Town Council - Regular Meeting

February. Today is February. Time is now 7:30 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. presentations. Correct. So, we do not have any presentations this evening. So, we'll move directly into public comment. Is there anybody in the crowd that would like to speak, sir? [snorts]

Let's um let's go for about three minutes. Ready? Am I audible? Sure. This is this on Okay. juicy little twink.

Okay, great. Thank you. You said three minutes. I rehearsed this. Should be two and a half. So, [laughter] appreciate it.

My name is Michael Rash, 25508 Kings Forest Trail, Mount Ary. Thank you for the opportunity to address the council. Um, I've lived in Mount Ary for 15 years along with my wife and our three kids. And I would like to make a few points about the proposed Warfield annexation for the Ballfield facility. First, Nottingham is right next to the proposed facility. There are 420 homes in Nottingham. So, it is easily in the top three largest communities in the town, if not the largest. Any decision on the annexation will have a huge impact on Nottingham. So, one would hope that the council would re emphasize how residents of Nottingham feel about the annexation. Secondly, many people choose Noddingham because of its proximity to Mount Ary schools. All three of my kids are going through these schools with one now in high school at South Carol. If the ball fields were next to Nottingham 15 years ago when I was looking to move to Mount Ary, I would never have moved to Nottingham. The ball fields are simply not compatible with school schedules and the needs of young kids. I am not alone in feeling this and the result would be less demand for housing in Nottingham. Less demand equals reduced house prices. If the council votes in favor of the ball fields, there will be a lot of unhappy residents when they see their home values decreased. Sec. Third, Mount Ary has problems with water already and water rates uh for town residents are likely going to go up and yet the council is considering adding the irrigation needs of eight professional ball fields and associated facilities. Again, there are going to be a lot of unhappy residents who have to foot the bill. This affects everyone in the town, not just residents of

Nottingham. Fourth, and finally, there will be no net economic benefit to the town. People aren't going to hang out before or after ball game events. There are no hotels, and there are very it's very easy access to I7 to go to other places. When you factor for decreased home values and increased water rates, not to mention the fact that the roads aren't built for it either, the ball fields would be a net economic drag on the town. In summary, I urge the council to reject the proposed annexation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rash. Do we have anyone else? All right, Mr. Bailey. How y'all doing tonight? Elmer Bailey, Ridge resident, here to talk about the food truck ordinance. You know what I perceive as a town spending a lot of time and effort on a problem that doesn't even really exist. It's ridiculously overburdensome. So if someone in my neighborhood wants to have a food truck there, oh, we have to go get a town permit. One of the clubs wants to have a permit uh have a food truck for one of their events. Ah, we got to have a permit. Otherwise, the the food truck police must show up and issue a fine if it wasn't permitted. Now, I fully understand creating an ordinance. You don't want food trucks just pulling into town, parking wherever. I I get that, but that that's a ridiculously overburdensome ordinance that's being proposed. I don't even see where it was an issue. Was are y'all getting inundated with

public emails and outcry over the horrible food trucks that are just showing up all over town that necessitated having a whole ordinance and legal document over it? Like seriously. Yeah. when when you discuss it, I really want you to think about the overall impact and probably what the real reasons behind why it's even an issue to begin with. Any questions? Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bailey.

Let's do the right thing. Anyone else in the crowd want to speak? Okay, seeing none, we will move on. Uh, we do not have any speakers this evening, so we can move on to the approval of the January meeting minutes and closed meeting minutes. On the approval of the town council meeting minutes for the meeting January 2026, I'll make a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Opposed. All right. On the approval of the closed meeting minutes from January 2026 subject matter litigation. I'll make a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Thank you. On the approval of closed meeting minutes, January 2026 subject matter land acquisition. I'll make a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Opposed. All right. Thank you. Um, next up on the agenda, I do not see Lieutenant Lavel um with the Civil Air Patrol [snorts and clears throat] report. So, we will move on to the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company with Mr. Mr. Herd.

