Parks Board - Regular Meeting

you're live you're live okay good evening welcome to the july 8th 2026 parks board meeting president mr alan hobbs commissioner alan hobbs excuse me Mike Bup, myself, Tim Pike, Terry Pierce, Ashley Springer, Niles. Ander Egg. Ander Egg, thank you. And Preston King. All right, let's see. So we met at 6 o'clock this evening, and we toured three parks. Well, two and a half parks, right, really?

Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, we did Dillingham, we did Campbell, and then we did the pollinator patch. Call your circle. Call your circle pond.

Yeah, it was really good. Nice. Any announcements?

So no announcements at this time. The next meeting will be August.

It wasn't on the – I'm sorry.

I know. I keep forgetting that.

August. I bet it's going to be the – Yeah, I think it's going to be – I can do the calendar.

Fifth.

Yeah. August 5th.

I'm just saying I will not be in town.

You want to try to do another what we can talk about another parks visit we can do that Do you want to do that at the next one or do you want to do it?

Well when Preston comes back, um, yeah September it's pretty nice. Yeah.

Okay Why don't we plan on the September 9th? Okay meeting

And that will be at 6 o'clock, and we'll figure out where to go.

Yeah, we can go like Hoeing. We could do Stevens, which we did last year, but we can do it again. And so, yeah, we can look at whatever else we want to do.

That's it. We go to hoeing and say we can make a quick run and we have two more pollinator patches Yeah, we could do that at the plant and I show you yeah, that's perfect fields. Yeah, let's do it part of our system now Yeah, let's and I think a lot of people don't even know we have the pollinator patches back in there Yeah, and along the way we talked about potential those paths.

Yes trails.

Yep in between yep We can tour the barn. What barn are you guys talking about?

It's at Hoeing. At Hoeing. Oh, that. There's a rundown barn that's on that park property. Okay. So you will see it. All right.

Citizen comments on the agenda items. Jerry, you got anything to say? Yes. All right. Thank you.

Jerry Klobucowski, 17, 300 Fletchall Road, Poolsville, Maryland. Maylee Kuliki Maka. Hold on.

What? Is anyone taking notes? Minutes?

Who would like to? If anybody would like to. I got it. OK. Perfect. Thank you. Sorry, Jerry.

Mele Kalikimaka. That's Merry Christmas. And since it's July, isn't it Christmas in July? Yeah. I'm your present. Now, I've only got two things to talk about. One is parking signs on the south side of Hughes Road next to Halmos 3 ball field. There used to be at least three there. I know there was done one down near the corner of Tom Fox and Hughes Road and Tom Fox. And that one was taken down by a truck. And why do I know it's a truck? Because the guy left his bumper behind. Okay. That one's never been replaced. A couple weeks ago, there were three cars, four, parked on the Helmholtz Street ball field sides facing south. And then there was one facing north on the same side. The curb is yellow from the start of that, just a little before the start of the field where the field is, all the way down at Tom Fox. It needs to be chipped a little bit and repainted, but the bottom line is there's supposed to be no parking there. That truck accident happened somewhere either before or right after 2020, and it's like, Do we need to go to Home Depot and get a no parking sign and a metal pole to have and go put it up? That's wrong. Number one.

Well, first off, their signs were put up wrong in the first place. They shouldn't have been put in. There was Eddie Coleman belongs to church, and they didn't want people parking in the grass, which is a natural park.

no excuse me that's not yes it is yes it is excuse me excuse me all right i supported that so it wasn't only eddie coleman it was there were people parking on this is that is the northbound side i'm talking about the south side uh west that'd be the

Contiguous with our side.

This would be the south side Anyways, bottom line is directly next to the curb where how most three ball field is and I understand why we Wanted it on both sides because if fire engines or emergency equipment had to come through we didn't want people parking on both sides of the street that may impede them going to an emergency of some sort. That was the reason. Eddie was the president. He was part of the financial committee on the OLP church, but that is irrespective, has nothing to do with it. Bottom line is people are parking there and, you know, people who are turning to go on to Tom Fox off of Hughes, that could be a problem. Okay. All right, so I can't I don't understand why they haven't been replaced. The second thing is Recently, I don't know what company it was Again, this is Hughes Road was installing fiber conduit along the sidewalk Hughes and every now and then you'd see a two foot by maybe one foot patch That was excavated, you know, and they ran the conduit and then they put the thing back the reseeding was done and Covering of it was done haphazardly Rather than getting a mat which has the seed, the fertilizer, and everything in it, and cutting it out to fit those squares and anchoring in. They did hand seeding. They put straw on top of it. Two days later, a wind storm came up. It's gone. Half the seed hasn't taken. and it's like excuse me if you're going to do a job do it right and to sit here and say well you know it's not whoever we need to contact those people and tell them do it right it's our street it's our sidewalk it's our town and if anybody's got a problem with that then i'm sorry thank you very much have a good evening

Okay, so I like to comment on the Hughes Road and the Comcast that came through. It was Comcast who did it, and I did have a conversation. And the other thing is a lot of the straw is missing because people cut their grass, and they cut right over the straw. Yes. So it evacuates all the seeding, and it takes away all the straw.

And I think they didn't do a good job of delineating where they had done their work either. And so we had a conversation even before. So they – didn't have a permit to do the work initially i had to i had to call them i have a good contact now named joel he was very responsive i had them stop they they filled in what was temporary they left they got a permit they got all the requirements that they were supposed to And then they came back and did the work About the seating we've done seating with straw before and haven't had the same issues that they've had and so You know part of it is making sure that they are aware of it. It's in the requirements in the permit It's in the permit requirements that they have to Follow all the procedures that we have and so that's one thing that we have a conversation with the problem usually is Once Comcast is done with it They're done with it. And it's very hard to get them back.

I hope not because I have a big new terminal in front of my yard. It's been opened up for a month.

Kevin.

Yep. No, no, no.

Yeah. Our lawyer and say, excuse me, but you signed a permit. This was supposed to be done. It was not done properly. Come back and do it right or see you in court.

Yeah. Yep.

PERMITS FORM?

