Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome you to to tonight to the meeting of the town of Rising Sun mayor and commissioners July 15, 2025. Call to order and roll call. Pauline Bronn Emily Kleiner here. Mayor Marian here. here. Dave Warick here. Augie Pearson here. Let the record show you have a quorum. I would like everybody to rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If we may take a moment uh in prayer. Um dear Lord, please watch over those in Texas, New Jersey, New York who are suffering some of the worst catastrophes that they could ever handle. Uh please bless all the ones that are doing so diligent to try to find the missing people. Please be c please watch over the first responders and the military that are involved and hopefully they they will have a safe outcome for everyone. Amen.

Amen. Okay. I need a motion to open to a public hearing. I make a motion to open a public hearing. Second. Second. Okay. Motion was made by Emily and second in by Dave. Okay. There's a general overview of tonight's public hearing format. Calvin, do you want to take it from here?

I'll I'll take that. So, we're here uh for two purposes tonight. One, to hold a public hearing on three separate annexation resolutions. Um we'll do that in a formal public hearing. We'll go through that process. The elected body once that's come to a conclusion will adjourn that meeting, that public hearing, and then they will make a motion to uh return back to the regular town meeting here. Um so before you tonight you have three resolutions um for annexation. We have to go through each one of them individually so that they have their own independent record. Okay. Uh presentation of annex resolution 2025-5A 35 North Hills Drive. Town administrator. Yes. So, this is an annexation resolution for 35 North Hills Drive. And let me just lay this out here, and it'll be the same format going through. When when a when someone wishes to annex their property into town, there is a resolution that is presented to the elected body. the elected body conceptually says yes, we're open to that. Um there's an annexation agreement and then it goes into uh basically a 90day process of uh review of the annexation. um that that process includes us preparing an annexation plan, sending that to the Mard Department of Planning

and they get an opportunity to comment on it and then it also goes to Cecil County in their uh land development or planning division and then they get an opportunity to comment on it to express any concerns um that they have. uh both entities are given the opportunity to comment on it, but they they're they don't affectuate the outcome of the meeting. It's up to the town of Rising Sun to determine whether or not they want to proceed with the annexation. So, that's the boiler plate. So, in looking at 35 North Hills uh Drive, this is a property. Um, before we get into it, I'll show you basically where it is at. So, if you're looking at the town of Rising Sun, and this is the Route One corridor right here, it is this property is on North Hills Drive, which is down in the area of the town's dog park where Mount Street and Walnut come together. And then you continue from that point out to Route One. North Hills Drive comes in from the right and there's a property uh the second property in up there is 35 North Hills Drive and they have requested to annex into the town of Rising Sun. So, this is a resolution that the elected body um uh considered back in uh April, I believe it was February, March or April, I'm not sure, is when the resolution was first submitted. And in the resolution um basically um I'll go to the 1 2 3 4 fifth whereas cuz the stuff above it is all boilerplate whereas the sole property owner of all the assessed

valuation of the real property located in the area to be annexed has consented to set annexation in an annexation agreement dated February 4th 2025. This agreement will be recorded in the land records of Cecil County and further outlines the term and conditions related to this. Um, this is owned by Stillwaters uh, Investment Property and within an annexation resolution. I'm not going to read this stuff because it's like watching uh, paint dry on the wall. This is I think the only one that can appreciate that is probably Evan might get excited over reading this stuff because he's a survey guy. So this is your meats and bounds um that describe the actual property uh that's going to be annexed into the town. So that is listed in the document. Um the resolution goes on to basically say that it's 6.86 6.862 862 acres of land, more or less. It's going to be annexed into the town. It would be zoned in the town zoning designation as rural business. Um, let me also say to you that when you go through an annexation process, where the county gets an opportunity to have a comment in there is when a municipality or a town annexes land into the town. As long as the area that's being annexed is not intended to be developed at a use more intense, meaning if it's residential and you all of a sudden want to turn it into manufacturing, that's more of an intense use. or if it was

land in the county that would allow, let's say, five houses on it and the town zoning would then allow 25 houses on it. That's considered a greater density. And at that point, the county has the ability to say, "Whoa, we don't really like that." They can't stop the annexation, but they can put basically a five-year moratorum on any development of the land to take place. So, we are bringing it into our town in a zoning designation that is called rural business. And when we did our comprehensive plan many years ago, knowing that people were g want to annex into the town because quite frankly the driving force is failing wells and septic in in the area is why we get a lot of inquiries from people at times who don't want to spend the 40 50 $60,000 putting a new drain field in. They'd rather get on the town sewer or they don't want to dig a new well for 25,000 whatever it is. they'd rather get on town water. That's the driving force. And so when we redid our comprehensive plan many years ago, we anticipated these properties that are already developed. So we created zoning language that pretty much matched what the county has. So anyone who lives in the county is is familiar with business general or BG. We basically adopted the same type of language. We just call it rural business here. And so, as a result of that, you're going to see later on the county doesn't have an issue with the annexation. Um, give me one second and I'll show you some support documents from this. So, here what I'm going to