Good evening, everyone. Well, we have new reporting system, so it's kind of off tilter a little bit, so I haven't added it all up, but I'm going to do my best. Uh, for Carroll County, we had 144 calls. Frederick 56, Howard 12. Montgomery, we had four, we had 13, excuse me, 16 uh fire calls. In amongst those calls for the boxer one, we had 18. 1 2 10 1312 148 box 15 we had 76 we had five7 we had two and box 115 we had 23 uh couple front reminders this Friday is the uh auxiliary's uh dinner it starts at 4:00 goes to 7 it's a fried chicken and shrimp mashed potatoes stew tomatoes buttered corn baked apples saw green beans and of course the butter butter and biscuit or rolled, so to speak, for $18. Then again, the third Sunday of the month is our uh all going to eat breakfast. So, come on out and support the fire company. Mr. Mer,

I try to. Oh, I know. You know, you're large and breakfast. So, don't worry. The biscuits and gra the not the biscuits and gravy, the biscuits and butter are very good for the for the dinners. Excellent. [laughter] Any questions? Just a quick question, man. I had a question. You always have a question. Of course you said 144. Did you see an increase in calls during the blizzard? During not the blizzard, this

actually No, it was it was actually we had a crew staff, volunteer and paid craft staff up there. But no, we had maybe one call in two and a half days. It was actually everybody was like was no emergency, but we were all set, ready to go if if we had one. So, but I want to thank the town you guys, you know, they did a great job plowing, open up the roads, very timely compared to everybody else. Manor looked really good. So, absolutely. Thanks for the feedback. Okay, moving on. We have uh Mount Area Police Department report with Chief Teneva.

Good evening everybody. Uh police police report for community outreach. Uh January 2nd, Modern Woodman uh made a $100 donation in reference to Shop with a Cop. On January 20th, the Masonic Prudence Lodge made a thousand dollar donation to the Mount uh community fund. On January 20th, the General Federation of the Women's Club of Westminster uh they donated some snacks to the guys at the police department. So, that was really nice. There's a letter attached in there with all the signatures u from that federation. So, that was really nice for them to do that. For calls for service, we had 532 calls for the month of January. which was a small decrease um from last year of 2025 of 542. For our recruitment, we still have one lateral officer that's in um for background investigation. We did hire a police administrative assistant. Uh she will be starting on next Monday, the 9th. So, we're pretty excited to have her aboard and get her started. And we are currently still processing one applicant for entry level for the police academy that starts on March 2nd. So I'll pretty much uh myself and the other background investigator will have um this individual's paperwork wrapped up probably um by Monday. I have to submit her um AFC form to the Maryland uh Police Training Commission. And hopefully if all works well, and I'm quite confident on this, this uh individual will be the first female police officer for the Mount Area Police Department. So, it's pretty exciting and quite a historical thing for our agency. Other than that, I don't have anything else to add. And if anyone has any questions, I'll just ask the same thing as Matt. During the recent snowstorm, did you see

any increasing calls or were people listening to the warnings and staying off the roads and stuff? No, sir. I will say the town of Mount Area, I mean, everyone really respected that um for police operations and for fire and for obviously our department of public works. So,

town really did a great job staying indoors, listening to what was happening. Um, but no calls for service. I don't think any of the officers for the first night uh it was zero calls for service and even for the next night I think there might have been two calls for service that the officers were out there. So the guys did a great job. They there were overnight and stuff like that. So really uh appreciate the hard work that everyone put in, not just the the officers. So thank you. All right. Cool. And thank you for the officers that ended up spending the night and doing their do their duty during the snow snowstorm. Yes, sir.