THAT'S ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I THINK WE'LL HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH THE NEXT TIME THEY APPLY FOR A PERMIT. THAT'S THE OTHER WAY OF HANDLING IT IS DOING THAT. BUT THAT IS A CONVERSATION I HAD WITH THE CONTRACTOR WHO IS NOT, UNFORTUNATELY, IS THE GUY WHO'S JUST DOING THE WORK.

HE'S A SUBCONTRACTOR. So anyhow, talking about that, since they have done majority of the mulling and infrastructure lines, when are they coming back to finish out some of the connections?

So that we don't know yet. And so that we – again, it becomes they go off and they do something along, you know, Pennsylvania, and then they come back and we – I'm not complaining, but on my property at the –

IT'S A THREE FOOT BY SIX FOOT DEEP HOLE THAT'S BEEN THERE FOR A MONTH YEAH THEY DON'T HAVE A FENCE AROUND IT AND IT ALL TAKES A DOG TO GO IN OR A KID ON A BIKE JUST TO PLAY AROUND AND THEN AM I LIABLE YEAH RIGHT WELL AND THAT IS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY AND IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN THERE IT WOULD BE THEY WOULD BE LIABLE AND SO WE GOT TO COME AND SO YEAH SO WHAT SEND ME THE PICTURES OF IT I WILL AND THEN WE'LL USE THAT I LOVE SENDING EMAILS I LOVE SENDING MY EMAILS YOU KNOW THAT YES YES YES

And just to add on to that, it's like when they put the dirt back, you know, they didn't tamp it down. They just left pumps all over the place, you know? And anyways, so, and it's like, as an aside, I don't know if they're doing the same thing over here at Willard's. Normally when they do something like that, they do hydro seeding.

Yeah.

Or they have the mats.

Yep. And some of it is where they're doing it, where they're going to put in buildings like on Fisher. Yeah. Those are all going to be lots. So some of it they're preparing the ground just to kind of do it. And then we're working on that too. And we'll be doing some reseeding over there ourselves since we redid the sidewalk there.

anyways thank you thank you jerry and the gentleman those stop signs we had an issue with that 15 20 years ago at that intersection right and it was we decided if they kept parking they were going to pull their permit was it a permitted

So we sent emails and that was the other thing after we did is we sent emails again to the coaches. Right.

And we had a conversation with the coaches.

It was a big issue. Then we put signs in. About parking as well there.

Now, sometimes they will, when they are delivering equipment and stuff like that, will allow them to park on the grass.

But just being there. There was two cars. They went down that little driveway to go to the field. One was parked this way. The other was parked this way on the grass.

Yeah. And so sometimes we will let them do that if they're delivering equipment.

I understand if they've got a lot of equipment, ball bags and all that other stuff, they park, they unload, and they go around the corner. Yeah.

Yes.

But the other thing is, I know when I come out of, if people are coming out of Bodmer, taking a right on to Hughes to get on the Tom Fox, with those cars that are already lined up, it's a blind spot. So if they come out, you know, it goes down. And like Jerry said, I mean, it's a single, it's a... Yeah, it's too late to a road now. But when you park there, it's single way. And then I mean, on the weekends when they have, you know, the youngsters out there playing deep.

And that's the hardest time when they're when there's not four cars, there's 12. And that's where they also park on.

They also actually park on Tom Fox after the four way intersection. Come back, my lady presentation. So.

And that might be a communication thing we do with the coaches, again, about where to park. You know, just try to push people where they're down.

One on Bodmer and one off of Tom Fox.

And sometimes those get full. They park under the trees and everything else.

The most part is used so much now. Every field, a soccer field, it's a limited part. It's not enough.

Yeah, that's been the issue. So we'll have conversations about how we can address it.

20 bucks a car, they can come up and park. Hey! I like that.

10 to the town, 10 to you. Make some money, man.

Anyways, have a good evening. Thank you, Jerry.

Thank you. All right, number five. Anyone else have anything to say about the Hughes Road and parking and overseeding or lack of overseeding?

All right.

Rule of minutes. June 3rd, meeting minutes. Everyone had a

Mike, I will. I'll make a motion to approve.

All right. A motion on the table. A second.

Who was here for that one? Oh, yeah.

I forgot to put it. We all were. It was everyone. I came late.

I meant to put. Oh, yeah. You came in late, which I'll note. With that amendment that I'll update that every. You don't have to put out.

I think I was virtual. You were. You were. I was on the water. You guys were mad at me.

Yes. Yeah. We thought you were at the. Yeah, I wish. Oh, you circled pond. Yeah. Yeah.

It was afterwards, actually, Preston.

All right. So there is a motion to approve and a second?

I think Ashley.

Ashley second, and then you add a question. All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Five, zero, and I guess zero. Okay.

No one else to vote, right? It would be one, because there's one abstention. Or two abstentions. Who? Tracy and Christina. But they can't abstain if they're not here. It counts as abstentions for the purposes of voting. So when they are not here, and we do this all the time at the commissioners, when they're not here, we note that they are not here in every vote.

We never did that on this board, ever. Okay, that's fine. Yeah. So we have two people who are absent.

All right, that's fine.

I didn't even know that.

Yeah. It's not in this. It's one of those technicality things. It doesn't matter.

I'm going to have to read Robert's rules over again, I guess.

Yeah.

Sorry.

All right. New business. Okay. Appointment of new student members. Everyone had a packet. We read it. Niles, you want to talk about that?

Sure. So at the last meeting with the imminent departure of Nicole Bocek, who was here earlier for the park tour, we discussed adding a new parks board member. Both Jade Tillerman and Elizabeth Reed have expressed interest in the student position, and staff has spoken with both of them since the last meeting. Um, the yep. So the staff recommendation is that the parks board appoint both students to the student member position so that they can share the responsibilities of, of the student parks board member. As we previously stated, the student position is a non-voting member of the board. So, um, so basically it's just a motion for you guys to appoint both to the student position, just so that it's on the record.

I like the idea. Two is better than one, right? More input from students. I think Nicole was a great addition.

I was going to say, those are two sharp people right there. She's part of that tree program and everything. That'd be great Eagle Scout. Yep, both. Yep. Yep. She has an Eagle Scout project in the works. Yep.