bring up is a letter that we got from the county. Now, there's one mistake that the county made on this, and I want to show you is that right here, they're referring to this is 523 Mount Street. We have another annexation that's adjacent to this property. And when the county made the letter, they did not change the address on the letter. But all of this tax identification is information down below, that is for 35 um North Hills Drive. And then when you see in the letter, it makes reference to the fact that when you annex properties, you can't just go into the middle of the county somewhere and say, "We're going to annex that." It has to you you use the language of contiguous. And so it what you see down here in the last paragraph, the county is saying in addition, it's noted that this annexation appears to meet the adjacency requirement provided that the annexation process for the adjoining parcel 523 Mount Street is completed prior to or concurrently with the approval of this request. So, it's just more validation that they put the wrong address on this particular letter. It's intended for five uh 435 uh North Hills Drive. And then the other document is um from the MA Department of Planning and they go through a much more elaborate review, but they basically say that it matches our comprehensive plan. it's intended for annexation and they don't have any uh negative comments about it either. So by law we are required to give both those agencies 30 days to comment and that's what you're

seeing is those comment letters again. Um so that basically concludes the presentation for 35 North Hills Lane. Again, it's down right before you get to Route One along Mount Street. You make the right on North Hills Drive and it's up there on the right hand side. And let me show you this. When you go to the end of the actual resolution, there is a plaque here that shows it more closely. So, this is right down here is Mount Street and here is the Route One corridor. This is the property in question, 35 North Hills Drive. And this annexation is annexing State Highway all the way over. And this is where it becomes contiguous with the town because there's a 50-foot easement across Route One that is already in town limits. So that's how it becomes contiguous. And then that connects, people might not realize it, but the whole west side of Mount Street is actually in the town of Rising Sun also. And then just for reference, right about um up in in this area here is where Triangle Dog Park is at. So that concludes um the the background on the proposed annexation of 35 North Hills Drive. So with that, you could open it up to public comment on this.

Does anyone have anything to comment on North Hills Drive? Okay, Calvin, let we'll go to the next one. Um, you would actually uh deliberate on this and vote on it. Okay, since no one I make I make a motion to approve. I second it. Okay, a motion has been made and second to approve the annexation resolution 2025-5A 35 North Hills Drive. Can I have a vote? I I

I It's unanimous the annexation resolution has passed. Okay. Now we'll go to 551. That's annex annexation resolution 2025-6A. Calvin.

Yes. And this is for 551 Joseph Bates Memorial Highway and it's it's the same standard resolution. It says it's the same stuff. When people annex into the town, they pay town tax. um when they connect to the town water and sewer, they pay the same water and sewer rates um that the in town residents, they pay benefit assessment fees. You know, I want to make that clear. Um so, the resolution is basically the same. Here's your uh meets and bounds description and here is a plat showing where this is located at. And this is on, let me bring up one more document for you. And here's the annexation plan that I was talking about. It's a a 23page document that we send to the county and the state and that's what they base their review on. And it talks about, you know, it is it consistent with the comprehensive plan. Is it going to get water and sewer public facilities? Is there any impact on police uh schools and stuff like that? Um so what I wanted to show you is the general location of where it is at. And so in this particular case, if you were this little red leg hanging down here, that is the community fire company of Rising Sun on uh Joseph Bigs Highway. And this right here is Pierce Road that comes out to 274. This property is right on the edge of the Canudson development right across from McGomery Drive. And so that's what you're seeing here. If you're familiar

with where McGomery Road is uh on Bigs Highway, this is a requirement of the land development application that was submitted a while back for the Canson property in order for them uh as part of the land development process, they had to provide for access out on the 274. And the best way to do that was to purchase this house on the corner so they could get adequate road access out on the Joseph Bigs Highway. Um so that's the location of that. Here is the um the county's review of the document. You see 551 Joseph Bakes Memorial Highway. And I'll read this here, which was in the other letters, too. Please be advised that the town's R1 zoning district does not permit uses that are substantially different from those permitted in the county's RR zoning district. Nor does it permit a density that the density that is substantially higher. Therefore, no action is required by Cecil County on the proposed zoning change. Let me back up and just clarify. When they say no action is if we were asking for a density or intensity that was greater, we could request the county council to grant a waiver to allow that to happen. We did not ask for a waiver because we too felt that it's sort of a one-on-one match there and the county is concurring with that. So there's no further action needed from the county and they're in concurrence that it's okay. And then here is the review letter from the now department of the uh plan

now department of planning and they again have no issue with uh with the annexation also. So I think I covered everything on that one. Okay. Do we have public com any public comment? Okay. Can I have a motion for the resolution? Second. Okay, motion's made and second. All in favor say I. I. I.

