[14:33] As we always do, we'll begin with a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silent reflection.

[15:16] I hope everybody is doing well today. It is a beautiful Thursday after all, and up first on our agenda, as always, is priority, care, and commissioner Kyla, we will start with you today.

[15:26] Okay, thank you. And I mentioned in closed and I talked with district 7 engineer yesterday, and we talked about many topics.

[15:40] But one of those, and I'll check with CCPS to see where they are with it, I know a Manchester

[15:50] Valley student was hit last year, crossing Route 30.

[15:56] And I know there's grants for walks, and that is a pretty rough situation on Route 30.

[16:04] They also have an emergency gate at the back of the school, and I don't know whether they

[16:08] kids use that or not, but I'm going to check into that and then the other topic that came

[16:14] up and I'll get more information on it, but evidently the state of Maryland is advocating

[16:22] that speed cameras go up on different state highways and the district seven hasn't pursued it,

[16:30] But their question is, do we care county, 1, 1497, 27, and pick them, do we want speed cameras or we just assume not?

[16:44] So think about it and let me know.

[16:48] I want to mention for each fair, not because you're here, but for each fair, and it's just such an awesome event.

[16:56] And we love supporting it and this morning, which I hopefully my tie straight, Rhonda left before I did.

[17:05] She went to Stony Point to pick up our hog.

[17:09] And the fair is too edged.

[17:13] Hopefully we support the kids.

[17:15] Hopefully we support for H and Farm Bureau and all that.

[17:22] But she's taken probably three quarters of the hog into Salt and Pepper, sausage, to Carroll Food Sunday.

[17:33] So it's a double donation.

[17:36] So thank you guys for what you do out there.

[17:41] And it's, you're actually benefiting more people.

[17:47] And Ron did I go on a personal note, we're going to visit our daughter this week and our grandson

[17:53] in two weeks and we got Labor Day coming up, we'll be back for Labor Day because of things

[17:59] going on here, but hopefully that's family time and everybody enjoys Labor Day and has a good

[18:07] time. It's again, it's too edged. It's kind of the end of the season for the pools and

[18:16] for different things going on. So it's almost a little sad.

[18:23] Market Street, we did that public hearing. And I think nine people came and spoke two or

[18:32] in favor and in two-thirds of them wanting it closed. We did work sessions. We're doing

[18:40] more work sessions. I mentioned District 7 already. We got a public hearing tonight at 6 p.m.

[18:49] and I encourage everybody to get there and comment if you're interested and information's

[18:56] in the web and hopefully everybody knows about it.

[19:00] And lastly, I just want to mention, again, our volunteer fart apartments.

[19:04] Again, I know there are having some crab feeds, they're having bingo, they're doing things

[19:08] to raise money.

[19:10] And carnival seasons over, while it was fun in a good way to support them.

[19:15] We need to keep supporting them.

[19:17] We have 14 volunteer fart apartments.

[19:20] and well their property and vehicles probably worth over 200 million and they've got a lot

[19:31] of volunteers we couldn't afford just like recon parks just like many of the farm

[19:37] museum Ag Center we we couldn't afford in Carol County with our quality of life to pay

[19:44] everybody that volunteers and and does for us so we need to appreciate them and help them

[19:50] Thank you.

[19:51] Also, Commissioner Thank you.

[19:52] Commissioner Gordon?

[19:53] Well, thank you.

[19:53] Good morning, Carol County.

[19:55] I want to bring up first one of the things that I think is on everybody's minds this

[19:59] week which started.

[20:00] Sunday, which is back to school. And, you know, Carol County Sheriff's Office was heavily involved with that. We had Deputy Harvey with a video on Facebook. I do truly appreciate all our SROs.

[20:11] I had a great video of him welcoming kids back to school. But, you know, Monday started in the new school year and I want to wish all our students teachers and administrators and staff a successful and rewarding year ahead.

[20:22] Obviously, it's a great time for our students to learn, but it's also about patients, dedication,

[20:28] creativity, and opportunity.

[20:30] So I just want to thank everyone.

[20:31] Obviously, be safe on those roads out there because buses are back, parents are dropping

[20:35] kids off and give yourself a little extra time because we are back in the school.

[20:40] Secondly, one to mention, real quick, the Maryland State Highway Administration is working

[20:45] going to project on Maryland 27 by Liberty Road in Westminster Railroad Avenue between Tuck

[20:53] Road and Bond. This is currently going on in the evenings that began. Let's start at this

[20:59] past Sunday. 8pm to 5am each morning. This will run through hopefully about mid-October. So

[21:04] just be aware if you're driving down Main Street and Westminster any of those other related roads

[21:09] in that area. There are going to be delays and backups evening into the early morning. Just

[21:15] be aware and just keep focus on that.

[21:20] Also, I wanted to, Chris, if you could bring up the next slide, I wanted to mention something

[21:25] that I thought was really awesome that kind of hit my radar earlier this past week.

[21:29] So this is Ms. Frager, who's a recently retired high school librarian, who has now set up

[21:34] a little free library, which is chartered here in Westminster.

[21:38] If you have any books at home that could use a new reader, this could be a wonderful opportunity

[21:42] to give me a second home in life and to help spread the joy of reading throughout

[21:45] our community. She's happy to either come pick them up or you can drop them off

[21:50] the address for this little free library is 17 Chase Street and Westminster.

[21:56] And again, as I always mentioned, but it's just a perfect example of how our community

[22:00] gets together and works together and does such wonderful things for all of us. So I just

[22:04] want to give a shout out for that real quickly. Chris, you can go to the next slide.

[22:09] Also, we want to mention very briefly, Genova's 50th anniversary, so half a century to them.

[22:15] Amazing that we have businesses, small businesses in our communities, and it's hard to believe

[22:21] it's been 50 years, but truly want to thank them for all they've done in the community,

[22:25] not only as a business, but they've also given back to a lot of nonprofits and organizations.

[22:30] And any time we can, we should definitely make sure we support our small businesses,

[22:34] because they truly are the heartbeat and lifeblood of most of our community and just want to

[22:39] thank them exceptionally for that. If we can go to the next slide. I also want to mention this one,

[22:45] we've got a member of our Carol County Farm Museum staff who has just published a book

[22:50] one to give a shout out to Anne Gilbert on her first novel for kids. Always great to again see

[22:57] things going on in our community that we might not be aware of, but just amazing to see that we have

[23:02] So much creative talent and ability in our community.

[23:06] So I wanted to show that as well.

[23:08] And then, you know, I want to mention,

[23:11] Papy Anniversary to Lester White and Shannon White.

[23:15] 71 years, that's quite impressive.

[23:18] They've been an institution in Carroll County

[23:20] for as long as I can remember.

[23:21] And I remember visiting them on Main Street

[23:23] as a kid over the years.

[23:25] So I just want to mention that.

[23:26] Last, I do want to bring up one thing.

[23:30] I don't know if anybody saw it on Facebook,

[23:32] County Government Freedom Facebook, Sheriff's Department mentioned it on their Facebook.

[23:36] We also put out an email blast, but there have been some scams going around portraying themselves

[23:42] as being from either the planning and zoning department of Carol County or other possible

[23:46] entities within County Government, they're asking for money to pay various application fees

[23:52] or other things. Be sure to just be vigilant as we all should be in any aspect of our lives

[23:57] from any email we receive. But keep an eye on those email dresses because the one thing

[24:02] a stood out to date is the email justice are not carol county government email justice just

[24:07] you know if you can do your due diligence we've tried to put it out in every fashion possible

[24:12] but again just be aware and that's all for me thank you very well said commissioner Gordon

[24:18] I will add to that especially with the point about the email scam if you have any doubt what

[24:23] so ever don't hesitate to contact this office to verify whether it's real or not and again very

[24:30] Paul Sett, Commissioner Gerard?

[24:32] Yeah, thank you.

[24:33] Good morning, Carol.

[24:33] Kind of.

[24:33] Just briefly.

[24:36] previous two comments mentioned the fact that school started again.

[24:42] And anecdotally, I think, I've seen my share already of people not driving safely

[24:49] around bus stops.

[24:50] You've got to stop when you're supposed to stop.

[24:53] When you see those flashing lights just stop.

[24:55] It's not worth it.

[24:56] I've seen unsafe driving recently for some...

[25:00] Number row crews, people complaining about having to slow down and stop. It's always farming season in

[25:07] Carroll County, no matter what time of the year it is, and you've got farm equipment on the roads.

[25:12] And again, anecdotally, I've seen people getting frustrated with the fact that they've got to wait behind a

[25:17] or something. Maybe it's a sort of pet peeve of mine, a personal issue of mine, but if you live

[25:26] in here in Carroll County, you've got a practice patience and you've got to understand this is

[25:31] a rural county. We've got bus stops everywhere, very few kids walk to school and we've constantly

[25:37] got road crews out trying to make our roads better because it is a public safety issue. So just

[25:44] low down, and be aware, and if you've got complaints about any of those three things, do

[25:51] not contact me, because you already know it's just supposed to do oral adults.

[25:55] So when I think I probably speak for the other four commissioners as well, so let's be safe

[25:59] out there.

[26:00] We do not need to replicate what is happening in some other counties.

[26:05] There are people getting hit all the time, there's accidents all the time.

[26:08] I know those are different populations, there are more populated areas, it's what I'm saying.

[26:12] But let's keep Carol County safe and that's all for me very well said commissioner commissioner Krebs

[26:18] Thank you

[26:19] I remind me the other night. I was at a function and ran into an old friend from the Board of Education who used to be our budget director

[26:27] And Mr. Brillhart and we were talking about how he was one of the ones that got the cameras on the school buses

[26:32] And how he had to advocate for years in anapolis to get it the approval to do that and when they started seeing the statistics

[26:39] They had a pilot program and they started seeing the statistics how many people were running those

[26:44] Those letters lights. They finally showed a picture of a boy that almost got hit because he went around and somebody passed the

[26:51] Arm that went down and thank it as the bus driver. He yelled out the one in the kit stopped and when once they showed that picture

[26:57] They passed the bill and that's why we have bus drivers cameras on buses now. So it's good

[27:04] What day was that Tuesday?

[27:08] I think we had an unveiling of the Bill Murphy Veterans Independence, Shuttle, and it was a picture

[27:14] of there.

[27:15] There was Mr. Bill Murphy, and he's obviously a long time supporter of VIP veterans independence,

[27:21] but he's been shuttle and people around for a long time, but he dedicated this car so we

[27:25] have a vehicle forever for his own vehicle lives to shuttle people locally within Carroll

[27:33] County.

[27:33] Right now we have a shuttle that goes outside to certain places to take veterans to the VA

[27:38] centers, but this will, these already got a list of people that use this, but this sort of

[27:42] more formalizes it, have different drivers and this will be the vehicle locally that veterans

[27:46] can use to get places.

[27:48] So they bill Murphy, Veterans Independent Shuttle, is one more example of Carol Kenney and

[27:56] still doing good things for each other, and so we thank him for that.

[27:59] Then we had, I'm just announcing the 911 is coming up, the remembers run, is coming up in

[28:07] Carroll County, remember to run, run to honor, honoring the heroes of September 11th by supporting

[28:12] the heroes of today. All benefits and proceeds are going to tunnels for tower. So the leg will start,

[28:21] this is on 911 at Miller's food market, a Manchester Road at 4 p.m. get there little early, and

[28:28] They will run the five miles, whoever wants to participate may.

[28:31] They may.

[28:32] The target pace is 10 minute miles.

[28:35] I don't think that's too bad.

[28:36] I think we could walk that.

[28:37] Could we walk?

[28:37] Yeah, I can walk a 10 minute mile.

[28:39] So from Miller's to Linder of Altitude, Fire Department,

[28:45] and we're supposed to end

[28:46] about 450.

[28:47] It's seven to all that runners.

[28:49] We welcome anyone who wants to join them.

[28:51] Let's see, the target pace, and they're there to run with us, honor with us, never

[28:56] forget.

[28:56] They're going to have running flags available for anyone that would like them every mile matters and just

[29:03] Obviously your donations matters. If they twice as much if you don't run then if you do run and that's that's

[29:10] They didn't work that on here. I just wrote that so they'd love to have everybody come and join us for this legs

[29:15] So run with them honor with us never forget in their here just under the lives that were lost on September 11th, 2001

[29:23] So, that's interesting from up there, and then one last thing, I saw this article on the paper about data centers,

[29:31] which are obviously the transmission lines are big to us.

[29:34] And I did not realize some of these things, but at the Dally Governor Moore came out,

[29:40] and he's striking an evolving tone on the state's data center, boomed just two years after his administration,

[29:45] helped clear the registry hurdles for the industry.

[29:48] So, maybe we'll be making a little bit more progress because I know a couple of years ago,

[29:55] he was supportive of all of the data centers, and as we know we're shutting down power.

[30:00] We don't have the electric necessarily. So in 2005, actually, the Governor veto legislation that would direct Maryland to study the environmental engineer economic effects of data center development.

[30:11] But luckily, the lawmakers rejected that decision during a special session, which is very unusual to override your own governor.

[30:18] But I'm not sure what the status of that study is, but at least there's enough concern throughout the state.

[30:26] electric affordability and grid capacity

[30:28] about becoming increasingly pressing political concerns.

[30:31] And now the governor is emphasizing that

[30:34] communities should have greater say,

[30:36] where data centers are built.

[30:39] And it's sort of a shift in,

[30:41] so the shift is underway this year.

[30:44] He's addressing consumer energy bills

[30:46] because that seems to be a big issue with our consumer.

[30:49] So I think it's a good move that the governor's finally

[30:53] getting the message that we've got to solve

[30:55] a problem of electricity and where data centers should go or shouldn't go and it's really a statewide

[31:00] issue and I'm glad that he's on board so I just wanted to bring that up so we may be

[31:04] all swimming on the same direction for a change in Carol County has been leading the charge

[31:08] on this since the very beginning I think the board of ministers is doing that and we'll continue

[31:13] to fight that and hopefully we've got some good news about the schedule for the public service

[31:19] Commission is finally posted, but it's next spring. So we have time, time is good. I mean extra time buying time is good and things are hopefully things are changing and we're going to have some solutions and I have to worry about it. But we have to be vigilant and keep going. So that's my update on the paralyzed and the data centers very well said commissioner. Thank you very much. And I want to thank all my colleagues as always for their hard work and their dedication and involvement and everything going on in the county over the course of the past week.

[31:47] So very briefly, I want to touch upon three quick things.

