Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Being this September 7th town town of Centerville Town Council meeting will start with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence Thank you Next is agenda review. Anybody have any issues with the agenda? Sandy? All right. Next is review of the meeting minutes of past meetings for September 3rd, 2026. Anybody have any corrections on the meeting minutes from September 3rd?

I thought they were very detailed and made a lot of sense and right on target, so I appreciate it. Yes. I'll be pleased to make the motion to approve and to move forward

I'll be pleased to make the second.

All right All in favor aye Next is the citizen form since our requested to keep their comments to three minutes anybody signed up I

I don't think so. The silent majority has spoken.

Next is new business the FY 20 20 26 end of year update called Karen Luffman finance officer.

Hi guys good evening. I did give you a little handout tonight and it's just part of the, when we get to it, I'll kind of read it out to you. So I'm here tonight to give you an end of year update for the FY 2026 budget. As of June 30th, we completed the budget In this timeframe, departments should be at or around 100% spent. On the general fund revenue side, we've taken in 106% of the expected budgeted revenue. The variables there were the public utility tax came in a little higher based on the assessed value coming in higher after the budget closed. Local income tax, I was very conservative on the estimate this year, so we actually took in 223,000 more than budgeted. And the HUR, which is the highway user revenue, was higher than anticipated. We brought in about 44,000 more. So that's why we're over the 100% mark there. the general fund expense side all accounts in the general fund all departments are at a hundred percent or below except planning and zoning this was at 105 percent spent which was actually only about two grand over budget and that was just based on legal fees coming in higher than anticipated and I talked to Fred a little bit basically where that came in I think with Pete coming in he's you know cleaning up the code and the Charter and so That just caused a little more review on the attorney's end, and that's where the overage came from there.

2,000, you say, over budget?

Yep, it's about 20. I have it in front of me.

What was the original budget amount for legal?

So the original budget amount for legal was $28,000, and we spent $20,000. but as a whole, the entire department, so there was underages and other pieces of that department. So as a whole, we were only over $2,236. Any questions on the general fund side?

Just to help you with the discussion before, this isn't somebody suing us. We just encourage some more legal costs and a normal process of what we're doing.

Absolutely. And so it just depends year to year what we have going on in that department. But, you know, cleaning up the code this year, I think Peter's written a lot of policies and getting the thing more into the future. Everything we have was so old or just non-existent.

And when there are projects associated with Sharon's time, those are bill-backed. to the applicants. So the majority, I believe, of this was the town using sharing services through the process.

All right, on the enterprise fund, the revenues were at 110% above. This includes all four billings for the water and sewer. Variables that can affect this revenue are the timing of the billings, any water and sewer allocation and interest rates. I will tell you the full overage was because we came in at $204,000 above budgeted for our interest earned. Carolyn and I were really conservative because we don't want to, the interest isn't always going to be there in the budget right now. We're earning such great rates at the ICS, so that's why we came in much higher. We're at 3.5%, and the Fed's actually just raised rates a quarter percent, so our ICS rate should be going up in the next day or two. Excellent. On the expense side, all departments were at or below 100% spent, except for the sewer department. They were actually at 148%, which amounted to approximately $547,985 over budget. And so Kip isn't here tonight, but that's what you'll see this handout for, so I'm just going to read it to you. It kind of explains the overage. The sewer department exceeded the budget primarily due to engineering and professional services associated with the wastewater treatment plant. A total of $888,408 in invoices for Whitman Rec Heart came in for preliminary engineering report, outfall testing, and design services. These have caused the department to exceed its budgeted amount for contract services. They are project-related costs that we anticipate submitting to MDE for reimbursement. So as part of the process and the Bay Restoration funding we will receive for the plant, these can be reimbursed at that time. So that and some small sewer emergency and unanticipated repairs were the reason for the overage there.

I was wondering how much the tree root issue contributed to that overage.

Do you know what that was? Down by Hardee's. I think that's in this fiscal year, not the last fiscal year. In FY27.

So that overage didn't even include this.

No.

Yeah, for the current. So this was $888,000?

Yep. Now, the overage itself was only $547,000 for the overall budget for the sewer department. But the big piece of that was for the design and the PER, which again can be reimbursed once we get all the processing and design done for the wastewater treatment plant.

The full amount, right? The full amount can be reimbursed?

Yes, especially for the design and the PER, yes.

Are we anticipating between now and December 31st any more overages that we're not expecting?