I. Motion passes. Annex annexation resolution 2025-6A 551 Bigs Highway has passed. All right, Calvin. The next one is the annexation resolution of 2025-10A 523 Mount Street. All right. So, this one here, I'm going to jump down to uh where you can see this at. And this is going to look a little familiar because I said it's adjacent to 35 um North Hills Drive. So, again, it's in the same general location of where Mount Street comes out to Route One. And if you make the it's where the old hitching go was located at um down there the old abandoned gas station. So that is 523 Mount Street. Again the the resolution language is all the same. It just gives a legal description where it's located. Here are the meets and bounds describing the the area to be annexed. And then here is a map showing it. So again, we're down at Mount Street and this is the property being annexed. I had just we had just went through 35 North Hills Drive. Um and so that was that property there. It is contiguous because we are it's it's going to be annexed next to 35 North Hills and it's also annexing across Mount Street and this piece of property here that I had said is already in the town of Rising Sun. So, it meets the um the concept of being contiguous. And here is

the review letter from the county. And again, this is where I had said they had the same address. The difference here is if you remember in the other one, the reason why we knew it was 35 is what they meant was because the tax information is different. this is the tax information for 523 and they don't make reference in this letter about it has to be continuous with 523. So again I'm just emphasizing the county made a clerical mistake in the address there. Uh but again you can see that the county is saying that they are in agreement with everything and there's no action needed from the county. They don't have an objection to the annexation. And then when you look at the um uh state of Maryland, they um and for transparency, the state of Maryland, one individual reviewed this document and although they were not opposed to the annexation, they did not realize that we had a zoning designation of rural business. And so they made a reference in there that there's no rural business in the town's zoning code. I got that corrected and they sent a review letter today that modified that that it is there is a rural business uh location in here. Um I do know that we have in the audience I believe Mr. Stafer is here. Um if uh Commissioner Pearson, if you wanted to allow them to talk before public comment, that concludes my uh presentation.

Gentlemen, just here to watch the proceedings. Oh jeez. Okay. Then can I have a motion on annexation resolution 2025-10A 523 Mount Street? So moved. Second moved and second. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Motion pass. Okay. I like to have a motion now to close the public hearing. So move. And I second it. All in favor say I. I. I.

I. Commissioner Pearson. If I might add, you probably should ask for a motion to go back into the regular meeting. It's not on the agenda. Now, can I have a motion to go back into the public meeting? I make a motion to go back into the public meeting. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Okay, we are back in the public here.

Hey, Auggie. I have a quick uh point of order and I just wanted to mention to everyone that while that annexation's uh seemed pretty quick. Uh it it's taken our staff, you know, a long time to get them together and we as an elected body have talked about it um in length through emails and through previous meetings that we've had. So just a point of order with that. Okay. Thanks, Travis. All right. Now, the elected body deliberation and action. Calvin, I'm not quite sure what we're doing here because it seems redundant to what we've already done. No, you're good. You you can proceed forward.

Okay. I am now uh we're back in in the public hearing. I'd like to now skip to new business. We have people here that are suffering through this new air conditioned room. So, uh, resolution 2025-14, facade improvement program, Calvin.

All right. So, what this is, this this is a requirement. The town has been very successful at applying for various grants um over the last couple of months. And one of the boxes we always have to check is resolutions uh formally uh moving forward with these things. So the town has applied for a grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and it's called a facade improvement grant. And what we are looking to do is to get $50,000 from the state of Maryland that would be distributed to the town of Rising Sun. And this will be the second time we've gotten this type of grant. um they would give the town $50,000 and then we are going to develop an actual facade improvement program in which businesses in the town can apply for low interest loans or grant forgiveness to do certain things um on their businesses. Now the intent is and we're a big proponent of the entrepreneurial spirit. So when we're creating our facade improvement program, we're not looking to provide grant monies for the McDonald's corporations of the world. We're looking to provide grant monies for the entrepreneurial spirit who wants to come into town and open up a business. And so in order to make this project more successful, the town is pledging a matching contribution of $50,000 to go with the uh the state's $50,000. That makes it more attractive to the state to want to give us money when they see that we have skin in the game, too.

So, if we get this grant, we would basically have a we'll be creating a a $100,000 fund that can turn into a a revolving loan grant fund and we could apply for this every year. So, down the road, we could be building up a pretty decent pot of money to help with the entrepreneurial spirit of the town of Rising Sun. So that's basically what this resolution here is basically just saying that and you go into this last whereas and this is where the rubber hits the road. The town desires to further demonstrate its commitment to this initiative by pledging a dollar fordoll match in the amount of $50,000 to be used in conjunction with any grant funds awarded by the state of Maryland for this program. So that is that's the explanation for uh the facade improvement.

