County Council - Regular Meeting

i want to welcome everybody and everybody could please stand and we're going to say the player and the pledge of legion of the flag let us pray most eternal and gracious father we give you honor and glory on today lord we ask that you bless this meeting each and every one that is in attendance god Lord, we ask that you heal those that are sick and those that are grieving that have lost loved ones. We pray for their comfort. We ask that you wrap your arms around them and give them peace. Lord, we ask that you bless every community in Talbot County, every neighborhood, God, every department within county government. And Lord, we thank you and give you honor and glory for this day. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

Okay, let's go ahead get started on the agenda tonight appreciate everybody coming. The agenda is before us is there any additions to leases a correction to the agenda Council. Hearing none. Is there a motion.

I'll move I'll move approval of the agenda.

OK second. I got motion second secretary could you call the vote.

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Heath? Aye.

OK. Next on the agenda is the minutes of July 14th. The council's had time to review that is there any additional solutions corrections to the minutes. OK hearing none. The chair moves at the minutes be accepted as unanimous consent. Next is the disbursements of July 21st and July 28th we've had a chance to take a look at that. Council is there any additions deletions of corrections to the disbursements. Okay. Hearing none, the chair moves that those persons be accepted as unanimous consent. Okay. First on the agenda, we've got a proclamation of Parks and Rec Month. So, Madam Secretary, could you put that into the record, please, and read it?

Yes. Proclamation, Parks and Recreation Month, July 2026. The Power of Parks and Recreation. Whereas Talbot County's parks, playgrounds, athletic fields, waterfront access sites, community center, and natural areas enrich the quality of life for residents and visitors and encourage healthy lifestyles, outdoor recreation, and appreciation of the county's unique landscapes and Chesapeake Bay heritage. And whereas access to parks and nature has been shown to improve physical and mental health, reduce stress, foster creativity, and strengthen overall well-being for individuals and families. And whereas Talbot County Department of Parks and Recreation offers diverse recreational opportunities, including youth and adult sports, ice skating, camps, special events, and community activities that promote lifelong learning, inclusion, and healthy living. And whereas participation in parks and recreation programs helps children develop confidence, leadership, teamwork, and lifelong healthy habits while providing safe, welcoming spaces for families to connect and communities to thrive. And whereas parks and recreation contribute to Talbot County's economic vitality by enhancing the quality of life, attracting visitors, supporting local businesses, increasing property values, and making the county an exceptional place to live, work, and visit. And whereas the preservation and stewardship of Talbot County's parks, open spaces, waterways, and natural resources help protect the environment for future generations while providing opportunities to experience the county's unique natural beauty. And whereas Talbot County recognizes and appreciates the dedicated Parks and Recreation staff, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board members, volunteers, coaches, instructors, community partners and supporters whose commitment makes these programs, facilities, and public spaces possible. Now, therefore, we, the County Council of Talbot County, do hereby proclaim the month of July 2026 as Parks and Recreation Month in Talbot County and encourage all residents to celebrate by exploring our parks and trails, enjoying our waterfront amenities, participating in recreational programs and events, and recognizing the positive impact that parks and recreation have on the health, vitality, and quality of life of our community, given under the hands and the great seal of Talbot County this 28th day of July in the year of our Lord, 2026.

Okay, thank you, Madam Secretary. Is there a motion? I'll move approval of the proclamation.

Second.

Okay, we're at a motion. Second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Hay? Aye.

Okay.

Emily, you want to come on up?

welcome thank you i'm emily gomer the director of parks and recreation so i just wanted to say real quick you know thank you so much for your support of poor parks and recreation over the years and our staff very much appreciate this recognition you know they work hard every day to keep our programs enjoyable welcoming our facilities our parks and so we very much appreciate this recognition thank you that's great great okay no no comments

Well, we know that you're providing these services year-round, but this is a particularly high time for delivery of programming at Parks and Rec. You're running your summer camps, and I was talking to some of the counselors who are here with you today just before the meeting, and sharing with them what I've heard feedback from my colleagues, from other citizens around the county who send their kids to this program and say that this is such an engaging and varied program and this camp that you are running is second to none. So thank you for all that you're doing.

Yes. So we do have some of our summer camp counselors here and our program coordinator, Ellie. Ellie has worked hard all year long to get this camp up and running and between field trip planning and the different activities that we do, hiring of the counselors and all of the interview process. And so we have a really good group back here. Two and a half weeks left of summer camp now, but it's been a really good summer so far.

That's good, that's good.

