Town Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] Okay. Sorry. [Music]

You guys ready? Soon as G gets back. Are you ready? Yes. Two teams left. [Music]

Well, good evening. If everybody would check your cell phones to make sure they're on silence, please. We're going to get started with the public hearing to begin with. So, good evening ladies and gentlemen. Today is uh October 13th. We're in town hall. It is 6:45. We've got a public hearing case 2024101. Gan

members of council, public hearing this evening, case 2024-10-1 pens grant a Sussex County tax map parcel 135-14.00-34.0. This is a comprehensive plan amendment to the future land use plan future land use map and a reszone application. Second case is 2025-16 pen grant B Sussex County tax map parcel 135-14.00-34.01 comprehensive plan amendment to the future land use map and a reszone application. At this time I'll turn it over to a representative of the applicant who I believe is present. Okay. Evening. My name is Doug Liberman with Larson Engineering here representing the uh developer Bill Davidson and First Baptist Church of Georgetown. in this proceeding. Uh we're we're here seeking a final amendment to the comprehensive plan to correct a future land use uh use for a portion of the property from commercial to multif family residential. Uh the plan is to subdivide the rear portion of the site for townhouse residential and keeping the church and parking lot as a separate commercial lot. Uh the second item uh is to correct the zoning of the two parcels uh by reszoning the rear of the parcel from highway commercial to MR2 townhouse residential. I probably should bring up the plan. Okay. So, uh what we have uh currently in blue is the portion of the property that is zoned MR2 townhouse residential

and where we are intending uh what we're planning to do is change the zoning line from the diagonal to going straight. Uh and then and then correct the zoning where this portion goes to blue townhouse res. And this goes back to the church for highway commercial. Uh it was initially submitted um with our with the diagonal line when we went through the process and got approved before. Uh but all of our plans and everything that we've developed were to go with the line going straight across. The area shown that was approved before total area that we're showing now is what we're going to at this point. So uh it was just a mistake on drafting error on our part uh in moving forward with the previous uh application. Uh we have received a letter of no objection from the office of state planning for this change. Uh we feel the resoning and developing of the rear port por rear of the parcel excuse me as townhouse residential is keeping with uh the comprehensive plan. Uh first thing this does is it keeps the front portion of the lot as commercial. Uh and we again with going to the multif family residential provides sorely needed affordable housing uh for town houses for the rear portion uh of the site. Specifically, comprehensive plan states on page 10-8 uh that larger areas that have not been approved for development or are not actively under review should primarily utilize the MR2 zoning to promote more medium-density residential development such as town homes. And lastly, the development on the rear of the parcel will also maintain the church use uh on the property and the fine job they do

serving the town of Georgetown. So, if you guys have any uh questions, council, any uh questions at this time, doesn't look like it. Okay.

Anybody from the public want to comment on this uh process at the Baptist Church out on the highway? and to give us a little bit of a commercial back that we've lost from the state highway taking everything they took with the new uh uh raised interception intersection they're doing. So this give us a little bit commercial just north of that intersection. So anybody for or against this project? This project will stay open for two weeks and then come back before us to where we'll have a reading and uh in first reading of the the agenda and then uh come back two weeks after that for the second reading and approval hopefully.

Okay. Okay. Anybody that is objected to it can submit in writing or anything anybody that is for it can submit in writing. So we've got it documented as to what's uh taking place. So sir, thank you very much. All right, we go to the second one. Oh, because there's there's actually two applications on click should advance. Okay. All right. So, uh, second application. Um, do you have to do the reading? Uh, I read at the beginning. Pardon me. I read it at the beginning.

Okay. So, this is uh case 2025-16. Uh so when we first started uh this uh project uh the northeastern supply uh owners uh approached the developer about a piece of property that is behind uh their existing store management uh pond and it really is not used by them at all. uh say so they would like to uh sell that property to the developer uh to add on to the MR2 uh zoning that we're seeking. So again, it's part of the future land use change um has been approved through uh the office of state planning. Uh and this would again go to the MR2 zoning district. uh and this parcel would be added with the other uh parcels. So what you see in blue would be zoned to MR2 and again the the commercial on the frontage for the northeastern supply would go on business as usual uh for them. So this is again in line with the comprehensive plan for both commercial commercial and MR2 residential council any questions general public anything for our gifts stand up money please Mrs. I don't understand where it is. I mean, you know, I see this area.

I And that's okay. All right. So, um Thank you, honey. This is uh First Baptist Church of Georgetown, Route 113. Um coming south 113. Okay. This is the west side of 113. This is your left turn on the metric street to come into town. Right across the street, First Baptist Church in Georgetown, Northeast Supply right here, the lumber yard. Okay. This is uh the retail strip associated with the park right in this area and you're the town

and we are going behind there. Yes, there's park in the back. [Music] Yes, ma'am. How many units and houses are you planning to put on that property? Uh, we have a concept plan, but we haven't gone through doing our storm order management, making sure we've got enough space for everything. I'm going to say somewhere around 110 120.

Price range for the we do not know that at this point. It should be affordable housing. So,

anybody else public comment there? Again, this will stay open for two weeks and brought back for council uh to for discussion and uh move forward for the following two weeks for a vote. All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you, sir.

Have a good day. Okay, we're going to move right into the regular council minute minute uh meeting at this time. If everybody rise for the pledge of allegiance and the invocation, please. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Pastor Neil,

eternal God, we thank you God for your love, your conscious mercy. We thank you God for allowing us to come here one more time to discuss town business. Heavenly Father be with us tonight. God, season our words, season our us with love and kindness. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Well, council, the next uh item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda. Uh been told by the town manager that number seven, bond reduction needs to be removed at this time. So with that, I'd entertain a motion to uh modify the agenda to remove uh number seven, bond reduction.

I make a motion to remove number seven on the agenda, bond reduction. Second. Thank you, Penaniel. Thank you, Eric. All in favor signify saying I. I. Opposed? So carried. Moving forward, council members, hopefully you've had a chance to look at the September 22nd town council minutes in your packet. If there's no uh additions or deletions or modifications and entertain a a motion to approve the minutes as written. You're so moved. Thank you, Eric. Do I have a second? Second, Tony. Thank you. All in favor signify saying I. I.

Opposed? So carried. We're at council members comments at this time. We're going to start right at the top. Ward one. Good evening everyone. Thank you. W two. We're glad to see everybody here tonight and rainy day but made it like thank you. W three. Yep. Welcome everybody. Ward four. Do we have a town solicitor tonight? She's online on the Okay. All right. Just wanted to verify that. Yeah.

Um it's nice to see everyone this evening here. Just want to share some information about some things that have been going on with my position of councilman. Back on October 22nd of 2023, Dennis Windsor filed an ethics complaint against me saying I was violating ethic rules. Well, the hearing was September 29th, 2025. And I could not believe our tax dollars pay for an attorney to support him and also an attorney to support the town ethics, which is normal. So, we wasted taxpayer money supporting someone that don't even live in town. They don't even pay taxes in town. That's one issue. Um, I was very impressed with the fairness of the ethics committee even though they were solely appointed by the mayor. While I think the ethics committee is important, I believe the members should be chosen by the mayor and the council to keep things fair. And I learned some things during my ethics hearing. The town solicitor is supposed to be policing our meetings, which means if someone up here is unethical, we're supposed to be stopped and she's supposed to fix it. The ones that are coming to the meeting, they know that's not happening. Nothing's happening. We're doing what we want to do. some of us. Um, one thing we need to put on the town website is if someone wants to file an ethics complaint the process on how to do it because there's nowhere on our website or anywhere, you just don't turn a paper in. There's there's a process and the people of this town need to know the process. If they got an issue, they need to know the process of submitting

it. Thank you.

Thank you, Pendle. And I have nothing at this time. Moving forward, bid awards. Parson Lane Trail Head Parking Area. Gan members of council. In your packet this evening, you have a bid award recommendation from the town engineer includes please find the bid tabulation and a copy of the bids received from October 1, 2025 for the above reference project, which is the Parson's Lane trail head parking area. The town engineer reviewed and submitted the bids and found them to be in order. They are recommending award at the base bid for the project to Thompson and Suns Contracting Inc. in the amount of $491,173. The alternatives can be awarded as funding allows. Pleasure of the mayor and council.