At this moment, they are at 80% the design, Jackie. 60 60% so there there will be some more Invoices that will come in throughout the current fiscal year Just depends on how the overall you know that that on top of any sewer issues that happen could put 27 at risk of being over but Kip and I try to monitor Monthly just to kind of see where we're at And that the the 90% design is due by the end of November and sent to MDE I think there's a there's a December deadline to MDE to submit that so by the end of the year they'll be done the design portion and then once we're able to get past that and start once we get like the permits and such we can start applying and well we've already been approved for Bay restoration funding but these things can fall under that umbrella when we start requesting reimbursement

So when we look at the overage from where we just talked about the rest of the town budget through the year, are we plus minus?

I may have missed that. For the FY26, the previous year we're minus 547. So that's why we're doing the budget amendment for the 547,000. All right, thanks. All right. Yes.

So I have a question. So Karen, so these are actual costs related to design that you're capitalizing, correct?

Yes.

So it's just for, this is a little more nuanced in detail. Yes. But I'm thinking about how the larger financials that will be presented in the near future. So these will be capitalized on a balance sheet and will be, So I think that's important to clarify. It still matters as far as the total cost. It would be reimbursed for capital, but it's not an operating expense for the plant. So does that make sense to everyone?

Yes.

So that's important. in the audit financials, is that correct, Karen?

Yes, that's correct, it's still capitalized, yep.

So it's just important to kind of, when we get those statements, because that's what I'd like to see, to understand what that operating overage or whatever it is, as it relates to operational costs, which is tied into the presentation that we gave, associating the rates that we just changed, so it all ties together. So I just wanted to clarify that in tonight's meeting.

And so we're working on the audit now we hope to have this published statements in the next 30 and October 31st is when it's due to the state All right, just a couple notes the pension expense for the entire year I kind of just remind everybody when you see that you don't see it in the budget, but they're only paid once a year and Debt payments in the enterprise fund, you'll only see interest payments until we make the bigger payments, which is April, May, and that's the million dollars that'll come out then. And just a reminder, ARPA funds have been obligated as of December of 2024, and we're in the process of making sure they're expended by December of 2026 so that we don't have to return any funds to Treasury. So in the budget amendment, what we'll be asking for tonight, and this just balances the budget, is to do a budget amendment for the planning and zoning department in the amount of $2,236 and a sewer department for $547,985. So these amendments don't represent any new expenditures. They just provide the necessary budgetary authorization to bring the budget into alignment with the actual expenditures incurred prior to the close of the fiscal year. And that's all I have, unless you have any questions.

I think the ARPA money, we spent that, right?

We have. We're working on it. We'll actually talk about more at the next meeting about the ARPA funds. Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next under new business is ordinance 10-2026, FY26 budget amendment. This is to... Do what Karen wants to do, and it's for an ordinance for the purpose of amending the town of Centerville fiscal year 2026 budget and all things related generally thereto. And that's our first reading.

Correct. There'll be a public hearing at the next meeting, October 1st.

October 1st, public hearing. Next is Resolution 15-2026, renaming of the Wharf Park. I'm going to pass this on to Town Manager Carolyn Brinkley to go into detail.

So we, the Park Advisory Board made a recommendation to rename the Centerville Wharf Park after Mike Whitehill, who has been an integral part of Centerville as a whole, not only just the town of Centerville, but Queen Anne's County. And we did a resolution to that, and I was just gonna read it over really quickly. Whereas the Centerville Wharf is an important historic, civic, recreational, and waterfront resource of the town of Centerville, and whereas the town council desires to preserve the historic identity of the Centerville Wharf while also recognizing individuals whose service and contributions have had a lasting impact on the town, Whereas Michael C. Whitehill has been a longtime resident of Centerville, whose many decades of service, civic involvement, leadership, and commitment have benefited the town and the greater Queen Anne's County community. And whereas Mr. Whitehill has served on the Centerville Parks Advisory Board for more than 16 years, demonstrating a longstanding commitment to the stewardship, enhancement, and enjoyment of the town's parks and public spaces. And whereas Mr. Whitehill also served one term on the Centerville Town Council further reflecting his longstanding commitment to the public service and the Centerville community. Whereas the Town Council believes that permanently associating Mr. Whitehill's name with the Centerville Wharf Park is an appropriate and lasting tribute to his many years of service, good humor, and unmistakable presence in the life of the town. Now therefore be it resolved by the Town Council of Centerville that the public park presently known as the Centerville Wharf Park shall hereafter be officially designated as Michael C. Whitehill Park at the Centerville Wharf. Be it further resolved that the historic name Centerville Wharf will remain an integral part of the identity and designation of the property and be it further resolved that town staff are authorized to install appropriate signage, plaques, markers or other commemorative features and to update the town records, maps, publications, websites, and other materials to reflect the official name. And be it further resolved that this naming shall serve as a permanent expression of the town's gratitude for Michael C. Whitehill's service, leadership, wit, and commitment to the Centerville community. Read and passed this, what is it, 17th day of September, 2026. I think that is,