And do you want to tell the public about the good news about your new entrance?

Yes, so our entrance from Route 50 is back open and we are very, very excited to have that that access again right off of route 50 especially going into ice season again uh with public skates and stuff we we're we're glad to be accessible again from from 50. so yeah we're very excited yeah that's good that's good that's good okay you want to go ahead and yeah and then we're doing that next that's fine i can't come up now yeah let's get some sugar yeah all right

Are you ready? One, two, three. Good job. Good job.

Good job.

Thanks for all you do. Thank you.

Don't go anywhere. OK, next on the agenda is going to be the certificates of recognition for for for the camp. And OK, Madam Secretary, could you go ahead and read them?

Read one of the certificates and then Ellie and Emily can talk about it. So this will be a certificate of recognition to each of the counselors and recognition of your valuable contributions as a member of the Talbot County Department of Parks and Recreation's 2026 summer camp staff.

signed by the full county council okay so i'm just super grateful to have such a great staff this year um if you asked me to watch 60 children by myself it would not go as well so i'm incredibly grateful for their hard work because they get to choose where they spend their summer and i'm happy that they get to choose that they chose it that's great with us that's good

Yes, so again, you know, we're very grateful for the counselors that we do have to make camp an enjoyable, safe, and fun experience all summer long for the 60, 62 kids that we have each week. So we're very, very thankful for them, and, you know, we've had a great summer, and we're looking forward to wrapping it up soon. Okay, okay.

Well, we got some certificates, so, Casey, you want to go on down there?

It's just something.

OK, we're going to we're going to go ahead and call the names up with you guys. So when you hear your name, come on up, get your certificate.

So first we have Dequan Johnson. OK, next we have Emma Kelly. Rachel Lapp. Polly Lakates. Finley McGuckin. Ashanti Perez. Lila Rowe. Reagan Saia. Bree Stevens. Daniela Vasquez Ramirez. And Gemma Vogel.

Yeah, let's bring him on up. Bring him on up here. There we go. There we go.

We're a little early for the public hearing.

Oh, we can't move the item from the table either? We could do that. There's no time on that. Can we do that?

What? Move the item from the table? Yeah, we could do that. Yeah, okay.

Okay, I'm going to skip down a couple things as we've got a few minutes for the public hearing so I'm going to move to. Let's see here now what which one was it. Yeah, item item 8 to remove some of these resolutions off the table.

That's all of them, right?

Yeah, there's four of them. All right.

You're going to do them individually?

I think we have to. Yeah, we have to do it individually, right? Correct. Okay.

Would you like me to read the title? Yes, please.

Yep, if you could, Madam Secretary.

The first is resolution number 388. A resolution to amend the Talbot County Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan to reclassify and remap certain real property located at 7508 Cooper Point Road, Bosman, Maryland shown on tax map 31 as parcel 78 from unprogrammed to S1 immediate priority status pursuant to an application filed by Linda Zecker-Hickens.

Okay. So Patrick, do you want to go ahead and and and run through with the the the clerical era was.

Yes. So first we're going to have it, but we need a motion to take the resolution from the table and then we can.

Okay.

Motion to remove resolution 388 from the table.

Okay. Is there a second?

And I'll second, but I've got a question on this, which is, as we do this, we'll make this eligible for a vote. It's already had more than two readings, so as a resolution, it's eligible for a vote. In its original context, it was before both the Public Works Advisory Board and the Planning Commission, which issued a judgment based on the rules that were then in effect. We've now changed the rule book on this, updated it so that These are in fact eligible. Is this just now our judgment call? Do we get a revised judgment call from Public Works Advisory Board and Planning Commission before we need to move forward on the vote itself?

Because of the amendments to Resolution 175, which affected 250. I don't believe so because that was actually not a water and sewer plan amendment. That was simply a policy that a previous council had put in place that was amended both the Public Works Advisory Board and the Planning Commission did recommend approval. I don't believe that, particularly with the Planning Commission, whose recommendation is required by law for the council to act, They really aren't looking at that policy. I don't think it really affected their review of what they look at under the state law factors for whether the amendment is consistent with the county's comprehensive plan.

So the council is the appropriate body then to make the judgment call on that this now meets the revisions to county policy? Yes, that's correct. Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Yeah, we got a motion second, yes, Mister Callahan I Mister Lesher I say I.

Next is resolution 380 380 9.

Resolution 389, a resolution to amend the Talbot County Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan to reclassify and remap certain real property located at 7510 Cooper Point Road, Bosman, Maryland, shown on tax map 31 as parcel 65 from unprogrammed to S1 immediate priority status, pursuant to an application filed by Linda Zecker-Higgins.

