Town Council - Regular Meeting

for 2025. The time is 7:30. If you would please, I will now call this town of council town meeting for Mount Air Town Council to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Like I've never done this before the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'm going to start over. Part of this time, I'm going to go ahead and relinquish to our mayor, Mayor Husher.

Thank you, uh, Council President. Uh, in regards to a recent tragedy involving, uh, Mason Karns, and I see a lot of his family out there, uh, today. Uh, Mount Ary is truly a wonderful town. Recently, I've heard that we're too big to be small and too small to be big. In many ways, this may be true, but in tragedy, it becomes painfully obvious that we are indeed still a very small town. It is regrettable to me as mayor and to our town council that sometimes tragedy is what brings the best out in our town. On the other hand, it is all inspiring and we are forever grateful and comforted to see the resources that can come together at a moment's notice. By noon the following day of the tragedy Friday, people were already coming together. They didn't even know who it was at that time and every nonprofit in town was talking. I know this because as our town staff was reaching out, the answers were, "We're we're getting ready as soon as we have a name." In regard to this tragedy, the town is working to assist the owner of the apartments in resolving this ungraded pipe issue as quickly as possible. While it is not our land, it is our responsibility to look out for the safety of our citizens, our visitors, and our businesses. The town staff has been directed to look at every drainage pipe in the town for similar hazards that must be remediated. The town's approach is to learn from this incident, identify the other areas of concern, and assist owners with similar hazardous issues. We want to thank the police departments. There were several of them who showed up to assist,

especially our local Mount Airy Police Department. We want to thank all the fire companies that showed up, of which there were many, especially the heroes at the Mount Volunteer Fire Company. And I along with the council want to thank the many other elected officials for the empathy that was given to Mason's family and the offers of assistance from Maryland's ini officials including the office of the governor both US senators congresswoman state delegations and our county commissioner and our Frederick County Councilman. We're indeed still a very small town and I want to say thank you to all of Mount Ary for coming together and the family as our deepest sympathies. All right. Thank you very much. We do not have any presentations at the time. So we will move on to public comment. Does anyone in the audience wish to speak? pictures.

Absolutely. Thank you. I'll give one to him. Oh, we'll share. We'll share. You're good. Sounds like you guys have already put a lot of things in place to help resolve this issue. So, I really appreciate that. Okay. Um, I'm still gonna go ahead and read what I wrote for you guys. You can give me three to four minutes. Would you mind just microphone? Is that better? If you wouldn't mind, just state your name just for the record.

Absolutely. Uh, my name is Allison Eglliston. I was born and raised here in Mount Airy and I now live in the town limits raising my own family. I'm here today as the aunt of Mason Karns, the young man who passed tragically last Thursday evening due to a flood that swept him off of his feet, sending him into a drainage pipe where he became lodged and drowned in a matter of moments. A few days ago, I would have never imagined I would be standing in front of you all giving a testimony on how and why the tragic death of my nephew should have been present prevented. On Thursday, Mason was just a few feet from his apartment door entrance at the Mount Apartments. Just a few feet. The water drain and reservoir off of Horpal Drive, the hill on the west side of the apartments, overflowed in just a matter of minutes, and gushed down the hill onto the flat surface of the grassy area in front of the apartments. That reservoir has a gate around it, rightfully so. The drain in which Mason drowned did not. In fact, that drain with a concrete base and a downward slope was originally covered in grass and soil prior to the flood, leaving bystanders unknowingly in danger as they thought it was just a part of the flat, grassy area in which children play. Only a small section of drain pipe could be noted prior to the flood. Mason didn't know this. His brother Clay did not know this. Mason wasn't playing in a drainage ditch. He was simply walking on what he thought to be safe ground. This tragedy could have happened to any child that lived or played in that vicinity. Why doesn't a drain pipe that could easily fit a small adult not have a sturdy grate over it? Not just for floods, but a young child too young to know to chase after a toy in such a drain. As any parent will admit, it only takes two seconds for a child to get into something that they should not.

This issue is not just isolated to the Mountaineer apartments. It's everywhere. I live in a town home just behind the apartments on Northtown Court. A large reason of why my sister and her two beautiful boys moved into the apartments behind us. In my neighborhood, there are two storm drains that do not have a great over them. Not only are they present, but obviously at the end of a downhill slope. There have been many toys, objects, etc. that have rolled down that drain. But that's not the issue. I can buy a new basketball, but I cannot buy back one of my sons who I have found and stopped from reaching under to grab said toy. I can't buy back Mason. Many others and I have reached out to our HOA about this issue and it gets pawned off to the town and still nothing has been done. There's been no answers. It's just a matter of time before another innocent child dies due to the poor safety standards and upkeep of said drainage systems. At the same skate area at Watkins Park where we just held the emotional vigil for our beautiful Mason just last night, there's a giant horizontal drainage pipe directly behind the skate park ramps that is open. Free access to anybody. A grown man could fit into that drain pipe. At a busy park, it is more than possible a child could easily adventure on their own into it. And I'm telling you, there will be another tragedy such as masons if this safety issue is not resolved. Why are there no grates or strainers present? Storm drain grates are present with vertical drainage systems to protect life and form materials from entering, but not horizontal. Why? The nonprofit organization ProPublica reports 20 deaths between 1996 and 2015.

They continued to discover another 35 incidents of people being caught and swept into the storm drains between the period of 2015 to 2021. Over half died in that six-year time period, and most were children. This is an issue that can easily be resolved federally by the town, county, or state. 13 of these deaths have happened over the course of just three years alone. You can make that 14 now. That 14th being my my nephew Mason. And it happened in our town. Our town. In past arguments, opponents suggest grates could cause the issue of entrapping someone against the great and causing drowning or debris stacking against the grates and making flooding worsen. However, recent studies show that these safety issues can and would be mitigated by the installation of sloped grates. These incidences will continue to rise as rainfall and other extreme weather events increase each year with the continual warming of our planet. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration noted that the Northeast region has seen 100 to 150% more flood days in 2020 as compared to 20 2000. Science is science. There's no room for opinion on it. To understand how much force can be present at the entrance of these pipes, one cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds. There was between four to five feet of water present in which Mason was strapped in. That's greater than 300 lb of force. And that's without including any velocity that was headed towards that pipe. And it was an absolute river running through that area. Rescuing Mason in time was impossible. It's impossible.

