Commissioner - Regular Meeting

We're good. All right. Bring the meeting back to order.

Okay. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the Queen Ans County Commissioners meeting. This is a public meeting that is being aired live on our local cable television station QAV7. These media broadcasts provide county citizens an opportunity to watch and review our scheduled public meetings. In addition to our live audience this evening, we are providing remote options for citizens to watch and participate in county commissioner meetings. Citizens may watch our meeting live on our website at qac.orglive or on our public access governmental television channel provided by Breezeline cable services. Citizens can also participate by joining the live Zoom meeting by going to qac.org/public comment. and citizens may also email comments to public comment at qacc.org. All comments received will be summarized during the press public comment period uh on tonight's agenda. We acknowledge everyone's participation and by attending you acknowledge that this session is both recorded and aired. Press and public comment will be taken and is limited to three minutes per person. If you do care to speak, please sign up in the information table in the lobby. Any comments longer than three minutes can be submitted in writing for the commissioner's review. We will now stand to be led in the pledge of allegiance by Commission Vice President Jack Wilson.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, commissioners. Uh that brings us to the approval of uh our agenda. So our agenda for tonight's meeting, March the 10th, along with the regular session minutes, the close session minutes, the sanitary district minutes, and the roads board minutes from the February 24th meeting have been circulated for review. Do I have any uh additions or corrections? I make a motion to accept the minutes in the agenda as proposed. Have a motion to get a second. Motion second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed and one absent.

All right. Thank you, commissioners. All right. So, we just held a close session under the general provisions article section 3305 B1 for boards and commissions and section 3305B7 to consult with council and I do believe we have some board appointments to make. We do. We do. Uh I move to reappoint uh this is the broadband advisory council. Uh I move to reappoint u Mr. James Benson, Mr. Ed Cumins, Allison Davis, and Jared Rickard. These terms will expire on March 31st of 2029. Second. Get a motion in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor?

I opposed. And four and one absent. Are you going to say one absent all night long? I am. You can just assume. Oh, by the way, actually, let me let me put that out there. So, uh, Commissioner Moran is on assignment tonight. So, I'm filling in his spot. Um, so he's on Zoom. I didn't feel worthy to sit in the big chair, so I'm gonna stay over here on my side tonight. [laughter] All right. Go ahead, sir. All right. Thank you, commissioners. That brings us to press and public comment. Do we have anybody for press and public comment this evening? We do.

Okay. So, we appreciate all citizens for taking time to express views to the county commissioners. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. Comments longer than three minutes can be submitted in writing for the commissioner's review. This commission respects your desire and right to convey your message freely. When you come forward, please speak clearly at the standing microphone. State your name, your address, and your topic of interest. And keeping with the dignity of our office, we ask that all views be expressed in a respectful and civil manner. We have Mr. Jay Falstead.

Good evening, commissioners. Jay Fstead, Queen Ans Conservation Association. Back in 2022, uh when the state released its first, um environmental assessment on the Bay Bridge, uh QACA read through it. Uh we hired a couple of consultants, hired a law firm to evaluate, uh the state's work, and were very concerned at the time that the state's uh environmental assessment at the time was deficient in a number of different areas. Um, we submitted comments during the tier one review and we were told that the deficiencies that we identified would be addressed in tier 2. Uh, this past January, uh, those comments or the new DEIS was was released and we read through it again and were shocked that a lot of the things that the state said they were going to address in tier 2 were still deficient. only this time they were worse. And so I bring this to your attention because there are some real substantial impacts to Queen Ans County. Um this will all be on the QACA website tomorrow, but we went on ahead and submitted our comments. It's total of about 20 pages worth of comments. We evaluated all of the state's work using their numbers. Um the document that the state has put out is in conflict with itself and the conflicts are so substantial that QA Queen ans county is going to bear the brunt of the state's mistakes. And so what I want to do is point to page nine. And for the commissioners and for anybody watching on TV, as I say, this will be on our website. I urge you to read the second paragraph. And if you don't mind, I'd just like to read it because this is sort of the shocking part. The induced demand that will result from the Bay

Bridge will return to current congestion levels in a shorter time than even the construction period. It'll relieve congestion for only three to five years before it returns back to current levels. So imagine that for a second. We're about to spend billions of dollars on a Bay Bridge, a construction period that's going to last for 10 to 15 years. a huge amount of disruption on Ken Island. Ken Island's going to bear the brunt of it for traffic relief that only is a period of three to five years. I think we're making a big big mistake. And so after I send this to you, I hope you'll all read it. Um I hope our citizens will get more engaged on it. But I think we're stepping into a tar pit that we're not going to be able to get out of. And as I say, Ken Island is going to bear the brunt of it. all those residents along Route 50, all of those businesses. It's our county that's going to bear the brunt of the state's mistakes. And so with that, thank you very much for the time.

Thank you. Thank you. That's all we had sign up. Does anybody else want to speak during press and public comment? All right. Seeing none, we'll close press and public comment. Thank you, Commissioner. All right, so moving on, we have uh legislation this evening. We have two public hearings. So, if you want to turn to tab number seven. Um, Mr. Thompson's coming on up. So, the first one is public hearing on county ordinance 2601. This is a bill entitled an act concerning traffic control signal monitoring systems red light cameras in Queens County.