Okay.

motion to move. Move resolution number 39 from the table.

Second we've got a motion second secretary could call the vote.

Mister County, I Mister Lesher I say hi Mister step.

Resolution 390.

Resolution 390 a resolution to amend the topic County comprehensive water and sewer plan to reclassify and remap certain real property located at 24114 Mount Pleasant Road, St. Michael's, Maryland, shown on tax map 32 as parcel 86 from unprogrammed to S1 immediate priority status pursuant to an application filed by Christina and Donald Kepler.

Okay. Motion to remove resolution number 390 from the table.

Second. Okay, we got a motion second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Haight? Aye. Mr. Stepp? Aye. In resolution 391, a resolution to amend the Talbot County Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan to reclassify and remap certain real property located at 7440 Cooper Point Road, Bosman, Maryland, shown on tax map 31 as parcel 326 from unprogrammed to S1 immediate priority status pursuant to an application filed by Sharon and Dwayne Ekedahl.

Motion to remove resolution 3.91 from the table.

Second. Okay, we've got a motion second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Haight? Aye. Mr. Stepp?

Aye.

Okay. So do we want to keep going down for eligible for vote? Correct. Okay, let's do that now. Okay, so let's do resolution 388.

Do I have to read them again into the record?

If you could just read the title.

Sure. Resolution 388, a resolution to amend the Talbot County Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan to reclassify and remap certain real property located at 7508 Cooper Point Road, Bosman, Maryland, shown on tax map 31 as parcel 78 from unprogrammed to S1 immediate priority status pursuant to an application filed by Linda Zecker Higgins.

Okay. And with this resolution, I wanted to point out, and this was noted by the Public Works Advisory Board, the recitals state the acreage of the property as being 12.9 acres. It's actually 12.036 acres. Since that was just a typo, I will correct that in the final version. I just wanted to know if it passes. I just wanted to note that for the record. So in case anybody ever questions why. Okay, gotcha. Small misreferencing there.

Okay.

is that the only thing you yeah we already moved it yeah oh we removed that one you you can call the vote yeah council want to hear from uh staff as well sure sure yeah pretty yeah josh elliott assistant county engineer this resolution would take the property located at 7508 cooper point road unprogrammed to an s1 sewer service status The property would be allocated one EDU of sewer service. An existing sewer force pane is directly adjacent to the property, and no extension of service would be required for connection. As noted, the property is 12.036 acres and is zoned rural conservation, so it's unable to be subdivided. And the property meets the connection requirements outlined in Resolution 394. Happy to take any questions you have.

Okay. Any questions, Council? No. Okay.

So, please. Brendan Tarleton, Planning Director for Talbot County. Just letting you all know that on January 7th of 2026, the Planning Commission reviewed Resolution 388. They made a motion to find Resolution 388 consistent with the 2016 Comprehensive Plan as well as the seven relevant standards in accordance with the environmental article 9-506 . The Commission voted to approve that motion 4-0, noting the acreage change and discrepancy that the Public Works Advisory Board had identified previously.

Okay.

Mr. Elliott, we've been over this months ago, but just for the record, this is improved property. The note from Environmental Health says that the It does have a functioning septic system, but it is one that penetrates the groundwater. Correct.

Yes, all four of these actually penetrate the groundwater, but we go over that on each one.

And so, therefore, it meets the revised criteria.

Yeah, it meets the revised criteria of creating an environmental health problem.

Okay. Thank you.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Any other questions? Nope.

Okay.

She can call the roll, I think. Okay. Madam Secretary, can you call the roll?

Yes. Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Haight? Aye. Mr. Stepp?

Aye. Okay. Next would be Resolution 389.

Resolution 389, a resolution to amend the Talbot County Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan to reclassify and remap certain real property located at 7510 Cooper Point Road, Bosman, Maryland, shown on tax map 31 as parcel 65 from unprogrammed to S1 immediate priority status pursuant to an application filed by Linda Zecker-Higgins.

Okay.

And so this resolution take the property located that 7, 5, 1, 0 Cooper point road from on program to an S one sewer service status property would be allocated one edu of sewer service. existing sewer force main is directly adjacent to this property and no extension of service would be required for connection the property is 13.40 acres and is zoned rural conservation so it is unable to be subdivided the property also meets the connection requirements outlined in resolution 394 and as the last one it is currently has a home and that existing septic systems uh penetrates the groundwater creates an environmental problem

And on January 7th, the Planning Commission reviewed Resolution 389, and a motion was made to find 389 consistent with the 2016 Comprehensive Plan, as well as the seven relevant standards in accordance with the Environmental Article 9-506A1. That motion passed via 4-0 vote. Okay.