mike made so many very substantial contributions to our community and elsewhere but so much to our town and i i think this is just a wonderful tribute to him well deserved yes he's just i agree high caliber high quality and we're all better off for his presence here what he's done i completely agree support of that 100

the park advisory board didn't we didn't have the necessary members to make a formal motion but overwhelmingly the whole group there said we want to do it and we were told by a member of staff that would come up tonight so we backed this up yes yep and we i wish he had a usb port in his brain because i'd like to download everything in there but you know a lot there yes there's a lot there so they're actually having this is off topic they're having an auction uh

which I'll be at tomorrow.

I'm sure you will be.

Going through his woodworking stuff. So it's sad that that's happened, that needing to happen, but it's just a great tribute to him.

Yes, yeah. So I just need a motion from the council, and it would be approved tonight.

Thank you, sir. I'll be pleased to make a motion to approve the renaming of the war park under Michael Whitehill's name. Let Sandy get a second if she wants.

I second.

All right. All in favor of the resolution? Aye. Aye. All right.

And I'd like to just say a few words because I was on the Park Advisory Board, and it can't be overstated the impact that Mike has had on this community and the park system. He's been behind, you know, getting great funding, helping the town, design, just everything. I'm going to say he's probably done a lot for the trail system in the town of Centerville over the many years.

So the trail system we have now is probably because of Michael White. Oh yeah, it is. Most definitely. I appreciate that very much. All right. Next is reports of boards and commissions. MML. Okay. Council government. No meeting. When's the next meeting? I can't remember. Should be November, right? I think it's November. In November. Economic development.

I've been speaking and representing economic development for the last year. And I'll say a few things. But we also now are privileged to have an economic development manager. So I'm going to defer more comments. And if you have more comments after I make just a couple of highlights, I know you have another report later. But you're welcome. It's so great that we now have Gaye as the full-time economic development manager. So that's my biggest announcement is that, and that she's fully on board with that. We do have a CETA meeting next Tuesday on the 22nd. At that meeting, it's just come up in the last couple days, we don't know, and I don't know if the email's even gone out yet, but we've invited all the candidates who are running for town council to come to our meeting to talk about their ideas for economic development. I think it's important to have a better understanding of what their objectives may be or ideas or willingness to work with CETA and the town council in that effort. So that's, I know it's short notice since that's just going out, I think tonight.

And that's at the Wharf building, correct?

It is at the Wharf at seven o'clock Tuesday night. Yep. At that meeting, we're also trying to finalize, see that coming to the town council, probably at the October 1st meeting, if we have time and if they're prepared enough to ask the town council with suggestions on how to have other enticements or incentives for businesses to gain entry into the Centerville market. So they'll be preparing that and two or three of the seat of members will be coming to present to that. So we'll try to get that wrapped up as quickly as possible and get that on the agenda if we can for the next meeting. We thought it was important to present to our current town council rather than whatever the makeup is of the future, since we have more background on that. I think the new restaurant is called The Ordinary that is scheduled to be open sometime in November, I believe, downtown. So we're excited about that. They're still making progress with that. And it's not the right name, but the Taco Breakfast Restaurant, Bridges and Tacos. Do you know what the latest is for their opening? They were slated before the end of September. That's what I thought.

Okay, you'll probably have to come because they can't hear you on TV.

They're projected to open up sometime here in September or early October, and we're looking forward to that. And I was happy to see that Brackish Books has, with some help, a new sign up in front of their building. So there's good positive progress in town on the economic development side, and we're so excited about so much more.

Oh, yeah. Okay, I didn't have to say anything. I didn't go back. Oh, okay. Sorry. Sorry. You can go back. You did it all.

Yeah. Sorry. I have a question.

Yes.

Frank, I am away on vacation and will be there. Will there be any information that can be provided prior to town council that will be discussed on Tuesday that I can receive?

Once I know it, I'll be happy to share that with you. We've assigned three different committees to work on different subjects like that. And so I'm hoping to have a recap from them this coming Tuesday. And it may need further revisement over the next week or so. Once we have that, I'll be happy to share whatever insights ahead of time to you.