Mm-hmm and they're both juniors and I see they're both the Rising same rising seniors.

Yeah good We just have to make a recommendation then it's so because it's a not an official appointment. It's your appointment So you guys just have to make a motion to appoint them Okay, anyone want to make a motion to appoint motion to appoint both students?

to the parks board Second.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Five. Any nos? And two abstentions.

Two in abstentions.

In abstentions?

No, it's just a comment. No worries about it. Giving you a bad time.

I was reading, was that little thing, summarize you gave us about what we learned on the park?

Yes, that's in the memo. That's not in the pack. Who wrote that? I did.

Okay. Whalen Commons?

Oh, did I misspell it?

Whalen's.

I thought it was an AI thing. It's probably just that it's... It's fine. I apologize.

I thought we had another park.

What happens is sometimes a voice type, and it says Weyland as Weyland. We're in the Alien franchise.

Okay, lessons learned on private Weyland Commons events.

Okay. So at the June 3rd meeting, the Parks Board recommended approval of the all-day event on Wayland Commons. Following the event, staff would like to share some lessons learned and make recommendations for future such events. Due to the anticipated volume of traffic on Wayland Commons, the Parks and Streets Department had one staff member there all day to change out the trash cans, open and close the bathrooms, and handle anything else. Did Charles do anything else? Yep. Yep. This was not an issue for the town, but the town did incur a cost because we had to pay the employee. Because of the town's fee structure doesn't have a fee for a first staffed event like this on Whalen Commons. So this was the first time we had a staff member all day. The applicant was charged just the pavilion rental fee of $60 for all day. So that's like if you have a birthday party in one of the parks, It's $60. The staff recommends that for future events like this, so basically an all day event, The fee structure should be $200 for four hours and $400 for eight hours. This will cover the town's expenses and align this type of event with the structure used for sporting tournaments at other town parks. So when we have a tournament, it's the same fee structure. It's $200 and $400. If the Parks Board agrees to this change, then the parks fee can make a recommendation to the town commissioners by motion.

Okay. I thought we put something in that initial draft. We did. Can you remember the baseball tournament that you used to have? Yeah, in March. Yes. But it wasn't just for the... We talked about the skill, I thought. Right, but it wasn't... I thought there was something specifically for other events.

So the way that it's structured doesn't really talk about Wayland, and that's why we wanted to make it specific for Wayland Commons, so that it's... BECAUSE IT'S SORT OF NEBULOUS HOW WAYLAND COMMONS IS TREATED BECAUSE IT DOESN'T TECHNICALLY DOESN'T HAVE A PAVILION. IT'S TECHNICALLY NOT A SPORTS FIELD SO IT'S SORT OF ITS OWN THING. SO THIS IS ADDING FOR THE TYPE OF FACILITIES THAT WE HAVE.

SO FOR FOUR HOURS, $200 YOU What?

So basically you would be able to use all the facilities and you would have staff. One staff. So yes, to open and close the bathrooms and to change out trash and such, like what Charles did that day. Make sure toilet paper stays. Exactly. Yeah, sure. And so that's generally typically the cost that we're looking at incurring because that's what the town incurred. So it's just recouping that cost. $100 for eight out, $400 for eight out.

Okay. And that's the same as it is for a baseball tournament.

Correct, exactly. And they're dragging fields. There's a couple of other things that happen with those sports tournaments. So there's slightly more work, but it's the same pay regardless.

I like the idea.

Mr. Hobbs? Well, you know, I was taking some notes on... We got another event, what, Friday at Wellcomes?

Yes.

Something about B...

Yeah.

With this one?

Yes.

This event's for little kids? Yeah, it is. Yes.

But again, I would anticipate with the amount of attendance that we've had so far. Now, there is some weather pending, I think, on Friday. So I don't know if they're going to, if somebody might reschedule it for a later day. That's a town event? That's a town event. And that is covered through.

And we'll make a call on that weather-wise. Yes.

On Thursday or Friday morning?

Sometimes, you know, lately, you know, one day is good, you wake up in the morning, oh, here they come. So probably Friday morning. But normally by Thursday, we'll have a good feel for whether we'll roll or not on that one.

But those events, because they're town-sponsored events, don't impact the fees. So there it's because we often get revenue from them, actually, and so that works out.

In this event, the town doesn't have a whole lot of money output on it. It's not like the big red, white, and blue and stuff like that. If we have to shut it at the last minute, I think a couple hundred dollars for the film.

Yeah, exactly. It's the screen and the projector is the biggest cost. It's the only thing we have.

Sponsorships and stuff cover that. When's the last time that we revisited fee structures even for the parks and everything else like that?

We did the fee structure... Well, we did all of the permitting fees this past year, so not the past fiscal year, in 26. And so we can look at the fee structure. Basically, for parks, it's basically now 2.5 fees, the $200, $400 fee and the $60 fee, more or less. Those are the two fees that really impact the park, I think.

I imagine we're pretty comparable with the other municipalities.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we tend to want, like we don't want to, like for the $60 one, we don't want to, you know, be overly burdensome for someone having a birthday party at a pavilion. No, no, no. And so, you know, generally that's kind of how it's treated. It's in that $50, $60 range, just so that there's something that says you're responsible for picking up after yourself. They don't always do it, but that's the intent of that kind of stuff is to have them have a little bit of ownership over using the pavilion for that time. So that's where there's less cost involved except for in man hours.

THREE HOURS FOR A PARTY, IT WOULD JUST BE THE 60.

CORRECT. 200 DOESN'T KICK IN. THAT'S ALSO RELATED TO VOLUME. THE OTHER THING THAT WOULD BE PART OF IT IS DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE TO WARRANT A STAFF PERSON? IF IT'S 20 PEOPLE, They're here for three or four hours. That's less of a concern. Again, usually they pick up after themselves. Sometimes they don't, and we have to address that.

But in general, they're very good about it, bad about it at the cancer. Once again, we live in a great town. Yeah, exactly. Residents are good. Perks. In general. Yeah. In general. Yeah. They take care of those towns.

And that was it. Okay. Do we ever have, how about a security deposit? Do we require that?

