Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening, folks. I'd like to welcome you to the Town of Rising Suns Mayor and Commissioner's Town Meeting for August 11, 2026. May I have a call to order in the roll call?

Commissioner Kleiner? Here. Mayor Marion?

Here. Commissioner Dowling? Here.

Commissioner Pearson?

Here. Let the record show you have a call. May I ask you all to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Commissioner Kleiner, would you lead us in the prayer, please?

Yes. Father, we thank you for your goodness and your faithfulness. We thank you that you have given us these roles in leading and serving the town. We pray that you would give us all wisdom. We pray for your protection over the first responders, that you would cover them and hide them under your wing. And we pray for the town, that they would be blessed and prosperous in all that they do. Lord, that glorifies you, and we ask in your name, Jesus. Amen.

Town Administrator, would you bring us up on the consent agenda, please?

Yeah, you have a rather easy one here tonight. You have the approval of the last meeting minutes from June 30th, 2026. And then your upcoming town meeting schedule is September 8th, 2026 and October 13th, 2026.

Okay. Can I have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve the consent agenda.

I second it.

Motion made and second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passed. Well, do we have any public presentations? Okay, we don't.

Actually, we just had a question. Well, now it's time to ask. Okay. We have the property right behind us. Oh, you have to go up to the mic so we can hear. I forgot.

All you have to do is just tell me your name and if you're a resident of the town. Okay, yes.

My name is Arthur Johnson. We're actually not a resident of the town, but we have property in the town and we have property in the county. We're down at 441 North Walnut Street. Our property line basically is back in Stevens Preserve, and we just haven't heard anything. We haven't seen any machinery going, and we're just curious.

Well, I think the town administrator can kind of bring you up to date on that. I just have a quick question. Do you still have the caboose? I do. Ah, okay.

Yes. You're welcome to come say it.

Well, also, while Calvin's getting ready, do you know, I looked it up, you have the oldest house in Cecil County. Well, not only, I didn't know about Cecil County, but I know in this area. Yeah.

Actually, a woman did her master's thesis at the University of Delaware. She did a great job, but I think she got the year wrong by just a couple years. I read through it with Haynes being the—we call it the Haynes House. It was the Haynes family, but it's had a lot of people living in it over the years. Yeah, it's a beautiful house. It's a money pit.

Yeah, well, of course. Anything that old. I mean, look, I got old now. I'm nothing but a money pit. At least that's what my wife tells me.

Calvin, are you ready? In my administrative report, I was going to cover that and the other developments, too.

Is that okay with you, sir? Sure. Okay, unless you have more. At that time, if he has questions, can he ask them? Yes, absolutely. Okay, have a seat.

Have a seat.

Have a seat, yeah. OK. OK. I forgot the protocol. Oh, that's all right. Since we have a mass amount of people where we have, you know, we can be a little easier on the protocols. Sorry about that, Travis, but town administrator, do we have any unfinished business? No. Do we have any new business? No. Do we have any citizens' input? Okay, I got ahead of the game. Staff reports. Town Administrator?

