Parks Board - Regular Meeting

You are live. So, Mike, if you want to start us off.

Yeah. 7 o'clock, we called meeting to order. Present is Jade. How do you say your last name?

Tiemann.

Tiemann. I was going to guess that. Preston King, Ashley Springer, Tracy Bodeau? Bodeau. Bodeau. Christina Carr, myself, and Alan Hobbs. Are we getting any announcements, Niles?

So the right now the the next meeting will be October 7th and then the other thing that I just wanted to mention is that we are getting to the final stretch of the Streetscape project in terms of the design phase. Okay, so we hope to by the end of the month have approval from the feds to go to the to the bidding process for the for the contract for it So we got some good early approvals from stuff from the feds last week We hope to get all the rest of it buttoned up in the next little bit and then it will go into the next phase So we're getting a little bit closer and then it will probably be next if everything goes according to plan It will be next spring that we are doing construction of that project.

I

all right um citizens comments on agenda items do we have any

ANYBODY IN FOR US?

WE DO HAVE SOMEBODY IN THE GALLERY, BUT I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S ON THE AGENDA ITEMS. IT'S ACTUALLY ON A SEPARATE COMMENTARY THAT YOU AND I TALKED ABOUT EARLIER ABOUT IN THE HOUSE.

YEAH, GENERALLY WE DO STUFF THAT ISN'T ON THE AGENDA NOW, SO IF HE'S GOOD TO SPEAK NOW, JUST COME ON UP AND I'LL FLIP AROUND THE CAMERA.

ARE YOU SURE? I'M JUST WORKING RIGHT NOW, YEAH. OKAY.

All right, then approval of the minutes from, I guess it was August at this point, right?

It was July.

July, yeah.

So I sent them around via email. I just sent them to you all. If you aren't comfortable doing them now, we can approve them at the next meeting. Because as these meetings are on video, it already satisfies the Open Meetings Act. So it's just a matter of approving them. So if you want to take a look at that quickly now, or if you don't feel comfortable, we can.

Anybody opposed to doing it now?

I don't think there was anything big approved.

Yeah, it was our parks for nothing. Yeah, it's yeah.

I can quickly go through it if you want. Let me pull those up. So yeah, we talked about the tour. We talked a little bit about the student members who we have Jade here, and that was the approval. We talked about the private events and doing the fees for private events on Wayland Commons. And that was, there was a recommendation made there, which we talked about at the commissioner level. And then the sign and the discussion of remembrance and sort of history there that we will talk about a little bit more tonight, a little bit later. And then just the reports from Preston and, or from me, I think I did it last time, Preston, right? Yeah, on your behalf. And then Alan.

Correct.

No, we're good. I did review the minutes, so I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes.

Motion from Allen. Everybody second? Second. All right. Ashley? All in favor of approving the minutes? Aye. Aye. that's it i guess and anybody opposed huh abstain so we got well three right yeah three and then two abstentions right yeah yep all right so that's enough miles yep minutes are approved and new business

Yeah. And let me get that up. So the first item on for new business is the race permit, or I guess, Christina, you can describe what what the event is, but your event is a bike event. And so I gave them a little bit of an overview of the requirements in a memo that I sent to them. So I'm just gonna speak for a couple of minutes and then you can describe sort of what's going on here. And the race will be on, or the event will be on October 17th. It will be throughout the county, but it will run along West Willard and onto White's Ferry Road on the portion of White's Ferry that is not under town jurisdiction, that is a county, after elgin road it's a county road to white's ferry itself um town codes requires the applicant to complete an application provide a certificate of insurance which they have pay a 25 application fee which you had i believe and then i know you paid the security deposit already they also require to provide notice so one of the things if we get a recommendation tonight is that i'll give you the contact information for the um monocacy monocle which is our local paper um to advertise them that in the october issue and then we'll also give you information for the local facebook pages um that we that are used to disseminate information because it used to be that you'd have to do it four weeks in advance in a newspaper of general circulation but obviously we don't have a daily newspaper that's just pools though anymore um or a by monthly, which is what it was before. And then they're supposed to, any markings that were put down must be water-soluble and any signs placed for this event must be removed within 24 hours of the event. By code, the town manager or his designee approves the permit and it's subject to the Parks Board's recommendation. therefore um the parks board needs to make a recommendation to the town manager on this application so uh christina um if you want to introduce yourself and then go from go from there

Hi, I'm Christina. I'm with the organization called Fit to be Kids. And really, this is just a fun family event. So we'll have kids and adults ages seven to older riding bikes. And there aren't going to be very many. I mean, honestly, I have 10 people registered right now. So I don't think it's going to be a big group. And it's going to be very spread out. you know if they even go out to your area i'm not even sure so i wanted to make sure that we crossed our t's and dotted our i's and made sure we did everything right but i mean if i had to estimate i'd say you're probably gonna have less than 50 people going through town but um It's just, I mean, I don't know what else to tell you. It's just a, we're really safe. We teach them all the safety things. We start at White's Ferry and we're going to have lunch at the White's Ferry Grill and do a little bike ride and finish up there. I already got permits for the other parts of it, including the park for the parking lot and people who want to ride on the canal and Montgomery County for the other streets.

