Commissioner - Regular Meeting

We'll now convene this April 16th meeting of the Centerville Town Council. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence 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.

Thank you. All right. First up, council is agenda review. Are there any changes or additions to the agenda? None. Okay. Next up, we have uh two meeting minutes in the packet. One from the April 2nd budget meeting and one from the April 2nd regular meeting. Are there any additions or corrections to the minutes? I have none. Okay. Is there a motion to approve both of those minutes? I motion to approve. Second. All right. All in favor? I. Okay.

Next up, we have a citizens forum. Citizens are requested to keep their comments to three minutes. If you'd like to address the council, you can come up and we'll get the microphone brought over. Does anyone want to address the council at this time? All right. Yeah. Come on up, Tim. They're bringing you the mic so you don't have to bend over the table. All right, just state your name for the record and you go.

All right, Tim McCcluskey, Centerville here. I'm here tonight to talk about the wastewater treatment plant expansion and tonight's presentation. Uh, frankly, I'm terrified about the cost of this expansion and what it will do to the long-term viability of the town. I understand the need to upgrade the plant. The technology has improved. Cleaner effluent is better for the environment, and the upgrade is mandated by the state. But I believe that any expansion of the existing capacity is ill advised at this time. Expansion in theory is a good thing, but the financial reality tells a different story. Town's current full debt load is approximately 8.3 million. This expansion will add between 17 and $43 million to our debt. Presentation tonight will call for you to approve utility rates to increase by 20% per year for the next five years, which with compounding will increase rates near by nearly two and a half times the current rates. and a and adding 1743 million to the town debt to expand to fund this expansion. If you implement these recommendations, Centerville will immediately go to the most expensive water and sewer rates of all those in tonight's presentation. The town won't be able to do anything else. We have aging roads, aging pipes, aging water infrastructure. Forget about any money for winter snow plowing or fixing all the potholes from winter storms. None of this debt will cover any of that. We won't be able to fix any of those old broken things. Taking on much of this debt for the town wastewater system will squarely put us at the mercy of the developers because you, our town leaders, will be desperate for allocation fees to help subsidize this massive debt. We'll be required to add thousands of new homes and future council members will be hostage to the developers with no leverage to negotiate due to this council's speculative debt. We could lose what makes Centerville a special place to raise a family. Look at what happened in Southernthersville recently when their town council got overextended on the sewer plant. They speculated on significant growth and expanded their wastewater treatment plant. When the growth didn't come,

proposals like those for an ice detention facility were all too happy to pay the allocation fees. Public outcry shuttered that plan and eventually Southernersville had to turn their wastewater treatment plant over to the county because they were defaulting on their loan. They were behind in payments almost $500,000. $500,000 on the debt you propose tonight is a rounding error. Are you deliberately trying to open the door to the county taking over Centerville's utilities? Tonight's presentation says we will need to sell 380 new edus to infill lots before the expanded plant comes online. Where will those go? Carter Farm, Turpins Farm, can Chesterfield or Little Hut handle hundreds of extra cars every day? The answer is no. Once you commit to the expansion, you will need to approve every single development project and your constituents will be still crushed with overwhelming debt. Tonight's presentation propos proposes a sewer allocation fee of $10,910. 380 new sewer allocations will only bring in $4.1 million. Tonight's presentation says that the town will get 7.7 million through allocation fees that will go towards the wastewater treatment plant. How is that possible? All these inflated assumptions of the town's ability to service this massive debt assume that everything goes perfectly to plan. Does anyone here recall just how badly off plan the town's wastewater treatment plant was in the early 2000s? Because of that experience, the town experienced a cons construction moratorum, lawsuits, a consent order for permit violations, and dramatically delaying the buildout of Northwork and Symphony Village. The entire state of Maryland felt the consequence of this overreach with the implementation of the bay restoration fees. the so-called flush tax. What happens if there's a downturn in the economy? In 2008, in the middle of the buildout in Symphony Village in Northbrook, development halted for several years due to the housing bubble collapsing. Given today's global situation, do you think do you feel that such a future financial

downturn is impossible? If anything like this happens again, the current rateayers will be on the hook for all debt payments for this new speculative debt. What happens if it's not financially profitable for a developer to build in future annex properties? The projected EDU cost will be $16,000. A few years ago, we estimated bring your own capacity be the same as an EDU, which means $32,000 for hooking up to our sewer. Add in impact fees of approximately $15,000. That's $47,000 in fees before the land and building cost. Tonight's presentation says the cost will be $39 million. Last night at the planning commission meeting, the town manager presented a set of slides that put the cost estimated at $65 million or 26 million more that will all be in loans. Out of those $65 million in cost, we will have 14 million in grants, which are the accurate numbers. Our comp plan calls for developers to bring their own capacity, a core principle of equitable growth. This doesn't mean each annexation has to build their own wastewater treatment plant, but that they need to pay for the ex the extended capacity that they need in addition to paying for each .edu. Tonight's presentation will talk about how growth pays for growth, but in reality, it is proposing the existing rateayers will be paying for this expansion. If the town council approves this proposal, you'll be directly contradicting not only your newly adopted comprehensive plan, but a fundamental principle of development. If this colossal debt package is approved, the town council will have gambled with the future financial health and property values of its current constituents and rateayers for the benefit of some future developers whose proposals have not yet been submitted, financed, or approved. Why would you do this? I urge you to reject the proposed expansion and focus on the upgrade instead. We cannot afford $43 million in more in debt, nor 149% increase in utility rates to speculate on future development. Thank you. appreciate you letting me go on.

Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Tim. All right. Any other citizens that wish to comment before we get rolling?

All right. Next up, we have several oaths of office for boards and commissions. And so, I'm going to read this list and then we're going to go one board or commission at a time. Um, but we're going to do this kind of all at once. So, I'm going to read all of these and then we'll make a motion. Um, just for your awareness, when we put people on boards and commissions, they are interviewed, they submit an application that we review, and then we make these decisions of who's going to be on a border commission. And so, we have several of those tonight. A lot of them are re-upping previous terms, and then we are receing um the Centerville Economic Development Authority. So, I'm going to read through these and then we'll uh take a motion. So, on the Federal Economic Development Authority, we are looking for a motion to appoint the following list of people to three-year terms expiring in April 2029. That's Caitlyn Blackburn, Christine Pugllesi, Patricia Fox, Frank Davilio, Chris Rosenale, Harry Kaiser, and Scott Edgar. And I apologize in advance if I pronounced your name wrong. Please absolutely correct me when you come up. Um, next up on the Centerville Planning Commission to a five-year term expiring April of 2031, we have Daniel Worth and Tim Zuella. For the Centerville Board of Zoning Appeals, Penny Lind for a three-year term expiring April 2029. To the Ethics Commission, Carrie O' Conor to a three-year term expiring April 2029. To the Parks Advisory Board, Richard Ryan for a three-year term expiring April 2029. for the Board of Supervisors of Elections, Jennifer Wilson and Elizabeth Piro, to three-year terms expiring April 2029. And lastly, to the personnel review board, Heather Watson for a three-year term expiring April 2029. So, council, unless there's objection to any of these, let's entertain one motion to approve all these board and commission appointments, and then I'll call you guys up to do your oaths.

I move to approve. Okay. Is there a second? Second. All right. All in favor? I. Okay. And now the swearing's in. We're going to again do them one board and commission at a time. So, if your name was called for the Centerville Economic Development Authority, if you can come up and Fred's going to come down and administer the oath all at once to all of you. Um, so just say your own name when he gets the say your name part. Awesome. We're super grateful to all of you for your willingness to serve and get CEDA kicked back off. It's a really important function of the town. All right, Fred, it's your show. I asked him to sing it, so we'll see.

First of all, I really appreciate you all going through the process with us. Your contribution is really important for our community. We appreciate you stepping up. That being said, hold on, Fred. for your viewers at home. Try not to lose my voice as we go through the rest of this, but if you'd all raise your right hand, please. Uh, and as I say, pronounce your name full repeat after I

affirm. I will support the Constitution. of the United States. I support the United States. And I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of Maryland. State of Maryland. And support the Constitution and laws thereof. Support the Constitution and laws thereof. And I will to the best of my skill and judgment. And I will to the best of my skill and judgement. Diligently and faithfully without partiality or prejudice. Diligently and faithfully without partiality or prejudice.

Execute the office of member of the Centerville Economic Development Authority.

I got it. Pat wins. And I've been trying to break this down into small segments to a to complete a three-year term which expires April 2031, 2029. 2029. April 2029. According to the constitution, laws of this state. According to the constitution and laws of this state, the town charter and laws and ordinance of the town of Centerville. Town charter and the laws and ordinances of the town of Centerville. Congratulations.

Congratulations and thank you all so much. Can be gay. Can we get a group picture of Zeta with Fred? Can I get a group with you and all of CEDA? Let's get a picture. And I'm getting out of here. Oh, wait. There's too many of us on this. Oh, boy. Should be Sandy. All right.

I think that was the hardest part of the whole thing.

Frank, Scott, Harry's meeting. Oh, yeah. Find your name or sign away. Three windows. Almost ready to start my own uh business. Why not? Right. The windows on it. Yeah. I just need to replace They were getting old. Yeah. Yeah. Where am I? My glass. Yeah. Just end up doing around the house. I'm bummed that fern came so I didn't get to hold Emmy. I bet. Yeah. Yeah. It's uh keeps me busy. There we go. Anybody need a pen? get to say hi to Dan as he walks by every day. Oh, sorry.

And folks, while you're all still in the room, I'll be sending out an email to each of you uh to set up and get your feedback on uh the best time day and time a day for us to have our first meeting, which I hope to schedule in the next couple of weeks. I'll be sending that out in just the next day or two. Okay. I'll I'll be looking for your feedback so we can make that work for everybody. Thank you all so much. All right. Next up, Council Member Huffer is going to swear in the two members um giving us five more years on the planning commission. You sure you want to do that? We're very sure. Five more.

Dan can never escape and neither can you. to thank you for doing this again and uh staying on the planning commission which is very important as all they are. So again if you would please raise your right hand and pronounce your full name uh and repeat after me. I I will. So, do solemnly affirm do solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and that I will be faithful and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance and bear true allegiance to the state of Maryland to the state of Maryland

and support the Constitution and support the Constitution and laws thereof and laws thereof. and that I will That I will to the best of my skill and judgment to the best of my skill and judgment diligently and faithfully diligently and faithfully without partiality without partiality or prejudice or prejudice prejudice execute the office of execute the office of member of the centerville planning commission member of the Centerville Planning Commission to complete a five-year term to complete a five-year term which expires expires April 2031. which expires April 2031.

according to the constitution and laws of according to the constitution laws of the state the state the town charter and laws the town charter and laws and ordinances of the town of Centerville and ordinances of the town of Centerville. You got it. All right, take a picture. Sandy. Dan. Dan, you have you have to sign and you have to take your picture with Sandy. You're out. Yeah, that's my scribble right there. All right, that's it. You can't hold me to it.