Is that it?

That's it. All right. Next, Park Advisory Board.

Just that they're very delighted with what you're doing for Mike Wildhill. Okay.

Thank you very much. No trees, nothing. Would you like me to sing or anything?

I have a couple trees. Cut them short when you can.

Next is the Planning Commission. Sandy?

I have a couple things to report on. There's a meeting last night. that the county will be doing. And it was a small piece that wasn't discussed at the last meeting, but I think I updated it or not, between Green Street and Kidwell Avenue. There was some discussion about that, So the county was approved by the Planning Commission, but the county's very into the comments from the community. That's on the other side where the trail will be. So they're continuing to take those comments. The Planning Commission approved it, and for the county to work with Peter, actually, as it relates to the town administration as they move forward and make further decisions about that piece of the trail. And the other, which related to short-term rental, One of the points that were discussed that we're having quite a lengthy discussion on is parking and as it relates to requirements for short-term rentals. And I'll just say overall at a high level that I think it's important and there's support, I think, from the administration, you know, from both Peter and Sharon that the ordinance that we put in place should be a more asked than what our private residents have to do. Thank you.

All right, next is reports of department heads, town manager.

In your packets, there is a letter that was submitted to you for your consideration. This is a support letter. So Providence Farm, the annexed property, has gone through the county for an amendment to the comprehensive water and sewer plan, which they need to change the service. to W3S3, and that's a three to 10 year planning period. They also requested a termination of the zoning for that property, which is currently zoned agriculture in the county. So the county has to terminate that zoning in order for the town zoning to kick in. So this letter, there was a public hearing that was held. Sharon attended, Peter attended. And unfortunately, Sandy typically has attended these, but she was unavailable that night. So they asked for this letter from the council to be sent to the county in support of the amendment to the comprehensive water and sewer plan and the termination of the zoning district. So they left the comment period open for their public hearing. They meet Monday. That public hearing closes, and they'll make their decision. If the council is in favor of this letter, then we will submit it to the county tomorrow to go in the commissioner packets.

Let me take a vote and see who's in favor.

You can.

Everybody's in favor of supporting this letter? Yes.

I read through it in detail. I think it's well written, and I think it's important. I do have a question. Do we know approximately how many homes they're talking about in that development? Or is that still under?

There is around 900, I believe.

Yeah.

I don't know the exact number, but I think it's around 900.

it's interesting that the the new coding or how that's going to be classified requires a certain amount of like parks and grasslands open space yeah that kind of thing to make it a real community not just a big neighborhood 900 new homes right right yeah it'll be like a it's a it's it's being zoned traditional neighborhood development so it'll be like a traditional neighborhood you know

street scapes and open space green space trail they'll have trail around it as well around the property and we can get this letter to them before monday yeah yep right everybody's in fact are you in favor yeah i'm a fair just wanted to follow up on your question so in the plan the providence property they are still talking to fight paths trails

All right. Yes. Oh, and I do have a couple of things. Sorry, I'm not done with my report. This week has been a very busy week for staff. So we've had a few software demonstrations that staff have attended. This past Saturday was the fishing derby at the Centerville Wharf that Jackie and I attended. I will let Jackie, Jackie's gonna report on the specifics of it, but I just wanted to send, say a thank you to Corsica River Conservancy, because they are a partner with the town for this event, and they provide the poles, the bait, You know, they take the fish off the hook and put the worms on the hook. And so they do the hard part of the of the the event. So they're a great partner for this event. So I just want to thank them for their participation in it. Monday we had a public meeting, was held by Dam Safety. So this is for the expansion of the lagoon out at the spray field. And as part of that permit through Dam Safety, there was someone that submitted a question which triggered an actual public hearing. So that was held Monday evening. No one showed up to it, so we closed it after 15 minutes. Tuesday, attended the candidate forum at Symphony Village. That was great. Wednesday, we had an informational meeting last night with Maryland Department of the Environment related to the town has submitted for renewal of our current discharge permit for the current plant. which is expiring, so they had an informational meeting on that. We had several people attend that meeting and ask questions and there was good discussion. And then I just wanted to announce, which we just found out today, the League of Women Voters will hold a candidate forum for the current, the three candidates running for office for the town council. it will be held on Monday September 28th at 6 30 here in this building which my assumption is QACTV will also be recording so once that recording which typically is the next day the town will post that video on our website and so it's available for people to watch if they don't have a chance that night to to That's the 28th? Monday, September 28th, yes. So one week before the... Election. Yes, the election.