Council, any questions or comments? How many bids did we actually get on this? Uh we received four bids. Five people picked up plans, one did not bid. uh crosscountry contracting uh which is also towns and landscape supply Dixon construct Dixon con contracting George and Lynch and Atlantic contracting in material did not bid and this was the best price for what we're getting yes it is okay thank you anybody else council

with that uh I'd move forward uh with a motion for uh to give the bid to Thompson and Sun for $491,73. So moved. Thank you, Christine. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Tony. All in favor signify saying I. I. I. Opposed. Let's do roll call. Ward one. I. W two. I. W three. I. W four. I. And I'm an I. 50. Thank you very much, council.

This second bid award is for wastewater treatment facility evaluation. Uh we did advertise for this. We did receive only one bid. Please find and close. This is town engineer's recommendation. Request for proposal document submitted by Kushman and Wakefield for the above reference project which is professional appraisal services for the wastewater treatment and disposal assets. Project was advertised in the Baltimore Sun and the News Journal on August 6th, 8th, 11th, and 13th and in the Philadelphia Inquirer newspapers on August 11th. They have checked the RFP and find it to be in order. They recommend awarding the project to Kushman Wakefield in the amount of $21,000. pleasure of the mayor and councel there. Again, any questions or comments?

I just wondered why we advertised in those two cities to try to get a broader base of potentials to bid it. There's not a lot of local folks to do this type of work. Christine, Tony, anything? No. With that, I'd entertain a motion to uh accept the bid. Uh Chrisman and Wakefield. Yeah. Chrisman in Wfield for what is it? 20 $21,000. So moved. Thank you, Eric. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Christine. All in favor signify by saying I. Oppose. Roll call. Ward one. I. W two. I. W three. I. W four. I.

And I'm an I. Thank you very much. Moving forward.

Bond reductions been taken off the agenda. Next one is first reading of ordinances. First one is ordinance 2025-08. This is an ordinance to amend the code of the town of Georgetown, chapter 150 thereof, entitled peace and good order. Town council of the town of Georgetown has met and hereby ordains modification to chapter 157 peace and good order. Article one, sleeping in the circle. Section 157-1, sleeping in the circle prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person to sleep, lie, occupy as a sleeping quarter, or under the guise, or pretending to sleep on any part of the circle within the corporate limits of the town of Georgetown between sunset and sunrise. This replaces the hours of 11:00 in the evening, prevailing time, and 7:00 the following morning prevailing time. The second modification is section two is to chapter 157, 157-3, sleeping in parks prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person to sleep, lie, occupy as a sleeping quarter or under the guise or pretending to sleep on any part of a dedicated public park within the corporate limits of the town of Georgetown between sunset and sunrise. This replaces 11:00 in the evening prevailing time and 7:00 of the following morning prevailing time. These are both recommendations from the circle advisory committee. This is the first reading of the ordinance. No action tonight.

Council, any questions at this time? Well, being it's the first reading, we'll say it again. Any laws prohibiting the any sleep outside of those particular areas? I'm sorry. Say that again. Is there any reason or are there any laws that keep us or the town from keeping the specific areas from people sleeping at all even during the day? Uh during the daytime you could, but uh at night time you cannot. And it's from sunset to sunrise. Okay, moving on. Ordinance 202510.

Okay, ordinance 202510 is an ordinance to amend the town of town code of the town of Georgetown chapter 98. They're entitled fees. This is my modifying chapter 98 fees as follows. Section 986.2 Georgetown recreation education arts and trust fund program. Item B adding three or adding two additional points. Item three, applications received after the published deadline shall not be considered. And item four, applicants that fail to attend and present their application and request shall be disqualified from the granting cycle. Uh these were recommendations from the circle, I'm sorry, from the um 2025 great fund committee. Uh no action required tonight. It's first reading.

We got one question on that is um applications received after the published deadline. So that's that includes that means it can be mailed, but if it's not in town hall by the deadline, it doesn't count whether you mailed it. If it's not received, let's say the published timeline deadline is May 30th at 4:30 p.m. If it's not physically in the building, it's not it's not. Yep. I just received. Yep. In when in the past, didn't we have problems that where we got some afterwards and we had people were no shows for their presentation? Yes. These both came as recommendations from the great fund 2025 great fund committee. Well, thank you great fund committee. Moving on. Resolution 202506.

Okay.

Members of council resolution in support of a technical assistance for zoning and land use reform. Whereas the Senate and House of Representatives of the 153rd General Assembly of the state of Delaware with the approval of the governor directed the Delaware State Housing Authority to create a pilot program to provide technical assistance to local governments to implement zoning and land use reforms. And whereas the intent of the program is to support local zoning reforms to expand housing options by allowing higher density residential development, promoting a variety of housing types and increasing housing access and choice for current and future residents. And whereas according to the Delaware State Housing Authority 2023 statewide housing needs assessment, Delaware has a shortage of over 19,000 units affordable to renters with incomes of 50% or less of the area medium income. And whereas the 2023 national uh housing needs assessment also indicated that Delaware needs to add 24,400 housing units by 2030 to keep up with the population growth. And whereas the affordable housing production task force final report from April 2025 identified local zoning reform as a key objective stating that the task force members had quote unanimous consensus that changes are needed at the local level to enable more diverse housing types end quote and that local zoning ordinance can be barriers to affordable housing development. And whereas the mayor and council of the town of Georgetown herein called the applicant have reviewed this funding opportunity and believe it to be in the public interest and of public benefit to file an application for technical assistance and to authorize other actions in connection therewith. And whereas the applicant understands a condition of receiving technical assistance is a commitment to implement

at least one strategy to permit more diverse housing types. Now, therefore, it is hereby resolved by the mayor and council of the town of Georgetown, the governing body of said applicant as follows. One, that commitment to engaging and working with providers of technical assistance by said applicant is essential and in best interest of the applicant to successfully implement zoning and land use reforms that expand housing options. Two, that said applicant will work to implement the recommendations provided by the technical assistance provider that are related to the zoning and land use reforms selected below. said work should include at a minimum assigning a minimal a municipal staff member as point of contact point of contact for the technical assistance provider and Delaware State Housing Authority meeting and sharing information with the technical assistance provider as needed to facilitate their data collection analysis and recommendation processes. coordinating with the technical assistance provider on public outreach and introducing recommended ordinances or regulatory changes for consideration by the appropriate governing body or bodies. If the recommended ordinances changes are not adopted, the jurisdiction must share documentation of the public engagement that occurred after the changes were introduced and the reasons why adoption did not occur. After discussion with the um community development department, there's uh seven areas that we would focus on. The first one is allowing missing middle housing types as a permitted use in residential zones. Second, create pre-reviewed design plans for missing metal housing types. Third, increase buildable density for housing by reducing minimum lot sizes and bulk standards. Number four, increase building heights for multifamily housing and/or mixeduse developments. Number five, establish an

inclusionary zoning program to address affordable and workforce housing needs. Number six, allow higher density mixed use with residential and commercial zones or employment centers. And number seven, reduce parking requirements in areas zoned for residential and mixed use to promote walkable communities in addition to providing more affordable development opportunities. Third, that certified copies of this resolution be included as part of the application submitted to the Delaware State Housing Authority adopted by the Town Council of the Town of Georgetown, Delaware on this 13th day of October, 2025. Pleasure of the mayor and counsel.

Any comments, council? How's this going to benefit Georgetown? Well, we've talked for many years on um rewriting sections of our zoning code. So, this will provide the resources to do that.

That all penal Eric anything? No, I don't have anything. I mean, this is something coming down with the state and I think they're actually going to try to tie our hands. Um but that's not always good, right? The way I interpret. Well, so just for clarification, so this is what replaced the um mandatory accessory dwelling unit bill. Okay. So for the last two sessions, we were able to stop that bill from advancing in the general assembly. And as a result of that, they agreed that working with the municipalities to find what works best for their municipality might work better than the state saying, "Here's what you'll do."

I do agree. I mean, if we go up in heights, I don't have a problem with that. I think whenever we do the developments, if somebody wants to add so many homes, then a percentage becomes affordable and and and the town needs to work on an agreement of some sort like that. But, um, again, um, if you don't develop, if the town doesn't do it, it's going to developed in the county and it's still going to impact the town and the town's going to get no taxes from it. So, we got to we got to go forward with something. Thank you, Eric. Christine, anything? Just echoing what uh Eric said. Thank you, Tony. Anything?