So we do that for some things. We have a $100 security deposit that we've done for this building. We've done a $100 security deposit for something else, too, we did. Fields? The fields. The bathhouse, I mean. And so we could incorporate that into how the fee structure is. So we could either have it have a deposit in.

Has there ever been anything broken in it?

NOT REALLY, NO. AND LIKE FOR HERE, EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE SOMEBODY SCUFFS SOMETHING. NOTHING INTENTIONAL.

WE DON'T ALLOW BONFIRES OUT HERE. CORRECT. YOU CAN'T ANYWAYS. YOU NEVER KNOW. IT WOULD RUIN OUR FIELD.

TOTALLY.

the structure of how we approve this now that we're charging more or not?

No, it wouldn't. No, no. It would just be the same process for things like this, for like the event that we did. It's just more R incurred cost because this is really the first time we had an all, all day thing here. And we realized what the cost was. And so that sort of changed things a little bit.

All right. Any more discussion?

Nope. What are you thinking? When do you determine if somebody needed a permit?

So generally, we always require people, basically when they do an event, to submit an application. And then we determine what fee they need or things like that. So generally, it's based on what they apply to. It's worth pointing out that you don't always need a permit. If you just wanted to do something in one of the parks. Like a birthday party. Like a birthday party.

That's what I'm thinking. If a group of 15 people wanted to take their granddaughter over. and celebrate under the pavilion, they can do it. They can do it.

However, if somebody has already reserved that pavilion, they have the right of first dibs, basically.

And they have a copy saying, hey.

Hey, they have something that says, we have it for this time. Really what you were doing when you were getting a permit is really just reserving the time. Right. But they are public parks. And so as long as it's daytime, they can use them and they can use them mostly how they can. There are rules that apply to that. Okay. BUT THAT'S WHY WE HAVE A GOOD CONVERSATION WITH PEOPLE. WE ENCOURAGE THEM TO APPLY BECAUSE THEN THAT ALLOWS US TO, ONE, IT RESERVES THEM THE TIME. TWO, IT ALLOWS US TO TELL THEM THE RULES SO WE MAKE SURE THEY ARE AWARE OF IT. AND THREE, IT JUST MAKES THINGS MORE ORDERLY. They get used a ton. I want to say there's something like, I think since we started the website, there's been something like 11,000 permits through the parks over the years. That's from 2014. That's like something like that. I'll check it again. But it was some big number.

Because it's something like that. That's insane. Hundreds and hundreds a year.

That's awesome. 11,000 times three hours minimum, if not more.

And some of them, it all sort of factors in. And you have to think of every time they're doing it, they're reserving a ball field for THEY HAVE TO PUT ONE IN EVERY TIME. THAT IS THE REPEAT ONE EVERY TIME. THAT IS OVER SINCE 2014. THAT IS 14 YEARS WORTH OF PERMIT. IT IS A FEW HUNDRED EACH YEAR BASICALLY. IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT THAT WAY. I'll check the website later to get the exact number.

Mr. King busy. Yep. Okay. So, Terry, you like it?

No, that's fine. All good.

Well, let's entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion that the will and commons falls under the same fee structure as all the other parts. Second.

Second by Terry. All in favor? Aye. Yep. 5. 0 and 2. 0 nays and 2 in abstention. Yep. OK. Can we write that down? All right. Next. Moving right along here. Where's my thing? All right. All right. All business. Follow-up discussion on Wayland Common Signs. I assume this is for the request we got from Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson, yep. We decided, I think someone made a couple of suggestions, we decided to maybe collectively get a whole database of all past commissioners.

And so that's going to take some time.

So putting together... And it's not going to come out of this board. We're right. We have to start a smaller...

That was gonna be your your your recommendation. We didn't talk about that last time we had talked about that You don't want me doing it because I you know, but I think it's a great idea.

I mean, yeah, yeah, we can't do it off this board.

Yeah But I wanted to I just sort of provided some information in the packet Just about what we have done already. So I included the criteria that we do for naming streets parks and fields and um and then the next page i think after that i just included the people who are currently on the approved list who are not currently who have not currently been selected for a street or a park or something like that i will note however there are a couple of names including roy johnson who were not on the list when it was first generated in 2020 because there are streets in the county that have the name Johnson-Johnson Parkway being one, but that have that name. And so our general... Tendency has been to try not to duplicate names that are in the county. However, that doesn't apply to parks We can have named whatever we want. So this list will need to be updated anyways to include people like Roy Andy Johnson, I think also fits into the criteria Jerry will be added and Oh You know, if Preston eventually. Wade Yost asked that. Wade, yes, when he, again, for when he retires. And when eventually Preston retires, they'll be added to the list. John Strong. There's someone else that we were. John Strong. We can probably make our own category for John Strong since he's technically not a. What do you think about Jerry?

jerry i have a gesture at the plant jerry yeah um so i wanted to say i wanted to do all the time yeah i do want to segue a little bit because i was going to talk about it during my commissioner meeting since we're talking about the commemorative um with emails with uh samantha and Roy's initial plaque freestanding plaque When we when I presented it to the Commissioner meeting just we got to come up with a specific detailed list. Hmm Does it just for local leaders first responders veterans? So there's a lot of criteria that we have to engage on Who and how the family will determine? What we do we just can't put plaques everywhere around town. We've got to do a little bit smaller, maybe some engraved pavers throughout the park. There's a lot of different things we can do, but we, as a what we discuss at the commissioner meeting is the parks board to come up with a description and a criteria of who should be, it's 10 years is typically.

Let me just read the three things that we've already established for naming parks, streets, and fields, which is an individual who is at least 10 years of service with the town in elected and or appointed capacity is not currently in office or serving on a board or commission. So that basically covers commissioners, all of the various boards, and then the appointed staff. And then any individual who has made a significant contribution to the town or community. So that's the broadest of the category. So we can determine what that means in more specifics. Like what is significance? Exactly. So this is a good example of something. Just like everyone gets a trophy list?

Sorry.

And then... then a name with local historical significance, and then a name of a flora, fauna, indigenous to the area. So that's where all of the other ones kind of end up being that. And we have plenty of town streets that are named for flora and fauna. So that is mainly the same way that we name a street. Well, one will be the new one, which will be Wild Turkey Way.