And what time is it, Carolyn?

6.30. 6.30. 6.30? Yep.

And just a question. On the website, how is it communicated that there will be this? Yeah.

So we just learned about it this afternoon, so it's not been posted yet. So we'll be posting that on the website tomorrow. More than likely, we'll have an email blast out or several email blasts because we're going to be promoting the actual election. And we'll put that on there as well. Thank you. That's all I have.

Can I just ask a couple quick questions?

Sure. All fun ones.

First of all, thanks for getting everybody there at the forum up at Symphony Village. I have you there, Jackie, and I have the staff. It was good. It's good to see we were all prepared sitting at the table, either for tomatoes or questions. Yes, I'm not sure which was going to come. We did all right. Yeah. Just a couple quick questions. One that's the biggest pain in the you-know-what. Where are we on the mill? I drove by about a half an hour ago, four cars, whole front.

So we did so cliff our code enforcement officer did reach out to the property owner last Friday actually and spoke to him the contractor is scheduled to begin though. It's the I believe that They were supposed to start the beginning of this week. The contractor was but did not so The grass did get cut this week and then he did inform cliff that When he is on the property the next time, he is moving that explorer out from the front yard. Tell him we'll push it out of the way if he wants it. So as soon as the contractor starts, we're just waiting on the contractor to start. So they were supposed to start this week, but obviously they did not. What happens if they don't start this week?

I asked counsel, and she was very good before the meeting, our legal possibilities. They don't seem to be as good as I was hoping. But there is a public nuisance law. That I believe we there is a town and let's get the legal opinion or an individual can say that's a public nuisance. Now, if we investigated that, can we do something?

The town can adopt public nuisance provisions, but we don't have those currently in our code. But the state law does allow that.

Well, can we put that on the agenda, you know, if we need it? I mean, we have the governor of the state of Maryland coming in within the next couple weeks to dedicate a statue. He's going to come through the town of San Diego, and what's he going to see? A lovely town, but what the heck is there?

Four abandoned cars, building that... And he's going to see the building at Wooder and...

Yeah, I mean, remember, it's not the staff's fault. It's this individual. So we need to help. If you need us, that's our job to help you. Let's do it. If we need to help the legal help, get in an ordinance and say it's a public nuisance. Fred comes back from vacation hoping it wasn't there and it was still there. Maybe you said it at the last meeting.

I drove by it today. I did see the lawn was mowed.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, so I'll give credit for that. But, yeah, we're all tired of seeing it. And the public meeting out at the Symphony Village, it was a hot topic.

All three candidates said, let's do something. So can I ask that, you know, if you need help by the next meeting, let's give you, with legal advice, help. And if we have to pass an ordinance, let's pass an ordinance. It's getting to the point it's embarrassing. It really is.

All right, next chief of police. Nothing.

Chief, can I thank you? We had, uh, I got several phone calls, which I think you know about. We had a very strange and suspicious vehicle. Chief, uh, just numbers. Uh, we had a strange vehicle parked on Chester field ad, which was drawing a lot of attention. The motor was running, the lights were on. Uh, I called you all and within 15 minutes, an officer had gone out. It turned out it was a,

investigation going on but it made a lot of neighbors uh calm and thank you for doing that uh sure no absolutely that's what we're here for outside of the august 2026 monthly report from the department which typically it has all our statistics on there which is available not only to the council in your packet but one line on the website as well i don't have anything additional for the night for the council unless you have questions for me

No. Five criminal arrests. Anything exciting? I mean, you know, what's a criminal arrest? Exciting.

I should be criminally arrested every time I ride my damn bike around town. I think exciting might be subjective. What's exciting to you might not be exciting to us, but I don't have the exact arrest incidents in front of me.

It just went up from three to five.

We have had an uptick in juvenile-related issues here lately. Now the school's back in session. You know, we have, when the... Schools letting out in the afternoons. We're having like the flights after after schools letting out We have a few minor thefts that are occurring things of that nature like standard what we've been dealing with for the last couple years, so So, you know Hopefully we can sit down with maybe the superintendent the principal see if we can work something out We haven't been able to in the past years Don't we have a committee supposed to meet with the superintendent occasionally?

Is it meeting with him?

I believe there was a meeting this week, was there not?

Yeah.

Okay. Did you talk about the traffic? Okay.

I mean, you've got a traffic problem. I got it. I got it. Okay. Again, that could be subjective as to whether it's a problem or not and who's supposed to take care of those issues.