Well, I talked to Jean today about it and I'm 50/50. One thing is it's Yeah, we we need uh affordable housing, but I don't want to be caught in a situation where the governor is going to dictate what we can do and what we can't do. say they come in with their their organization, their group, and they look at our code and they say, "Here's the ones that need changing, and we agree that we don't want them changed. We want these changed, just like the ones Jean said." And they say, "No, we want these changed." Well, then we're going against the governor, and I don't want to fail that home rule where he's taking authority authority away from us and making decisions for us. And uh I I I talked to the senator about it today and I I I'm I'm on both sides of it here. Senator, can you enlighten us any more on this? I I hate to throw you under the bus.

There's a bus. It's It's just a little bus. It's not a big bus.

Thanks. Uh good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh so the governor came out um not too long ago saying that there's an executive order uh addressing these types of things. The only hammer that I see that the governor may have would be certification of your of your comp plan uh because that's done through planning and land use which is uh an executive branch. any other overriding of town ordinances. I don't believe the go the the governor would have that authority to do that unilaterally without the general assembly uh coming through and passing uh some type of of bill that would just like the the ADU bill uh that would override town code. U so that that's my only concern with that. um that and I think that's the only power that the governor has in this case would be withholding or doing some type of negotiation with the uh comprehensive plan of the town when it's up for review and renewal.

Well, being up there and seeing what's going on, would you recommend us to go forward with this to get the money to see about changing? I'm throwing you under a bigger bus. You are. Um I I I did look up the resolution and it did pass uh both chambers unanimously. um it was actually on consent in the uh in the Senate and it passed 40 to zero in the House. So it it it uh if you're looking at the will of the general assembly, the will of the general assembly was to pass that uh resolution through uh to ask the towns to to take these actions to study. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Well, with that we come to the moment of time where I'd entered uh anybody want to introduce uh or make a motion a motion to uh adopt the resol resolution in in uh the zoning and land use form. Yeah, I'll make the motion then do move them forward. All right, Eric. Thank you. Um do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Christine. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed? I I. Roll call. W one. I. W two.

I. W three. I. W four. No. And I'm a no. So three yays and two nos. The yays have it. So move forward. Gan uh departmental report. Town manager. Gene Dornick. Members of council.

Just a couple items tonight. Uh Sussex County Family Court facilities moving around very well. Uh couple outstanding items. They have um American Disability Act corrections to make on Market and Race Street. They're dealing with some audiovisisual installation. Um X-ray and magometer equipment is in the process of being installed and they're currently working on signage. Uh inspections. They did receive their temporary certificate of occupancy from the town of Georgetown on October 9th. The final CO is anticipated on November the 6th. They do have their final from Denrech, the state fire marshall, and the elevator. And tenant movein is scheduled to start um Friday of this week, October 17th. Pump station rehabilitation. Uh the Meadows, three bells, and a health unit have been completed. And we've also completed the blowers at Gordy Street and Stevenson Lane. Currently in process is the big park and to date we've had three change orders with this project. uh fence replacement at the health unit added an additional $9,490. There was a 30-day extension for the project related to pumps being ordered for the big park pump station. That just added 30 days no cost. An additional blacktop at the um health unit pump station, $13,90. Upcoming events, the America 250 committee will meet th Tuesday, October the 14th, 3:30 here at town hall. Downtown development district open house will be tomorrow evening 5 o'clock pm here at town hall. Planning commission meeting on Wednesday the 15th, six o'clock here at town hall. Supportive housing issues committee will meet Thursday, October 16th, 4 p.m. here at town hall. And the fifth annual community cleanup day will be on Saturday, October 9, October 18th, starting at 9:00 a.m. at First Day Community Action Agency, which is a change. We used to start at the old firehouse on Leighton Avenue at Depot Street. Now we're going to start at First State. And that's all I have, sir.

Any questions or comments to Jean? Christine, Tony? None. Thank you, Jean. You're welcome. Moving forward, uh, public comment. Uh, Diana, is there anybody online that would like to speak?

No, she said. Okay. Thank you, Diane. Uh before we open it up to the public, I think Jean has uh two correspondents uh that he would like to read into.

All right. The first one was received on Sunday morning. Good morning. I am happy to have this opportunity to discuss the overwhelming number of homeless people in Georgetown. This town is full of drug drug dealers, drug addicts, homeless vagrants, crime violence. Lordering is a huge problem. I am new to this hotel. The quality in arrived 217 2025. Upon arrival, I had set I had all of the above living in the hotel. The state vouchers allowed anyone to stay here with no recourse for damages to the hotel, massive drug use, violence, and allowing state paid guests to invite other homeless to sleep on the floor. eat as guest, eat the guestonly breakfast, shower and etc. We would find homeless sleeping in our stairways, hiding in closets, sleeping in doorways. This activity severely dampened the reputation of this hotel. This has all but stopped under my management and it cost over $10,000 in repairs. We will never take another stateass assisted guest SVD church or any other program. However, the homeless still prowl around the hotel 24 hours a day and try to sneak into the hotel and are begging our guests for money and food. The town must do better. Yes, son is a rehabilitation facility, but we see is they finished their 30 days and are left outside to defend themselves. Mental illness and drugs are so rampant here. The Oxford houses are a complete joke, only allowing the landlords to collect money by billing these people. I am not defending druggies at all, but nothing seems to be changing. Pallet

Village has major drug users staying there for free. Why? Where is there no why is there no drug testing tenants? This is only going to get worse as the weather changes and we are fearing more and more problems. Tent city must be taken down immediately. The homeless on the train tracks, the pan handlers on every corner. It is the same people every day. Georgetown police know all their names. They overdose, are taken to the hospitals to rest, get a shot or two, and are right back on the streets seeking the same drugs. They are arrested for trespassing time and time again. And they get away for a day and then right back at the very next day. See the photos. Uh this is what we encounter. All state assisted rooms. They still try to sneak in. They still try and sneak them in, but we are catching them and allowing only one day. They are coming through third-party sites such as Expedia and Booking.com. We can't see who is coming. I do not know what word on the street is. We no longer allow locals. Yes, that is true. We are considering 30 mile ratio 30 mile ratios. Next, the quality in is a sports at the beach hotel who came very close to losing the contract due to the above issues. The town generates lots of revenue with these sports teams, plus the money spent in local restaurants at gas stations, Walmart, and of course, occupancy tax. On another note, there is nothing to do in this town. No movies, no bowling, not enough local eeries or shops. Not everyone wants to shop on Rahobit. What about Marshalls, Panera Bread, Uber Bagels, Jimmy John's? Some of the healthier choices in food and

nicer places to shop other than Walmart. The mayor should be embarrassed at this town and it's Jan Jan Jan Talent, general manager of the quality in second one is received today. I am writing this letter today as the severe drug and homeless problems in this community has gotten out of control. Georgetown has deteriorated in the eyes of visitors and the image has tarnished due to the influx of drugs, homeless people and prostitution that is rampant throughout leaving the hardworking residents in a difficult and unsafe environment and with that the quality of existing quality establishment have suffered. Since becoming the GM of this hotel, I have attempted to employee and help a few in the beginning and with the struggle and the unsafe conditions I incurred left me to realize the police department have had a struggle with trying to resolve issues. However, the experience of all the hardships we have endured trying to reform this hotel has left us with over 10,000 in damages. Seen images or see images attached. The hotel used to honor the vouchers that the state and churches provide for these people who are in desperate need of assistance in this broken system. We no longer can afford to ruin our reputation by trying to assist these people and can't continue to operate under the condition under the old conditions. We have transformed this hotel and continue to bring in quality clientele. Tell us what you tell us what will you to clean up the neighborhood and assist with the combating of the I believe drug use drug dealers um and other issues. I kindly request you Mr. Mayor to explain in detail what steps you are taking to combat this issue. What is your plan to keep our businesses clear of this? It has tampered the reputation and image of our neighborhood and I don't want to lose hope. However, today I kindly

request you address this as your constituents are waiting for a resolution and hope you care about their safety and don't continue to ignore the seriousness of this problem. Again, Joe Joe Annanna Talent, general manager at the quality and those are the two correspondents received, sir. Thank you, Jean. You're welcome.