And so if I'm understanding right, the only part that is West Willard, right?

Yeah, correct. So the only street that is within town jurisdiction, because they're going to go down West Willard out of town from the route that was provided. And the route is in the packet that I sent that is before you and that I sent to you. And so, yeah, so it's just a small area of town. And the other thing to note is that they're responsible for any security if they need, police and things like that. Obviously, this isn't a huge, huge bike race, but that's one of the things. They are required to arrange on their own per the code.

All right.

All right.

Ashley second. Okay. All in favor of recommending that they get issued the permit? Aye. Aye. 1, 2, 3, 4. Yep. Anybody opposed? It's 5-0.

um and uh christina so i'll send you an email tomorrow um saying that we approve that this was approved and we'll issue the permit you know just get a little form that says the it's been approved and i'll give you the the stuff for notification so you're good to go all right we really appreciate it and i love riding through poolsville so thank you so much i will try to exit

yeah and if not i can i can get you off there we go all right we have some nominated names for inclusion on the streets name list correct so um as

for everybody who sort of knows. So we had two applications were submitted to add nominated names to the street slash park naming list. Names are Fletcher Bernsdorf and Mary Priscilla Woodward Sprigg. It has four names in it. So both applicants fall into the category of individuals who may have who have made a significant contribution to the town or community, as neither have served town government in its current form. The code provided no criteria for this category, so it is up to the Parks Board to make a recommendation on these names. The applications for both individuals are in the packet. The Parks Board must make a recommendation, and then if they recommend these people for the list, it goes to the Planning Commission, and then from there to the town commissioners. So... Do you have any questions on that? It's pretty straightforward.

I guess my question now is that Bernsdorf.

Yes.

I mean, I don't know. This is the first time this has come up. Yes. Since I've been here. And I don't know that Bernsdorf. I don't know, and there was not much information of what historical contributions he's made.

Correct. So I think this is a good question. And I think part of the issue here is that there isn't a really set criteria for what is culturally sort of significant. I think the intent was... This is sort of just interpreting it, but I think the intent of this inclusion in the policy is that it should be someone who made some contribution to the history of the town or the region or the county, you know, have a connection to Poolsville and have a connection to this history. I would say that, like, what they're basically arguing is that they were longtime residents of who helps support the town and whose house is historical, right? And that's kind of what they're arguing. And I think the question... Again, this is the one... Unlike... So most of the people that we've had nominated are people who... at one point or another, served in town government. So usually, you know, there are people who served for 10 years, you know, like Andy Johnson, like, I'm blanking on the other, the other Johnson, you know, like Doug McKinney, like anybody like that, who served in a long capacity on a commission, on the commissioners. and so on. So this category is sort of more, less defined than a lot of the nominations we've had in the time that I've been here. This is one of those ones that falls into the category more or less of, did they do something really, really meaningful to the community? And I think the question is, sort of open to interpretation of what that is. I don't want to sort of speak for whether this would count as that or not. That's sort of more your guys' determination. But that's kind of the idea of this category.

And this is just putting it on the list.

On the list. It doesn't mean that it will be named or whatever. That comes to the next, whatever next moment we have, you know, a park or a a a street or whatever to be named, right?

We've been tasked by the commissioners, or the commissioners have been approached by this to figure out with everybody that comes to us with asks of memorials, notices, we have to come up with a criteria because we could have 200 people that have served this town in some kind of meaningful capacity that, you know, we just got to come up with. And I know we've been tasked with it a few months ago, so I'd like to put that on the agenda item for next month, have a little bit of more input from the board just to see where we can find, you know, because somebody has... HELP THE TOWN IN 10 YEARS IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT THAN SOMEBODY'S HELPED THEM FOR 40 YEARS RIGHT AND THE THE SPRIG UM MEMO HERE THAT WE'RE REVIEWING YEAH IT'S PRETTY IMPRESSIVE YEAH YOU KNOW RIGHT SO UM SOMEBODY THAT'S BEEN REALLY HERE SINCE 1780. YEAH RIGHT LITERALLY SO YEP UM

And that one, yeah, sorry, go ahead. What I was going to say is that's a good example of what I think the category is trying to state, right? Which is the Sprigg family is a historic family in the area in general. It's in fact, as a funny aside, my wife's family has Spriggs going back in it. So there's a family connection there.

You have to abstain. Exactly.

And so there's that part of it. Obviously, she, you know, she was with John Poole Jr. And, you know, all of that part of it, you know, of the founding of Poole'sville itself, so it's wrapped up in that. So I think it makes sense to put... to put her on the list in the way that the list was intended for this category. Somebody of historic... Prominence.

I mean, it really is. Prominent. I mean, you're thinking about... Well, the criteria are listed right here.

This is the criteria, right? Right. A name with local historical significance. She does fall under that category. The first one, Bernsdorf, does not. Right. His home is a historical home.