Instead, it quickly turned into a recovery mission for our sweet, innocent 13-year-old boy that was just standing in the grass feet away from his home. That's nauseating to think about. Not only do these storm drains not have grates on them, but they are also poorly maintained. You can see in the picture that I've given you all behind the cross that was made by his father utilizing his favorite thing in the world, a skateboard. the dilapitated previous storm drain that's just left open, collapsed on itself. It's it's just not acceptable. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has investigated some of these tragedies and recommended identifying, marking, guarding, and covering drainage pipes with grates. And I do appreciate that you all have already stated today that that's what you're doing. Thank you. There was a similar death in Denver in which the city swiftly followed Naosha's recommendations. Another death of a six-year-old boy dying in the same circumstances as our Mason in a suburb outside of Chicago. They responded with grading 40 drain inlets to prevent another senseless death. Another death in Cedar Rapids, Iowa had the same response in installing 18 storm grates throughout the area. The list of deaths followed by positive responses by mitigating this massive safety issue goes on and on and we need to do the same. I'm not here to place blame. It won't change anything. Mason's never coming back. But this town is responsible for finding out who failed Mason and all who loved him, taking accountability for their part of inaction, holding other parties to proper standards, and fixing the issue. I'm not going to let my nephew's death be in vain. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh Dick Swanson, South Main Street. I uh extend my sympathies to the family and uh thank you, Mr. mayor for expressing the sympathies and the feelings of everyone in town. I'm also the chair of the water and sewer commission and I wanted to express my uh displeasure with the fact that I didn't see on the agenda tonight a ordinance for the uh water and sewer consideration of the increase in rates. I would implore you to uh think about doing that uh today. um calculated the deficit we run up daily and it's close to $1,500 a day for every day that we don't take action and that deficit is calculated on the budget that was approved by the town council and I think the idea that we can approve budgets living on deficit is not the appropriate way to run the water sewer commission. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm JD Kelly. I'm here to represent the Mount Area Rotary Club. Um us too will be contacting you with what we can do to help. Um in light of that, we are uh hosting an event on Main Street for the Manory Mile. We've I want to thank the town for helping me with communicating with all the residents and the um businesses. And I just want to remind the public that the roads will be closed from 8:30 until the last finisher finishes the race and uh at the end of the street here on Prospect. So, um, if you wanted to sign up for the race to support a foundation that's going to help people locally that have tragic events in their lives, uh, join the fund on Saturday or you can donate to the foundation directly on the website on sign up.

Thank you, JD. Before you go, what does the money go toward? The money goes to a foundation to help people here. It's called the Rotary Cares Foundation. It goes to uh people here that are located in our zip code directly that have tragic things happen in their lives. Thank you.

Good evening, Mount Area. My name is Andrew Paffford. I'm the owner and operator of Primary Health Club. Wanted to raise some awareness for our brand new facility here in town. seems a little I don't know tonedeaf after everything that's already happened. So I certainly sympathize with everyone. I have three children in a storm drain on my property so that's already forward of mind. But tonight was an I plan to come anyway. So here we are. Um I wanted to bring to light um our business that we offer and how it's unique and what we can bring to the town of Mount Ary. We have a number of different programs spanning from the age of five all the way up to essentially 95. We are in the business of functional fitness. We are trying to help people improve their whether it's athletic performance, weight loss, improve their quality of life, pain management, you name it. We have a diverse background in training from not only calisthenics but to gymnastics, Olympic lifting, powerlifting, but more specifically functional fitness, things that you can do outside of the gym. and how many people don't realize that living life is an athletic endeavor and how athletes train is essentially how the vast majority of us should train and the only nuance is scaling or modifying the movements to your current level of athleticism and so that is exactly where we shine we have the gambit from six-year-olds and I believe our oldest is mid70s and everything in between everything we do is small group and personal training. So that way we're always guaranteed to have eyes on. We do the programming, you show up, we guide you through the exercise. If you have any kind of pre-existing conditions, we take that into consideration. We modify the movement so that way you can be challenged appropriately because that's how the body responds. If you're not given a strong enough stimulus, it has no reason to get better and so it doesn't and now you're just burning calories. Why not get something more out of your fitness? And so that's what we

aim to provide. So if you have any questions, you can look us up. It's primaryhealthclub.com. We've already been in touch with a number of different organizations to try to avail our services to help provide that to the community between Maya to the Cole Group. My wife is on the economic development committee. I'm a part of the Chamber of Commerce and also in BNI. So we are we live in not within town limits but just off Mount Air Drive. I can't get more Mount Air than Mount Airy Drive. Um, and so we, our family lives here. We very much are trying to be a part and help this community. And so it's almost a bit of a personal tragedy to see so many bad things that can happen that sometimes, not always, but sometimes can be avoided with a little bit of athleticism. And so we want to give that opportunity to everybody. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, good evening. I'm Steven Demoter, council member. I I didn't plan on speaking, but I I had these thoughts and uh very quickly I I think regarding Ma the passage of of Mason and listening to Mason's aunt, um I think we're all moving forward in the right direction and and I appreciate Mayor Hashar where you're headed. I I really think in terms of safety culture for for our government, I I think we're going to be taking some of the right steps, but I'd like to see us try to follow kind of a more formalized there's an accident investigation process. There are tenants of accident investigation where you formally lay out you look at you you create an event timeline. You document what happened when, who was

notified when, when was the emergency response, what was the composition of the emergency response regarding, for example, the design features of this particular sediment pond, what are those design features? What potentially could be improved or needs to be improved? Some things that just pop into my mind, those apartments were constructed in 1966. I don't know when those ponds and that design was put in place. Maybe it's new, maybe it's old. The friendly acres town houses were constructed in 1977. That's a lot more impervious surface, a lot more rainwater, you know, does the the design of those ponds accommodate and is appropriately designed for that area? These are the kinds of things I think we need to look at. The objective is to find out what happened, why did it happen, and what can be done so this never happens again. It's not about assignment of blame. It's about looking at corrective actions and formally documenting those things so that we can move forward. That's what I'd like to see as a council member um moving forward. I think we're headed in that direction, but I don't want it to be informal. I I I I want to see a formal process. Thank you very much. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak? All right. Next up, we'll move on to the approval of council meeting minutes and closed minutes. First up, we have our July 2025 town council meeting minutes. Do we have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve. Council President. All right. I'll second. Do we have any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All in favor of approving the meeting minutes from our July 7th, 2025 town council meeting, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. All right. Next up, we have our July 2025 closed meeting minutes. First one on subject litigation. I will make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? favor of approving the July 2025 closed meeting minutes for subject litigation. Please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Third, we have our closed meeting minutes under the subject of land acquisition. I'll make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second.

Any discussion? All right, hearing none. All in favor of approving the July 2025 closed meeting minutes under land acquisition. Please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. All right. All right. Next up, we have our Civil Air Patrol report with Aaron Lavell. How are you? All right. How about you guys?

