Commissioner - Regular Meeting
The Queen Anne's County Commissioners opened their September 21, 2026 meeting by mourning the loss of long-time county attorney Patrick Thompson, before approving several transportation contracts, presentations, and public hearings.
About this meeting
- Government Body
- Commissioner
- Meeting Type
- Commissioner
- Location
- Queen Anne's County, MD
- Meeting Date
- September 21, 2026
Published excerpts
Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.
51 sections (from 53 segments)
Nope. I'm going to make a motion to approve the agenda as submitted and all the meetings minutes as submitted as well.
I move to appoint Riley Huffton to the Board of Queen Anne's County Community Partnerships for Children and Families, the local management board, to serve a term beginning July 1st, 2026. Second.
I appreciate it. John, have you been to the Senior Center? Have you been to the senior center? I was just thinking, you know, seniors might want to. Have a little garden there. Yeah.
And what is the state funding, Steve? Excuse me? What is the state funding?
Do we know what we got this year or anticipated?
It wasn't a question, it was a statement. I just said I'd like to see more financials. If the state's a third, I'd like to know what the federal government is. I'd like to know if there's any other grants available that we can apply for, and what's it gonna cost us?
I was going to make a bulk motion to send them all to public hearing. That's fine. Okay. Yeah, so. So I guess we've got to go back and read them all, right? So for make a motion to schedule for public hearing for. County ordinance number 2605 Amendment number one County ordinance number 2606 Amendment number one County ordinance 2609 with Amendment number one and 2610 with Amendment number one. Second.
I'll introduce County Ordinance 2614 and make a motion to schedule it for a public hearing.
I will introduce County Ordinance 2615 and make a motion to schedule a public hearing.
I move that we approve FY2027 hot mix asphalt overlay program to David A. Bramble Incorporated of Chestertown Mellon using pre-established state highway administration's mill slash grind patch and resurface roadway pavements in various locations. In Queen Anne's County, contract number XQ9175377FAP number ACSTBGNHPP-000B858E in the amount of $1,462,655. Second. Okay, we got a motion and a second.
Just real quick, Jim, if Shane could explain. A lot of people don't understand what SourceWell is and why we're buying trucks from California and how that works. Could you just give a real quick reader's digest of what SourceWell is and how it benefits the county to have these pre-negotiated contracts? Why we would buy something from California. Right, exactly.
But it keeps it from being subject to huge tariff fluctuations and things like we're seeing now. You don't see those huge jumps if you were to just go out. I believe there are tariff adjustments in these bids. But they're minimal compared to going to the local Ford dealership and trying to buy this truck tomorrow. That I cannot attest to. I see Steve's head over there shaking. I know it because I live in the source wall world, so I do know that those fixed prices definitely save you a lot of money over the long haul.
I move to execute the Upper Shore Workforce Investment Board. Agreed.
I can do the proclamation first. Would you like us to do the proclamation first, or would you like to speak?
Well, thank you for being here. We appreciate everything that you do.
Proclamation 2626. Whereas suicide remains a significant public health concern across the United States and in Maryland, with 48,000 Americans dying by suicide in 2024, the most recent available data, an average of approximately one life lost every 11 minutes. And whereas the impact extends far beyond those deaths, with an estimated 14.3 million US adults reporting serious thoughts of suicide in 2024, underscoring the importance of prevention, early intervention, and access to mental health support. And whereas in Maryland, 630 residents died by suicide in 2024, that's two a day, highlighting
And what's your contact number for people that would like to talk?
Can you give us a little bit of an update on the first responder support team? Did you just graduate the second group?
So when's the app coming for the first responders?
Do you know what I'm alluding to? There you go. I knew you were going to chime in.
So if you could just explain a little bit for our audience. Sure.
hundreds of volunteer fire folks and EMS and paid staff. It's completely confidential.
It doesn't go on your record. Nope. Nobody knows about it. Your supervisor doesn't even have to know about it. It's completely confidential. Completely confidential. And it's designed that way to your point that you'll share if you're going through a struggling time.
Yes, yes. And we'd like to thank Commissioner Wilson for being on the FEC and spearheading this and working with.
They did it internally. I'm taking no credit for that. All I did was guide them where they needed to be guided. That was their thing they ran with, and I give them all the credit in the world for doing it.
So a couple more questions, you don't get away that easy. Is VAMSA, are our veterans getting great care? Right, I mean VAMSA was, it wasn't just for mental health issues, it was for benefit issues. It was for paperwork issues. It was for Fred would know, you know, sometimes it's really tough for veterans to ask for help and then to go through the system of the grinding of the government.