[31:52] Commissioner Crave already very

[31:53] capably talked about the Veterans Shuttle that Veterans

[31:57] Independence Project, in conjunction with Bill Murphy,

[32:01] the Coward Foundation, a bunch of guys from the IP

[32:04] including Frank Valente, Jason Sidot, Mike Pennington,

[32:08] and Commissioner Gordon, and Commissioner Craves

[32:09] and myself were in attendance for that unveiling

[32:11] as well as Celine Steckle from Citizen Services.

[32:15] And if anybody who doesn't know Bill Murphy,

[32:16] not only is a veteran but he is a really really outstanding guy he's long been a role model

[32:21] and a pillar of the county between his military service and his community service and that

[32:25] shuttle is going to be very instrumental in helping to get our veterans and some of their families

[32:29] around. It really is an amazing thing and it shows you what this county and what our citizens

[32:35] are capable of doing and we do things unlike anybody else and that is to say we do things

[32:40] with style, with class, and with dignity.

[32:45] Second of all, I want to, as Commissioner Kyler had mentioned, as well, I want to remind

[32:49] everybody that tonight, at 6pm here in the county office building in the Reagan room,

[32:53] that is room number three, downstairs, is the public hearing for proposed amendments to our

[33:00] planning code.

[33:01] Those include proposed amendments to chapter 155, cluster subdivisions, proposed amendments

[33:06] to chapters 155, 156 and 158 regarding changes related to accessory drawing units and also

[33:12] proposed amendments to chapters 91, 155 and 158 regarding changes related to retirement

[33:18] villages and retirement homes.

[33:21] And then the last thing, Commissioner Crabs, also alluded to with the 25th Anniversary

[33:24] of September 11th, obviously, at the Public Safety Training Center next week, we will be

[33:29] having our own commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of September 11th, and we will be posting

[33:35] details about that in the next couple of days. Everybody is invited and encouraged and welcomed

[33:39] to attend. And I would imagine that the media center will be filming it as they always

[33:44] do. Right? We try to be there as much as we can.

[33:50] All right. And I promise there is a reason why I brought Rich up in the media center. Commissioner

[33:54] Gordon, I believe you have some kind of certificate of recognition.

[33:57] I do. We could have Mr. Turner and anyone else that wants to come up forward to the

[34:03] table please. We don't have enough chairs, but okay.

[34:06] That's just pulling. We can pull them up if you want.

[34:09] By all means,

[34:12] did you like that table?

[34:13] I did like that. So I was quite, quite a little one.

[34:23] And everybody wants to sit in the middle.

[34:25] Obviously. They found out about that chair by that side.

[34:30] So obviously, all of us know, but I wanted to just give you a second if you could just

[34:34] of the public that's watching any just general information about what the community media

[34:39] center does because obviously you all are huge asset and a wonderful addition to our community

[34:46] but just to give just some general overview for anybody that really might not be aware of all that you do.

[34:52] Thanks very much appreciate the opportunity and the community media center over 35 years from

[34:57] writing services to the county, making it pop.

[35:00] If possible for individuals to come in, learn how to use the current tools of media technology and create their own content, transmit them by various means, including our cable channels, as well as over the internet.

[35:12] And of course, our own coverage generated by our staff, covering various events, including municipal meetings.

[35:18] Now, sports coverage, ensuring that we can see the best of what happens in our community. So they can find that content at www or at communitycarolmediacenter.org.

[35:28] And tell them and everybody should know this physically where are you because to me you come in through Westminster career to, you know, it's confusing, but.

[35:39] Right. Yeah. In terms of where we're located, probably a lot of folks pass right by us and not sure that we're actually they don't realize that we're there on the Westminster school campus next to the high school into the career and tech schools.

[35:52] So, that we are right across the, right across from the Carol technology center, career in technology center.

[36:01] Well, as you mentioned, you know, the public has the opportunity to come in and use the ear equipment and technology to better understand how to create media.

[36:09] I had the honor of seeing that a number of years back with the boys and girls club when they came out and it was just absolutely exceptional.

[36:16] they got to, you know, one minute they're standing there behind the green screen and they're

[36:22] you know, swimming with fish. I mean, you name it, you guys can do it, so it's impressive,

[36:27] but then the one thing I did want to mention that community media center just quite well is also

[36:33] is that you also are sort of the keepers repository of a lot of content, specifically being about

[36:40] veterans. I know that you've recorded a lot of different histories be it, you know, the former

[36:46] students at Robert Moten. So we're very, very blessed to have unfortunate to have you all

[36:51] keep that because, you know, we think about objects and we think of documents, but sometimes

[36:55] the most, I think the most valuable history is getting that, that actual spoken word and that video

[37:01] of those individuals because it's great to have the, the written, but to have them almost as close

[37:06] the being there to me is is invaluable. So I want to thank you all for that as well.

[37:10] Thank you. So we have a certificate of recognition for the Community Media Center.

[37:14] And recognition of the 2026 hometown media ward from Alliance for Community Media Foundation

[37:20] for the production of the 128th Carol County 4H and FFA Fair. The Community Media Center was selected

[37:27] as the winner of in the Community Events, Parades and Festivals category, Access Center

[37:33] profession. Professional. Excuse me. On behalf of the Citizens of Carroll County,

[37:37] we want to congratulate you for your wonderful work, show it, casing our county and

[37:41] this assigned to county commissioners. I do again want to just say you all do a

[37:45] wonderful job and thank you all your staff, your volunteers, your board. You're an

[37:51] invaluable asset to our community and just want to say thank you. Thank you.

[37:56] You know, we're honored to be here today and give thanks in recognition also to the

[37:59] partners and individuals who made this national recognition possible. First, let me recognize

[38:05] our board members, Bill Eccles, who's here, but also introduce the community center

[38:11] of Carol County's board chair to receive the tune.

[38:14] Thanks, Richard. Thank you, commissioners, for acknowledging this great achievement. The team

[38:18] worked really hard as well as the fair committee to get to that point. Our vision at the community

[38:29] of community connected through digital media.

[38:32] And if ever there were an example of Carol County coming together, the showcasing the best

[38:37] of what we have to bring, it's getting this award.

[38:40] So thank you to all involved, and thank you for the recognition.

[38:44] At the risk of being one of those cheerful actors on the stage of the Oscars gets the

[38:49] playoff moment I do have, I want to give thanks.

[38:54] My first thanks are to you and your predecessors who saw the vision and importance of having

[38:58] nonprofit, a nonprofit media center who would ensure that free speech and local media

[39:03] buying for our residents mattered.

[39:06] Thanks to the digital architects like Gary Davis, who could not be here this morning because

[39:10] of a scheduling conflict, that had the vision for fiber connectivity among our amazing community

[39:17] facilities, including the CMC and the Carroll County Agricultural Center that would save

[39:22] costs and enable live programming showcasing the best we have to offer.

[39:26] Thanks to Carol County, Cable Regulatory Commission, and their administrator, Carol Schaulver,

[39:31] who is here, for their steadfast support, including funding, of television production,

[39:36] equipment, and matching funds.

[39:38] Thanks to retired administrator Roberta Windom, who continuously supported CMC in our mission

[39:42] and gave me reassurances that we would continue on.

[39:46] Thanks to Carol County's Office of Technology and Director Allison Deacon for upholding the

[39:56] along with Info Pathways, made the concept of live proof.

[40:00] Programming from the eggs and are possible. Thanks to the very talented and dedicated production team, Rachel Camel, who is among us today, is here representing and the volunteers who spent over 525 hours producing over 43 hours of wall-to-wall coverage,

[40:18] presenting and generating over 70,000 views on cable and internet streaming.

[40:25] But wait, there's more.

[40:28] Because this National Highly Competitive Award, our Emmy or Oscar,

[40:33] wasn't one just because of the amazing partnerships,

[40:35] technological innovation and creativity, it was a content.

[40:41] Carol County's youth showing their best in breeding,

[40:43] raising their animals at the 4-H in FFA fair.

[40:46] And so thank most of all to the Fair Board and clubs,

[40:49] who are the ones who really made this National Recognition possible.

[40:52] And I want to wholeheartedly thank Fairboard Chair and Vice Chair, Crystal Dell, and Bradley Thomas.

[40:58] I don't know if you want to say a couple words at all, or no.

[41:04] All right, we definitely appreciate the partnership.

[41:07] Thank you.

[41:09] Well, thank you very much for coming in.

[41:11] I just say very briefly myself.

[41:13] You really do a vital and really important public service for the community.

[41:19] And I think for me, more than anything, you do it in such a professional way.

[41:24] You forget that you're watching a stream from a nonprofit might as well be one of the

[41:30] big cable news broadcasters or something.

[41:32] You guys do a phenomenal job, whatever it is you're covering, whatever you're documenting,

[41:36] you are recording history and I certainly appreciate and respect that and thank you for everything

[41:41] that you do for us.

[41:42] All right, thank you very much.

[41:46] And you said it, but CMC is one of the Jules of Carroll County involved in May, but now

[41:55] make a Carroll County works together better than any other county in the state.

[42:01] And you guys are an example of that, so thank you.

[42:06] And the two behind you, I've never seen you not want to talk, so I like this.

[42:15] I'm going to grab a photo.

[42:16] Let's do it.

[42:17] I'm going to have them come up.

[42:19] I'm going to have them come up.

[42:19] Maybe we should stay up, she'll stay up.

[42:21] Yeah, we'll stay up.

[42:21] You need to bring everybody up.

[42:23] Yeah, bring everybody up.

[42:35] There are two people.

[42:42] We'll hold it on.

[42:44] Hold it on.

[42:45] Hold it on.

[42:47] Hold it on.

[42:48] Yeah, we can.

[42:49] You're good, brother.

[42:50] I know that.

[42:51] It's a little bit of a mess.

[42:52] Thank you.

[43:09] You're in much, congratulations all involved.

[43:13] Congratulations.

[43:17] Congratulations.

[43:20] Congratulations.

[43:23] Congratulations.

[43:23] Thank you.

[43:24] Congratulations.

[43:25] Thank you.

[43:26] Thank you very much.

[43:28] Congratulations.

[43:30] Congratulations.

[43:31] You're the reason they worked so well with the neighbors.

[43:43] Now also speaking about September 11th and emergency preparedness, whether it's man-made or

[43:49] natural disasters and emergencies are going to happen, and so I believe Commissioner

[43:54] Gary and you have a proclamation.

[43:56] I do.

[43:56] Carol County is, Carol County prepared his month and I see director Hawkins and I see some

[44:02] your crew. If you want to come on up to the front and I'll go ahead and start off with

[44:07] the Proclamation. Okay.

[44:12] This Commissioner, Big Leodie mentioned, planning and preparing

[44:16] for emergencies and disasters of all kind is the shared responsibility of every community,

[44:22] every business, every family, and every individual. And Carol County Preparedness Month,

[44:26] in coordination with National Preparedness Month provides an opportunity to highlight the important

[44:31] of individuals as they prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, schools, and communities.

[44:37] And the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Carell County Department of Emergency Management and Communication,

[44:42] urges all Carell County residents and business owners to take time during September.

[44:47] This month, to create an emergency supply kit, to make a family, or business emergency plan,

[44:53] to remain informed about different threats in the appropriate response to each, and to get involved in preparing their community.

[45:00] And their own homes for emergencies. Therefore, the Board of Academic Commissioners recognizes the importance of preparing for potential emergencies, and is proud to observe September 2026 with appropriate preparedness activities and do per claim that September 26 is preparedness month in Carroll County. So welcome, director Hawkins.

[45:23] Thank you, Commissioner.

[45:25] It works out very well that September is National Preparedist Month and Carol County Prepared

[45:30] this month now.

[45:32] It has started in 2004, was the actual first national preparedness month.

[45:38] I don't remember for sure whether the commissioners have been doing a proclamation for that

[45:43] many years.

[45:44] It's been a long time.

[45:45] I know it's been at least since I have been here.

[45:47] We certainly appreciate all of the support for getting the word out about public preparedness.

[45:52] I have with me here today, Jacob Hill, who is our assistant emergency manager, to my right

[45:57] is Grant Yoset, who is our emergency management technician, and Brian Kernan is our, he did

[46:04] move up forward. He is our leave for outreach of Grant and Brian have worked very hard over

[46:12] the past year or so to increase our public outreach, and this is part of that. I'll turn

[46:19] over to Jacob to talk a little bit more specifically about what folks can do in the community

[46:25] and how important it is for everybody to take a role in their personal preparedness.

[46:30] Yes, so National Preparedness Month is a great opportunity to take those small steps when

[46:35] they matter the most during an emergency and it's a good opportunity as well to reinforce that

[46:41] personal preparedness in general is not just an emergency management responsibility, it's a

[46:46] community wide responsibility, and effective emergency management relies on

[46:50] the prepared community. The theme for 2020-26 is America's stand-ready, I believe,

[46:56] and that really focuses on that self-preparedness, self-reliance, and the

[47:00] ability for communities to come together when they matter to most, which we do

[47:04] quite well here in Carol. In celebration of prepared this month, we are kicking off

[47:09] our fall offering of our ready-care preparedness citizens preparedness program,

[47:13] which is a free four-week program for community residents to come and learn about prepared us how to build a kit,

[47:20] how to build a, you know, emergency communications plan for their family, an escape plan.

[47:26] Things like that.

[47:27] We also have a partner coming in from Fireney and Master Talk about Fire Prevention, simply how to use a fire extinguisher and things like that.

[47:35] The third week we have our partners from the Sheriff's Office come in and talk about target hardening crime prevention.

[47:40] And then that fourth week we have some community volunteer organizations coming in and talking about what they do and and give them a chance to recruit community members. So that's a great opportunity.

[47:51] We encourage everybody to sign up and come and learn a little bit about emergency preparedness.

[47:56] You don't have to come to all four weeks, but we encourage you to do so.

[48:00] There's days are going to be the 9th, the 15th, the 23rd and the 30th at the Public Safety Training Center.

[48:08] And just as a reminder, even if you can't make ready-care, it is one of the options that you have.

[48:15] You can always go online.

[48:16] We have a Facebook page.

[48:18] We share a lot of preparedness information.

[48:20] There's a lot of information at ready.gov, which is the national level that's a DHS and FEMA website.

[48:27] But basically we want to make sure that people remember they need to make a plan, right, for their family.

[48:32] Just a little bit of planning.

[48:33] Jake mentioned, it doesn't take large actions, but small actions over time really make a difference.

[48:40] Make sure that especially if you have folks in your family or even in your community,

[48:47] maybe in the next door neighbor, you can help them learn or prepare.

[48:51] You can save some money on putting a preparedness kit together, right?