Mr. Thompson here from our sheriff's department representing county sheriff. This is a public hearing being held on county ordinance number 2601, a bill entitled an act concerning traffic control signal monitoring systems, red light cameras in Queen Ans County for the purpose of authorizing traffic control signal monitoring systems in Queen Ans County, providing definition providing for operation administration of sess such systems. Providing for trial requirements, civil penalties and defenses and adjudications, providing for the use and confidentiality of recorded images, and generally authorizing and regulating the use of traffic control signal monitoring system systems in Queen An County. Searing being held Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 5:40 p.m. in County Commissioner meeting room, Liberty Building, 107 North Liberty Street. Cops of the ordinance have been available at the county commissioner's office during regular business hours and online at the county website. Speakers be limited to three minutes each. Written testimony of annual length can be submitted on before the hearing date. All hearing sites are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Um part of the record of the shading will be a certificate of publication indicating that notice that tonight's hearing was published in the Bay record observer for two successive weeks both being newspapers of general circulation in Queen County. Are you

okay? We've got one person signed up. Do you did you want to say something to the questioners? I just had a question real quick. So, uh, this doesn't affect, uh, lights on state roads, correct? This is just county roads. It'll be actually state roads. It'll be on route 8, both count placed at, uh, Matipi

where we've had some horrific issues over there and some uh, other issues over at the exit ramp coming off of Route 8 where everybody seems to want to go through a red light signal just to get on to Route 8. So, I guess so. The state relinquish their authority over their lights to us. I mean, I'm I'm good with it. You don't understand. I'm happy about that, but I'm surprised. Again, it'll be it'll be planning working with with the state. Okay. So, you're going to get their approval to do Okay. It's the law enforcement agency that has primary traffic control with that intersection.

Even though the state police are primary for any state roads, it's in our jurisdiction. I think lead on that and um work with the state to uh put the cameras up there. Yeah. I remember when these two bills got passed at the state level. I was just curious how they worked out when they they Yeah. when they authorized that you could do that and ask for that outside of school zones and all that stuff. Well, again, we're also going to be going into um you know the other legislation being proposed tonight, right? So, they're going to run concurrent with each other. Okay. U and the programs both of them will be um running concurrent with uh any of the programs that the state is going to jump into as well. Gotcha. Any other questions? Obviously, we need their approvals, right? I got you. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I was going to say this sort of applies to both these. I'm normally against the sort of camera citation things. Yep. Me, too. because particularly because I've gotten them in DC where it's like 200 bucks [laughter] where you're speeding through and you get it in the mail like two months later and it doesn't do anything and they have one every quarter mile. Um but I think this is sort of what they're proposing is is is a little bit different. These are areas where we have issues

people who are they're not modifying their behavior to drive safely in areas where we have citizens who are being maimed and killed in accidents in an all too frequent basis. Um, we have so for the next one, you know, in a school zone, we've already have them on if you go past a bus, you're going to get a ticket. If you speed through a school zone when their kids are getting out unloading, you should get a ticket there, too. I just I don't have any sympathy for that. Particularly at at um the Route 8 overpass, um there's a lot of people, even if they don't cause accidents, they're clogging up that intersection and now we're creating more delays for people in the morning as a result of that. it. A lot of this could be avoided if people just mind their manners that their parents taught them and wait their turn, but they're not. Um, so this is a way to try to get that flowing in the way that it should happen. And so I I think these are different from

Now will these have restricted hours? Is that the idea behind them? Uh, similar to school school zone cameras or these going to be 247 be effects for whatever the times are. Okay. So school one will be ours. Yeah, the school board will Yeah, that's okay. All right. Okay. Any other questions? No, I'm good. There's one person signed up to speak. Eric Lavasur, I have the same questions for both the red light and the speed. Should I wait till the speed's over or should I? Yeah, you can wait. That will be called next. We'll call the speed camera one next. And you can talk about All right. It's the same questions I have for both. So, should I wait? No,

just All right. Uh my name is Eric Lavasser, uh resident of Queen Ants County, reside in the um Chester in the Harborview community where I'm the community president. Um I have a couple questions. We have a couple concerns regarding the uh red lights and I'll speak the same questions regarding the speed cameras. [snorts] Um we call them safety cameras. What is the percentage breakdown of proposed $100 fine? After the administrative cost, where's the remainder of the fine going? If the administrative costs for these cameras increases, will the citizens be on the hook to pay the increased administrative cost for these cameras? How much of the costs to install these cameras will a taxpayer county have to pay? The proposed $100 fine seems to be excessive. A lot of students are going to these schools and their parents are telling their kids, you need to be responsible. A lot of these kids don't make enough money to pay a $100 fine as they're going and coming. the first couple of times they're going to be hit and they're going to have to come up and then they're going to have to turn to their parents to pay that extra cost. What does prevent Queen Ans County from increasing this fine at a later date? Who will be responsible for calibrating these cameras? Is it going to be the vendor or is it going to be Queen Ans County that calibrates to make sure that these cameras are operating properly? We recommend that the funding source goes to the Queen Ans County Sheriff's Office for community initiatives like speed enforcement and community outreach. We have a lot of people that coming in our our community because we have three churches. We would like for that funds to go to the to the sheriff's office so that they can come in and enforce speed laws and uh other community initiatives within the Harvey community located in the center of Ken Island. We simply ask that Queen Ans County manages this program as it is intended. Please do not follow the slippery slope by using this program to offset budgets or PEP projects. Make sure that the potential funding source and stream stays where it is intended. Thank you. Thank you.

The general person signed up. Is there anyone else that has any public comment? County Ordinance 2601. Do we want Major to weigh in on?