Uh, now's the time to hear from our public. We welcome your comments which are very important to us. Note that all comments are limited to three minutes. As a reminder, please go to the podium to comment. Please give your name, address, and address your remarks to the chair. Note that we will not be entering into dialogue at this time. The purpose of this agenda item is for you, the public, to inform us, the council, about your views. At this time, the mic is open. I'm first because I sit closest. So, Jerry's passing out papers while I talk. Um the first one is on the little houses on East Market Street. That project that is out there with the two houses you can tour. Um we're not in favor of this project. Um they told us that uh you guys told them where the houses had to sit. They couldn't sit back further because the houses down the street are that close. But these houses do not have a fence to protect the people coming out or the children coming out. And they also are not going to have sidewalks from their door of their house to any parking area or common area. They said it's just going to be the grass and dirt. And you know what that's going to look like. They also said that they're going to cut down all the trees behind the the houses which will show the um electric whatever that thing's called and Purdue. And won't that be a lovely view from their windows and for the people riding through our town? They're also going to discriminate against people with disabilities because they said they can't build them with doors that will work because it would cost them too much money. So, the people that move in there now might not need a walker or a wheelchair or a scooter like I do, but they could fall and break a hip and need all of that. And how are they going to get into the house that they're you living in if it's not handicapped accessible? So, the other thing that I asked is um what

about homeless people that are getting pensions or social security disability checks? And the gentleman who I thought was quite rude that was sharing the information with us says, "Well, if they have enough money coming in, they can live there. So, how would you like to move in? You're a working family. you have children to have somebody that used to be homeless last week now living beside you with still having their alcohol and drug problem just because they have checks coming in. So I'm not in favor of that project. Neither is Jerry and apparently neither is Kent County because WOC posted that story on September 29th. The other uh packet number two is because we asked a lot of questions about the um pallet village. Everybody's always asking questions about the people that stay there and what goes on there. So I asked all these questions and um I was called hostile for asking the questions by um not Mr. uh not Judson. He turned it over to I think her name is Greta. She called me hostile and wanted to know why I thought they should answer my questions except she says, "Why do you feel that we are somehow obligated to answer this stuff?" Well, I'm not sure, but I've worked for two uh nonprofit agencies and I thought their information was public information under some freedom act, but maybe I'm wrong. So, those questions are there for you guys to read. I'm also addressing the Pallet Village subdivision that they want to put out behind the cheer center. What senior citizen living in that chair center wants to have that next door to them? Not only that, these people are just going to walk from their little houses out to Market Street like they did on Bram Hall to North Bedford through my yard like they do everywhere they go. They walk through people's yards. They don't have boundaries. They don't have respect for property. So, you're going to you want to put these little houses, this development back

there and force the cheer cheer center people to deal with that? My three minutes are up, Billy. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Okay, that's fine. Um anyway, I wrote Mr. Shell about that one. Uh that one is on um Eric Bowdener and we all know how that works. And then the last one's odd and ends for the town and the police and everybody else.

And Jerry's got Did you get them all copies? And then you gave one to Brian, one of the police department, and there might be one or two left. My name's Tyler Scott and I love the people of Georgetown and it breaks my heart to see them living in fear. Mayor West, October 21st, 2021, me and you had a conversation. You made me a bunch of promises. Every one of them were lies. We still have tent cities. You said they would be gone. We still have homeless. You said it would completely be you would destroy the the whole pallet village would be gone in three years. It doesn't look like it's going anywhere. In fact, you also said taxpayers would never have to put a dime toward it. Now you're trying to push us to pay for that. Why have you refused to not redirect course? The only thing that works is accountability. I have worked at Sunbehavioral. I have worked with underserved youth. I have worked with kids with behavioral issues. The only thing that's going to fix this is accountability and consistency. You guys giving away stuff and making it comfortable for them to live this lifestyle will destroy this town. [Applause] Mayor West, I'm going to ask you to offer these people the plethora of services that us taxpayers already pay for. If they deny it, start writing them bus tickets because that's what everybody does to us. Get them up out of here. If they deny that, get these gentlemen to stop making them their lives so comfortable. They don't have to be comfortable here. We are not obligated to make people that choose

this lifestyle comfortable. It's time for you, sir, and all of you to do something about this because people are scared. What What are you guys doing? Why have you not redirected yourselves? Have you walked around? Then you ask people to go get documentation. Mayor West, do you know how dangerous that was? Do you think anybody's going to walk around here without a weapon? You're not thinking. And I know you know what the problem is. You are not blind.

You better do something. I'm asking tonight you, Eric Evans, step down. You, Mayor West, step down. You step down. We don't want you. Please stay right where you're at. Give me the solution. I just gave you the solution. We have several a plethora of services, sir. Offer it to them. We're going to get this out of control. Let's not interfere. Let's just let them say what they got to say.

Offer it to them, Eric. Offer them the services. When they deny it, guess what? Where do you want to go? Anywhere in the country. Send them. I know it's not a cure all, but it'll get them out of here for the short time. If they deny that, get these gentlemen to make their life hell. That's what I'm asking for. Get Kim Will. I don't Is Kim Wills in here? Get Get her to educate you guys on what they did in Milford. We need local government to have our backs or we are going You have destroyed this town. You should all be ashamed. It makes me sick to my stomach to walk around this place. My mother lives here by herself. My grandfather passed, but he was here by himself.

Yeah. Fix it. [Applause] And Mayor Les, let's not get into you and what you've done. Look at what you've done with your worrying about threatening my job. Coward. I'm sorry enough. My name is Michelle Burroughs and I am here for my boss for Atlantic

for Atlantic Family Physicians. We live or you know our sorry our office is on the back road of the Waw Wa Road and it's horrible. I am tired of having my patients coming to us sick and having people running up to them asking them for money, begging, can't get them to stop. Call the cops, nothing happens. And then I'm tired of picking up all this trash that's all over the property. But lo and behold, we'll get a we'll get something from you guys telling us to pick it up. and we will.

But I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. We have a ditch behind our behind us

and I know people are living behind there and I don't want them to have a fire back there cuz then there goes my building. But how are you going to get them out from behind there? Or who's going to keep them from behind there? And then you get I've got drug paraphernalia that's found behind my office. It's just horrible. It's horrible what Georgetown has turned into. And I want to know what we have done different than Millsboro. I don't go to Millsboro and see people standing in there waving with a sign and everything like what have we done to turn into this because this is horrible. That's all I've got to say.

Thank you. [Applause]

Shelley Wise, Old Park Avenue. When I first came in here at the beginning of August, it was an issue that started with my mom being uh stopped on the street and I had made the comment, "Don't mess with my family." So, I chose to start going out and documenting and then we talked about it in here and I was told to keep taking pictures and I did. Um, this is a result of it. I think my job's done. People wouldn't go out and see. So, I brought it to them and the things that we've seen, the things that we've smelled, the stories we've heard are sickening. They need help out there. They do. Going out and doing this. We've crawled behind bushes, behind buildings, gone in buildings, climbed ladders on the railroad track trying to do a video. You You didn't want to fall down because you didn't know if you were going to get cut but with glass or needles or anything. We've talked to businesses. We've heard stories out behind Dollar Tree. Dumpsters two times were dumped with two men in them. They had to pay $700 hazmat to clean up the stuff that was back there. I think I've done what I needed to do. It needs to be addressed. I'm hoping now. And I'm so happy everyone came out to do to to represent all this. So, as far as I'm concerned, my job's done documenting. It's in everybody's else's hands now. Thank you.

Thank you, Shel.

Hi, my name is Eric Merrill. I'm a resident of Georgetown, but I'm also a peer counselor. Um, so the reason why I'm here is because me myself, I also have concern about the way Wes is addressing this situation. Um, I know Mayor West is aware of who I am. See, all the homeless people that you see around here, they're not a number for me. There are people, people who struggle with addiction, their families, their brothers, their fathers. Facts, right now in Tent City, there's about 13 people that have jobs. They work at Purdue, but they don't have nowhere to go because our great mayor decided to take them away where they were all controlled. Has nothing to do with the cops. The cops are doing a great job. These cops, they know these individuals by name. But why are you gonna call a cop for something that we as a community can address and let them do their job? again, Wes, when you go into any media podcast and you start injecting fear that the homeless are are threatening the same people that work around you. I mean, we haven't seen nobody really going crazy in this community, you know, or as far as I know. Because if y'all talking about somebody uh uh um doing misdemeanor going in, I don't agree with it. But we're talking about compared to Wilmington and these other cities and towns that we have

here, the numbers are small. We're not saying, I'm just comparing because it's all about numbers. Statistically, when we talk about numbers, the crime level here is low. Do we have a problem with homeless? Yes. But no one is attacking. No one is attacking about where the money is going. This is your taxpayer. We have a a we have a pallet program in here that was two years ago

that was created to help the homeless out. Ask anybody that's running it. Can you show me one success story? one person that came from being homeless in Georgetown, got a job, and then successfully is living. Just show me one. Tell me that the pallet can produce that. Not somebody from the outside.