All my questions are answered okay, I'm secretary could call the vote.

Mister County. I Mister Lusher I see I Mister step.

All right. Okay next is resolution 3.90.

Resolution 3.90 a resolution to amend the topic County comprehensive water and sewer plan to reclassify remap certain real property located at 24114 Mount Pleasant Road, St. Michael's, Maryland, shown on tax map 32 as parcel 86 from unprogrammed to S1 immediate priority status pursuant to an application filed by Christina and Donald Kepler.

Okay. All right. This resolution would take the property located at 24114 Mount Pleasant Road from unprogrammed to an S1 sewer service status. An existing sewer force vein is directly adjacent to the property. No extension of service will be required for connection. The property will be allocated one EDU of sewer service. The property is 1.25 acres and is zoned western rural conservation and unable to be subdivided. The property meets the connection requirements outlined in resolution 394. It also has an existing home with a septic system that penetrates the groundwater.

Okay. And this place, this is habitable, this is functioning now even if it's an environmental hazard.

Yes. And on January 7th, the Planning Commission also reviewed Resolution 390, and a motion was made, and the Planning Commission found Resolution 390 consistent with the 2016 Comprehensive Plan and the seven relevant standards in accordance with Environmental Article 9-506A1. That motion passed via 4-0 vote as well.

Okay. You know, the questions Council. OK, Madam Secretary, could you call the vote on 390?

Mr. Callahan?

Aye.

Mr. Lesher? Aye. Miss Haight? Aye. Mr. Steff?

Aye. OK. The last one is 391.

Resolution number 391, a resolution to amend the Talbot County Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan to reclassify and remap certain real property located at 7440 Cooper Point Road, Bosman, Maryland, shown on tax map 31 as parcel 326 from unprogrammed to S-1 immediate priority status pursuant to an application filed by Sharon and Dwayne Ekedahl.

All right, so just like with resolution number 388, the acreage is incorrectly listed in the resolution. It's listed as 7.8 acres and it is actually 7.44 acres. This resolution would take the property located at 7440 Cooper Point Road from unprogrammed to an S1 sewer service status. The property would be allocated one EDU of sewer service. An existing sewer force main is directly adjacent to the property, and no extension of service would be required for connection. the property is 7.44 acres into zone rural conservation so it is unable to be subdivided the property also meets the connection requirements outlined in resolution 394 it has an existing home and a currently functioning sewer septic system that penetrates the groundwater okay

And on January 7th, the Planning Commission also reviewed Resolution 391 and made a motion to certify 391 consistent with the 2016 Comprehensive Plan, as well as the seven relevant standards in accordance with Environmental Article 9-50681. And that motion passed via a 4-0 vote as well. Okay, great. Any questions, Council?

The correction in the acreage will be made in the final copy? Yes, that is correct.

Okay. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote on 391?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Hayes? Aye. Mr. Stepp?

Aye. Okay. Thank you. So let's circle back to the public hearing, if we could. Madam Secretary, if we could circle back to that.

Bill number 1651, a bill to amend chapter 190, zoning subdivision and land development of the Talbot County code for the purpose of authorizing the planning director to grant a waiver from the requirements of 190-61.2C for a bona fide nonprofit entity subject to certain conditions and amending the criteria for evaluation of waiver applications.

Brennan Tarleton, planning director here for Talbot County. Just mainly here to answer any questions you all may have before taking vote on this application. As I spoke previously with you, essentially what this allows an applicant to do if it were adopted into the code would allow for the request of a waiver of a bona fide nonprofit for certain exemptions of developer agreement requirements, particularly for posting uh surety amounts for certain improvements um this was a discussion that was had with council member haith at the outset of the bellevue passage museum project if you would recall that there are certain improvements that they have proffered on the county's parcel in conjunction with the improvement the improvements of the museum as part of that some of those improvements will actually be taken over and maintained by the county outright as well so there's not really any need necessarily for a surety amount to be posted for those because ultimately the county will be tasked with doing the final inspections and future maintenance and upkeep of those amenities that will be available to the public outside of the museum itself okay

Any questions? Mr. Charlton, could you play out potential unintended consequences here? Are there other forms of relief that might be asked for besides the relief from the surety here? Are there instances where the relief provided would not where if it were imposed, the cost would not come back on the county? Are there instances that would... Obviously, this only allows you to make this exemption, but does not require you to do so.