Okay. Um any comments from the the commissioners? Okay. I have nothing. All right. May I have a motion on resolution 2025-14? moved. I second it. Motion made and second. All in favor of the resolution 2025-14 say I. I. I.

I. Resolution 2025-14 passes and becomes effective immediately. Okay. I move my paper. All right, Calvin resolution 2025-15, community legacy program.

So, this is another grant that we submitted um to the Department of Community Housing and Development. And and let me give you some background on it. Um, the town has been investing a lot of money that we got from the federal government to jumpstart economic development in this community here. And one of the things that we did um a couple years back is we purchased the old James United Methodist Church at the corner of Walnut and uh Main Street there with the idea of turning it into a cultural center and not a community center. We're not looking to have a place where kids are hanging out, you know, after school. We want to have the opportunity to have, you know, um, Battle of the Bands. We're talking about having reintroducing a movie nights, you know, hometown theater, those that may not know, but where the karate studio is located at, used to be a movie theater for the town. We're going way back. And so we're looking to sort of reintroduce that idea where the town can purchase like a a secondrun movie for families. And then we're we're going to be renovating the congregation area there. Uh building a stage in there with a movie screen where we can show movies. And then the whole idea is that on a weekday night or a Saturday night, a Sunday night, a Saturday afternoon, upwards of a 100 to 150 people could be coming out into the downtown area to go to the entrepreneurial businesses that we're trying to create along the main street

uh main street corridor. So what we're basically trying to do is create a little bit of that synergy that you see down in Northeast from time uh from time to time. And so we are in very serious discussions with a local performing arts studio who is looking to rent the entire building and they would provide a 365 day and when I say that doesn't mean there's going to be something there every day but they would create a 365 day events calendar there where maybe it's poetry reading, maybe it's uh uh karaoke, maybe it's the movies, maybe it's uh children's uh performing uh plays. If if you're familiar with Street Lab productions down in in Valley View, a lot of kids go to that production. They could uh they will provide that entertainment for the town. We've been talking about trying to enter into a sort of a public private partnership with them with the idea that they lease the space from us and we get a long-term lease. But it's not just about making money. It's about providing outlets for our residents, especially in spending sending young kids to learn performing arts uh down there. So, that's the long range plan, but we need a lot of money to fix the building up. So, one of the other grant applications that I wrote was basically a um a $900,000 plus grants from the Department of Community Housing and Development through the community legacy program to get money to start rehabilitating the inside of that building and getting it

where it needs to be. Um, and that also includes something that the mayor has talked about that we're getting ready to break ground on in the next 30 days or so is a really pretty looking welldone deck and community space on the outside of the church itself with the idea that down the road on the Little League parade, uh, the Sunfest parade, uh, the winter extravaganza parade, we have like this really beautiful deck in front of the church. Um, it's being done with the idea of highlighting the architecture of the church. We're not trying to change the architecture. We want to highlight that and enhance it. And we could have people gathered on the deck watching the parades or, you know, any other type of activities. It would also provide a place for when people buy their food at Rise and Grind or whatever ends up going in at Bog Turtle or Garden or the old hatches and anything else that comes in, there would be a really nice community patio area where people could just congregate there on a sunny day, you know, in a public location there. So, this is basically a $900,000 grant that again to enhance our ability to get the grant, we're pledging a 25% local match of $231,337. Now, I think it's real important to say this for our residents. This money is not being generated by tax increases. The town has maintained its tax rate over the last couple of ye for five, six years now. We've actually lowered the tax rate when possible. This is all money that the federal government gave to us under the Biden administration to

sort of jumpstart, you know, economics. And we've taken that very seriously. And we've spent money towards improving the downtown area and providing these cool things for our residents. So, this $231,000 is pledged to come from residual money left over in that. So again, this is a grant that we had to give uh turned into DHCD as part of the grant application. Okay. Do we know if we've gotten that grant? No, it it we we won't know until about another 8 to nine months.

Okay. Do I have a motion for approval of resolution 2025-15? So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. Um, okay. We're going to move on to resolution 2025-16A. West Nodingham Academy annexation. I believe there are people tonight that may want to speak about that, Calvin. Is that true? Yeah. So, after you give your explanation of what this is, I'd like to open it to the public for comment. Yep. Okay.

Yep. All right, Calvin, it's yours.