Yeah. Major, do you know the answers to those questions off top of your head? If not, we'll get them. to remember all. But yes, the intention for the program itself is to uh to reduce speed, to mitigate poor driving behaviors, and to get people to actually start paying attention to what they're supposed to be doing, reducing any injuries or any accidents or fatalities, any school zones. We strategically looked at these areas. These are areas in which we have a lot of students, a lot of kids. We've already know that we're already in the bus patrol program. Um that too is to protect our citizens, our kids and and it's working out relatively well. These are strate strategically placed or asking to be strategically placed in locations which would mitigate some of those issues for kids going to school, going across the roadways, people speeding through these areas. Um, as some of you know, living in Graysonville, Graysonville become

elementary school,

anywhere in front of the middle schools, the high school, and MAP, it becomes a a speedway. And and we just don't want people injured. We want to reduce that. inherently by laws of the program and the state of Maryland, those funds that are revenue generated do go back to law enforcement. They go back to the sheriff's office for more programs, more outreach, more uh um education. Uh we intend to utilize a lot of those funds to enhance our existing programs and create new programs, new programs that we can educate the community. So, for uh additional uh enforcement efforts.

So I I have a question to so you one of the questions that was asked uh was the direction of those funds. So they're not going into the general fund. The fines will be paid to a third party contractor who pays the sheriff's office. That's correct. Okay. So the vendors operating the cameras, calibrating the cameras just like they do in Centerville and everywhere else. That's correct. And how much? That's what I was getting ready to get to. And then one more is the fine amount. Is that set? The fine amounts on the red light cameras will be set by legislation already. I know it sets it in there. Now, where where did that number come from? I think that's probably the question. Is that

state regul the same thing with speed camera? Speed camera uh fines uh are set by the state. They uh are passed through legislation and they just they were just increased this year. Now, the speed limit maximum before the ticket uh is triggered 12 12 miles over the post. 12 miles over the post speed limit. Okay. The vendor pays to put them up, right? Vendor. Yeah. What's their percentage cost for for installation operations or anything else like that? Where they get their money is on the back side of all the citations that are issued. They get percentage their percentage is between 35 and 40%. And then so you would get the 60%. That's correct.

So you would then ask the county commissioners for less money in your budget potentially. [laughter] Hey, he didn't even crack a smile. I'm all right with that, Patrick. Or we can increase our efforts throughout the county. You know, it's against law enforcement. You just heard him. He just said it all. [laughter] That's how many speakers. If you if you get citations, we'll, you know, we'll make sure that we do good with your major. We know that we know that our sheriff's office does an amazing job writing grants and getting monies from um from Homeland Security and other governmental uh agencies that write grants for law enforcement in our county. You guys do a great job in getting those grants written and us getting that money. And I think the hope is so shame on you commissioner

that there wouldn't be the hope is that there would not be a lot of revenue after a while from these things. Well, and and again the whole idea is what to condition to condition school zones because people would know the slow down and some of the statistical data that has been proven is some for instance once the cameras go up just take general numbers of if if a thousand citations were issued off of one camera in the first month inherently because of change behaviors they're going to go down right

so say then 450 individuals get tickets the following month or two months later or whatever it may be, you can ensure that that program is actually working. And it has also statistically found that school related incidents with accidents and everything else have gone down 70% by just having these cameras in school zones. So, you know, it's a win-win for our county, our folks, and our kids. So, is anybody else want to speak? We've got the other hearing on the speed. I know, but I'm going to go ahead and keep close this one out, but keep it keep the record open for two weeks. Y

um so and then we can let's go ahead and move on to the next hearing for the speed. All right, this is a tab 7 item two commissioners county ordinance 2602 for speed monitoring systems in Queens County. Mr. Thompson.

This is a public hearing being held on county ordinance 2602, bill entitled an act concerning speed monitoring systems in Queen Ans County for the purpose of authorizing the use of speed monitoring systems in Queen Ans County. Providing for the locations of such systems. Providing procedures for activating such system. Provided for the issuance of warning. Warnings for the first 30 days after activation of such systems. Providing for hours of operation. Providing authorization to acquire and use such systems and enter into agreements for furnishing such systems. providing for the imposition and payment of civil penalties for citation citation issues as a result of the use of speed monitoring systems. This hearing is being held Tuesday, March 10th, 2026 at 5:45 G Commissioner meeting room, Liberty Building, 107 North Liberty Street, Senable Maryland. Copy of the ordinance have been available at the Kenn Commission's office and uh online uh at the county website. Speaker limited to three minutes each. Written testimony if any length can be submitted before the hearing date to the county commissioners. All hearing sites are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Part of the record of the proceeding will be a certificate of publication indicating the notice of the hearing was was published in the Bay Times record observer for two successive weeks prior to tonight's hearing. Uh Mr. Lur, you had also signed up if you have anything else on this. Do you want to just give Stephanie your written copy so she can just put that into send you a print.

Yeah, do that so she can just enter that into the record for both hearings. Eric, you can email. You can you can email us the question. As long as you give her the written copy, she'll get it into the record because it's going to be the same testimony. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, do we have any questions before we move on from this one or are we good? Good. I got them all out in the last. Okay, great. Got out of my system. Anybody else want to speak on this hearing? All right, seeing none, we will close the hearing today and keep the record open for two weeks. Thank you, Major. Have a good one. All right. Stay safe out there. Thank you, Major. Thank you, Major. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. All right. Thank you, Pat. All right. All good news tonight. Look at you. That's right. All right. I love it.

It's always good news. Well, all right, commissioners. Moving on. We have uh presentations next. Uh so, if you want to flip to tab number six. Uh tab six, item one, pages 1 through 14. We have Mr. Bryce Strang, our county health officer. Queen's County here for his update and he also has a uh special guest he'd like to introduce to you this evening and we have a presentation up on the screen as well. Good evening gentlemen. So, uh today, yes, I brought my relatively new deputy health officer, Daniel Benton, and I wanted to introduce her. She's my left-hand lady. Welcome. Welcome. Taken on the reigns and has done an outstanding job. You started in what, October?