You don't understand me? So my thing is, if we're going to criticize what's happened in our hair, we have to look to our leader. He's the one in charge. We elected him. And when that person that we elect is talking radical, he's not just jeopardizing your lives, he's jeopardizing everybody, even the homeless, you know. So I we're not here to lynch nobody. We're just here to tell somebody that we need help in this community, but it can't be one-sided. You can't spend your money on your special programs. And yes, I was one of the guys that mysteriously got a call cuz I am a superintendent on this great family court that we just built. I worked there and all of a sudden when I started addressing the fact that I think the pallet program is a bunch is cash being donated to the people who are on a higher up cuz I haven't seen one progress. I haven't seen one success story, but these are the people. Mind you, we're not even going to talk about the conflict of interest that somebody's in the pallet house

that somebody's in the pallet house and then you can sit in the counseling. Yeah. No one is addressing that. No one is saying, "Where's the money at?" Sir, the three minutes are up. There's more people like to talk. No, I'm coming. I'm not leaving leaving. I'm coming up here. No,

didn't want to talk the first time. I came here for this. Uh, good evening, mayor and council. Um, Jean, um, Devour, uh, Jean and, uh, and Stephanie online. As you know, my name is Brian Penny John and tonight I come to you as your state senator as a former mayor and a former town councilman and a resident of Georgetown. I appreciate the opportunity to talk tonight about an issue that affects the safety and well-being of both Georgetown's residents and its mo most vulnerable citizens. I thought at length about my remarks and my presence here tonight. I don't want my being here speaking to be a direct criticism of the town. I've sat in your seats before. I know the complexity of decisions and the issues that you face in governing our town. My respect for local government and home rule should be apparent to anyone who's heard me speak on local issues since my election to the Senate. No, my presence here and my remarks were a reflection of the concerns I've heard from our shared constituency on the issue and as an offer to assist the town in whatever way is needed and appropriate. We all know this is a deeply sensitive topic as we can see here by the crowd tonight. It's very emotional. There's passionate advocates for those experiencing homelessness and there's residents who feel frightened, frustrated, or unheard. each of those with their own perspectives. As public officials, it's our duty to not favor one voice over another, but to create a space for all voices to listen respectfully, to listen respectfully, and to build policy rooted in compassion, fairness, and accountability. Right now, Georgetown's grappling with the consequences of visible homelessness. And those consequences are real. In recent months, residents have reported feeling unsafe. people crossing

streets at night outside crosswalks, groups laundering near commercial areas, and individuals following and harassing towns people and visitors aggressively asking for money in real retail parking lots and at gas stations. Some have raised the spectre of petty crime, public intoxication, trespassing, shoplifting, acts that erode the sense of security in our town. Rusty, want to go back here? She fessing out.

Sorry, Senator. Hold on just a minute. That's fine. Now you can proceed, sir. Sorry.

That's fine. Residents feeling unsafe should be a a showstopper for us as elected officials. We mustn't allow the small group of individuals in our town to force families and businesses to leave our community to feel safe elsewhere. In addition, littering and debris have become frequent complaints. Our residents, our constituents speak of picking up trash, discarded belongings, waste along sidewalks and parcels, and members of our volunteer organizations finding various dangerous biohazard materials where the public may have access to those items. These infractions might seem minor, but collectively they degrade public spaces, contaminate private lands, and amplify the feeling that the town is not in control of the environment. I don't say these things to demonize people experiencing homelessness. Some are suffering from circumstances beyond their control. Mental illness, job loss, lack of affordable housing, addiction. But it's fair and necessary for residents to expect safe, clean, orderly public space. And it's fair and necessary for residents to call on their local government to act. We all know the previous efforts have had mixed success. The tent city encampment was dismantled in 2024, displacing those who had lived there with no clearly defined immediately replacement place. The town's also created a 10- member committee to review supportive housing and homelessness policies. Those are steps in the right direction. But what we need now is greater momentum, coordination and accountability. This issues as this issue has reached a critical mass and our residents are expecting definitive action now, not six months from now. So tonight, I urge you to consider the following. First, policy must both respond to safety and

compassion. We cannot ignore legitimate resident concerns about public order. It's within the town's with within the town's powers that are invested in its charter too, and I quote from our charter to provide for and preserve the health, peace, safety, cleanliness, ornament, good order, and public welfare of the town and its inhabitants. and also to define, prevent, abate or remove nuisances, obstructions or any other condition detrimental to the public safety, health or welfare. At the same time, we must also hold the dignity and rights of those who are homeless. Second, dialogue must be preserved. Every person, every advocate, and even the individual experienced homeless has a right to voice their opinion without fear of retaliation. We must foster a process in which critique is welcomed and not punished. Third, we have to move from crisis to structure. Identify the clear goals, measurable metrics, and designated responsibilities for the town, for the state, and for our nonprofit partners so solutions don't fade when the political will fades. Fourth, I will offer my office as a convening arm. I'll work with you to establish either a formal or an ad hoc group that brings together all the stakeholders, the residents, the businesses, the advocates, service providers, law enforcement, health agencies, faith groups to help solve this problem. This is an all hands-on deck approach that needs to be had, and I'm willing to help quarterback that for the town. Finally, we must plan for both short-term mitigation and long-term systemic change, improved cleanup,

enforcement of existing laws, and making sure that our residents and visitors can be safe and feel safe in our town at all hours of the day. We must also determine what can be done now to move these individuals off our streets and woods and into a structured environment where they can receive the hand up, not the hand out, the hand up that they require. And closing the question before us is not whether Georgetown should care about homelessness. It must. We all must care about it. The question is how we act in a way that restores safety, public order, and dignity for everyone. One term that I always use, let's not be paralyzed by complexity. Instead, we should lean into the hard work of listening, partnering, prioritizing, and acting. I stand ready to work with all of you to help move this forward. not only the council but the residents of the town and the businesses as well. Let's get this done. Thank you.

You went three minutes over but I'm not holding you. [Applause] Say something else then. No. No. No.

So for those people that think I don't know anything about homelessness or addiction because some of those comments were made online. I have homelessness in my family. I have addictions in my family. I have an uncle that died in a shed because he burned all the bridges with his family because of his addictions. So I do know and if somebody says karma should bite me in the ass, how about it? But I've been there and dealt with that stuff. So my thoughts to you guys is have you ever gone out and walked with Shelly and seen what she said seen and you guys are voted in office. Do you ever pick up the phone and call people in your area and say, "We're going to vote on this. What do you think?"

Because we don't get you, we don't vote you in so you can vote for what you want. We want you to vote for what we want. [Applause] [Music]

And we don't just walk, we give money and water. Thank you. Bo Shockley, Old Park Avenue. Um, I was born in 1993. I've lived in this town since 1993. Um, my dad's Jeff Shockley. He was born 1967. He's lived in this town all of his life. My grandfather, Cen Shockley, was born 1942, and he lived in this town all of his life. He's buried right at Union Cemetery. I got a few words I want to say tonight. About three years ago, I stood right here in this very spot and I said these words. If you build it, they will come. Well, three years later, here we are. And we're all seeing the results of approving the Pallet Village. I warned it would be a magnet, and it has been. They've come in numbers. Meanwhile, the problems of homelessness and addiction in this town get worse every single day. And what has our leadership done? They've allowed it to happen. Maybe, just maybe, it's time to start listening to the people who live here, the residents who pay the taxes and make this town function every single day. And now I hear Mayor West wants to blame the residents. No, we are the ones who have been sounding the alarm for years. We've been saying this was coming and now it's here. It's time, pastime, for the mayor and this council to stop talking around the issue and actually take action. We don't need excuses. We don't need more delays. We need solutions. That's why I second Councilman Barrett's motion, get a bus and send them away. President Trump is

cleaning up the streets of Washington DC. It's time for Georgetown, Delaware to clean its streets as well. And let me say this clearly. I'm tired of hearing over and over again lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits. That is not leadership. Leadership is standing up for the residents of this town. Leadership is having the backbone to protect the community you were elected to serve. So I ask you tonight, who are you standing with? The residents who make this town possible or the problems that are tearing it apart? It's time to choose. [Applause] Hello, my name is John Peterson. I live at 304 North Bedford. I have not lived here all my life. Uh

okay. Uh, I saw uh all y'all uh praying uh but I don't think you guys are acting very Christian when you're clapping at other people's misery. [Music]

Give him three minutes. uh you know uh I've been walking uh up to this meeting uh pretty uh much for the last four years walking up North Bedford. I live at 304 North Bedford. I've never had a problem. I'm more afraid of you all than I am of any of the people that are walking around the streets. Thank you very much. Eddie [Applause] Wise, Old Park Avenue. Um, to your comment, have you ever walked past North Beer Street? Have you walked down the railroad tracks?