So, what you have before you is an annexation request from West Nodingham Academy. Um, I'm going to assume that everybody knows where West Ningham Academy is down on Jacob Tome Highway off of Indie Area Fire Tower and Harrisonville Road. And so this has been something that has been discussed off and on for several years with West Nodingham Academy. And a gentleman one time told me that especially in government or and any businesses, sometimes you put all the ingredients in a pot of soup on the stove and you just need to let it simmer for a while until it's ready to serve. And so that's where we're at now. It's ready to be served. Um, we do have some folks from West Ningham Academy that are excited about this and they wanted to to lend their voice to it. But essentially, this would be the annexation of five properties, individual tax properties that make up the West Nodingham Academy. And they are very interested in getting water and sewer from the town of Rising Sun. uh to to solve some water quality issues in out there and to also position the the academy uh in a position to be able to grow and to become a very vibrant successful you know school that it's been for gosh many many years

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two 281 years um so we're excited about this we we've met with several different leadership groups of West Nodingham academy. And as I said, the pot of soup on the stove is ready to be served. So, this is a resolution that um if the elected body wants to formally accept it tonight, you would vote on that to formally accept it. You're not voting on the resolution. You're just saying yes, we want to start the clock for that. Um, I'm definitely not going to read this meets and bounds in here because the other one had like 14 points to read. This one here has 141 points to read. So,

yeah, but just don't get the stones out of place,

so um to give you a visual of what this would look like here. Okay, Adobee's thinking about it. Um, essentially what we are doing is, and I'll talk while this is trying to load. When you go down 273 and pass the pond on the right hand side, that is about the edge of the town of Rising Sun. We would be annexing what is known as State Highway, including the right ofways for State Highway. So that would be annexed into the town. It would go to the traffic circle and annex the traffic circle in and then it would head south down Jacob to Highway to get to the main properties of West Nottingham Academy. It's not annexing any other properties along the route. It's just uh annexing State Highway to get to West Nottingham Academy. And in the future, any water and uh sewer lines that would be ran would be ran down that uh corridor to West Nodingham Academy. Let me try one more time to get this loaded so you can visually see it. Here we go. So, right over here on the right hand side, this is where the town pond is at. So you can see where we would be annexing 273 to the traffic circle. And then come on Betsy goes Yeah, it doesn't want to load it.

It goes all the way down 273 until it gets to West Ningham Academy there. Um, so I apologize for the system not wanting uh to load this file. Um, but that that concludes my presentation. I'll turn it over to the West Ningham folks. You're up, sir. Please say your name and in this case what uh you're affiliated with.

Sure thing. My name is John Guffy and I'm the current president of West Nottingham Academy and we value our relationship with Rising Sun a great deal. Um I came here in August of last year and it was one of the first things on my list to do of many many to-dos uh is to improve our relationships with the local community. Uh that local community is Rising Sun. One of the things that I found when I got here is that we're apparently one of Cecil County's bestkept secrets. And I hate being that. Uh people have heard of us. People have said, "Well, I drive by and I see your sign on Jacob Tone." But what we want to do is grow our campus, grow our community, and grow our relationship with Rising Sun. We need to be able to expand to do that. And because of certain uh ecological limitations, we're not able to do that right now. So for us, this gives us an opportunity to create buildings that are multi-use to um reach out into the community a great deal more than we already have and uh continue to grow. We just graduated our 281st class this past May and we want to have another 281 and more going forward. And in order to do that, in order to do that, we have to be able to grow our um what is essentially our school. And some people call it a business, but we're a nonprofit. We're we're not here to put money in people's pockets. and instead we're here to educate children. We want to do that in a smart uh business-like manner so that we keep our doors open so that we can continue to serve and tell the stories of those students who come through here. One of the things when I sent out an

alumni communication about this that I heard back from so many alumni who were telling me their stories about why they were at West Nodingham and the impact that it had on their lives. And that to me, more than our history, more than our buildings, more than our land footprint, is the most important legacy that we create for this community and beyond. and we just want to continue that and so we are looking for your support for uh this resolution. Okay. Thank you sir. Any questions?

We have uh two more gentlemen and if they we have Jim Shonne and Kieran Kani if I pronounced that right. If you gentlemen would like to uh speak.

Please sir. We you need to unmute your mic. There we go.

Excellent. Uh good evening folks and uh the commissioners and the mayor. We uh I just want to say one thing that u uh West Nottingham has been one of the the best uh thing that has happened to me in my life and I've been very successful with business and so on. The reason for that is because looking after the children is has been our passion. Education has been my passion and uh this gave me the opportunity to put my time more than money. Money is always always there and money anybody can put in but putting our time was was more critical and best noddingham has gone through some uh difficult times and all that but we are getting out of that. In fact, uh making a lot of progress. Uh we are starting the preschool program and the grade one program probably in the not probably in in the next starting in August and we hope to make that as a K12 school with boarding from roughly grade four onwards. uh that is what we are trying to that is what our intent is and by uh our our 20-year plan which is when it will be 300 years old is to come up with a K12 school which is uh 60 70% is international and 30 to 40% is local uh and the balance of it uh and and that it'll have no more than 25 kids to a grade uh so each one of them will be sort of a handpicked uh child or hand taken care or or indiv individual care has been will go into it. Uh in addition to that we're looking at certain other things doing like building a art center at a cost of some astronomical cost and so on. Uh and so those are some of the the great plans that we have that by year uh by year I think 17 or rather 2044 when it was 300 years old that is when we want to u ensure that that dream is materialized. That's all I wanted to say and uh thank you very much for listening to us and hope that I get to

meet you one of these days in person. Thank you sir. Thank you sir. Do you want to speak? Okay Jim you can un