Uh, council [clears throat] president, just a quick comment. So, Chief, thank you for the report and just a kind of stream of consciousness here. I'm looking over the the traffic safety report and [snorts] it is interesting for the month of January, just the month of January, [snorts] tracking since 2020. This is 2026. [snorts] This January, you had the highest number of traffic warnings issued, highest number of total traffic stops, highest number of traffic arrests, and highest number of citations. So, I [snorts] appreciate that you're out there doing traffic safety, public safety, and to the citizens who maybe sometimes think, well, you know, I I don't always see the police out there on the roads, but they are out there and they are keeping us safe. And I think the the data shows that. So I wanted to thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Yes, sir. Anyone else? Good. All right. Next on the agenda, we have the council liaison and staff reports. Um, first up, we have Mayor Husher with his report.

Thank you, uh, council secretary. the uh got a couple things on the calendar that occurred in January that I'll I'll point out. This kind of followup to the resolution we had on storm sirens in town. Uh we took a a site visit out to the emergency operations center for Carol County which is up in New Windsor. I went there with a staff member uh Graceful Action and uh got got the full tour of the place and it was uh really educational to see how things work over in the Carol County side and we're setting up to go over to Frederick County and see how they operate as well and how how it would relate to our storm sirens. And I I think we'll probably end up hooking up into the Frederick County side because Carol County currently doesn't have any uh storm sirens. So, um, with that being said, it was, you know, we had that recent snowstorm and they activated all that. So, it was interesting to see the room where everybody gets together and how it all works and their police uh, county dispatch is in the same building. So, it was very educational to uh, you know, kind of see how the sausage was made. So, so it was a good tour. Uh also on uh January 14th as a followup to last month uh Sheriff Dwise came down and along with council member Deoter we had a and the staff we had a very nice discussion about uh potential funding sources for the storm sirens and I thought it thought it was really u nice of him to come down here follow up and and have a meeting with him uh concerning that issue. As far as notes for the month, uh obviously the uh snowstorm has dominated everything. I wanted to put out a uh special thanks to public works. They did keep the roads cleared. Uh they had it happening pretty quick. Um it did end up

throwing all kinds of uh slush and and stuff all over the sidewalks and we're still working on getting the sidewalks cleared, too. And even some of the town sidewalks aren't cleared. But we're coming up between the staff and myself with some creative ideas to uh keep the uh keep getting the sidewalks cleared, but what we really need is about 40° for for [laughter] a solid 24 hours so we could uh finally get this place cleaned out. But um I appreciate everything that public works did to try to get everything cleared up. And I know that citizens are out there and I would ask, you know, if you got a neighbor, um, you know, who's having trouble getting the sidewalks cleared and you got a strong back and a good shovel, go out there and help them. Um, I know I'm doing it and I suspect everybody at this table has been out there keeping an eye on people and trying to uh figure out how to get these sidewalks uh cleared up. And lastly, I'll point out that uh Main Street wasn't getting plowed and Caitensville Homes Rob Scranton jumped in uh made some phone calls and along with the police out there making sure that they didn't get hit by cars, they uh managed to get Main Street cleared to the point that you could uh you could actually park on it, which was followed by social media posts complaining about people parking on Main Street, but that's the way it works. So, can't win. Um, as well we had uh Seven Springs Landscaping uh came out today, did a lot of work on Prospect Road for us and uh we greatly appreciate uh Mark Messik and him being out there showing us what a ditch witch could do to a uh to a sidewalk is pretty impressive. So uh frankly I want a ditch witch. [laughter] So and that uh pretty well I got one more thing. the uh basket bingo uh box and bag uh basket bingo for the historical society is on March 7th and uh so please come out. The uh tickets

are on sale online. You can just Google the historical society at Mount Ary and uh come out and participate at that great fundraiser uh for the historical society. And that concludes my report. Thanks.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, just to kind of piggyback on Department of Public Works and the clearing of snow and everything, I' I've personally heard from quite a few people in town about how well they did and how quickly it was it was done. And, you know, it's not easy with over a foot of snow, but they did a a real kick butt job. So, kudos to them. [snorts] Okay. Next we have water and sewer commission beautifification commission inclement weather task force and the 250 semiquincentennial committee with council member demoter.