[48:57] So something's on sale, canned goods are on sale at the store, you know, buy one, get one

[49:01] for your reduced rate, do it a little bit at a time.

[49:05] This week, by some water, next week, by some canned food.

[49:08] You can do it a little bit at a time,

[49:10] and it's not as much of a lift.

[49:12] But those small actions really do make a really big difference

[49:16] when we have a community wide event,

[49:18] or even a smaller neighborhood level event.

[49:21] And if you have medical needs, if you rely on any type

[49:25] of medical equipment that requires electricity,

[49:28] make sure you're thinking about ahead of time,

[49:30] how am I going to power that equipment

[49:32] if I don't have commercial power?

[49:35] And there's a lot of resources out there

[49:38] that are available.

[49:39] I mean, you can go out to the internet

[49:40] and just do a Google search for battery-operated power supplies.

[49:46] There's probably literally a million hits

[49:48] that you'll get if you go out to Google and do that.

[49:51] But look at your particular situation.

[49:54] Look at when think about what you would do

[49:56] if you didn't have water or if you didn't have power

[49:58] we're both...

[50:00] We talk about water and power a lot because they are propped and food, obviously. But those are the things that you really need to think about. How am I going to get through two or three days without having those items in place with my family? And then you take the steps to prepare for this.

[50:13] And don't forget your pets.

[50:15] And don't forget that.

[50:17] Very well said. And I want to say thank you to you and everybody for what you do for us anyways. But also thank you for coming in to do this every month.

[50:26] I think really is important that we are prepared, and the other interesting thing about it too,

[50:32] and we've seen it with previous storms as well, when you're prepared, right, or disasters

[50:37] that matter, whether they're man-made or whether they're natural, if you're prepared,

[50:40] that means you're not taking away from emergency services, but the other aspect of it too,

[50:46] in our county, and we see it every time that there's an issue, you have people civilian stepping

[50:50] up to help with operations, and so when you're prepared to take care of yourself, you're

[50:55] prepared to help other people as well.

[50:57] So thank you very much for the reminder every year that this is important.

[51:03] Any other comments, sir?

[51:05] Just thank you.

[51:06] Thank you.

[51:07] Thank you for your support.

[51:09] Thank you.

[51:10] What a wrap?

[51:11] Let's do it.

[51:11] I think we can do it now.

[51:13] I'm

[51:16] full.

[51:17] Thank you.

[51:42] You're okay, I'm not burning it.

[51:45] You're just slowing it down just from the back.

[52:08] Thank

[52:19] you.

[52:20] Thank you.

[52:22] Thank you.

[52:36] All

[52:42] right, up next on our agenda item number two, contract renewal for a evolved software

[52:49] project docs registered trademark E plan S a a s.

[52:57] That's called s. Okay, the

[53:04] office of

[53:05] Chairman and cooperation with the Department of Technology Services requests your approval to renew the contract with a valve software for project docs e plan software as a service in the amount of 84,445 dollars in 80 cents this renewal amount is approved in the FY27 adopt the budget.

[53:24] So I come morning commissioners.

[53:25] Good morning.

[53:26] Project Docs is an electronic plan review system that streamlines the process of plan submission, review, approval, and tracking.

[53:36] The electronic plan review enables better compliance with regulatory requirements and facilities quick access to relevant information.

[53:45] The electronic plan submission and review allows internal reviewers, citizen customers, and all additional stakeholder and approval agencies to secure access to plans, documents, and storage data.

[53:56] in a way that lets them work together more efficiently, exercise control, and leverage the value

[54:00] of the information they interact with.

[54:04] That's the value of the software for the county.

[54:07] Awesome.

[54:07] Thank you very much.

[54:08] Are there any questions, comments or direction from the board?

[54:10] Move the board of commissioners to renew the contract with the valve software for project,

[54:15] docs, e-plan, SAS, and the amount of 84,445 dollars and 80 cents.

[54:21] We have a motion to read a second.

[54:22] Second.

[54:23] We have a motion to read a second.

[54:24] Is there any further discussion?

[54:25] And some I off the subject, but we had Carol Media here, and they complimented Gary Davis

[54:34] who has been big with the connectivity between much of the county.

[54:41] I want to thank you guys, kind of, before you, that was IT here, played a big part of that,

[54:48] and it's not easy, but you've done well maintaining it.

[54:54] Thank you. Thank you very much, Commissioner.

[54:58] We have a motion. We have a second.

[55:00] Any other discussion? Here are none. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much.

[55:07] Thank you. All right. Up next item number three, exercise option to purchase through angland preservation in the state program or mouth.

[55:14] The Aloha Farm LLC for Karen Hecht and Gregory Eden and Edward Harrison and Jill Turner. Good morning to you both. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. Good to see everybody this morning.

[55:26] Okay.

[55:36] We'll just go there. Good morning again. We're here before you today. Let's talk about the Maryland

[55:41] Agile and Preservation Foundation FY27 cycle, approval of applications. And these are the ones

[55:48] that have not been approved prior. Qualifications for the mouth program, 50% class 1, 2 and 3

[55:56] soils, at least 50 acres unless you're adjacent to an already preserved farm. And you have to have a minimum

[56:03] one lot right to retire. So all the applicants, all the farms are ranked using land

[56:09] evaluation and site assessment scoring. At the state will use traditional

[56:14] appraisals to appraise the properties 40% cost share through an annual bond

[56:19] funding of 1.3 million from the county.

[56:25] So this year we sent down 682 acres

[56:28] total to be preserved to mouth total 14 farms. Five were critical farms and already

[56:35] received approval, six did not receive offers or rejected their offer and are reapplying

[56:41] with last year's cycle approval. Today we're seeking approval for three properties which

[56:47] the Advisory Board approved on June 10th, 2026.

[56:53] The first farm is a low-half farm LLC located

[56:56] at 7433 Woodbine Road in Woodbine, Maryland. The property is 102.54 acres with 82.9% qualifying

[57:06] soils and dislocated in the ag zone. We're retiring five lot rights in district four.

[57:16] This

[57:16] is how the farm sits among other easements in the area. Once again, we're requesting final approval

[57:22] for the mouth program for a low-half farm. 74-33 would buy in road 102.54 acres with 82.9%

[57:31] qualifying soils in the ag zone, retiring five lights,

[57:36] lot rights in district four.

[57:38] Any comments?

[57:39] Questions or direction from the board?

[57:41] How do you decide whether it's a mouth, easement, or not?

[57:49] Does the landowner request a certain one?

[57:52] Do you decide it?

[57:54] Does your board decide it?

[57:56] How does that decision made?

[57:57] So sometimes the landowner will request a certain program.

[58:02] Sometimes it may depend on their location or money that's available.

[58:09] There's a lot of different factors that can go into that.

[58:13] Okay, thanks.

[58:14] Sure.

[58:15] Any other comments?

[58:16] Questions?

[58:17] Or direction from the board?

[58:18] The board of commissioners grant final approval for the

[58:20] Aloha Forms LLC property to participate in the mouth program?

[58:25] Second.

[58:25] We have a motion. We have a second. Is there any further discussion?

[58:28] Hearing none, all those in favor?

[58:30] Aye. All those opposed?

[58:32] Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much.

[58:34] Thank you, commissioners.

[58:36] The second farm we have today is the Edward Harrison and Jill Turner farm located at

[58:40] 3,000 one flag marsh road in Mount Aery.

[58:43] The farm was 111.43 acres, was 71.4.

[58:48] 71.3% qualifying soils and ag zone.

[58:51] retiring eight lot rights from this farm is also in district four. This is how the farm is located

[58:58] related to other farms that are in preservation and again we're here today requesting final approval

[59:06] for the mouth program the Edward Harrison and Jill Turner Farm 3031 flag marsh road in Mount

[59:14] 111.43 acres, 71.3% qualifying soils in the ag zone, retiring eight lot rights in district 4.

[59:25] Any comments, questions or direction from the board?

[59:28] Move the Board of Commissioners Grant Final approval for the Edward Harrison and she'll turn her property to participate in the mouth program.

[59:36] We've a motion. We've a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none? All those in favor?

[59:40] All right, all those opposed motion carging in,

[59:43] and lastly, thank you very much.

[59:45] Thank you again, commissioners.

[59:47] Our last one for the mouth program is the Karen Hect

[59:49] and Gregory Eaton property located at 5701 Bethel Road

[59:54] in Woodbine, 25.21 acres, 62%.

[1:00:00] Qualifying soils is located in the conservation zone, retiring seven lot rights, and this is also located in District 4.

[1:00:09] Do you count qualifying soils within trees?

[1:00:15] Or is that one of the reasons this one's 62% because there is a firm amount of trees on this side?

[1:00:24] It can, the trees really don't have anything to do with it.

[1:00:27] So it's just underlying soils.

[1:00:30] Okay.

[1:00:30] Yes, sir.

[1:00:31] Sometimes we can get into the woodland groups if they need extra soils to qualify.

[1:00:37] This farm did not need us to do that.

[1:00:39] So it's probably just more of a class for soils down in that area.

[1:00:46] So once again, we're requesting final approval for the Mouth Program for Karen Hecht and Gregory Eaton Farm.

[1:00:52] Okay, to 5701, Bethel Road, and Woodbine, 25.21 acres, 62 percent qualifying soils, located

[1:01:01] in the conservation zone, returning seven lot rights in District 4.

[1:01:06] Move the Board of Commissioners, Grand Final Approval for the Karen HECK, and Gregory

[1:01:09] Eaton property to participate in the Mouth Program.

[1:01:12] Second.

[1:01:13] We have a motion.

[1:01:14] We have a second.

[1:01:14] Is there any further discussion?

[1:01:16] I'll just mention, I appreciate JP and Jackie, your work on these particular properties.

[1:01:21] I know these things take some time and appreciate all your work to extend some of the

[1:01:27] AG prayers down to that southwestern part of the county.

[1:01:31] Thank you very much, Roy.

[1:01:31] Sure.

[1:01:32] If we're glad to get the applications really, so I think we have a few more different places.

[1:01:37] So.

[1:01:38] Good.

[1:01:38] Thank you.

[1:01:39] Yeah.

[1:01:39] I like seeing all the color together.

[1:01:41] It's not that bad.

[1:01:43] That wants to do it.

[1:01:44] But it's nice to see them.

[1:01:45] We do too.

[1:01:46] Thank you.

[1:01:47] Any other comments or questions?

[1:01:50] here in all those in favor. All those opposed motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:01:56] Thank you. All right. Appreciate that.

[1:01:58] Up next item number four exercise option to purchase the rural legacy program.

[1:02:03] Conservation easement on the Jacob B. Fisher and Mary G. Fisher property.

[1:02:08] All right. Here we go again.

[1:02:11] The World Legacy Program is 100% funded by state grant funds from the Department of Natural Resources.

[1:02:18] We have two rural legacy areas, the little-pipe rural legacy area, on the western side of the county, and the upper-patapska rural legacy area, on the eastern side of Carroll County.

[1:02:28] That's a point-space, the praisel, a valuation, there are no souls, qualifications, and we can accommodate small, or large farms with this program.

[1:02:40] Today, we're working with Jacob Fisher and Mary Fisher, his wife.

[1:02:45] The property is located in the Upper Tapska rural legacy area at 2200 Farement Road in

[1:02:51] Hampstead.

[1:02:52] It's 140.905 acres, who are retiring eight lot rights from the property.

[1:02:58] The Farement Market value, the land only, was 1,474,201 dollars of 54 cents per the

[1:03:07] legacy points based appraisal. The cost of the easement will be $1,131,941 in

[1:03:14] eight cents, which equates to $7,323,67 per acre, which is 70% of the fair market

[1:03:22] value. And this again is 100% state grant funds.

[1:03:29] Here's how the farm fits in with

[1:03:31] other preserved farms in the area.

[1:03:34] That's not so in place.

[1:03:38] Make sure across the farm.

[1:03:40] Beautiful.

[1:03:44] So once again, we request a final approval for the Jacob B Fisher and Mary G. Fisher property.

[1:03:49] Located 2,200 fair amount road in Hampstead, 140.905 acres, retiring eight lot rates

[1:03:56] at a cost of 1 million, 31,941 in eight cents, which are all state grant funds.

[1:04:04] Any comments, questions or direction from the board?

[1:04:08] Do you know, today, by the entire property, Mr. Fisher did by the height of your

[1:04:15] property.

[1:04:15] All the way to Oots Road, and I know they got there before the winner and cooperated with

[1:04:24] Oots Road on their snow fence.

[1:04:26] They're already good neighbors.

[1:04:28] Good.

[1:04:31] Did you want to make sure?

[1:04:32] I can.

[1:04:33] since since this is the only one not in district four.

[1:04:40] I moved the Board of Canada Commission's ex-size the option to purchase a royal legacy

[1:04:44] program conservation easement on the Jacob B. Fisher and Mary G. Fisher property

[1:04:49] in the amount of 1,131,941 and eight cents.

[1:04:56] We have a motion is there a second. We have a motion in a couple of

[1:05:00] Seconds, is there any further discussion? Here are none. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you both very much. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you for yours. All right. Thank you, guys. Yep. Take care. All right. Up next, item number five, grant approval to submit application and acceptance of award for maintenance training for green storm water infrastructure.

[1:05:26] Good morning to you both. Good morning.

[1:05:27] So,

[1:05:31] we are here this morning to ask your permission to submit and accept an grant.

[1:05:36] Grant should it be awarded from the Chesapeake Bay Trust Outreach and Restoration Grant Program.

[1:05:44] We are looking to sponsor the Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professionals level one class on green infrastructure training.

[1:05:54] The Chesapeake Landscape Professionals presented at one of our county trainings recently,

[1:06:01] just an overview of the services that they offered.

[1:06:05] And we felt it would be a very beneficial training to have here in the county, both for

[1:06:11] county employees, municipal employees, as well as some private sector employees.

[1:06:17] So, we are applying for grant funds, $25,000 to host a two-day training for up to 45 attendees

[1:06:28] that will be trained on stormwater, best management practices, how to maintain those,

[1:06:34] the importance of them, and what they provide.

[1:06:38] The hope is that as we have a variety of stormwater practices throughout the landscape,

[1:06:44] It's not a one-size-fits-all maintenance routine that needs to be done on those.

[1:06:51] And it'll help staff identify those maintenance needs when they come to a stormwater

[1:06:58] best management practice.

[1:07:02] So, this is a two-day conference seminar for lack of a better

[1:07:05] word.

[1:07:06] Are these like two 12-hour days because if they are, I'm going to recommend Tim Burke

[1:07:09] represent the county at this.

[1:07:11] is eight hours to eight hours days.