Right. And that is reflected in the house itself, which is part of the historic district, you know, what's the best way of saying it? The historic district National Park Service listing and things like that. So it is memorialized in a different way.

I would say it. I don't know that Bernsdorf didn't make contributions. We don't know if he did either. There's not much on this.

Right. And that's left the nominee. You know what I mean? Like what was done a couple of years ago was the idea was to solicit this from the public and sort of get input. So we don't know what his contribution was. Like when we had a previous nominee who was a commissioner in the 50s, I was able to track down pretty relatively easily what they had done, how long they had served, and so on, because they'd served town government. But it's harder for us to say, you know, they have to provide the providence sort of to back up contributions is the way that I would think about it.

Yeah, and I think if they wanted to resubmit something with some more information, we could consider it.

Sure. So we can send it back to them and ask for additional information because there's not a lot of information.

And are they aware of this criteria? Are the public aware of it?

Yeah, that's on, where the application is, is what is on the website. So what that part paragraph that tells you what the criteria is, is on the website. It's right as they fill it out, they can see what it is. As the way that I wrote the form was to make sure that they knew what we considered.

So now, the rule, the,

qualifications for become being put on this list that we have here is that part of the town code or is that is but it's both so it's both part of the town code and it's a regulation that the park sport itself drafted what was it six years ago seven years ago preston yes right there six i think six yeah Yeah, and so that's sort of what we follow in that sense.

If we were going to make that more specific, how would we go about that? Would we have to recommend it to the commissioners?

I would say so, yeah. If there are things, you know, because, yeah, as... Actually sort of says I mean what it says in the in the code and in the regulation is an individual who's made a significant contribution to the town or community a name with local historical significance, so it's sort of those Those are kind of it. So what do we classify as a significant contribution would be one of the things to consider Anybody have any more discussion on either one of the names anything else

All right.

So I guess we need to make a recommendation. Yep.

Yep.

Anybody want to? Why don't we do one at a time? Yeah. I'm sorry. Bernsdorf. Any recommendations for Bernsdorf?

I think we need more information.

There's not enough here to... It doesn't fall under the categories.

Yeah, at least not with the information we have.

So I think what you could say is that your action is to request more information from the applicant. All right.

So I guess we'll... Do we need to...

I think you can do a motion for that, but we'll just say that the action is that you're requesting more information.

Okay, and then for Sprigg...

um i guess we're going to recommend that she'd be put on the list so that one you i you would need a motion for because then it's going to go to the planning commission and then and we can talk about that um at their meeting next week

Do we have a motion for Spriggan?

I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion to place Mary Priscilla Woodward Sprig on our list to be presented to the Planning Commission, correct?

Yep.

I second. Christina seconds. All in favor? Aye. All right. Opposed? It's 5-0.

Okay. Who seconded that, just so that we have it in? Christina. Perfect. All right. Yeah, so then, so just so that everybody knows, the Planning Commission then gets to review the same material, and then they will make a recommendation as well, and then the commissioners get both of those recommendations, and then they vote on whether to actually add them to the list.

And then, uh, so the parking area.

Yep.

And let me, yep.

I'll pull it up. Just give me a second to share my screen. Cause then I can animate it and do. Then I can do things like that on it so we can see what's going on. Can you guys see that?

Bye.

There's been an issue with the parking on Hughes Road at the ball field facility right there at the corner of Tom Fox and Hughes. And it's always been a problematic area for parking. But now all of our fields are packed during the season now. So every field, before it was kind of used once in a while, now it's full time. We've been looking for options to improve the parking in the area, and we've replaced no parking signs. We had the curb painted, so there's no parking on the street, and we're trying to enforce that. But with that said, not July meeting, but I think the June meeting, I talked to Mr. Hobbs and stuff about putting in a couple parking spots On the field side. We already have an existing driveway There's no problem with access it just act where are we going to put them? So I went out there today and you know make some measurements and I was thinking what we can do and I think we can fit eight vehicles pretty easy in there minimal cost I had to take down to Bradford pairs, but they're Trash trees. Anyways, they're considered none Nobody likes them. I think they're actually I like mine. Come on out Preston So if I remove us half the trees one so we have a driveway that comes through I Remove one on the right one in the left and I put a 50 by 30 pad on each side of it She's come in and just part we can get eight vehicles in there safely. Mm-hmm I would have to add signage park at your own risk because it is then a foul ball zone right and and I still got to let people know, even though people say, hey, it's a ballpark. I got to let them know. Cost-wise, it'd be minimal because when we did all the road work, we kept all the millings. And we've used them on projects at the shop already, so we're reusing the materials. And I believe I have enough materials to actually put the two pads in with minimal cost. Only cost I can see now, I'll remove the trees, but I'll have somebody come in and grind the stumps out. And that's probably $400 to $600, which I can absorb in my normal R&M budget for anyways. And just what I'm looking for, I don't even know if I have to get an okay. Do I have to get an okay with the board?

We want a recommendation for it just because it's a change to the park itself.