Yep. So, she's doing a great job and she's here to She's old hat tender. been here since October, but uh yeah, doing a great job and and uh helping me out here today. Excellent.

So, today I'm going to talk about or try to demystify a little bit the complexities of the ahead model, state and local health improvement plans associated with the ahead model, as well as the rural health transformation program, which we have some promising insight into. So, as a reminder, the ahead model is achieving healthcare efficiency through accountable design. That is the new CMS waiver that Maryland has signed into effective last year. It'll be implemented this year through 2035. And again, it builds on previous models that Maryland has implemented over the decades uh to have accountable cost, not blowing cost through the roof, uh also improving quality of care. The two big differences I wanted to bring up with the ahead model are first are the cost setting. The big change this with this model is Medicare will be setting the rates uh which does bring up some concerns with if they drop the rates to Medicare rates uh it could affect reimbursement overall for everybody. The other good part about it is they recognize that it's a bigger picture problem. It's not just on the hospitals. It's all inclusive of public health, primary care, the hospital system, everybody involved in the whole continuum of care of health in general.

When do we get that? When do you know what reimbursements are? When do we get the rates? Yeah, I do not know that answer.

Uh part of the ahead model is it requires a state population health accountability plan other known as the PAP. The PAP is the state's plan. We are required as a local jurisdiction to develop a local accountability plan. Uh but I will talk about the six measures that Maryland has chosen in the ahead model to tackle. Uh but basically these targets will help Maryland focus resources towards improving these health measures uh in population health. Again, we will pre be creating a local action plan and the hospitals will also be creating a action plan as well that will be tied into what we're doing. So they're going to have a lot of matching components. So these are the six uh PAP measures that the state has decided to jump on. Um these were determined by the state after thorough review of you know what we could currently do and build upon based on what we already have in place and what we think we can make meaningful impact on over the next several years. Um I could go through each of these. It might take a little while, but um basically what we're going to be doing is using different data sources to identify and track changes as time goes on as we implement our action plans. Uh good news is that a lot of these measures Queen Ans is excelling in already. Uh we're we're leading the pack in the state in a lot of these things. Uh but we can only get better, right? So uh the plans will be addressing those items. There any questions on these measures that you would like me to address? You will notice that some of them don't have a change from the 2023 baseline. And the reason why is as a state those are getting worse and they're trying to stabilize it over the next two years before trying to improve it. So that's why you'll see that two of those measures don't have any change. All right. The local action plan that we

are putting together again uh is to have an effect on those six measures. Uh the local action plan is a process being led by the local health departments in partnership with other healthcare providers in the counties. Uh we in the midshore have decided to tackle this uh as a region and the reason we did that is because we have often have the same different partnerships. We didn't want to have five separate conversations talking about the same thing with five different counties. So we decided to come together and put a plan together as the midshore. We also were able to take advantage of a potential additional fund for coming at it as a fivecount group. Uh the more hospitals you have, the more opportunity you had for additional funding. And if at the time when we submitted this, we haven't heard back yet, but we were able to get I think it was an additional $10,000 because they considered the freestanding ER as a hospital. So that's why we went at it as a uh region instead of an individual jurisdiction. So again, we're going at it as a region. Uh the four main work groups consisting of multiple partners are listed there. The reason these four specific work groups were considered are because they tie to the state health improvement plan, which I'll talk about in a minute. U again access to care, women's health, chronic disease, and behavioral health are the four main work groups uh that are being put in place. I start chronic disease because Daniel is actually the head of that chronic disease work group. Your first meeting is very soon, isn't it?

Yes. Uh March 24th.

As a reminder, hospitals are also required under the state agreement to create their PAP. Again, it's going to be tied closely into what we're doing uh across the midshore and in Queen Anne County. um shore regional health we've already started talking and meeting with uh President Koselle along with his uh senior staff to figure out what we're going to do. So we've we met approximately I think five or six weeks ago. So we're already making progress on developing a plan. Um of course they've also committed to having their staff attend these work groups as well to put together a comprehensive plan. So ship that is the state health improvement plan and that was actually put together and made effective prior to the ahead agreement. That is the state health department's improvement plan to address what we already know are issues across the board in Maryland. Queen ans we were at each juris jurisdiction was asked to select at least one measure. We chose two measures and I'll explain why in a little bit. Uh but the two measures we decided to tackle uh for the next couple years are uh by 2029 increase the proportion of adults 18 to 85 years of age who have a diagnosis of hypertension and whose blood pressure was adequately controlled. The reason we is because the reason we want to increase in that is because a lot of people are walking around they don't realize they have hypertension. They call it the silent killer. So, we're trying to educate, get people to understand, oh, you do have an issue and you need to address it and educate them on ways to to manage their hypertension or eliminate it entirely. The second one, uh, by 2029, reduce the average weight time for primary care first appointments. Primary care access is one of our worst health metrics in Queens ans county. A lot of people have to travel to do a primary care appointment in Queens, believe it or not. they have to go to a a neighboring

county to get that care. Uh in general, the primary care provider per person in the county is much higher than the state in general. So that is one reason we're deciding to tackle that one and we have a program to address that which I will talk about on this slide. So real quick, can I ask a question? So I guess with us being a bedroom community though, is that is that metric are we getting a true reading on that metric? Like a lot of people I know like from dental things like that uh vision a lot of people work across the bridge so they've already established their primary care across the bridge or their vision or their dental so we don't necessarily in my mind it would be very hard to gauge how many people here are using it in Queens ans county right

