Commissioner - Regular Meeting

These media broadcasts provide county citizens an opportunity to watch and review our scheduled public meetings. In addition to our live audience today, we are providing remote options for citizens to watch and participate in county commissioner meetings. Citizens may watch our meeting live on our website at qac.org slash live. or on our public access governmental television channel provided by Breeze Line Cable Services. Citizens can participate by joining the live Zoom meeting by going to qac.org slash public comment, and citizens may also email comments to publiccomment at qac.org. Comments received will be summarized during the present public comment period on today's agenda. We acknowledge everyone's participation, and by attending, you acknowledge that this session is both recorded and aired. Press and public comment will be taken and is limited to three minutes per person. If you do care to speak, please sign at the information table in the lobby. Comments longer than three minutes can be submitted in the writing for the commissioner's review. We will now stand and be led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Commission President Jim Moran.

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

Can you please remain standing for a moment of silence for the passing of Wayne Humphreys?

Thank you.

All right, Commissioners, we can move to approve this morning's agenda. So the agenda for our meeting today, July 14th, along with the regular session minutes, the Sanitary Commission minutes, and the closed session minutes from the June 30th meeting have been circulated for review. Any additions, changes, corrections?

Nope. A motion to approve the agenda as submitted and the minutes as submitted.

Second. We have a motion to second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right.

Thank you, commissioners. So we just held a closed session under the general provisions article sections 3305B1 for personnel, section 3305B7 to consult with council, and section 3305B3 for land acquisition. I do believe we have one government services contract. Motion for the personnel matter.

I move to approve the government relations contract with Bruce Beriano for FY2027. Second.

A motion and a second. Any discussion on this topic? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

All right. Thank you commissioners. That brings us to press and public comment. So we appreciate all citizens for taking time to express views to the county commissioners. Comments are limited to three minutes per person comments longer than three minutes can be submitted in writing. This commission respects your desire and right to convey your message freely. When you come forward, please speak clearly at the standing microphone states your name, your address and your topic of interest. And in keeping with the dignity of our office, we ask that all views be expressed in a respectful and civil manner.

We have first on the list is Loring Mills Good morning commissioners my interest is in traffic safety question My name is Loring Mills. I live at 232 topside Drive in Stevensville and A decision was made by the Planning Commission last Thursday to provide major site plan approval for a manufacturing facility adjacent to Target. Traffic routing and accessibility was considered, but traffic safety for that particular activity was not properly addressed. The proposed facility is for a good company. It's a great company. It's a great asset for Queen Anne's County. the tech ops safety specialty vehicles and that the county should support whatever they can to help this company. They provide items for security at national events. My concern is the traffic consideration of that entrance to the facility that was being considered. The proposed entrance to the facility is on a sharp curve of the Thompson Creek Road within 200 feet of the most complex intersection we have on Ken Island. That's where Route 8 interchanges with Thompson Creek Road and Pier 1 Road. That intersection is well documented as a problem intersection. In fact, traffic backs up beyond where that proposed entrance is to the facility. for each one of the red lights, not every red light, but every few minutes a red light backup occurs there. And my concern is, basically, how the heck are you going to handle all the traffic on that area and the aggravated aspects of that entrance to that important intersection? As you review the project, I urge the commission to require an independent traffic safety evaluation. How does that impact the traffic there on Route 8 at that intersection that's very close? It's a lifeline. It's a lifeline for a large part of the county and a lot of business and activities there. I just thank you for your consideration of that safety effect. I would like to offer my comments that I provided to the planning committee as... Thank you.

Thank you.

all righty Jay Falstead good morning commissioners Jay Falstead Queen Anne's Conservation Association thank you for the opportunity to speak and thank you for having the morning meeting it's kind of nice to see daylight outside I just want to make a comment one on 2605 but two on these text amendments generally because I've been following this stuff for a long time, and it seems like these text amendments are now getting to a point where they're getting out of control. And so anybody is entitled to submit a text amendment in February. More often than not, these things are coming forward for a single landowner to try and correct something, either based on a bad investment or a misunderstanding or something related to their property. The problem is they're not taking into account the broader impacts to the county. And legislation is supposed to work countywide. And so what happens is some Eager attorney will come forward with a text amendment, push it forward, force staff to do a review, force your attorney to do a review, force my attorney to do a review, and oftentimes they end up failing. And so I hope at some point we can take a look at text amendments generally with the aim of hopefully doing away with them. I have to say, in my 20-plus years, I've never once put forth a single text amendment. And there's a reason, because I try and work through the commissioners, bring forward a legislative idea, let it go through the process. This text amendment process, I think, is just wrought with problems. That brings me to 2605. I testified last time on it. This particular text amendment and this particular parcel of land In short, in my view, the landowner bought a lemon, and now he's coming to you to try and rescue his investment. At no point during his proposal has he done any other traffic studies anywhere else in the county. There's been nothing to look at any of the other intersections where this text amendment would apply. Your highest order as a county commissioner is public safety. By allowing what he wants to do at that intersection undermines your ultimate responsibility for public health, safety, and welfare. I submitted a paper to Mr. Mon just a moment ago. I also submitted it to you by email yesterday. I believe that text amendment 2605 is legally vulnerable. But for a whole host of other reasons, which are articulated in this paper, I hope you'll find a way to reject this outright. You have plenty of reasons to reject it. The Planning Commission said no. The Economic Development Commission said no. The Board of Appeals said no. And your Public Works Department has said no. That should be plenty of reason enough to just say no to 2605. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, Brenda Mullaney.

I'm the eager attorney, I believe.

So I represent the two first tax amendments that are on your agenda today and would just like to recognize that the law and the process do allow citizens to bring these tax amendments forward to resolve issues. The tax amendments are there whether you bring them or a citizen or a business owner or a property owner brings them to address specific issues.

That's why the mechanism exists.

The county has a short window where they can be submitted, and we've submitted in that window to address an issue that we believe results in a better situation for the county, supports business in the county, and would allow a reasonable review by the Board of Appeals as we've proposed to modify the text amendment, would allow a reasonable review by the Board of Appeals through the conditional use process to ensure that there are not significant adverse impacts created at a subject location. recognizing that this change is requested to be countywide we do believe that it is reasonable I do want to point out that there's a lot of you know there's some dialogue on social media on both sides of this discussion related to the 301 intersection that is adjacent to this applicant who brought forward the citizen-led text amendments property that intersection is well over 100 feet from this property so that that intersection is not at conflict with the law as it currently exists. There's a dirt road intersection between that intersection and this subject property. I don't believe that there are traffic concerns or safety concerns related to that intersection within 100 feet. But the intersection that I think is causing some of this consternation and dialogue is well over 100 feet away from the entrance to this specific property. I'm here to answer any questions on behalf of either of these applicants for these citizen-led text amendments, but just wanted to note that.