All right, so I did want to give you an update on a variety of projects that are going on in the town for the demolition of the three primary properties down on Main Street. Some of the things I wanted to... clarify to the community is that we put the projects out to rebid because we were not comfortable with the cost of the demolitions under the first bid. Now, that doesn't mean that we were asking the contractors to do it cheaper. It just means that we found some methodologies that we had in our bid specs that might have been driving the cost up. One of them was We were asking to put at the end of it basically a privacy fence. When all those buildings are going to be down, it's going to be a big wide open spot and we don't want to leave it wide open like that. So we were asking to have like a six foot high privacy fence put up there and we believe that we would be able to do that privacy fence cheaper in house. Excuse me. The next item is the finished surface of the area. And this I think is a good time to update residents on what our game plan is. Ultimately we plan on putting a parking lot over there. But one, we have to secure the grant money to do that. That's going to take a little bit of time to be able to secure the grant money for that. So when we do the demolition, we're going to make the ground suitable for folks to be able to park on over there. So that would typically be a stone base that would be put down. where one of the buildings is currently located now. In order to put the stone down, there's a certain amount of compaction that has to be done in filling in voids and all. from the building that you're demoing down, we got a wide range of estimated costs to do that. We think that's another reason why the bid prices came in higher. So we are going to do that internally also. So those bids, excuse me, those bids are due tomorrow, one or two o'clock, I'm not sure. So we're hoping that we got some additional people to bid. The other thing that we did is that we originally were handling the demolition and the asbestos removal. The buildings have some asbestos in them. Some of them have some lead in them also. So we put those all under one bid spec, which means a contractor coming in to do the demolition work, if they were not certified in the asbestos removal, they're going to go out and hire somebody to do that, but they're going to mark up the price 10 or 15% because they want to make a profit on that too. And so we separated it out into a demolition spec and an asbestos removal spec with the hope that the prices combined and the way we redid the bid specs will allow them to come in cheaper. I think it's also important to note that And I don't want to divulge the grant amount that we got because that would affect the bid specs that we might still be getting tomorrow. But the state was not paying for 100% of the demolition so when somebody says well you know why did you put it out to bid is because in order to favor our grant from a scoring standpoint we had to say we're going to be willing to to pay for a certain percentage or a dollar amount of that And so when someone says, why did we put it out the bid? The state was already giving you money. It was far exceeding what anybody expected the total bid price to be. So not only did we look at it as we want to be responsible for the amount of money that we had already committed to it to make sure it was a good result for our residents, but also any additional money because it came in higher than what was originally estimated, again, is out of the taxpayer's pocket. So that's the main reason why we put it out to bid again, was to safeguard the financial commitment that's being made by our taxpayers. The other item that we're going to be doing the advertisement for is the deck construction around the church. We've been talking about that off and on for the last couple of months. What I think is going to be a really beautiful deck arrangement around the front of the old James Church at the corner of Walnut Street and Main Street. That will be a deck that will be constructed to not drastically change the motif, so to speak, of the exterior of the church, because we're trying very hard to maintain the appearance of the church and preserve its natural beauty. But yet at the same time, we don't necessarily want to come in and build a deck around it where we try to match like brick colors. And if you're familiar with it, a lot of times when you try to match things like red brick, it never works out. That it's close enough. to be noticeably different and noticeably unattractive because you can't match it up. So the color schemes that we've chosen are not meant to match the red brick color but to accentuate the brick color that is there. So we're excited about that. We've had a couple changes to the deck specifications over the last couple of months because it's like anything else. Sometimes you get one opportunity to do certain things, and when it's state grant money that you're getting, you want to get as much as you can and spend your money wisely. So we did make a couple of modifications to the deck to better accentuate the outside and make it more functional. So the building will be fully handicap accessible from two different locations. Right now, it's only accessible from one location, and even that handicap accessibility is borderline code compliant. What we put in there now will be, it'll be beautiful, number one, and two, it'll make the building accessible from two different locations as opposed to one. There's a lot of work that we're still working on on the inside, and let me double back to the grant process. Originally, we had applied for $694,000 from the state to do the renovations of the church. And let me back up and say, for those that have not heard, we're renovating the church to create a cultural center, not a community center. It's not a rec center where we're just It's going to be a cultural center, and it's pretty common knowledge now that we're working very closely with Street Lamp Productions to turn it into a performing arts cultural center where they would be able to run basically a 365-day-a-year calendar. It's not going to be 365, but I like to call it that. where they would be running maybe five, six, eight different performances