[1:07:14] To wait, you can do that.

[1:07:15] To wait eight hours days?

[1:07:18] Lunch and breakfast.

[1:07:20] Is this classroom or field or a combination?

[1:07:23] So it's our hope that we can offer the training out at Wakefield Valley so that we can

[1:07:29] have a combination of class room and then with the park setting there, look at the BMPs

[1:07:35] that they have on site.

[1:07:37] There you go.

[1:07:39] Awesome.

[1:07:39] any other comments questions or direction from the board

[1:07:42] the board of county commissioners approve this middle of the grant application

[1:07:45] acceptance of a word to the chesapeake

[1:07:48] i read that right

[1:07:51] yeah yeah

[1:07:52] yeah i don't know why for a second

[1:07:53] chesapeake bay

[1:07:54] trust outreach and restoration grant program for the maintenance training for green storm water infrastructure

[1:07:59] second

[1:08:00] we have a motion we have a second is there any further discussion

[1:08:03] hearing none all those in favor

[1:08:04] high all those opposed

[1:08:06] motion carries unanimously

[1:08:08] Thank you very much.

[1:08:10] All right, up next item number six,

[1:08:12] Grant's an approval to submit application

[1:08:14] and acceptance of award for willopond replanting.

[1:08:17] Yes. So in November of 2022,

[1:08:22] the county worked with the city of Westminster

[1:08:25] to plant trees in the area of the willopond storm water management facility.

[1:08:33] Since the tree planting, some areas of the planting

[1:08:36] have struggled to survive. The Department of Natural Resources was the funder of the original

[1:08:44] tree planting and they have since let us know that they have supplemental funding to help

[1:08:50] ensure the survivability of tree plantings and other projects that they provide funding to.

[1:08:58] So we would like to apply to replant an acre working with the City of Westminster to identify the

[1:09:04] trees to get replanted to ensure the survivability and long-term maintenance of this area

[1:09:12] to establish a forest in the end around the stormwater management facility.

[1:09:21] Was there anything specific that affected the trees the first round?

[1:09:26] So I think some of the types of trees that were planted did not do well in that upland setting

[1:09:32] and then deer pressure is a natural, you know, force that the trees have to fight against.

[1:09:41] So, the new public work director at the city of Westminster, we have met out there with her

[1:09:46] and her staff, and she has some ideas for varieties that she would like to incorporate

[1:09:51] in this replanting of the area. Then we'll also ensure that we have taller tree tubes on there

[1:09:58] and that maintenance between...

[1:10:00] Between the contractor that plants the trees and the city is done in a manner to help ensure long-term survivability

[1:10:08] here. Thank you. We have the Board of Commissioners

[1:10:12] approve the submittal of the grant application, acceptance of award to the Department of Natural Resources

[1:10:16] Adaptive Management Program for the Willow Pondre Planning.

[1:10:20] Second. We have a motion. We have a second. Is there any other discussion? Hearing none? All those in favour?

[1:10:25] Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously.

[1:10:28] Thank you so much. Thank you both very much.

[1:10:35] All right, up next item number seven, request to amend the Carroll County FY-2027 program open space annual program for the town of Manchester.

[1:10:45] Good morning. Good morning, Bob.

[1:10:50] So I'm here before you this morning.

[1:10:53] Back in June, the board approved our annual program for FY-207,

[1:10:59] Since which time the town of Manchester wanted to change their program, that was in the approved original approved one in June and they wanted to update that

[1:11:09] Their refurbishment for the Christmas tree part-pond refurbishment and it's the same amount of money

[1:11:17] It's just a they wanted to go ahead and update their scope with every work one

[1:11:21] So I want to bring that before the board to go ahead and get approval to go ahead and amend her annual program for FY 27

[1:11:27] Any comments, questions or direction from the board?

[1:11:30] I just have a question about open space money in general.

[1:11:33] So the towns get thrown open space money and then we get open space money.

[1:11:37] How's that work?

[1:11:38] So we get an allocation for each of the fiscal years of the county's allocation,

[1:11:44] 25% of it goes to 4 of the municipalities and they alternate that every other year.

[1:11:50] And then are they able to apply for other special?

[1:11:53] They have their things I know they can supply for special but how's that different from

[1:11:57] their well their eligible for like community parks and playgrounds that's only four

[1:12:01] municipalities they can apply for that and I think they're very good about applying for

[1:12:05] that stuff which is yeah that's more competitive though for a community parks and

[1:12:09] playgrounds it's very competitive I know I can't have always been least most of them

[1:12:12] very aggressive and going after that money and done a lot with it yeah thank you

[1:12:17] welcome any other comments questions or direction from the board

[1:12:23] move that the Board of County Commission has approved an amendment to the FYI 2027 program

[1:12:28] open space annual program for the town of Manchester changing the project scope from

[1:12:33] a new pavilion to to resurfacing the existing tennis courts with a pickleball overlay and

[1:12:39] upon refurbishment at Christmas tree park and Piny Valley Park.

[1:12:43] Second leave a motion leave a second is there any further discussion here none all those

[1:12:48] in favor all those opposed motion carries unanimously.

[1:12:51] Thank you very much, Bob.

[1:12:53] Thank you.

[1:12:54] Before we start the next subject, I'll get with you, but I actually got a voicemail early

[1:13:00] this morning from Hampstead Lions about Leister Park and the pickle ball there and them

[1:13:08] talking about wanting to coordinate.

[1:13:11] So I'll look at it, talk to him, but I'll throw it in your lap.

[1:13:15] Okay.

[1:13:15] Thank you.

[1:13:18] Alright, up next, I have number eight.

[1:13:20] We will move into the work session for Recreation and Parks Field Restoration.

[1:13:25] All right, we're going to have a little handouts for you.

[1:13:36] That doesn't sound very recreational.

[1:13:40] Thank you.

[1:13:43] Is that different than this?

[1:13:48] Yes.

[1:13:49] Yes.

[1:13:50] Tell me what's wrong.

[1:13:52] Thanks.

[1:13:55] All right.

[1:13:57] Well, thank you for carving out time for us today.

[1:14:03] We do have a presentation for you

[1:14:07] and I will.

[1:14:10] Just green.

[1:14:16] It's Chris going to pull it up or on there.

[1:14:19] It should be on the bottom or if you get it right there.

[1:14:24] Everyone can see that?

[1:14:27] Everybody hear me, okay?

[1:14:31] So we're here today to kind of want to give you overview of the relationship that the Department

[1:14:37] of Recreation and Parks has with our local recreation councils.

[1:14:42] I'll go over fairly quickly.

[1:14:44] I think you guys probably have already seen it.

[1:14:47] And then we will get into the big question with the fields.

[1:14:52] So you can see our mission up there, connecting people, parks and programs,

[1:14:55] and support a strong, healthy community and natural environment.

[1:15:00] So, why we're here? Caril County Department of Recreation and Parks.

[1:15:06] I'm going to go to the next screen.

[1:15:09] Yes, there you go.

[1:15:12] And our Recreation Councils have a long history of working together to provide quality recreation opportunities for communities.

[1:15:18] As recreation needs continue to evolve, we need to assess our current model, identify challenges, and explore opportunities for improvement.

[1:15:25] So the desired outcome is a clear understanding of where we are today, the challenges we face, and how we can create a stronger, more sustainable recreation system.

[1:15:36] So our vision, we're committed to enhancing the quality of life, promoting a sense of community, facilitating life-long learning for all ages,

[1:15:45] and abilities, and encouraging an appreciation of the natural environment and local history.

[1:15:50] So our philosophy of the department, we believe that recreation and leisure pursuits contribute

[1:15:57] to the overall happiness, while being in quality of life for citizens of Carroll County.

[1:16:02] We are committed to preserving and protecting our natural and historical resources, and we

[1:16:07] will strive to provide quality opportunities within the constraints of our available resources.

[1:16:14] So, that next slide slide for is just kind of a broad overview of our organizational chart.

[1:16:22] So, as you know, the director reports up to the Board of County Commissioners.

[1:16:26] And underneath the director, we have two, we are our divisions, the vision of recreation, and the division of parks.

[1:16:35] And underneath the division of parks, we have our community parks,

[1:16:38] have bigger farm facility,

[1:16:40] hospital and bare branch in Pioneer Unpark,

[1:16:43] and then underneath the park side,

[1:16:46] we have three recreation councils.

[1:16:48] We have the Carol County Question Council.

[1:16:50] We have the Friends of Hospital, Bear Branch Council,

[1:16:53] and then the Pioneer Unpark Council.

[1:16:56] So then underneath the Division of Recreation,

[1:16:59] we have the Sports Complex,

[1:17:01] Charles Carroll Community Center,

[1:17:03] Community Recreation, and Adaptive Recreation.

[1:17:06] Also, underneath the division of recreation rests all the other volunteer recreation councils.

[1:17:14] And we have eight youth recreation councils.

[1:17:17] And then we also have community coordinators, six actually five part-time community coordinators.

[1:17:23] And then off to the side, you'll see the Friends of Carol Recreation on Parks.

[1:17:27] And they report to the division, and then which reports up to the department.

[1:17:32] So, you said five community coordinators, five part time, five part time threshold, they share some

[1:17:41] reconcils.

[1:17:42] No, and I'll get into that in a minute.

[1:17:44] I can't.

[1:17:44] I'm sorry.

[1:17:45] No, that's okay.

[1:17:46] So if you look at the next slide, slide five, so the eight volunteer reconcils, each of those

[1:17:54] as well as the ones that are on the parks, all have their 501c3 and they all have to have

[1:18:01] elected executive board. And then underneath that they have program chairs or coordinators.

[1:18:06] Those are the booths from the ground. Those are the people out there coordinating many volunteers

[1:18:10] that we have. Then we have the volunteers. And then we have the program participants. Now,

[1:18:15] the friends of Carol Recreation and Parks are their own 501c3. They existed before our

[1:18:23] Councils were required to become a 501c3. So that served as a mechanism for fundraising

[1:18:32] for the Red Councils before they were required to become their own 501c3.

[1:18:39] So the history

[1:18:41] under the Maryland and a dated code county governing bodies are authorized to establish volunteer

[1:18:47] groups to support recreational parks programs and that's where the Board of Commissioners came in,

[1:18:51] authorized these rent councils to exist.

[1:18:54] So we have 11 community recreation councils serving

[1:18:56] their local communities throughout the county.

[1:19:00] This year in FY26, we had 300, I'm sorry,

[1:19:03] 3,100 and 96 volunteers.

[1:19:07] And those aren't positions.

[1:19:09] Those are strictly volunteers.

[1:19:11] So one of those people could be serving multiple roles

[1:19:14] within a rent council.

[1:19:17] A are youth focused.

[1:19:19] And then we have Pioneer Unpark,

[1:19:20] the Friends of Social Bear Branch, the question council, and then in 1995 that's when the

[1:19:27] Friends Group was formed. It was originally formed as the Care Association of Recreation

[1:19:32] Councils, and then in 1999 it was renamed the Friends of Care and Recreation on Parks.

[1:19:39] And if you look at the overview on page 7, so we have our 11, 11 councils, 5 have an extra part time position.

[1:19:52] Those five are Winfield Red Council, Westminster Area Red Council, Charles, I'm sorry, Central

[1:20:00] General Recreation Council, North Carol Recreation Council,

[1:20:06] and did I say central? I said one field.

[1:20:11] Central, north, west,

[1:20:14] Carol has one. So those are the five that have the extra part-time position. And then as you

[1:20:22] know, the Board of County Commissioners appoint the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board.

[1:20:27] They serve as a four-year term and they help advise the department which then helps advise the recreation council.

[1:20:36] So that's kind of like the flow chart.

[1:20:39] Anybody have any questions before I move on?

[1:20:43] Trish and Kyler did that answer your question?

[1:20:46] Yeah, yeah, and in the holler if you're going to cover it.

[1:20:50] But so the recomparks advisory board, they evaluate capital projects, they evaluate self-help projects.

[1:21:00] Self-help projects are funded all by us, and the self-help is funded is more money than us.

[1:21:10] Yes.

[1:21:11] Okay.

[1:21:11] 80%.

[1:21:12] 80%.

[1:21:13] 80% is funded by the council.

[1:21:15] It comes up with the remainder.

[1:21:16] Oh, yeah, but it's no open space money. The open space money is all cats and projects and and a quarrying property and they

[1:21:24] They do a five-year plan evaluating that or

[1:21:29] Or let me in the advisor. We go each year for them. Usually that's in the July time friend

[1:21:35] They were we're going to bring it up for the following year. Okay

[1:21:40] Thank you. Okay. You must welcome. I love you said a question about staffing. How do you determine staffing?

[1:21:47] I just noticed it's a different, I mean, so is if I am a people, they serve how many programs, how does that determine?

[1:21:54] So originally, when this was prior to me, I believe all of the reconcils had a part-time position.

[1:22:03] And as things changed and needs changed and the process has changed, for example, they used to have to drive around and deliver flyers to schools,

[1:22:13] get use of facility form sign, there's a lot more involved than you see today where everything's

[1:22:20] electronic. So the department determined that there was not a need to have each of these part-time

[1:22:26] positions with each of the councils. So as positions change, somebody left, they just weren't filled

[1:22:34] and were taken on by the rule of a full-time position. Does that answer your question?

[1:22:39] Well, I just was looking at it, it seemed like there's 11, you said there were 11, 1, 2, 3, 4.

[1:22:44] So they all have a part time and a part time and a full time.

[1:22:48] They all have a full time and only five have a part time.

[1:22:51] So why is the only one that doesn't have a part time is freedom that's the biggest?

[1:22:56] We were having a difficult time filling that position as a part time position.

[1:23:00] We recently just combined it with another part time position, so they will be getting a full time person to work with that council.

[1:23:07] And you're right, they are largest council.

[1:23:09] That's why I was wondering, I guess we've sort of been waiting

[1:23:12] for the allocation of the report about numbers of people

[1:23:16] in the program.

[1:23:17] So is that going to come up with these?

[1:23:18] That's today.

[1:23:19] That's this.

[1:23:20] Yeah.

[1:23:20] So I didn't know if it was based on that,

[1:23:21] because there were a lot of different volumes of people

[1:23:26] to take care of.

[1:23:26] That's why I did a few faces on volume,

[1:23:28] or you're based it just on everybody gets the same thing,

[1:23:30] no matter what the volume.

[1:23:33] Great.

[1:23:33] So that answer everything right now?

[1:23:35] You add, yes.

[1:23:36] OK.