Okay. Hi. Um so I'm Jim Shonam uh one of the other the other trustee at West Nodingham. Um, I think what uh, you know, Calvin and I have been, we've spent probably about a year, maybe a year and a half, kind of working on this and and talking. Um, you know, what I'm really excited about is kind of how the Rising Sun how Rising Sun kind of thinks about their community. And so I think there's a lot of partnerships that we really want to build to be able to give the local community access to the arts center, access to some of the sports programs that we want to build, access to, you know, a music program, a drama program. And I think there's there's a way that we can kind of work together and and kind of to help your community as well as help our school. So, I'm really looking forward to it because I think, you know, based on my discussions with Calvin, I think we're very much aligned in how we think about growing the school and frankly kind of we we want to make this school an international internationally known school. So, that will put Rising Rising Sun on the international map and we're really excited about that and I think um you know, it's a beautiful location. It's a beautiful area uh that you and it's a safe area and that's what these students are really looking for. Um, anyway, that's all I wanted to say is because I'm I'm really excited about the partnership.

Well, thank you, sir. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Slateball, do you do you want to speak?

Uh, well, I'm very much an interested party obviously. Uh, my family's been involved with Westingham Academy 100 years at the this year. Um, I believe that the foundation CASA saved West Ningham when West Ningham was going to become a footnote in history for lack of a better term. They were not going to be able to keep their doors open. I'm excited about what they are proposing. I'm excited about the relationships that they are creating. I think some of those relationships with uh extremely intellectual institutions, extremely forwardthinking uh projects and such are very important for the school and I think they can be shared with the community and I think it is important that West again get this opportunity to be annexed into the town rising. son so that they can fulfill these dreams.

Thank you sir. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, that moving on now we I need a motion for resolution 20-16A West Nottingham Academy annexation. Um I make a motion to to accept it to start the clock. Yeah. To accept the resolution. to to accept the resolution if I could have kept talking. Sorry.

Um, do the commissioners have any comments? Hearing none. I do. Was there a motion made? I jumped the gun.

Didn't quite get there yet, Dave. Um, West Nottingham's been here, okay? And if you've lived in Rising Sun for any amount of time, you will have come across quite a few people who went there. And it's, as Mr. Slayball said, I've not heard a bad thing about the school. So, there is no reason for us to really be objected to that. this annexation. It's It's a positive move for everybody. Uh it's going to take a few years. It's going to take some money, but uh I think we can uh work together. Now, can I have a motion for resolution 2025-16A West Nottingham Academy?

Do accept. Okay. moved and seconded. Uh all in favor say I. I. I.

I. It passes. Welcome. Now, uh because of the heat that was in here, I'm going to go back now to what would have been our next point on the agenda. uh and that is the consent agenda. Uh for those of you who do not know, this uh meeting is videotaped. It is then transcribed and is available for review by the commissioners to make sure that what was taped was what we said and or have read. So, um, can I have a motion to approve the the

I move to approve the consent agenda? Okay, I second it. All in favor say I. I I. Okay, it passes. Two to three. Two to one. All right. Who said no? I said I Oh, we didn't hear it.

Unfortunately, we did not hear that, sir. All right. Resolution 2025-13, [Music] the circuit rider program, Kelvin. Um that was done in the um consent agenda. But essentially, that's just another that's a continuation of the circuit rider program. We have to have a resolution. The timing of that doesn't match up with our meeting. So, we're just reaffirming the resolution to continue with the circuit rider program. Okay. If you'll bear with me,

upcoming town meetings at the 5:30 start time, August the 12th, 2025, September 9th, 2025, October 14th, 2025, November. It will be determined uh what date it will be. Now, are there any public presentations? Unfinished business. Motion to approve the circuit writer program. I thought we Kelvin, we didn't need a Well, when when you approve the consent agenda, those are the in gotcha. It was on the consent agenda. That's right. Thank you. Sorry. Okay. I was gonna ask

Yes, ma'am. Please say your name.

Yes, certainly. Hi, I'm Erica Burge. I am from Port Deposit and the reason I'm here tonight is I have filed to run for House of Delegates 35B. So I am on an information gathering quest. I have been visiting town hall meetings to get to hear what is going well in towns um areas of concern. And so that's my purpose here tonight um before I officially um publicly announce um just getting information. So, I'm also very excited about your legacy program growing up in uh here in town going to um Jane's church to hear that you guys are repurposing it and West Nottingham a perfect connection to fill that with activities too. So,

well, thank you. Good luck. Thank you for having me.