there in the sanctuary that's going to be converted to a theater in there. They would be able to host a battle of the bands, karaoke, poetry, reading, Our goal here is to provide a variety of outlets for our residents to enroll Maybe it's painting classes that somebody could come in and teach painting classes down and some of the other areas street lamp productions Everybody believes that they just specialize in teaching the kids. They actually have adult classes, too, where adults can go there and learn different aspects of performing arts. And then they put those shows on also. So we're really excited about providing our residents with a cultural experience. outlet in the community and a performing arts. It is also our intention to move our historic museum over there to the lower part of the church. There's an opportunity in the lower part of the church under the sanctuary to redo a lot of the original heavy beam work and stone work that's in there so we can reinvigorate the old architecture while moving our historic preservation in there also. So we're excited about that. So we're going to be doing the advertisement to start phase one of the deck. As I said earlier, we had applied for $694,000. then we were gonna match I think upwards of like three hundred thousand dollars to do basically about a million dollars worth of renovations on the inside because when you turn it into a public building the first thing is it has to be handicap accessible so we need to have an elevator installed in there and because of the type of activities like the performing arts in the gathering of large numbers of people. We're gonna need to have a fire suppression system installed in there. And then the HVAC system has seen better days, so we're gonna need to put a new HVAC system in there. So the state gave us $300,000 and they have promised us at least another $300,000 in the next cycle and then Street Lamp Productions is very excited about the outreach they've gotten in terms of their fundraising activities of being able to generate large sums of money to help go towards the renovations on the inside of the building. And that is all planned to be done under a public-private partnership between the Town of Rising Sun and Streetlamp Production for them to basically become an extension of, let's call it a park and recreation department. Other larger communities will have a park and recreation department. We really don't have one. This is a great opportunity for Streetlamp to provide that outlet in a thousand different ways to the benefits of our residents. And they've been in operation now, I believe, since like 2013, 2014. and they operate out of several different locations in the Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland area. So they are growing and they're doing very well. So we're excited about that. The land development opportunities coming in our community, Stevens Preserve. In the land development process, to give you some perspective on all the developments, you get a concept plan approval, a preliminary plan approval, and a final plan approval. And then you have all your construction documents and your stormwater management and wetlands mitigation that are done by other regulatory agencies. So Stevens Preserve has final land development approval from us and they have just about 99% of all of their other construction plan approvals done. That's the sewer, the water, the roads, the storm water, the wetlands mitigation, all those things are done I'll be honest with you, I'm a little surprised they're not on our doorstep to be saying, hey, we want to start building. Why there's a little, I don't want to use the wrong word, it's not hesitation, it's not delay, I don't want to send that impression. They just haven't timed it up. They haven't primed the pump yet to do it. I don't know why they've not expressed any concerns to us about it. We have no reason to believe the development is not going forward either. It's just they're probably timing it up maybe with some other projects they have going on. Maple Heights. That is one the elected body in the Planning Commission is very familiar with. There is a phase of the development that we are working through right now for them to build, I believe it's 21 townhouses along the main drag heading towards Maple Heights Apartments on the left-hand side. There's 21 townhomes scheduled to be constructed in there. were in the relatively early phase of the construction plans. of the roads and sewer water and uh... Cecil soils uh... erosion and sedimentation control those types of things those are other agencies uh... so as soon as that moves a little bit further along I would expect them to be wanting to break ground and start moving things around I would say by October November for that to start Pond Valley, which is commonly known as the Knutson track. I'm sure you folks remember coming to meetings back in the early 2000s. The Knutson family was looking to develop 383 homes on their farmland. That project fell by the wayside and a new developer has come in scheduled to build 403 new homes as part of a total 406 home subdivision. That has also gotten its final, preliminary and final, the construction plans have basically been approved and reviewed. There's some other tweaks here and there. Long story short, we're getting ready to sign all the final plots and documents in the next day or two, and then they will go to settlement on purchasing the land, and then shortly thereafter, they would start moving dirt down there. I believe they said they're projected to start moving dirt. When I say moving dirt, before you build one of these developments, you gotta do all the grading, you gotta deal with water runoff, you gotta put storm water ponds in, you gotta do the outline of your road. So you might have six to 10 months before anyone even starts building a house in that scenario. Now what they are going to do, which is common in a large development, and I'm sure everybody can appreciate this, they're going to build their sample houses. So they have five sample houses that are going to be built, and we allow them to do that because Otherwise, you're trying to sell your home so that when you're done putting all your infrastructure in, you're trying to convince Johnny and Sally to buy a