Okay. [clears throat] Thank you very much. So uh beautifification commission we last met on January 20th. Uh the commission completed removal of the Christmas decorations from the Wildwood Park area and other areas of the town. Uh we also discuss budgetary needs for the coming year for the commission and those will get factored into the upcoming town budget workshops this spring and we developed a formal task plan outlining the monthly commission activities for the coming year. Uh we also began discussions on decorating ideas uh for plantings and flowers and such uh to tie into the town's America 250 uh celebration planning. Our next meeting will be on February 17th. Water and sewer commission. We last met on January 7th. The focus of that meeting was to receive and offer comments on the proposed water and sewer rate increase ordinance. and the commission gave favorable uh review of the ordinance with some comments. Uh the commission also discussed a draft of the mayor's letter that would be sent out and I think citizens are now getting it. the uh letter regarding ongoing PAS situation in our town and associated actions and recommendations and u a more targeted meeting was held with the mayor and a subset of commission members including myself to go through some specific wording and content suggestions for finalizing the letter which was subsequently sent out by the mayor. And I want to um compliment the mayor. I'm I'm not aware of of other local municipalities that are uh doing the level of communication and outreach that we are with our citizens. I mean, sending a letter directly out to every resident, I think, is it's important,

but it's it's a very good risk communication practice. So, I want to thank the mayor for doing that and the water and sewer commission for all their work on that. We're going to meet next on February 4th, which is this Wednesday. Inclement weather task force, we last met on January 14th, and following the successful January passage of the weather alert siren resolution by the town council. Uh the task force's efforts are now focused on working with the town staff to support the development of a scope of work to be included in an RFP for actually acquiring and installing the weather alert siren system. As the mayor pointed out separately, um we had a we had a meeting with uh Sheriff Jim Dwise and I attended that meeting and the purpose was to learn more from the sheriff about his stated desire and commitment to contribute financially to our town's weather alert siren system. And he did offered I I'll go an extra step. [laughter] He he he did offer at the meeting that he thought he could um work towards delivering a target of about 50% of of our funding needs. So, um we're very appreciative of everything he does to support our community and this important public safety initiative. And we'll be meeting next on February 24th. And then I want to uh highlight the America 250 task force. We had a meeting on January 15th to kick off the um planning and progress to date for the semiquincentennial celebration. And that's why I'm always going to call it the America 250 event. Um [clears throat]

something I think is is important. Our our theme for the year-long celebration is together in gratitude, proud and heritage, celebrating 250 years of community. And so we put our heads together and and thought about this and um you know I did a lot of work on the town community survey and I think at least one half to more of half of the town residents have been here at least 15 to 20 years. This is a place where people come, they move here and they don't leave because we have such a great town with a great sense of of spirit and community engagement. And so as a town, we have a really strong shared set of town life experiences within our community. So we have a shared history locally and we have a shared history as Americans celebrating the 250 50th anniversary. So we we wanted to capture the fact that we we all have a lot in common. We all have a lot to be thankful for and grateful for, not only within our own community, but more broadly as Americans. So, um, what we want to do is give thanks for our shared history, the friendships that bind us, and the blessings of our close-knit town. And that's what we want to try and emulate over the course of the next year. And we hope as you participate in these events, you'll you'll walk away with that same sense of community. Um, you can learn more about the town's plans for this year-long celebration on the town's website. There is a very large America 250 logo. You can't miss it. You click on that, you can get to all the planned activities and events.