Okay. And once again, I think it's more for the coaches because they're carrying all the gear and everything. And I'm sure during practice, the parents are parking there, which I have no problem with. But the coaches, they're pulling up through there, parking around the trees anyway. I get the two trees out, give them nice parking so it looks better. And then they can, you know, coming in and out becomes a better thing and keep everybody off that road. And that's what I would like to do. And like I said, I've done my part. I've got to repaint. When they were painting the roads, I had them go over there and repaint the yellow. That looks good. And the signage, it will be up within the week, the no parking sign. So once that goes up, I can probably do it within a couple weeks as soon as I get the approval. Get that parking because fall ball starts. I think it starts this weekend. Okay. But if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. But I'm just saying it would be a nice city to get done. And I have the millings down the shop. Like I said, I just had to get the stumps out.

I'm going to ask a crazy question. The area at Tom Fox and Hughes on the other side of the four-way intersection where we used to have a turn lane and then we made a curb and gutter there. Yes. Yeah. Filled that in. Do we have the option to remove that and add three spots there? I just don't know the code and or...

Well, that would be a drainage issue.

I was going to ask about stormwater management and all that.

Jerry was here a while ago. Literally across the road, there's a large grassy area.

There is.

And when one of the commissioners and the church got together, they said they don't want people parking there. But in all honesty, there's plenty of room. I think we need to address that no parking area and make it a parking area. And you can shoot five to six cars all the way off the road. I mean, it wouldn't be on the road. There's plenty of room in there.

Right.

So it's actually our property. It's in our right of way. Correct. And I would like to address that, maybe approach the church again and see if we can get some leeway on that. And we mow it and we maintain it already.

We do. Yep.

So that would be an additional, you figure we get eight there, another five or six there. All of a sudden, you're talking double-digit vehicle parking, safe parking off the road.

Right, and there's plenty of people that safely park in that new court area, Horseshoe, that's up past Bodmer. Yep. so that's good to see i mean i mean i live in that area so i know it's about a lane and a half sometimes when people still park on it and you know and then we have you know my favorite my my e-bikes and kids that are you know but again um just wanted to see how much options we can get with that area and we can always have conversations with the church again

But you can see where the grassy areas across the street, he's doing, he's doing Tom, not that parking that way. Yeah. Yep. Yep. There is plenty of room. If we can, I don't know if anybody knows anybody at the church, if we can approach them, um, Just put, you know, evening park, anything. I mean, I think we should open that up. And I think it was bad business back then, the reason they put it. I think somebody approached them and said, hey, we want to use that for a ballpark. And that's all it would be for. It would only be parking for the ball field. Like that's a tennis court with 24 hours. You know what I'm saying? It's a limited use, but it would really help us out if we could get, you know, six, seven more cards in there. Plus the eight I can fit in there now. And all of a sudden, that changes the whole, and get them off the road. Get them off the road. I think we can do it.

It is critical. And then the other question I would have is on the baseball fence where we're going to take the couple Bradford pairs down, are we going to have to propose some elevated netting, you know, just so if they have foul balls, it doesn't just go right into the cars?

Well, if I leave the other trees in place, they're shielded. Okay.

Can a ball get in there?

Yes. But that is, those cars are... probably 200 feet down from anyways for a foul ball. You can drive down the middle of the road and get hit with a foul. That's why I wanted a sign coming in. I've been to ballparks. You have too.

And that's the key thing there. From a liability perspective, it's there.

If you're a ball player, a parent, you have... Yes, you know, but we still have to just say, hey, by the way, just remind you guys you're in a foul ball zone.

I mean, it's needed to be done for years, but, you know, I think the recommendation needs to be made and, you know, move swiftly like we usually do as a town.

I've had to take my kid to that park. There is no parking. All the cars you see on the road, it's us waiting to pick up our child. And when the coach is over 15 minutes past the end of practice time, we get out of our cars and go over there and be like, I'm pulling my kid. That's the traffic you see. The coaches are parking in the grassy area. But like I said, I could, by opening eight of them. This will really help.

I think that would help. You know, the coaches take one or two spots. And then the parents that come in early, they can roll in. And if we can get the other side open, like you said, you just pull in, wait for your kids to finish up. So if Niles can send maybe a letter to the church or somebody.

I think for now, I think we focus on one thing. Because I think the church has its own history and things.

Yeah, the park is ours. We can control that. You know, moving forward, if somebody at the church or whatever, that'd be a good, you know, like I said, just make it a drop-off zone. You come in, drop your kids off, they run in. See you later, I'll pick you up at 6. And the coach doesn't let them go to 6.15, right? Yeah. That would give a pull-off. Maybe we might make it a pull-off zone.

That's what I was thinking might actually make more sense there.

You know what I'm saying? A pull-off zone. Yep, yep. Not a parking pull-off, you know, for picking kids up and everything. But it's a piece of land that can be put to better use than what it is right now. All right.

And what would the surface be, millings? Okay, sir. The surface on the right-hand side? Compacted soils. Okay.

It's not a muddy area. And if we went that route, once again, I had millings. I could short up. I could do many things in there. But I would like to move forward with the two parking lots, right side and left side of the thing. All right.