home in your development and you don't have any sample that they can look at. So we would allow them to strategically build up to five of these houses so people can walk through the houses and see what they like and what they don't like, like an a la carte menu and then pick what they want in their house. so that when all that land development is, when all the infrastructure is done and ready to go, they're ready to start building houses. So they said that they believed that they would start building these sample houses in what they called as quarters. They said that they'd be starting to build sample houses in the first quarter, so sometime after January, and then they would probably start building their actual houses in late third quarter or early fourth quarter of 2027. So about a year from now is when you'll probably start seeing the other houses start to pop up in the rest of the development. Some other smaller projects that we have going on, Mavis Tire. They have submitted their building permits They have gotten all their land development approvals. We expect them to be coming in for a pre-construction Conference any day now and that's where they're going to build a Mavis Tire Center Next to the car wash across from McDonald's. So there's going to be a Mavis Tire Center going in there and And then there's, in the very preliminary stages, down at Johnson's Liquors, there's enough land down there that the property owner is looking to build another commercial storefront of three to four different, let's say maybe 2,500, I'm sorry, 1,500 square foot storefronts in there. And then some residential apartments over top. We're working through some details on that. I would expect if everything goes accordingly, maybe January or so, if not late December, they'd be ready to start breaking ground down there. Another question I'll bring up that I get asked all the time, and I want to make sure that Everything that I've said to you, we all know can be unsettling to different folks, depending upon their perception. And the great thing about the country we live in is landowners have rights. And we always have to remember, when you're a landowner, you have certain rights that you can do. And so although there are some people who don't want to see development, that doesn't mean the local government or any government can just say, no, landowner, you can't develop. The best we could do is try to get them to a tree in the horizon that, you know, is beneficial to the community as much as possible. So everything that's going on, if you don't like the Mavis Tire Center, we don't have the ability to just say, no, we don't want a Mavis Tire Center. We want a Jiffy Lube. You know, we like that better. We don't get to do things like that. Um, so with all that said, um, We're limited on, again, what we can allow and not allow. And one of the more controversial things was the cannabis dispensary. And I'm segueing for this reason. Under Maryland state law a couple years ago, they made the sale of cannabis products legal in the state. And they also said that local jurisdictions, whether it be Cecil County, Hartford County, Anne Arundel County, Javier de Grace, Bel Air, Town of Rising Sun, Perryville, we are not allowed to put regulations in place that would not allow those cannabis dispensaries to open up. And let me tell you why that's critical. And everyone in here has heard me say this before, jokingly. No one ever sits around and says, you know what this community needs? It needs a good adult entertainment here. It needs a strip bar or something like that. Nobody sits around and makes that decision. But federal law protects... landowners from they are able to do whatever is legally permitted. And if you as a local government tried to block those things, then they get to come in and submit an application and maybe the worst place you would want it to be. And when you say, no, I don't want that in the middle of the residential neighborhood, they then take you to court. and sue you because you're not allowing them to develop their piece of land. And at that point, they get to pick where they want to put it. So when you look at every community zoning code, there's an adult entertainment section in there because that's why they end up on the other side of the railroad tracks back in the dark area of the town where nobody ever goes to because they have to allow it somewhere. And so communities would likely take the same route. approach with cannabis. And so the state legislators, being a little bit more liberal, decided that they wanted to take that oversight away from local government. So they're allowed to be just about anywhere with the exception of a residential neighborhood. And when you try to say, well, you don't want it to be around kids or something like that, as long as it's 500 feet away from a daycare, a park, a church, a school, they can appear. And so, yes. They got a license to put one down there on the other side of town, but we're not allowed to stop that. And so people have asked me, where is it at? I can tell you that the renovations that they're doing on the inside of the building are actually very impressive. and the safeguards that they are putting in there as regulated by, I believe, the ATF is one of the agencies that's going in there, the amount of security. And just for kicks and giggles, I'll tell you how really interesting it is. When somebody comes in to buy the product, they can't have a clear sight line to the people that are preparing the product. And there's like no loose material. It's got to be all pre-packaged, and it's set in these little safe boxes that there's a password to get in and a code to get in to dispense it. Well, if one of us were in there buying it, we're not allowed to see that taking place. So all the windows and everything have to be staggered. So it's really interesting that all the sight lines are distorted in that situation. It's just interesting to do the inspections down there. And the gentlemen they have doing the work, it's all top notch work. They've cleaned up a lot of things that weren't very aesthetic on the inside because of the wear and tear of the building. From that standpoint, the building is going to look really nice when it's done. I've spoken to the owner of the distribution. I