Okay, there's one.

And then I'm trying to think of other ones that are either under the flora or fauna one.

Wild Turkey Lane.

Yeah, is that one? Oh, wow. Is that the extension?

Yeah. We don't have flora. Is that a wild flora, fauna, or drink?

Yeah. All the rest are names. I had never really thought about that before. Most towns, most of them are flat. Originally, the Woods of Tam was supposed to be American Elm.

Yes. A lot of those streets. Yeah. And then we changed them, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that happened over time as people, yeah. Um, sort of did it. Um, so yeah, just one of those things that I never, never thought about before.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Um, if I resign right now, I could be on that list. Correct. Really? Yes.

Am I make a motion?

Don't you second it? I'll make the motion as we resign. You guys sit here then. Adjourned.

So, yeah, so my point is if we want to expand who gets recognized or if we want to find different levels of recognition, so doing, you know, pavers or doing benches or whatever, again, as we said, for the benches, it's been families get to put a plaque on in memory of someone, basically, and that's on a first-come, first-served basis.

Can we add more benches?

I mean, we could always add more benches. I don't know.

I mean, is it feasible?

Add more benches? I mean, the only object there is money. Do we want to spend money on it?

And actually, there's aesthetics to it, too.

Right now, we have eight.

And you have to put a pad around there, too.

Yeah, you'd have to put a bump out.

It would be a couple thousand dollars at least. Yeah. Okay.

But if we wanted to do two more, there is the capacity to. But, you know...

I mean, I could think of one person who was on this board who passed away in January. Kevin Carmack. He did a lot for baseball at the time he was on this board.

Yeah.

Yeah, we can always name pollinator patches, too.

Oh, yeah.

There's other things besides ballpark.

So going forward, do we have to make the recommendation we're going to work on that, or what do you guys suggest?

Going back to the board to go through. We need something.

Yeah. I think the question was.

Are we doing commemorative? Are we doing memorials? Are we doing recognition?

I think the question is, what do we want? beyond what we already have if we do. Do you see what I'm saying?

Yeah.

So, like, do we want a more formal way of commemorating people who don't fall into any of these categories and so therefore wouldn't have a street or a park or whatever? Do a pollinator patch one where it's expanded more or do we want to, you know, look at other like we you know last time we talked about doing things online talked about doing papers you know like there's various different things there's plaques on trees you know if they want to plant a tree and put their in their family name on it again they already do that right now in whaling commons we could expand where we do that if if people want to in campbell park if somebody wanted to have have a a tree named there we can expand that that this program to that as well um and that's an easy one to do that you know that's just

Are we going to have a path out here connected?

Well, it's going to be a sidewalk and then a path around.

We put pavers on there. Yeah, yeah. Be part of the commission.

Yeah, yeah. So that's another option we can do. So there's various different options we could do depending on. More of my thought was for this meeting was just kind of setting the conditions under which we can make whatever decision you guys want to do. we all felt this you know there's yes once we get the system as people should be recognized yeah you know that's that's a no-brainer yeah i'm surprised this never came up before recognizing a commissioner or something well it's mainly been done through the through the this you know streets and fields and parks right you know profits surprises never so generally we've in like what we did in 2020 which is i think when the original list was done At that time Bobby went through and tried to pick out people who who followed those criteria As best she could With again, she was thinking about it more for streets not for anything else So that's where you know, the Johnson's didn't get added and things like that She was looking at just what could be possible street names, but with the parks there are people who fall under that first category but wouldn't

Is there going to be a park over here?

So yes, but this board had already recommended there's going to be two. William Taylor, who's on the list, will be the smaller park that will be on this side. And then the big park on the far side will be Willard Green, because that's who... That was their request.

What about that walkway that they just put in going up the hill towards John Pool House? We name that walkway?

I mean, we could if we wanted to. It hasn't come up before. So that's a good example of something that hasn't come up is do we name the trails, you know? Yeah. You know.

I mean, it just feels like this is going down a rabbit hole. Yes. Everything in town is going to be named.

Yeah.

Hey, they pay for it. Make some money right out there. Well, I get that.

It's not. I mean, it's not increase my salary.

Everyone likes to be right.

Yeah. I get that. Like where you draw the line.

Now we also, if I remember correctly, we also talked about adding a web page to our town page for a memorial and just a bio for everybody that is existing. Just so when people visit, you know, they can get recognized.

I had a chat with GPT the other day, and I said, past commissioners, and it only went back to 1948.

Yeah, and I'm not surprised at that because that's probably based on what is, because it was a jet GPT, it was probably based on what the state. Right, it was, it was a state. And the state has it only going back to 48 because prior to that, you basically have to go into the archives and physically try to pull out minutes to figure out who it was.

Does the town have a town historian?

So not so the closest thing to that who has a lot of the records is Tom Kettler Because he has done it through the historic. Yep. Exactly. He is a ton of records going back.

Can we appoint him town?

We can right now Office of it we could just I can talk to Tom.

He could be on the committee. He loves history.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely He's a lot of history on the streets and

yeah so but the point is that like going that is a good question like didn't we reconstruct commissioners that would fall under this category going all the way back we could a lot of them though have also already been been named you know going to elgin and all that right that kind of stuff what if we started a subcommittee a town historical committee and from that we can do the recognitions and things i mean it's good we've got to start somewhere Yeah. I mean, if that's what you guys want to do, you know, we can recommend that and have that conversation.

Actually, I'm not opposed to that.

That would give us some direction, and then we can always add to the, you know.

There's a lot more, you know, I mean, Link. I mean, he's got plenty on there, but he's an unbelievable mind of knowledge of history.