No, Dad. Have you walked down the railroad tracks? Have you walked back in the woods? Just talking. I'm I'm just talking. Not You don't have to answer, Eddie. just trusting me. Okay.

You know, we've been out there walking. Yes, we've not had any issues on North Beer Street. We've not had any issues really with any of them, but it's just a matter of time before somebody does get hurt. We're not heartless. We have talked to them. We know some of their stories. Our biggest problems in this town are all of these detox houses or whatever you want to call them. The pallet village, the shepherd's office. That place is not helping anyone.

It's more of a enabler. They go there. They keep coming back and keep coming back. He gives them clothes. Where do we find their clothes? In the woods. On the streets.

On the streets. the meals that they prepare. He brags about serving thousands of meals a month. We find them laying on the road. That's where all your trash is coming from. We can't do anything about that. Our code enforcement officers don't do anything about all the trash in the woods. They go in and they trash people's property. These people don't have any rights. The homeless have more more rights than they do on their property. We have, yes, we have a problem with the homeless. None of them, I'm sure, well, I can't say none of them. A lot of them don't want to be homeless, but there's some of them that enjoy it. That's their lifestyle.

They don't want help. And they're here because they want a hand out, not a hand up. We have a problem. We don't have houses for them, but we also have services that aren't helping them. the services around here. They're looking at their own wallets. Something's got to be done about all these halfway houses. Who are they helping? Themselves. Thank you.

Thank you, Eddie. [Applause] My name is Jim Lie. I live on 22127 Lewis Georgetown Highway. And this year on April 16th, after 1000 p.m., the Georgetown police started a pursuit of a homeless man in a rental car heading east on Route 9. As you go past the cheer center, you know, the little bend in the road, uh, the Delaware State Police were also in pursuit, coming east to west to Georgetown. The Nissan sedan was traveling over 80 miles an hour and up to 100 miles an hour when it went into the ditch, flew across my twocar driveway, landed in my flagpole slate Christmas tree. My life, my wife doesn't like, but but landed there, flipped and broke its axle. all five of the uh vehicles um airbags deployed. When the Delaware State Police and the Georgetown police tried to tap on the window, they knew the man's name. They had problems with this guy before. He was homeless. He lived in Georgetown. Didn't have a driver's license. Had a rental from Arizona. And when I got out of my car, out of my house to see what happened, the first thing they told me was, "Get in your house." I built that house in 1982. I had three kids that would have been coming home that night. You would have had a son or daughter that was, "Hey, I got to be home by 10:30. I better get going." He could have killed anybody heading east from Georgetown. Now, I received

a letter, six charges, driving without insurance, driving without a license. Uh, the state police estimated that I had almost $2,000 worth of damage to my property. I jacked up my deductible. So, it now fell on me. So, I spent about $450 and spent 36 hours of my own time fixing my house or my yard. Now, the biggest mistake I had was I should have asked the u um Lynch uh the flatbed if I could have compounded the car because if I would have took it to Fitzgerald's or Donovan, I would have got $400. I haven't received a penny yet. Now, there's a State Department for victim's rights, and I haven't, you know, I haven't wrote a letter yet. I figured, you know, but there, you people here tonight said, "Well, nothing has happened to you. You haven't been hurt. Someone could have died that night. your children, your grandchildren. The guy that was driving the car, thank God he didn't get killed because I'm sure I would have been sued for not having the ditch piped out. I'm done.

All right, Jim. [Applause]

Dennis Windsenreed, 23365 Park Avenue in Georgetown. I am also a member of the support of housing issues committee and I wanted to state that we are open to any suggestions from anyone in the public as to what to do. Forward it to town hall attention of supportive housing committee issues or issues committee rather and we will definitely take it into consideration. We're looking to help solve this problem. Unfortunately, not unfortunately, but homelessness is a problem, but they do have certain rights and there are laws that protect them. We have to work within those laws and do something for the problem. Senator Petty John, I would like to enlist your office to help with us on the committee also, but we can use all the help. So, everyone who comes out and feels strongly about this, please get in touch with one of the members of the committee. Let town hall know when we have our committee meetings. They are published. Please come out, give us your suggestions as far as solutions to the problem. Instead of getting upset about it, let's think about it creatively and see what we can do to solve this problem. That's all I have to say. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Mark Rogers, uh, Boys and Berry Lane in Georgetown. Most of you know me. Uh, I probably know as much about the homeless as anyone, 36 years as a volunteer fireman. So, I've gone back in Tent City at 2 in the morning and did CPR, someone who's overdosed, and carry him back out on a stretcher through all that mud and briars and woods. um many times volunteering my time but also I spent as you know almost 21 years as a Georgetown police officer I retired about a year and a half ago and wasn't totally against the pallet city but we knew what was going to happen as police officers as soon as the pallet city opened it wasn't a week I was on night work stopped two people walking down the streets one from Pennsylvania and one from Virginia and they were here for the pallet shelter and I said well they're full they said we're looking for tent city. It was called the bullpen. You go to the tent city and you wait for something to open up in the pallet shelter. So, we did Bose's right. We did create this a little bit. It's a it's a waiting a waiting place. I've also seen a lot of posts about the police department and I'm going to stick up for the police department. um on night works. There's sometimes that me and my partner would stay busy for 12 hours and we dealt with the same homeless person three or four times. We are out there or they are out there and we were at the time and I know they still are. But there's only so much we can do. There's only so much the police officers can do. You get someone for begging for money, you give them a criminal summon and they're right back out the street. Uh we got to get our courts involved. uh what Senator Pettig John said, we got to we got to get involved as a group and all come together uh and work on this issue. Uh we're not just going to solve it overnight because you're not going to jail for begging for money. You're just not. And the police officers, is that

what we want? Do we want the police officers tied up for two hours um while we got a drunk riding on the road or we got someone breaking our house? So, we got to work together to solve this. Uh certainly, I don't agree all the time with people on the council. Uh I give you guys credit night. I know some of you are taking a lot of heat. You're sitting there and you're taking it. Um so I um thank you for professionalism. But again, we got to come together. Uh I've been on the front lines for 21 years. Yes, we have a homeless issue. Um but we got to we got to come together and solve this as a team. Thank you. [Applause]

My name is Sunonny Gani. I live off the old Park Avenue and luckily I knew all the castans before. I'm a transplant from DC so I can't claim all that. I started about 12 years ago affordable housing in this town on Braml Street and unfortunately for some reason other I let it go. And I know the situation. And I've been coming here and complaining about affordable housing for almost a decade. And although I know there's a lot of issues, I did get in touch with the gentleman who owns the property where the tent village is. And uh with the help of the Georgetown PD, we walked through it and uh there is a bad situation. It'll probably take couple of dumpster full of stuff. I did meet with him again today after this morning's uh radio show and uh I tried to explain it to him that we need to clean that place up. His complaint is that he talked to the city, he talked to the police, he gave them in writing and they live up north in Wilmington. He said they cannot do anything. So I don't know if it's true or not. I did ask him that if he authorize us, we will take charge of that place for a year. We'll clean it up. We'll get everybody out of there. I don't know where you're going to put them. If we have now we have a better uh resolution that we can have a high density and all that stuff. I'm willing to help with my money and time to build something where you can have between the tent city and the crisis house and everything else someplace where people can live for $600 700 a month. That's my promise to this city. I love this city. I want to help in any way which I can. That's all I have to say.