Yeah. Anything else for the chief? I'm good. Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much.

Next is no KIPP. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm out of time, but I got to think up for it. Town clerk is next.

Oh, that's me. Okay. That's me. I've got my paper here.

So fishing derby fun. We had 63 participants come this year. So it was really great to see all the families come and participate in that. The park was heavily used that day. lot of um a lot of good community there uh 15 fish were measured so out of the 63 participants 15 fish were caught um so the first fish that was caught was from brendan adair it was a six and a half inch perch was the first fish documented yep um in the two to five year old age group um addy from her, I hope I'm saying that right. She won that one, a seven and a three quarter inch fish. For the six to nine year old group, Eli Wheaton got the largest at 13 inches. In the 10 to 12 year old category, we actually had a tie with Brendan Adair and Creed Schaefer with a 12 inch. I don't know if it was the same fish or not. 12 inch fish.

And then the 13 to 15 year old age group, CJ Nugent, had a 12 and a half inch. So we got the trophies presented.

we can certainly get the picture shared with the council just as you know appreciation so they they used to come in to get their trophies we it just tends to be that people don't show up to the meeting so that the last meeting I had asked the council if they were okay if we gave it away at the event so If the council wants to invite them in, we can certainly invite them in.

I just think at some point, and Jackie and I have talked before, maybe in the future, we set up a committee. The best thing the Board of Ed does is the first 15 minutes of their meeting, they have Employee of the Month, Energizer Bunny, Community Service Award. It brings in 50 people plus. It sets such a positive attitude at the start of the meeting. Now, you do this by committee. You don't have Fred pick his guys or Fred's. You have staff and a council person. You get people here for one thing, and it's a positive experience, whether it's fish or whatever it might be. We can discuss it. Yep. That's future groups, yeah.

So then the only other thing that I had, the election is coming up on October 5th, so that's 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., uh it will be at the queen anne's county office building the planning and zoning meeting room at 110 vincent street so everybody come out and vote can we jackie can we do everything there's a lot of confusion

A lot of people think the election is in November. It's election day in November. I'm sure we're doing it on our website, but constantly remind people it's October 5th.

We do. We send out email blasts leading up to that. We'll have Facebook posts, and we actually have signs going up next week. Good, because they need to be reminded.

And it's advertised in the paper, if anyone still reads that. Shame on you. It is in the paper.

Brad, you said it in the paper?

Can I have a canary? I put it down. I'm a part of my canary. That is all I have. Yes, ma'am.

There is the ability for mail-ins. Is that still, is that accurate?

Absentee balance?

Not mail-ins, no. But they can, well, they can, we can email, yes, absentee balance. We can email an application. They can submit it. We will mail them their ballot to them. And then they can return it, whether it is by mail or drop off. They have up until the day of the election, the night, 7 p.m. on the election day to drop off an absentee.

The application deadline is the 28th of September.

Yeah, the 28th of September is the last day to get an absentee ballot without having an emergency. Starting the 29th, it has to be an emergency in order to get one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that's it. All right.

Thank you.

Next, I'm not forgetting you tonight. Economic development manager.

I always feel bad. No, I'm kidding.

I'll be short.