And that becomes complicated. Yeah, Link could definitely help us with it, but that's an issue. link is an interesting ray hoeing has a history he wrote a book about that yeah and that's where hoeing park is uh named after his rail so is that lake or ray it's for ray so the link technically again also qualifies you know between he does his service on the commissioners and the planning commission and such and so that becomes a good good example is there place where we want to name it link you know after that or lincoln or you know however because obviously how or a statue like you know the gettysburg address link on a corner of you know golf course yeah yeah

buy some more property that we you know have no access to of course we could have had the golf course yeah but uh but no i mean so that so we couldn't we could look at the committee and sort of see how we all right so you want to go back to the commission i will go back um i think we have one on the 22nd yeah so i'll go back with the recommendations and yeah we'll fine-tune everything and

We'll get a few people and go ahead.

Yeah. Link will be taking notes and we'll recommend them. There we go.

That'll be perfect. I'll get Tom Kelly. I can do that.

Yeah. Tom will be there. Oh, yeah. He's a little late, but he gets there. Jerry will be here. Yep. I'm going to have to start going. You guys should come. It's fun.

I watch him. I always watch him next night. There you go. In between offices.

Yep.

I think it's funny. You guys do a good job. You guys and Sarah. Okay, so I guess we're going to do a recommendation, commissioners. Yeah. And it will be ongoing. I'm sure we'll talk about it again.

Yep.

All right. Any other old business? You guys want to bring up anything?

I don't think we have anything else big at the moment.

Yeah, we're going to wrap this up. You're getting tired, huh?

You're going to get a long day. I'm on the ground at 630.

No, you've been on the sun. You're old.

You make yours quick. I'll make mine.

All right. Well, don't go, you know, just go. Okay. Superintendent of Parks and Streets report.

Okay.

Real quick. Jerry did bring up a point about that parking over on Hughes Road. And I've been allowing those guys to park in that grass to try to get the vehicles off the road. And then there's parking signs that were put up across the road. because of Eddie didn't want people parking in that area right there. That wasn't done because of a logistic. That was done because he didn't want nobody on the church ground. We should probably have a review section how we want to handle and if we can improve. Because I actually took the chain and poles down. They were there so the coaches could pull in, drop their gear off, and they parked some of the vehicles up on top there. There is room there. We could do some parking. We'd have to take a couple trees down. But I think if we really, you know, we could fill in the ditch. Not fill it in, but, you know, put a con, you know, flatten it out. We could make some parking. You know, we've got the swell. If I just put some pipe in there, fill it flat, we could actually probably put 10 slots on that one side. And that would handle most of the practice. It would keep people off the street. It would keep people off the street. That's what I'm saying. We just need to. And across the road, it's really a very wide. And if they could truly pull completely off the road, it wouldn't be no issue.

Yeah.

On there.

Do we own that? Is that right of way? There's right of way there. I don't know how wide.

That's our right of way.

But, yeah, it is our right of way.

Once again, it was put up for the wrong reason. So we need to readdress that, and we can improve that parking there. And I think that maybe the next meeting we get seriously down, and we can take a look at that. And it does need to be addressed, because when they aren't parking out there, it does create an issue. But we do, I think we have enough room with some in-house parking.

But I have recognized and I've seen when they don't park, when it has no parking on the right-hand side, they still park up the new neighborhood with the horseshoe. I don't know what it's called.

Yeah, the little lorry.

But they do park up on the right-hand side where it's two and a half lanes wide. So it's perfect for still cars to get back on both sides.

As a group, I like to take that under advisement. Maybe I get some measurements out there myself and just say, hey, I need to do this, this, and this. And we don't need a contractor, do we? I just turn it into my wintertime project.

You can report back to us next time.

What's that?

You report back.

Yes, I'll have a plan this time or next.

I'll have something.

In September, because you've gone for the next one. But anyways, I think that's something we can address in-house. It won't cost us anything. Minimals, pipe, I got to fill dirt and everything. But it's something I, because it is, once again, all over field. Ball Field 3 didn't go used for years. It's just been more and more. And now every field we've been talking about, our parks are used, so we should adapt. And I think we have room to adapt that area, at least especially during practice days when most of the parents kick the kids anyways and you've got four or five coaches. Get them cars off the road. It'd be that easy type of thing. I'll try to work something out for you guys on that.

We really improved that field. That was a –

Yeah, and it's so the high school how to use all the high school use it a couple times.

Yeah, because they had a whole camp Yeah, yeah, yeah Okay, I think when we look into that looking at either pulling it all the way off or if we can do parking bays What what would be more feasible there?

Yeah, we just gotta take a look I'm just saying just put that in your then you get parking and you also keep people off the streets. You can't exactly I

So anyway, so that was just kind of thrown in there. I don't have a tremendous amount to report. Poolsville Day is under 90. So that's all my radar, my security. It was improved, you know, bigger last year. We still got, we'll have more concrete blocks this year on NASA. I'm already thinking about what we got to do, where we got to move and stuff like that. And we'll be meeting with everybody on the 28th. The 28th we have with the police and other agencies. Fire, everybody. Yep, yep. That's July. July, yep. Yep, yep. We'll get that on board. My only thing is personnel. I'm looking for some personnel. If anybody has any good people and they need jobs.

We're looking for it. I put out the notice out today.

I have a 30% loss on Stuff one one's long-term a couple of them choose to work someplace else. Mm-hmm and so Any specific or we already know this is for summer help.

This is full-time all time. Yeah specific

Full time? I'll call you tomorrow. I know a guy who tried to get a hold of you a while ago. He might have been on vacation.

Specific divisions or...

They're going to be in parks and streets division. And I'm just telling you, when you think about it, they're going to be labor intense. They're coming to the bottom of the ground. They're weed eating, tree trimming, concrete grinding type of stuff. So when you think about it, you've got to, hey, can these people do the physical labor? That's the big thing.

Good. You can direct people. It's on the home page. It's right there. You can fill out the application and do all that stuff.

I'll call his wife tomorrow and tell you.

Yep.

Besides that, we've had a good summer in the parks. The summer program with Tara, it's just grown constantly. And once again, that also requires more of our time, which, once again, that's what we do. The town is just growing, and it's moving in the right direction. I mean, we're a good town, but there's always a cost associated with it, time and money with it. But we've had a great summer of events. It really has. Tara's done very well. Staff has done well supporting it and everything. And we just got, like I said, Poolsville Day. That's a big event for us. I've got a lot to do in the next couple. The salt building was completed. The second phase is you'll see the shed Friday out here, or the pad Friday, and we have two more pads being poured Saturday, and the additional storage building will be in place at the end of the month.