[1:23:36] great thank you and then historically and you mentioned it a little bit they had a lot more

[1:23:42] duties some of the individual reconcils were supplementing the pay for some of the county was paying

[1:23:50] them and some of the individual reconcils actually paid them something to and I don't think that's

[1:23:56] happening anymore I don't believe that's happening anymore either yeah I don't believe that's

[1:24:02] anymore. Okay, if there's no more questions right now, I will move on. So our role as the department,

[1:24:12] recognizing that volunteer organizations joined together for the common interest of providing

[1:24:16] recreational-based activities to their local community, we provide priority usage to the

[1:24:22] care accounting public schools and their facilities. We permit the use of county fields and county

[1:24:33] board of county commissioners provide direction assistance in the operation of the recreation

[1:24:38] council provide basic mowing of the recreation and parks fields and we pay for electric

[1:24:44] use at any of the park sites.

[1:24:48] So the volunteer reconcils provide many, many benefits to the

[1:24:53] citizens of Carroll County. The biggest benefit, I think, to having these volunteer run-based programs

[1:24:59] It's...

[1:25:00] This is the reduced cost tax payers due to limiting paid staff to oversee programs and facilities.

[1:25:06] They have the direct involvement of citizens, which we wouldn't be able to do the programming

[1:25:12] that they do without the many, many volunteers that they have. They're able to use community-based

[1:25:17] funds for projects and ensure that they stay within that local community, and then they provide

[1:25:22] the financial resources and volunteers necessary to support the successful operation and the delivery

[1:25:28] of their program.

[1:25:34] So recreation council goals and objectives. So all citizens in Carroll County

[1:25:39] who made the basic program registration requirements have a right to participate. All for

[1:25:44] recreational opportunities at a reasonable cost. And I kind of want to highlight the recreational

[1:25:50] opportunities because that goes back to one of our philosophies of recreation and leisure opportunities

[1:25:58] tie into the overall happiness and well-being of citizens, so that recreational aspect is extremely

[1:26:06] important. Recruit volunteers who can act as role models, mentors and facilitators,

[1:26:13] programs, practice games, and other events should be enjoyable, challenging, and a learning

[1:26:17] experience. Volunteer coaches, referees and others, and leadership position,

[1:26:22] shall lead by example through the promotion of fair play and good sportsmanship.

[1:26:26] And program should always focus on the enjoyment of the sport and not the score or winning.

[1:26:32] And I know that's sometimes hard because a lot of competitive people out there.

[1:26:36] I just question on this slide.

[1:26:37] So the first one says all citizens in Carol County who meet up, but how do we do it?

[1:26:42] Some of these councils have people from other counties playing.

[1:26:45] How do you prioritize the Carol County citizens versus somebody out from the other counties?

[1:26:51] I'm going on the board.

[1:26:52] I mean, I know like Binary as some overflow and I know we have.

[1:26:55] I'm going to give you an analogy that our previous director Jeff digots always used when we talked about our local recreation councils.

[1:27:05] So he always said that we give them the framework, it's like we give them the house and it's up to them how they decide they're going to paint it or what they're going to put in the house.

[1:27:14] So we've never told them how to operate their program, what programs to run, when they should be running them.

[1:27:22] We've always let that be determined by the local area

[1:27:26] and the local area needs.

[1:27:28] Now I will say that for the department,

[1:27:31] when we go out and do community recreation,

[1:27:34] we open our registration two weeks prior to anybody

[1:27:38] that is outside of Carroll County.

[1:27:41] We've not made that a requirement.

[1:27:43] So you said outside of Carroll County.

[1:27:46] So you two weeks prior.

[1:27:48] So Carroll County residents have two weeks before anybody

[1:27:51] outside. So they have priority to register for programs. We've never made that a requirement

[1:27:57] of the recreation council. Do we have a problem that some folks can't get in?

[1:28:04] I just thought

[1:28:05] I remember one of your events, somebody was having a chance because that human area is, you know,

[1:28:10] a part of our own part of it, part of the county, and we want to make sure that the Carroll County

[1:28:17] I can speak to the fact that we've recently required any program that is a part of a

[1:28:25] REC Council that is not a true county REC Council program to sign an MOU.

[1:28:33] And we have several out there that are their own 501 seed threes.

[1:28:37] And they are part of the REC Council so they can get use of fields and use of school facilities.

[1:28:43] Mount Mary Youth Athletic Association is one of them, and they've signed an MOU which took effect in September that they had to open registrations to county residents first before they opened them to outside organizations.

[1:29:00] Let's see if we want to share some fields on further organic.

[1:29:01] We have the opposite problem. We don't have any fields, so our kids are going to Howard County.

[1:29:06] I guess they've got plenty to welcome us because I don't know that people are getting turned away.

[1:29:10] Well, and I do know that they have to pay for those fields in Frederick County, they don't, they don't get them for free.

[1:29:16] So, should. May is not getting them for free.

[1:29:18] They have.

[1:29:20] So, they're, their, their citizens come in and use our fields and we don't charge them extra.

[1:29:25] We have to pay to use their fields.

[1:29:28] It seems like if they're, if we're going to open registration of their folks is usually higher registration to cover the,

[1:29:33] we have to get their fields for.

[1:29:35] I see what you're saying, where you are, as a resident of Monterey and myself, I live off of Main Street.

[1:29:43] I'm a Frederick County resident, right across the street is a Carroll County resident.

[1:29:47] It's very difficult down there in the Mount Ery community, because there's four counties that come in and merge there.

[1:29:54] I'm just suggesting that if we're going to welcome those folks in, they shouldn't charge us for the field, it's because we're...

[1:30:00] That's up to them, but I think that also comes down to perhaps the cost of doing business.

[1:30:08] So if if Mount Ayrion knows that I'm going to have to pay extra to rent these fields or rent

[1:30:13] these gym space then unfortunately that's passed on to the user, the person who's participating

[1:30:19] in the program. So it's part of a little bit like a child gym space. That's what I'm saying.

[1:30:23] We don't charge. I understand, I understand what you're saying.

[1:30:28] It's a tricky thing.

[1:30:31] It's very tricky.

[1:30:32] It's very tricky.

[1:30:33] I don't know about the rest counts.

[1:30:34] But I do know in Howard County, they have a resident discount they call it for the adult.

[1:30:39] I know we have a lot of people play a pickle ball to come from Howard County, Baltimore County.

[1:30:43] But in Howard County, you look up their places, first of all, they're more expensive.

[1:30:48] But they have, they call it a discount versus charging people out of County more.

[1:30:51] They have a discount for in County.

[1:30:53] They do it.

[1:30:55] They do it kind of opposite than we do.

[1:30:57] Well, it's almost better to call something.

[1:30:59] Just count.

[1:30:59] You get a discount.

[1:31:00] It's just getting a discount.

[1:31:01] It's just getting a discount.

[1:31:01] I'm going to be a pressure counting.

[1:31:03] I'll say the same problem with that as well because you's not the facilities, but they

[1:31:07] have to pay as well.

[1:31:08] No, you understand what I'm saying.

[1:31:09] I just thought you was going to make sure that we've got limited space.

[1:31:12] And if they're going to charge us for it, you want to make sure that we're getting

[1:31:15] some equity.

[1:31:16] Right.

[1:31:16] Equity back.

[1:31:17] It shouldn't be for the student necessarily.

[1:31:18] But they would incentivize the county to, um,

[1:31:23] we're not doing it for the charge.

[1:31:24] Otherwise it can't even have the charges for the fields.

[1:31:27] And I will say that generally speaking,

[1:31:28] I believe that if you are looking at the recreational opportunities,

[1:31:34] the ones that aren't the club sports

[1:31:36] or the highly competitive programs,

[1:31:38] those kids are going to be playing where their friends are.

[1:31:41] So they're going to be playing with their friends

[1:31:44] that they go to school with.

[1:31:45] So I think you're looking at perhaps the higher level club sports

[1:31:50] or those other offers program opportunities

[1:31:54] and offerings from the Red Councils

[1:31:56] where you may be getting out of county participants

[1:31:59] coming in based on the level of the team

[1:32:03] or maybe even the programs not being offered somewhere

[1:32:06] and where they're only in place where they can get it.

[1:32:10] Rugby comes to mind, I don't know a lot of.

[1:32:12] It's a new sport, everybody's playing, girls are playing,

[1:32:15] I think too.

[1:32:17] All right, slide 11, I believe, is where we are.

[1:32:21] So, volunteer recreation council governance and structure, recreation councils are directed by the Department of Recreation and Parks, which followed guidelines from risk management in the county attorney.

[1:32:33] They have to have established bylaws and have an elected board, establish membership and voting requirements, establish procedures to amend their constitution and their bylaws, follow their approved meeting dates times and locations.

[1:32:45] These are all open meetings anybody from the community is able to participate in these these meetings and the executive board

[1:32:53] must approve all new programs or extensions of programs and that last bullet point is

[1:32:59] in my opinion critical because

[1:33:02] that board that right council knows what space they have what space they have available and how bringing in something new may impact

[1:33:10] so I have an example we had a

[1:33:14] softball program that was their traditional spring sport and they wanted to move to year

[1:33:24] round. So they started advertising and taking registrations for a year around sport, not

[1:33:29] realizing that football was in the outfield and the fall. And then at the last minute their

[1:33:35] scrambling trying to find space had these discussions been talked about internally within the

[1:33:44] you know, how to mitigate that and probably share the space or a realist, oh wait, you know,

[1:33:50] we don't have our normal fields around to figure out where else we're going to need to go.

[1:33:56] So risk management compliance, so a full-time employee is required to attend the

[1:34:01] recreation council meetings. All council volunteers who have contact with youth, handle money,

[1:34:07] or hold a board position must undergo an annual background check. Volunteer training, we require

[1:34:13] every three years for program chairs, coordinators or board members. And those are the ones that I call like

[1:34:18] that are out there leading other volunteers. So if you imagine you have a coordinator that's coordinating

[1:34:24] soccer and they have 20 adult parent volunteers, that coordinator needs to go through the training,

[1:34:31] not the 20 adult volunteer parents that are just coaching. So that they understand all the

[1:34:36] requirements such as accident reporting and the heat index, daily heat index information that

[1:34:42] goes out and those types of things.

[1:34:46] They have to review and this is self-paced, child abuse, neglect training, concussion management,

[1:34:52] stop the bleed and hands only CPR.

[1:34:54] Those are online courses, it takes five to ten minutes to watch a video if they want to get

[1:35:00] They have the ability to get a first aid CPRAD training through the department. They have to sign and abide by the code of conduct. That's for volunteers and the parents. The volunteers need to sign the county waiver and then inspect the equipment fields and facilities before they're used to make sure it is safe for their participants.

[1:35:22] So use the facilities, let me go back to, this is the one.

[1:35:28] So use the facilities, this is, if you want to look at section one and your folder,

[1:35:34] you'll

[1:35:35] see the Carol County Department of Regression and Parks Priority use the school facilities

[1:35:39] among recreation councils and then behind it, you'll see what we call the home schools

[1:35:44] and facilities.

[1:35:45] So those are the facilities that are assigned to each recreation council.

[1:35:50] So, each recreation council and program must work through their assigned community coordinator

[1:35:54] or their full-time liaison to request your facilities.

[1:35:59] And that's because, you know, I don't know if, you know, Mrs. Smith volunteer coach for

[1:36:05] a basketball program, what council she may work with.

[1:36:09] So, it needs to go through the proper channels to request that.

[1:36:13] Council programs are assigned to their local facilities, which is that document.

[1:36:17] Council programs will also cure private facilities, so department staff will not help them get any private facilities, so if they're renting private facilities, they'll need to schedule that and then make arrangements for rental payment and then each council is responsible for managing all aspects of its programs and a safe effective and responsible manner.

[1:36:39] I'm going to ask you a question about some of these.

[1:36:41] So when these schools are, obviously all different, I know there's some that have child care.

[1:36:50] They do daycare.

[1:36:50] Like in the winter gym.

[1:36:51] So they can't get in.

[1:36:52] They can't get in.

[1:36:53] After school programming.

[1:36:55] So how do you balance that out?

[1:36:58] Let's see basketball season.

[1:36:59] How do you know if there's really availability for the programs for the council?

[1:37:03] Okay.

[1:37:04] If the school has daycare, let's say the daycare, last school, sixth, third, instead of sixth,

[1:37:08] or I don't know the timing.

[1:37:08] but you have done this for so long practices,

[1:37:12] let's see practices in an hour.

[1:37:14] So Carol, so Carol County Public Schools

[1:37:16] have priority use of their own facilities.

[1:37:20] So they move to an online scheduling process.

[1:37:25] It's called event manager.

[1:37:26] And anybody from the community can go on

[1:37:28] and see the forward facing calendar

[1:37:30] at any school and see what is scheduled

[1:37:32] in that school during that day,

[1:37:34] time a week, be it inside or on the fields.

[1:37:39] So once the school system gets there usage into that calendar, we've requested we have deadlines

[1:37:45] on one, we have to request our space by and it's either approved or denied based on the

[1:37:51] availability of space.

[1:37:53] So if there's an after school program and they're in a gym until 536 o'clock, we're

[1:37:58] and they'll start to 6, 15, 6, 30.

[1:38:02] We also find that, especially in elementary schools, that if there is, let's say there's

[1:38:08] a performance on a stage or an auditorium, it may be affecting parking at the facility.

[1:38:14] So we're blacked out because they have a program going on on the school and the gym may not

[1:38:22] be used, but there's no place for our participants to park to get into the facility.

[1:38:26] So, we run into that, and as well as, I don't know if you've heard about the little equipment

[1:38:32] that travels through the elementary schools.

[1:38:34] So, it is this gym contraption that takes a while to put up, so it goes in a gym.

[1:38:40] It's there for two weeks, and then it's taken down and moved to another school for two weeks.

[1:38:45] And we get the calendar.

[1:38:47] We can get the calendar from Carol County Public Schools, but it hits every elementary school.

[1:38:52] And generally speaking, I believe it affects the same rent councils yearly because that's when they're scheduled.

[1:39:02] So for example, central carol, you know, every winter they get it.

[1:39:06] It's not like the school is saying, okay, you know, Sandy Mount had this one or let's put it at a freedom school.

[1:39:13] They don't rotate. They don't rotate.

[1:39:15] It rotates around, but I don't think they rotate seasonally. Does that make sense when saying?

[1:39:20] What I'm trying to figure out is if, this has came to my attention, that certain schools

[1:39:25] have daycare, I guess, are they for profit daycares, that they actually get the space and

[1:39:31] they get it?

[1:39:32] Yeah, I can't answer that, I'm not 100% sure, but I believe you're right, I don't believe

[1:39:36] the schools are running it, I think they've just contracted it out.