Thank you. Okay. Next, we're going to have council member McNeel swear in Rich Ryan to the park advisory board. You stand next to that screw. I don't want to bring either between the two of us. I don't think we have a one good leg, do we, Richard? Okay, Richard, thanks for doing this. Okay, and we'll make this quick. All right, please raise your right hand and pronounce your name in full. I I Richard Ryan do solemnly affirm do swa solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States and I will be faithful and I will be faithful

and bear true allegiance and bear true allegiance to the state of Maryland to the state of Maryland and support the Constitution and laws thereof and and support the Constitution and laws thereof and that I will and that I will to the best of my skill and judgment to the best of my skill and judgement diligently and faithfully diligently and faithfully without partiality or prejudice without partiality or prejudice execute the office of execute the office of member of the Centerville Parks Advisory Board member of the Centerville Park Advisory Board to complete a three-year term to complete a three-year term which expires April 2029 that expires April

Let's hope we make it, Richard. Let's hope we make according to the Constitution and laws of Constitution and laws thereof. The state the town charter and laws. The state and town charter and laws. Ordinances of the town of Centerville. Ordinance of the town of Centerville. Go Notre Dame. All right.

I'm counting on you to sing it. Sing it. Have you come back to the office? You have to do yours one at a time. Yes. All right. Next up, uh, Council Vice President Keel will be swearing in Carrie Oconor to the Ethics Commission. Raise your right hand and repeat your full name. I I Carrie Okconor do solemnly affirm do solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will be faithful and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to and bear true allegiance to the state of Maryland the state of Maryland

and support the Constitution and there and the laws thereof and and support the Constitution and the laws thereof and that I will and that I will to best to the best of my skill and judgment to the best of my skill and judgment diligently and faithfully diligently and faithfully without partial partiality or prejudice. execute without partiality or prejudice. execute the office of the office of member of the Centerville Ethics Commission member of the Centerville Ethics Commission to complete a three-year term to complete a three-year term which expires April 2029 which expires April 2029 according to the constitution and laws of according to the constitution and laws of the state of Maryland the town charter and the laws

the state of Maryland the town charter and the laws and ordinances of the town of centerville and ordinances of the town of centerville Thank you. All right. All right.

Thank you. I guess she got sign. I have to sign. And then next you'll be swearing in Jennifer Wilson to the board of Is she here? I don't see her. Okay. We don't have anyone here for the supervisors of elections, right? Okay. So, next she'll be swearing in Heather Watson to the personnel review board. Ready? I think so. Say your full name. I to do this. Yep. Okay. I, Heather Watson, do solemnly affirm do solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States

and that I will be faithful and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to and bear true allegiance to the State of Maryland the State of Maryland and support the Constitution and laws thereof and support the Constitution and laws thereof. and that I will And that I will to the best of my skill and judgment to the best of my skill and judgment diligently and faithfully diligently and faithfully without partial partiality or prejudice without partiality or prejudice execute the office of execute the office of members member of the personnel review board member of the personnel review board to complete a three-year term to complete a three-year term which expires April 2029 which expires April 2029 according to the constitution and laws of

according to the constitution and laws of this state the town charter the town charter and laws and ordinance of the town of centerville and laws and charters of the town of centerville ordinances ordinances of the town of center yeah you know what

all right well thank you all so much for your willingness to serve the town couldn't do the it does without our boards and commissions. Next up is um one of my favorite appearances every year, Jennifer Moore with the farmers market. Your favorite appearance?

No, I love the farmers market. We do. Um good evening. Thank you for having me. Um I am here for our annual please let us use the street question uh to open the farmers market. Um, we will utilize the market in the same fashion that we've used it in the past. So, opening day will be our traditional Mother's Day opening. We do a soft opening as well the weekend before. So, we don't advertise, but it's it's around like we'll put it on Facebook and we'll advertise that we're opening, but we call it a soft. So, you won't see posters around and the sign won't register it at except for the 10th. So, our grand opening is Mother's Day weekend and then we traditionally go through the second week in November and then we come back again later to ask for permission to do the holiday market if we choose to do it each year. Um, this year we're uh happy to let you know that and you already know this, but we have a grant with the micro the agricultural micro grant. We were one of the recipients this year. So, we have an $8,000 grant to do some marketing, and that large that large portion will actually go to build the website for the uh farmers market, which we very much need.

The Facebook pages only go so far. Uh, one of the primary additions that we're going to have in the market this year, which we hope will encourage people to start their businesses and work in the cottage food space and enjoy these farmers markets, is a pre-order section. So, one of the first tasks that we're going to make part of the website is that if you're a full-time or part-time vendor, maybe some drop in depending on what the item is, but the full-time and part-time vendors will have a priority status on the website and all the customers wherever they're from can actually place orders online, pre-order, prepay, and we're doing it to encourage

sales prior to the market so we can encourage the vendors to Yeah. to come in and stay. We never know what kind of day we're going to have. depends on what activities are local, uh what we have in store for you when you come to the market, what kids are doing and the activities and things like that. So, um the market just generally has a natural flow to it and just depends on what time of day it is and what's going on. We want to make sure that we're encouraging the um vendors who are coming that we are in heavy support of the product they have to sell and especially for the produce vendors. That stuff is growing regardless of whether or not there's a market and we know that they have other markets to go to and there's still leftover products. So, between the food banks and um the pantries that are nearby, the market is one of those links to get people to the market. Um I'm currently waiting on the equipment to come. So, we'll have SNAP available at the market this year.

The federal government shutdown impacted a little bit last year. So, we we planned a lot of it, but couldn't get that equipment on hand. Um so, we'll have SNAP, FMMP, and we'll have Wick on site at least one day to do the handout. And we've been doing that for the past two years. And we've had somewhere in the range of 14 to almost 30 customers come into the market that day to pick up their e-wick coupons. And that was I was delighted to see that kind of crowd come in. In the past few years, I'm happy to hear more and more customers come directly to us and ask us if we offer SNAP because the reason to not do it until now was because we couldn't find really any customer base that was really coming to the market on their own and how to advertise properly. So, in the past couple years, we've had people just walk right up and FMMP and SNAP and we've sent them right to the vendors, introduced them personally so that they know that they're welcome at the market to use those benefits. Uh this year we're going to be working on doing recipe and related availability at the market. So you're going to see the Facebook page and the website talk about the recipes that you can make with the things that are available at the market. If they're if people are new to cooking with fresh foods a lot, then this is a good way to go. Hey, I want to make a jalapeno sauce. And when you come to the market at the base, there at the produce stand, there's going to be a section where you can get a basket of all of the things that go with that recipe.

That's so cool. Um, we are happy to say that right now we have a commitment from Hunter Seafood to come this year. So, on and off throughout the season. Um, that they'll be here too. So, hopefully the pre-order will be one of those things we can prompt. So, when they're here, people will know they're coming and that they'll be able to prompt that visit with a pre-order or come in and take care of business then. So, we are working on food or food. We are working on proteins, uh, lamb, beef, bison, things of that nature. The bigger markets are where a lot of those proteins are sitting right now when it comes to the farmers um and where they attend and where they pre-order might help that too.

Yes, that may be where the dropins will be allowed because if I have uh protein here once a month of any kind, that would be a reason to do a pre-order, including hunters to let them have that option. So, those are a couple of the things that we're working on this year. Um, we have a an aspiration to do delivery and CSA options, but that's that's going to be down the road a little bit. We want to see how the pre-orders work and get the website up and running. Uh, we hope to have that up. I know that the 250 is sort of the July 4th space and we need about 45 days to get the website complete. So, we're looking at trying to start that in June so that we have it prepared for the July 4th weekend. Awesome.

So that we can do the pre-order open for the July 4th weekend and see how that works. Awesome. So, you need road closure permission. We will need road closure permission from 7:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings until roughly 2. We're out of there by 1:30, but 2 o'clock is a good marker. And then from the first week of May till the second week of November, it'll be from the first weekend in May. And then I'll also be communicating with the Centerville Police Department, the lieutenant who's our contact. Uh we email throughout the season uh if we have any questions for each other. So, I'll be initiating that email here shortly as well. All right. We can go ahead and give road closure permission. Someone has a motion. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, go ahead. No, I make a motion for the road closure for the farmers market.

From uh I need to get the time for from Mother's Day with the first weekend of May. It's got to be the weekend before Mother's Day. Okay. It'll be May 4th, I believe. Is it 3rd and the 4th? May 4th through November. The third May 3rd through the second week of November. The second just it doesn't Second week November. Okay. And in addition, so we don't leave it off. We still would like to do several Tuesdays a month where or whatever day I'd like to actually if I could leave the day off and I can figure that out and let the town know for that approval. Yeah, we'll say we'll say we'll approve a a week night if we could amend your motion to also approve a weekn night market pending coordination with the town manager and the police chief. They can land on the date. Do you need a time for that right now or Okay. Pending coordination, we'll say. All right. Is there a second?

Second. All in favor? I. Thank you very much. Can I ask you just a quick Are you losing any vendors from last year? Not that I know of. Say again. Not that I know of. Oh, good. We have a list, a rolling list of somewhere between 50 and 70 that have contacted. We have lots of new vendors who are coming or who have contacted about doing the market. The market's also started traveling. So, we have a site that we're going to be using in um Crumpton and just a little extra Slersville. I am I went there last year to ask if they wanted an on-site market throughout the month and we just we picked Crumpton to try this outside of Centerville and that has a has a big potential to work in the 544 space the cross-section.

I've been contacting um others about what might be available. So Churchill might also be available and Sersville Meat Market is talked about the parking lot between there and Parkside and now the town of Southernersville is working with the local management board. So now I'm connected with them. Awesome. So I think it'll only help the vendors that come here to have more opportunities. And with regard to all the vendors who've been calling who we don't have room for, I can't have 14 bakers at the market. So when I can't use them on the application now, it says, "Are you interested in traveling markets?" So that if I have four bakers and I have five sites, I can now offer those places to those bakers to get more of the cottage food or the the locals who were trying to start businesses in that fashion to the markets. I need someone to sell coffee again.

We're working on it. I swear to personal need of coffee at the market. Yeah. Right. Do you sell flowers there? Yes. Yes. We have multiple people who want to sell flowers. We have a couple who are the the priority status first. And then we have a few who have been interested in other kinds of florals. They're selling plants. We have propagations um or some organic, not necessarily certified organic, but organically grown so that they market it properly. Um so we're looking forward to it.

Great. Jennifer, I'd like to recognize your many years of support and leadership of this effort. It's such an important, you know, event, you know, on a regular basis and for an annual basis, uh, for the town and I know how much work you put into that and all the enhancements with the website that you're explaining and exactly and what that's going to do to you bring more activity into that. So, I just wanted to credit you and

yeah, thank you for thoroughly enjoy doing it and thank you for letting us continue to have it. And we'll send the calendar out because part of the motivation for the the market is to have events that draw people to the market and we do have a calendar of events. We do not we have stopped having events like late July and August because it's so hot. We close early practically. Once it hits 90, it's shop and go. So, we try to do May, June, a little July, and then we do uh September, October, and part of November. Awesome. Thank you, Jennifer. Can I follow up on Fred W's comments? The great thing about your event, you have senior citizens like myself, you have young kids, it's a nice blending, and you're nice enough to give me a bench to sit on for two or three hours, and people just walk up and talk. And it's a lot of fun.