Right.

But can you talk about other potential circumstances where this might apply?

typically we haven't had many of these in place in the past for projects within the county this would come about for obviously a commercial or an institutional use improvement on a property so likely those improvements would include minor details such as you know bicycle or pedestrian access ways on a property so that may include some form of like a sidewalk improvement or something of that nature otherwise that would obviously in most cases be subject to inspection by the state highway administration as well as the county in conjunction with it and I think at the time at reviewing the waiver would be the appropriate time to determine whether or not It would have any sort of detrimental impact on the county to grant the waiver of the surety amount that would be posted for those specific improvements. If the county felt that it was necessary where the planning commission as the reviewing body of that waiver felt that it may be an unnecessary burden on the county to have an applicant proffer those improvements. then they would essentially deny the waiver on that basis and that would come from the form of a recommendation from staff as well i think if the waiver was granted there would need to be some good justifiable reason in granting or requesting to grant it so i think we would evaluate that on a case-by-case basis And as you noted, this would really merely just allow somebody to ask request for that relief. It doesn't set a precedent for the county to ultimately grant that relief because someone requests that waiver. So I think there are appropriate protective measures here in place that would allow the county to review these on a case by case basis moving forward to ensure that. If a waiver is granted, it makes good and practical sense. And I think in this case, this instance that was brought before us that would allow this flexibility does just that because it is located on a county property specifically.

And as everything that is done through the Planning Commission and such, the rationale for granting in one case will be well documented so that it doesn't set a precedent that you're going to be pressured to do this for every application that comes along?

That is correct. I think staff would recommend specific reasoning as to why a waiver would be granted. In this instance, I think if the applicant moves forward with this waiver request, staff's recommendation to the Planning Commission would be very specific in the scope of stating that it's appropriate to do so in this case because the improvements are situated on county-owned land.

Thank you very much. Absolutely.

I'm going to go ahead and open this up to the public hearing. So I'll give you 3 minutes to speak for an individual in 5 minutes to speak on behalf of an organization. So here to my left if anybody wants to come up and talk about bill 1651 please come up. And here here on my right anybody would like to come up and in. 1651 please please come on up. Okay. I guess at this time, Madam Secretary, we'll keep the public hearing open until August 11th, correct?

They'll be eligible for vote on August 11th.

Okay. Okay. That sounds good. Okay. All right here in that so we've got the county manager placed up you ready. Yeah, good.

Yeah, so thank you I have several items no board and committee appointment for this week. The first item that I have for your consideration is requesting a letter be sent to Maryland state highway administration to evaluate safety improvements at Maryland route 3.22 and Maryland route 3.33. There are motion.

So moved.

OK. Second, do we want to discuss the rationale for this request?

Yeah, I can speak to that. A constituent reached out to me in regards to the pedestrian traffic at this particular intersection. Several constituents use this as a running way, biking, et cetera, as we see on the bypass in Oxford Road. As it gets more activity for that, they brought the concern to me, and so I brought it before the council so that we can see if it could get put on MDOT's list and Maryland State Highway. Sure. Okay. So that was the rationale behind it.

And I know. Council and we've we've mentioned that to the mayor who is president with us evening. Good evening, Madam Mayor. And we mentioned to her that this was on our agenda. So we'll be sharing that with the mayor as well for for their consideration. Okay, good.

I also did. I got questioned about this this morning at the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and and addressed those those questions as well.

Okay, good. Okay. Is there a second?

I second it.

Okay. It's got a motion second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Haig? Aye.

Next council, I would bring up Emily Gilmer. I believe Don Richardson is here from the town of St. Michael's. Steve ball was here as well. So the town of Saint Michael's is requesting a county easement for the North South section of the Saint Michael natural trail along Talbot Street and the Perry cabin ball fields, the parks and Recreation advisory board has reviewed the matter at their July 16th meeting and supports a revised trail agreement and again Emily is here and can answer any questions along with represent of the town same way Emily.

So I'm going to go ahead and bring up Steve Ball and Don. Steve, come on up here. So they presented this at the last park board meeting, and it does do an easement onto Perry Cabin Park in St. Michael's. And I'll let Steve go ahead and share.

Thank you.

You're welcome, Steve.