Um, what we're doing is we're sprinkling in a little bit of America 250 within our kind of traditional events we have throughout the year, but we're also having some special events just just for the America 250. Just a couple quick examples, our July 2nd, we'll have our America 250 spirit parade. And so in the parade, we'll have 250th themed floats and historical groups participating. And typically at the Fourth of July parade, it's it's just a vehicles onlyly parade. And this is going to be a an everything parade. There'll be people marching in it with floats and other things. So that's going to be special. We're also doing an America 250 time capsule where um people and businesses can can take memorabilia, pictures of their family, special events, and it'll go it'll go into a time capsule and that'll be sealed up for 50 years. And if you want to participate in that activity, um there's a submission portal on the website where you can express your interest in participating. So, I'm I'm honored to be kind of the champion liaison for the effort. Ashley Collier of the town staff is is the the spearhead for the effort. Um, but we're really looking forward to the next year and we hope all the citizens enjoy what we have to offer. Uh, that completes my report and thank you.

Thank you, council member. Um, just to kind of piggyback on the [clears throat] semiquen centennial, um, with the fireworks, I would love to be, you know, pick your ear a little bit about that and see how we can incorporate that into the fireworks show as well. So, you know, off the record, we can sit down and discuss some of those things because it kind of goes hand inhand with this beer parade as well. Yeah, I think that'll be I wanted to just throw in we're going to do a um at the fireworks celebration, we're going to do a reading of the Declaration of Independence. So, that's another little extra thing we're going to do. So, um, anyway, it'll be a good year. Are you going to wear the like the George Washington? [laughter]

I might get the the triangle hat and then and, uh, go go for the whole look. [laughter] Thank you. Thank you. Um, next up, we have planning commission report with Council Member Kelly. So, this is an easy one. Uh, for our second month in a row, the planning commission did not meet this time because of weather. But, um, don't fear. I'm sure next month there will be a lengthy report after the couple of months off. That's not fair because when I was on the planning commission, we had multiple meetings outside of the real meetings. Um, okay. So, next up we have streets and road commission, commission of aging and living, and the flat iron task force with uh council member Mund.

Sorry, I'm just still trying to picture Councilman Demoter in a white wig triangle hat and playing the flute. So uh or F. So if I laughed or it just I'm thinking of that. So [laughter] the streets and roads commission uh did not meet this month due to weather also. It was primar the weather. So the next meeting will be uh March 31st at 7:00 p.m. in town hall. Just a couple up updates on roads in general in the area. According to MDOT, repairs to the I70 on-ramp are scheduled to begin in six to eight weeks, depending on availability of labor, materials, and the weather hopefully. So hopefully by midsummer, we'll have that on-ramp open again. Uh the work on the traffic circle is progressing as planned and still expected for a mid to late April completion depending on weather. Uh, and a thank you again to the town staff and public works department for the multiple day snow removal operations. And it sounds like to the mayor is still ongoing. So, thank you again. Uh Cole, which is the um commission on aging livability, met on Wednesday 128 here in town hall at 5:00 p.m. One topic of discussion was the update on the cross county transportation memorand member ran me mouou [sighs] uh which is basically stating that starting this spring there will be a pilot program offered by ride with us of Carol County to transport residents of the town both sides Carol and Frederick County side to various location to various locations in both Frederick and Carol County. Please stay tuned for more details as they become available. Uh various other topics were discussed including continuing discussions with Rides for Good of Frederick County to

establish a volunteer driver program. The uh and also an upcoming event was discussed is Calvary United Methodist Church health fair on 418. Up to 60 groups will be there and food trucks will be present serving breakfast and lunch. Look for more information on that coming soon. The next meeting is scheduled for February 25th at 5:00 p.m. here in town hall. Uh flat irons update. We're still waiting on grants to see what has been approved and disapproved. And during a recent visit here in town last week, Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth tooured the town. I'm during discussions, we were uh to discussing other projects here in town, including the upcoming potential grant from the federal government that is in this year or next year's fiscal budget. So that concludes that my report. Thank you, Council Member Wonder. Um on to economic development commission and recycling and sanitation which is me. Um I was not at the economic development commission meeting due to a funeral. Um but I did meet with uh chairman Ray Miller and discuss some of the conversations that were had about the food trucks. Um so I'm sure there will be more conversations to be had as that ordinance progresses through planning commission and then um on back to us. [snorts] Um, next meeting for EDC is February 25th, uh, right here at town hall at 7 o'clock. For sanitation and recycling, um, a couple of dates to keep your eyes on. The shred event will be April 25th, 2026 between 9 and 12. Um, they wanted me to ask if the signs are in the basement for the shred event. If we could have someone double check and make sure.