And we feed you. We feed you all. That's true, too. Miss McNeel gets her bread, so she's happy. Very good. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Next up, under appearances, we have Matt Riddleberger with Blue Crab Car Wash. come up. And um so this is not the first time Blue Crab has been in front of us for edu. Uh after the last time we said we needed more time to to learn about the technology and discuss with them, they've made an effort to meet with members of the council. They have improved the plan technology to use and cut edu to less than a third of the original request. So does that sum it up? Yes.

All right. Go ahead.

Great. We appreciate your time and your consideration. Again, uh as you noted that the first request was for just under 30 edus of capacity. Uh based on the council's direction, we went back to the drawing board and came back with a proposal that was 14 edus of capacity and we understood that that you wanted more. So we've we've located technology uh that is membrane bioreactor technology which is the same type of water treatment that you were proposing to use in your new wastewater treatment plant. um so that the system will remove solids and then biologically treat the water and allow uh the vast majority of the water used in the car wash to be recycled. And so we're before you today with uh approval of a preliminary site plan and preliminary subdivision plant from the planning commission. Um we need allocation of wastewater capacity to support the project so the planning commission can grant final approval. But all comments and concerns of the planning commission have been addressed and the request before you today is for eight .eduus use of capacity. If that's something the council supports, the last step the council will be involved in. As you know, there's a public works agreement associated with every project. Yes, that's not on your agenda today because the planning commission hasn't taken their final action. But contingent on your decision tonight, I understand we will be on the May 21st planning commission uh agenda for final site plan and final subdivision approval. So then we'd be back here um hopefully in your June one of your June meetings uh from the public works agreement.

Council, you have a memo in your packet um from the staff which also met with the team from Blue Crab and there is a proposed motion. One addition to the proposed motion, should someone like to make it, is given our allocation distribution plan, which you also have in front of you, we need to determine where from either category 2 or four. These will come from category 2 and again it is in front of you, but as a reminder is up to 38 .edus can be used for commercial or industrial projects that create significant economic development, job creation or other community benefits. So if someone wants to make a case for that or we could do um some of the 15 edus for other commercial or industrial projects do not fit into category 2. Personally I'm inclined to say we can fit this into category 2 given the technology that they're using. This brings an innovative product to the town and I do see that as a community benefit.

Anyone who watched our previous meetings know I did certainly did not feel that way before but I feel kind of excited genuinely about the product that they're trying to bring to town now. And so if someone wants to make a motion, just when you make the motion that's on the memo, make sure you put what say what category of of .edu from the allocation plan you plan to put that under. I'd like to make the motion, please. Okay. I make a motion to approve a uh water and sewer allocation to GRCC properties, eight water and sewer allocations,

please. LLC Matt Riddberger, also known as a blue crab. Okay. Group. Okay. And and also we go what did anybody want? Plan two is what we like. So that motion two of the allocation distribution plan. Is there a second? I second. Okay. We have comments. If you guess if we need to discuss.

Yeah. I just want to thank you. No comment. Most of us I think all of us were invited to meet with him individually. I was impressed by two things. First your ability to adjust and address I think before I got to let the board Smy's environmental concerns. I really appreciate that. But more importantly, what I was really impressed with, uh, these gentlemen spend half the time talking with me about how they want to get involved in the community. They want to sponsor Little League sports teams. They want to do other things. So, it's a business that's coming to town that wants to get involved in the town and the many activities I do. So, I've really praised you for that.

Awesome. We've done roll call votes um, each other time we've addressed .edu allocations. So, we're going to do the same here. Council member View. I'm in support of that. Yes. Council member Huffer. Yes. Council President Keel. Council member McN. Thank you both. Thank you for your time. Appreciate you being here. We're excited to have you come to town. Thank you. All right. Council. Next up, the moment we've been waiting for, the utility rate study.

Text my text. All right. No, this is the wrong This is Fred's slideshow. I have a feeling this is not the utility rate. As much as I wish the utility rate study was done in children's drawings, it looks more exciting than mine. Sorry about that. I think it says 03. I'll say what I want. That would be my error. I forgot to download it. It's the only one he's got. Huh?

I forgot to download the slides. Oh, so he might not have them. Okay. Okay. Hold on. I'll run back over. Okay. So, what we're gonna It's on the town website, so just pull it from there. Uh the PDF is Yeah, that's fine. We can just scroll through the PDF. Thanks, Tim. Mhm. Like we could talk about those children's drawings for a few minutes while Caroline runs across the street. Would you rather have your PowerPoint? I mean, there's a little bit of animation, but it doesn't really matter. I can I mean, we'll survive, I think. I apologize.

No, that's really no big deal. All right, just give it one second. That's okay. All right, Carolyn, you gonna scroll through it for him or is it? I'm not sure the clicker will No, I should.

Oh, okay. Sorry. Okay, sounds good. All right, let's go for it.

All right. Well, good evening members of council. Dave Haidder with Stantech. Um, I'm here to talk about the water and sewer rate study that we completed. Take you through the um in terms of the agenda. We'll take you through the kind of the background, give you a little bit of an overview of what's typically involved in a rate study. We'll talk about the water and sewer revenue requirements and the financial plan, some of the rate structure alternatives we looked at. We'll talk about benchmarking you against other communities and then look at the allocation fee analysis. So next slide just to get us started um on the next slide. Um just want to talk about some of the challenges that we see in the industry. It's not an easy industry to operate. Um some of those challenges that we've seen in recent years as well as over the past decade or so is that we're continuing to see people use less water. um which is great from a conservation standpoint, but that hits your cash register. There are certain assets that you have to maintain in the water and sewer system whether people use water or not. So that ongoing reduction is having an impact on revenues. We also have aging infrastructure. It's estimated there's about a trillion dollars worth of water infrastructure in the United States, about 2.5 trillion of waste water that needs to be replaced. That's placing big burdens on communities. We also have the regulatory requirements. Bringing all those items together, we are seeing impacts in terms of customer affordability. It's becoming more and more pronounced in terms of what folks water and sewer bills are. So they have grown at a at a higher rate than inflation. Also seeing some aging of the workforce. And then in recent years, like most other commodities, we've seen some pretty significant increases in costs. That's placing pressure on utilities. So next slide is where I don't have the animation. So if if you can just imagine if we clicked it uh when we look at these indices the plastic water pipe indicy since about 2000 has gone up about 78%. So if you were in 2000 sitting there you'd anticipate it would have been the orange

line. If we take that off we would have seen a big spike. Uh same things in terms of uh water treatment chemical costs. Those have gone up about 42% since 2000. Both of those have a big impact on water and sewer um utilities. The next slide just looks at construction costs. We're seeing impacts there as well. General construction's up about 40% since 2000. Industrial construction up about 46%. Um, and those aren't coming coming down. Some of the commodities we've seen some tailing off, but those have continued to climb. So those are placing pressure on the utilities. Next slide. So in terms of the rate study process, there's really three steps that we go through. The first is the financial plan. How much do we actually need to recover? What does it cost to provide water and sewer service? The next se step would be how do we recover that from rates whether water or sewer from various customer classes. And then the third step would be how do we collect it? How's this? How are the rates actually structured? How much is in the fixed charge? How much is in the variable? And so on so forth. So I'm going to take you through each of those steps. The first one on the next slide gets into the financial plan. And so the process that we use for the financial plan is we have built out a 10-year financial model for the water and the sewer systems. We're going to talk about a five-year projection this evening. And what that financial plan does, it looks at what are the costs to provide water and sewer service today as well as into the future. And that gives us a forecast of your revenue requirements. So that includes your operating cost, your um any debt service that you have, any future debt service or or capital improvement plan. So that gives us a sense of the costs. The next step would be to forecast your revenues. So how much revenues are we bringing in today? How much do we anticipate bringing in if we keep rates steady or constant without increasing them given the development patterns? And then we can compare the two. We have our revenue requirements

and our revenues. Are we able to meet um our revenue requirements? Are we able to maintain sound cash balances? And if we have any debt service, are we able to meet any debt service coverage requirements? So that's the overall framework. So I'll go through some of those steps here. On the next slide, we've got um just the beginning for the revenue requirements. So some assumptions that we're making in terms of expenditures. We used your 2027 budget as the starting point. For each individual budget line item, we applied an escalation factor based on industry standards and what we've seen historically. So that gives us a forecast of your of your budget. You also do have existing debt service. You've got the 2016 series and the 2017 series. Your annual debt payments in 2026 are about 1.2 million. Uh fortunately, you're paying off your 2017 debt by 2028. So there's a little bit of a a fall off in debt there. Uh one of the big drivers, however, in the plan is the capital improvement plan. So he's look as we look at the next five years, you've got a close to $50 million worth of capital improvement projects. Obviously, the big item that we'll talk about this evening is the wastewater treatment plant upgrade at 39 million. Um, we do anticipate some receiving some state and federal grant as well as using borrowing to fund that project. Our modeling does assume a use of cash and debt to fund the capital um improvement projects. Next slide. In terms of revenues, um, customer growth projections, the numbers that we were given uh for total new .eduus use on the system or 76 per year looking out over the next 5 years. Again, we're looking at that 5-year forecast period. We are assuming that there's no growth in terms of usage on a per account basis because we continue to see people conserve. Uh your other re excuse me, your other revenues, miscellaneous revenues, we're assuming that they just

stay flat consistent with the 27 budget. And we are assuming an increase in the allocation fees for sewer in 2027. And finally, in terms of the key financial metrics, we want to make sure that you have sufficient reserves. So, we're looking to maintain six months of operating expenses in the fund. We want to try have revenues equal expenditures. And then to the extent that you have any debt, we want to make sure that we have a debt service coverage. So, coverage of about 1.25 times your annual debt service. All right. So, some of the details, this is the capital improvement plan that we have included in the modeling. You can see over the next five years the various capital improvement projects. Uh the big one is obviously at the top the wastewater treatment plant upgrade as I mentioned at 39 million. Um the rest of these projects you can see as you go down the list um some of them are grant funded. So a portion of the wastewater treatment plant the um holding pond at the farm is 100% grant funded. Belvadier is grant funded. Tilman Avenue is grant funded. And then the rest of these would have to be coming from different funding sources. So, next slide just talks about the wastewater treatment plant. Um, as as I've mentioned numerous times, $39 million is what we've assumed. $14 million in grants. We are assuming $7.7 million in allocation fees. That's just taking all the allocation fees that you collect and applying them towards the this project. Um, I know that was one of the questions earlier in terms of how that would be generated, but that's assuming that you take all the allocation fees. Um, as one fund to the extent that you didn't want to use those water allocation fees and borrow against them, you could essentially just increase the borrowing amount. Um, but this assumes $17 million in borrowing that you're going to be able to get

state revolving loan funds, which you could get a 30-year maturity at 2% on those. So this is what it looks like over the next five years. Just a little bit more granularity in terms of how you'd fund that capital. So the dark blue is the operating cash. That's funding from current revenues. The lighter blue is the allocation fees. You can see the grant funding. And then at the end we've got that light lightest blue which is the debt from the state to fund the remaining portion. So this is what the annual revenue requirements look like. Um, dark blue is your operating expenses. You can see what the 2027 budget looks like in in comparison to 2026. There's a little bit of an uptick in terms of operating expenses and I believe that's largely from contract services. Um, you can see the debt service that you currently have in those annual payments in 2028. As I mentioned, you're paying off your 2017 debt. So, you can see that drops a little bit. And then the assumption is that by 2031 when you have substantial completion of the project, you'd have to begin repaying those state loans. Um, and that $17 million borrowing turns into about $800,000 in annual debt payments with the 2% at 30 years. All right, so this is really where the results are. Um, so we first run the model just as a status quo and say, what if you don't raise rates at all? What do the results look like? Um, so just to orient you here, we've got up at the top the fiscal years. We've got the rate plans, which would be 0% under this scenario. Uh, the next two lines would be your debt service coverage, which again I mentioned earlier, we want to try to keep it 1.25. We've got the quarterly bill at 6,000 gallons as it is today. And then obviously it would stay flat if we're not increasing rates. And what we see under this scenario is so

this sorry yes but this doesn't take into account that our rates already through statute increase annually correct. Okay. This is just keeping them just if it y in the budget that's currently in the budget in 2027 that we have in there now. This would just assume that you that they stay the same. So like it's already baked into the the budget. Well, not the budget. It's in ordinance that it goes up 5% a year. This doesn't account for that. It's one of the same. Right. Sorry. Yeah. Got it. It's a great point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm saying like a model that should this this model is irrelevant because it doesn't it's not reality. Well, again, it's just kind of this is kind of

I do have one question though as far as on senior lean debt and allin debt. So again, I guess this is more applicable down in the next next one, but it goes to a negative um a negative.9 in 2027 with our current ordinance that for in 2027's budget. It's a net because it's in the red of 0.9. As far as debt service, that would essentially mean that you couldn't fund your debt. Anytime it's below one, your debt service wouldn't you'd be using Yeah. basically using reserves to fund debt. Mhm.