Nice to be here. We've been working on this for a couple of years now. Could you tell the public who you are? Oh, I'm sorry. Steve Ball, the town planner with St. Michael's. Mr. Richardson, our town manager's here as well. And we've been working with Emily and her staff. And we made some revisions. There was some opposition from the Little League representatives about the Western connection that we have and their desire to maintain that area for future improvements, primarily for parking or expansion of ball fields. And so we removed that. On this, it's the red line on the left that's now gone from the plan. But we do need an easement on the right, the red line that runs north and south, parallel to Maryland Route 33. The one north of that runs through the State Highway Administration's right-of-way. We had to make some adjustments as we fine-tuned the plans. So with this, we're asking for the easement through Perry Cabin Park. moved it as far away as possible from the baseball fields. There's some best management practices that'll slightly elevate the trail and protect the roots from the trees. And our engineers are assuring that that'll protect the vegetation and be safe as well. We intend to put a fence along that, a small decorative fence just to define the area. And that'll connect back to the sidewalk on Maryland 33. And then north to the trail, which will loop around and complete a two and a half mile trail to the south that ends at the town limits across from the high school parking lot there. So we're looking forward to this. We have funding from Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. And we're going doing some final design improvements and getting the final adjustments on environmental permits. We're hoping to issue a invitation for bid by sometime in the fall and then probably six to nine months. There are some restrictions on time of year to construct the trail. for environmental protection but a year from now keep our fingers crossed we'll have a trail extension that'll run the whole length of the town and have access to neighborhoods four different parks and the commercial corridor so i think everybody in town and the county are pretty excited about it so Okay. Sounds great. We'll work with our attorneys through your legal staff to draft any easements to make sure that it's appropriate and maintained by the town. Okay.

That sounds great.

Mr. Ball, this now will hook around, it'll basically terminate in the sidewalk system that will then loop back into town at the northern end of this trail. And do you have the figure how the linear distance of the trail once this project is completed?

It's about 2.5 to 2.75 miles from the park to the terminus. It'll go through Bradley Park, Back Creek Park, this park, of course, and our new San Domingo Creek Park on the water where the town offices are now located.

Okay.

congratulations and thank you for your patience working through all these ironing out all these details and making sure all the park users are are satisfied with the outcome here thank you part of the process so council council with your support we could engage the attorneys to draft up the paperwork the easement to come back to you for final action motion to approve their requests Second.

Okay, we've got a motion to second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Haight?

Aye.

Okay. Thanks a lot. Good job.

And while Emily is sitting here. Very good. Department of Parks and Recreation is requesting Council approval to procure a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD four wheel drive pickup double cab pickup truck with a snowplow from her trick fleet service utilizing state of Maryland contract to purchase price of $54,176. Sufficient funds exist in the budget and this was budget a budgeted item. Emily Gilmer is here to answer any questions regarding this request.

I have no questions. I motion to approve the request.

I'll second the motion. Okay, we got a motion second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher?

Aye.

Ms. Hague? Aye.

Thank you, Emily. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Okay, Council, next item I have, and Patrick can answer any questions regarding this, requesting Council to enter a contract for the sale and purchase of Unit 2, Achievement Park Condominium, located at 510 Cadmus Lane in Easton, in the amount of $1,050,000. There are sufficient funds in the county budget for this purchase. The property is located adjacent to the Talbot County Health Department Council. You may recall that the original design of the health department included this space. It was taken out the last minute and the health department was constructed. This would be 20,000 feet of square feet of space to allow immediately for storage with the future opportunity to to expand some county services that would work well with the health department at that facility. Okay. Any questions, Council?

I appreciate the opportunity to potentially consolidate some services at that location and take advantage of that already constructed space, the access to the loading dock. And hopefully eventually this will allow the county to shed some other property.

Yeah, and already the health department is significantly benefited by the access to the rail trails through the town and its proximity to the neighborhoods there. So it's working well for the health department. So any allied services that would move in there in the future would serve as well.

Okay.

Okay.

Is there a motion? I'll move for approval for the contract of sale.

Second.

Okay, we've got a motion and a second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher?

Aye.

Ms. Hayes? Aye.

Thank you, Council. Mayor, would you like to come up for the next item for Woodland Park? Sure. Council, the next item that I have, the Department of... I'm sorry, let me just move to the right place here. I'm requesting Council to approve to enter into an MOU with the town of Easton to transfer a portion of Poplar Hill Farm, approximately 1.785 acres to the town of Easton for access to their Woodland Park property. Pending Council approval legislation will be drafted by both the county and the town to finalize the transfer. And again, Mayor Cook is here and can speak to this matter as well.

Good evening, Council. Appreciate the opportunity to partner with this. This will allow us access to what we call Woodland Park.