We'll check and make sure. Okay. Thank you.

I'll send a file. [laughter] I'll send a follow-up email. There should be 19 signs left from what they're telling me. So, [sighs] um, electronic recycling day for the spring will be May 2nd, 2026. Um, more information will be coming out as we get closer to that. It will be between 9 and 12. And as of right now, it's at the American Legion. Again, the curbside bulk pickup, um, mayor, you specially requested this. It's May 9th. Um, two bulky items are allowed and yeah, May 9th, Saturday, May 9th is that day. Um, budget concerns, I'll email um, Katie about that. They had a question about if they need a line item for yard waste fees um, which we just found out that we're paying that. So, that is all I have for the sanitation and recycling. Next meeting for them will be February 18th uh, right here in town hall at 7 o'clock. And that finishes my reports. And on to parks and wrecks, uh, which is council president Washabal. He did send me a little blurb to read. Um, January meeting highlights. Number one, Girl Scouts from Troop 1990 and 1629 uh putting geocaching geocode boxes for their silver award in the parks to identify environment environment perspective town history and a disability inclusion box locations to be worked out with the staff. Number two, there is a new new board member Bradley Lingren and number three they discussed the budget priorities recommendations for submissions to the town council. That's all I have for parks and wrecks and moving on to the town's attorney report with Mr. McCarron.

Sure. Just uh two sort of real estate uh procurement uh things to report. first of all on the Mount Apartments to procure a portion of that property to extend our water treatment facilities. We're nearing a uh final on the purchase and sale agreement that should be before you all for approval at the next meeting. Uh and secondly, uh I'm happy to report that we did close on the Green Tree property or the portion of the Green Tree property for locating a new police u uh station. Um uh that occurred uh just uh last month. Um and so we now are the owners of that portion of the Green Tree property at this point in time. Um from here uh under the agreement the developer will be with the grading of the rest of the green tree property be grading out a pad site uh for the town uh as well as providing utility connections there. Um, and that should take about uh 1 year. Uh, at which point in time, you know, we'll be clear to uh whenever we're ready construct the the police station. So, that's where we are on that. That's my report.

Council Secretary, a quick follow-up question. Can you can you remind us or the mayor, can you remind us what was what was the town's purchase price for the property? total of uh uh $975,000. Uh the uh we paid a deposit of $92,500. Uh at closing, we put up an additional $252,500. Uh the remaining amount, $625,000 is in a balloon note uh to be paid 15 days after the town engineer uh inspects and approves the um the pad site. the developers postclosing work basically. Um and uh and that's how that payment is broken down.

Thank you. The appraisal I should say came in at much substantially higher than that. Uh something on the order of 1.3 if I recall correctly. Excellent. Anyone else?

Um just nothing for Tom or anything but just a general announcement here. Um, as everyone's sure to remember back in July, early August, we had a uh severe storm in here where a child lost their life. And this year during the general assembly, um, they did have success in introducing two bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, called municipalities open drainage inlets, required grading systems, also known as Mason's Law. These two are being heard tomorrow and Wednesday. So if you feel like uh please write the committees uh for the Senate bill 189 is being heard by energy ex excuse me education energy and the environment and for the co cross file HB34 it's being heard by environment and transportation in the house please write the committees saying you support these uh important laws to make sure that no child will have the uh unfortunately pass away due to a storm event and a open drainage thing. Thank you.