Thank you, son. My name is Charlie Costk and I live on Old Park Avenue. I've had a business here in Georgetown for 26 years. And in the last 5 years, my business has been vandalized three times. Um, my front door was broken. My building was spray painted. Um, my flowers were stolen out of the front of my my uh shop. I want to uh I'm proud to be in this town. I try to beautify my business and um I don't feel like I really want to invest much more into the town that I'm already doing because I just don't see it moving in the right direction. Um my wife is retirement age. Um so I'm seriously thinking about what my future's going to be here in town. I I love being here. Um and I just want to pass that along. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. I'm Linda Dennis. I live in the village of Cinderberry. There are several areas that aren't being talked about that are very serious that impact upon this problem and that is drug and alcohol treatment facilities. serious treatment and it has to cons we have to consider something even called outpatient commitment because the drug and alcohol problems together are causing such distress not only to the people involved the users but the people in this town I don't hear

anything really being mentioned about serious development of services that need to be funded and And I would ask you to look into that because some behavioral health is here, but I don't hear very many good stories about their impact on the population that we're talking about. We need safe confinement, if you want to call it that. Um, where there's treatment for up to 30 or 60 days or whatever they need, we need to provide it. Not we, Georgetown. The state needs to help us, but that's the piece that's missing here. There has to be serious interventions. You can't have a housing program that allows people to continue to use. What does that do? Nothing. They need serious intervention. And we need the people in mental health and drug and alcohol abuse to come together with us and figure out some kind of a service that's going to provide them with the protection and the involuntary treatment. And it it might be involuntary treatment then so let it be. That's all I have to say.

Thank you, Linda. [Applause]

Adam Buchchkowski 200 South Bedford Street. Um love the turnout tonight. Really glad to see everyone. Um maybe not so much though we don't need them wanting to build an $18 million new town hall next. But um this one's clearly falling apart, too. Your next lawsuit there, that light waiting to fall down on someone. Um I'd like to uh touch on what Dennis said. Uh the supportive housing committee issues committee does we do meet here Thursday at 4:00 and there is the public is welcome to come. There's even a public comment section. So, anyone who is looking and has ideas, uh, please come. That more people we hear from, the better. Um, I mean, obviously, one person's not going to solve this. Um, we do like to get up and, uh, herang the council for our three minutes, but, uh, you know, that only goes so far. You know, asking people to step down. I mean, elections are next year. um do with that what you will. But um yeah, visiting us there on on Thursday, I would love to see a turnout like this. I'd love to hear from my fellow people in the town. Let's find an end to it. I do uh I did like the first reading of the uh proposed ban on sleeping on the circle. I think that's a great way to go. Uh I think one of the ways that we will be able to end homelessness is essentially ticketing them out of town. I mean, if we don't pay our taxes, we're going to get arrested and go to jail. If these people don't pay their fines, the same should happen to them. I mean, it's just we're going to have to make it a state's problem. Sorry, but you guys can find some more uh budgeting funding in there for the prisons. Um I don't, you know, see too many other solutions on getting them out of town. Um you know, it's people brought up people, some people just like being homeless and uh we definitely have a a great place to be homeless. Um they give

you free food, free clothing, free blankets right down the road. Um it's quite ironic a place called the shepherd's house and you know the biblical ties. Um you know comes to mind of course is Jesus you know teaching a man how to fish verse giving him a fish. We have a guy down here who just gives fish out and we can hear Jesus speak at 6:30. Thank you. But that's about what I got for the night. Again, just so happy to see everyone out here tonight. This is awesome. Love you guys.

Thank you, Adam. [Applause] I'm Sue Barlo. I live at 703 East Law Street Extended in Georgetown. I'm going to come at this from a different perspective, that of a long-term Georgetown homeowner. We're talking about those tiny little houses out on East Market Street. When that development goes in, if it goes in, and I'm assuming it's going to be pushed, that's going to drop the property values for everybody from the whole East Market Street, my development in on Murray's Lane and and uh East Laurel Street Extend. We've got to think about what while we're thinking about housing homeless people, you've got to also think about the long-term residents and homeowners in this town. Because every time you put tiny little houses or a tiny little development here or there, the one they're talking about on East Market Street sounds like a nightmare. It's going to drop property values for everybody. We can't, you know, we're the persons that's paying the taxes and we all got a nice big fat hit on property both county and town this year. So, I would like for everybody to think about people like me, what's the value of my house going to be after all of this mess is put in there? Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Clayton Towns and 20293 Annis Road in Georgetown here. Um I guess it's been about a week 10 days ago. Um friend of ours come over um met with my wife. Um, as you know, she was on counsel for a while and she got a she had a concern. Um, 2:30 in the morning, she had a some crackhead sitting on her doorstep. Her Ring doorbell alerted her to his presence. She went to the door, looked, saw him sitting there doing his thing. She contacted the police department. police department comes and and by that time he had left and um she's a widowerower, you know, so she's concerned and scared and issue was um you know, they looked at the film, they recognized him immediately, said, "Oh, he just got out of jail." And they in turn um said, "Well," she said, "Well, I want to press charges." Well, if we press charges, he will know who you are and he'll know where you live and all this other stuff. So, he was trying to talk his way out of of perhaps tracking this guy down and and doing anything about it. Um, our people shouldn't live in fear. Um, and and that that's my thing. Um, none of us, you know, I had a bad situation a couple weeks ago when my wife was home for a few weeks by herself and scared to death the whole time that I was in the hospital. But, um, going back, you know, you know, something should have been done. I don't know if perhaps it was done. Um, I've

given, um, the chief information on the drug deal at the gates of Pallet Village. It was done every Friday at a 7:20 to 7:30. Um, a late model Jeep. Told him where it was and everything. Um, I went we went met with Eric Bowdeniser and he glanced over, saw this vehicle, says, "What the hell is he doing here?" Now, I say, "Eric's got a list about this long of people banned from his shepherd's office." And when I glanced around, he he says, "What the hell is that vehicle doing here?" And I looked at it and here's a late model Jeep sitting there and I'm like, why is it still on the road? Why wasn't he arrested? Was it because he was told to stand down anything near Pallet Village? Cuz we did have lockers set up. I don't know if still there or not, but there was lockers at Pallet Village. So, how in the hell do we expect them to get any better if we're allowing to bring the drugs to these lockers just outside the gate and then they go in and then if they want to have a hit, they go back out, open up their locker, walk over the field, and then they can do their thing. We can't expect that. Going back to years ago when you became first mayor, you said you went to the classic hotel and you told him clean up his act or you're going to shut him down. Why haven't we done that with Shepherd's Office? This is You got people driving up in Mercedes and and Silverados and vehicles is good or better than mine and um I work for 11 and they're getting free meals and and then this trash the all this foam when you walk into the woods and we have Angie and I have walked numerous times. It looks like it snowed where this styrofoam is breaking down. It's a petroleum product. I mean, it's it's not good for the environment. I mean, it's that was, you know, the liberals were doing their thing about sterone. I'm going to use their words to

say, "Hey, you know, we need to clean up that stuff." I talked to Eric about going to I think it was World War II where they had the the metal lids on the um like the MREs um where it be cleaned, reused, you know, they just use them. But it went nowhere because he would had to put it out and they would had been responsible to clean them and bring them back and you know use them. But um but why I just it it just hits me. We've got people that are in danger and we got shepherd's office that is just it's ruining this town. You know, I know I talked to my minister Sunday and I told him we had to reook at the way we did things with the church and and them and he he had issues too. He said, "We don't give them money. We give them the canned goods." But you know, our church is very open and giving. And you know, John was talking about, you know, where your Christian values are. You can only get slapped in the face so many times when you're you're reaching out and he's slapping your hand right back in your face. So that's my concerns. Thank you.

Thank you, Clayton. [Applause] I'm Angie Towns and I live at 20293 Andis Road, same place he lives. And I need to do an apology when I was on council. Um, and I sat up there, which is a hard job. The pallets came on the agenda and they filled this room with homeless people, addicts, alcoholics, mothers with kids living in the woods. And it got to me. It really did. But I should have listened to some of my constituents over there, the Shockley that said, "If you build it, they will come." So, I want to apologize because I supported it. I thought it was a good idea. We had a drive-thru where we collected groceries, funds, shampoos, toothbrushes at First State Community Action. We filled two storage containers out on South Bedford Street. Sue Barlo helped. Linda Dennis helped because we felt sorry for these people because they lack the little necessities we take for granted like toothbrushes and toothpaste, body wipes. So we did that and we worked we worked our butts off. We stocked the store at the pallets so they could go in and like a normal person and shop and pick out shampoos or whatever they needed, socks, underwear, pajamas, blankets, pillows. But after I see what it's become when I

campaigned and I said it was a magnet. No, no, I was told it's not a magnet. Well, it is. It's a magnet. The shepherd's house.