Megan Cook, mayor of the town.

There you go. My apologies. So this will allow us access to almost 200 acres of parkland that we call Woodland Park. The back roughly 30 acres will be a conservation park with the front 170 being the forested area. We currently don't have great access to it, except it would be off Oxford Road, but this transfer of property would allow us access across Poplar Hill into the back 30 acres.

Sounds great.

And my understanding is that as we turn this easement over to the town, that you would provide access to utilities for future use of the adjacent property and this sort of thing? Correct. That would be put in place as you're developing the park? Correct. And you mentioned this in your testimony, but if this were not granted, the town would be forced to access the property from Oxford Road and Long Entrance Road to get back in there. I don't think anybody wants that, so this looks like a good solution to the problem.

And Mr. Lesher, just also for a little more information, the MOU actually contains a mutual interest that the town would they would extend Tristan Drive out to that Woodland property and they would maintain and own that road, maintain it into the future. One, stub out an area into the property, as well as any need to put a traffic light out on the parkway, we would negotiate a shared cost solution. Sounds good.

Well, as with the previous one, I thank the town for its patience in getting us to this point. Sorry that it took this long, but this is clearly an important thing. And great for, I think, for the public to be able to access this huge new parkland acquisition that the town has engineered.

We're very excited about it. It'll be our largest project. Park. We right now we have over 300 acres of Parkland and this I think will be an exciting opportunity for the residents.

Yeah, exactly. Any other questions? No. Okay. Okay.

I'll move approval of the MOU.

Second.

Okay, we'll get a motion second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Hayes? Aye. Thank you, Council.

Thank you, Mayor, for coming out. Appreciate it.

Council, next item I have, Director Brian LaCase can come forward. He's requesting council consideration to approve a budgeted vehicle. He'll go over the details. I'll answer any questions that may be necessary. Good evening, Brian.

Good evening. Brian locates Top County Department of Emergency Services. So this is a request for a 2026 Tahoe to replace an existing fleet vehicle. That's a 2016 with over 135,000 miles on it. So this is this would be a piggyback on the Maryland state contract at a cost of $58,769.15. And again, this was budgeted.

Okay. Any questions, council? No questions. Okay.

Motion to approve the request.

Apparently there's a tornado warning.

Sounds like it's time for me to go to work. Did you do that on purpose? I did not. But it should sway the motion. Is that St. Michael's? Or is it for here?

We're pausing to a weather. It's for 12 accounting.

Yeah, this area. Maybe the trap area. National Weather Service's graphics leave something to be desired. It's not high resolution.

Okay, Christian, would you like to come up? Wait a minute.

Hold on. I'm sorry we didn't. So we need a second. I second the motion. Yep. Okay, we need to give this guy this truck. Mr. Cowling. Aye.

Mr. Lesher. Aye. Ms. Heath. Aye.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. As always, thank you for your support. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Kristin Goller, could you come up? Acting Director of Economic Development and Tourism. And Ryan Snow. Thank you. Council this evening town of East is requesting a letter of support for the nomination of census tract 20 for 4, 9, 6, 2, 300 for consideration of the opportunities own 2.0 program and it's really important that 2 of them are sitting here because they know much more than I do about this subject. Good evening introduce yourself and fill them in.

Thank you. So Kristen Geller, Acting Director for Economic Development and Tourism. Thanks for having us here. So as Mr. Stamp mentioned, we have the opportunity to apply for Opportunity Zone 2.0. The original Opportunity Zone program is a federal designation designed to spur community investment. That was launched about a decade ago. And in an effort to make the program permanent, the federal government is launching 2.0. As a part of this program, we have the opportunity to nominate certain eligible census tracts. In Talbot County, we have one such tract, which we'll pull up here. But the county is required to be the nominator. We have the opportunity to put forward a nomination to the state of Maryland, who will then review all the nominations, and then they can put forth so many nominations to the federal government. So in this 2.0 version, Maryland will be reducing its number of eligible census tracts. They can only nominate 113 moving forward. So in the original Opportunity Zone program, we did have two census tracts. We currently only have one eligible. So we've been in touch with the town of Easton. They are very interested in submitting this census tract, which you can see is largely on town property. So we've been working with them in collaboration to ready an application. So we're here before you tonight to request a letter of support to go along with that application, which would be a joint letter with the town of Easton.

And this this track has been an opportunity zone in the past or is currently but needs this in order to remain so continue to become again.

Yes, and we have to put together a pretty competitive application because there are more than 113 eligible census tracts in Maryland. So we'll be competing with other communities.