I'll be short. I just want to start by just giving some event updates. September 26th at the Courthouse Green, that is the revolutionary birthday bash. from 10 to 2. There'll be kid games, food, and refreshments at that event. So we hope people will come out. It's the second half of the 4th of July that got canceled due to heat. So we hope to see everyone there. On October 4th is Rockin' the Porch. That event is from 2 to 6 p.m. Save the date, October 24th for Centerville Day from 11 to 3 p.m. a free event for kids, and we hope you guys come out and take advantage of pumpkin bowling, pumpkin painting, zucchini races, face painting, things like that. We're very excited for that this year. For Main Street, we had our Main Street Steering Committee meeting on the 15th. We are working on finishing up the transformation strategy. That needs to be completed by October, so in the November meeting we'll present the Main Street strategy to the town. Then continued Centerville day prep. Also, for Fridays in October from 10 to two, I will be walking the Main Street District with Main Street volunteers and CETA volunteers if they would like to update and make sure our booms tracker, which is our internal inventory business tracker, so we wanna make sure all the businesses and all the buildings are correctly labeled and identified. uh... for cita against uh... fred mentioned our meeting is the twenty second uh... at the uh... worth at six o'clock and you know the public's welcome if they would like to come uh... we are working desperately to update council on our progress and we want to have a presentation october so uh... hopefully this meeting will meet those objectives. We have on 925, we have a site visit for possible urgent care to come to the town. So I have two places I'll be taking the healthcare company around to. Carolyn's gonna join me and Fred if you're available and any other seat of members. When is that? The 25th. September 25th. 10 a.m. is the first visit on Liberty Street. We're going to start there. I'll send an email out. If you could, great. We just got confirmation today. And then the last thing, I just wanted to quickly update that town has updated their website. And I have a quick presentation that I just want to tell you kind of why. The website is a work in progress. We had to make it live. before we had a chance to make a lot of updates. So we're doing that on a daily basis. We had to modernize our website because the prior platform was retiring. So we had to move it over. It was reaching its end of life. But we also have new DOJ and ADA Title II requirements that we must be in compliant for. so we're ahead of that and so now our website is now ada compliant it does provide a stronger platform faster content tools for staff and it's mobile friendly for residents so it's easier to see on their phone that's the new home page of what it looks like today um Our calendar and news events are front and center. And then we have our agendas and minutes, staff directories in one place, and accessibility is built into every page. We currently have audio eye, which this is a continually scans our site against WCAG standards. So it fixes anything that's wrong with a file. So it can be ADA compliant. We also have Doc Access Now, which converts posted PDFs, agendas, minutes, and notices into accessible screen reader-friendly formats when they're uploaded. In the News Flash section, you'll notice we have a Notify Me section. This is where residents can subscribe once and receive an email or text update for town news, meeting agendas, press releases, meetings, events, whatever you're interested in. So we encourage the town to sign up for these events so they're always aware of what's going on. Our agenda center is updated in every meeting that we have. All the agendas and minutes are there. instead of, it was scattered all over. We have a Centerville Business and Community Hub site, so doing business in Centerville, this is the Main Street page. We do have a new business list, so that'll be going up, as well as we'll be updating the Main Street site. We also have site selection on our website, so you can now see commercial properties that are for lease in the town. Um, so we, um, if you have any questions, please reach out. We're actively training and implementing, um, updates to the, to the website. Um, the week of the 20th, we have tailored department by department training sessions. Um, we have ongoing webmaster support and by mid October, um, hopefully everyone's proficient with this site and can keep everything updated. And Tom Fitzgibbon is our team. Um, but. That is all. That is why we updated our site. Thank you. Any questions?

Have you seen this flyer? The farmers market is going to have an art show on the 27th. Has anyone talked to you?

There's a copy of the flyer. I was given that at the veterans meeting.

Let's see.

Something the town should know about. Centerville Farmers Market on Sunday the 27th from 9 to 1. They'll have a veterans art sale and the United States Colored Troops will have an educational display. And the art sale on the proceeds benefit the United States Colored Troops Memorial. So come on out and check out the farmer's market on the 27th.

Thanks, I hadn't been given that.

Appreciate it. We'll get you one. That's it. That's it.

Thank you. Last time we talked about green lights, Veterans November.

I have reached out to the county, so I'll follow up with Mr. Edgar. Thank you.

Next, the second citizen forum. Citizens are requested to keep their comments for three minutes. Anybody? I see nobody. We'll move on. Next is council roundtable. I'll call council person Huffer first. Have anything?

No additional comments.

All right. Council Member View. I'm good, thank you.

Cool weather coming next week. Yes, it is. I can't wait.

There's hope. I have a couple things. Breakfast starts back at the firehouse this weekend, the 20th. This Sunday is the 20th. So from 7.30 to 11. Next. the meeting dr kibler and sit pender about the traffic concerns at canard and they did agree that there was a traffic problem there and they were going to put a sign up So after the parents drop their children off, they have to make a right-hand turn and go down to Green Street and go out there. And according to the MUTCD manual, it's only enforceable if it has a town of Centerville logo on it. So we can put a sticker on the back of the sign and it will be legal. Do you have any stickers? We have stickers. So it can be enforced. We also discussed the Chesterfield, but we didn't. Well, since the building now no longer belongs to the Board of Ed, they can't control what goes around. I've made the suggestion of going around the back of the building and sitting there, and when they can see an opening on Draper Lane, they go down in there. But I've talked to bus drivers and a lot of people about this, and the parents do not they don't they don't they don't they don't care about the bus driver and it's an ongoing issue and they're very they're aware of it Sid and Dr. Kibler are very aware of it you have to do something the problem he said the problem with this is they sent emails out and said they the kids the parents dropped their kids off but they get out of their cars and walk the kids up to the thing now their car is sitting there parking my driveway in front of my house so they are aware of the issue and they're working on it But the sign at Kennard could help a lot. I pulled up to the stop sign, tried to go across. There's cars here, there's cars here. Right in the middle of the road is a bus. And I threw my hands up and I said, what? And she threw her hands up and I said, well, at least you could get on one side of the road or the other. And she goes, I can't get any further over. She was 10 feet away from the curb and gutter. And I said, this is where the problem is. So I actually... didn't say anything else I just kept minding my business kept on going when I say yeah but anyway so they're addressing the canard issue first and then we'll try to work on the and I didn't ask about this and I don't know so you get the The school bus stoplight camera, there's a fee. The fine, it's $250, I do believe, right? And I don't know where that money goes. So I'm trying to find out where that money goes so if they could hire, train some people to direct traffic. He, Dr. Kibber said, I mean, I don't want to put teachers out there because they don't have the direct traffic. So I said, if I can get... Find out where this funding goes to get. Some. Trained crossing guards or. Traffic directors out there.