All right. Sorry. I I uh I know it's been a tough week for everybody. So, um I believe I I believe everybody should have a copy of this. I sent it earlier today. All right. Wonderful. Um the following are significant events and accomplishments. the mount area composite squadron civil air patrol during the month of July for 2025. Um we have uh various different members that's of the squadron that continue to support the wings bay uh bay patrol mission. We have uh I think three active members. So we've gone up from one active member to three of them. One is a pilot, another one um is dealing with the uh radio operations and another one is mission scanner looking down making sure you know everybody's seeing everything they're supposed to see. Um several cadets uh completed national um national cadetmies. We actually had three within our own squadron which was uh significant more than most other squadrons. They have to be selected for that. Um and we had one do the air force pair rescue and survival orientation, another with mid-Atlantic region honor guard academy and then the other one was the cyber security academy. Um for community support we assisted for the uh cleanup and the recovery of the carnival fairgrounds after the town's fireworks celebration. Um, and the squadron is preparing to assist with the road closures for the Mount Airy Mile. Um, I would assume there may be a request sometime soon to help with the um, celebrate Mount Area as well. Um, the qualifications, we had two cadets earn major accomplishments. Uh, they got the Wright brothers, which is a passing of a milestone. Um, that's the first of, uh, four major milestones. And then we have three other cadets that just did standard achievements. Um our significant training, we actually had a a search and rescue exercise, an air force um sponsored one. Um as a result, uh we had one cadet finish qualification for an urban direction finding and then also to mission um radio operator. Uh we um have two cadets that went up for the

powered orientated orientation flights and I think we're going to up that to four or six this next month. We're hoping. Um we're still growing. I don't know how, but apparently people think that uh summer is the greatest time. Um, we have one new cadet that decided to come over from Parkland permanently. Um, another one uh transferred from the Carol Composite Squadron, which meets up uh at the airport in Westminster. And we have two more that uh came last week that are prospective cadets and are eagerly waiting their three uh meetings to join us. Um we are fully mission capable at this point in time. Um we have individuals that are available to support ground operations um SUAS as well as any radio operations at mission uh mission command. Unfortunately, we do have an operational problem that we have to report. Um at this point um the squadron is actively looking for a new location. As of right now, we um currently meet on Wednesdays at the Isaac Walton League. Unfortunately, due to various different reasons, the situation has become immediately untenable. Um, we have utilized South Carol High School um, as needed. Um, we are trying to find something that that doesn't require because I am an employee um, for Carol County um, public schools. So, that does give me an option to be able to get in there, but we want to find another option that is um, doesn't rely on just one person. Um we are unfortunately coming up short of locations within Mount Ary and so we would like to actively ask if um the council or anybody the council knows is aware of a location that we can utilize for two hours a week and have a place to be able to put some of our equipment, we would certainly take that suggestion. Um it is it is definitely become clear to us that we will not be able to continue with the Isaac Walton League though. um the things that are on this the horizon. Um the members will continue to support the Wings Bay Patrol mission all the way

through uh um August and then just for the first half of just for the first couple days of September and then um we'll be doing the main street mile with the street closures and several members of the squadron are planning to support the upcoming um cadet encampment. I think there are nearly 300 uh participants from around various different squadrons in the state and slightly outside of it um that'll be at that encampment. So um I am happy to answer any questions anybody has. How big of a place do you normally operate?

So um the ideal situation we need we usually utilize um one larger meeting area and one larger room. I mean, you know, maybe about double the size of this, just enough to room to spread out. And then, um, the Isaac Walton League fortunately has a couple of areas where we're able to send a couple of cadetses that can go meet here and a couple of cadetses that can go meet there, but they can do it in a hallway. The biggest thing that, um, we've been able to utilize at the Isaac Walton League is an outdoor space that's lighted because we do expect for them to practice different things regarding search and rescue, um, drill, and then there's the aerospace. You know, we have a aerospace occasionally. um we go ahead and we shoot off a rocket or two, but that doesn't necessarily have to occur within the city limits.

What um what nights do you guys normally meet or days? Uh we meet on Wednesdays. Wednesdays. Yes. Specific times. Um we need we meet from 6:45 to 9:15. Okay. And how many ch um cadets? Cadets. Yes. Sorry, I was going to say children with cadets.

So um right now we have 29 cadetses registered with us. I believe though on a regular basis we're more a writer and then we usually have anywhere between six to eight senior members um as well there. So, we're not a huge group, but uh we do tend to spread out a little bit. You know, we want to continue to state in the Mount area. You know, we want to

perfect. All right. So, I mean, we have looked at some options. We do have anou with the National Guard um at the state level. So that's why we did um go to the Singh Readiness Center and we we've tried to open up some communications there, but as you guys know that's not within Mount Ary. One idea we've entertained is possibly doing I mean they may be able to provide us a place to put our stuff but um that would maybe require going an every other week situation. So maybe finding some place here. Um but then that means we don't have the ability to grab that equipment um as readily and we want to be available for anything the town needs us as well as you know outside. We always strive to have within 20 minute um response time if um the alert goes off that we're needed. So um

let's do some networking if we can and uh if you guys want I don't want to bombard her with emails. If you just want to send them to me or the mayor and then we can shoot them off to her in one. Yeah, we can do that. Come up and take this. So, okay. It's a thought. How big of a space do you need for the storage of your of your stuff? So, I would say we have right now at the mount at the Isaac Walton League, we have um two shelves that I think are probably about 10 foot wide and I think there's three shelves high. They've got the standard, you know, Tupperware containers on them. It's It's not a ton of room. So, it's a wall of shelves. It's not like a room of stuff.

No, it's not. We We most And the sad part is is that I believe that if we had a smaller area or an area that was a little bit less um uh damp, we wouldn't need to have as many containers because we could just go ahead and make them not be in the the Tupperware containers right now. Yeah. So, um I you know there will but there are things I mean we we have you know uh uh various different ES things and the only other option we have at the moment is to go ahead and put them in the van and that's not really an an option. Okay. So, we'll do some networking and we'll definitely be in contact. That would be great. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I think for all you do, too.

Oh, thank you guys. You have a wonderful night. Yeah. Thank you.

All right. Next on the agenda, we have the Mount Air Volunteer Fire Company report with Matt Herd, although I don't see him in the audience. Um, which is understandable. Uh what I will say is um I would mirror obviously the the precedence of our of our mayor and obviously the council and everyone else and and thanking them for everything they've always done, but especially over the last week. Um what they were able to put together for Mason yesterday. Um I thought was was incredible in the amount of time that they had. Um you know, so it was uh it was good. So thank you to them and we'll probably get a report next month. Next up, we have the Mount Police Department report with Chief Janevra.

Council President, I need to step out for a couple seconds. Thank you. No, no disrespect to the chief. Thank you.