If it's below one. Yep. So, yeah, to to your point, this is not reality. It's just a 0%. We just want to show how long you'd have in terms of a runway. Basically, you'd run out of cash in 2030. You'd go below your minimum cash balance in 20 2028. You wouldn't meet that debt service coverage. And the reason for that is because your revenues are ex um right

your expenses are exceeding your revenues. So next, just looking at given the needs of each system, the water versus the sewer, what we've come up with um in terms of increases is a 7 and a half% increase uh 2027 through 2031. That would be essentially a 2 and a half% increase above what's in the ordinance currently. Um so a modest increase above that. On the sewer side, it's more pronounced given the needs of the system. The wastewater treatment plant upgrade, we're looking at 12 a.5%. So that would be basically 7 and a half% above the ordinance. Under this scenario, you can see that we would meet that debt service coverage going forward. You can see the typical customer bill um for somebody using 6,000 gallons would go from 241 up to the 356.

We would maintain those minimum cash balances and while your expenses are jumping around, your revenues would be more in line with your expenses. So you'd maintain that balance. All right. So, next up is just talking about how you actually collect the revenues and your rate alternatives. So, if we go to the next slide, this is your current rate structure, 2026 rates. You currently have a quarterly minimum charge which includes 6,000 gallons. It's $104 for water. For sewer, similarly, you have a quarterly minimum that includes 6,000 gallons, it's 114. And then once you go over that 6,000, you're paying 1045 for water and 1171 for for sewer. So we looked at two alternatives. The first alternative was really status quo. What happens if we keep the structure the same? We don't change how you're currently charging. Basically, that would result in a 10% increase across the board um for all customers because the rate structure itself doesn't change. The second alternative was to look at removing that minimum. So you would no longer include any usage in the in the base charge or the minimum and then you would just have a uniform rate. So once you start using water, you'd pay for each thousand gallons. Same for sewer, you'd pay for each thousand gallons. Given that it has a that's a structure change, there'd be a really wide impact on customers. We'd see some customers that would see a reduction in their bills, pretty substantial, about 35%. Some would see an increase of up to about 25%. Because we'd be changing the structure itself

based on usage. Yes. Versus just everybody pay. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Or to note that both alternatives do generate the same amount of revenue. So they're revenue neutral, but they just have different different impacts. Okay.

So this is the first alternative. This is just this 7 and a half% applied to water, the 12% applied to sewer. This is what the uh charges would be. So quarterly minimum charge $112 $129 and then the rate over at the over 6,000 would be 11 and 13. The alternative two again this would remove that minimum usage. We'd still have a base charge, a quarterly minimum. It would be lower than you're currently charging because you were not including any usage. Uh but we would recommend that you continue to have at least a minimum because it does generate uh fixed revenue on the system. Um you have to maintain the system whether people use it or not. Um because you're charging for each thousand gallons, the the actual unit rate would go down. So it' be 104 for water and 11.86 for sewer. That's the alternative structure. Before we look at the bills, I just wanted to demonstrate this. Whoops. Nope. That's per perfect. uh demonstrate the customer usage distribution. So this is just the number of bills um on the system on the lefth hand side and then down across the bottom is quarterly consumption. So for example, you see about 3% of the bills um on the system use 1,000 gallons a quarter. 7% use 2,000, 12% use 3,000 and on up. So you can see when you're at about the 25th percentile, you're at about 5,000 gallons per quarter. Once you're at 9,000 gallons per quarter, you're at about 50%. Once you get to 14, you're close to 75%. But you do have a lot of customers that use between five and 9,000 gallons. So just want to give you a sense for for where folks are using.

Does your model take into account that as their rates went up that they may be more conservative and use less consumption? or do you have a model that Yeah, follow that. We are assuming that folks don't use essentially we're assuming that all customers use that they don't conserve any more than they currently are. So no growth in in usage. It's just a usage going forward. Yep.

All right. So in terms of customer bill impacts, this is just alternative one sample quarterly bills. The left hand side is the usage amount. So just showing from zero to 20,000 gallons a quarter. You can see the current bill. Um what it would be for water for sewer and then the total. And then you can see the difference in the second to last column dollar-wise and then the percentage. And as I mentioned before, because we're not changing the structure, we're doing the 7 and 1/2 and the 12 1/2. You'd see a 10% increase across the board regardless of use. Obviously when you use more your dollar amount more is is more and we've just highlighted those percentiles. So the 25th 50% and the 75. So alternative two as I mentioned there's a broad range of impacts. Uh somebody that doesn't use any water would see a a really significant reduction. Their bill would go from $219 to 141 about a 35% reduction. I just want to clarify for anyone listening at home or people in the room. It's not the bill. The bill that you get also includes your trash. So, I just don't want anyone home to be like, "What? I use I don't use any water and my bill is more than $219." That's because bay restoration fee and your trash that is also on your utility bill.

So, it he just means the charges for water and sewer. Okay. Just to clarify. Good point. I just I just picture my email inbox and it wouldn't be pretty. And so we'll just clarify clarify that. Now

that's helpful. Um but the concern that we have with this alternative is that anytime you change the rate structure, there's winners and there's losers. We do see a signific significant increase to customers in that 5 to 9,000 gallon range. Um you know up to almost 25% and again as I mentioned earlier you do have a lot of customers that fall into that. Um, so as I get to the end, essentially we would not recommend this alternative. We think it uh has too significant impacts on that core group. Um, yeah, I'm intrigued by it, but I do think it's going to just be too much.

I mean, it's bad news either way for my bill. So, all right. So just in terms of benchmarking, just wanted to show you um for a number of different samples um tried to grab comparable utilities realizing that some of these are much much larger. Um but in terms of water and sewer bills, you can see where you are currently. Um so fourth from the end there in terms of um the current 2026 bill. Um and this is for 5,000 gallons per quarter where it would be under alternative one and then where it be under alternative two. So, you'd still be below uh Kent County. We're below others around us, too. We're below Ridgley.

There's some others, too. I would love to see more comparisons, honestly. Yeah. I agree because I think so. Tell me if I'm wrong because I'm thinking again, you're going to get into a slide here about well, there's it's hard to do this sometimes. They're not always apples to apples. And I get that. I get that. But if you is it appropriate as far as your population? So if you have a town of 5,000 and then you compare it to a town of 40,000, you've got more people that are spending. So those rates are going to be lower. Is that a true statement? Yeah, you definitely have economies of scale.

Right. So I really think as far as for true comparability, I believe should be municipalities that are similar in size. Now, again, they may be we don't know what they're planning for and I get all that, but at least it's more of a, you know, versus these ones that are really small or too large or I don't think it's I don't think it's fair. I don't think it really helps us certainly. Does that make sense? Yeah. No, I agree. I think it's confusing for the public, too, because if you look at this, all of us say, "What in the world is Chester Town doing right, we're doing wrong?" And that's not the issue, right? WSSC is a huge water utility. It is real unfair.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we could definitely expand it. Maybe pick um I don't know. I think we struggled a little bit with utilities of similar size in the same proximity. We could pull them from a little bit broader region.

Yeah, I'd be just curious to see. I mean, it doesn't change the reality for our rate payers. I'm not like this is a little bit of lipstick on a pig, but I do I am curious because of the economies of scale. It costs the same amount of money to turn that plant on whether two people are using it or 2,000 people are using it. So yeah, I would love to see more comparisons. I think council, this is like a ton of information, a ton of really valuable information. I would be in favor of us having a work session to just really dive in on only this. We've had so many conversations about wastewater treatment. I think um there's just a lot to talk about in terms of continuing to try to get funding outside of having to take loans, continuing to understand looking at allocation fee, just all of it. We've asked

our engineers questions about scaling the plant. Like there's just a lot that goes into this. So I don't plus we would need an ordinance to make any of these changes. We can ask a ton of questions here. But I would love to have a work session dial in on this. I think the average citizen is going to be overwhelmed by this information and I'm sitting here at this desk overwhelmed too because we we do need to sit down and go stage by stage because this is I mean if if I'm John Q public and saying wait a minute let's look at eastern and county trap yada yada yada then we look real bad while there's reasons we need comparisons and we certainly I also would love if possible that one chart with our current 5% increase in Yeah.

So, instead of the zero, like what's the reality with the current statutory 5% increase, I think would be helpful. Yeah, we could if we could um to have that to go over. I totally agree about the need for work session for us to discuss this. There there's so many elements of this that um uh introduce different parameters, you know, whether it's our cost or our revenue. and you know if there's a way that we can modify some of our either expansion of the plant or uh at different scale um but also you know some of the revenue models. So I I think it really warrants and a more finite discussion

for the public work sessions are still public and also I feel like we have a little more ability to be a little more informal. We're never going to get in a back and forth with the public during citizen comment. Those I feel that we have more ability to have a conversational environment in a work session. Agree. So, but okay, let's continue to ask questions here and then we'll know kind of what we need for that work session. Okay. Yes. Do you have access? I mean, we've done some independent research uh to like Denton that's a top population to Centerville. Yeah, we can. You tell us who you want to compare yourselves to. would be more than more than happy particularly if it's in a similar environment here in the Eastern Shore. Yep. Certainly. Okay. Yeah.