A little bit of information for the council. Is I don't know why this county is not one to stick a teacher out there when every other county seems to not have a problem with it So we did a very quick study and again not so much information because this might be a discussion for another time but throughout the whole entire Eastern Shore just about every municipality or county either puts a teacher out there or a Personnel from the school board to direct traffic they can take a week long two weeks long or whatever long traffic direction school and get certified to be one and stand out there with the best like anybody else can. So I mean.

I'll address it.

As far as as far as funding for it I mean they're paying the staff anyway.

There's grants etc. We have in town I coach at the high school from 2 to 5. Chief knows at 2 25 for the next 15 minutes that coming out of that high school talking to high school now it's dangerous right. You have inexperienced drivers, and I saw a near miss today when I pulled out. Canard, disaster, and Senator...

The Canard and Chesterfield are only for about an hour a day. An hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon.

But if you see what I see every day, I sit on the porch of one of my offices. We've got chief knows it, double parked, Bubba tries to park in his pickup truck.

it's ongoing we're going to talk to them again about it this buck can be passed all the way around to everybody and we can have a little piece of pie but at the end of the day we've had everything from SROs from the county that we're responsible for to you know teachers that have been out there so there's been multiple people involved with this throughout the years

for years they did it down they did it on canal and when the buses left stevenville middle school put a a teacher on each end stopped the traffic well that used to be a duty you had that duty yes i would i'll just talk to him he's very nice you can talk to him and i i will sit down and talk to him again about the issues and sure and if i need to be president for you like for me to be president please let me know and we'll make time yep so thank you no problem And the only other thing I have now is, I forgot about this. What's going on with the SHA property? Did we acquire it yet? Or is it still in the works? So we had a property down at, we wanted to buy it. It's across from Red Zone. It's how many acres, seven acres?

Seven, a little over seven acres. So as you buy, Remember that the issue with the property we were actually on the agenda for the board of public works to go to settlement. There were covenants that were written because they're a portion of it is a mitigated area. So this is property that State Highway bought when they as a mitigation. Area when they did the overpass on 3 0 1 they were required. By Army Corps. And so there were covenants that were placed on the property that Army Corps and State Highway came up with. The funding for that for the town to purchase that property is through program open space when the people at program open space read the covenants they were. Basically would not be funding the purchase of the property so because the covenants basically said you can't do anything on this property in the mitigated area so. We reached out to State Highway, Peter and I, and Army Corps. It took us a while to get ahold of somebody at Army Corps. We met with them. We toured the area where the town was planning to have, this is where part of Mike Whitehill's plan, a wilderness trail through this part with a kind of, with a bridge over, but a very rustic bridge over the stream there. once we did that they both came up with some ideas as to where we could they could identify an area of reserved rights where the town could scrub that area for the trail I had actually reached out to both of them earlier this week to see Pete had McCrone come out and and mark off the trail we sent that information to them and we hadn't heard back so So we have a call next week. Nick from Army Corps reached back out. We had a call with State Highway earlier. They're kind of just waiting for Army Corps to decide how they want to do this. So next week, Pete and I have a call with Army Corps to see what else we need to do so we can proceed with this. But yeah, we're still in the process. I mean, it's only been like, I don't know, five years that we've been working on this.

Yeah, I know. It's been a while.

And can I actually make one more? I forgot to mention one. So there is Corsica River Day is this Sunday at Conquest Beach. From 12 to three, the town participates will be there with a booth. So I just wanted to. That's it.

Anything else?

I've got nothing.

Thank you for adjournment.

Second.