $1,000 each to high school students who reside within the town limits and have been accepted into a college and university. The application is available for download on our website hamsteadmmd.gov under news and announcements. Applications will be accepted through Friday, April 24th at 4 pm. They can be mailed dropped off here at a town hall or emailed to Judy Rang at jrg hamsteadmd.gov and college includes Carol Community. It also Yes. Trade schools and trade schools.

And trade schools this year. Yes. Um this year we're once again proud to partner with the American Legion Hamster 200 to pay tribute to the brave men and women who are serving, have served or given their lives in the line of duty while serving in the United States Armed Forces. We'll be hanging the military banners again. Um they'll be displayed on the light post along Main Street from May through September, monitoring their to our country. Applications and more information can also be found on our website hamsteadm.gov. This would then be backmilitary banners. You can call the town office at 4102397408. Uh so next weekend, it's the first bulk trash weekend of the year. It be Saturday, March 21st. Residents should place bulk items curbside on the Friday evening before pickup. These days are reserved for large non-hazardous items like old chairs, appliances, etc. We'll also have bulk trash days on the third Saturday in July in October. Tire paints, motors, items with freon, oil, or other hazardous waste or construction materials will not be picked up. I look forward to the first community yard sale and the pickup trucks running around town picking all the stuff.

Friday evening is always something special. Um, just a reminder, town offices will be closed on Friday, April the 3 for Good Friday. And then lastly, most everyone knows, but Cheryl Ryan will be leaving us. She was actually hired by the town on May 4th, 2009. She served the years for many ter served the town for many years as a financial administrator. She's done a great job keeping the town's books and finances in great order. SH will be retiring and she'll be leaving us after 17 years with us. Her last be April 2nd. I just want to wish her all the best in the future and she's done a great job and like you said, she's going to train her replacement. We're and we're happy to have Dana and we smooth things over with New Windsor.

Yes. So, they're good, but uh but we had several interviews um over the last few weeks and Dana was was a clear winner. So, we're hopeful that she can take the finance group to the next level. All right. Oversights, unless you all have questions for Jimmer. Sorry. Oh, very good. All right. 225 a bushel. Soybeans $1.95 a bushel. Wheat 289 a bushel. Cavs at 314 a pound. All right. Start with the farmers market report.

It's on my phone. I forgot. We'll start with the train station. So, the train station is currently closed. It'll open up on uh on Hamstead day. Music in the park. We've got most of the vendors. We have one more day that we're having trouble getting somebody for, but I've had suggestions on multiple different uh people to uh fulfill that. So, I'm hoping that uh we'll be able to do that and have a poster made by next next meeting. So, um, tree commission. Um, uh, there may be a spring planting. I see how much money I've got and see how much money has left her HOA funds after the snow plowing this year. See if we have some money for to plant some trees up at her North Carolina Farm section 4. Uh, fall. We'll be planting at Westwood Park. We're going to be placing some forestation trees that have died up there, 85 of them. So, we'll be uh we'll be replacing those trees. Did we plant the 85 that died?

No, the developer did. We did not plant, shall we say, very nice trees. Um, and any uh and also, uh, I should be applying for a grant. Oh, for the 85 trees, we've got a grant coming about $7,000. And then spring 2027, we'll be planting the west side of Hampton Park. I've got the grant just about done on that. I should have that finished. So that's it for the tree commission uh farmers market report. So far we have 15 vendors and eight sponsors. We would like to have all applications and payments in by April 1. So please reach out to Pete Johnson. We still need breakfast and lunch vendor for September. And we would like to give priority to local nonprofit before reaching out to business vendors. Anybody wants to nonprofit to cook food breakfast and lunch at farmers market let us know that's it.

All righty. Thank you.

Okay. The Hamstead planning and zoning commission met on February 25th. I feel like time is flying. Um the we did find out the approval of the concept site plan for the Wise Gas and Go at 721 Hanover Pike was approved by the county. So they hope to introduce the final plan in March which is the end of this month. Um, their target completion date would be the end of 2026. And the Carol County Department planning update, the 2025 annual report should be available for review and there's rumors out there that Chipotle is coming to the old Taco Bell KFC. That's not a rumor. It's real.

All right, Dave.