What other questions for I think we if you could help us out real quickly and precisely define average homecomer I see 10% figures yada yada yada. I mean if you're in the audience out here saying 10% every year this year coming up that's a clear explanation. So we I think that's in the models but getting to that. Yeah. Can't get to that yet. So, okay. So, I have I guess before because I know you're not finished yet, but one of the things I have is is relating to the cost because um

this is not all in. 39 million is not all in on this project as it currently stands for 1 million gallons a day. It's not. It's it's larger than that. And I want to make sure because you're modeling off of $39 million and just again on this one million it's higher than that. So this analysis would look different if that number was higher. So I just feel so again we can have comment or conversation or whatever you think is appropriate keeps coming up but that's a large number that impacts this analysis. Right. This doesn't include I guess some of the outfall and that sort of outfall and other other costs that you know I know it's a it's a number that's moving but

like I've told everybody here before that's a moving target. All right. When Dave started this, that's where we were, right? Back then, it didn't include the um outfall or the outfall study or what we were going to have to do with the outfall. It still doesn't include anything that MDE might throw at us with our permits renewal. So, I understand the angst about $50 million, but you're still getting hung up in the weeds and we haven't even got to the ball field yet.

Yeah. And I think so, I think in the work session, we need to have both Whitman Reichart and some of this cuz the conversations are so together. It's fine. I also, you know, we asked and I don't maybe we have the answer and I apologize if I miss the answer, but we've asked about phasing.

Mhm. So, to me, it's a non-starter to me that we would do no expansion because I do think the town needs to grow. I am still curious the ability to do this in modules of like going to 750 and then a million because like right now it feels like we're between two horrible options have no edu to give and therefore the town doesn't grow and I think we need some growth. I also don't want to be like was mentioned in public comment beholden to every developer. There has to be and that's why we've been trying to seek other funding rather than debt. It's why we've been working really really hard on that and have been somewhat successful, not as successful as I'd like to be.

But so I I think a work session, a total water and sewer work session where we're having those conversations together would be really helpful. Yeah. If I Yeah, if I can ask one other thing. If all of you can in your mind come up with a figure that you're comfortable with for a wastewater treatment plant expansion and then ask yourself, is that real? Right. We're giving you the the figures. I know, Kip. And I know we're No, I know. But the

our I think everyone's challenge up here is the debt load and also the reality of what we're up against. The need to modernize the plant. I mean that's a must. And and to me expansion's a must, but also affordability is frankly a crisis right now. It's not a crisis of our creation, but it's one we have to deal with. We're going to have continued conversation tonight about trash fees and there's just a lot going on in the world that's that's caused this plant to cost $50 million and at the same time caused it to be far more difficult for us to get this money from the state than I anticipated 5 years ago when we started down that path when we got our first huge chunk of money from the state

really felt like we were going to be able to get more. I still feel that we are, but it's a lot slower and the state's in a budget crisis. And so there's so many factors, but I think we need many hours to discuss it, right? And we need kind of all of the different players in the room and your team. And yeah, you know, I I appreciate this study. I found it fascinating when I looked at it. I found listening to you present it fascinating.

I knew zero things about wastewater treatment plants 5 years ago. Absolutely zero things. Other than that, my bill was really freaking high. And so there's a lot to discuss here, but I I to me like, let's figure out what we need to be successful in a work session. So, if we could kind of focus our energy this evening there. I know I would like to see a model based on our current trajectory of rate increases. I would like to see comparisons to some other small towns. To me, Eastern Shore towns is great, but Western Maryland towns are very similar to us in economy, so that's great, too. Some Delaware towns might be very similar to us. I think let's just see what information we can get. MML might be able to help us gather some of the information too and just our colleagues in other towns might be willing to share information. So that's what I need to feel successful in a work session in addition to probably Whitman Reichart being there. What do other folks need to feel successful in a work session?

No, I think you've hit all the all of it. I mean I think um again your question which we'll talk about in the session what do you want so I think again there's scenarios in my mind how you do modeling okay what are your scenarios and so in our discussion that we've had today is just again we modernize the plant what is it best that you know today because again in those estimations you're going to put in um escalation it's just normal right you're going to put an escalation line and you're going to a contingency line. That's normal in any project you ever do and you need to do that just so you're not, you know, way under budget. You need to do that. So again, you give scenarios and you say, I want these scenarios and the only three scenarios that we've done today in discussion is a modernization of it, 750 because that was discussion prior to I coming on the council and then a million. And so I think what's important is looking at the comprehensive plan to say let's look at our next because a plant will ask you know the next 25 years what do we think as far as a town as it relates to the comp you know comprehensive plan to kind of answer your question what do we need you know because that is a guiding path right so it's not everything in the comp plan but what do we think is realistic that's needed if you're willing to put a growth factor in there to back into it so that would be my only comment

and And one other thing I thought of while we're talking is I think we should have our lobbyist be at the work session. Yes. Yeah. So she can really digest kind of what we're dealing with and be able to better represent us. I mean, not that she's not representing us well, but I think, you know, the more people that understand the better and and perhaps one of our friends from the county would want to participate in that work session. The county needs us to grow as much as we need us to grow. And so, and I'm sorry that we've just Oh, no. It's fine. We've gone on a path, but this is this is on our minds. I lose an overwhelming amount of sleep about a wastewater treatment plant. This is something that's on all of our minds and it's going to be on all of our minds and future council members minds for years to come. And I just want to make sure we're making

the right decisions. The right decisions. And also just that we've thought of everything we can think of when we make decisions that impact residents at the level that this is going to impact residents, good and bad. And people have all sorts of opinions about growth. I went to the Symphony Village yard sale on Saturday. I heard lots of opinions about lots of things. We all have opinions about how it should look. I think um I a work session and a work session at a time that the public's able to come. So I might be saying let's do this on a weekend, but I I want us to be able to really have some thoughtful discussion and engage with the public on this issue. But great idea. We'll let you finish. Sure. So happy to happy to collect, you know, the

rates are public so we can get whatever towns you'd like to see expand the comparisons. And I appreciate that. Just I'm going to interrupt you again. Sure. If we could reach out to some of the municipalities because

what when people pay their water bill, they're not like, "Oh, this was water and this was sewer and this was trash." So I would love also to understand the full utility bill like from a a human nature standpoint beyond like yes I get it and they can get it. You're comparing water to water, sewer to sewer, but I would love to like total bill and like to me having done the books for my husband's former business like I've paid a lot of Chester Town and Ridgely and debt and water bills. There's other stuff on those too. Like I would I would love that apples to apple of what the customer is seeing

because I think that would be helpful for us to share too because like I said if I'm a customer and I'm sitting here looking at this I'm like well what the heck my water bill's higher than that now but it's because there's more on it and so I want to you know if we could just ask COG even and and just other counties too. Okay. And help us make it very clear so we can explain this to the public. It's important to educate us. I know nothing in this area. We have to go out and speak to 4,700 people. Yeah. And when they ask us, why is the bill going up? What are we doing differently? Help us with that information. Especially for us rookies, please. Certainly. Sorry. Now you can go.

No, no problem. Um the other thing I wanted to just mention is we'd be happy to because it's a financial model, we can run, you know, if we want to run a more expensive plant or, you know, happy to do. Oh, the background to all of this is wow. There's a lot of spreadsheets. I know it's a huge I love data, so I'm bad at it, but I like to look at it.

Yep. So, we have a several more comparisons just at higher usage amounts. The results are going to look similar. So, if we keep clicking through 9,000 gallons, I won't spend a lot of time on these because we've clearly identified that they're not necessarily great comparisons. Um, if you keep going, that would be 12,000 gallons. And then finally, I think we have 14,000 gallons. Um, so we look forward to expanding those. I think this is important. Um, even when we pull in comparablesized utilities, they're not necessarily going to be showing the same results. Um, you can have we see communities that haven't invested in their systems for a really long time, right?

Um, they they're subsidizing it from other sources, their sources, water, their wastewater treatment. You know, there can be a tremendous amount of differences between even similarly sized utilities. So want to make sure that that's clear. Can we have that data when we get back together to know that we are comparing apples to apples?

Yeah, I think we could some of it's a little bit harder to collect, but I think we could try to identify those that are most comparable at least in terms of because sometimes it's um hard to tell if a utility is fully self-supporting because there'll be administrative charges that come back to the utility from the general fund and vice versa. and those aren't always necessarily transparent. Um, but we do see a lot of utilities that are not fully enterprise funds, self-supporting, um, being supported from other sources. So, that's a little bit hard to identify, but in terms of their treatment processes and things like that, we certainly could just and we were we were in a conference today and Delaware is very different than Maryland. Yes.

Which you will know, right? Because Delaware what we understood by the state, they they pay a lot on infrastructure, right? the municipalities aren't sitting out there having to get their own funding, right? That state is just like it's funding. It was like we were amazed. We were both there today and we're like, "Wow, you know, from a funding perspective of their infrastructure, their roads, the state really." So that to me would be like because you mentioned maybe Delaware. I think we may want to stay in Maryland because they're up against the same competitive environment associated with funding, debt, cash, you know, um grants. So they're in the same environment. That would be my That's fascinating. Awesome. Agreed.

Okay, a few more slides. Uh the next topic is just the allocation fees. So if we click forward, we looked at the water and sewer allocation fees. On the next slide, just a reminder in terms of these are connections uh charges that you charge when somebody joins the system. The intention is that growth pays for growth. Um the revenues can really only be used for expansion related projects. your current allocation fees. 5,000 for water and $8,600 for sewer. Um on the next slide, just in terms of the methodologies that you can use um in the industry, you can use the buyin approach where you're essentially saying we have a lot of capacity in our system. We're going to set those fees based upon what it cost us to build capacity. You can do the other extreme which is the incremental cost approach which is what we've looked at for water and sewer. You don't have a lot of capacity to sell. what does it cost for that next increment of capacity or you can combine and do the um the combined approach. Okay,

so we did use the incremental approach when we did that on the next slide um determine that you don't have a lot of growth related water projects. So your water allocation fee is currently set at the appropriate level. Um however, when we look at the incremental cost approach for the sewer side, given the expansion, um it would be appropriate to increase the sewer allocation fee. When we did the calculation, we came up to about $10,910 per edu for a sewer um allocation fee. Okay, this is what it looks like compared to other utilities. Uh we can expand that as well. Okay.

And then just wrapping up our findings, we are seeing pressure on the utilities. Um given the uh the needs of the system, I think it'll be really important to show that 5%. Um yeah, that's currently baked in. I think it'll demonstrate you still need something above that. What we're recommending at this point in time, given the information we've taken in, we've talked about the 7 and 1/2 and the 12 1/2 on water and sewer. Think it does would be appropriate for you to keep your current rate structure. um given the impacts we see when we look at the alternative and then I talked about the allocation fees. So I would be happy to take any more questions and look forward to additional analysis. We'll have a lot of questions at a work session. We appreciate you so much. Thank you for the thorough presentation.

Very useful. Great. Thank you. All right. Well, council, somehow we are just through appearances and we have a bunch of new business tonight, too, which is good. I do um prefer a meeting where we get a lot done. So we will have up next is resolution 062026 administrative leave policy and Crystal from HR will come up for that. Good evening. Hello. Hello. Hi. Hopefully mine won't, you know, take up too much of your time. Um so I have two policies. Uh it won't be as riveting as the water and sewer rate.

It won't be. I'm sorry. Yes. So the first one um asking council to you know council approval this evening is for the administrative leave policy. This is uh to amend the administrative leave policy. Um I'm we just want to add that you know we added more clarity and we wanted to address remote work um you know during those times that our offices are closed uh or if administrative leave needs to be provided for any reason um this policy just kind of makes it a little bit clearer for our employees um so there's less questions asked during those times. Um, did anyone have any questions regarding the policy?