We do need to make a recommendation, correct, Niles? Yes. All right. I made mine for the night, so you guys are up. All right, Tracy.

Make a motion we put some parking over there at that park.

Ball field three.

Almost ball field three.

There you go. All right.

Thank you. And, Christine, seconds? All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed? 5-0, Niles. Now, we'll have to wait on the commissioners.

So, yeah, I think what we'll do, Alan, is make this part of your. 21st? Yeah, and the report. Perfect.

Done. I'll add that.

Alan, the trees look like they got damaged in the last storm anyways.

I walked by it this morning. I walked by them this morning.

All right. You can have a little, like, gusto.

Yeah, the Bradford shed. They shed. Yeah.

And what do you think in five spaces?

Eight spaces.

Eight spaces total?

Four on each side. Okay. Actually, I'm thinking big vehicles, but small vehicles probably five and five at the max, but eight is the minimum. Right. Like I said, it's going to be 50 feet deep by 30 foot wide, and that's six feet per car being, you know, that's four. Right. Five if you really, in there, but it's four comfortable, so eight total right there.

And we're just coming off of that initial driveway now?

At the initial driveway in, four right, four left. And I got them deep enough so people can back up. They won't be bumping. That's why that's 50. I made it a little deeper just so people moving in and out. The closer you got cars, the more trouble. Just get plenty of people at ease in, turn in, and everything. So that's why it's a little deeper. But that's why I did it, just to make sure people can get in and out.

Season parking passes at $100 a spot.

You know you think I'm kidding you VIP parking.

Yeah, Jade, what do you think?

Yeah, you must Okay Have you noticed a use in the parks it has it increased I Whenever I drive by it, at least during the school seasons and club seasons, I see a lot of people kind of waiting for their kids, like you said.

Parks are used now. They really are. We're maxed out.

We are maxed out.

That's good. Okay. All right, now is any old business?

There's no old business unless somebody has something.

Anybody?

I can't remember old business. It's been so long since we've been here. Mm-hmm. I mean, old business, I would say one thing, is that got completed, I think, since our last one was our mural. That's right. Oh, yes. Absolutely fantastic. Right, right? It's fantastic.

That's one of those things you drive by. I mean, I knew she was going to do it. I met her the day before. Nice family. I come back to town, and I'm like, holy cow. You don't know. If somebody says they're an artist.

There was about six of them, I think.

You don't know. But what a professional-looking job. It's perfect. It represents Poolsville so well. Was it one day she did that? It was one day. Her crew come in.

It was a two-day. I thought it was a weekend. It was mostly done the first. She sketched it the night before.

The night before she did a projector sketch.

Put it on. Yeah. We had the one day of, like, the primary, like, most of it was done, and then the second day was just a lot of, like, touch-ups.

And did you help with the Eagles yet? Was that part of your help?

I helped her. It was not my project. It was all her.

No, no, no. What I'm saying, that's one thing that's been great, working with the Eagle Scout program. Her program, within 10 days, had birds in the boxes and stuff like that.

Right.

They helped each other. Really, we've had, so in the last month and a half, too, we've had the bluebird boxes completed.

This is going to be part of your superintendent. Report. No, I'm just kidding. Go ahead. That's what I'm saying. We're ready for it.

We're ready for it. I just expedited that. No, you know I start talking, I keep on going.

No, you're good.

You're good. Okay, so within the last month and a half, we've had three Eagle Scouts, or two. Hers was the Bluebird boxes. We had a bridge. The first bridge is complete at a middle school pond. That's the first stage of it. The second stage will... Mrs. Reed is going to do another bridge over there. So the first stage is done. The second one, I think, is going to happen this fall time, I believe. And we had a beautiful mural done. And then October 3rd, we have the phase two in the bluebird boxes, wood dock and bat boxes going in. So all of our facilities down at the water treatment plant will be improved by Eagle Scouts with the bluebirds, wood dock boxes and the bat boxes. They've improved our environment down there. They've worked so well as a team, too. We've really had a lot of success with the Eagle Scouts.

And Jade over at the solar field. Do we have a total count of the amount of every species of bird in bat boxes, like total box counts? Because I know we've done a lot, but they are so utilized.

24 because one of them was like a little broken 25 23 and a half so well then if you go back to the other eagle scout he put four wood duck boxes in at the one facility we're getting another four wood duck boxes plus i think an additional 20 bluebird boxes and a bat box right in our facilities and then a light bulb came on we also have like eight or nine wells throughout the town which have fences so once again we can do additional bird boxes wood boxes bluebird boxes so next the eagle scout project i'm like hey by the way i got seven wells Any bit of the environment we improve, it's better. I mean, yes, it's a man-made structure, but we can add a little help, and guess what? Ten days later, there was bluebirds laying eggs. So anyway, it's been nice.

And the eagle scout who's going to help clear out near where the trail is going to be.

Is they going to, the trail that's going to tie in the new development to the pool house down there. He's going in, cleaning, cleaning all the underbrush out and making that nicer. We actually went in there, treated the poison ivy. We sprayed that out for him. And that's imminent. And when's that sidewalk going in? Is it this weekend?