Thank you. Laura Davis.

Morning, everyone. Laura Davis, Churchill, Maryland. I'm a lifelong resident of Queen Anne's County. Grew up in Southernsville. My husband and I have been in Churchill for the last 10 years, and I use the 301-405 intersection every day. I used it on the way here. I will soon have children traveling that intersection, potentially multiple times a day. I drafted an email I sent this morning, so a little tardy on my part, but I do want to express my feelings about text amendment change that's being proposed for ordinance 2605 I urge you to vote no as someone who is advocated to improve the safety of the intersection at 301 and 405 for years I find it deeply troubling that the county is even considering reducing requirements required setbacks for gas station entrances and exits from 100 feet to 75 feet the intersection is already one of the most dangerous and frustrating in our county as you all are aware. Every day residents have to navigate high speeds higher than ever I would argue heavy traffic more than ever I would argue right since the Delaware Middletown bypass has been put in place. Limited opportunities to turn on the highway and near misses that have become all too common. The solution should be finding ways to make this intersection safer not weakening the very standards that were put into place to protect the traveling public. What is especially concerning is that the professionals charged with evaluating these issues have already spoken. The Department of Public Works recommended against the amendment. Planning staff recommended an unfavorable recommendation. The Economic Development Commission also opposed the amendment because of traffic safety concerns. When multiple independent county departments reach the same conclusion, that should carry significant weight in your decision making. This ordinance is not simply about one parcel of land. If adopted, it will establish a countywide precedent by reducing safety standards for future developments across Queen Anne's County, a place we all know and love. Our community has been asking for improvements to this 301-405 intersection for years. We need to put meaningful investment in traffic safety, better traffic flow, and long-term solutions, not regulatory changes that could increase the number of vehicles conflict points at an already difficult intersection. If this ordinance is approved and development proceeds under reduced safety standards, I fear it will only be a matter of time before a serious tragedy occurs, many of which have already occurred as it stands. I sincerely hope we never reach a day when everyone looks back and wonders why the warnings from the county staff, public safety advocates, and concerned citizens were ignored. Please put public safety ahead of convenience and development pressure. The residents who travel these roads daily deserve leadership that prioritizes protecting lives over lowering established safety standards. I respect each of you, and I ask you to vote no to Ordinance 2605. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. That's all we had signed up. Would anybody else like to speak at this time? Name and address.

Yes, Joe Cusimano. I've lived here my whole life, Centerville, Maryland, the owner of property and price station. One thing I just want to make clear is that the intersection 301 and 405 is not the intersection that is applicable to what we're trying to change here. It is the dirt road, Carverville Price Road, which is within $100,000. not the not the highway intersection highway intersection i know is an issue every highway intersection on 301 is an issue i am in full support of trying to find a solution to make all those intersections safer uh we've recently received a letter from state highway i know you guys have sent them letters to make them safer we received a letter from them they're going to use our property to help with their traffic studies to try to find a solution we're in full support of that but those intersections are not don't really relate to what we're trying to do with this project. This project here, we are trying to help the community. It's a commercial property. It's been sitting there vacant for years. The community out there wants something. For four years, we've been trying to figure out what to do. They've come to us. They want a gas station. There's no gas station along 301 for a 30-mile stretch. There's no place to get fuel. They have to go to Churchill. They have to go to Centerville. They have to go to Delaware. we're trying to help the community here. The community there, this is what they want. So I hope we can find a way to make it happen.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak?

We also have a couple people in Zoom. And if you're in Zoom and want to make public comment, could you please either use the raise your hand feature or answer the chat that we have? This email comes from Claudia Jewell. As a lifetime resident of Kent Island and a resident of Marling Farms for 62 years, I strongly request that commissioners in the Department of Public Works prioritize the extension of the sewer system to Marling Farms and Dominion. Rising water levels and aging septic systems pose a genuine concern for homeowners and for the environment. Every waterfront home with a septic system is a time bomb for failure, and our precious rivers will be the victims. Planning for extension of the 552 system need to be started ASAP. As far as future allocations, quarterly review and approval appears to be the better plan. Thank you for your consideration. That's all I have.

All right, Commissioners, we can move into the legislation we have this evening, or excuse me, this morning. Tab number seven, item one, page one, County Ordinance 2605, Supplemental Standards for Gas Stations. This is available for a vote. This is Supplemental Standards for Gas Stations to include fuel pumps, underground storage, fuel tanks, canopies in Queen Anne's County for the purpose of reducing the required distance between an exit entrance to a gas station and to any intersection from 100 to 75 feet.

I think I would like to continue this item for an additional two weeks so we can consider an amendment to the ordinance. So we're going to hold that.

All right. Item number two. County ordinance 20606 this is for the maximum impervious surface ratio for commercial and industrial uses in the suburban commercial district that were operating prior to December 31st 2025 and this would increase that impervious percentage for coverage from 45% to 80%.

I would also like to continue this item for an additional 2 weeks so we can consider an amendment to the ordinance.

we're going to hold these two in two weeks come back with a possible amendment and move forward from there okay all right thank you mr president um item number three uh is the amendment to county ordinance uh 2609 for transferable development rights This can be introduced and forwarded to the Planning Commission for review and recommendation if you so choose. This would further restrict the allowable uses in open space which have been administratively subdivided under other provisions of the legislation.

I'll introduce the amendment to 26.09.

Okay. Item 4 is likewise an amendment to County Ordinance 2610 for non-contiguous development. Also can be introduced and forwarded to the Planning Commission for review and recommendation. Similar to the previous ordinance, this would further restrict the allowable uses in open space which have been administratively subdivided under the NCD development districts.

I will introduce the amendment to County Ordinance 2610 as well. Okay. All right.