want to throw this out there. He is not interested in any of the stereotypical things that people would be concerned could come from a cannabis dispensary. He's a no-nonsense. He wants to treat it as basically a drugstore. where you go and get your prescription or what you're allowed to buy, you buy it, you leave the premise, you're not staying there. He's coming across as he doesn't want any of that kind of nonsense down there. So to some degree, it's an uncomfortable conversation to have, but a lot of people are asking the question, so I wanted to throw that out there for everyone. Oh, and the segue I wanted to make This one's really going to go over like a lead balloon here. If you remember a couple months ago, I was talking about the states wanting to pass a regulation. It was going to be a state law that throughout the state, local government, again, we're not talking about a little old town of Rising Sun. We're talking about Harvey DeGrace, Bel Air, the county, whatever, We were not going to be allowed to require a minimum lot size for a residential home any greater than 5,000 square feet. So that meant in that scenario, we have folks in our community that have a half an acre of ground. There's some that have an acre, some that have an acre and a half. You folks have a pretty good sized piece of land, even though you're not in the town. This state law would prohibit anyone from ever being able to build a residential home on a lot that was any more than 5,000 square feet. It's the state's way of thinking that they're going to make housing more affordable. And I've said this before, I hate when the government gets involved in trying to legislate stuff because a lot of times it messes it up. One of the major reasons why housing is so expensive is that in 2020, a half-inch thick 4x8 sheet of drywall was $11.00. Now it could be upwards of $32, $33 a sheet. A two by four could be $1.50. Now you might be paying $6 or $7. So when you drive down the road and see a house that's under construction with all those two by fours and the, I don't know, 500 sheets of drywall that it takes to build a house, That, to me, is the number one reason why housing costs is going up. Coming in and thinking they're taking the authority away from local governments to plan residential development that meets what we want as a community is going to lower the price. It's not going to lower the price because the cost of the drywall is still going to be the same in there. It's frustrating that that's what a lot of the governments think. That legislation did not get put forward at the state level, but under the housing bill, if you remember in the news when President Trump refused to sign that housing bill for a lot of different reasons, in that housing bill is almost the same language that was in the state law, and the federal department of HUD has been given 18 months to come up with basically the rules and regulations to meet the same objective of limiting housing lots to no more than 5,000 square feet. Now, I don't know if it's as far reaching as what the state was doing, but it clearly had in there that it was going to take away the right of local governments to be able to regulate that. Our local control is clearly under attack by larger government entities that don't normally have control over these things, but the way they're getting the control is to take our right away to regulate ourselves. So the really bad news is they did succeed at getting a bill passed that takes effect in October of this year in which every residential property can now build an accessory dwelling unit on their property as long as the building that's being built does not exceed 75% of the house that they are living in. And so I guess what I'm saying to you is maybe five years from now, the staff is going to be getting a lot of complaints from residents being very upset because their neighbor has decided to put a two-story garage in their backyard to rent it out. And it doesn't have to be an in-law suite. It's not for, like, mom or dad. It's anybody. And so if somebody wants to make a little bit more money, they could build that accessory structure in their yard. That's what the state did. And they've taken away the control from local government. The other thing they did was we're not allowed to regulate the parking requirements. So as part of the ebb and flow of planning how a development should be built, you have rules and regulations that say if you're going to build a house with a certain number of bedrooms, you have to provide a certain amount of parking spots on your property, not out on the street. Because we all know there are some streets that you can't even get down on a Saturday afternoon. And that's when it's in compliance with with the zoning code. Under this new regulation in these accessory buildings, we are not allowed to require them to provide any off-street parking. So what scares me about that is you go up, and let me say it this way, I don't know if the properties on, I'm gonna say Mount Street, would be large enough to have that accessory building on it, but we all know between Pearl and Main Street, you're zigzagging up the road if somebody comes at you the other way because it's so tight. Under this regulation, you can start seeing accessory dwellings being built with two, three, four additional cars that are not going to park on the property. They're going to park out on the street. So I'm just letting everybody know now, it potentially is going to be a nightmare over the next couple of years. And it's those perceptions out there on state and federal level that there's a better way to build a community than the way we do build our own community, similar to everybody else. It's bad news, but I just wanted to throw it out there. The law also says by October 1st of this year, the town of Rising Sun and all the other towns have to have adopted a zoning code that clearly says in the zoning code that people can do exactly what I just said in the accessory dwelling unit. I don't know what the – I can predict what the consequences are going to be. Maybe it won't be as bad because maybe our folks in our community have a different perspective of how they want their community to be, but it's going to be interesting. So that concludes my report.