Okay. Uh this past weekend, Main Street Partnership, uh we had a very productive cleanup on Main Street, the first once in the last three months because of the weather. Uh took out about five trash bags, 55 gallon full of trash. Uh so that worked out real well. Next month, uh we're going to be participating and I can let us know. Actually, you'll be able to see it on Facebook on the Main Street Partnership page and probably the town's Facebook page as well. But uh we're going to be partnering with some different organizations uh to do a big big cleanup where we're going to go into the parks and other areas of town besides Main Street to try to get all that cleaned up for the for the spring. It's something that the county is doing. So other municipalities are doing as well. So we're going to join in on that. Uh we're also one final thing is uh for Hamstead day uh we're going to have a special t-shirt for sale from the main street partnership. It's going to commemorate the 250th anniversary. But we're also going to tie Hamstead into what Hamstead has done for the country and with the country over the last 250 years. So, it's going to be a real nice shirt.

Good. And not brown. Not brown. Blue. Blue. Ben. Okay. February's average water usage was 349,000 gallons per day. March so far is 345,000 gallons per day. Rainfall for February was 1.59 in. And so far for March is in. So, Hamstead has been reduced to the moderate drought category. Um, and then public works with water, they still I mean there's taking taking samples, fixed the water main leak. Um, yeah, I'm familiar with that one.

Yes. And they they keep doing check the water and go to the wells every day. So, they do a lot to keep everything running smoothly. So, yes, they do. Kudos to

All right, Chief Snider. During the month of February traffic investigated 13, six were reportable, seven were minor property damage only and four crashes took place in a 42 circle. Speed signs were placed in three locations for a total of 42 days. Traffic enforcement included 26 selected enforcements that were conducted over an 8 hour period. eight citations and 34 warnings were issued. Overall traffic enforcement included 51 citations, 226 warnings. We conducted 527 checks with reference to reported crime. We had one reported 15,000 $25,000 loss, one retail theft, two frauds, one attempted fraud, one forgery, one trespassing incident, one incident of disorderly conduct, one assault of the second degree, three hit and runs, and one domestic assault. Arrest included one hit and run, one domestic assault, and a DUI. Traffic related arrest included two unlicensed drivers and one suspended drivers. With reference to training, conducted 70 hours of training. Topics included. Officer Banton was certified as a commercial and residential crime prevention officer. Detective man completed the peace investigative interview. We all trauma sexual assault investig's

already done that. All right. Uh, so my report, um, let's see. So I already talked about all the finance administrator interviews and we've hired Dana to replace Shur. We'll miss Shur, you know, been around since 2009. The quiet, steady one in the back. Um, so I finished the if I were a mayor presentations with fifth district. Um, you know, they're in the zip code and they all come to Hamstead. So it's always neat to hear what the fourth graders had to say. Um, I was on a rural u communities call. Uh there's a rural rural community committee um in the in the Maryland state legislature. So um I was on a call about some of the challenges getting financing and uh and challenges of being a small town. Um I so I brought him up to speed a little bit on PAS. Um so you know what it is what it is. It was a Zoom call early in the morning. Um legislative committee for Maryland Municipal League. Um all the bills have been introduced this year. um not as quite as many as last year. No taxes and fees this year because they're holding off for next year when uh there's a $3 million hole in the $3 billion hole in the budget. Um so uh you know we we'll see how the the various legislative initiatives move through the various committees. Right now I think crossover date is later this month, the 23rd if memory serves me right. Um so we'll see how that goes and I'll have a better update um I guess in a month when things are starting to settle out. uh in the in the work of the legislaturator has been done. We had a Maryland mayor's conference from MML last week which covered a lot of the legislative stuff, the state budget update which is ugly. Uh at some point uh you know there's a lot of um funded mandates coming our way and there's no income there to support it. Whether it's the education piece, whether it's the environmental piece, um there's just you know, we'll see how they try to handle it, but they definitely kicked the can

down the road this year. and we had a um enlightening seminar on AI and all the things it can do for you plus all the pitfalls that can result if you don't use it right. Um so that was pretty eye opening but it was a good conference. Um so let's see last but not least oh well we mentioned the water man break and I said I'm familiar with that one. It was on my street the 6inch water man. I had no idea we had a six inch water mane but it made quite a mess. But um there's nobody from public works here tonight, but I just want to thank them for how quickly they jumped on it. I know they jump on these water main breaks all over the place and we've had several with the cold weather and pipe snapping. Um I think they had us back up and running in about three and a half hours. So kudos to the public works team for the job well done. Last but not least, um M, you know, Chief Snder stood up there. He didn't want to say anything, so I guess I got to say something. um mixed emotions, but I'm announcing that um Dave's moving on from us, not by my choice, but by his choice. Um Gettysburg has reached out to him, recruited him, and he has been appointed their new police chief as of last night. So, um we're working on a time for when he's going to wrap up service here. Um it's been um an eventful seven plus years with Dave. Um you know, sorry to see him go. I think our police department is evolved into a first rate professional force um due to his toutelage and leadership. He'll be missed. But then again, you know, there's four of you guys here tonight and you all get a chance to now step up and uh show the new person just how you know, well you perform and u you know, believe me, we're going to find somebody suitable to take his place. Um and uh you guys will, you know, get a chance to talk with that person as we proceed through the process. But um you know things things happen, people move on and I know Dave lives up in Gettysburg. So uh you know kudos to you for a job well done and u