Oh, great, great. Well, Commissioner Moran was very instrumental, as were the rest of the commissioners in getting that done. Last thing I'm putting you on the spot about, well, two things for services in our schools. How can we get mental health specialists through your company into our high schools?
And the last thing is, is it true that if a, and you're going to say I can't answer that, but I'm just planting the seed. If a teenager is having trouble and they go to talk to somebody in the school, someone like you or another healthcare provider, that they might have to have insurance. And if they don't have insurance, they can't be seen. That's not really resonating well with the commissioners. So can someone dig into that and find out about Is that true? And what can we do to rectify that? That is very concerning.
in school care and out of school but i don't know about in queen anne's county but what i can tell you is if someone from queen anne's county needed help tomorrow and they called into open access and they could not afford to pay they would still be seen as i'm as i'm talking with kids that have gone through some of these struggles that's one of the things they're talking about the other thing is is having being able to be seen having a location at the school where they can get they can have a therapy I'm struggling with words right now, but once a week with the same therapist. So who can we ta
So access and consistency, seeing the right person for that student and they have the space at both high schools. So if you could let us know about that, we'd appreciate it. Thank you so much. You're doing God's work and we're very grateful.
That's fine. Actually, I mean, I've run a few times. Tim, you've run a few times. Phil and all. It was always an unwritten policy that you don't put signs on county property. I mean, that's going back to the first time I was ever ran. So I don't know why it became an issue this past prime. Let's face it. It was this past primary that people were just sticking signs everywhere. It only takes one. And the other one is a lot of real estate signs popping up and things like that. But I think a lot of that stems from people seeing all these campaign signs on county property. They think, huh, I could
Proclamation 2627, Economic Development Week, whereas Queen Anne's County Economic and Tourism Development is an active member of the Maryland Economic Development Association, better known as META, a nonprofit organization established in 1961 whose mission is to enhance the knowledge and skills of its members, encourage partnerships and networking among people committed to bringing jobs and capital to Maryland and promote economic development as an investment in Maryland. And whereas META members promote statewide economic well-being by working to improve Maryland's business climate and the p
so that's why it's not like what i'm for or against this thing i'm i'm for centerville deciding their fate most of this stuff with the towns is more just uh i guess it's old hat of the commissioners having to approve a lot of this stuff but it really boils down to what the towns want to do and the state has told everybody including the counties that the towns are the only place you can grow those are the only ones with infrastructure so there you have it i guess we all think alike
Would you like to say anything about this? Any thoughts about it? You're in support of it, obviously? The township?
Yeah, sure. Come on up. Commissioner McNeil, you want to come up?
Can we take the vote? I'm going to call the vote.
Any update on the sewer sewer plant? 2031 2031. There will be a party. Thank you.
How much money is left to get the funding from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund? What we use for Southern Cat Island for the loans and all for that stuff. I mean, is it still healthy? I know because the flush tax got flushed, so to speak. So that whole...
So how much are they pumping in there yearly? Like you said, the costs are probably rising at a quicker pace.
Yeah, that's my point. Maybe 15 years ago, it would have done something. Yeah, right.
I guess my question, the root of the question is, are obviously there's always gonna need upgrades needed funding for upgrades needed is there any effort at the state to look and say hey this is what things are costing now this is what we're gonna have to do because we're gonna run into I see us running into the same situation we have with the roads now and the state trying to take care of the roads they didn't plan for it so now they can't they have no money to maintain them we can't run into that problem with our sewer and water treatment Because that'll be a major mess down the road.
Yeah, so then the bottom line of the bottom line is so this will be another thing that the counties are going to have to figure out how to pay for in the coming years. Probably. To add to all the other ones.
Well, not to mention when they put the 60 in, it's not worth 60 anymore. Well, true. They were based in on cost when they did it. And now it's probably worth 10 in real dollars. And that's where the problem lies.
No, I get it. I get it, because budgets are tightening everywhere, from all angles.
Jack, you got anything? Yeah, just real quick, the text amendments. People probably think we've ran through them rather quickly, but honestly, this process for these text amendments has been going on since February. And by no means, and this goes back as far as I've been doing this with the text amendments, Whether we put them through the process and allow them to work their way through the process is not an endorsement for or against them as they work their way through the process. And I think people need to understand that this is the fairest way for our citizens to actually do something. An
I'm good. I just want to send our respects to the Thompson family and it's a tough thing to go through.
A lot of historical knowledge passed on yesterday. And it's a big vacuum to fill right now.
Probably still smiling and laughing, that's for sure.
You know, and he always picked up the phone. I mean, if you call him, he always picked up the phone. Very responsive.
He's probably afraid we did something stupid. Oh, my gosh.
This can't be good. Wilson's got him on speed dial. Oh, yeah, yeah.
These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.