It's going to go in next week. So they're going to prep.

All the way to locals.

Yep, so they're going to prep on Monday, and they're going to install the concrete on Tuesday. There we go.

The town's moving and moving, getting things done. Holesville Day, two weeks away. I also have, we have an event this Friday. We've also added a 9-11 event. uh element to it the 25th anniversary we have a fire truck coming in a couple police cars flagged i think uh jim brown or somebody's going to have a little speech about the members 25. it should be a nice event but then if poolsville day i'm busy And my stuff will be done this Friday. The town will be mulched up, trimmed up, everything. Because next week, my phone won't stop. Everybody calls press every day. Everybody's going to have an emergency. So we're right on pace to have the town looking good. And when people come to town, I want to say, it's a nice town. So we've been putting a little extra effort this week. I don't know if you noticed. I mean, there's not a weed one. Everything's mulched up. We should be finished tomorrow with all the mulching and stuff. We do mow a couple private properties that they don't cut their grass, but we do take care of it. It will be looking good.

But we won't cut that until next week.

So at Poolsville Day now, when I first started, that was the only event I had to worry about. That's the only one. And now you know what we do. And Poolsville Day has turned into a two-week prep. And now security, we actually work late Friday night with the concrete blocks. course all day saturday and then now we have to come in sunday and pull the concrete blocks into because we block commercial uh businesses so we got to get them open before you know people do work on sundays and stuff like that so that's that's been that's the last couple years that they really worried about our uh security which is sad but you know what that's the reality of it just uh and we handle it it just we've bought some extra equipment concrete blocks and everything And I've had two hirees, nice people. They've really come in well, worked out well for me. I'm very happy with their performance on that. And summer help went well this year. Had a couple of college people, a couple of high school people worked out well. And so anyways, if you guys see anything in the town that needs addressed, let me know. Phone call away. Yes, Mike.

Back to the birds and bats.

Yeah.

The, uh, half of the barn that the town owns behind what's in there.

What's in there.

Oh, nothing. But would that be a good place for a bat box?

Oh, back in there. I just moved that. Yeah. That's a nice thought. I didn't think about that. Yeah. I was hoping that we could. Actually, I was thinking about another one. I want to add some owl boxes. Not so much bats, because the bats can get up in there already. But I think we need to add, because I want to add.

So we have three different types of owls in town?

Yeah, we have screech owls, we have barn owls, and we have great horn owls. That's their big three. Their most rarest is a barn owl. And they're very rare, and they do like a specific size home. So when the next Eagle Scout, if we do another Eagle Scout project, that's what I'm going to try to lean them to. And that's a great spot. I could put a box in there, too. Because I have a couple buildings we just built. The salt boxes or salt bays in the back 40 would be perfect for that owl box, too.

Easy, Niles. I'm sorry. I mean, you turn that off when you do that. You almost woke me up.

Anyway, so once again, that's a great idea. And I know what you're talking about, that barn back in there. And so I'll look into that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You only own half that bar. That's what you said. I think the lines right through it. That's all right. Put put it on your half. Yeah. But anyways, and we're just we're busy as a town in general. We just had a lot of roads redone this past summer. Cole Hoss was redone. West Willard was done. uh norris was it norris or elgin no elgin was done yep so and what's nice though is an option i always try to keep the millions now because we redid our our uh our uh in the back of our uh town where we have our uh dumping area and and my new salt area we put a brand new road in with it And then, like, I have enough. I can do the parking with it. It doesn't cost us a dime. Plus reuse. Repurpose is essential. I'm a firm believer. You can reuse it. And I saved from the old salt barn, which we took down, I saved the six-by-sixes. And my goal is I'm going to put a raised picnic area for the pickleballers at Stevens Park. just wintertime. I like wintertime projects to keep us busy and everything. So we're going to reuse all the six by sixes. It won't cost us a dime in lumber because when we took down the facility, a lot of times you see people with sledgehammers breaking everything up. We pick it apart. It's all reusable. And so we've saved the roofing, the metal roofing, and we saved the four by fours. you know on it so we're going to recycle those into a and we keep improving stevens park for the pickleball it's a very high use park and i want to put a picnic table over there but i need to raise it and anyway i got a couple other plans once i get closer i'll have better plans for you guys uh to do that because if you go over there in the mornings there's 20 people sitting in the parking lot with their chairs and everything so i just want to give them a area that which would give some more close parking for some of the older people and everything So, as you know, you can see, I always got things moving, but, you know, things want to end up.

You know, the millings are critical. You know, we've got a couple loads for the school, you know, to help out. That's right, yeah. So, usually when you have to transport millings out of an area, I mean, it's several hundred dollars per truck. And when you're talking, I mean, how many trucks you guys probably get? 40? 30?

This one was a pretty good one. I bet it was 60.

Yeah, 60 trucks. I think it's something in that amount. The money and just the fuel, the time.

Yeah, so we gave a couple to... The high school couple went to some of the local farmers. Yep. I think next time I'm going to try to get some to the Isaac Walton League. So I hope some church need it because it's great for fixing up a parking lot. It's no different than gravel.