It makes sense. You listen to the radio when you know, right, the town manager says only essential people have to report or whatever, right? Rather than the confusion about who's co showing to work, whether it's the weather, emergencies, etc. It's just clarifying everything, right? Correct. Yeah. Good. Did you have any questions at all? This one's pretty straightforward. Yeah. This one we get All right. This is a resolution, folks. So we can act on this if anyone would like to make a motion. A motion to approve and move forward. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. On resolutions, we typically do a roll call vote. Council member Bu. Yes. Council member Huffer. Yes. Yes. Council Vice President Keel. Yes. Council member McNeel.

All right. Thank you, Crystal. Thank you. Are you up again? Sorry. I'm here.

You're up again. All right. This is resolution 072026, a resolution of the town council of Centerville to establish policy and procedures for inclement weather and emergency operations. Yes. So, um we we still follow the practice our office practice of following uh Queen Ans County government and their uh inclement weather. Um, this policy is basically again to add clarity, um, to actually put something into our personnel manual for employees to reference and understand and tailor or align this policy more for the town needs. Um, and again, it it does reference it does have cross reference to like administrative leave and how that's to be used and and when it's to be applied. Um it does have in here uh a statement regarding the alignment with the county government. Um also

preclude us from doing Yeah. otherwise directed by the town manager. Right. Correct. We've just talked sometimes we could be nicer than the county wants to be. Yes. It does have here under authority to modify operations. So in case you know our town manager uh decides to just let us close for that day that we Yeah. Um and just to I wanted to also make sure that there was clear definition. Um I know years past you know some employees have come up to me and say what is liberal leave? So I wanted that to be in there as well for for clarity. Um

can you cl that was one question I had. So under liberal leave you had four categories or you know one two and three. So there's annual leave which can you just kind of it's kind of like vacation right vacation right? Um, so you got you got different kind of buckets for each one of these as far as how you acrew hours in order to take them. Can you just educate me a little bit about that? So the the the leave that we have that is acred is annual leave and sick leave.

Um, personal leave is actually leave that is given to us by the town in the beginning of the year. We get 24 hours for full-time employees of personal leave to be applied um in the calendar year. it is forfeited at the end of the year if it's not used. Um compensatory leave is comp time. So if uh for salaried employees or any hourly employees that choose not to earn their overtime they would like to earn comp time in lie of that then this comp time can be then used as well as far as if they have it in their balance for liberal leave. But the only two leave types that we acrew is our annual leave or sick leave.

Okay. Yeah. Acrrual. Okay. Any other questions? Right. This is also a resolution. So, if someone wants to make a motion, I'll make a motion to accept resolution 7-2026. Is there a second? Second. Okay. We're going to do a roll call vote. Council member McNeel. Hi. Council Vice President Ke. Yes. Council member Huffer. Council member V. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.

All right. Next up, this is an ordinance and it's a first reading, so it will be set for a public hearing and we'll have additional time with this, but this is ordinance 022026 um to create a vacant property code. We've talked about this for a while. This is the first of a few things we're going to be considering over the next couple of months related to property in town. Um, this sets up a way for the town to have registrations and ability to ensure that vacant properties aren't becoming a blight on the town and just gives additional authority to enforce folks to make sure they're not um creating horrible situations for their neighbors through vacant properties. But like I said, we'll have a full hearing on this and happy to happy to chat about it, too. Okay, next up, um there's a typo on the agenda, and I apologize for not catching it during agenda review, but the next ordinance is 03-2026 for solar arrays. Uh not a big deal typo at all, but it's 03 instead of 04. And uh Council Vice President Keel, it's the first reading, so again, there'll be a hearing and everything else, but is there anything you'd like to say this evening?

No. No. Okay. Take a look at that, council. Talk about Yeah, we'll do it. We'll do it when we have second reading in the hearing. There's nothing to act on and I think Council Vice President Keel would appreciate the town attorney's assistance in explaining the bill at a future date. Yes. All right. Next up is trash and recycling bids. We're going to have Kip and Karen, it looks like she doesn't want to miss out. She's having too much fun, come up to talk about trash and recycling bids. I um gosh, I have so many questions. I also wonder um Okay. Yeah, we'll let you go ahead and then I think we'll have some discussion and then

I'm going to hit you with the bad news first because that may that that way you know ahead of time what's coming before you uh choose the path forward. Um, currently the trash recycling yard waste rate on uh the quarterly bills is $54.58 per customer. Yes.

Um to be able to um increase to increase the rate to uh the companies that we're going to recommend to you. It's going to be an increase to the u $86 a uh quarter $86 and 43. Um it breaks my heart to even ask this question, but if we didn't do recycling, what would it be? Um I I knew that was going to come and I didn't do that calculation separate. Um but I can get you that ASAP. Yeah, I think for me

I I think I might be able to tell you. My other question is it would be $3522 less. Okay. So, it' be about the same as it is now, but for less service, but that's just the reality that everything that was from our meeting the other day. I had that written. Now, if you choose to do that, it's going to change the uh trash collection cuz as soon as you take because there'll be more trash. there's going to be more trash and we can't hold the uh contractors, right, liable for that because they'll be taking they'll be picking more trash.

Again, everybody's But again, so do we talk about recycling separate because in a lot of again you probably research this as far as what other towns are doing. So they don't recycle or they say you can dump your recycling in this location or something like that. So it's incumbent upon the resident if they really think it's important to I believe like yes but the reality is like we have a recycling center in the middle of town now and the use is going to be low right so it would be more trash okay my other question can we have time can we talk can we make a decision at the next meeting yeah I don't

I just have so many questions like I would a lot of information you and I are going to sit down and chat about trash and recycling the current contract that we're working under goes until June 30th So we have a little a little a little bit of time but it is going to affect the the budget and like the cost of everything is up. I mean that's reality. And even like I said when I was walking Symphony Village on Saturday, one couple that stopped me about the cost of things, the wife said, "Well, everything else costs more, so why wouldn't the things the town has to buy cost more?" like the town's not immune

to the increased cost of the world. Also, you guys know I've probably talked about the movie Wall-E up here more than anything else. The thought of not doing recycling is terrifying to me. I've got small children and I would like Earth to still exist when they're older. So, I just um and all the charges are a p almost as a pass through. So, it will affect the budget that we adopt, but not in a it'll be a central impact. Yeah. been a household impact to people. Yes. Tonight, we're saying your water bill that you already think is heinous.

We're saying we're going to increase it on every imaginable front and we're going to take on a whole ton of debt. And like that's just reality. And I I think anyone who's ever watched a single town council meeting knows I don't I don't sugarcoat things. I'm not someone who tells people what they want to hear. Some of this is reality. I'm not personally prepared to make a decision on this tonight. I think I totally respect Kip, you know, I totally respect you and the recommendations of your staff. I think the contractors that you selected are probably great. I think I need more numbers based on if we didn't do recycling, if we had recycling days, if we I just need to understand more what this could look like because I'm terrified of the thought of telling a household that that already feels like they can't afford their utility bill. Well, hey, it's going to go up 12.5% and then another 40 bucks.

It finish. And some of that might just be what that's what things cost. And if we said screw it, we're not going to have municipal trash. Good luck hiring your own contractor, which is what the county says, that's going to cost people even more because of the economies of scale. And so, well, Kip Kip and I I agree with you 100%. Kip and I talked in the hallway just before. I mean, you're a bit shocked by that 54% increase to do this, but

when's the last time you bought a car? When's the last time you went to the grocery store? last time you purchase, especially when you're in the older set group on a fixed income. You're shocked by these numbers, but that's reality. A Ford 150 trucks no longer 15,000. It's 55,000 minimum. A House in Senator is going to cost you 500,000 plus. Trash collection is going to go up. Water's going to go up. That's the world we live in. That's true. I would like in our work session if we could you also address this subject because I don't think we can wait until we would get a work session scheduled on this. Oh, really? We're not going to be able to get a work session scheduled in the next 3 weeks. And the contract expires June. The contract expires June 30th.

So, what I think we need to do is everyone needs to and I'm sorry, Kip, but everyone needs to sit down with Kip individually and and get what you need. And then we're going to have to set aside a a thorough amount of time at the next meeting, which our next meeting is May 7th. May 7th. And so, we should plan for this to be the bulk of our time on that agenda. I don't think we're going to be able to have a work session that soon. No, I mean, I think it's reality. I'm sorry. I mean, the public has to know there's a reality out there. It costs more to live in 2026 than it does 2025.

I'm just kind of interested to have conversations with like a couple of our larger communities. Like for me, if you said to me, do you want the town to get rid of recycling to save every household, let's say it's $15? Because it wouldn't be the 30 because, you know, we would have additional trash. I would say no. In my household, no. The value that I place on the environment is greater than the value I place on $15. But I also am privileged to be able to say that. And so I I would just love to have more conversation like yeah,

we've known this is coming. It's been on the website. I get all that. For me, I'm going to talk to some people, get their thoughts. I'd like to get more information and then I'd like us to set aside a good chunk of time on May 7th to really talk about this. Kip, I'm going to be calling you in the in the meantime of that. I encourage others to do the same. Talk to Kip and Karen and get what you need so we can have intelligent conversation here. I know I see the trash contractor is here. This isn't about y'all. You have a business to run and everything costs more. And I like I said, I'm not The issue for me is not at all the choices of contractor. I'm I'm good with that. It's the what can we afford to buy because it's not even the town. It's we're we pass this cost directly on to the consumer. And so it's what is reasonable to ask the consumer to pay for and what's fair.

Yeah. balancing all the competing interest of affordability, the environment, and I'll get you a cost of um if we were to just do the trash as well, just so you can kind of see the difference. But you would do that based on again if you took recycling out and the poundage that would go up. Yeah, it's going to we'd have to rebid it again. We can't give you the prices we got. Could we ask the contractor that's that you've selected to if you choose a contractor? Yes, we can. Yeah, we can negotiate and see. Okay. Yeah, I think we just need some more information. I, you know, we have to make a lot of really hard decisions up here and that's the job.

Yes. And people when I think about when I got on the council and the things I didn't know and the things that I thought the council was doing that are ridiculous, and trust me, I think a lot of them still are, right? that what they were doing when I used to be someone who sent emails to the council instead of who got those emails. I I think there's just a need given the state of the world for us to really communicate why we make the decisions we make when it comes to money and I need time. Do we have time between now and the next meeting if we meet with you all and come up with maybe some other alternatives or some modification of what this you're cutting it really close but

that's my concern but I'd like to explore some other modification or scaling of I'm in next week and if you're in next week we're at the warf come come set a time we we'll meet with you and just council just keeping in mind no more than two of you at a time right

um and then we will I want to just to me this is in the effort to be more transparent to the public, not less. So, I don't want anyone to think like, oh, they're just going to go meet with their staff and then they're just going to make a decision. No, I want it to be so that the very thorough conversation we have on May 7th is informed by some information that we've asked the staff to prepare. So, it's not that we're going to meet with staff behind closed doors and make decisions. We're going to ask for additional information that will then be part of a very public conversation. I I feel sick about the thought of not offering recycling, but I also know the messages that I get from people that are worried about their current utility bill. And I just it's hard for people to afford to live in Centerville. That's something I talk about all the time. That's a reason that I think we need to expand the plant to have different housing types so that people can afford to live in Centerville. But it's a real chicken and an egg situation. I don't know what the right answer is, but um you'll hear from me. I'm sure you'll hear from others. We'll have these conversations on May 7th. I I'll just say to the public, I know it's really hard right now. So, you know, we're going to do what we can, but also we have to balance the overall public good and and that includes things like recycling when you think about the public good.