All right, that's all we had on the agenda for legislation this morning. Next up, we have presentations. So item 1st up, we have miss Melinda Ray character counts coordinator. So, Melinda, come on up. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm a morning person as it is. It's perfect. All right, so I am here to give you guys just an update on character counts and where we stand and how our year went in the schools. It went really well. I always do surveys with our teachers and our students at the end of the year to kind of figure out, make sure we're doing what we want to do and that we're making the impact we think we're making. So I have some stats for you. We asked the teachers whether or not they felt the school supported character counts and they saw it like within their building and other places outside of just the coaches coming in. 95% said that they, they did so the schools are on board and then we have some great buy in. We've got some great schools and great faculty. So I always love working with them. 93% of our teachers said that they welcome the character counts coaches into their classrooms, which is is nice. And. One of the questions I asked both sets, teachers and students, was whether or not character counts is making a positive impact on their classroom. What are the teachers seeing? Is this helping the way we think that we're helping? And 91% of our teachers said that they see a positive impact on their students from our character counts coaches. So that's always exciting. And then we also poll students. We poll fourth and fifth graders, and some third graders, but mostly fourth and fifth graders. And this is always my favorite data, is what the kids are saying. So 82% of that age group said that they enjoy the classes, they enjoy the lessons from our coaches. 89% felt that the coach that they had was engaging and fun and they enjoyed their visits. And then 72% of the students said that they saw a positive impact from the coaches in their classroom. And 72 is obviously lower than 91, but we're talking about 10, 11 year olds, so that's a hard audience. So I think 72 is a good number. For them to say that they see a positive impact. So I thought that that was kind of exciting. And then I also, we allow our teachers and our students to kind of make comments. So I wanted to read you some of them. These are from the teacher survey. I love character counts having a community member teach these lessons and be 1 more adult in a child's life who is teaching them and pulling for them is wonderful. It truly takes a village. which is one of my favorites. The year was outstanding, best in 11 years. Coaches were great with kids, consistent and communicative. These character counts lessons are so valuable to our students. Thank you so much for making sure our young students are exposed to these lessons. And all of this is obviously because you guys allow character counts to continue to run in our county and because of our partnership with QACPS. And then some students commented too. So I wanted to read you some things that come directly from these 10 and 11 year olds, this hard audience. I really like Character Counts. I think it's fun and interesting. I hope that Character Counts stays in my life. Another said, my Character Counts is so nice. She's fun and taught me to care about other people's feelings. She taught me good character. Another one said, I like that it was fun and I got to write on paper, not on a computer. I really like what they do at Character Counts. I want to thank everybody that works at Character Counts and helps me learn and have fun. Thank you for going out of your way to help us.

What age is this?

This is 10 and 11 year olds. Yeah. Another said, our coach was really fun. The best character counts teacher ever. She tells stories and lessons and she plays game and she teaches us and the pillars are really the best. And so these always make me smile. It's one of my favorite things. I also do focus groups with outgoing fifth graders who've had character counts now since kindergarten to get their impact, the good and the bad and the ugly, all in between. And that went really well. I did that with all the outgoing fifth grade classes. We had a small group of about five to 10 students. I got some really good positive feedback on where they want to see the lessons going in particular, which is exciting. So I'm working on some new lessons for them. The other thing that came up in one of those focus groups was the kids really wanting to be involved in character counts outside of just their character counts lessons in their classrooms. We do have student ambassadors in each building. And those two students in each school get to do announcements and special things for character counts. But a lot of the fifth graders wanted a bigger role. And so in speaking with the school counselor at Mattapique Elementary, we're going to do a pilot program this coming year. We're going to call it Character in Action, which is basically going to be a character counts club. So we're going to allow kids to kind of join it. The idea, it's kind of being fleshed out right now, but the idea is that these Students would choose a civic activity that they want to accomplish over the year, something that they see that in the community they want to make a positive difference in. And they would work as the leaders of this group to kind of organize that, figure out an action plan, figure out what they need, and make that happen over the course of the year. And then I would support that through kind of like monthly get-togethers. So we're excited about piloting that at Mattapique Elementary. Um, we do have new lessons coming up, worked on a whole new series for our kindergarten 1st grade group, which I told you guys about the children's books we're working on, or I'm working on 4th grade lessons right now. And then I hope to do also with 5th grade kind of revamp on what they do in their, their character counts lessons. And then the last thing you mentioned earlier, we had a moment of silence for Mr Humphries. He was an integral part of Character Counts and is a huge loss to me and to this program, not to mention the community at large. But the Advisory Board for Character Counts wanted to do something to honor Wayne's legacy, specifically with Character Counts. And so we will have a committee that we'll meet in September, and we are going to be working on what we're going to call the Wayne Humphrey Student of Character Award. So hopefully an outgrowing fifth grader at every elementary school will be chosen that exemplifies all six of the pillars the way that Wayne did. So we're looking forward to honoring him in that way. And then as always, we're always looking for volunteers. It is the summer, but I am already thinking of next school year. So all of you guys, I've got lots of openings as of right now. I'm going to speak to the Board of Ed in next month, in August, as well. Businesses of character, if you guys have a business in the county that wants to join us and kind of help us promote our mission, we're always looking for that. And also advisory members. I love getting feedback, and my advisory council is a great sounding word for me. So that's pretty much the update. I think I covered everything. where we're at.

So I have not a question, but more of a suggestion. So getting back to that group that you talked about a fifth graders, this new, what are you calling it again?

We're calling it care. I'm going to call it character and action.

So I feel that the transition from fifth grade to middle school, there's a huge disparity and, and desire to be cool in middle school. And I think that adds pressure to the kids who have really focused as fifth graders or pre-k or kindergarten up to fifth grade and have practiced the six pillars of character for those five years that they were in elementary school and then all of a sudden now they're faced with a different dynamic and i think one of the focuses for this group that you're talking about is somehow helping them transition to the middle school level and understand that the honoring those six pillars is still important

I completely agree. And one of the things that I'm really looking forward to this particular group is creating it an opportunity for children to take leadership roles, because I think that that establishes self esteem. But to your point, when I sat down with the fifth grade focus groups, one of the things that came up and which is which is why I want to revamp kind of our fifth grade lessons. is that the fifth graders were very eager to kind of flip the pillars a little bit in fifth grade. They said kindergarten through fourth grade and currently through fifth grade, the pillars are always about what you can do for others. How can you be kind? How can you be a trustworthy person? How can you show respect and all of those things? So the fifth graders were like, you know... We really need lessons on how to have self-respect, how to be responsible to ourselves, how to be true to ourselves, those type of things. So the lessons are going to kind of flip a little bit. And so we're going to be more reflective and self-focused in fifth grade is what I'm looking forward to doing. But I'm a former fifth grade teacher, so I know exactly what you're talking about. And it doesn't necessarily start when they hit sixth grade. It's usually about January of fifth grade. When they come back from their holiday break, something has flipped in these fifth graders and they're completely different students.

