Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call this meeting to order the mayor and board of commissioners for September the 8th, 2020. I'm going to call this meeting to order for the mayor and board of commissioners for September the 8th, 2026. Can I get the roll call please?

Commissioner Kleiner? Here. Mayor Marion?

Here.

Commissioner Dowling?

Let the record reflect that Commissioner Dowling will be joining us virtually this evening. Will you rise with me for the Pledge of Allegiance, please? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Commissioner Kleiner, would you lead us in a brief prayer?

Sure.

Thank you.

Father, I thank you for this town and those who live in it. And we ask for your wisdom that you would infuse us with wisdom and that you would protect all the first responders, that they'd be hidden under your wing and be given your wise strategy for quick action to save lives. We ask all of this in your name, Jesus. Amen.

All right. You see the consent agenda before you town administrator. Do you have that?

Yes. It's a pretty straightforward, um, approval of the August 11th town meeting video summary upcoming town meetings, October 13th, 2026 and November 17th, 2026.

Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda, please? Motion. Go ahead, Arnie. Motioned by Commissioner Pearson, seconded by Commissioner Kleiner. Can I get any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Consent agenda is approved. Aye. Oh, sorry, Frank. Let the record prove it. Sorry, Frank. Moving forward into new business, we have Ordinance 2026-02, which is the cable and authorized franchise utility work in public right-of-ways. Town Administrator, do you have that?