[1:39:40] So obviously we need the schools for these practices, and if they're not available to, they're

[1:39:44] available at different times, let's say one is available at six, but this one has a contract

[1:39:47] 630. Is there any way that we can make sure that there is similarity between schools,

[1:39:55] when they're doing the analytics. Schools is what does the contract or the actual school does

[1:39:58] it, because...

[1:40:00] Well, if I'm not understanding it, shortens the time amount of practice time that they have available

[1:40:06] to school because they're different. So, this I'll just go might say it's 6, 30, just say it's 6,

[1:40:11] because they want to have time to clear out. And if they could just maybe get them out of the gym and say,

[1:40:16] hey, can you go stand? If somebody's late picking them up, they still hold up the gym. So, they can't schedule it.

[1:40:21] So, it'd be nice if we could have some discussion with the school system to make sure that they at least realize

[1:40:27] that the kelp impact and the kelp they're having and if they're only you know they could just

[1:40:31] get them out there by six and then you could even or even if you know they they moved to the

[1:40:38] cafeteria where they're not in the gym and they're doing board games or something where it

[1:40:42] be you know they don't have to have that opportunity in the winter time when they're doing basketball

[1:40:46] whatever the schedules are but I just think there there there should be an opportunity to have

[1:40:52] the discussion with them about they're holding up the whole gym for a handful of kids because

[1:40:55] I haven't been picked up yet and they can't schedule a practice, so then you can only get

[1:41:00] two teams in one hour and then if you do it two late for elementary school kids, it's

[1:41:04] passed our bedtime. So you have a very short window and that's a concern that I've heard

[1:41:07] that it seems to be different and maybe they're not aware of it and if they school system

[1:41:11] will be aware and say, hey, you can only hear it. I'm making the number up. I'm not sure if

[1:41:15] it's six or not but it would be some consistency so that they could get their full school.

[1:41:19] They'd have equal time and all the schools that supposedly are assigned to them.

[1:41:23] Right, I can certainly have that discussion with the Board of Education, or my contact with Carol

[1:41:28] County, obviously.

[1:41:29] Just to say would just be like a cognizant of that, and if it's possible, if it's just

[1:41:33] a handful of kids in there that they could ask them to go to the cafeteria or go just sitting

[1:41:37] a lobby for the last 15 minutes, so that they could actually have their full, a lot of time.

[1:41:42] I can certainly do that.

[1:41:44] Any other questions on that slide?

[1:41:46] I don't want to resumask that because I found out that the wreck leaks for many, many years,

[1:41:51] But when I hear some of these costs,

[1:41:54] these parents are paying to play basketball

[1:41:55] because we have to rent space.

[1:41:56] I get a church on an $85 registration.

[1:41:59] You should be like 15, but I'm dating myself.

[1:42:01] But $185 seemed like a lot, and if you have two kids,

[1:42:05] it's a lot of money, because they have to rent space.

[1:42:07] And for a wreck, we should be able to provide space.

[1:42:09] And if we can free up some of the,

[1:42:11] I'm not sure how much it is,

[1:42:12] but if we can free up some of that elementary space,

[1:42:14] and let the practices be.

[1:42:17] And it really should only be the elementary schools

[1:42:19] that we're the after school is happening.

[1:42:22] Yes, okay.

[1:42:25] The next slide is just what I'm not going to go into details.

[1:42:28] This is just one, again, an inventory,

[1:42:30] just in a different view.

[1:42:32] So it's kind of chunked.

[1:42:33] So you can see the rent console and the number of sites

[1:42:39] that they have.

[1:42:40] One thing to note, there are some shared sites

[1:42:43] with other rent consoles.

[1:42:45] Littensprings Community Room is a shared space at Littensprings Elementary School.

[1:42:52] Littensprings Elementary School is shared between Winfield Recreation Council and Freedom Recreation Council.

[1:42:58] I will say that they share the fields, but the gym use at Littensprings is 100% Winfield.

[1:43:05] Another shared facility is Century High School, and that is shared between both Winfield and Freedom Area Recreation Council.

[1:43:13] And then we have Parts Ridge Elementary School and Moundary, which is shared by Woodbind

[1:43:20] Rett Council, which is where Moundary Youth Athletic Association resides and the Windfield

[1:43:25] Recreation Council.

[1:43:28] I'd also like to say that the high schools with the programs that they have, we do get

[1:43:34] limited space in the gyms and in the high school and on their playing fields, basically

[1:43:39] because of the programs that they have that they're running.

[1:43:44] On the facilities, in the book, you list Panther Plex under North Carolina Records,

[1:43:53] so I don't think you have it on the slide.

[1:43:56] Thank you for pointing that out.

[1:43:58] So the Panther Plex, as you know, was the North Carolina High School, and it was sold,

[1:44:03] And we had an agreement to pay rental usage for the North Carolina Council for five years.

[1:44:12] So we are coming up on, we've paid five or four and a half years.

[1:44:18] So the end of this calendar year, not fiscal year, but the end of this calendar year should be the end of that payment period.

[1:44:27] So if the North Carolina Council is going to continue to utilize that space, they will need

[1:44:32] to pay for it and rent it.

[1:44:34] And that will be under private.

[1:44:37] That would then be under private.

[1:44:38] I don't want to illustrate it anymore.

[1:44:40] The Council has to.

[1:44:41] The Council has been organizing it.

[1:44:44] We've just been paying that bill.

[1:44:47] Yeah.

[1:44:47] And it's confusing.

[1:44:50] And unfortunately, they had it sold and that fell through.

[1:44:54] I'm actually the group for the Department of Deposit.

[1:44:58] They're ready to try to sell it.

[1:45:00] Again, but in theory, the agreement will be up before, because I was worried, does that agreement pass to a new owner?

[1:45:09] But that's the only half a year left, it's probably not an issue. And then you list,

[1:45:16] Lester Park, which doesn't really have much facilities. It's a park, but it's more of a passive and pickle bill.

[1:45:24] So, licerapark does have one multi-purpose field, but because of the regulations and the access and the availability of parking, it cannot be used for competition, so it can only be used for practice.

[1:45:39] And I will say that North Carol has started using that space.

[1:45:45] They've realized that they need that space.

[1:45:47] And I'm not 100% sure if it's because they're not using the Panther Plex. I'm not sure the Panther Plex kept those fields up and usable.

[1:45:59] I do think that they were mostly using the gym space.

[1:46:03] that their original attention, intention was to upgrade those fields, and I'm hoping a new owner

[1:46:14] maybe wants to do that, but the current owner isn't interested in field use. People walk

[1:46:20] the track, and when Ron Schroers was there, they had some football games and all in the stadium,

[1:46:29] and he focused on a little more, of course, he's been gone for a few years, so yeah, it's private, but like you say, it was a past commissioners put a, put a agreement in, so it's coming, coming to the end.

[1:46:45] Okay, thank you. If you want to turn to section two, this is just another inventory of county fields that is separated by what are multipurpose fields and what are baseball softball or

[1:46:58] what our rent councils I've identified as small-sided multi-purpose fields, meaning you can't

[1:47:04] have like a 11v11 soccer game on it, but you could have little kid clinic, you know, preschool

[1:47:10] or grade school kids playing on it. And then also shows the lighted fields that each council may have

[1:47:19] at their disposal, and there are not very many lighted fields out there. So of course the lighted

[1:47:24] with allow extended use on on a grass field versus, you know, when the sun goes down.

[1:47:33] And that's just something you guys can look at at some point in time. If you have any questions about that.

[1:47:40] So the field inventory conditions, we asked the rent councils to come back and give us, and this is

[1:47:47] section three, what they thought their fields were.

[1:47:52] And we also had them rate the Board of Ed fields.

[1:47:56] So we had them rate them fair, good, poor, or not usable.

[1:48:01] And as you go through your packet, it's broken out by rent

[1:48:05] council and then on the left side shows the parks that

[1:48:11] county parks and then on the right side are the school parks.

[1:48:16] And it also will show you the size of those fields.

[1:48:20] So just kind of, that kind of matches up with that last document, that's that you looked at.

[1:48:26] And again, it's just please note that this is not something we went in and evaluated.

[1:48:31] We asked the councils to evaluate what they thought the conditions of each of their fields were.

[1:48:36] And I think that will come into play later when we get all the rent councils together.

[1:48:41] How does it work when it's a school-owned field and it's important?

[1:48:45] A lot of these school-owned fields look like they're in poor shape.

[1:48:48] So how do we deal with that when it's a school-owned field?

[1:48:50] The school will not do any maintenance on their fields,

[1:48:54] especially the middle schools and elementary schools because they're not using it as...

[1:49:00] They're using it as a PE field for physical education.

[1:49:03] They're not out there using it as a playing field.

[1:49:05] So do they allow the reconcils to improve the fields?

[1:49:08] They would, yes.

[1:49:09] But it would be expect them to it would be at it would be at the Red Council's cost

[1:49:14] Your original joint use agreement, which was the facility use agreement in the old days was based on the fact that the

[1:49:24] Red Council's did a lot of improvements at the high schools and the middle schools

[1:49:30] And therefore that's why they got priority usage and hopefully it's still the same way

[1:49:37] North Carol High School

[1:49:39] Well, every schoolman, man, Val, North Carolina recounts was probably rebuilt the fields.

[1:49:45] Our joke used to be when they did spring garden, they do fields for visit.

[1:49:53] And then we make them, and we even talk to the school system about some, they put up.

[1:50:00] Backstops for a softbow field that aren't good enough to use for a competitive game. So we replace them. And we got to the point that we'd say just don't put a backstop up if we're going to do a minimal one and etc. The cell phone projects in the old days did a lot of taught lots. They've gotten, I remember when cell phone changed from 15 grand to 25 grand so it could fund a taught lot.

[1:50:28] Well, that's a fun to talk a lot more, you know, so yeah, they expect them at North

[1:50:38] Carroll we built a dugout, we did the back stops, we did the ball by diamond mix, the

[1:50:44] AD would call the council and CJ Miller wrote all the fields for free in that area.

[1:50:50] I'm sure contractors do it in the other areas and some of the contractors like White

[1:50:58] in the hamster, they'll help with ball diamond mix and grading for a little backstop or something.

[1:51:07] Some of that they do free.

[1:51:12] It's convoluted, but it's back to our volunteers and care counties.

[1:51:17] What all they do and if we don't watch it, we're going to develop a hybrid system about

[1:51:25] EMS where we've got paid people and paid money and volunteers competing, you know, you

[1:51:36] said, and I like that you said you do basic mowing and our joke about that is they

[1:51:43] mow it once or twice a month, whether it needs it or not, but in some programs which

[1:51:49] understand some of the soccer programs they care whether it's mode on a

[1:51:56] Monday or Thursday much less that week you know and and so they do it

[1:52:02] themselves and and some of them even pay somebody else another contractor or

[1:52:09] volunteers you'll just you know give in kind contributions and the local

[1:52:12] recounts will probably pay for all the spotty pots we the county will put out two

[1:52:20] spot-opots, a regular one, and a handicap unit for the general park users.

[1:52:28] If a rent council needs additional ones, because they're having games on Saturday or Sunday,

[1:52:33] and a lot of people are coming in the park at once, then they're responsible for putting in

[1:52:37] any additional that they need.

[1:52:38] And the same thing if they use a school site and a school.

[1:52:41] Correct.

[1:52:42] No, no.

[1:52:44] And that's a good point, because we have to get special permission to bring those into

[1:52:47] the schools.

[1:52:48] to school site and sometimes they say no.

[1:52:51] Yeah, thanks.

[1:52:53] Yeah.

[1:52:53] The field conditions.

[1:52:55] There are just three categories.

[1:52:57] Fair, poor, and good.

[1:52:58] Or is there excellent?

[1:52:59] There's not an excellent.

[1:53:01] There's not an excellent.

[1:53:01] I guess it was out of choice.

[1:53:03] Yes.

[1:53:04] That we had a discussion.

[1:53:06] I didn't know.

[1:53:07] Yeah.

[1:53:08] So that was a choice.

[1:53:09] And there's none.

[1:53:09] There are excellent.

[1:53:11] Well, I'm just saying from their point of view.

[1:53:13] From their point of view.

[1:53:14] They had the three in and the non-usable.

[1:53:18] So non-usable will be under poor.

[1:53:20] Correct.

[1:53:21] Or it's not usable because something happened.

[1:53:24] Let's say a portable went up at a school

[1:53:26] and it's no longer a field.

[1:53:28] So there may be different reasons why it's not usable.

[1:53:33] All right.

[1:53:35] The other question only, well, this might come later.

[1:53:37] But I know on the high schools that some of them

[1:53:39] have limited fields and depending on playoffs

[1:53:42] and stuff, sometimes it goes into their season.

[1:53:44] So, how do you adjust for that? Like, if you're planning on a cross season and you've got to have a certain field,

[1:53:49] you can't get it until halfway through a season. How do you count that in a high school field?

[1:53:57] Because sometimes, their seasons go longer because they don't know.

[1:54:00] Is it best about the same, I guess?

[1:54:01] Or a train, equivalent while they're, you know, whatever.

[1:54:04] Whatever reason. How does it, how do they plan for that in the recounts?

[1:54:07] If the county has first choice, but it's not anticipated. What do they do?

[1:54:13] We, the, the rent councils would have to look for a space elsewhere. So maybe they're not playing in their backyard, but, you know, they've either, either rented a space, they're, they're going to, um, another facility within another.

[1:54:25] It's not anticipated. Is that an issue of the overlap or do they just not use those fields?

[1:54:34] I'm trying to answer your question, you're asking if they've had, if they've had a field

[1:54:39] reserve permitted, and then the high school comes in and takes it because they're seasoned

[1:54:44] got extended.

[1:54:46] Is that, and they said, well, could be, or do they, I think it was just, I remember what

[1:54:49] school was.

[1:54:50] I think it was a century that they can't get into a certain time.

[1:54:52] I don't know if the school system holds it out for that time in case, or do they just

[1:54:56] to what happens, you know what I'm saying? How do you plan?

[1:55:00] For that, are they just keep their own use of facilities until through their possible length of season?

[1:55:07] So, is it an issue?

[1:55:09] It may be an issue that I'm not aware of.

[1:55:12] I do know that the schools have to have their stuff and event manager before our stuff can be approved.

[1:55:20] And I do know that we have hard deadlines with the schools to get our information in.

[1:55:26] And if we haven't gotten our information in, if somebody forgot to put it in, or somebody forgot to request it,

[1:55:33] this after our deadline, the schools can give that to a third-party user, somebody underneath recreation and parks.