It's recycled asphalt. I mean, once you get it run over for a year, it packs not much different than blacktop.

A couple of years ago, I got you guys a couple of loads in there, too. Yeah. Anyway, that's one thing I like to do, you know, if we can improve our town. and it doesn't cost us anything, I help anybody. I mean, the church, hey, you got it, you got it, you got it. And that's what you do. You take care of the community, and that's what we do. Some years I don't need them, but I still keep a certain amount of them just for special projects and stuff like that. If you guys belong to a church or an organization that has a parking lot that's in the town or close to town, say, hey, Preston, I know they're milling. Can we get a couple loads? I'll drop them off for you guys. Just keep that in your mind if you need some organization that really could use it.

That's where we're at. All right. Awesome. Mr. Hobbs.

All right. We'll piggyback a little bit on how most in the paving. We did get new pathways repaved over at the other side, Hoskinson side and down through the lower parking lot, which was nicer. A lot of the roots had come through and they had finished that off. I mean, it's probably been over a month now. Pretty close.

We actually extended it all the way down to the parking lot. Yep. So gravel.

Now we have a USB steps and it was gravel. Now you're down. So that was that's good. I mean, WALKED OUT PRETTY FREQUENTLY SO BUT FOR REALLY FOR TOWN AND THE COMMISSIONERS WE HAD OUR HIGH SCHOOL RIBBON CUTTING A COUPLE FRIDAYS AGO VERY WELL ATTENDED BY COUNCIL MEMBERS STATE DELEGATES DR. TAYLOR OUR SUPERINTENDENT MARK SOME STUDENTS AND SO ON AND SO FORTH You know, it's finally come to fruition after five or six years and just a lot of work. But school's great. You know, they had a, you know, you could walk through it, and we had a ceremony prior to that. So that was good. Continue to work with our MCPD fellow Leo's to Control some of the e-bikes golf carts Actually on the 21st. We have a public hearing for our ordinance. I think it's 235. I'm not mistaking for I think it's

34 actually, but anyways, thank you.

Thank you. So the But we've come a long way. I mean kids are getting you know, we've had a lot of kids that have had to push their bikes back You know to their house. They get a call from police officer to their parents parents come they walk it back You know, I've been trying to work out the three strikes and after that, you know impound because they just keep doing the same thing and you know what we've had some CLOSE CALLS AND IT'S ACTUALLY THE BIKES HITTING THE CARS NOT THE CARS HITTING THE BIKES SO WE SEE THEM QUITE OFTEN BUT YOU KNOW YOU'LL SEE OUR DETAIL OUT HERE WHICH HAS BEEN BENEFICIAL LOW SPEED VEHICLES WE LEARNED ABOUT YOU KNOW MOST OF THE GOLF CARTS THAT ARE AROUND HERE YOU HAVE TO BE REGISTERED WITH THE STATE AS LONG AS THEY MEET THE CRITERIA OF YOU KNOW THE STATE OF MARYLAND Can't go over a certain speed. But again, we're working on that. We actually got... The officers don't just worry about the residents. They've actually come to the town about making sure that we're compliant with our own equipment, from our gators to our carts to all that, which is great because, look... Can't be a hypocrite, right? So we follow our guidelines and follow the policies. And it's really, at the end of the day, it's a safety thing.

I think it's signage. All of our golf carts and Kawasaki mules, we do have Town of Pullersville emblems on them now.

Yep, UTVs.

They know we're their town vehicle.

right so and the ordinance just to explain will make it clear that that that they are legal that our town vehicles will be legal on the roads so that's what the ordinance does um is to is to exempt our vehicles from some of the regulations around them so that we can still use them right

Moving forward, I don't mean to interrupt you. Go ahead. Moving forward, when I do order my next round of vehicles, we'll be fully compliant with the proper lights, proper everything.

Turn signals, all that.

Yep. That's just what we do. Our next round, we'll take it to the next level of safety and everything. So we really will be compliant 100%. Right now, we're bringing a father in our vehicles. And basically, that's what we're doing.

And that's what it's doing. Yep.

Thank you, Don.

Mm-hmm. NOW, A COUPLE OF OTHER THINGS. OBVIOUSLY, POLZO DAY IS COMING UP. WE HAVE OUR ANNUAL VIP BREAKFAST WITH AN ASTOUNDING AMOUNT OF VIPs THAT ARE COMING. IT CAN BE OVERWHELMING, BUT IT'S GOOD. MOST OF THEM ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO BE WALKING IN THE PARADE AND You guys can go up and always introduce yourself. Um, they always are supporting us. You know, we've already been starting with, you know, budget stuff for fiscal year 28. Um, you know, Niles had mentioned streetscape coming up, you know, there's, that's a fluid situation. We're getting close. It's taken us a long time to get to where we're at. But again, uh, pedestrian safety is pretty critical on that. Um, I don't want to go into too much detail, but most of the original plans and some of the updates are on the town page, so you can always review it and at least get a visual of what we're really constructing.