yes um i'm going to set it up for the town attorney to give you a little bit more of the legal background but what you have here before you is an ordinance that is um ordinance number 20 2602 which will be titled um cable and other Authorized Franchise Utility Work in Public Right of Ways Ordinance is what we're creating. So the basis for that is there are Under federal law, there are certain types of services that can be provided to a community in which the community is authorized to create what is called a franchise fee. And a franchise fee, in my interpretation of a franchise fee, is that when an entity comes in to make money, so to speak, in providing services, and they are using the public ways and public facilities in which to do that, there's a valid point of without the public amenities that you provided, they wouldn't be able to get those services to each of the households or to a particular location in the community. And so you have a right to make sure that your taxpayers get a benefit for that public roads, right of ways, public sidewalks, things like that, the things that these entities need to be able to provide their services and essentially make money in the community. So you're allowed to get, I'll say it this way, a little piece of the action from that perspective there. However, it is very, very regulated by the federal government. So said differently, you cannot charge a franchise fee for the electric company, the telephone company, the internet provider. But you can charge a fee for cable and it is an old holdover from I'm going to call it way back in the day. It might have been maybe the early 1990s, mid 1990s when cable TV became very prevalent in our society and everybody wanted cable TV. That's when communities were able to issue franchise agreements, which, again, you could get compensation for providing the resources or public waste for them to be able to get their facilities, or in this case, cable TV wire ran to each of the homes that wanted to have cable TV. Over the years, like a lot of things happen, maybe some of it gets abused a little bit and there's too much money being asked for or it creates a competitive imbalance in the market meeting provider A has certain things that they have to do to be able to sell their wares where entity B doesn't have to. So the federal government came along and said, first of all, franchise agreements have to be fair and equitable to all providers of those similar services. and that you basically can't hold them up for ransom. So there are three mechanisms in which a community can receive some benefit. So we're talking specifically about cable TV providers, and right now the town of Rising Sun has Armstrong cable, but Comcast communications, whatever, is seeking permission to be able to provide Comcast cable to the residents of the town of Rising Sun, which is a good thing. It's competition, and competition is always good in a fair market enterprise. However, the only three ways we can derive a benefit from the service that we are providing is one through a franchise fee in which the entity would have to pay a percentage of the gross proceeds of what they sell in the community. It's capped at 5%. There's another one called a PEG grant, which is basically a public educational grant government grant in which they can provide money to you to do things like extending your public outreach and communication. So let's go back to the mid-1990s when cable TV first came out. It was very common for, let's say, Armstrong Cable to have the Armstrong Cable channel. and you could go into your TV and click on the button for that cable channel and you could see some community programming, you could see news and notices of flea markets or events that are happening, but some communities under the franchise agreement, negotiated a totally separate cable TV where they could do whatever they wanted with that cable TV channel. It could be stagnant notices that just scrolled across the channel. It could be communities that got a little innovative about it. They could have guest speakers. They could televise their town meetings if they were able to have the television equipment, the recording equipment to be able to do that. It's all outdated concepts. And so in today's day and age, There aren't a whole lot of people in general that get cable TV anymore. When you hear the advertisements on TV about cut the cable, that's about people wanting to do live streaming. So although the market in cable TV has decreased significantly over the last 10 to 15 years, it is still there and people are still buying and subscribing to cable TV. But with that said, there probably aren't a whole lot of people who go to a community channel. So under a PEG grant, you could get money, for instance, to purchase video equipment here. We could have voice activated. cameras here we could have a control board here where we could you know perhaps have someone like Dennis not have to drag all his equipment back and forth to these things he could man a control panel and work all the cameras and make sure that all happens We can also do our own community outreach where we could have the ability to go out over cable, TV, or live stream for that matter, our own community outreach. It could continue to be the town meetings in that system. It could be some educational programs. We could have guest speakers. We could do a whole lot of stuff. and we would want to get grant monies from a cable TV provider to be able to do that. The third way of getting some benefit from it is it is typical to get free service from the cable provider to any government building. Now, back in the mid 1990s, you know, really before internet became prevalent, Everybody had, you know, cable TV. So it makes sense for a community to say, hey, let's get free cable TV. And when you look at, let's say, the city of Baltimore, maybe they have 100 facilities there that would benefit from having cable TV. So getting free service to those entities makes sense. But in our town, when we only have the town hall, the sewer plants, the community center that we're doing, the public works garage, having cable TV access really is no benefit to the operations of town government because you do not get internet free. You do not get phone service free. So even though all that technology is going over one wire, if you want to look at it that way, you can only have something to say about the cable portion of it. So again, back in the day in the 1990s, you had a separate phone line going to provide phone service, and then you had a separate cable line. To say it differently now with fiber optics, all that data and all that information is going through one cable, but you can only regulate the cable television portion of that. So those are the three ways in which we can get a benefit to that. So the ordinance that you have here before you tonight, which we want to introduce as an emergency ordinance, It is nothing more than an ordinance that gives us the authority under federal law to issue franchise agreements to cable providers. So that's all this ordinance is doing. It's called enabling language. which it's basically laws and regulations that enable you to do certain things. So this is nothing more than an ordinance that would give you the enabling language to authorize those franchise agreements. So the other thing that we did with this, this is a little bit different than what other communities might do is Let's look at something that just happened recently with Delmarva telling us that they wanted to come into town to do some work on Pierce Road. And we did all kinds of advertisement ahead of time telling people, hey, they're coming in on this day. They never showed up until the other day. They did decide to show up and they did not do any traffic control. And that resulted in them putting codes across Pierce Road and basically telling the school buses that they can't go down Pierce Road. So when we have entities like that that come in and need to do something in the public way, we want to make sure that they are securing permits. And so this ordinance is going to create two types of permits. It's going to basically create a road opening permit and a traffic control permit that any utility company that comes into the community and wants to do something in the public way Not only do we as a community have the right to know about it, but we have the right to regulate that. And I'm going to give you an example without picking on any specific utility. But how often do you go into a community that's been built and you see those green boxes sitting in the community and they look like A very interesting person was charged with putting that in because there's no requirement on how those boxes are set. So as the earth moves and thaws and freezes and all, those boxes go all over the place. How many times you see those boxes wide open without an adequate cover over them? So we just want to have the ability to protect our community so that our ordinance here is not only authorizing franchise agreements, which those franchise agreements are going to tell those cable companies how to open up a road, how to close a road, how to trench in the road, do whatever work they're going to do, but the franchise agreement is only going to regulate that insofar as they are providing cable service. So if in the future there's no market in cable service and one of those companies comes in to run fiber optics and we say you need a permit to do that, they could say Well, we're not doing cable TV, so we don't have to do any of that. So we modified our ordinance to make sure it not only becomes a catch-all for any entity coming in and doing work in our public ways to make sure it's done right and restored properly, but we're also gearing up for other franchise agreements that we might be authorized to do in the future, and I'll say it to you this way. There are states that are challenging the regulations that you can only franchise cable TV, because when you think about it, What's the difference between internet service that they're selling to somebody at a profit and cable TV as a profit? They're still getting the benefit of all the public ways of a community to be able to run and make that money. So there are challenges taking place at the state, not the state of Maryland, but in other states and on the federal level to be able to change that. I'm not sitting here suggesting to you that I think it's going to change because I honestly don't think it will, but at least our ordinance will be set up to be able to do that. So I'm going to turn it over to the town attorney at this point to cover any more bases on this ordinance, and then he's going to talk to you about the franchise agreement itself that we are working on. So Jay?