[1:55:39] And if that happens, they won't, they will not give it back.

[1:55:42] I'm trying to remember, it seemed to me there was a reason that they couldn't use it because they couldn't get it till the middle of the season.

[1:55:48] So in other words, they sort of, I don't know how counts in here, but sort of counted as,

[1:55:52] Hey, this is available, but it really wasn't because they used it longer into the season.

[1:55:57] Right, and that kind of speaks to what I mentioned earlier.

[1:56:00] We have more and more difficult time getting on the high school fields, just based on their needs.

[1:56:06] I mean, we just need to keep that in consideration as to what we really have available and what's not.

[1:56:10] You know what I'm saying?

[1:56:10] It's not as simple as you know.

[1:56:12] Right.

[1:56:13] Definitely not.

[1:56:14] Right.

[1:56:16] 100%.

[1:56:17] All right.

[1:56:17] If you want to look at...

[1:56:18] I think, can you comment a little bit?

[1:56:22] It used to be spreadsheets, it used to be, was the A do it, A do any good or not, but now it's electronic, so does that, is that still have its problems or is it pretty clean, this electronic system?

[1:56:41] So, if I can be candid, one of the issues I feel we have as the Red Council in the Department

[1:56:47] when it comes to the event manager, electronic version, is that the high schools are not using it.

[1:56:54] So the high schools are not putting their information on there.

[1:56:57] The middle schools and elementary schools have their stuff out there.

[1:57:00] So the high schools, because they manage, my understanding is they manage a different calendar

[1:57:06] because they're competing with other schools, not just that they did not want to have to do

[1:57:13] multiple calendars. And the high schools I'll hear from right John and Neil, the high schools

[1:57:21] are poor schedulers period on any events and it's funny copper mine, the old tennis place on

[1:57:30] and free to. That's their biggest headache is that the high schools don't schedule proper

[1:57:36] use. They've had gangs have to stop in a third quarter because they didn't schedule enough,

[1:57:43] you know. And when I, when I asked them, copper mine, what's your biggest issue? And they said,

[1:57:50] how the high school schedules, the wreck, the others, they schedule pretty well. And again,

[1:57:57] And I think you alluded to Mr. Krebs, when the reconcils have to pay for it, they're serious about it.

[1:58:06] You know, the high school's not so much, and it's a shame.

[1:58:10] So, and I'm curious that I was hoping that wasn't a problem with electronics.

[1:58:16] It is a challenge, just basically I think, for the high schools.

[1:58:20] Because to us, it may look like a softball field is available, but it's not because their team's using it, it's just not on.

[1:58:29] It's not, it may be on their internal calendar, but it's not on the forward-facing calendar for the citizens to see.

[1:58:35] Who does that scheduling? Does it all go through the community coordinator or do individual programs get on that electronics?

[1:58:42] So that goes through the department paid person so be it the part time the the five that have a part time or or the full-time person

[1:58:50] That's tied to that that

[1:58:52] So if I'm soccer, I need to talk to the community coordinator. One person. Yep. I probably don't have the right terms for people

[1:58:59] But you're doing well. I'm tack them and they schedule

[1:59:02] Yep, and I think that's key and we need to make sure that the reconcils are following that model

[1:59:08] where they're reaching out to the coordinators because it's the only way you're going to figure out

[1:59:12] who's using what fields. Let's make sure that's occurring. And then as far as a high school

[1:59:16] goes, I mean, I can only imagine the elimination of the AD positions at the high schools. Probably

[1:59:20] isn't helping that situation either, but it sounds like it was already difficult to begin with.

[1:59:28] So the coordinators, the pace staff, where do they, where they look at it, where they

[1:59:35] So, the part-time people, the five that we have that are contractual, work from home,

[1:59:41] we don't provide them any kind of laptop, any phone, it's all done from home.

[1:59:47] And the full-time staff are either housed at one of the county locations.

[1:59:52] So, either the Robert Moton Center or the Charles Carroll Community Center or the Carroll County

[1:59:56] In the studio, where are they?

[1:59:58] Well, as I'm asking.

[2:00:00] I don't know if there's any opportunities. I don't know in Baltimore County where it came from a long time ago. I think that they have staff on if they still do it. That is a joint staff in the school.

[2:00:11] So that same person, I mean, now that we're doing away with that, I used to think it was a shame for the athletic directors that are scheduling things because they were good teachers too.

[2:00:19] And you need to take them out of the classroom and put them in a administrative position that losing their teaching talent.

[2:00:25] But is there any way to have that person help coordinate at the school and be housed there and have them sort of be dual-duty so this one person?

[2:00:36] I mean, I know they've been at Baltimore County a long time ago.

[2:00:38] I think Baltimore County might still do that.

[2:00:41] I just want to get work very well.

[2:00:43] Baltimore County has an office at most of the schools.

[2:00:48] They have paid people.

[2:00:49] a friend Rick County had paid people that that would cost millions of dollars. I think did

[2:00:58] Litton Spring get a wreck room. It was supposed to have a community. They have a community

[2:01:03] room down. I think. But that's probably the only one that has won. I was thinking more

[2:01:08] of the high schools. But just to have someone that would be I'm not saying putting extra

[2:01:13] people in but it's how it would be that person would be used if it would be more efficient

[2:01:17] that they were there sort of with hands along with the high school stuff so they were

[2:01:22] I don't know if it's shared. I'm not sure how Baltimore County does it. I don't know if

[2:01:24] any extra staff but if we've got people on each of these areas I mean how many of we have

[2:01:30] we have five of these coordinators and we have what six high schools. It's just a thought to

[2:01:35] see how we could coordinate and help them and help us and then it's not two different people.

[2:01:41] Okay. This is what? How do we do it a little more important?

[2:01:45] One thing on the electronic system, I apologize. And then I've got questions at the end on communications.

[2:01:51] So I'm back on the soccer coordinator. So I got to schedule through the community person, the recon parks person,

[2:01:58] but I can look at the system. I just can't manipulate it.

[2:02:02] Correct.

[2:02:02] But if I want to see what's open or when I have it, I can look.

[2:02:07] right now you could go in and create your own account but then the school is going to come back

[2:02:12] and they're going to ask you for your certificate insurance and they're going to act you know

[2:02:16] and then that's going to go away to men and I'm with a red council so then they

[2:02:20] but generally speaking and that's why that that volunteer training is so important because that

[2:02:26] coordinator you know I think that stuff happens with the the mom and dad coach or you know

[2:02:32] where and it may be a teacher and like they're just going because they work at that school and they're like

[2:02:36] Hey, I know the gym's out being used right now.

[2:02:38] Can I have it for a practice?

[2:02:40] And I do recognize, and I do think that, unfortunately,

[2:02:43] that happens.

[2:02:44] Not as much now because of the electronic system,

[2:02:47] but I do think it happened a lot with the paper sign off.

[2:02:51] There wasn't as many checks and balances before.

[2:02:54] If we want to look at Section 5,

[2:02:59] this is just a quick overview of each rent council

[2:03:03] in the programs that they offer.

[2:03:05] So what we talked about, oh wait a minute, I got one more section, go over section four.

[2:03:11] Yes, section four. This is the most important one. This is the one Commission

[2:03:15] Cribes you talked about. So section four is a list of outdoor sports only doesn't include

[2:03:23] the indoor sports for this discussion today of what the Red Council's reported their

[2:03:28] usage. So they reported the programs that they have, the number participants,

[2:03:32] where they were practicing, and the amount of practices they had per week.

[2:03:38] And we have that listed for each rent council.

[2:03:41] So you can see the majority of the councils are either practicing only one

[2:03:47] or two times a week.

[2:03:49] But we, oh, and then behind each one you'll see the field maps.

[2:03:51] So each council shows just the county field maps for the

[2:03:56] Department of Recreation and Parks.

[2:03:58] I do have the schools, not in this packet, but if you want to,

[2:04:01] do have it, I can hand it out to you today. But as you leave through it, you'll see that some

[2:04:07] programs may have the ability to practice three days a week. Is that because they have the

[2:04:12] ability or they want that ability? They have that ability. How do we know what their needs are

[2:04:16] versus what, to this means, I looked at a one and looked at a three, do I assume they all want

[2:04:22] three or do I assume somebody just want one? I think the groups that are having one practice are

[2:04:30] younger kids. The clinic. I guess I'm trying to absorb from all this. What are the needs,

[2:04:37] maybe you can come up with that later. Are we satisfying the needs of what each, you know,

[2:04:42] formally, you know, if the younger kids practice once a week or they all get in their once a week

[2:04:46] if the older kids practice three times a week or they all get the opportunity for three times a week.

[2:04:50] I'm just trying to make sure we're looking at apples and apples for whatever it may be,

[2:04:55] because you're right, you might be once a week for a younger kid, but it's hard to tell that.

[2:04:58] And I, and I, and I thank you.

[2:05:00] We need to, you know, it's going to be based on on the program in the age of the program. You know, the older kids might be practicing or two or three times a week.

[2:05:07] But if I would somehow through all this, we're going to glean what the needs are in an equitable way.

[2:05:13] I want to make sure that the way we blame it is going to be that they see it that way because they agree with our analysis of it.

[2:05:20] You know what I'm saying?

[2:05:21] So, you know what I'm saying?

[2:05:22] Right.

[2:05:22] The way you've, hopefully they've all seen this and they've given you the data.

[2:05:26] This came straight from them.

[2:05:28] So when we're looking, I was just trying to look at it

[2:05:30] with an equal kind of eye of what their needs are.

[2:05:34] And if somebody thinks they need five times more

[2:05:36] that's unreasonable, if it's all level, you know?

[2:05:39] OK.

[2:05:40] I think generally speaking, if you drill down

[2:05:43] and look at the programs, the football programs

[2:05:46] are practicing three or four times a week.

[2:05:49] Your soccer, your field hockey, your baseball teams

[2:05:53] may only be doing one or two based on the level,

[2:05:57] or the competition level of that, the age of...

[2:06:01] Change is, I guess.

[2:06:03] And it could change year to year.

[2:06:05] They may have, you know, five teams that are our higher level one year in the next year, they only have two.

[2:06:12] So it may change based on the registration from year to year.

[2:06:14] And does it change based on who's got lights and not because of, you know, it starts getting dark.

[2:06:19] Does that have an impact?

[2:06:21] It absolutely does.

[2:06:22] So, you know, the fall, it's getting dark early, so, you know, starting in August, they

[2:06:29] may be able to go till 730 but come the end of September, you know, they're off the field

[2:06:35] by 630 because it's getting dark.

[2:06:37] Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out, so that there's somewhere equitably that there's lights.

[2:06:42] You know, if you have a right council, you got this many teams that they can, when it gets

[2:06:46] dark at 5 o'clock, I guess that's pretty late now, it's pretty, I think, no member.

[2:06:50] That might be not be an impact for football and false sports, it's just something to consider that they all have that same opportunity.

[2:06:57] And you know, not all that not all the fields are the same. I mean, we don't have white to never facility.

[2:07:01] No, but I'm just saying with Anna Brett council.

[2:07:07] Again, that information was supplied by E each council.

[2:07:10] And if you go through and you see if there's there's yellow, it means that they did not supply that information up and I don't have it to provide you.

[2:07:20] And that was kind of condensed down because I do have the information by each for the majority of them like each program like if they had a clinic and then they had ages, you know, K through five and then I just kind of wanted to condense it for you because it was a lot of information.

[2:07:41] I'm happy to share that with you.

[2:07:43] I guess we're trying to get to it's like,

[2:07:45] What's how many fields based on your enrollment, your registration do you have if you need an excise field and your registration supports and how many does this support?

[2:07:54] I don't work out the ages more about what their needs are on the one that certain size fields.

[2:07:59] I will say one, the direction that the department has always given the right counsel is you know your inventory, you know what you have.

[2:08:07] You know what you can handle in terms of registration.

[2:08:11] I use an analogy of a swimming pool.

[2:08:13] If I have a six-lane swimming pool, I know I can only have 50 swimmers.

[2:08:18] Why would I take 75 swimmers?

[2:08:20] Because then it depends on your catchment area.

[2:08:22] You're not going to turn kids away.

[2:08:23] If you have a big catchment area, that's why we have to make sure we have it done in an equitable

[2:08:28] way.

[2:08:29] Because you might be on a bigger catchment area if you're a right count.

[2:08:31] Certain reconcils, they're not necessarily overlapping.

[2:08:34] So I know what you're saying.

[2:08:36] It's not necessarily because if you have a thousand kids versus ten thousand, it's different.

[2:08:40] Right.

[2:08:42] So, that kind of ties up the presentation regarding this kind of an overview of our relationship

[2:08:51] and that we have with the recreation councils.

[2:08:54] Now I know last spring, Dr. Hicks shared with you information about fields and locations

[2:09:03] that the department prioritized, that they thought was needed for improvement.

[2:09:14] So I think our next steps here, we currently have a subcommittee looking at the indoor space.

[2:09:21] We are expecting them to give a presentation as advisory board meeting in October.

[2:09:27] October, September's our self-help presentation, so an October, and so one of the chairpeople

[2:09:36] of the advisory board has been heading up the subcommittee and getting information from the

[2:09:41] local rent councils to try to move a path forward on that equitable space that you're talking

[2:09:47] about for indoor space. So we graciously appreciate the $5 million in the FY27 budget for restoration

[2:09:56] of county fields.

[2:09:59] And...

[2:10:00] Scheduling a meeting with a department or figuring out the candidates from the rent councils that would be involved in this decision. I know that we've already put forward information from the department on some priority fields that that we have. I have that information shared with you today if you'd like it right now.

[2:10:22] Yes.

[2:10:23] And would you probably remember indoor space is a little, probably a little more tricky.

[2:10:30] But it'd be nice if we all would be looking for opportunities.

[2:10:34] It's so much better for indoor space if you can hook it onto something that's already there.

[2:10:38] And I think one of the best decisions years ago was when they put the extra space onto the Celscope,

[2:10:43] Senior Center.

[2:10:44] I think it was around $800,000 came from Reckon Parks.

[2:10:47] And because you're sharing infrastructure, you're sharing your bathrooms, you're sharing your parking lots.

[2:10:51] So, the more opportunities we can use to take shared space and reuse it, it's more, it's very cost-effective.

[2:11:01] So, whoever thought of that 20 year, whenever they did it, 20 years ago, it was a wonderful investment.

[2:11:06] I think we got part of it from the state at that point in time.

[2:11:09] But I think it was 800,000.

[2:11:12] And the kids use it all every night and they use it on the weekends, and then the seniors use it every day.