And the desire to be cool and accepted at the middle school level and sacrificing some of those characters that they haven't exhibited all those years thinking I've got to ditch them because I'm now in middle school and

Middle school is a huge age of transition for these students. And they're trying to figure out who they are and how they relate in their groups. And their groups are changing. It's a very difficult transition. And so we're hoping that by switching up the fifth grade lessons a little bit and making them more introverted, we'll give these students a little bit more just self-esteem, self-confidence, power to say no or power to make those hard choices. Because it is hard for those kids to do that. but also walking the fine line of, you know, my volunteers are just that. They're volunteers. They're not psychologists. They're not educators. We want to make sure that we're giving them lessons that are broad enough, but we're not imposing, I don't know, self-doctrines on kids. We want them to just give them tools to be self-confident.

Good. Awesome.

Anything else?

Thank you. All right. I'll see you guys soon. Thank you for the update. Thank you. Thank you.

next commissioners we have uh director scott haas from emergency services with his update today and that can be located in your book tab 6 item 2 pages 2 through 23 and we also have it up on the screen here as well good morning so director haas yes good morning

Good morning, everyone. It's nice to be here in the morning. We've been told to hold this to 10 minutes, so we're going to speak really fast. If you could hold your questions till the end. I'm sure you'll have a couple questions for us. Each one of us is timed out how long it's going to take us to do our component of it. So I am going to immediately turn it over to Lori to go over special operations. How much time does she get? Yeah, how much time does she get?

Not enough the more we get. All right. So, good morning. I just want to do a general recap of special operations. It's kind of a vague overview. Of our staffing, we've done some remodeling and this is what our staff looks like. Now we have 8 to full time employees and we are anywhere from emergency management and logistic to training. under the emergency management umbrella some of the things that we are currently involved in our project updates we have recently submitted four grants for the county there's a list of them there we are also starting to work on our continuity operations so we'll be reaching out to county departments very soon so we can work on our continuity of the county government we're updating our strategic plan we are constantly working on our emergency operations plan and evolving that. So that's in case of any large-scale emergency. But we also work with individual groups. This year we were contacted by the 4-H Fair so that we can help them come up with a safety plan for this summer. And I think you'll see some added benefit to that during 4-H week. And then we also worked with Hole in the Wall over the last, I would say, three years to get them up and running, and they're currently doing that. We're working on a dam plan and a dam exercise for all the dams that are in Queen Anne's County. And then that is a mandate by this state. We do that every five years. And then we also continually touch that. Our emergency response team, or our CERT team, is active and growing. We are in the schools, both high schools, and we are now expanding to two middle schools. We did one last year. We're also continually working on CPR, staff lead training, and public outreach events. Our logistics group, it consists of the radio, the CAD analysts, and the inventory control. And then we have our training group, and they are training mostly in-house, coordinating out of our department to get enhanced training for EMS, special operations, and communication. And if I just, yeah.

All right, on EMS.

So first thing I want to highlight is our staffing. So this is our current staffing based off of what we had coming out of FY26. This doesn't include the FY27, 17-8 commencement. Uh, so the important thing is from baseline, we have 0 vacancies right now, which I'm proud of. Um, we've got 1 staff member that's in the process to grease up from to paramedic. We have 4 more that are in their mentoring process to set them up for success to move up. And then we have another 4 that are enrolled in parameter class. So we're doing really well investing in our staff and building a pipeline of providers for us. Call volume-wise, you can look from 24 to 25. We saw increases across the board in calls, transports, and depletions in 2026. We're already projected to be ahead in calls. Transports are lagging a little bit behind than what they would have been at this time last year, but also June to September is the busy months with the summer traffic, so we expect that those numbers will probably hike up a little bit over the coming months. Looking at our response times for our 1275, we're holding pretty consistent around 13 and a half minutes on our 75th percentile. We're also highlighting the 90th percentile because it's something in our strategic plan that we're looking at, and that's kind of an industry standard that you really want to start with 90th percentile times, which we're close to 17 minutes right now. Something that's contributing to challenges in our division, we're seeing an increase in major incidents. Throughout the county, we've got a lot of large accidents. We've got a couple of search operations that have happened and we're seeing an increase in our priority cardiac and respiratory patients. And things to notice is that these high acuity calls require multiple units of people to manage the severity of these people. Projects underway guys are familiar with the whole blood grant. We've talked about that last month. We're just waiting for the funding to be released to move forward with that project. The replacement supervisor unit that we ordered in November of last year is on the production line, and we anticipate to see delivery of it in September. The cardiac monitors that you guys approved for us to do, we have taken delivery of them, and we will be doing training in the month of August with a target and service date of August 26th. And then we're also expanding our rapid sequence induction program, which is the highest level of innovation and airway care that we do. Thanks to Lori's training folks were able to really train up some folks outside of our supervisor cadre that were the only ones that had that skill. So we're going to increase the level of service to the citizens of Queen Anne's County through that. Uh, transport unit updates, so we've got 2 new units that are arrived in November and are in service the unit that we ordered in July of 23. we finally got a production number on and we're expecting to see that around Thanksgiving of this year. And then we currently have 2 units on order from that were approved on August 27th and shortly will be asking me for another 1, definitely 12 to 18 month lead times on those. And last thing, I know it's on all your mind, the seventh unit. So we have two paramedics for that unit that are scheduled to start on August 12th. We are open for EMT positions up until tomorrow afternoon. We are going to be conducting interviews on the 21st. We're hoping to grab a couple of them to start in that August 12th cadre, and if not, we'll put them on an eligibility list and we'll just start them in October. With that, I'll hand it over to Scott.