So we'll have a second shed back here. So there will be two now.

Once again, for Tara's events and us storing stuff, once again, everything is growing, and we've kind of outgrown. So we have more storage, and then I have more storage for my Christmas stuff down at – I need my other building back for my other stuff. I got Christmas stuff. It looks like somebody's back shed. We got Christmas stuff all over there. Anyway, so uh once again the second phase of our expanses We did the salt bin and all that I completed that this summer and now we're doing the second phase where the enclosed buildings and We're water department gets one of them. I get one and Tara gets one. Mm-hmm So we've used it we spread it out with all the departments All of us are growing, you know, our departments are growing. They're up here. There's storage is

There's stuff literally back in our electrical closet here that needs to be moved out.

Like I said, just busy, good busy, no complaints, but I do need some personnel and some reasonable people that are willing to work and be on time.

Thank you. You do a great job. Thank you.

All right, down to 30.

Five minutes.

All right. Most of the commissioners, except for, I think, one attended the good old summer MML conference down at Ocean City for four days. Learned a lot. Actually, I think attendance was down. But now I did as many parks and rec seminars we did. Learned about, obviously, grants. NEW INFRASTRUCTURES. YOU KNOW, WE'RE GOOD BECAUSE WE'RE ALWAYS AHEAD OF THE GAME, UNLIKE OTHER MUNICIPALITIES THAT DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START, WHICH IS KIND OF SAD BECAUSE THEY'RE BIGGER THAN US, A LOT BIGGER THAN US. SO WE WERE FORTUNATE TO HAVE A GREAT BOARD STARTING HERE AND THE COMMISSIONERS IN PLANNING. I MEAN, EVERYBODY. IT'S REALLY A UNIQUE TOWN AND OUR STAFF, OBVIOUSLY. met with uh state highway administration months before you know last couple months regarding the curve going out of town seeing what we can come up with so actually you're on it ironically you're seeing it now happen did you see it the other night i did yes what are they doing put more rumble strips so we we talked about it we met our connection down sha it went full bore

I had a meeting with them about the streetscape, which I'll talk about in a second. And we also talked about the curve as well. And so they are evaluating it. They've already done things, which they were originally going to say, we're going to evaluate and then we'll meet with you again. But instead they took – and I will say that we had started this process. I think it was good that residents also reached out about it because it put – more even more pressure on them and that's why they're doing stuff so it's it's that kind of advocacy from the commissioners from staff and from the uh from the public as well that has helped push it along to do things when i came back to town last night at 10 30. yep they were cutting rumble strips yeah

Cutting them in? Yeah, they're milling them out, and that's what I had proposed. I'm like, instead of doing raised strips, why don't you have the rumble strips going in through a tunnel or coming up to the airport? It really gets your attention. You'll slow down the second time after you go.

They were cutting them last night, and they put 25-mile-an-hour speed limits, which nobody reads it, but they painted it.

It's painted. It's on the ground now.

So the reality of it is.

A lot of visual now. And they also put the physical.

And now, look, I know people want to talk about guardrails. If they put guardrails in, most likely they're going to ricochet. Then they're going to cause more accidents. Right. So over the last couple of months, I've collected data through MCPD accidents. I mean, matter of fact, they had one of the officers got head-on collision or head-on about a month ago or so, probably six weeks ago, because somebody blew through partnership at night, even though I don't know how you don't see red and blue lights in the middle of that night. totaled a car, and you know, officer went to the hospital, blah, blah, blah. So anyhow, we do a lot of the behind the scenes to give them data that they say they're collecting. But since we collect data, and obviously with the residents, and the homeowner, if we continue, if we continue in numbers to advocate for it, that's all we can do. And being it's not even a Poolsville, it's out, it's out of it's outside of Poolsville. So, I know people can say, well, the commissioner's got to do something. We can, technically, but when outside of Poolsville, it's a whole different political agenda, right? It's State Highway, and then MCDOT's partnership. I mean, there's all kinds of things. But we're making headway, and that's all I'm happy with, right?

Oh, yeah. And one of the others is alive. Yeah.

And I was like, be proactive and not reactive. I mean, I'm pretty blunt with the people when I get in front of them. Now I was going to attest to them. I mean, like, I don't have time to sit down and draft a three-page paragraph or a three-page article where after the first paragraph, they're like, okay, whatever, you know. But again... Where do you set a life? One, three? What is your data? Mine's zero. Be proactive, not be reactive. It's our tax dollars, again, part of our tax dollars. Just go out and do it. It's not costing that much. Rumble strips, hanging on the roads, slow down, and weather conditions. Everybody drives, it doesn't matter if it's straight or if it's a corner, you know when your car's gonna hydroplane or be out of control. No different than snow. But again, it's remarkable, because I think most of the data that I know IS NOT TOWN RESIDENCE BECAUSE WE KNOW THE CORNER. BUT AGAIN, IT'S ABSURD THE AMOUNT OF THINGS THAT MILTON HAD TO DEAL WITH.

SINCE JANUARY THERE'S BEEN FIVE ACCIDENTS IN THAT CORNER. IT'S STARK WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE DATA. It's gone up, but also it's nothing, because you can overlay it on a map, so you can see everywhere where it was reported. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, five, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. It's just that curve.

But again, they don't always report, because people do run through the fence and leave, and that's it.

And leave, and that's it, yeah.

And they leave the car on Wooten Avenue.

Yeah, exactly. Hit and run.

So anyhow, we've made good headway with that.

The other improvement that they're talking about, but will take a little bit more time because it involves the utility poles, is adding reflectors to the poles so that when you're coming you can kind of see. So you don't miss them. Exactly. You can see where they are and see where the bounds are. So that will take a little bit more time because they have to get permission to do that.

How long before people complain about the rumble strips?

you know what right now I'm sure it's online you know I'm like I don't even care I mean it's happened and that's it and you know there is no perfect solution which I've got to tell you this is this is a good step forward and again if you can't drive you know they were doing more work today so it was not you know that was what you were but again it's a re look we're this is a big step for us I mean people have no idea how what years years of trying to get and finally I mean, I would like to give a little bit of credit to Niles, Ed, and I to sit there and get in front of the people's faces. And they're like, I had no idea. And let me put you in touch with the right people. And poof, two weeks.