Well, good evening. Um, Calvin covered everything pretty, pretty detailed and I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you have. The bottom line is, you know, I'd like to give you a pretty, pretty straight. You have to have one because you're going to have to have a franchise agreements. And this model allows you not only to deal with franchise agreements, but also access to your right of way. So it's a pretty vanilla in the fact that you have to do it. And this is how you do it. Everyone else has one. And so just like everything else, we've got to follow along as well. You should have had one of these a long time ago, like back in the 80s, but you don't. So we're going to fix that. Once you enact this tonight, so you'll go through the process of getting it enacted, and the reason why you are being pushed to do this now is Comcast would like to start installing their network like yesterday, that quick. And we can't let them do that until we have a franchise agreement with them. we can't have a franchise agreement with them until you had knocked this ordinance so that's the sequence of events as far as the franchise agreement it is a very lengthy document but again it's pretty boilerplate it is what most places have you adjust the little bits and pieces to fit your community but the bottom line is it's what the feds say that locals have to have to allow people or companies to use your right-of-way and that's what it is they're using the right-of-way, the roads, the easements that belong to the public.

Hey, Jay, can you hold up a second? We lost your audio for some reason. I hear him perfectly in my headset.

We can't hear him out here.

That's why we need a peg grant. Yes.

Any better? Nothing? Yeah, perfect.

Yeah, now you pop back.

I think you just didn't want me to talk anymore and hit the mute button. I don't want to see everybody's hands. I don't want to see anybody on a button. So the bottom line is we're doing the cable franchise agreement, and federal law pretty much dictates what's in it and how it's done. The decision points for you are pretty simple. What is the fee that you're going to charge? And federal law says it can't be more than 5% of the revenues, and so yours is set at 5%. And what do you want as far as the peg situation that Calvin already discussed? So those still need to be negotiated. But as Calvin mentioned, Comcast is ready to go. You already have an agreement with Armstrong that is expired. So Comcast is ready to go. We want to sign one with Comcast and then we want to move immediately to Armstrong to update theirs to be just like Comcast. So, Typical Rising Sun, this is something that should have been done a long time ago, and we go through and we're doing housekeeping to update it. What we're basically asking is for you to approve the form of the Comcast franchise agreement and then allow Calvin to negotiate any minor details that would get it done. Any questions, I'm happy to ask.

I have one, Jay. Just for my edification, do these agreements typically... Are they typically paired with the right-of-way, like the road opening permit and traffic control permit language?

Yeah, they typically, well, typically municipalities have those things already in place. Okay. So we're doing them all together because we didn't have them in place.

To bundle it. Okay. Thanks.

Yeah, that's the idea.

Thank you. Do you want to read into the record?

um yeah jay to what extent do we have to read this into the record just the boilerplate yeah i would just give a synopsis that uh of what the ordinance number is and the title i don't think you need to read everything into the record okay so all right so the synopsis is ordinance number 20 2602 an ordinance of the Town of Rising Sun, Cecil County, Maryland, adding language to the code of the Town of Rising Sun by creating a new Chapter 17 titled Cable and Other Authorized Franchises, Utility Work in Public Right-of-Ways, and for the purposes of authorizing and regulating the granting of exclusive or non-exclusive franchises for cable, telecommunications related signal distribution services within the town to the extent authorized by applicable law and regulating work performed by utility and service providers within town streets, public ways, public right-of-ways establishing the procedures fees and other requirements applicable to the issuance renewal modification or transfer of such franchise agreements and to repeal any and all other ordinances and parts of the ordinances and conflict thereof and I'll go to section I'll go to the last section in here, section six. that this ordinance is considered for adoption as an emergency ordinance as provided for by code, and if adopted, shall become effective immediately. Now, therefore, be it resolved that this ordinance was introduced on this eighth day of September 2026. Now, therefore, be it further resolved that the Mayor and Commissioners of the Town of Rising Sun passed, approved, and adopted this ordinance as an emergency ordinance on this eighth day of September 2026. 2026 so I would just close with I think there's a century two motions one to adopt this ordinance to pass it and the second one is to authorize Jay and I to continue the negotiations with Comcast over the agreement so two separate motions make a motion to adopt ordinance number 20 2602 second any discussion

Just to clarify, town administrator, Comcast wants to move forward as quickly as possible. That's why we're passing this as an emergency.