Understood.

So one question, how would a project qualify to use the Opportunity Zone? Is there a process that the state's gonna have or the feds are gonna have different from almost 10 years ago?

Sure, great question. So the benefits to the program are largely staying the same except for our area has the opportunity to be eligible for what they would call a rural opportunity zone and that comes with some increased benefits. So if someone sells a property and then they have capital gains tax that they would pay off that property, they can decide to invest in our opportunity zone. And when they do that, they are able to defer their capital gains tax. If they continue that for five years, then their capital gains tax is reduced by 30% because we're in that rural opportunity zone. If they continue their investment for 10 years or longer, the taxes is forgiven. So it's a good opportunity for investment. We've been in touch with the regional medical center because as you'll see by the map, the existing hospital is in this opportunity zone. So they've written a letter of support. They're very excited. And the potential new owners for the property have been in touch as well.

So, yeah, I think you may have misunderstood the question.

Oh, I'm sorry.

So, yeah, that was my question about the project specifically. How do the projects get certified to participate in the Opportunity Zone? I'm aware of the investor and the capital gains, but how does a project become certified to take advantage of the Opportunity Zone? That will be through the state of Maryland. Okay, state of Maryland process.

DHCD will create the process once they select the designated zones throughout the state.

Okay. So they'll have like a portal like they did before. Okay. All right. That was my question. Thank you.

Okay.

Anything else?

I'll move to authorize the letter of support. Okay. Second. Okay. We have a motion. Second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Haight?

Aye. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good job.

Council that completes your County manager report for this evening as always thank you for your support.

Yeah, thank you. Good job. OK next on the agenda is a public comment. The week that we have a sheet or anything any sign up. Yeah, OK. Well, there's not that many people in the room if you want to call yeah, yeah, that's that's the same I will come up to public comment. I think we're in good shape there everybody's quiet right now. Next is a Council comment. Mister

Yes, on August 4th, the St. Michael's Police Department will be hosting National Night Out right by the Bay 100 Community Pool. This annual event is part of community policing, the practice of building relationships between police and the public as a stepping stone to building trust. The leadership of every police force in this county, St. Michael's and Easton and the Talbot County Sheriff's Office have all embraced community policing and our communities are better and safer for it. Easton Police Department will be hosting its own National Night Out, but it will be held later on October 6th. Please come out and join the community in National Night Out, August 4th and by the Bay 100 Community Pool.

Okay, good job.

Yes, it is. Last week, council had an opportunity to attend the ribbon cutting for the new EMS station, which was a great event. I think when you experience a medical emergency, you really appreciate those individuals so much more. And last Tuesday I was in Prince George's County and had a medical emergency and the EMTs and the paramedics were there when I woke up and it truly is a great feeling to see these people surround you when you need something like that. supporting that in our community is so important. Even without having a medical emergency, it is valuable to support our EMTs, our police officers, and those entities because we have a great team here in Talbot County.

I would agree that that's great in and I want to say kudos to on staff and in in play could you could you tell the public a little bit about the court over building please that be great. You're in that state.

So it's exciting. This is a process that started a number of years ago to be able to secure a location, working very closely with the Cordova Volunteer Fire Department, recognizing that they were struggling to get the crews out. They were supportive. the Gannon family, working through details. It was exciting that we were able to recognize Sylvia Gannon, who was on the Emergency Services Advisory Board and Paramedic Foundation, very instrumental in emergency services. To be able to dedicate that station to her was wonderful. That initiative started when I was your Director of Emergency Services, so it was nice for me to see that project completed. Our goal is to get a paramedic to somebody within eight minutes, 90% of the time. And this county has prioritized emergency services since I arrived here in 2009. And to this day, you all continue to do that. And an expression of that is that building. And that building will allow us to definitely save lives. Real people that have another chance at life because of your actions. Thank you. Good. Thank you, Clay. You did so much better than I would have.

Okay. Okay. So I appreciate that. So other than that, I appreciate everything.

The county council's next meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 11th, beginning at 5 o'clock p.m. The council will be convening an open session at 3.30 p.m. and then adjourning into closed session as listed on the statement for closing that meeting. Therefore, is there a motion to adjourn this meeting and reconvene as noted?

So moved. Okay, we got a motion. And I'll second. Yep, we got a motion to second. Madam Secretary, could you call the vote?

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Lesher? Aye. Ms. Haight? Aye.

Okay, I appreciate everybody tuning in and coming to the meeting. Thank you.