the met you're right the metric that I'm referring to is the actual physical local providers per county when you use them not who's using them correct I got you okay I got okay the concern is is that what about the people that can't so you know we already know we have transportation concerns access to care in general uh and rural health is is a major concern especially on the east so it's looking at our local uh primary cares and their weight times specifically not what people are experiencing correct okay

uh so for chronic disease uh the wellness division in the health department conducts community- based wellness clinics for hypertension screening and monitoring at locations like the senior centers and employment sites and connects individuals to providers and resources. Uh Daniel's actually personally been on several of those visits. Um they're outstanding. It allows participants to track their health status. Uh we give them resources. Uh it's fantastic program. And our brand new program effective January 2026, uh we started our interimm care program and that is aimed at treating chronic conditions for people waiting to access primary care. So if somebody hasn't comes out of the hospital for example, they're not connected with a primary care, they don't have a routine person that they go to, what we're going to do is if they have high cholesterol, uh mismanaged blood pressure and high uh blood sugar, basically we're going to again screen them. We're going to do labs. We're going to have a nurse practitioner that will talk them through their conditions, how to appropriately appropriately manage them, and then we'll have a direct care associate that will work with that person to get them an appointment at a primary care office somewhere hopefully locally. Um, so again, the goal is to help them manage their condition so they don't end up back in the hospital or someplace worse. uh as well as connect them to a primary care office uh to get them the services a routine primary care provider to maintain them. [snorts] We started that January 1st. Um so we've started advertising it. We advertised it to the hospitals uh the transition of care coordinator with Shore Regional. So hopefully we'll start seeing some patients in the near future. [laughter] I know who your first patient's going to be. You're first test pilot. [laughter]

Let's put it this way. When I go to the doctors, I can't have coffee before I go in for my appointment. [laughter] Got it. Rural health transformation. So, OB established the rural health transformation program. I talked about it briefly in the fall. Uh but bottom line is it's five years of funding. For the first year, Maryland was awarded 168 million. Uh, and Maryland actually received double the average amount per rural resident compared to some other states. So, that's good news. Is that operational in capital? 10868 million.

Is it operational and capital? Yes. I'll talk about that a little bit here. So, the three initiatives in Maryland's plan for the rural health money leave that was approved by CMS transform the rural health workforce, promote sustainable access and innovative care, and empower rural Marylanders to eat healthy. Uh they split it up into two different subject areas are areas within the three domains. Uh immediate impact and transformational impact. The reason why is because when they did listening SE sessions back in the fall, it was clear that a lot of people had a lot of really good ideas that they could get off the ground real quick. So those are those immediate impact projects that they've put in their plan and the transformation funds are those that are like what are we going to do over the course of the next five years? What can we start up to start addressing some some of these shortfalls across the state? [snorts] um workforce again talking about partnerships with uh Department of Labor, the Eastern Shore Area Health Education Co uh

Center

Center. Thank you. Uh we call it the Ahack if you've heard that term. Uh talking about pipeline programs, getting kids interested early in school and healthcare and trying to support them into different health care uh positions. Uh doing shadowing. We would shadow people at the health department, the hospital, any of the primary care that would want to participate, but the AHECK would support them through that process. Uh, as well as supporting uh students in the university system and trying to get them to work here and stay here long term. That's the key. Access to care. Uh, again, the state health department and us as well working with our partners to identify access to care opportunities. uh one being mobile health such as mobile integrated health. Uh we've talked about how we would expand our program here in Queens County. We've talked about hiring a community health worker with this fund. Uh the intent with that again is to be uh a point of contact for our patients to help them navigate the complexities of not just the clinical side of their concerns but also what's going on on like the social determinance of health. you know, education, their their housing, especially food access, all the different things that are tied to health at some point. Uh, and then eat for health. Um again talking about expanding uh like refrigeration storage working with department of a uh trying to develop partnerships uh with small farms to aggregate food and connect them with large buyers uh different systems like that to improve access to healthy nutritious food uh is all part of the larger plan for the health department. Uh again, mobile health service expansion is a priority. Uh right now, the plan is for regional local health

department to receive funds and run an RFA RFP process to benefit the entire region. For our region, that health department is Caroline County Health Department. Uh but all of us are talking, we've been talking with the schools, we've been talking with other um entities, Department of Emergency Services to talk about what are the needs, what can we apply this money towards and get an application in. uh nutrition education programs. Uh we've already had meetings with the extension office as well as aging to identify where the gaps are, what education uh and other nutrition programs have gaps that we can fill with this money. Uh with SNAPED funding ending, there's concerns that all that education kind of went away. So, there's talks about maybe we'll try and bring that back just with a different funding source through the rural health money. uh increasing capacity to process and improve billing and maximize revenue generation. So, there's going to be a vendor that's going to analyze the local health departments and try to determine ways that we can improve our revenue to try to alleviate the pressure off of primarily being funding off funding from county and grants. So, that's what's going on with that. The rural health transformation program steering committee, that committee has been established. Uh unfortunately only one rural local health officer made it on that group which was disappointing. However, we do have some representation here from on the shore. Delegate Rice uh is on that work group. Um I'm going to be reaching out to him to talk with him and have some conversations about this money and what our ideas are. Uh the other local health officers in the region are also on board with that as well. indirect opportunities with the rural health money. So MDH again will run uh RFAS to fund projects focused on expanding services and that's across the gamut but one of the big ones is

behavioral health service expansion. Uh they recognize that that is a major shortfall in rural communities. So again applying that money to expand mental and behavioral health services in rural communities as well as again workforce expansion programs uh which I already discussed. Looking forward, uh, again, we're awaiting further information from MDH, the Health Services Cost review commission, and CMS on the ahead and rural health transformation funds and our approved work plans. We haven't gotten approval for these things yet. Um, hoping to hear soon. Uh, two of the immediate things that the state's implementing are medically tailored meals for high-risisk patients. that's nutritious bas basically meals as treatment for those that do have complex chronic issues that it's it's a proven program in other states. So Maryland is doing a trial period with medically tailored meals uh to see if it has the same cost effective overall good impact for these high acuity patients. Uh and then produce RX, that's a prevention measure. Again, tail tail tailoring food is medicine to prevent people from getting chronic disease. Again, the education, getting them the access to that nutritious food. And those RFAS are projected sometime later this fiscal year. I believe that's all I have. Yes, it is. So, any questions about that? [laughter] It's quite a bit, right?