Good evening, everybody. Uh, for calls for service, we had 560 calls of service versus last July of 493. A slight increase. Again, just remember that these are self-initiated calls. It's just not the 911 calls that are coming in for our recruitment process. Uh July, uh myself and two other officers. Uh there was a PT exam with two entry level applicants. We're still processing two entrylevel applications in regards to that and one lateral application also that we're processing. We're still currently uh uh conducting our interviews for our police services administrator position. I know um Mr. Deoter uh you requested some arrest information. It's not in your packet that I submitted. I was going to obviously save that for this evening. And these are just going to have arrest locations. I don't have the specific address. I just have the area, sir. So, the arrest locations are Walmart, the Carnival Grounds, uh, North Main and Cotwood. This, uh, is on East Ridgeville. There are two that were um conducted at Ridge and Twin Arch. 27 in Watersville. Uh the Park and Ride off of 27 27 in Lasher which the incident occurred in the town. Wendy Null 27 in North Main and the 27 corridor. Uh those were the locations for the arrest for the town for the month of July. uh for upcoming events for the town on August 9th, we do have the Mount Air Mile, which it's been uh said twice through the evening uh will be there. Uh and again, obviously, the road closure will take place. So, not only that, officers on site, please be mindful. And then again, any of the volunteers that

are there so we don't have to be um rerouted. It's a safety thing. It's temporarily and it usually it's not too long. it should be uh pretty much opened back up. What we do is once the runners pass all of the streets, we re reopen those roadways and that's with the assistance of the civil air patrol and again the volunteers. We do have Celebrate Mount Area coming up August 23rd from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. And then this August, I know usually it's National Night Out. Uh we as an agency, we moved it till September 10th. So there are some people from the Kuanas Club that have been helping me. Our intern has helped us as well. So in the upcoming you may see some people on behalf of the police department bringing out some uh flyers and stuff like that to some of the local businesses. that anyone in the town can participate and even outside of the town uh if they would like to make any donations that goes to the Carol Community Foundation where that money and again turns around supports a lot of the things that the police department does along with any of the town events. Uh so in closing also I would like to again my condolences to your family ma'am. Uh it's a very tragic incident and again thank you for the professionalism and the respect that I received and not only that the family of the currents during that investigation and all of the departments that participated in that. Uh again very professional very sound and again my apologies to your family. So thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Uh just thank you again for all your service and support to the town. Thank you for starting to pull that information together about the locations of the type A, type B crimes, and I look forward to uh seeing that next month, but I appreciate it. Thank you.

Yes, sir. I know you guys put in a lot of hours at the uh carnival as well. So, uh, so you guys have been heavily tasked and, uh, and to have the month end the way that it did, you know, I hope the officers are all doing well and we think about you as well. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you for everything. Yes, sir.

All right. Next up, we have our mayor, council, and staff reports. I will hand it off to Mayor Husher. I think everything in my report kind of pales to the last week uh that we've had and u so I'm going to forego uh reading anything really out of my report and just uh emphasize that we are uh taking everything serious. We'll get it done and um and figure out how to move forward on this. So, thank you. All right, next up we have the parks and wreck meeting and the sustainability commission. Uh both are with me. The parks and wreck met on Thursday, July 17th via Zoom. Highlights from the meeting, uh the we will have camp night on August 9th at Watkins Park. And our fall field allocation will have a special meeting with Fll and Maya. that'll be held here on Wednesday, August 13th at 7 pm. The next parks and wreck meeting will be held via Zoom on Thursday, August 21st at 7 pm. The Sustainability Commission meets on the even months. Uh so we'll have a meeting this month on Wednesday, August 20th, and I'll have a report from that meeting next month. All right. Next up, we have our planning commission with Council Member Kelly.

Okay. Thank you. Uh the planning commission met on July 28th. Uh the agenda included the approval of Reb's candies signage. Uh the introduction of annexation resolution 22 uh 2025-47 for the Warfield property. The approval of the concept plan for the uh Buffalo Ridge subdivision with some minor conditions as well as the approval for the preliminary plan for the residential portion of Green Tree Village with some minor conditions. Uh, and that's all I have. Uh, the planning commission will meet on August 25th. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We have our streets and roads commission and the commission on aging and livability or coal and the flat iron task force with council member Mund.

All right. Thank you, council president. The uh street and roads report, excuse me, commission held their meeting on se, excuse me, I'm all flustered tonight. Sorry, I apologize. Uh, Jul July 29th. Uh just want to remind everyone that we are again this year starting to slow down for your hometown campaign particularly because school is beginning to restart both in Frederick and Carroll County. As a reminder, Frederick County schools are opening the 20th, Carol September 2nd. Uh the start date for the um slow down for your hometown campaign is um August 15th and will be running approximately a month to midepptember. Anyone that is interested in obtaining a sign, please call Town Hall to request a sign. Also, the uh town staff has put a banner up on our web web page. Just click that and request a sign and we will deliver and pick them up for you. Um, and unfortunately, we know that all the schools outside, but this is uh slow down for your hometown is only for town residents. Also, I'd like to give an update on the long delayed traffic circle here. So, if everything works out right, we do have a approximate start date sometime the end of this month. Uh the length of the project is expected to be approximately 7 months. So, if we have a good winter weather, it should be completed by March or April 2026. I'm also happy to report that we were able to include an 8 in by 8 in curb running down um I guess South Main Street from Ridgeside Drive I believe is the thing the name of the road from Ridgeide up to the traffic circle con concrete. So there will be a divider down that road hopefully to stop people from uh doing the Uturns there. Uh the chief mentioned the upcoming road

closures that I was going to suggest mention so I don't have to do that. Uh the next meeting will be in the next sorry the next odd month which will be the last Tuesday in September. Uh give an update on the flat iron task force. There was no regularly scheduled meeting but I am glad to report two uh positive things. Uh this Wednesday, Jimmy Con will be holding a fundraiser. So every percentage of their sales will come to the support to flat iron. So please come out and have some ice ice cream from Jimmy Con and support a wonderful business that has more than helped this town in uh recent days. So please do do not forget Jimmy Kon. They are more than happy to support this town when it's needed. I am also glad and happy to report that the funding request that we have included into the federal budget for 2026 is still there. It is moving over to the Senate side. It is approximately $850,000 for the flat iron task force to be uh to go towards the restoration of the building. So, let's just hope that makes it through over to the uh in the Senate. the Cole. There was no meeting in July. The next meeting is upcoming this w the Wednesday, August 27th at 5:00 PM here in town hall. I am happy to report that theou is progressing that we need for the to be crosscount uh travel between Frederick and Carol County. So that is progressing and that concludes my reports. Thank you, Council President.

All right. Thank you. Next up, we have the EDC and the Recycling and Sanitation Commission with Council Secretary Evans.