Yeah. No, I agree. It's just again having it teased out to understand what the decisions we're making right now. It's all lumped. You can't make that decision. And before I think we've talked about it when it has been separated out. So, and Kip and I are both at the warf. So, I mean, you can get us both at the same time. In peace. Yeah. Yeah. So, just reach out. We'll we'll make time.

But I appreciate the staff and I there is not a single staff person in the town that's sitting in their office thinking like, "How can I make it harder to live in Centerville?" So, you know, our our goal is certainly to improve the quality of life for residents. I think about that all the time. Even when people are being nasty is like we all have the same goal of Centerville being a wonderful place to live. How we get there, that's where people differ. But thank you both. And I do so much more to come. No problem. I just I do want to say thank you to all the contractors that put bids in force and uh apologize, but we'll be in touch. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's certainly not Kib's fault. You can know. You can blame me.

It's the most bid you've had few years. Like usually you only get one or or two of them, right? Yeah. One or two. Yeah. Yeah. So, we app and we look forward to having a new contractor and you know, all good things ahead, but we just have to get our arms around it. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, guys. Um, sorry, going backwards a little bit. When are those ordinances set for public hearing or are they will It'll probably be the second meeting in May. May 21st. Yep. Okay. Thank you. I just like to have that in case anyone's watching and wondering when they get to come and talk about those things. Okay, next up, reports of boards and commissions. And we've got um Maryland Municipal League.

I have nothing. I just I've been away. I haven't had time to even Council of Governments. Next meetings in May. Yep. May 13th, Queen Anne. Okay. Economic Development. You just got kicked off an exciting moment in CEDA's re-enter.

Very excited about that. It's been several months in in recruiting. I'm really pleased with uh yeah having the team getting started. As I mentioned to them, I'll be sending out a an email probably tomorrow uh to get a sense of when uh we can collectively work with everybody scheduled to have our first meeting. I hope uh here within April in the next uh two weeks and uh so we'll select a time. Yes. Could you actually wait until Monday because Jackie does these little I don't know what they're called like Google polls or something. Doodle something. A doodle poll. Yeah. Which allows people to put in the

That would be the best way to do it. Have you done a doodle poll? I would have Jackie do it. So, what she'll do is she'll take your availability and put that in and then send that to everyone and they'll click the spots of your availability that's also their availability and then it'll email you and say the best time based on the highest number of people is X. It does work. It does it for you. Yeah, I use it at work all the time. Who do I coordinate? Jackie will do that for you. You can do it. We'll do it for We'll get it from Jackie. I just I've never used it before. So, I'll just find out. So, if you could tomorrow send the blocks of availability that you want to be offered to people to Gay and Carolyn. Yeah, they'll take it from there because I ask you about when you're available or when when you're not. Um, yeah, we can if you can get with me too or

Yeah, if you send your blocks to them, then they can we'll we'll put up we'll come up with the synthesized blocks that work for all three of you and then we'll send that to the people and this will be clear the process for them. The process will be so much easier for them instead of you having to look at 10 emails and it does it for you. Okay.

Yeah. So, I'm I'm interested in moving that forward. Uh, we've already talked about, you know, a printing out, I think you already have, uh, the economic plan from 2015 for each of the members, and I'll be putting together an agenda for the first meeting and, uh, a couple PowerPoint, uh, presentations. Uh today and tomorrow, uh Councilman Huffer and I have been out on a uh tour of today mostly in Delaware, but also here in the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and we'll be continuing that throughout the day tomorrow. It's been very meaningful. Gotten a lot of really good information and insights on what some of the other communities are doing. Um, I'll also be attending the county economic development meeting next Wednesday and um u I think those are the highlights. So, we'll proceed. Awesome. Move forward.

Thank you. All right. The moment I've been waiting for, park advisory board. You couldn't wait and the chief can't wait either. Uh, I'll be real quick. There's some tired looking faces up here and I noticed our audience is just about disappear. Why don't you roll the slides? Okay. And I can just get through this quick. Is there music?

Yeah, just roll. These are kids drawings of Arbor Day. Remember, April 24th, 10:00 a.m. between Hulenbines and the swing set, we'll be having an Arbor Day activity. If you can make it, if you can't make it, just plant a tree that day. All right. Now, and Ashley, I know you're aware of this. This month, April, is National Poetry Month in the United States. And I can't think of a perfect poem besides Trees by Joyce Kilmer that I think we should read. I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree. A trees whose hungry mouth is pressed against the sweet earth's flowing breast. A tree that looks at God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray. A tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in her hair. Upon whose bosom snow has lain, who intimately lives with the rain. Homes are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree. Please come to Arbor Day if you can make it. Thank you.

Thanks. Thanks, R. That was great. You didn't sing it. Sang tonight. I've been asking for singing this entire meeting to liven up the place. Don't encourage,

but just talking about trees real quick. So, the trees that we planted last year, um, you know, Bartlett's going to be watering them. I connected with them just to make certain he didn't forget. And it's all volunteer. They're doing it as a community thing, which is lovely. So, the trees, because I want to make certain, you know, it's getting so hot right now and that they're getting enough water because I think we may have lost, you may want to check on the trail. I think we lost a couple trees last year that we planted for Arbor Day. Um, and I'm not certain the why, but you may want to check that out, Fred, because I think they have passed as I've walked past them, but I know trees bud a little later, but I I don't think they're going to bud, so you may want to check it out. So, that was it. Wow, what a rough note to end on. I'm just saying, you know,

it's like all happy and trees and then you're like, "Yeah, well, they're dead." My message is it's important to maintain the trees. I agree. You got to water your trees. They just don't live on their own. Sorry about that. Arbor Day, do better next time. That's the message from Council Member Huffer.

Okay. Next up, planning commission. Oh, okay. Yeah, last night there's a couple things. Um, so Carolyn gave the uh water treatment plant update just like the current state of affairs right now. It was it was very informative. Um, there was a um a case really 119 uh Watson Road associated with another short-term rental that came um for approval of that. Um that was not approved and it was it was an unfavorable recommendation, but it goes to the zoning board next.

That's correct. It goes to zoning next. Um because one of the things they were they just couldn't get comfortable whether basically for a buffering requirement they thought that was needed but really that should be determined. I'm not certain if that's needed or not. So but next they just didn't feel comfortable. So it will go on to um you know from that perspective and hopefully we're going to get our arms around that topic more generally. Yeah. So I think we know that we need that's our next ordinance. You can speak to that. Yeah. So, um, and then the, uh, the fence ordinance, I think it's almost done. There was just a little thing that we had to talk about last night that came back up relating to front yards. So, I think that will be done soon so it can come to town council, I hope. So, um, it's almost there to the finish line. So, great.

Thank you. Reports of department heads, town manager. Just a couple things. Drum roll. Drum roll. Because we're very excited this week, right, Kip? He looks excited. He does. Um, so I attended the county commissioners meeting on Tuesday and they um approved the town's um amendment to the comprehensive water and sewer plan approving us the giving us the ability to lease um farm land as well as public lands. Um that amendment still has to be approved by MDE, correct? Yeah. Um so we're we made it that step and we're very excited about that. Really big step. Were there any restrictions associated with that approval?

Um, they want they want to review the lease. They asked for approve, but Carolyn said no. No. Um, just they could Yeah, they can. Yeah, they could review. We'll take advice, but not consent. Um, that night was also the tax set off hearing for the municipalities. So, um, Centerville's um, Centerville receives their tax set off um, and is given back to the citizens. So the county tax rate is reduced by 13 cents. Um and um so that was they approved all of all of that. It stayed at 13 cents. What's that? Stay at 13 cents.

Yes. Yeah. They it typically will probably stay that way. Maybe an increase I you know but unless we add additional services where it won't be enough services.

Yeah. Um and then um attended the planning commission meeting last night and gave an update on the wastewater treatment plant. And then one last thing um the cemetery committee had um received a grant to repair tombstones at the cemetery. So they um they will the contractor is going to begin doing that. These are the really older the really old ones. They're kind of on your way in before the maintenance building. Um, so about 10 or 12 of them will be able to be completed with the $3,000 grant they got. So they're um some may be taken away, have to be taken away to be repaired, but um and some right there. So they wanted me to

give that little update. They're excited about that. Thank you. So that's all I have. I just ask kind a quick question. K, could you tell the public, you told me in private we seem to be in a stuck the public has a conception that nothing's happening at the mill. Could you tell them why nothing's happening at the mill? So, we are working with um the contractor for the owner of the property. They're going to be putting up a steel beam. Um told the public this last meeting. Yes. Yeah. Um and then in order to shore it up to put the siding on there and then they will do a fence. So, those are the last two. How about the cars in the back? There's four dering cars in the back. There's going to be a fence

and so right now the mill is a work in progress and I feel I appreciate all that town staff is doing but we're we're working through it. Oh yeah. But the cars are being addressed. I mean there's four cars back there. The cars are not being addressed right now. Um so we will look at that after he gets it cleaned up. And I mean I think those are his Yeah, we've required sub substantive progress throughout. It's frankly further ahead than I thought it would be after the ice storm and so I think we need to I just think it's been stuck for about three weeks. Yeah. Because he's asking so I have no problem.

You've been Yeah. Peter has been working with the the contractor to get the the information in to us to get the the building permit completed. So, he was in, got the information, and then once we get his drawings back and Peter it goes through Peter's review, then um and then um then we'll they'll start on the fence as well. So, yeah, this contractor I think is just he's he's the one doing the beam. Okay. So they can get that done and then it'll be a I think Peter actually reported last night at planning commission it'll be a stockade type fence up there from the corner of the building 60 ft across. Great.

So okay chief of police and don't feel like you need to read us your update everyone up here as long as you don't make me read that oath of office tonight. Oh my god. Oh man. You might be tagged next. Some of that was a little painful.

Right. Uh, so good evening everybody. First and foremost, uh, none of the enforcement efforts between February and March of this year have changed much, so I won't get into that. And anybody that's watching tonight, they can get these statistics on our town of Centerville website at any time under the subcategory of police department. Uh, under special assignments, I don't know if any of the council members have had a chance to read it or look at it or if they have any questions concerning any of that, but ultimately this time of year, we're ramping up for the spring events. Most of that is the schools, elementary school, middle school, etc. they have their field days, their spring thing events, things of that nature. So, the police department will be anxiously awaiting the to participate in those type of events. Um, notable on here, uh, the Rotary Club had an event on lawyers row. We were happy to assist in and have officers in the area for that along with a no kings demonstration. the peer support training at Chesby College that is what I had mentioned to the council last session about Queen County developing a peer support group. So they have uh certain training throughout uh I think it right now it's monthly. So we're sending a couple of our personnel to that. And the board of education safety meeting what that was concerning is they had a new safety officer that had been appointed. So it was more of a meet and greet trying to get to know who it is uh what their plans are for the future for the public schools. So we were able to meet with them.

Great.