All right, so next on list is communications. Phil thought it would be great to take a vacation. So he was unavailable to come today. So I'm taking his place. The good news with our communications division is, is we have 25 or 23 full time staff. Zach had to make us look bad, but we have 1 vacancy and he has 0. so we're working on the 1 vacancy just. Orientation-wise, when we do have a vacancy and we bring in a new employee from scratch, it takes us about 1,200 hours to train the person to get them fully functional by themselves on the floor. So it's usually a huge ordeal for us when we do have a vacancy. Call volume-wise, we're running just a little under 62,000 calls to the center so far this year. Of those calls, a little under 28,000 were emergency calls into the center and required emergency services. Um... Um... Phil has successfully passed the state 9-1-1 board inspection, which is an annual inspection that we go through. And we actually passed with flying colors, and we're very proud of that. Phil has also upped his QA and QI, or quality assurance or quality improvement programs, throughout the division. And we've been lucky that the 9-1-1 board has funded a lot of applications that we can use to help us do quality assurance and quality improvement. One thing that you approved several months ago was the upgrade to our Vesta 911 phone system, and it has been delivered. It's sitting in the warehouse, and we have an anticipated completion date of the upgrade, late August timeframe. And we should have a newly functional 911 phone system in the center. We're currently coordinating efforts with Talbot County's 911 Center to use their backup center as our backup center when the courthouse gets its renovations in the upcoming year. Currently, our IT department is working with their IT department to make that happen, and we still have a long way to go, but we're hopeful and confident that we'll be able to use Talbot's backup center as our backup center during that time frame of the renovations. Last on the list is we recently had an audit done through the 911 board to analyze our rate that we charge on the phone bills. If you remember about two years ago, we raised our rate from, I think, 75 cents to $1.50, and it took us about two years to do that process. Thank you, Commissioner Wilson, for getting in the middle of it and expediting that process, even though I wouldn't really call it expediting it. But you moved it along a lot quicker than what it could. They basically, on their analysis, feel that we could up our fee to $3 if we're comfortable doing that. We can't do that currently. I'm just putting a reminder that we could potentially do this December timeframe is when we need to start considering it and start having conversations on it. And why am I bringing it up is the 911 Board is not capable of funding to the same levels that it has in the past. Because the technology change, there is a large run on the money for the grants at the 911 board, which will require us to pay more for services that the board has covered in the past. The good news is I am currently a voting member on the board and Jeff Frank sitting behind me is probably going to get even with me for talking him into being a member of the 911 board. But he is the fiscal administrator that's on a 911 board. I'm very proud of both of us being able to participate in that and thank you Jeff for saying yes. And you'll probably never say yes to me ever again. Next on the list is fire marshal Jeff. Take it away.

So I'm Jeff Morgan. I'm a farmer for Queens County. Currently in our office, we have 2 full time people. We have a 1 fire marshal and then 1 full time fire inspector 2 plans examiner and we have 5 part time contract personnel, which includes 1 part time fire inspector 2 plans examiner and 4 part time inspectors. These are the stats from January through June. They're half-year stats. It averages to 183 activities plan reviews per month, which breaks out to nine average activity plan reviews per county workday, which excludes holidays and weekends. If you look at the stats over on the side, I'll just point out a few of them. The bucket final, which are residentials in the county, residential units, it's 121 we've done so far this year. Hydros, 124. Um, and the inspections we've done is 269. we've had 3 complaints that we follow up on and those are a citizen complaints that come in through, uh. An email system, they can go online to the fire marshal. They can put in whatever problem they have and we'll come out and we'll take a look at what the issue is and get back to them if they so desire. And we've done 277 plan reviews this year so far. And our total right now is 1094. And then this is a breakdown from 2018 when I took over to the present. And you can see the reds are all the activities such as inspections, bucket tests, complaints, anything like that. And the greens are the plan reviews that we've done in those years. And this is for calendar year.

That's all I have. So at the end, there's one thing that Lori forgot to mention, and I am not walking out of here without mentioning it because I'm very proud of it. But the Maryland Emergency Management Association recognized Queen Anne's County Special Operations Division with two awards this year, which I am extremely proud of. One of them for Queen Anne's County was a multi-agency sheltering exercise. We received the Preparedness Project of the Year Award for that. The second award that she received was for Queen Anne's County CERT program, and we received the Community Project of the Year Award for that. Why is that significant? Because there are 26 primary local jurisdictions that compete for these awards. There's basically six of them throughout the year. We received two of them, which is unheard of. We've got a staff of three. Lori's part-time of that staff of three doing emergency management work. and most of these agencies in the larger jurisdictions have well over 20 people working in their emergency management division so we're outperforming with three compared to what the larger jurisdictions are doing so i'm extremely proud of that and that's the end of our presentation so you have any questions very good so what scott's saying is if we reduce his workforce a little bit more they work harder right and we get more awards so much for job security great job on those awards i think people um

What they don't see is sort of the local government working quietly in the background, and it's a lot of the planning and preparation that you do for if there's an emergency that allows you to respond so effectively. And people don't see those exercises going on, but they're constantly being evaluated, and it's amazing work that you guys do, so thank you. Thank you.

Well, one thing, you guys have always been role players for us on these drills. I think you won an Academy Award, Commissioner Moran, on a couple that you've done for us, and Phil has always been... behind us on everything that we do and basically is on a unit every time we have an event that we're covering. So all of you, thank you for what you do for us.

Well, I'm going to get, hopefully I get one more chance, one more attempt at working the Bay Bridge race this year.

We are hoping that you are there for us.

Yeah. Just one discouraging comment regarding your presentation and certainly out of your control, but you talk about units that we ordered in 2023 and we're And they've just entered production. So trying to plan that far out and anticipate what our needs are going to be in the future, knowing how long it takes to get equipment in. So kudos to you and your staff. It's just become a common factor that you guys lead the state in a lot of categories, and that a lot of organizations in other county jurisdictions want to be like us. So kudos to you guys. Outstanding work.

We appreciate your support, but we couldn't do our work without you.

So thank you for everything you do for us. So real quick question. Lori has the state or is there any rumblings of the state addressing the. Battery emergency systems in terms of from an emergency management standpoint, because we're only going to be able to hold them off for so long. And 1 of the fears is they get in before we actually have a plan on how we're going to deal with them if something was to happen.

We have not heard anything from the state, and it has not hit a state level in the emergency management side at all. Okay.

We talked about battery storage for solar Mars. Yeah, actually, it's going to be more than just solar net. It's going to be for a lot of things. Yeah. Yeah. Stand alone and everything else. right well between that and data centers and everything else we're not worried about data centers right now we got here we got a moratorium things yeah we got a year there but you're not wrong that's where the uh that's where the big battery i was out to frederick county at that hyper data center out there and the number of batteries they're going to have out there if that catches on the whole county is going to go i mean there's just no way they're going to contain that 180 acres of batteries it's just going to have to let it burn out yeah it's the only way to do it yeah unfortunately Well, that's good to know the state's on it. Well, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Scott, while you're here, commissioners, they had two action items. Do you want to cover those real quickly? Yep. All right. So if you want to turn to tab number three, commissioners, tab three, item number 11, pages 46 through 50. This is for the emergency services billing rate increase proposal and the addition of a lift assist and treatment without charge, transport charge assistance. a fee so they've conducted an analysis of their current rates medicare reimbursement trends inflation factors and looking at neighboring jurisdictions and it's been determined that our existing rates are significantly below regional benchmarks and there is a recommended Increase of 200% in those transport charges to better align with the market rates and improve cost recovery and to establish a charge for lift assist responses, which are increasing increasing in call volumes as well. So.