Yes.

And it'll be posted on our website. Yes. This ordinance will. Okay. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Passes.

Okay. Next motion.

Authorize the town administrator and our town attorney. Yes.

So I make a motion to authorize our town administrator and town attorney to continue working on this ordinance.

And franchise agreement.

And the franchise agreement.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Passes. Thank you, Commissioner Dowling. All right. Moving forward into staff reports. Town Administrator. Oh, sorry. Would anyone like to speak this evening?

I do. Okay. I wanted to bring up your attention, as you were talking about the cable franchise agreement, about the ratty cable boxes in my neighborhood. If I had a car like this on blocks in my front yard, y'all would come and stop and see me. But these things, I've talked to, Delmarva about them, and it goes in one cable eater and out the other, and they don't listen to me. So I have also contacted the Maryland Public Service Commission and marked them out.

Let me see that first one, Jamie.

Just so you all know, I have also contacted Delmarva in regards to these boxes, and unfortunately they tell me they function correctly and they will not paint them.

And I told them that they had brand new shiny ones through the neighborhood of Dover. And I don't see why they can't take them out because Armstrong changed out all their cable covers recently. So I don't see why we have to put up with that.

I agree.

I mean, if I was on my house, you'd come in coding for me.

Yeah, the issue that comes up with us painting them as liability for the box, that's what they said.

Well, I think, and I'll ask Jay to correct me if I'm wrong, the other problem is they're all federally protected. So they're sort of allowed to operate separate within the world than what the rest of us are. And that's the thing we run into all the time. To take some of you back, when we were talking about doing work in our subdivision code, we wanted to put language in our subdivision code to regulate what Delmarva and that particular company was doing, and we were told we don't have the legal authority to do that.

What I was looking for, Jane, was to see if there was any potential electrical hazard, and both of them are sealed.

Well, if they rust through, they are.

Well, if they rust through, yeah, that is true. But unfortunately, at this time, I don't see... We can keep trying to press Delmarva on it.

Oh, that's the biggest thing we can do.

Maybe I need to just repurpose the political side and put October sucks in front of every box.

I don't have a problem with that.

Would anyone else like to speak this evening? All right. Moving forward into staff reports, town administrator.

Um, I don't have, maybe.

Yeah, I like it.

Okay, really? Are you sure? Yeah. Okay.

Calvin, I've got work to get done at home tomorrow. You don't have anything? The world isn't ready for this. It's going to rain tomorrow. Town attorney.

Town attorney.

Calvin told me that I can take his hour of time, so I'm going to start. Okay. No, we've been busy kind of buttoning up the development. I'm sure you've seen the Knutson track or seen the emails about it. My understanding is they went to settlement today to transfer the first section for the Knutsons. If you see the Knutsons around town, you can talk to them. I hope they'll be telling you that the town personnel have been working with them and their attorney to make things happen and get it done. It's been a lot of work and a lot of time. But I'm afraid I think this is just the beginning of the adventure, not the end. So it will be more and more stuff that we're going to have to deal with.

But you also have two other developments that are about ready to start as well.

So I think the fun times are ahead.

Thank you, Jay. Is that why you went on vacation now?

I'm running away. I'm not on vacation.

Chief. The only thing I have is we welcomed a new administrative aid to the police department. We do now have a civilian secretary. Um, and her name is Kathleen, uh, Maynard. Um, she comes to us from one of the local banking institutions. And, uh, so far she's done very well and just wanted to make everyone aware that we did hire someone and, and it looks like it's going to work out well. And that's all I have.

Thank you. Assistant town administrator.

As you can see, you have your financial packages. They are color coded again with outstanding checks, color coded in red. We are in the process of our audit and expect to have everything completed by the deadline of October 31st. That's it.