So, for recycling and sanitation, we met and the bins, there's a demo out in the lobby if you want to take a look at it. The 35gallon bins have arrived. Um, I believe we're still finalizing how to disperse them. Um, so we will give an update when we decide to get those out to everybody that wants them. Um October 11th we have cons confirmed an e-waste recycling day. It will be at the American Legion from 9 to 11 9 to 1. Um I'm assuming that's going to be rain or shine. We can't really move the date on that. But bring all your old electronics. Um there'll be a list posted of what we can and cannot accept and there'll be more flyers and stuff um put out as the time gets closer. Um, our next meeting for recycling and sanitation is September 17th here at town hall for EDC. Um, we have not met yet. We are going to meet Wednesday, October 6th. Um, but we did get on the books September 9th. The business um what Steve what's uh

I think it's a roundt information exchange. Yes, the business roundt initiative um will be on September 9th. Um, more information on that will come out um from Ashley. And that is all I have for this month. All right. Thank you. Next up, we have the Water and Sewer Commission and the Beautifification Commission with Council Member Deoter.

All right. Thank you. Uh, beautifification commission. Uh, we last met on July 15th. Most of the active work associated with planting and weeding in the town's parks and along rails to trails has been done. And so the volunteers have taken a bit of a pause with outdoor work due to the the high heat that we've had over the last several weeks. The next meeting is scheduled for August 19th. The water and sewer commission, there was no meeting of the water and sewer commission in July. Our next meeting is scheduled for uh this this week on August 6th. And that completes my report. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Uh next up is our town attorney report. Mr. Tom Karen is not present tonight, so we will skip over that. We've all received copies of our town administrator report, the code enforcement report, and the zoning administrator report. Is there anything to add for any? Nothing to add. Okay, we're good there. All right, we're on the new business. Uh, first up, we have a road closure for Celebrate Mount Ary, Saturday, August 23rd from 400 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. This will go from Main Street to uh from Main Street from Prospect Road to Paradise Avenue. Uh, do we have a motion? Uh,

I'll make a motion to approve uh the road closure for Sal for Celebrate Mount Mount Air to close Main Street from Prospect to Paradise A Avenue August 23rd from 4 to 9. All right, I'll second. Any discussion? All right, hearing none. All in favor of the road closure for Celebrate Mount Area on Saturday, August 23rd from 400 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Main Street from Prospect Road to Paradise Avenue, please signify by saying, "I." I I opposed. All right. Next up on new business, we have our inclement weather task force. I will release relinquish to Mayor Husher.

All right. Thanks a lot. This is uh more of an announcement and kind of a general premise around u around creating a inclement weather task force based on the weather that we've been uh uh having over the last uh couple of years. not just uh not just now but you know in the winter and uh other seasons. It's also a uh chance to look at the fact that uh uh that we've had a citizen uh who's been very proactive in in researching a storm weather horns uh to put throughout town. And I thought the best way to wrap our arms around this would be to create a task force, get them together to uh uh better anticipate, prepare, alert, respond, and clean up following significant weather events. And that's not just um you know, storm warning sirens. That's also, you know, what's available on a cell phone. We're in town. Do we not have good cell phone signals? How do we get the word out when there's, you know, a potential to tornado warning or or severe flood, uh, thunderstorms, that sort of stuff? We we need to, uh, need to wrap our arms around how to, uh, better notify the entire town. So, creating this task force, uh, will allow a dedicated group to sit down and figure all that out. Right now, we got a couple volunteers that have already jumped in. I think council member Demoter agreed to be the liaison uh to this task force. And if there are any citizens who would like to be part of this task force, uh they can call Colleen Riley at town hall and the phone number is 3018291424. If we could get a couple more members,

we'd have a group somewhere around five, six people who could sit down and uh and bat this around, figure out what we can do better as a town. So, and that's it. If anybody has any comments on it, I'm happy to take them now. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Thanks. All right. Quick reminder, our September town council meeting has been rescheduled for Monday, September 8th. So it will be on the second Monday in September, not the 1st. And then we are on to commission appointments and reappoints once again with Mayor Husher. All right.

Okay. The uh first person on there, we're going to go ahead and exclude that one for tonight and have some discussion on that one later on. Uh but the uh second person on there is Bruce Walls to be reappointed to the ethics commission. All right. I'll make a motion to appoint Bruce Walls to the ethics commission. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of reappointing Bruce Walls to the ethics commission, please signify by saying I. I opposed.

Okay. Next up is uh Richard Swanson. Dick Swanson reappointed to the ethics commission. All right, I'll make a motion to reappoint Richard Swanson to the ethics commission. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? Right. All in favor of reappointing Richard Swanson to the ethics commission, please signify by saying I. I. Oppos. All right. Thank you, mayor. Next up, we are on to ordinances and resolutions. First up, ordinance 2025-16, the reasonzoning of four properties on South Main Street. This is for adoption. Do we have a motion?

Mr. President, I would like to make a motion for this 2025-16 that it could potentially be delayed or held off until next month when we have town town attorney here to give us any counsel or potential legal advice we might need on this particularly since it deals with the reszoning of properties. Other otherwise, I'm I mean, let's take a vote and see if we have a second on that. I'll have another motion after this this one if we don't delay it. Motion to table. Motion to table. All right. So, we have a motion on the floor to table ordinance 202516. Do we have a second?

All right. Hearing none, the motion falls right there. You have a second motion? Yes, sir. I do. Then, uh for ordinance 202516, I make a motion for approval of ordinance 202516 as drafted. All right. We have a motion to approve 202516 as drafted. Do we have a second?

All right. Hearing none, we'll then stop here as well. There any further motions regarding ordinance 2025-16? Uh, yes, Council President. I would like to make a follow-on motion um to this now that we've cleared this particular ordinance. It's regarding amending the master plan. I'd like to make a a motion. Just one second. I mean, just let's stick with just this first. I have no additional Yeah. Are there any other motions anyone wishes to make on 202516?

All right. Hearing none, I would actually like to bring a motion to the table to remove the three limited commercial properties and make ordinance 202516 for partial number 1429 only. That would move it from residential existing to NP, neighborhood professional. So we're talking about say the animal hospital baker property and Dr. Cappuccino's property. Correct. Remove those from limited commercial. I will be and leave them as is and then the final property just convert to neighbor neighborhood professional. Correct.

Okay. I'll second that. All right. So we're at the discussion portion of this now. I'll open the floor for discussion.