Well, thank you for all that good news.

Mr. Johnson, did that answer your question on Stevens Preserve? It did. It did. The only comment I'll make from Calvin's is there's a lot of people that are moving out of red states. Maryland was a red state. We're a blue state. A blue state, right. I'm sorry to ask. And we have friends that have moved out. They're retired. And they're packing up. They're going down to Florida and South. Yeah, you don't have to tell me.

If I may ask this one thing of you.

Sure.

After the meeting's over, could you stay for one minute? I have to ask you a question.

Sure.

Okay. The town attorney is not with us. That is correct. He's not with us. Police Chief, you're the next one up.

I will make my report brief. We had National Night Out last Tuesday. Using me as the gauge, I think it was a great success. We had a large variation of our population that came out to meet each other, support each other. And I think we did very well with that.

We also had great music. I don't know if you all heard it or not. And that's a local gentleman that was playing. So that was good for me. Can you turn that mic off? Turn it up. It's on. Move it closer. I can't hear you. Am I there? It's on.

We good, Dennis? All right.

Hey, while you're at it, sit up straight. Let me put my glasses on.

We've identified a new candidate for our next hiring. He has passed many of the tests so far. We've got one test we have to help get him through, and then we'll be looking at putting him in the academy within the next few months. As you all know, finding a candidate for law enforcement is very difficult. Many people cannot meet the standards that are in place, but those standards are in place for great reasons. So, we've got that. We're also looking at a new clerk position that we should be starting someone with. As you know, I've served as the police chief and the administrative aid for a long time and that hat needs to go in the trash so I can get back to being just a chief and get some things done. Lastly, we are in the process of upgrading body cam systems. Everybody depends on the body cam for many things. The new system that we have acquired provides a location for the officer, the ability to get information from dispatch, and they also help interpret at times. So that concludes my report, so we can get to...

Okay, thank you, Chief. Assistant Town Administrator?

Okay, I will also be like the Chief. My report will be pretty quickly delivered. What I have for you tonight is the financials. If you notice, I did color code them to match your budget, and I also made a slight change in the register, the check register, so that you can see outstanding checks. They're highlighted in red, so they'll be easy for you to review. Just a couple of little things. We are going to be having our October Spooktacular. I'd like to... at least encourage everyone to volunteer. We definitely need community volunteers to make that as successful as it is because it grows every year, gets bigger every year, which requires more and more volunteers.

What is that date?

It is October 10th. It's the second Saturday in October.

And Augie, if you want to write down second Saturday in December's winter extravaganza.

Well, you don't have to worry about me there. My wife's 70th birthday is that day. And somehow, as much as I love this town, you guys don't feed me. She does. So anyway.

And last but not least, I would encourage everyone to look at their last bill, because we did include a copy of the trash and recycle calendar. If you don't have it there, go out on our website. You can go to the bill inserts for that particular month and it'll be there as well. So that's all for me.