I move to approve the increase in ambulance billing rates and authorize the implementation of charges for lift assistance services and treatment without transport services as recommended by EMS and slash MC.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed? So moved. Thank you, Commissioners. And item 12 on pages 51 through 54, this is a request to order an additional ambulance with an expected delivery date of 18 to 24 months, as we know. We have a Houston-Galveston area contract purchasing program agreement. that will enable the department to procure a 2027 Ford F-550 for $394,259. I move to authorize the director of the Department of EMS to purchase one 2027 Ford F-550 4x4 Horton Model 623 ambulance through the Houston-Galveston Area Council

Cooperative purchasing program from Fesco emergency sales for three hundred and ninety four thousand dollars and one two hundred fifty nine dollars second We have a motion in a second on this item any discussion Seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye Thank You commissioners a little over on that in the last one the stretcher and the power loader separate

if we know it's under 400 000 it's like if we ordered that 20 markup versus going straight to the manager on this i i assume that sooner or later your your orders make four that we're waiting on now yes so we're not going to put them all in service when they come because you're going to end up with a year in your cycle that you're going to have to replace four ambulances

They're going to stagger as they come in. Yeah. But we need the fleet that we have on the street right now, we need to replace desperately. So we'll transfer them as quick as we can.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Thank you.

Great presentation. And Todd, I'm sorry, I think we're a couple minutes.

No, you're fine. We're good. All right, Commissioner, sticking with our action items in tab number three, we'll go back to item number one. Leading off Proclamation 2619, Parks and Recreation Month.

That explains everything. That explains a lot. It's Parks and Recreation Month. That's right. That explains a lot.

And it's FY27 now.

Yeah, what did they say? Go when the hooker's hot or whatever? Strike while it's hot. Strike while it's hot, right.

I've got good practice.

So, you want me to read the Brackett-Macon first or have him go and then justify?

Never mind.

Proclamation 2619, whereas parks and recreation are an integral part of communities throughout this country, including Queen Anne's County, and whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks, and whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking, trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles. You should probably have umpiring in there as an activity. Whereas parks and recreation programming and education activities such as out of school time programming, youth sports, and environmental education are critical to childhood development. And whereas parks and recreation increases a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansions of local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction. And whereas parks and recreation are fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community. And whereas parks and recreation are essential infrastructures that make our communities resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change. And where our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors, which has a positive impact on mental health and well-being. And whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month. Now, therefore, be it resolved by Queen Anne's County Board of County Commissioners that July is recognized as Parks and Recreation Month. I'm talking about the Queen Anne's County Commissioners.

Thank you.

And while he's here.

That's right. While we're here, it is the beginning of a new fiscal year, so we have the next three items. Items two, three, and four are for new field lighting projects using the Keystone Purchasing Agreement with Musco. The first one is for White Marsh Park, lighting on one baseball diamond and installation of additional infrastructure for future field lighting. I move to all.

I'm finished.

Are you done?

No, no. We're going to do all three together.

Okay. Okay, yeah. The second one is at Bats Neck for one baseball diamond retrofitting the artificial turf field lighting and electrical panel, Bats Neck Park. And the third item, item four. is for a softball field at Bats Neck Park as well.

I move to authorize the Department of Parks and Recreation to contract with Musco to install lighting for number one, one baseball diamond and install infrastructure for future field lighting at White Marsh Park for a total of $525,000. thousand three hundred and sixty eight dollars to one baseball diamond retrofitting the artificial turf field lighting and electric panel work at Bats Neck Park for a total of six hundred seventy eight five hundred and thirty two thousand dollars and three one softball field at Bats Neck Park for an apartment amount of two hundred ninety four thousand thirty five dollars contingent upon grant funding from DNR program open space second

We have a motion and a second on these three items. Any discussion? None. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved. All right.

I know we've already made, but I just want to, just a quick comment, and I apologize because you raced through that, but I think it's significant to remember that by putting these lights on the fields, we're expanding the ability to use those diamonds beyond what daylight hours offer. So it's important because with this huge need for fields usage with all the different youth sports organizations that have evolved over the years in our community, this is key. So money well spent.

Yeah, sure. All right, the next two items, five and six, are for new equipment for our Parks and Recreation Department. The item five is for two 2026 Chevrolet 2500 trucks. The second item, item six, is for a Ford F-550 truck from Hertrick Fleet Services with a dump bed and snow plow package.

I move to authorize the Department of Parks and Recreations to purchase, number one, two 2026 Chevy 2500 HD trucks with snowplow package from Hertrick Fleet Service, Inc. in Denton, Maryland for $108,688. And two, one 2027 Ford F-550 truck with dump bed and snowplow package from Hertrick Fleet Services, Inc. in Milford, Delaware for $108,767. Second.

Okay, we've got a motion and a second on these two items. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

So moved. Thank you, Commissioners. And our final item for Director Chandler is a park stage rental fee increase on pages 24 through 26. And the Parks and Rec Advisory Board is recommending to increase the rates for stage rental fees effective August 1st. And essentially this is just for the security deposit, transportation, and fuel surcharge fees. So just recovering our costs to deliver the stage. If somebody borrows it. Right, or rents it, yes. And those fees are continued to be waived for nonprofits and co-sponsored events.

I move to authorize the Department of Park Recreation to increase the rates for stage rentals according to their updated rate schedule sheet effective August 1st of 2026.

Second. Got a motion to second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved.

Thank you. Just if you don't mind real quick, because it's Parks and Recreation Month, I'd like to acknowledge our recreation staff that's here. We've got James Miller, we've got Curtis Cloud, Nick Petroski, Liz Pearson, Isabella Chaney, and Karen Eder here. And they're the ones who took the job. That's a big part of our organization that, you know, it's a small group and they do a large Large activity for all of us, so they should be all right.

Well done. Thank you. Thank you all. Thanks for being here today. Good to see everybody care. Right. All right, commissioners, moving along. Item number eight in your books on pages 27 through 28 is an MOU with the Maryland Department of Transportation, MDTA, for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge flagpole. And this is a mechanism to allow us to collect donated funds for the newly erected flagpole down by the Bay Bridge.

I move to execute the memorandum of understanding with the Maryland Transportation Authority for the flagpole located at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

So funding mechanisms are... payback mechanisms?

Well, MDTA couldn't accept donations from the local American Legions and VFWs directly, so we were acting as a conduit to receive those donated funds to help pay for that project. That was really, they just can't accept those donations, so this was a mechanism to allow us to get that for the project, yep.

So not that we would promote gambling of any sort, but if you are a member of any of the American legions, they are going to be committing half of the proceeds that they receive on the machines that they have at their location towards the payment of this flag. So gamble away. And if there's an issue and a problem, dial the 1-800 gambling problem number.

Is there any other discussion?

Let's get that flag paid for.