All right. Uh, Council President, I have some comments. So, I was prepared to talk about the full suite of uh properties up for resoning, but I will focus on the the current motion. Um, I've said a number of times, and I'll say it here again, uh, we need to look at our historic Main Street corridor holistically. We need to nurture it and protect it because if we lose our main street, we're just another suburbia. And so our image of Mount Ary being a special place with small town charm that that that really comes from our main street and what we think about our main street. I don't believe that reszoning that property to NP is in the best interest of the citizens of Mount Area or the town's future. And I do not believe it's in alignment with the master plan and we we just worked so hard on and approved. I don't believe it contributes to our community identity. In many ways, even just converting this to NP, we are chipping away at our community identity. Um, Mr. Ransah at the June council meeting spoke to all of these resonings and he made the statement. Let's see here. Um he basically said this council needs to decide what we want Main Street to look like. And he said even with changing that one property to NP. His question is what happens with NP properties it seems people view them as a stepping stone to upzone to LC. And so Mr. Ranhov made the comment. He said somebody next to me. So, so he lives next to the I believe this is the Hatley property. He lives

next to that property and he said in 10 years what's going to happen to that property? Is somebody going to want to upzone that to LC? And this is what happens on your main street. you you one reason resoning begets another bzzoning begets another resoning and before you know it you look down your street and your street looks totally different. Um NP zoning, let's be clear, it sounds like a nice soft buffer like the flowers on your garden bed. Um if you read the code, NPzoning is commercial zoning. It's a lower intensity commercial zoning, but you're adding commercial development to your main street. And some of the um allowable uses are doctor's offices, medical offices, imaging offices, professional services, um schools, you can have a trade school. You can have all these things. And with that extra business comes extra traffic, extra deliveries, extra trips per day on our main street. Our main street carries 4,000 vehicles per day. It's already stressed. Some of the top speeding concerns on our south main street come from that specific region of our main street. So to me, you've got a safety issue there. The top issue of the 2020 community survey was traffic safety on Main Street. When citizens were asked in the 2020 community survey, "Where do you want your commercial development?" They said, "Concent concentrate it on existing commercial areas." They didn't say, "Convert my main street residential homes to NP and then upzone those to

LC." That's I don't think what they're looking for. So for all these reasons um and then a last point if you're not now going to convert the metapa the Baker property the vet property if you're not going to convert those to LC if you read the code specifically I don't see how you can upzone this property to NP because it says says, if I can find it, it basically says NP is intended to be a less intensive commercial zone to be located adjacent to adjacent to a more intensive commercial zone. If you're not changing those other zones to LC, those other properties, all those properties are NP. So trying to convert this residential property up to NP per your code, you don't have a more intensive commercial use next to it. You have NP next to it. And in terms of adjacent, if you look at the definition in the dictionary, adjacent means bordering on next to adjoining. If you look at the definition of adjoining, it says sharing a common border. So, if you're going to try and make the argument that you should change this to NP because there's some commercial properties in the general area or perhaps across the street. I don't think you can do that because our code is not written that right. Um,

la last point. Um, let me find it if I can find it. [Applause] So for example, and I've looked at some of the legal applications of this and issues. So if you have a commercial parcel and there's a residential in a residential neighborhood, and in this case, you want to upzone this to neighborhood professional and that property is separated by a two-lane street. Okay, that's kind of what's going on on Main Street. You got some commercial properties across from this Hatley property. If the code defines adjacent to as including properties separated only by a right of way, then perhaps that requirement might still apply. But our code doesn't say that. Our code says NP may only be located adjacent to a more intensive commercial zone. So, if you follow the strict wording of the code, if nothing else, I don't think you can you can upzone this. And if you do, you're going to have every property owner up Main Street saying, "I want NP now." The next one, I want NP now. All to improve their property value. Last point, I saw a comment on social media and it was a really good comment. It said, you know, if we're doing this, we're we're cannibalizing our residential homes on our main street where you upzone these to NP. Now, they're they're not just a residence, they're a business. So, the property value probably goes up. When that property gets sold, you have entry-level homeowners, people trying to

get into a residential home on Main Street and they can't get in it because property values keep going up. So, I can give you a lot more points, but that's where I stand on this. That was your fourth last point. Okay. Thank you. I figured you would say one minute, but thank thank you for the indulgence. Yeah. No, I'm passionate about this decision.

Understood. I want to just just point one thing out. Um I understand your interpretation of the code uh that neighborhood professional must or should be adjacent or adjoining to more intense codes. I would have you look at the ordinance that's written up right now. Partial number 1422 currently neighborhood professional. Its neighboring partial 1423 currently neighborhood professional. its neighboring partial 1428 currently neighborhood professional which the one is directly in the middle of both neighborhood professional partials and then you have partial 1428 right next to those as well. So the purpose of or your interpretation of the code is obviously not everybody's or the people in the past that have reszone these properties for the way that they were intended. Um, my purpose of this is when I walked the property, and I did, and I think I did it with the mayor. I know I did it with Jason. I think I did it with council member uh uh Kelly. It it when you talk about the the reasons for reszoning a property, you talk about change in the neighborhood or a mistake in the neighborhood. When you look at her driveway or the Hatley property driveway, you look dead across the street, you have a CC building in Verizon, you look to the left of her going down Main Street, you have a auto shop basically is what it is. Um, and then you look to the right of her and you've got business, business CC. Let's talk about the change in the neighborhood. When you purchased that house, from what I was told, the Iliano Plaza was not there. there were five homes there. You can't get a bigger change in your neighborhood and be directly affected by it. So, what I will say is if the home across the street was not reszoned, which is actually further down Main

Street than where she is, I'm sorry, where where the family is, then okay, it makes sense that you have a direct line that stops. But you don't. You have these three parcels that were up for upzoning, which I'm not for. Then you have her property, but when you go across the street, it makes a left, goes one more property down, and then goes back and around and it's all CC and everything on that side. So, I don't know if anybody that's living in the town of Mount Ary right now has had a bigger change in the last 15 years than this home. Therefore, and and you know, and and to be very transparent, I also know the intentions of uh this resoning. Um so, I I do not agree with your interpretation of the code based on the fact that we have three MPs sitting right next to each other right now. Um I don't think that's an argument and I I don't agree with it. So, you can't get a bigger change. Will I agree with moving uh business or a commercial entity down further past Main Street? In my opinion, absolutely not. And I and you know, that was my major question for all of these when we were at the planning commission workshop. Um their answers and the reasons why that won't happen um comforted me. But to get a clear-cut drop dead line from one side of Main Street to the other and then that's it to me just makes sense. It makes sense that there was a major change in the neighborhood and she has dealt with and that family has dealt with all of the traffic that previous councils have dropped in her lap or their lap. Um, so that is my reasoning for doing it.

So any other comments? Oh, do you sure I just have Yeah, go ahead. I was also prepared to talk about uh the ordinance as written with the four properties, but just to distill it down, I think the you know, actually, you saw me walking. You honked at me. We we didn't walk together, but but uh I knew I knew we did something.

Yeah. So, I I really tried to find reasons of different perspectives, different logics, different points of view uh to change my mind from our vote two months ago. Um I think, you know, to cut to the chase, I think the problem I'm having with the ordinance and now this one property is um looking for the rationale. There was, you know, the the master plan talks about getting rationale, getting the council's approval, right? Which also indicates just because it's in the master plan doesn't mean it's it's automatic, right? So, um, didn't get m uh didn't get rationale. Uh, we got the memo with a little bit of history of who's requested and who hasn't, um, you know, through the planning department. And I guess I guess I'm looking for rationale vision you know without without that there are ramifications and there's you know a range of outcomes um that we're not anticipating. So I and I guess my question is uh I understand the points it's well where do we stop because those those other properties across the street they are more there's they are more north you know where does that western part of the you know of the reasonzoning stop right so I I I guess I'm just sort of at at the point where um I think this kind of ties in with Councilman Demoter's points I'd rather see a more holistic vision rather than peace peace meal before we really change anything.