Thanks, Council Member Mer. You're welcome. Let's jump in for a second. I will be going down to Annapolis tomorrow to testify on the town's behalf. Thanks. You're welcome. Yeah, thank you for bringing that up, Council Member M. It's a very important law and obviously it hits very close to home with us. So with Mason, [gasps] um, we all have copies of the county administrator report, the code enforcement report, and zoning administrator report. Um, is there anything that you guys want to add to that? N, you guys are making this easy on me. [laughter] All right. Well, we want to beat Tim's record of the short meeting, so hey,

he'd be so proud. All right, rolling right along. Um on to new business um for commissions appointments and reappoint appointments. We have none this month. Correct. Okay. And under ordinances and resolutions we have ordinance 2026-3 water and sewer rate increase for introduction. Um do I have someone willing to Yes. I I would like to make a motion to introduce ordinance 2026-3 water and sewer rate increase. Okay. Thank you. I'll second. And that is introduced. So, we will see that next month.

Um, all right. Resolution 2026-2 for the purpose of establishing the town's available water and sewer capacity yield from 2026 to 2027. This is up for adoption. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion for approval of resolution 2026-2 for the purpose of establishing the town's available water and store capacity yield from 2026 through 2027. Thank you. Do I have a second? I'll second. Okay. Now for discussion. Nothing. Yeah, I I have some some questions, but I'll sure

I was just going to say this is an uh I want say by no bianual what every two two years I can't say the correct by it's bianual but it's not that semi [laughter] [gasps] anyhow this is a administrative we need to do do this every two two years to verify the um town well and uh wastewater treatment capacity yields. This will go this number will go to the uh planning s planning commission to uh allocate it into the appropriate C categories as and it'll come back to the council as a recommendations once they're done. So, it's just more of an administrative um thing than anything else. Thank you.

Uh yes, thank you. I have a couple questions and uh I guess a question for town staff. Um the uh the methodology for calculating the the water capacity yield is that on the website somewhere? It's not on the website.

Okay. Because I was reading the town code and the town code chapter 109 says 109-19.2. The method of calculating the town's available water capacity yield and available sewer capacity yield shall be established from time to time by resolution of the town council upon recommendation of the town engineer and the town's water and sewer commission. This method shall be published on the town's web page. Um, so I always like to trust but verify and I appreciate the numbers in the resolution, but I always like to understand how those numbers were arrived at and I I looked all over the town website and I I couldn't find the method and then nowhere did I see a description of how this year's calculations were done. I know we talked about this very briefly at the last water and sewer commission meeting and there are a number of elements that go into the calculation and one of them is the uh water available um the number of gallons approved and allocated to development that to date has not been connected to the water system. So that would be whatever's in the pipeline that's been approved. And I think we were missing that number and we were waiting on that number from town staff and we never got that number. So just for me as a council member, I again I always like to understand where do the numbers come from? What's the method? How are they calculated? What were the inputs? if we're telling the citizens we put the method on the town's website, it should be there because I should be able to go and find it. Um,

and I will say I as as a council member, I'm I'm putting a real focus on our water resource. So, I'm very interested in our water capacity yield because that sets the amount of water for growth and development for the next few years. I'm interested in the water allocations that will be coming up and I'm interested in how the town allocates water to various businesses and residents. So, I'm very focused in on this and without seeing the calculations on what went in, um I I just need to see it. So, I'll be I won't be supporting this resolution this evening. So, thank you.

Any further discussion? Nope. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Um, all in favor of adopting resolution 2026-2 for the per purpose of establishing the town's water and sewer capacity yield from 2026 through 2027, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed?

Nay. We have, as far as I know, nothing under unfinished business. At this time, we will move into close session. We do have a close session. Okay. At this time, we will move into close session under provisions article 3-305B7 for litigation and 3-305B3 for land acquisition. At the end of the close session meeting, this meeting will be adjourned. Now I will roll call into close session. Council member Demoter I. Council member Monder I. Council member Kelly I.

I'm an I as well. Thank you and we will see you next month.