Covered it all, that's for sure. What's our cut of the 168? We don't know. And any of that go towards Do you know what I'm going to ask? Yes. And that project has already been submitted. Okay. I talked to Deputy Secretary Lord who unfortunately has moved on since then, but I talked with her in the She what? She's she resigned. Good. Thank the Lord.

She has resigned. And so, uh, Katie Dilly and I with Midore Behavioral Health, uh, we have approached BHA to reestablish new partnerships with new people to talk about, uh, the USDA funding Queens County got uh, for the Carter Center project uh, as well as other opportunities to uh, address both outpatient and inpatient possibilities for mental and behavioral health on the shore. Okay. When did you submit the uh whatever you submitted? So the the concept was submitted back in [snorts] I want to say September or October. So they're aware of it. It's on the list. So it was submitted to Deputy Lord and she's

it was submitted to MDH and then they funneled it out from there because it was a behavioral health project. It went to BHA. All right. So, we got a response from the governor's office and I'll send it to you. Okay. Send it to you. Um, let me switch gears. Mobile health crisis. How does that work? How does how does how do you know when the mobile crisis for the schools should be sent to the schools? What what's the criteria?

So mobile crisis reports to make sure behavioral health who then informs us the health officers the health departments uh that one they've been deployed and who they're supporting. I'm sorry who notifies you? Midore behavioral health. They're the core service agency. Not the principal, not the school, not the teacher, not they would not be allowed to, Patrick. Really?

No. Uh there is legislation in right now to allow us to develop and implement our own local fatality review, suicide fatality review team. uh I'm in support of it, but it would allow us to legally get that information upfront and to again convene the group of professionals to know it does not currently exist. There's a state one, but there's a local one. How how would they know to do that? How would a teacher that's having trouble, you know, with a kid, how do they know to contact Katie?

They don't contact Katie, they contact Mobile Crisis. That's kind of that that's the plan. Now, I will tell you right up front that we're meeting in a week and a half to review those plans. I'm also trying to get in on a meeting next week with BHA. It hasn't been scheduled yet to discuss the current issues, the the sudden trends in these youths. Thank you. and to address that issue, find out ways we can be better and more proactive to to figure out what's going on and and get these issues figured out.

So, I want to be really careful because we're on television in case there's kids watching, but um you know, Saturday was a really bad day for our county. Uh we had a really difficult funeral and the night before was even worse. And Uh I was asked personally by more than one person why didn't why was there not mobile why didn't the the mobile crisis um folks show up at the school so

and this has happened twice in the last two I'll have to go back difficult times I'll have to go back and confirm it but from what I've been told there has been resources sent to the school. There actually should be resources there still. There were not. Okay. This is what I'm being told by a teacher. So, could you speak with him like outside? He he knows what I'm talking about. Okay. Sure. I' I'd rather not discuss it.

So, I'll confirm that. But again, we're going to be reviewing, you know, that response and is that the appropriate plan? uh mobile crisis with the family, mobile crisis with the school and also other mental health resources for the school after one of these incidents, especially you know the the classes. So I will there's something missing here and I don't know what it is but let's figure it out. We'll do. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.

Welcome. All right, commissioners. Um, also TF6 item two, um, we have Mr. Raymond Aaron, president, fire EMS commission and Mr. Buddy Thomas. Is he in the house tonight? Not with me tonight. Not in the house tonight. Uh, vice president Mike Clark will step in for the fire EMS commission swearing. So, Commissioner Wilson, I think you have the uh official documents there. Yeah. Why don't uh Yeah, just give us a quick update and then I'll swear you. Go ahead. You're still comm You're still present. Just give us a quick update and I'll swear you on the way out the door. Uh quick update. Sit down. Good luck. Thank [laughter] you. Uh

I try to do what I'm told most of the time. Welcome everybody. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Uh really we're working with you folks for budget. Uh we're working on some uh some of the peer support group that you just were referring to. Uh we're working on retention and recruitment still uh to keep our folks keep them. You know, you can get them, but troublesome time is keeping them. Uh and then we're continually trying to stay up on training because it's always changing and we've got a good group of folks that come to our meetings. It seems like a lot.

Are you guys once a month? Are you guys inviting like vendors in to do presentations to the FEC for new concepts or procedures or We have um the electric vehicles been one that probably one of that's a big one. It is and I know it's been topic of discussions. The radios.

Yeah, certainly the radios as you folks will have the ES in before you before too long with a request for um replacement radios. It's like a cell phone, you know, they only last x amount of years and they don't make parts for it. So, you know, 10 years after you spend 15 million, you got to spend another 19 million to to replace it. So, that's a project about that's the the iPhone model. It's like every two years you bring a new phone out, but you make sure you get a different charger for it. So, everybody's back on the newest one. Nothing works. That's how them radios work. I figured that out that one. And all the vendors are the same, not just one. And part of that is sell service too on the other end.