Thank you. Moving forward into the mayor's report, a few things. Chief and I had a wonderful visit for the first day of school. We visited a Rising Sun Elementary School and Rising Sun Middle School, greeted the students. Just remember with Rising Sun Middle School that they do want you to follow the drop-off locations. They've had a few issues with parents not wanting to wait in the drop-off lines, so they're dropping them off on the side streets. And that causes a little bit of a hazard with kids crossing the street when they're in the midst of buses coming in, as well as parents exiting to go onto the street after they've dropped off their kids. So just try to follow those rules as best you can. I also wanted to give a shout out to our town administrator and Juanita. If you haven't noticed yet, we have a new town website. It looks fantastic. We're still building it out, so please be patient with us as it is built out. We hope that it will be a very user-friendly website for folks to be able to use. It has some great features. including an assistant that you can type in, and it'll help you locate things that you may be looking for on our website. But like I said, we just debuted it, so please be patient with us as we're building it out. Another new business is coming in. Last night, Night Owl released a public relations release in regards to their opening at the former Lori's Place. on Main Street. We look forward to welcoming them sometime soon. The owner has reached out and wants to meet with us, and I look forward to working with him on a grand opening, hopefully soon. I also wanted to talk about a couple of things that we're doing right now. As you know, Donate Life Month is in September. If you are not a donor, please consider donating your organs. It is a great opportunity thing to do. If you're interested in signing up to be a donor, you can stop in the town hall and they'll direct you to a website where you can do so. We also have our town hall illuminated teal as well as teal ribbons. That is in memorial of Terry Bader, our long-term public works employee, Daryl Bader's wife, who tragically passed away from ovarian cancer. One of the last things that Terry did was meet with me about this campaign, and we continue to do it in her memory. And we constantly think of Daryl and his family during this time. Spooktacular is coming up very soon, second Saturday in October. We're building out a really great event. It should be a wonderful time. And then also mark your calendars for Winter Extravaganza, which is the second Saturday in December. Uh, today I visited, uh, Northrop Grumman in Elkton, um, to congratulate the officials there on their new propulsion, uh, rocket, uh, booster, uh, facility there. Um, just a wonderful facility. Uh, after talking with a few members at the, um, event, uh, there are a lot of folks that work there that live within the town of rising sun. Um, so we're excited for more. employment opportunities in Cecil County regarding that facility specifically. That concludes my report. Moving forward into Commissioner comments. Commissioner Dowling.

Can you hear me okay?

Yeah, I can.

I just want to share that we have an upcoming ribbon cutting for Sonny's Toy Box, September the 16th, 5 p.m. They opened up a few weeks back, but they wanted to wait until they got their signage all fixed up and the facade all fixed and ready to go to have an official ribbon cutting. We'll have some officials from the town there, members from the Chamber of Commerce, but anyone that wants to come out that evening, September 16th at five o'clock to welcome them into town. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Dowling. Commissioner Kleiner.

Just an encouragement to check out the new businesses that we have in town. There are some newer places that opened up in just above Garden Girl. And, of course, Sunny's Toy Box, the grand opening is next week. And I wanted to encourage everyone to attend our special events coming up in October and December. That concludes my report.

Thank you, Commissioner Kleiner. Commissioner Peterson.

I would just like to remind everybody that this Friday is the 25th anniversary of 9-11. It's particularly sensitive to me because I actually lost firefighter friends that were killed that day. So please, keep it in your thoughts on Friday. It's something that will never go away and unfortunately we have a generation that doesn't understand that. So as the saying goes, never forget. Also, just a reminder, there are children on the streets before school walking, after school walking, and then down Main Street. Be aware that they are not as aware of their surroundings as you must be. because they tend to run out in front of cars and all, and we've, over the years, had several serious accidents on Main Street especially. So please, as drivers, be cognizant of the children. That concludes my report.

Thank you, Commissioner Pearson. On the agenda, you can see our Board of Zoning Appeals and Commission Schedule, as well as upcoming town events and holidays. Our Trash, Recycling, and Yard Waste Schedule is also posted on the website and on Facebook as well. Can I get a motion to adjourn?

I make a motion to adjourn.

I second it.

It's been moved and seconded. All in favor?

Aye.

Meeting adjourned.