All right, seeing none. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved. Sorry, Jim.

Thank you, Commissioners. Item 9 on pages 29 through 43, we have a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, a CREP agreement of sale and project agreement for the Relief Farm LLC, 90.7 acres of a 338-acre farm owned by Relief Farm, ready to be submitted to Maryland DNR for review and final approval. No county dollars are associated with this CREP easement.

I move to execute the CREP easement agreement of sale and project agreement for the property owned by Relief Farm LLC. Second.

Got a motion to second. Any discussion? Very well. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Thank you, Commissioners. Item 10, we have a resolution here. This is Resolution No. 2609. It's a slight modification to the moratorium, which is Resolution 2512. This resolution is to extend the one-year deadline on the Board of Appeals conditional use approvals for projects that may have been caught up in that approval process. That will stay the timeline for a particular project and the approval, which would otherwise expire on July 16th. so they will not have to return to the Board of Appeals for a conditional use approval they've already received.

I move to adopt Resolution 2609. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second on this. Any discussion? And again, this is modifying the moratorium imposed by the Resolution 25-12. Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved.

All right, thank you commissioners. We've completed items 11 and 12 with director Haas item 13 on pages 55 through 57. This is from our liquor board. This is for performing arts nonprofit organization, beer and wine license. They recently approved and voted to. uh promote legislation for new beer and wine licenses for performing arts groups and the board respectfully requested the commissioners forward this particular legislation to the delegation for introduction at the next legislative session in 2027 and this was generated via the churchill theater they were requesting a beer and wine license for plays and shows

i move that the proposed legislation 27-1002 performing arts non-profit organization beer and wine license as submitted by the liquor board be forwarded to our legislative delegation for consideration and introduction during the 2027 legislative session second we have a motion in a second any discussion

uh as the commissioner lays on to the board of ed i mean to um the liquor board um it's they're constantly coming to the liquor board for a one-day license or a one event license and and it just made more sense to go this direction you know to give them that that ability um to not have to keep coming to the liquor board every time they're going to have an event at the theater so this was something that they discussed and worked out and it's um it's a good idea

Perfect. Very good. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved.

All right, Commissioners, item 14 on page 58 is a letter of support for a grant application being submitted by Hope for All, and this is for a veterans' home subdivision located in Graysonville on Melvin Avenue. The project would include pre-designed planning, schematic design, design development and vacuum sewer main upgrades going forward so if they get the grant it's a nice project i move to execute the letter of support to maryland historic trust for hope for all veterans home subdivision project second got a motion to second any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed so moved thank you commissioners uh item number 15 is a procurement policy addendum and a donation and sponsorship policy revision on pages 59 through 110. So addendum 1 to the procurement policy supplements our existing procurement policy specifically for procurements funded in whole or part with federal grants, cooperative agreements, or pass-through funds. Locally funded projects are not affected, but this basically just puts us into compliance with the federal uniform guidance and states that were at conflicts with any of those that the addendum will control for federally funded projects. And secondly, the donation and sponsorship policy replaces our old donated policy, donated property policy with a broader donation and sponsorship program covering cash gifts, real and personal property, in-kind services, et cetera. We don't use that very much, but we wanted to have something, you know, in the books in case we have those opportunities going forward. This is just a general update? Yes.

Mm-hmm.

If you have any questions, Director Jeff Frank penned this policy in these amendments, so he's...

I move to approve Addendum 1, Federal Procurement Compliance Addendum, to the county's Procurement Policy 400-010 and replace the county's Donation Policy with a new Donation and Sponsorship Policy 400-011, both to be effective July 14, 2026.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion?

This isn't going to make it more difficult, right? This isn't going to make it more difficult for donations?

No, it'll just create some guidelines To better monitor the donations, so a lot of donations come in and have restricted uses. And make sure that we use funds for that. And is in our entered into our books properly.

And and this authority, the commissioners have the ability to to make any kind of changes or wave certain restrictions on a case by case basis. Okay.

Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye. Opposed? So moved. Thank you, Commissioners. And our final item today is item 16, on pages 111 through 114. This is Budget Amendment CC1 for the Board of Education. This provides $500,000 to the Board of Education to fund two district-wide rotating behavioralists and four middle school mental health support staff positions as approved by the Board last month.

I move to approve budget amendment CC1, increasing the Board of Ed operating budget by $500,000. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye. Opposed?

That'll move.

All right. Commissioner, that's all we have. So we're just five minutes shy of pressing public comments, part two. on the agenda. There you go.

Anything? Nothing? Nothing online? Nobody wants to speak? All right, we'll close press and public comment. Go to roundtable. We'll go backwards.

All right. Happy Bastille Day to our French-American Commissioner. There you go. Mr. Moran. And Commissioner Dumanel. Oh, that's true. Philippe. So I wanted to make sure. Philippe-Louis Dumanel. For both of you. And then I wanted this. We passed on two text amendments today to have them have some modifications and coming back in. And we've gotten a bunch of emails, some for, some against, right? Both split. But it highlights an issue that we've talked about a lot in the past that it still always seems to escape the public dialogue is speaking to the actual issue that's before it. So a lot of what we've received against is it's dangerous because of 301. But the ordinance that they're seeking to change has nothing to do with the proximity to 301 right because 301 is more than two and a half times the distance from that property than what the minimum safety standards are in the ordinance so it's nothing to do with 301 it's i think what carville price road is the road so if you're saying it's dangerous right and you're saying it's because of 301 That's not what the ordinance speaks to. You really need to speak to what is the volume of traffic coming off Carville Price Road that creates the danger. That's the issue that's being addressed by that. And I think a lot of people are forgetting that. It's not to discount the issues with 301 and safety concerns. And we have been Doing a whole bunch of stuff with the state to try to address those and trying to get federal grant funding to try to improve those intersections. But, but that's not the intersection. That's the issue of the ordinance. And I don't think people are understanding that. And so a lot of times when people come and they speak against something. And they're speaking to something that is not the issue that's coming up and then they feel like, well, nobody listened to me, but you weren't talking about the issue. So also tech ops, we had the gentleman here talking about what's the traffic impact of where the new location for tech ops is. And I hear all these people saying that all this traffic, but it sounds like to me of people who don't really know much about tech ops, right? And they're assuming a traffic flow. Tech ops does not have hundreds of employees.

25.