Yeah. Can I offer another comment or other else wish to speak first?

Well, I agree with you um council president for all your comments and stuff and I mean Miss Hatley and the people there could also have eventually an exit from Walmart right in front of their property. So talking about potential change or even pass through because I see the engineer look at but no the uh because it's zoned community commercial that little thing next to the other community commercial or or limited commercial properties there. So that's something to take into consideration. Uh we all know that that is backed up intersection the other other way. So that could happen if we want to really want to talk about the potential could happen down the street. What if what this is? I would rather have seen all four properties reszone because there are some overall concerns with me on the Baker property with it remaining neighbor neighborhood professional mainly not due to the business but it could potentially due to the way the neighborhood professional code is written. Uh somebody just pretty much just has to leave it vacant for a couple years and then they can still

I don't I don't want to interrupt you. Got that ordinance is done. Okay. Okay. Well, okay. No, talking about this.

Okay. This one as as is fine. I believe that they have um experienced massive change in the neighbor neighborhood. They they are there. And as the council president said, I'm not willing to look past this moving forward. And there are protections in the neighborhood professional that limits the impact that can and will go go there. If you look at the current data that's probably available, the house that is there is about the pro about the max size that can go on that property. Period. So there can't not be any larger building than that there. So I'm done, Mr. President. Thank you, Mayor Sure.

All right. Uh, thanks so much. I probably shouldn't talk too much tonight because I'm not feeling very diplomatic. I just want to get to the uh get to the chase. Um, first of all, I thought the ordinance as written, if I were on the council, I would vote for it as it was written. It's been amended. That's fine. Okay. Uh, as far as uh, this one property being neighborhood professional, I don't see any problem with it. I don't see one because I know that before uh, the Metapa was put in there, that was a dilapidated house. neighborhood professional allowed a business to get in there and actually clean up the house, straighten up the property, and turn it into a dynamic business here in Mount Ary. Uh neighborhood professional does not scare me. Okay. Uh the other thing is, you know, a previous council voted to turn a property commercial right next to residential existing. So, I don't see how we can sit here tonight and say, "Oh, no. We can't have neighborhood professional next to neighborhood professional." That previous council put community commercial right next to residential existing. So, it's it's kind of hypocritical to jump in there and say we're not going to do that now. So, in my view, I think that uh that this is uh acceptable. I thought it was acceptable before and if it passes, I'm not going to veto it. So that's my comment.

Any further comments?

Uh yes. So um this was uh Mr. Romanov's comment. I'm saying the name wrong. I apologize. Said his recommendation was do not make the changes. Maintain current NP zoning by keeping the vet baker and metapot NP. Make no changes to the buffer zone and no changes to any of the town's NP rules. the Hatley property is to remain residential, keep the NP buffer zone as is. And my point is, you've got a buffer zone there that's working. You've got a block of NP zone properties and then residential properties. You don't need to expand neighborhood professional.

Steve, you've had like 15 minutes to talk about, sir. You keep making the same point. You're against it. I I asked to make a comment. I was allowed. All right. It's not my

I I would ask uh call the member to order. You're you're speaking to me directly and that's really not allowed in Robert's rules, I believe. So, I understand your position, but I I was allowed to make a comment. Um so, I'll I'll I'll wrap this up again. I I'm not going to turn my backs on the citizens on South Main who don't want any zoning changes. Not going to turn my back on the master plan. we work so hard for because there are protections in there. I'm not going to turn my back on what I perceive to be safety issues with bad sidewalks. It's not very walkable. We're just going to add more traffic to that area. So, that's my rationale. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Steve. Any further comment? All right. Hearing none, we have a motion on the floor regarding resol or I'm sorry, regarding ordinance 2025-16. It's been amended to remove partial 1422, 1423, 1428. It now is only concerning partial 1429. This would go from residential existing to neighborhood professional. All in favor of this ordinance and the motion, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Nay. Thank you guys. Three to two.

All right. Next up. So, Council President, I did want to make a a follow-on motion about the master plan. Let's go um this quickly.

Okay. So, I've I've given each of you a copy of a my motion. Um, what I'm proposing here, I'm going to make a motion to um essentially direct the action to amend our master plan because right now we have a master plan that's been approved that has one set of proposed zonings. This council has taken votes on all of those properties and we have not approved most of those resonings. So now we have master plan and we have legislative votes and the two do not align. So I've given you a copy of my motion and I'd like to read it into the uh make a motion. I make a motion that the town community planning director be directed to submit for the planning commission's consideration propose amendments to the current town master or comprehensive plan for later consideration by this council as follows. That the master plan be amended to remove from the list of the properties that were recommended to be zone reszone those properties that have not been reszoned. Okay. So, some were recommended and we ended up not reszoning them. That as to any properties that have been reszoned, but to zoning districts other than those recommended by the current master plan, that the master plan be amended to reflect recommendations consistent with the reszoning of the properties by the town council. And then third, that certain clerical errors be corrected as indicated by my red lines, which I will provide to the community planning director. I did find some miscellaneous um errors in tables, and I think if we're going to open up the plan, those

should get corrected. So, that is that is my motion, and I ask for the support of someone to second that so we can have a conversation. I'll go ahead in a second, but I want to just make a request. Would you be comfortable tableling this till next month when one, Tom is here, and two, I think we'd all be in a little bit better place uh mindfully. Um, so I'll second it to get to a discussion with the request that maybe we could just table this to next month if you're comfortable with that. I I'm com I'm comfortable with that. Could I can I So, we're basically going to utilize this as an introduction. Yeah. And then next month we can revisit and I'll have it on the agenda.

Okay. You Is that okay? I am. Could I could I give a a a quick statement like a minute? Okay. So what we're trying to do here is if the master plan is not amended, we don't want people seeking to enforce the master plan's proposed zoning that's currently in the master plan. So if we're not going to reszone in a manner that the master plan says we're going to, then the master plan does have to change. That is the whole point of the exercise. and and yes, I'm comfortable with uh tableabling this to our next meeting.

Okay. So, we'll utilize this as like an introduction and I'll just I'll have it on as a resolution for Okay. And I just need a copy unless it's if we have a resol. Okay, I can give you that. Thank you, Councilman. We'll just go ahead and put that on the agenda for next month. Steve, thank you for being okay with just kind of table. Thank you very much. Next up, we have resolution 2025-3 to allow alcohol at Celebrate Mount Airy Saturday, August 23rd, 2025 from 5:00 p. p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This is for adoption. I'll make a motion to adopt. Do we have a second? Second.