and we really appreciate everything you did for us. So with that there's no unfinished business. Um but the last piece of business is to some accommodations that we're going to recognize three of our members in the police department for some good work they did most recently. And Chief, that's up to you. Okay. And this relates to an incident that took place in March of last year. And the officers we're going to recognize tonight um they responded to a domestic disturbance and the end result was uh domestic assault. Um and I've been doing this now for a little over 40 years and this is probably one of the worst that I've ever seen. Um it was amazing that the victim survived. And I think it's it's difficult for the public to understand what goes into making a case. The easy part many times is just responding to It's all the stuff that takes place behind the scenes. When you watch a television show, you know, everything looks so easy and in an hour everything's taken care of. But if you don't have people that are willing to do the additional interviews to collect evidence properly to execute search warrants to make sure the reports have the eyes dotted and the tees crossed, when it gets to court, it doesn't fly. In this particular case, the work that these guys did was so commendable that you have an individual that was willing to take a plea of 20 years as opposed to run the risk of what a jury was doing

based on the work. So with that being said, I'm gonna ask Brian Emry to come up to come up to come up. I always like to give a little story because you can't In accommodation is people can't tell the whole story. You have to fit it on one page. It's that simple. On Monday, March 3rd, 2024, officers received no response attempt to make contact. The officers were quickly interviewing neighbors and learned that an argument had been heard inside the apartment. interviewing resisting knocking on a shared wall. report the health based on these circumstances. Serious life Someone ask one of the problems I run into whenever we have these. So unfortunately we've nobody's been here. So at least we have one person here.

The case will conclude on Friday, February 6, 2026 when the offender was sentenced to a 20ear prison. The actions of these officers on that day saved the victim's life and a diligent followup resulted in a significant conviction. These actions are in the highest tradition of police service and as such the officers involved recognized Anyway, the other one's in this home and Dave and I have had several conversations over the I've always understand it. Congratul All right. Public comments. Kin, this is where you would come.

Sure.

We pick you up. So my name is four years ago and I am now living service way backwards children. I understand that my opponent is a longtime resist delegate.

So, thank you. I'm just wondering how delegates 42 other people, but doing it myself.

Kudos for you for stepping up. So, um, just, you know, there's too few I mean, I had the option, chose not to, and there's too few good people choosing to step up and run. So, kudos for that. It's Chris, you're good. Dave, do you want to My daughter,

that's not far. doesn't feel safe.

As a as I guess a former avid biker, I was biking in my high school years way back in the day, like day trips to Gettysburg were nothing. Of course, there were a lot of a lot of less traffic on the roads, but it just seems like so many people are like, "Right, even though there's rules that say you can't do it." Um, but um, locally, I've give, you know, I got some routes that I would do that keep you off the main roads. Um, but, you know, you just have to be careful what you're doing. But for the most part, our roads are not set up to be bike linked. But I can give you I can give you my route that'll give you five or 10 miles and a lot of up and down to really give you a workout. We actually did work with Carol County on a the master plan for biking pedestrian traffic. And between the two of us, we went through everything in town and the only places that are really available are already marked.

Yeah, that's never happening. Yeah, we will. I don't see that happening.

Yes, ma'am. our generation Facebook very officers here. There was some comments, you know, comment about And this gentleman But it was the last part of this message. offic.

But I still appreciate that this No, it was okay. how wonderful this is. Our town is wonderful.

I would dispute every single word that's in that article. And there's certain things at play that will well that Yeah. But

I think that things will work their way out regarding that and it'll show that our police department in a good light. But in the meantime, you know, reach out to the detective that I pointed you out to. All right. Thank you. No problem at all. Appreciate that. All right, other comments. We had three. That's almost a record for the last year. So, we're all good. Motion to adjurnn. All those in favor? Thank you. Hopefully by April, we got a real spring.