It's mostly the same. There's a few things that we've had to change. But none of the major things are still, there is going to be traffic circles, there is going to be more crosswalks, there is going to be a bike lane, there is going to be all those primary features. The main changes between what the 2018 plans are, what's going to happen is you won't really even notice. It's more technical things than anything else.

You know, I know people always talk about the traffic circle and too much of farm equipment, too much truck traffic coming in. They've done their feasibility studies. They've done research. They've invited the farmers. I mean, they've done our due diligence. They wouldn't put it in if it can't fit. So not everybody panic. We're good. You know, and I think it's actually essential. I mean, sometimes it's probably one of the busiest intersections. An unsafe intersection. As a matter of fact, during our park tour last time, remember the car that almost got T-boned right in front of us? Yeah.

And I thought we were going to catch the end of that. Right?

Yep. Yep. And that was, you know, that was, it wasn't even at night.

Jim Reynolds hit there.

Really? Yep. Wow. So, again, I think by default, the circle is a good placement for that. You know, we're going to have some safety with the new townhouses there, and we're going to have more crosswalk abilities from a school. I mean...

And it'll be in like there, there'll be crosswalks at all four sides. So currently it's just sort of the, the, the U shape crossing. Um, but you'll actually be able to, from all four sides, be able to access it. So it's the circle will help us be better from a pedestrian standpoint as well.

Yup. So, you know, I really don't want to add too much more because we've talked about it. Um, But, you know, again, let's get through Poulsville Day. You know, that's a big day for us. We're going to have, I don't know, 12,000 to 14,000 people probably. Weather right now looks good. Looks not super hot. But, again, it's our day. You know, it's our town's day. And, you know, a lot of the... council members and the delegates that i deal with frequently or it's their favorite day of the year you know they've rearranged actually a couple of them actually rearranged their calendar for their vacation to stay in town for that and they're leaving sunday not saturday so um but again we just keep advocating for on a commissioner level we just keep advocating for you know what our tax dollars are going to be utilized for and continue to really elevate and MAKE POOLSVILLE YOU KNOW RELEVANT FOR BEING AS SMALL AS WE ARE FOR 6,000 PEOPLE WE GET A WE GET A LOT A LOT OF SUPPORT AND A LOT DONE SO BUT AND THAT'S MY REPORT BECAUSE YOU GUYS WANT TO GET DONE BY EIGHT O'CLOCK WE TALKED ABOUT THAT YEAH JADE WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD ANYTHING FOR YOUR FIRST MEETING WHICH HOMECOMING

October 9th When you come to the board high school what's going on? With the high school right now

Oh, I mean, it's finally no contractors, no, no construction work. And there's a bunch of girls that they had students come in over the summer and like put up on the walls, paint on the walls. So there's a couple upstairs and a few downstairs and there's one that's still being worked on. But that's really nice because the walls were straight white. They were two years.

And I think we're going to start hanging some because I think it's October 15th is the one-year anniversary of where we couldn't hang anything at the school. So that one-year warranty period is coming up. So it will be very colorful, I think, in the school.

You're a senior, so you were here when it was the old school. Yeah. So you've seen the whole transition. Do you like the new school?

Yeah, no, it's really nice. And then all of the science classrooms are so much more updated, and there's chargers that'll, like, come down from the ceiling, or plugs. They're not necessarily chargers, but it's a lot more... useful for actual students and actual group work and using it in real situations instead of just hoping that everyone can get to the edge to charge their computer or work in a group and the tables won't fit in the classroom.

SO HOW ARE YOU ADAPTING TO THE NEW CELL PHONE POLICY, STATE LAW? IT'S PROBABLY ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD. I'VE HAD SOME GOOD FEEDBACK FROM A LOT OF STUDENTS THAT ARE LIKE, WE TALK TO EACH OTHER MORE OFTEN. MENTION THAT, GUYS.

G, are you still active in Scouts?

Yeah. I do a lot of OA stuff.

Of OA?

Oh, Order of the Arrow.

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Organization in the organization. Right. I think I'm going camping. The pool's all day weekend. Oh, my God. What? Potentially.

You're on probation right now. Yeah.

So I was just going to say, feel free to pass along any of Preston's suggestions to anybody looking for a project.

There's one person I was talking to, and he said he was looking for a project, and I said he should reach out to Mr. Preston. Yeah. And he might have.

Sounds like an mailbox man. Yeah.

If it isn't, it's going to be.

We'll make it happen. We know people.

We have options this one.

That's right. All right. Anybody else have anything? Nothing else? Just want to welcome Jay to the board. Yep. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Thanks for being involved. Look forward to it.

I know it can be overwhelming sometimes for high school students, but we all are just normal people that like to get things done for the town and ask questions and come up with ideas, and that's really what we're here for. Yep.

All right. I think we're good.

I think Ashley has a motion.

Ashley.

I have a motion to close the meeting. Well, that's adjourned.

I second.

All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That's five, Niles.

Yep. Perfect. All right. Thanks, Niles. Appreciate you. Thank you very much. Have a good night.

You too.