Is there any discussion about this? Say who would be opposed? All right. Hearing none. All in favor of resolution 2025-3 to allow alcohol at Celebrate Mount Area on Saturday, August 23rd, 2025 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Please signify by saying I. I. I.

All right. Um, so that's it on the agenda for ordinances, resolutions. Um but um unfortunately I'm not gonna have be able to end uh right then and there. Um where's my paper? All right. So, as the council president, um, which I was put here by the council and I appreciate, um, sometimes things are easy to do, sometimes things are difficult to do. Uh, this is something that's difficult to do and I don't do it lightly. Um, but I need to make a motion for a resolution of reprimand or censor pertaining to council member Mund's actions and statements during and after the July 28th planning commission meeting. Do we have a second?

I'll second that.

All right, we're in discussion now. Um, this is something I feel very strongly about. Um, and there have been multiple warnings behind the table. There have been multiple warnings um independently and uh with with obviously more than just Councilman Munder, but uh what happened on this date, I I will not not address publicly um our commission members need to understand that we have their back, that we are here to support them, and uh when they don't feel that way, it's a uh it's not acceptable. So there is really no to my knowledge um course of action. Uh so I'm doing the best I can and kind of winging this as I go. But um you know whatever it is we have to do, we're going to do it. Um, there's been, like I said, multiple discussions in the past to include an email from our mayor that explicitly states how council members should act and what is expected of us when attending commission meetings and speaking to our volunteer members. And what I'll do is I'm going to read some of these things into the record uh just so everyone's aware of what we should be holding ourselves accountable to to avoid any perception of violating the open meetings act since the liaison will be sitting at the meeting. Council should avoid having two additional council members speaking and participating at the meeting. three council members is a quorum and the citizens are not aware that the council meeting is scheduled in addition to the commission meeting. When at a commission meeting, remember it is the chair's meeting. Please respect his or her authority. The

commissions are executive bodies. when or if you disturb the flow of the meeting or follow them out the door to their cars or engage members as a council member asking for special consideration of time allowed or subject consideration. I hear about it as the mayor. Please respect their time and the commission's autonomy and please remember that even though you are on the council, time limits and the flow of the meeting are at chair's discretion. Please do not follow members of commissions to their cars or continue the meetings outside of this room or whatever room it's being held in. Social discussions of course are excluded and welcomed. I'd ask that you please remember that the liaison roles are created to allow flow of information between the council and the commissions. Council members should utilize their respective liaison to pass information between all of the council and the commissions. You'll realize I have left plenty of flexibility in this email for the chairs except for following persons to cars to continue meetings. Times will occur where more input is desired or needed. The commission members are volunteers and I regret we may lose some good ones if we don't have some rules of thumb at commission meetings. This email was sent in May. There have been two more incidents that have happened since this email. As the council president, I would not be doing my job if I didn't do whatever I thought I could do to get this to stop. So what I am telling each and every one of you sitting at this table, every time it happens, it will be called out and it will not be private. It will be public. And every time it's done, I will have a

resolution of censure to a point to where if it continues, I will do whatever I can in my power to remove you from the chair you sit. This is no longer acceptable. It's been going on too long. to our volunteers and to town staff. So, I'm asking and even more so, I'm telling each and every one of you to stop. Any further discussion?

Just I appreciate your comments. I appreciate you reading from the email that was sent. Uh it's hard to find volunteers who are willing to give up weekday nights to come to these meetings and we want the commissioners to know that we do have their backs and uh for for God's sakes stop following people to their cars. Any of you please any further discussion? May I mister? I'll be civil. Don't worry about that. I know you will. Well, I guess what date was um being censored for or July 28th.

July 28th. I do regret my actions on that night. It was more passion and stupidity and concern for a potential negative outcome for the town due to a vote that was taken at there. Uh at no one time to my recollection did I personally threaten anybody or anything else. I pretty much acted stupidly within and I went out to talk to two people that I was excuse me not two but mainly one person that just to make sure that we were not negatively impacted in any such way by a decision the uh planning commission made that night council president. So I'm I was just made aware of the what was sent and accused of on that night. So I do apologize for my actions and at that time there was no ill intent meant towards any of the commission members and I must recall that it's just not me that has been doing these actions to council president. So I'm kind of bewildered that this is just against me tonight.

Thank you. What I can tell you is that there have been times where people have towed the line. What I will tell you is you crossed it. And I will also state that the fact that you're even justifying it right now is is not something I would recommend doing. Yes, sir. Uh we are council members. That is an executive body. If they choose to make a decision and it negatively impacts our wishes, then so be it. That is the process and then we need to go through the process to then figure something else out.

We do not override an executive body. We do not negatively impact them on our preferences on what it is that we will or will not want. And the fact of the matter is, yes, we do want a police station on Green Tree. No, we will do nothing special to make sure that that plan goes through just because we have a viable option on Green Tree. So, the fact that you are upset about their decision to force these eight parking spots in, you have no business being upset about. That is their decision. They are in the executive body and then we will then maneuver accordingly. Understood sir. Any further discussion?

Just quickly, council president, as leison on to the planning commission, uh I was not there that night. I was at a previous schedule previously scheduled event. I of course did watch the entire meeting uh on CMC the next day. Um yes. Um I echo your sentiments. Thank you. We have to support these commissioners and the planning commission we all know has you know uh debatably the hardest jobs in the town and uh the uh I I support their comments, their attention to detail and we do not want to deter that. So that's what I wanted to say. Thank you.

Close out one comment and that's also to remind you that there is a a council policy. If you meet with a developer um or anybody who's an interested party in something that's coming up as far as an ordinance or something that you're going to be voting on, you need to log it in uh so that so that it is aware that you have had that contact. Okay. So, uh, Sean, I know you're new, but there is a policy out there. So, okay, good.

All right. I apologize for going off the agenda. It's not something I like to do. Um, but, uh, and I hope this is the only time I'll have to do this for the rest of my tenure here. Um, but we have a motion, a resolution on the floor uh for the reprimand and censure of council member Mund for his actions pertaining to the July 28th planning commission meeting. Uh, we'll go ahead and take a vote. All in favor of the resolution, please signify by saying I. I.

All right. Thank you. We do not have any unfinished business. We will now move on to the closed meetings. The first one is subject litigation and the second one is land acquisition. And we also have a third one. The subject is council. At the conclusion of these closed meetings, the July or I'm sorry, the August town council meeting will be adjourned. We will roll call into these closed sessions. Council member Demoter. I. Council member Mund. I. Council Secretary Evans. I. Council member Kelly. I. I'm and I as well. We'll see everyone next month. Thank you.