Yeah, sounds pretty good. But that's um I mean that's certainly it. Commissioner Wilson and M uh and Commissioner McLaclin come to our monthly meetings. We've got seems like one or two every week of the subcommittees. Um it's a good group of dedicated people. Uh Buddy the vice chair uh just got back um from being out of state. So he thought he was going to be able to make it but he's not. So I apologize. He called. We'll get on him later. Said you're on your own. Yeah. He he knew he would. [clears throat] We we know where he is. We know where he was. where he is. We'll embarrass him at the FEC next, right? It's hard embarrassing. Yeah, that's one guy I don't know that you're really gonna do that to. So, so I will entertain any questions, but if not, they uh I guess um

Yeah, I got kept me going for another year. So, here I am. Well, we're we are grateful for your leadership. I appreciate it. It's good group of people. You know, Billy is fast is certainly a good resource to still have as as he moves up for election in June for the state president for Maryland State Farmers Association. You guys were great working with him as an employee and uh it's good resource for Queens. Huge for Queen. A lot of people involved at organization from Queen Ans County. So, we've got a lot going on here. Yeah. Which is something we need to bring up too is about uh possibly sponsoring Billy for his run. Yeah. um part of his fundraiser. Yes.

Anything we could do to help you get that would be good. So, all right. Now, you get to stand up. Not quick. Raise your right hand. Use your name where I use mine. I, Jack Wilson, I Raymond, do solemnly promise and swear Do solemnly promise and swear that I will do to the best of my ability that I will do to the best of my ability. fulfill the duties of the office to which I have been elected. fulfill the duties of the office to which I've been elected. And uphold the bylaws of the Queen Ans County Fire and EMS Commission. The bylaws of the Queen's County Fire and EMS Commission. At the conclusion of my term of office, at the conclusion of my term in office, I will turn over to my successor I will turn over to my successor. All records and properties All records and properties trusted to my care. Trusted to my care. So help me God.

So help me God. Congratulations. [applause] Back on time, I hope. [laughter] Thank you all again. Appreciate it. Have a good real quick and ready to go. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next victim.

That's that's all of our presentations tonight, commissioners. We can move into the action items. So, first we have uh Department of Public Works has two items. Uh so, if you want to turn to tab number two. Uh tab two item one pages 1 through four is the mosquito control program for 2026. This is a budgetary agreement between the state of Maryland and the county for the 2026 mosquito control cost share grant uh program budget for this year is 172,000 and it stipulates the cost share between the state and the county. And of course we have the user fees which is a subscription service user fee program total budget of 172,000. So, we um recommend uh execution of that state grant agreement.

I move to execute the 2026 mosquito control agreement with the Maryland Department of Agriculture. Second. Have a motion, a second. Any questions, discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Four zero and one absent. [laughter] I knew it.

All right. Thank you, commissioners. Item two is forformational. Uh this is the announcement of the midshore hazard household hazardous waste drop off day April 11th 2026. Very popular program and it's being hosted here at our own department of public works at 312 Safety Drive in Centerville. This is a byianual event provided by Maryland Environmental Service as part of the Midshore Regional Recycling Program. And the event is open to residents of Queen's Kent Caroline and Talwood counties for any household items. So, gather up your paint and old fuel and anything else you want to get rid of and um we'll take it out there at DPW on April 11th and we have a niceformational flyer in the book and I know Beth's been um putting that out on social as well. So, we want to we always have a good turnout for this event every every year

and and it was pretty cool. It came out through the county website somehow yesterday I guess it was and and it's a new function. I've never seen it before but something came out but you actually click on it actually adds it to your calendar which you out you having to do it. You just clicked a button and it it it populated it right into my back. Yeah. Is it It went right into my calendar. Excellent. iPhone. Good job. iPhone or No, my iPhone. Yeah, I think it's the uh AI in the phone. Is it really? Yeah. But [clears throat] it was awesome because I was like I was thinking I wanted to write it down and all and I didn't have to. I saw the thing and it nice. So kudos Beth, I guess. Good job. Take credit Beth. Yeah, just take a bow. It's all good. All right, moving on.

Okay. Uh next we have action items. So, if you want to flip over to tab number three, uh tab three, um item one, pages one through two, this is the community reinvestment and repair funds allocations for FY2027. Um this um reinvestment and repair fund was established under the Maryland Cannabis Reform Act of 2023 is an initiative designed to reinvest cannabis tax revenue into communities disproportionately impacted by cannabis prohibition. And the fund focuses on promoting social equities, economic development, and addressing key community needs. Our LMB uh serves as the um as the administrators of this program, and they have their allocation set here. I have Mike Clark and Rachel Carmony here that have put this together. Unfortunately, our funding this year from the cannabis sales tax is less than last year, but we have $160,000, $160,173 programmed for uh three key areas. Minor minority entrepreneur training accelerator program, afterchool programming, partnering for youth, and account balance uh for growth and programs that will be established later. So, if you have any questions, Rachel and Mike are here to address anything that you may have.

Uh, I move to approve the allocations listed for the fiscal 2027 community reinvestment and repair funds in the amount of 160,173 effective uh July 1st, 2026. Second. Any questions, discussion? So, on two it says Patrick, come on up. If he's gonna ask, come on up. Hello. Thank you both for being here and uh thank you administering this program. So since this is cannabis the providing education for them not to use it.

So that I think that was part of one of the state pieces. But when we had well actually when I say we I mean Lacy when she was here um she she worked with creating an ordinance and something that was written into the ordinance was um minority entrepreneur training um after school programming and then homelessness prevention efforts were also written into that ordinance. So we are following what was written in that um so we also excuse me I'm sorry we also followed the lead of the state gave us parameters to work within but you can tweak it right. Oh yeah.