Well, thank you, Judy. Okay. Mr. Mayor.

Yes, I am. Thanks doggy. Can you hear me? Okay.

Yes, better than the cheese.

As the elected body knows, sorry for not being there. I'm dealing with some kidney stones, so just on the mend. A couple of things. I wanted to congratulate Fern and Fable on their grand opening. Our town administrator attended that ribbon cutting. It was a wonderful event, and we presented them with an official citation welcoming them to the community. The town administrator also met with some engineers in regards to our water tower. More information regarding that will be coming soon. We are on it. We do plan to completely repaint the outside of our water tower. We know that it needs to be redone and we're currently working with the engineer team to get that done. I also wanted to say we had a wonderful national night out. As Chief said, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management Secretary Russell Strickland was there in attendance and also conveyed his thoughts on how great of an event it was. We also had the Maryland State Police helicopter come and the kids really just enjoyed all kinds of different things. We also had a backpack giveaway where those kids could get free backpacks and school supplies. Just a wonderful event. Kudos to Chief and also to the Community Fire Company for putting that together. As most of the elected body knows, we had the 250th birthday parade, finally, after a rain delay. It was a wonderful event. Thank you to everyone that attended. And a huge shout-out to our public works crew and to Juanita and our town administrative team for all their hard work on getting everything done. It was a task, but I think our float turned out wonderful. I also wanted to say a huge thank you to Judy, who ended up dressing up as Betsy Ross. And her float also looked amazing. Thank you so much, Judy, for doing that. That concludes my report. Oh, and I also wanted to last but not least thank the two generals that attended, General Jeanine Burkhead from the Maryland National Guard and James Benson, the general of the Delaware National Guard. They both visited with us and spent some time after the parade and just really conveyed their thoughts of how great of a small town we have. So a huge thank you to them for attending. That concludes my report. Augie, back to you.

Thank you, sir. Commissioner's comments. Commissioner Daly.

Good evening. The only thing I want to share, it seems recently there's been quite a bit more of utility work being done in the area, electric, cable, all sorts of things, and I know sometimes I can lead to some traffic delays and, um, inconvenience, but, uh, leaving a couple of minutes early and, uh, being patient. Uh, most of the time I've seen those men or women working, it's pretty hot out and probably not the most comfortable for them while we're in our air conditioned car, you know, upset that we're, uh, stuck in traffic for a few minutes. So just be patient. I'm assuming the work that they're doing is going to, uh, you know, improve things around town. For us, but that's all I have to share.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Kleiner I also wanted to Acknowledge the events that we've had recently the national night out. I did attend that and agree It was very well attended and well put well put on it's always exciting to see the the Maryland State Police helicopter it's kind of fun to watch the kids get excited about that too and And the parade was excellent. And there was a meet and greet afterward with the Majors General. And I very much enjoyed speaking to Janine Burkhead in particular about emergency preparedness. So thank you, Travis, for inviting them. And that concludes my report.

Well, thank you, ma'am. I will be brief with mine. I'd like to thank, again, Public Works. They did a great job on the floats and all. But here is the precious time of the year that we are approaching. Depending on whose viewpoint it is, it is either a great time or it is a miserable time. School starts in two weeks. So please be aware that there's now going to be children on the streets and sidewalks. There's going to be additional traffic, especially at the middle school. We really get hammered at the middle school. Be patient. Understand that generally rescinds a little bit after the first few weeks. So please be aware of children being on the street. That concludes my report. The Board of Zoning Appeals, nothing coming up. Upcoming town events, as the Assistant Town Administrator stated, the spooktacular is October 10th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Upcoming holidays where town hall will be closed is Labor Day Monday, September the 7th. The trash, recycling, and yard waste schedule, yard waste is collected every Monday, trash every Thursday, recycling every Tuesday. And the holidays that are listed, New Year's, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, they're the holidays recognized by the trash recycling hauler. If there is nothing else, can I have a motion to adjourn?

I make a motion to adjourn.

Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion to pass. We're done.

Thank you, guys.

Thanks, all.