Uh anybody else? Okay, moving on. Staff reports, town administrator. Um the only thing I want to highlight is and I I said this at the beginning um we've the first of all I want to thank the mayor for his efforts with DHC um there there's a lot to be gained from good relationships with state agencies and uh individuals and we've had just a lot of success in in getting attention at the state level. And that doesn't happen without the participation and cooperation of not only the mayor but the elected body when you guys are traveling to different meetings and groups. Just be just FaceTime can mean all the difference in the world with someone who has the ability to issue grants or uh take an interest in your in your property or what you're trying to do. And that gets lost a lot in that is, you know, people don't realize that there's a reason for that facetime that we spend with people. and we've just had a lot of grants that we've been very successful at over the last couple of years. Um just a quick update on um some of the land development stuff. Uh we basically have 11 land development applications before us. And when I say land development applications, that's that's not all stuff that has to go through the planning commission. There are desires to, you know, develop single family homes in some vacant lots around the town of Rising Sun. There's uh at least one office building uh that someone's

looking to build on their property. We still have the Mavis Tire, uh Canudson, Stevens Preserve, Maple Heights. There's just a lot of activity going on in the town and and and I think it's important to let people know this that this town has been beaten down for so long coming out of the early 2000s into the the teens of 2000. And I say this at every meaty bit. I think it's really important. There's been so there's been so much effort made to get the town to where it is at right now. Our goal is to get to the point where we're not so dependent upon the federal government or the state agencies to be able to keep our town vibrant and sustainable. And so you guys have done a great job of using the uh the ARPA funds. Uh we've been able to buy prop run down properties in town. We're in the process of getting grant money to tear three of those properties down so that we can build uh municipal parking in our downtown area. And then we want to repurpose two of the lots uh put it back out to the private uh private sector for people to bid on the ability to buy those lots back from the town of Rising Sun and build something that's suitable for our town. We received grant funds to uh to study what would work well in our town. Um the list just goes on and on. It really is an exciting time for the town of Rising Sun and I think sustainability and uh continuity and and sticking to

the plan is very important going forward because we're right on the verge of being able to do some amazing things for our residents in terms of, you know, uh real estate tax rates, sewer, water charges. We're right on the cusp of being able to realize a lot of that stuff. And I I I just want to I like to talk about that and let everybody know that. Thank you, Kelvin. Yeah, Chief, I have quite a bit. Um, first, as you see, the town is starting to annex.

Sorry, Dennis. As you see, the town is starting to annex. So, is the police department starting to grow. Um, so, uh, I'm throwing this out here. We need applicants. We need police officers. We love to have young men that we can train. If you're willing, we'll we'll take you. Um so we we need applicants. Uh you can stop in town hall, pick up an application, and we can go from there. Um and uh get you into a police academy. First, the Cecil Parks and Wreck um summer playground program in conjunction with the Rising Sun Parks and Recck and the police department is underway. It runs until August 7th at the Veterans Park. Um it goes daily from Monday through Friday from 10 to 2 for 5 to 12 year olds. It costs 20 bucks. Included in that $20, you'll get a t-shirt, snacks, sports, um, craft supplies, and a day of fun down in the park. And, uh, I've gone past many times this week, and and there's a good number of kids that have taken part in the program. It looks like it's a nice, healthy program, and, uh, can do well for the community. Second, August 5th is the National Night Out against crime. We're doing that again in conjunction with the Citizens Fire Company. At the fire company, we'll have a ban. We'll have exhibitors. We'll have all kinds of displays and uh and people to interact with. So, come on out. It's on again August 5th from 6 to 8:00 p.m. at the Rising Sun Fire Company. Next is the speed cameras. The speed cameras on Mount Street and Pearl Street are up and functioning. They will go into uh uh action very soon. So find another road to test on.

But yeah, they they will be up and uh reminder there are summer programs in the schools. So when there's programs in the schools, the cameras will be operating. They will be functioning. Um there will be a warning period once they go into effect. We haven't got to that point yet, but it's coming soon. Again, I reiterate it's coming soon. So pay attention. Um, next, we have no significant crime trends this week or this month so far. Um, the issues we have with the stolen cars, I'd like to report back that many of those actors that were involved have been detained thanks to many of our allied agencies. A lot of those young people were caught and the slight changes in our detention policies with juveniles is showing a good, you know, impact because we aren't having as many. I'll say that again, not knock on wood, because where one group goes away, another group, you know, pops up. Um, and that is basically all I have for today, unless there's any questions. Thank you, Chief Assistant Administrator.