And it helps that we are doing things like the streetscape project because it means we're in the room with SHA more often. You know, we're every month talking to SHA about what we're doing right now. And that means, oh, let me talk to so-and-so. Let me do this, you know, while they're all sitting in the room.

you know we have our we have our uh our um county and state uh representatives that are also on board with this so you know it takes a little time but again just keep greasing that squeaky wheel and things happen so i'm having i mean i'm thrilled about that so um the other thing well there's just a couple more things e-bike and pedestrian safety i can't stress it enough Residents, please be cautious. We saw a car accident almost going to the park today, right? I saw a bike, the same kid that was on one of the e-bikes that came through Campbell Park today. Literally, when I was picking up Mike today at 545, he just cruised right through Wooten across Fisher, just looked both ways, and that was it. I'm like, dude, just don't be it. Same kids in Hunter's Run all the time. Pedestrians, I see them walking at Wooten, same intersection. Don't even don't even hit the button for the flashlights. And not only do they not use the crosswalks, they go diagonal across from Wooten to the elementary school. And I'm like, there's you're you're you're releasing your liability if you're not within that crosswalk. So something happens. You're done. I mean, like. if you're going to get across, get across, don't waltz across. You know, it's, and it happens a lot again. Um, crosswalks at night. Don't wear dark clothing. I mean, all the time. Don't run down the middle of the street and hunters run and then be all surprised when, you know, car comes up on you and you're like yelling at me. I'm like, shouldn't be running in the middle of the road in dark clothes. Um, but again, um, Just be conscious, guys, and this isn't tough. Be safe. Be alive. I mean, it really is that simple. We have a lot of resources in town for this with the lighting, and we're adding more crosswalks for streetscape. Utilize it. You know, you've paid for it. So our MCPD details extended through the summer, which is good. I talk with them probably twice. I mean, I would be remiss not saying four times a week in some capacity, just getting a feel for what's missing, what people are doing, what people should be doing. E-bike safety. I know Jordan Satinsky had went to the high school, and I think another officer went to the middle school just to talk to him about it all.

Sergeant, it was... Beardsley, maybe?

Yeah. So we have that detail in place for them to educate. We're not... We're not saying don't do it. Just be safe about it. You know, again, Westerly and Hughes, very busy road. Nobody stops. They pause. I mean, I've been stopped to stop sign people. Just look at me. I just cruise through. I'm like, all right, well, that's cool. I know who you are. But golf carts starting to become an issue through MCPD. They are not allowed in town. Surely not on Fisher Avenue.

You can have or on trail sidewalk. Yeah, everything across the line. Everything.

Guys, look, it's

three on 109.

You can address it. One got pulled over. So, but again, they want to come in town, they can trailer it and trailer it back. I mean, but at least go through the neighborhoods if you want to come out on Fisher Avenue and go to Kajini's and or AHOP or any of the other. I mean, like, but again, You know the law, and that's what they have to buy. But until, again, they get a warning, and then they get impounded. It's very simple. So, just a warning. If you want to have a golf cart or an ATV, just... Go somewhere and ride it was plenty of trails out and eat, you know, so in Montgomery County we talked about the Sign so I'll leave that and then July 26. We have a the farmers dedication plaque sign ceremony at Wayland Commons July 26 6 to 7 p.m. I believe it is I think it's a Thursday Sunday Sunday. Oh, it is a Sunday. Yep So we will have a lot of farmers some over

Counted council members the sign out here It has the error the last line.

So whatever the one with the plaque we put up there.

So yes read the last line Okay Where it says the should and not a color. Yeah Well, I didn't I didn't well gold sharpie that language on it. So it's fine.

So But that's that's what I have that was down and dirty and but again, it's a We have our next meeting, the commissioner meeting on the 22nd, but we, you know, I know Ashley had talked about some of the ferry. I mean, that's, it's, it's fluid. It's fluid at this stage. We should be, I mean, everybody's seen probably Randy's little article in the monocracy and all that and online, but we'll see. I think it's lukewarm, but again, it's,

Always been.

Yeah. We'll keep, you know, our leaders, us, we'll keep hemorrhaging on that.

We are hoping to hear something official from the county soon. So that's sort of what we're waiting on.

So other than that, Preston?

Thank you. I'm going to end on one piece, which is the streetscape project. We finished the 100% plans, the design. Nice. As of July 1st. It's now in the phase that could take up to three months. S.H.A. and then the Federal Highway Administration to get the funds released for hopefully October is when we will. Fiscal year 42.

Are we going to plan a groundbreaking?

We have not. That has not been discussed, but we can definitely talk about it. You guys did a lot of work. Many years. Talked about for 25 years. I'm just giving you that one update. Good job.

All right. I got a question. Where do we stand on the pavilion that we were going to put out here?

So I was waiting on some design plans that John was going to do so that we would have a sense of what are our possibilities. I had not... received that yet and so because of everything else that has been going on but we can discuss it again at the next meeting is it a done deal or no no no this was we the last discussion we had had this body right was we want to see more of what it's going to look like to do that and that's just it's in the hopper of one of the various projects we're in the middle of you know uh many many different projects so it's down the road so it's going to be down the road

There was some comments with the commissioners about the visual from people that are buying this house. But I'm like, I'm looking at these trees. I'm like, you won't see the pavilion anyhow, because you look at your front porch and you're looking into the.

What do we have in that tree from the Daughters of America? That's supposed to be the fall.

That's supposed to be around Veterans Day. Yeah. But I haven't heard yet back from Meg anything further about the specifics on that. So that we're in a holding pattern on. Because it's there. It's the DAR's thing. We're waiting for them to tell us what they want to do exactly. And then we'll coordinate with them. All right.

Any other comments, questions? Nope.

Ashley, come on. There we go.

There we go.

Oh, there we go.

All right. Do I hear a second? Second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? And there's two that are in absentia. 502. 502. All right. See you guys.