Yeah, I mean, it's 25, maybe with the new thing, they'll get up to 35 or 40, hopefully more jobs. It's not a lot of traffic that are coming in. Tech Ops does not have a whole lot of tractor trailers coming in. I mean, they have a piece of equipment that comes in, a bus from DEA, or you have... a support van for spokane police department and it's there for several months being worked on not coming in and out um so it's not a high frankly if you're worried about um traffic volume as a safety issue for that parcel Um, you should want tech ops because it is probably the least impact to traffic of any other business that could go there. Um, and then the other issue when people are writing about, so you should let tech ops there. Um, or some people say it's already decided actually, yes, it has already been decided. Um, it's called zoning. Zoning of what can go into a piece of property is already decided. That's why the business chooses that property. Because if you have a business and you want to expand and you go to a real estate agent, you don't say, show me any piece of property where maybe I could build it. You say, here's my business. What parcels are available where I can do what I do? And zoning will say, yes, this is already legally allowed there. So has the decision been already made that a business like TechOps could be in there? Yes, absolutely, 100%. That was done a long, long time ago. By zoning, it has been zone for that. So the decision is not whether a business like that could go there. It is just the concept plan fit within the requirements. And so if if there's opposition to that, you need to look at. The specific issue that's coming up before the planning commission, because if you speak about, like, a challenge to zoning, when it's already been zoned, the planning commission can't change the zoning based on public comment. um that would trigger all kinds of lawsuits for the county we did a town hall expressing a lot of how development works in queen's county and all the vast rules that are in place and it's not just county law there's state law there's federal law that all impacts these things and so um it's important whether you're for or against a project that you're actually looking to what is the issue that's being decided on and then look at the law surrounding that so you can actually speak to the actual issue because if you're not um You're not talking about the issue that's being decided. So you're going to feel like your voice wasn't heard or impacted. But. If you're not talking to the actual issue, then it's not what the jurisdiction of that board who deciding on it. It's not what they're allowed to decide on. And I think we get into a lot of times where people get frustrated or sort of disenchanted because they're not focusing in on the actual issue. And since that came up twice today, I wanted to point that out again. I point it out a lot, and hopefully it starts to click in with people, but there is a vast amount of laws in place as to where things can and can't go. And it's not anybody just waving a wand and deciding at one hearing. I just want to put that out there.

Appreciate it. I'm not following that, so I'm good. For my time to Chris that he used, I think those were important issues that he made. Sometimes we miss the big picture. We're constantly looking at things at 37,000 feet, and we're not really looking at the focus of the point that's actually trying to be made. Thank you, Chris. Well done. Patrick? Patrick?

If Ferner's restaurant worked there for years and then a convenience store, it seems like this is an issue that is, as you spelled it out correctly. Secondly, Wayne Humphreys. What a great man. He has done so much for the county, so much that we don't know. He was heavily involved in the playground at Old Love Point, and I worked with him on that. And I remember 25 years ago, him coming to the church talking about this character counts thing. And he was just a really wonderful man. That blood infusion program I am really excited about. Of course, we'll never know whoever needs it, but it is a phenomenal step forward for mobile units to be able to get access to blood during an MCV on Route 50 or 301. It really is extraordinary. And finally, the flagpole. I would have to say that it's probably the most positive input I've heard of since living in the county, and the commissioners put this together. The overwhelming response was 99% loved it. Right.

I mean, terms like majestic. It made my day. I woke up as I was driving. And then when the flag wasn't up, they just came unglued. Like, where's the flag?

Where'd it go? But isn't that nice? Isn't that nice? More excitement than when the Chipotle opened. And that was a big deal on Kent Island. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was much bigger than Chipotle. It was.

Anyhow, so it seems like we were able to rectify part of the problem. It would still be nice if we could get it to fly Thanksgiving and Christmas, but right now that's not on the docket. So I think we need to either send a letter to Richard and to the governor saying, hey, you know, can we come up with more than five or six times a year where this is going to fly. Yes, the smaller flag is a Band-Aid, but that's about what it is. It's beautiful. I went and looked at it yesterday from Walt Petrie's place.

It's still a pretty big flag. It is. I mean, it's still pretty big.

Commissioner, I don't know if you have a meeting coming up, but is there something... We can do to try to get them to put it up more often. You mean as far as BRAG, you mean? Well, I think the thing is we need to take control of it. Or the American Legion. Let the American Legion take it up and put it down. That's what they do. They're exceptional at it.

But the safety concern. Safety concern. Yep. But right now, we go out and change the lettering on the overdoses and deaths. So I think we qualify to be able to handle putting the flag up and down. But we'll see them at MAKO and we can as a collectively as a group voice our opinions to that. I'd like to see them bump up the size of the. Interim flag. It's 10 by 15. Let's jump up one or two sizes and see. 15 by 25. 15 by 25.

Now? The smaller one, yeah. Okay. The big one's 30 by 50. Right. So it's half.

And that's a monumental task to take that down and raise it. It takes multiple people. Yeah. And obviously concerns, you know, with weather and how quick the weather can change and getting somebody there to get that down. There's a lot of, I mean, again, we talk about terms like majestic, but understand there's a human aspect of it on what it takes to make that majestic look happen. And then I think that's where a lot of the devil is in the details and getting that done.

Between the county and the American Legion, I think we could figure it out.

Yeah, I'd love to see that work out, yeah. But, again, you're addressing the issues. But perhaps maybe, you know, MDOT does some training for a handful of these Legion members, you know, and so they understand the processes and what some of the restrictions will be in just coming and going to that area on the bridge. That's the concern. Right.

Again, I don't think it's a safety issue.

Where do they park? How do they get there?

Right. And they don't have the proper, you know. Vehicles that have all the lights on it 9 yards. So the county does, and we've done, like I said, we maintain the sign. So it'd be nice to have the support of the American Legion, but we'll do the put people out there to do it. We'll have that discussion and Mako and we'll go from there.

Yep. I mean, respectfully, our DPW and our sheriff, I mean, they're on 301 every day, or Route 50, and they're pulling off in the median to do something, right? Even though it's a state road. They're picking up this, they're doing that. I think we could figure it out. Yeah. If they would let us do it. Well, again. That's the goal.

Right. Okay. Is that Patrick? Yes, sir. All right. Jeff? Just a shout-out to the Red X cops. I got to witness them yesterday. Well done. They had eight of them, nine people lined up, and I actually witnessed them. Somebody behind me, two cars behind me, tried to jump in when they saw the police up in the distance and got right, two cars behind me. And as we got up there, I looked back and that guy was out there. He just yanked him. Even though it was a half mile back, he still grabbed him from behind me and said, no, you're over there. And they had, I'm going to say they had 10 or 11 there pulled over just right in the ticket. So I loved it. Loved it. Didn't have to ride down the middle and keep them out. So that's all I got. I got nothing so motion I'll make a motion to adjourn