You know, I really just have one thing I'd like to talk about, and that is our uh utility customer service conversion that we just had. We are now state-of-the-art. We're cloud-based. And what that allows us to do, and I I I hope that we get a really good drive, is to have a better communication system. We now have the ability if you have a phone number on file with us and you want to be notified via roocall if we're doing uh any type of maintenance or any type of street closings or any type of hydrant flushing or just an emergency in the town. We can do a blast and get that out to everybody in the community. Same way with email. If we have an email on file, then we can communicate with you very quickly via email from our systems. Just want to encourage people to take advantage of something that is that important and uh know that they can go out on the website, create an account, they can see their usage, they can see trends, they can see all these things at a fingertip. And the biggest thing it does for us is give us disaster recovery cloud-based. If something happens, the utility system, the customer service system is back online as soon as we can get to a PC to log in. So, they should be proud of it. and I hope that we can get the support from the residents that's going to be needed to help us have a better communication tool in the future.

Thank you, Judy. You're welcome. Town attorney, Mr. Golo.

Good evening, everybody. Uh good to see you all at least virtually. Uh a brief report for you. Uh 16 Main Street. It's like the perennial thing that we talk about and the progress and that is slowly grinding its way through the court system. We had a status hearing last month. Uh all of the uh defendants have been served. So the former corporation that owned it, the uh county and PNC bank who has a security interest in it, and none of those entities have filed an answer to our court case. Uh so that means we now have to file a motion for default. So we are eligible to do that this month and we're going to do that this month. And then the motion gets heard. They have another chance to answer. If they don't answer, then the judge takes action. So, it's getting closer. I I'm I'm hopeful that uh we will be putting Christmas wreaths on the door of our own place by then. Maybe you'll be decorating it for Halloween. Maybe that's optimistic. So,

thank you, Jay. Great. Good seeing you. Have a good day. You too. Mayor's report. Travis. Did we lose Travis? Yeah, looks like it. No, no, he's on there. Got him.

Yeah. Okay. Well, we have a little technical difficulty getting a hold of the mayor in the sky. So, we'll go on to the commissioner's comments. Uh, Commissioner Pearson. Oh, that's me. Um, last Thursday we had the honor of having a retirement party for uh, Corporal McKini. He retired after 17 years with our department and what was it a total about 40 years 44 years? 43 44 years

in law enforcement. He's finally said enough is enough. I'm retiring. So, uh, we wish him the best in his retirement and hopefully he doesn't come back in six months and say, "I want to come back to work." Um, Commissioner Kleiner,

um, thank you. Um, last month at the end of the month, many of us attended the Maryland Municipal League conference and, um, it's a great opportunity to continue education for elected officials. And um to echo what Calvin was talking about earlier to have the facetime with state appointed and elected officials as well. Um and there were opportunities for us um to take action on some items that presented themselves uh for attention um immediately just by walking down the hall and going into another room and talking to um a couple people with the Department of Transportation, for example. So, um it's really uh amazing to see how that networking and um and facetime pays off for us as a small town. Um and so, uh that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Dave Warick.

Yeah. So, the uh um biggest update I have is uh on the Gaga pit. um speaking with the scout and looking at the designs for Gaga pits that we uh believe that the best option is to take the rubber flooring out and um there's a a spray we can put down on the stone that will secure it into place and uh that will and and still keeps it as a pvious surface. So uh the water will drain out and uh so that looks like a really good option. So, we're we're going to look at that and um something to solve that problem. And then maybe if someday we get around to uh a rubberized flooring replacement or something for the the playground, maybe we'll get one coat of rubberized flooring put in there. But that is my report. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Okay. Going onward. Board of Zoning Appeals and Planning Commission schedule down in the street. Our next meeting is on uh July 21st. Today's the Yeah, July 21st um for the planning commission and we still meet the first and third Monday of every month and the board of zoning appeals meets as needed.

Okay. Upcoming town events October 3rd through 20 through 5th. 3rd through 5th um is the annual Civil War reenactment. We've had this for years and it's pretty neat if you get a chance to really see it. Um we don't quite have the firing through town like we did for years, but it's calmed down a little bit there, but it was it was always neat to see your you know, especially if you had young kids because they'd say, "Look at that guy." you know, um the next thing is Spooktacular and that's going to be on Saturday, October 11th. Uh if you've not been to that, that is pretty cool because we do all kinds of really neat things for the kids. Uh upcoming holidays, town hall will be closed on Labor Day, Monday, September the 1st. Trash recycling and yard yard waste schedule. Yard waste is every Monday pending the weather. Um trash is picked up on Thursdays, recycling on Tuesdays. Holidays rec recognized by the trash recycling hauler. Well, the next one will be Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas. If no one has anything else to say, I make a I'm asking for a motion for adjournment.

So moved. So move. Second. Moved and second. All in favor say I. I. I. Three eyes. We're adjourned.