Yeah. So teaching them what it does for their brain and the difficulties of it would be a good thing to do so that they don't end up in a bad place with psychosis, things like that. So can you work on that? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Does any of this? The answer is no. Drug free. I was thinking of the drug free coalition and this can't go to that, right? Um I mean they can definitely work on that. They have been working on it and they've been a big advocate for the the marijuana education you've been talking about and we support that group a lot. We participate on it. We very happy with it.

Okay. Yeah. And drug free coalition just submitted a more grant for the for their program for next year and we have used the opioid restitution fund for their programming as well. So this is kind of a separate fund, but as I mentioned, there's a specific criteria that the the state had put forth to to utilize these funds. Got a motion and a second. All in favor? I both. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, commissioners. Um, item number two on pages three and four. Um, I suggest we table that. We had some other legal issues.

Yeah, I'm going to make a motion that we table this item. Um, do we have a time that we want to table it to or you're just going to bring it back on the agenda at a later date? We'll bring it back on a later date once has additional legal. I'll make that motion. Motion's table.

Okay. All right, commissioners. Our last action item this evening is item number three. This is resolution 2603 aviation obstruction regulations. And this resolution establishes a process for considering variance under title 5 subtitle 7 of the transportation article of the annotated code of Maryland aviation obstruction regulations for structure locations and size in the vicinity of the Bay Bridge airport. Can you get a motion? Uh move to adopt resolution 2603. Second. Motion in a second. Anybody want to speak to it? We're good. Discussion. All right. Self-explanatory.

Good enough. All in favor? I opposed. 40 and one. Right. Commissioners, that is all of the action items for this evening, all the presentations. So, I think that concludes everything. Uh we have press public comment. Anybody? Beth, did you have anything? No. All right. So, we'll close present public comment and we'll shoot the round table. Patrick,

I had the pleasure of going over to the Senate today. I found out last night um I ran into a charter boat captain down in Roman Coke when I was out knocking on doors and he told me about uh today was uh there was a Senate bill that the watermen have put in for um rockfish and apparently which I did not know this what what What the charter boat captains want to do is they want to stop catch and release on female um rockfish. And some of these rockfish get to be 50 60 inches long, which I had no idea, but they're massive. So, what's happening now in March and April is as they're getting ready to to spawn up by the Konoingo Dam and uh people are catching them and releasing them. And according to the folks that were educating me, if a mama is outside the water for more than 2 minutes, she starts to let go of her eggs and there's no male to um to spawn with the eggs. So, the eggs die and that's one of the reasons that they feel that the population of the rockfish are being uh slowly whittleled down, so to speak. Anyhow, that was the point of it. And um I don't know if it's still going on, but I had to leave because they kept moving it back and back. But it was just a great time to support our watermen and our charter boat captains.

That was the uh that was the letter that we all signed two weeks ago that was sent in. Yep. And the place was packed and you know they won't let you stand. There's no standing room only allowed. So only a few people can get in. And um Jack, do you want to talk about Billy Fa since you brought it up or you want me to? No, go ahead.

Um we we serve with this chap as you know, Billy Fast and he's the vice president of uh the fireman's association for the whole state. And the guy goes to literally every county every week. He's in a different county and it's, you know, it's on his own dime. And uh we were wondering, Jack and I were wondering as as the FEC is there something that we could do for him. He is going to become our president and there's only been in 200 years there's only been three presidents of the firemen's association from Queen Ans County. Once again, Queen Ans County is helping the state out and his name is Billy Faust. So, um, I would like to make a motion that we support Billy Fast with $2,500.

Okay. I I don't know. He does all of this on his own dime. He doesn't get reimbursed. He doesn't get mileage. He doesn't get anything from specific for his presidential spec specific for his presidential campaign. So that's my motion. I'll second that. Motion to second. Any questions about it? And I'm sure he's going to want to see as many of us down there in mid June as he can for you get sworn in in June in Berlin. What's the date? I'll get it. Yeah, we didn't. Yeah, they have it now, but I don't remember what it was, but I'll get it. I'll share it out with you guys. Okay, got a motion in a second. All in favor? I opposed. All right. 401.

Is that all you have? You're good, Chris. I'm good. Bill, I just want to reiterate again the um Aren't they taking boat wrap off? Don't you have to say something about that? What's that? Aren't they taking boat wrap off soon? Should you see?

Yeah. Right. Right. Exactly. So, I just want to reiterate the importance of April 11th uh for that midshore household hazardous waste drop off. Um, I mean, if you've got old cans of paint, I mean, things in your shop that you've been waiting to get rid of that no transfer station or dump is going to take, here's an a perfect opportunity. So, um, can they go to the Queens County uh, website and get more information on this or they have to go to the Maryland Environmental Services website? Yeah, we'll have it on our website and county website and we've been

I mean uh again the this is a great opportunity to get rid of some stuff that that you've been harboring in your garage for forever. Um fluorescent tubes and lamps, uh mercury thermometers, oilbased paints, paint thinner stains, chemicals for pools, dark rooms, acid cleaners and solvents, computers and and peripherals. I mean, I mean, this is an opportunity to to get rid of all the things in your garage or that you're keeping that you've wanted to get rid of forever. So, that's all I have. Take advantage of that, folks, because this is something that that we work collaboratively with the state to get done. And and I know I'll be taking some stuff. I'm already building my pile as we say. Oh, yeah. I've already started. Better than

Soon as I got that email yesterday, I was out the garage going, "Huh, wonder what I can get rid of." Yeah. Little early spring cleaning. Pig full bed. Other than that, that's all I have. Excellent. I got nothing. So I will entertain a motion. So moved. Second. We are adjourned.