Yes. Eric invited me to go. So, I went. I went and I think everybody was put on notice that Clayton and I because I was told I think by the mayor, "Don't go by yourself. Don't go by yourself. Take somebody." So, Clayton and I went and we toured. Everybody was on their best behavior. We attended church service and then when he took us on tour of the building, showed us all the crockpots, all the meals, took us upstairs, all the which they had to keep on locking key. And we were told at that point in time they were not giving out tents anymore because that was one of my problems. You give them a tent and a heater and tell them where to go camp. [Music] And we went out to where they were doing the clothes. And the majority of the people that were going through the clothes, and I'm going to be called a racist, were Hispanic people. They're loading up trash bags full of clothing. And I said, Eric, is that homeless? And he said, "No." And I said, "I've heard they fill up bags of clothes, they take them out across from Purdue's, and they have yard sales, so they're making money." He said, 'Well, you can't blame somebody to supplement their income if they want to have a yard sale. I said, 'But you're not helping the homeless here, and it looks like really it looks like crap when you ride by on those days and there's hordes of people in the back just going through post left and right, but they're not serving the people they're supposed to be serving. Clayton and I went into the jungle when I ran for office and we met three people. Two were friendly, one was not. Wanted to know what we were doing there. And I said, "We're we're walking. Why not? We're walking." Met two guys. One was there for six years and one was a resident there for three years. Why are you here? Cuz we get free stuff.

Free stuff. More homeless people we talk to do not want housing, affordable housing. They don't want a job. They like where they're living because they get free handouts. Now, some do. There's a certain couple I talk to in town, a man and a woman. I talk to them two or three times a week. I've given them money once to go to Splash to wash all their clothes and go see Justin to get a container. Because they were moving in the pallets. I said, "Go wash your clothes. Put them in a container." And I called Justin. He said he'd have a container for him. Go wash your clothes. put them in the container so they're nice and clean when you move in the pallets. But since then, I bought them food and I work at the church and I supply them with water, wipes, toothbrushes, toothpaste. So I try to help to a certain way. I am done. Okay. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening to the council, the mayor, and the visitors. My name is Judy Lawson. I live over on North Front Street. I've had a couple incidences with the Shepherd's House on a beautiful spring day about 18 months ago. I was given over 100 prepared meals frozen. My first call was to the shepherd's house. That was before all the trash walking in the streets, riding their bikes on the wrong side of the road and the sidewalks. I was trying to help. Jim Martin told me, "Ah, bring them up and put them on the table. Somebody will take them." I explained, "These are

frozen meals." Well, they'll thaw. They'll eat them. I've got people come by every day and take whatever's left out there. No accountability. These people do not want the responsibility of being citizens of Georgetown, Delaware. And it's damn time we stand up. [Applause] Hi, my name is Kim Wells. I am not from Georgetown. I'm from Milford, Delaware. I am on the Milford homeless action committee. I along with Trish Marble and a group of wonderful people help get the homeless using state and federal resources. Do not give them money. Do not give them food. Do not give them anything that they're going to dump on your ground. Stop. Stop your churches. Stop your nonprofits. Don't. If you want to pick up more trash, keep giving them stuff. There are over 1,300 shelter beds in this state. You know, most of them go unused because the homeless don't have to go to the shelter because they have all you fools giving them everything they need. Why? They can beg, get money for a bottle, get money for heroin, whatever their drug of choice is. Who's going to make them go whenever life is way too easy for them? We're all complaining about the homeless, but everyone's making it easy to be homeless in Georgetown. And I can honestly say our past counselor and mayor made it

very friendly to be homeless in Milford. We had the encampment. We got rid of it. They tried to build it over by Walmart. We we called the corporate center. It was shut down. You got to stop it before they get embedded. Unfortunately, they are so embedded here, it's going to take you guys a while. But they do have state and federal resources. Don't say that they can't get in. And he's right. The counselor is right. They go to these behavioral units whenever it's raining. If it's cold, oh, I want to get sober today. They don't go to get healthy. They don't go to stop. They go to waste your taxpayer money. If it's cold and they can't get in some behavioral, they go to the hospital and once they get released from the hospital, they'll sign back in. Oh, I stubbed my toe last week. We are willing to work with you guys because we don't want to just keeping these pushing the homeless people from city to city. This needs to be a state issue. And speaking of a state issue with the homeless, you all need to call every senator and representative because that homeless bill they're trying to pass is going to ruin every city. We have more rights. We pay the taxes. We pay for these towns. I'm willing to work with anyone and I've met with Mr. West, gave him a whole bunch of paperwork. Let's work together. Let's clean up this state. We can't live like this. And I don't want to live like this. I miss shopping in Georgetown. [Applause]

Anybody else? Are we done for the night? We're not done yet. Not done yet. Okay.

Hello, Robin Ham. 305 North Front Street. Born and raised here. See a lot of familiar faces. Um, I moved back in 2019 pre- pandemic. Thank God. Um, I was apoplelectic when I moved back. I've been so angry for the last 5 years of what this town has been allowed to turn into. I love the people nodding. Cracks me up. Um, mom and Bill have been accosted in the driveway, out in the public. We recently had to have somebody run off twice from our property broad daylight. I don't know what more. Something bad's going to happen in this town. It's not going to be on my conscience. It's not going to be in my hand. But it's going to happen. And I know where to take my trash when I find it because there's a lot of trash when I walk this town now. I don't walk at night. I don't walk at 6:00 in the morning because it's dark. People are on the move. It's bad, guys. Come walk with me sometime. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Anybody else at this time? Council, Mr. Mayor, uh, most of you, some of you know me as Jay. Officially, I'm James H. Baxter IV. I had no intention of speaking when I came here tonight. I came here, got some ice cream, and figured I'd come figure out what's going on in the town of Georgetown. But there are some comments made that uh I'd like to address. And there's another point I'd like to address with the town about an issue that has not been talked about tonight. So, those of you, I know I'm not supposed to address you all.

When you all flush your toilets, let me step back a second. I am not a resident of the town of Georgetown. I went to school here. My friends grew up here. Had a lot of fun in Georgetown. Still spend a lot of time in Georgetown. 20 years I've been in the Georgetown Fire Company as a proud member of the Georgetown Fire Company. When you all flush your toilets, that water goes out of town south of here to a treatment plant, gets treated. That treated effluent comes on my farm.

When those nozzles get plugged up on that irrigation system, do you know what my children find in those nozzles? So, are we getting that water clean when I pump it on my fields to grow a crop to feed chickens with? No. I'm not allowed by law and rightfully so to pump that water on on on an edible crop vegetables, right? And so that par part of the farm gets used for growing corn and soybeans and and that's just about it. Something that has to get further processed. Mr. Burton back there in the corner, you remember those days cleaning those nozzles out, don't you? Yep. Yep. I swear that's why my ch my parents had kids just to do those kind of jobs. Right. Yeah. So, so that's something that I don't know that we've ever addressed as the town. And I say we because right I'm part of it here. Are we really getting that water clean? And I don't know that I need to be making that publicly known the more I stand up here and speak about that. But you know just what is getting flushed down those toilets. The other issue that I'd like to address is the one that was brought up that these people are harmless. I really respect what you all do, but sometimes your response time isn't immediate and I respect that because there's other things going on. Twice in the last two weeks, I have brought myself to Georgetown from Stokeley. One, because my wife felt uncomfortable at Wawwa in Georgetown.

I got news for you. Somebody lays a hand on that pretty young lady, you'll be seeing me and it's a shame. The other one is an employee of Baxter Farms felt uncomfortable at county bank in broad daylight. As she walked out of the bank, there was a non-resident of Georgetown that lives here, going around to every single vehicle in that parking lot and the people that work in that bank going to them asking them for things. Had his shoe off his foot. I don't know what he was doing with the shoe off of his foot, right? But the police were called and I got there faster than they did. And would you know it, the guy was gone. I don't trust them. They're not in their right mind. And it concerns me when I do business in Georgetown. Not at a resident of Georgetown, but as a businessman in and out of Georgetown, that concerns me. And I'm going to take my business elsewhere. And that's that's hard for you all when I take my business elsewhere. Thank you. her tennis skim branch road. The one thing that I see is every day I I'm retired from the military and I ride through town every day and drink coffee. Every day I ride by the police station and all those new cars are in the parking lot. If they were out invisible, half of this wouldn't be happening. Follow the money.

Anybody else at this time? We'll come to the point for adjournment. So, I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Thank you, Eric. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Tony. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? So carried. Have a good night, ladies and gentlemen. [Music]