And other than that I just wanted to bring the council up to date and I apologize it's a little it's a little late. Uh earlier this afternoon, we had an incident in the town uh in the area of Water Street near Mamia's restaurant. Uh I know there was a notable police presence, so there might be a little bit of community questions about what had occurred. So ultimately around 3:45 p.m. we had an incident where there was altercation between two individuals. Ultimately, a knife was wielded. Uh nobody was injured. Uh the parties were separated. Ultimately, the the knife wielding suspect continued down the street threatening members of our community. We were able to take him into custody pretty quickly within about a 10-minute time frame. Uh no no situation arose from that. Everything was fine. Uh that's about all I'm going to say about it. Uh other than the knife wielding subject was a juvenile. So um but just to give the council update and members of the community in case they have any questions about it. So but other than that, I don't

Yeah. And I'm glad you mentioned the peer support group. I mean, you and I have had conversations about this. There's a alarming uptick in juvenile suicides, an alarming uptick in juvenile involved crime. Um, you know, I work in youth development and so I just particularly find it concerning and I think a lot of it is a symptom of the lack of things that we have for youth to channel their energy into more appropriate places. And so, um, you know, I'm I'm meeting with the superintendent, just the regular meeting on Monday about a whole bunch of things. And I do plan to mention that, but I'm grateful that the peer support group for emergency personnel exists because when we think about something terrible and tragic like a juvenile suicide, that is horrifying for that family. That's horrifying for that person's friends. It's also horrifying for our officers and for EMS personnel that have to respond to those things. And so,

so glad that that exists. I am glad you mentioned that because I mean obviously this peer support group it's it's centered around public safety members. However, the county has ultimately developed a peer support group. Well, it's not even a peer support. It's more like a uh like a tiger team sort of.

Yes, exactly. Um to to kind of gather data on why we're having so many juvenile suicides or or or incidents. Uh, so we're trying to figure out how we can I mean I don't know if we're ever going to stop it, but we can try to reduce it or at least figure out what the problems are and where they lie, how to address them, whether it's with the parents, the schools, etc. So, uh, there's a lot of directors, department heads, etc. from not just the county, but the town that are involved in this group. So, they're going to try to do their best. I mean, it's certainly an alarming and concerning uh I not unique to here.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, but I'm glad that the county took the step forward to create this group and and I look forward to, uh, whatever they can come up with. I mean, because we certainly we we don't need to see this. We don't need to hear about it. I mean, it's it's alarming. There's a on this topic and what you and Ashley mentioned, there's a thing this Saturday called covering our city right here at the old courthouse. Uh, April 18th, uh, 10:00 right here. They have several ministers and uh addressing what we consider a youth crisis going on in this community. So it's right out here 10 o'clock Saturday. I'm sure the police Awesome. Y thanks council member. That's great. Thank you chief.

Appreciate all you do. Any other questions for the chief before he leaves? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Director of public works. Well, I have something for you, so come on up, Kip. No, I just want to publicly thank Kip for the Touch a Truck event and for his team doing that. It was really fun and you I wasn't able to go last year and so I was really excited to see it in person this year. Um but I just want to thank you because you do so much for the town and then still with your team try to think of ways to do even more for the town and so it was incredible. It was cool for me to see some of the equipment that we own. It was very cool for my kids. It was really hard for me to get them out of there. Um but it was a great day. It was a good thing. We had over 600 people attending.

So awesome. Is that more or about the same or was it more or about the same? No, we think it's more. We didn't count last year. They had clickers this year. They had clickers had fun, too. Yeah, there was so much town staff there. And and y'all, this was the Saturday before Easter, so a holiday weekend. I think that speaks also to the culture that's been created by our town leadership and by Kip and other department heads to really make this someplace that people like to work. You I love my job. You're not going to find me there on a Saturday though. And so I think it just speaks to just the the great culture that you've created on your team that you created on the overall team and um it was just really great to see. And so I just wanted to say thank you. Jeff forced Gay and I in the bucket. I'm so sad that I missed that. I have a picture.

I had a panic attack. She did. We had to come back down. I didn't think I would. I got up there and had a panic attack in the ladder on the truck in the bucket. I looked down. 70 ft. 70 ft is really high. Yeah. Well, he I he said, "Are you ready to go down?" I said, "How high are we now?" And he said, "7." I said, "I think you can probably stop right now. I'm not going." Gary also is scared of heights, but he went all way. He went all the way up. It was just a really cool event. My kids had fun racing the dog. I mean, it was just like really, really, really fun. So, I hope she missed it. I raced the dog, but she wasn't there. She left and she missed me erasing a doll. You know what I did, too?

What you see there that I need a copy of is the funniest piece of paper I've ever seen in my life that another firefighter had of a silver alert for one Jeff Keel. And quite frankly, I want that framed in my house. So, I'm going to need a copy. Your small works wall. Yes, my small works wall. Just a little mug shot of Jeff. But no, I just really wanted to say thank you because couldn't have done it without my staff. they get right. They're the ones that the big help and not just my staff, everybody else that Yeah, it was just really awesome. And I don't know, there's not been a lot of days that have felt really awesome in the town lately and so it's good to have those. So, thank you, Kim. But that's all just a thank you.

All right, town clerk. I Wait, I skipped town attorney. I'm so sorry. I look forward to your I have nothing every time. I was I was going to say I had a 30 minute presentation just to throw you off. As long as it's in song, I'm good. All right. Tumblr. Well, I will try to be brief, but I wanted to share with you the exciting um of things that we've done for the VIP experience for um Maryland Crafted. Well, good. Um awesome. We wanted to share that we've created it'll it'll start the June 7th through the 14th a Centerville Sip and Saver Trail. Oh, that's

that will include um all of our restaurants and any any thing that vendors that sell food um or in the hospitality industry where they'll have a QR code, the Let's Rally app, you can Google it and you're going to get points that you get rewarded at the end of the event if you hit all the restaurants um and stuff. That is really fun. Really cool. um the marketing and for all that's going to start soon to get people to get this app for the event. But um so that'll so for a whole week we're showcasing the restaurants and trying to get people to go out and complete this trail. That is really really cool.

And then um the VIP experience starts at 11:00 a.m. and it'll break at 12:15. The um the uh Maryland Crafted starts at noon. Um like last year, the VIP guests get to skip the line at the main event. They have their own wristband. They receive tasting glasses at the conclusion of the pre-event that allows them to enjoy the 40 craft beverages, live music, and artisans and everything on lawyers row, but they don't have to wait in any lines. Um, the pre-event is still going to be hosted by Bull and Goat. We're still going to do it there because they do not have an offsite catering, so we have to do it there.

But then they're getting a tour of the brewery um and guided pairings just like last year with Crow Vineyard and Winery. Um the owners of that vineyard and the wine maker Michael Zolo are donating um the glasses required for the tastings. Um and they also raise um black Angus cattle on their farm. So they donated the beef to Doc's Riverside Grill who's going to use that for the beef sliders in the pairing. Oh, that's so cool.

So beef it's a you know farm-raised um cattle. So the food pairings are going to be crab balls from Beayshore Steam Pot with a rosé. Um, Docs would do a beef slider with a red wine and there's going to be a white wine paired with a soft cheese from an Eastern Shore cheese maker. I just can't remember the name of the cheese maker, but new this year, we are going to have a VIP tent on the green for VIP guest only. There's only 30 tickets. They're exclusive. And in that tent, not only they have their own seating, they'll have their own private catered food. That's so cool.

So, they're going to have um we have chosen Docs Riverside Grill for that. crab dip and pretzels, any pasta skewers. There'll be um wings, house chips, guacamole sauce and salsa and meatball meatballs. So, it's just for them with an attendant and they'll have their special wristband that only VIPs can get in. There'll be someone watching the tent door, the tent, right? Um but then that's just some place that you know, and they're certainly going to be mingling and out and about, but it's just to kind of to level it up. I like it. And it's $65 a person, so pretty for all of that. Yeah, pretty reasonable and looking really forward to getting that um started the marketing on that soon. Awesome. So, yeah, and that's all I have.

I have done a lot of other things, but fireworks talk about that later. We know. Listen, if we sat here and had town staff lift list everything that happens in a twoe period these days, fireworks are ongoing. These would be 24-hour meetings. Fireworks are ongoing. Okay. We now have our second citizens forum. Are there any citizens that wish to address the council? Okay. Council round table. Council vice president Keel. I had nothing. The firehouse is having their breakfast this Sunday. Oh yeah. Following Saturday is the cash. Cash. Yeah. I I just forget to bring my best council vice president Keel impression. Thank you. Breakfast is this Sunday. This Sunday. And what are the times again? 7:30 to 11.

And then the cash bash is the following Saturday. Are tickets sold out or tickets are sold out as of right now. There might be a few popups somewhere. I doubt it very seriously, but well, if you're not going, you already missed out, but it is a good time to support the fire department. What is the cost for the breakfast? I'll blast it for you. $12 for adults and I think $6. I can't remember. It's like $6 for ages eight and up or something. Yeah. And then under six are free. We'll get it from a more involved firefighter. Yeah. Ouch. I'm just kidding. He's too busy cooking to care about the a Facebook.

Yeah, I got yelled at for cooking bacon and I don't even cook bacon bacon. I cook scrapple at the firehouse breakfast. That's my specialty. My husband is still horrified that the first meat Finnegan ever ate was scrapple at the firehouse. But you know, scrapple, you have to try it somewhere. I love scrapple. The firehouse breakfast is a great time to support the firehouse, be with the community. My family arranges their schedule around it, right? Which is a sad but true thing. All right, council. Are you good? That was a big It just be on the 25th. There'll probably be a lot of traffic, a lot of people around the firehouse to just be careful. Chiefs already knows about it. So hope he'll have some officers there. Doesn't get rowdy. So

pretty cool. Get No, that's all. Okay. Hoping for good weather this year. Yes. All right, council member Bu pass. I don't have anything I could even say for you and I'm really bummed about that. I hope Fred will be at breakfast this Sunday. It's a really great breakfast. You should go. I would like to enjoy that. It's really good. I'll I'll be there right at 7:30, I think. 7:30. Why are you going there so early? Cuz I got other things to do. I got places to be. Good. Council member McNeel, don't forget Arbor Day the 24th. And don't forget this Saturday covering our city. Can you email that to all of us? What the covering our city? sent to you right now. Awesome. Thank you. Anything else? Oh my gosh.

Well, you had to speak for his miss tech challenges up here, y'all. I don't know what you guys are going to do without me. Council member Huffer, I have one question uh for Carolyn. Is there any update on the state property, the state land? Oh, that's good. Any at all? Anything positive? Nothing yet. Nothing yet. So the the uh man I was actually it was on I have it on my list to follow up then March 31st because I just gave the county a update today in by email um is when I sent the email to the I I was able to finally talk to someone after you know I had to

keep calling and leaving a message and then just called and said I need to somebody else they weren't responding to me. So, I got actually two people who responded to me. So, the information I sent to them with a long email of what the town's looking for from them, and I'm just waiting on a response from them. So, I just need to send another a follow-up great email to them, but no, no response yet. Yeah. But you found somebody to talk with. Yes. Yes. Which is great. Small steps. Yes. Anything else? No. Thank you. Okay. I have nothing. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to. Okay. Thank you. You know what?