[2:11:17] they use it for walking, they use it for a pickle ball and I think they use it for something

[2:11:22] else in like Sunday morning.

[2:11:24] But my point is it was very inexpensive.

[2:11:27] You got all the infrastructure there because they can close off the doors to the rest of the

[2:11:31] senior center.

[2:11:33] So, the more we can do those types of things like with the schools, you know, having the extra

[2:11:37] gym space, I don't know.

[2:11:38] North Carol used to have the extra gym space, it's economies of scale because you already

[2:11:42] have everything there.

[2:11:43] So as we, I don't know if there's opportunities,

[2:11:46] I know what liberty is getting, maybe redone.

[2:11:50] I don't think that they have an extra wrestling room,

[2:11:52] but they only have one gym.

[2:11:54] I don't know what it would cost to add another space.

[2:11:58] I want to that, that there would be a joint use.

[2:12:00] But we just kind of think along those lines

[2:12:01] as we do as we built things.

[2:12:03] Because like Charles Carroll, it's my opinion that it's

[2:12:07] Sans alone, it's in the old nowhere.

[2:12:09] And it's just used by that facility.

[2:12:11] if that was connected to something else, it would have a lot of joint, more joint uses.

[2:12:18] It was shared parking lots, shared custodial, just, there's just a kind of, there's

[2:12:22] a scale that's doing it that way.

[2:12:23] So, I wouldn't want to repeat doing that again, I wouldn't have done it then, but it's

[2:12:27] done.

[2:12:28] But there's other opportunities that might come up as we redo facilities on what we do, what's

[2:12:33] an easement, what's the middle, and what, really, there may be, if that's where the need

[2:12:40] But just as we figure out the need and we think okay, how do we solve the need it might take a while

[2:12:44] But right a little bit of a plant a plan

[2:12:48] Same with field it's the same with fields so if you more fields you're gonna attach to schools if there's property around it

[2:12:54] I know we're pretty landlock, but it's again. It's economies of scale. No, there's an extra field between

[2:12:59] Century and Clinton Springs

[2:13:01] I think it's count I might be counting on but when those the facilities were built that little extra field was all there

[2:13:07] And you have parking, you have infrastructures, that's helpful.

[2:13:12] And I've got some questions about communications and liberty.

[2:13:23] Reconparks, I don't think, is involved with the building committee.

[2:13:29] CCBS will have a building committee that goes through curriculum needs, space needs, whatever.

[2:13:37] And I thought, I've always said the county commissioners can find the worst school site possible in

[2:13:46] Carol County and give it to the schools and that was man-vow, that has one gem and it's horrible.

[2:13:53] It has a resting room that's actually called a gymnastics room or something and it's

[2:13:58] it's horrible, but how can we make sure you guys are represented on the building committee

[2:14:08] for liberty, because it's important that they have two gems, and it's not important

[2:14:16] to CCPS.

[2:14:17] I don't understand that because then like, care kind of public schools use K-borne park, they

[2:14:25] other buildings,

[2:14:30] they ought to be able to build a new building that they don't need to

[2:14:35] farm out stuff. And the problem with fields at high schools is they're so hard

[2:14:40] to get use of. It's nice they're there. So you guys have an advisory board. You have

[2:14:49] friends of Carol, you have the individual

[2:14:51] reconcils with your coordinators attending their meetings.

[2:14:57] How do you, and maybe it's all the above?

[2:15:00] How do you communicate with the individual rent councils? My opinion, and you had sent me some information, I don't know, a month ago.

[2:15:11] Like the friends of Carol, a lot of people miss those meetings, and they're only quarterly.

[2:15:18] And so that hurts the communication to right council's big time, and then the advisory board, like you said, they're going to present stuff at the advisory board meeting, but some of the council's miss those, even one of them didn't get a self-help project last year because they didn't show up, and you can't make them show up.

[2:15:41] But there's a lot of the communication

[2:15:45] happened at their individual council meetings

[2:15:47] when there's a coordinator there,

[2:15:50] or do you rely on the advisory board

[2:15:53] and the friends of Carol?

[2:15:55] The friends of Carol meeting, that's quarterly,

[2:15:59] four times a year, is the only time I get all

[2:16:02] the presidents in one area together.

[2:16:07] The president does not have to sit on that board.

[2:16:09] They have to send a representative.

[2:16:10] you know, we ask them to send a representative, we ask it to be the president, but we just,

[2:16:14] it doesn't have to be that person. The, the friends of Carol Recreation and Parks is kind of

[2:16:20] floundering right now trying to figure out its purpose because it's never really evolved into what

[2:16:26] the, the bylaws' purpose work for. They wanted it as a 501 or whatever for donations and

[2:16:34] And business doesn't need to donate to a, you know, it never, it never was what they wanted

[2:16:41] it to be.

[2:16:43] And so, yeah, it's not going to understand that it's tough, you know, what is their purpose?

[2:16:48] Right.

[2:16:48] And I'm not sure the department is in a position to dissolve that yet, you know, maybe maybe

[2:16:55] down the road, we decide that that's what it is, because we don't need a 501c3 to get

[2:17:02] sponsorships or donations.

[2:17:04] You need to communication now.

[2:17:05] Yes, you need the communication.

[2:17:08] So that meeting is an opportunity for me

[2:17:10] to talk with all the presidents and one location in your right.

[2:17:13] It's hard to get them there.

[2:17:14] We ask more and more of these volunteers.

[2:17:18] And they've got busy lives.

[2:17:19] They work full-time jobs too.

[2:17:21] They've got kids getting to them from practices.

[2:17:24] So they may not be coming because they're coaching.

[2:17:27] They're out running a basketball program

[2:17:31] or a soccer program. So that information one, you know, they get the minutes if they read

[2:17:36] the minutes and then they also get an email recap. So we are relying on that information

[2:17:42] going to the president's and the president's or the full-time staff person getting that information

[2:17:50] at rep council meetings. But the problem with the rep council meetings is that and not everybody

[2:17:54] shows up to the rep council meetings. So trying to get the information down to the coordinators can

[2:18:00] They come very, very difficult.

[2:18:04] Ted, I believe you may want to add something.

[2:18:07] Yeah, I'm watching on time delay.

[2:18:09] So you already moved on before I got there.

[2:18:11] Oh, that's right.

[2:18:11] You're going to go back to Mr. Colley.

[2:18:13] We was talking about, back in part, having a place on a school design committee, and do

[2:18:18] we build extra gems or larger gems.

[2:18:20] Just wanted to point out, I imagine the school system would be happy to have them on

[2:18:24] the committee.

[2:18:26] But, unless the board is going to commit funding for those things that has no meaning,

[2:18:33] I mean the state is almost certainly not going to participate because we want a larger

[2:18:36] GM or an extra GM, now we do have some history, back when we were building more schools,

[2:18:43] we did build some schools with larger GMs than would come as a standard, and with liberty,

[2:18:51] If the board said we want a second gym, I think the order of things would really have to be

[2:18:59] the board saying we want a second gym in that school and we're willing to pay for it,

[2:19:04] and then they can deal with that in designing the school.

[2:19:10] So if that's a path the board wants, there just needs to be some conversation here about

[2:19:15] how much are we willing to pay in order to get what.

[2:19:18] And I don't think we should pay, we pay for everything they do anyway.

[2:19:27] They need two gyms and they need to serve the community as well as their stuff.

[2:19:32] And that was another question I have on your advisory board years ago when I was on it,

[2:19:40] the Care County Public School rep never, ever missed.

[2:19:43] and I used to pick on him, you know, we're term-limited and you're on here as long as you got

[2:19:49] to job.

[2:19:50] But they would come and that discussion would happen at the advisory board, you know, and I just,

[2:19:58] I personally think we...

[2:20:00] We ought to have input into their buildings, and they weren't like it. But they use our money anyway. So I don't know why we'd pay for something else. And man, valley, and I told them that, that has a big wide hallway that's beautiful, shandalier that's beautiful, a curving, but they couldn't afford another gym.

[2:20:21] I'd have struggle, I'd struggle hard giving that money for a gym when they trying to think

[2:20:30] of a good word, squander money, other places.

[2:20:34] You know what I mean?

[2:20:36] I appreciate what you're saying, you know, it's always, we get more respect when we throw

[2:20:42] money.

[2:20:43] Well, and I think it's a good conversation to have because again, as economies of scale,

[2:20:48] And the times that we have, and I don't remember how that all worked, I remember making the full size gems in some of the schools.

[2:20:53] That was a brilliant idea, because you can elementary school gyms, some of those free to elementary, and you hit the walls.

[2:21:01] But, you know, I think all the middle school gyms we made larger, I think some of the new elementary schools were made larger.

[2:21:06] And that's a smart investment for the amount of money that it costs.

[2:21:08] So we should have a conversation with them, ask them, I know my daughter teaches in another county, but she teaches special education, physical education.

[2:21:16] And there's a few of the schools that don't have an extra gem and she's got kids in wheelchairs and she's guys kids are autistic

[2:21:22] And it's hard because they're in the general population and she's she was she was telling me we need to have extra space

[2:21:28] For that population has not been mainstream. I don't know about Carol County how they do it

[2:21:32] But that was coming from you know

[2:21:34] Somebody was advocating for it no matter where we do it

[2:21:37] But how do we get involved in just it would be crazy not to at least look into what it would cost and what it would be a joint it's their kids

[2:21:45] So, I mean, just because they're in school in the daytime, it's the same kids that are playing ball.

[2:21:49] So, we're all in this together, so I hope that they would consider, and then we figure out who's with the cost of arm, who's going to pay for what and him.

[2:21:56] So, in Frederick County, there was a, what's called a park school facilities, and it's on a new elementary school was going to be built.

[2:22:05] were back in parks was included on it to see if they wanted to go ahead and put in a community

[2:22:10] room. I increased the size of the gym, I think a meeting room had restrooms, had their

[2:22:15] own entrance, so they had to go through the regular special school. When I left there, over three

[2:22:21] years ago they were just finishing one, ever think in the middle town area and it was like a

[2:22:27] million and a half extra and it did come out of the parks and wreck budget. I'll tell you what,

[2:22:35] so how do we get on that conversation can we contact them to say we'd like to have a

[2:22:39] seated and we had that in the 90s. Ebb Valley was supposed to get the larger gem,

[2:22:46] a rec office and the letting the springs did and then it kind of went out of the budget.

[2:22:53] It was in the advisory boards capital budget and I forget 800,000.

[2:22:58] And it could be, I'm not saying that's for sure but when we did Ebb Valley, the enrollment went

[2:23:03] the enrollment he'd gone down and we didn't get very much state participation, so it's

[2:23:07] possible that it was done. I can't remember it's a long time ago, but I know that school

[2:23:10] had need and then it dropped and we barely got any state participation in it, so it's

[2:23:15] a possibility county commissioners might have said, hey, we're putting in more than we were

[2:23:19] supposed to, so it's possible. So I think it's something we should be trying to, if you could

[2:23:27] just get in touch with them, ask if we could have a seat of it, and then think we've got

[2:23:30] justified and quantified, and I totally I think it would be great, but even for the little

[2:23:36] extra space for the coordinator or then I figured help the school out somehow.

[2:23:41] Yeah, the spaces from Frederick County came with an office in there too.

[2:23:44] Well, I just see how it would benefit us.

[2:23:47] Baltimore County had a key.

[2:23:49] I guess Frederick County you did too.

[2:23:52] Yeah, Frederick County had to be careful because we couldn't.

[2:23:54] Yeah, I wouldn't blame enough.

[2:23:55] We couldn't have been in that separate space during school time.

[2:23:58] Yes.

[2:23:59] But after hours, then we had the badge on lock and go in there.

[2:24:04] I want to make sure to commissioner Garen and commissioner Gordon things.

[2:24:07] I know I think they both have something that they wanted to mention or ask.

[2:24:10] Commissioner Gordon.

[2:24:11] I just have one really brief question, which you can, if you could supply this later,

[2:24:17] I think it'd be ideal for the five of us.

[2:24:20] So under the field inventory conditions,

[2:24:22] you may, it lists good fare, poor, non-usable.

[2:24:24] You already mentioned non-usable can be for a variety of reasons.

[2:24:27] could we get definitions that as to what actually

[2:24:30] it's not in to those, well, not just not usable, but

[2:24:33] what is good versus fair.

[2:24:35] I mean, we can all make an assumption,

[2:24:37] but I'd like to actually see what those specific categories

[2:24:39] and what falls into that criteria if we could.

[2:24:42] When you have a second.

[2:24:44] Can you share anything?

[2:24:46] Yeah, to that note,

[2:24:47] if do we have this electronically as well,

[2:24:49] if not can we get a copy of this?

[2:24:51] I can send it to you electronically.

[2:24:52] That'd be great.

[2:24:53] Thank you.

[2:24:53] and also really appreciate the discussion about the construction piece.

[2:25:00] Now, you have to ask yourself, well, we're already giving a money, so why it shouldn't be that hard to at least start the conversation about additional space when we are building new schools and we're only doing that right now at liberty.

[2:25:11] If I can remember correctly, it's just liberty high school, and that's just starting out. So that'll be down the road, but, you know, it's not going to solve some of our, our, our issues right now.

[2:25:21] I feel like this is, I appreciate both of you. This is a conversation, I think that's in a long time coming.

[2:25:28] There's so many variables with reconciles.

[2:25:31] I mean, so many variables you're talking about light.

[2:25:34] You're talking about parking.

[2:25:35] You're talking about fields that it may be fair one day,

[2:25:39] but if you use it too much under the wrong conditions,

[2:25:41] now it's poor.

[2:25:42] If you upgrade a field and make it perfect,

[2:25:44] it won't stay that way because it gets used too much.

[2:25:46] So I mean, there's so many variables for,

[2:25:49] and I've lived through this in my district,

[2:25:51] working with the various reconciles.

[2:25:53] It's been challenging.

[2:25:54] I think it's fair to say that in the southern part of the county, the perception of

[2:25:59] leases that we've got a, we've got a minute, we could use more space, we could use

[2:26:04] more space in stores and outdoors.

[2:26:07] And the subcommittee looking at the indoor spaces, if I can say this, I think that actually

[2:26:14] was born out of a situation down in Mount Area regarding Paris Ridge and basketball and it

[2:26:20] It was important to get a group going so I appreciated tons of emails on this subject

[2:26:27] two years ago.

[2:26:28] Very few last years.

[2:26:29] So something's working, but I'm sure there's always room for improvements.

[2:26:33] I'm working together.

[2:26:34] Working together.

[2:26:35] There you go.

[2:26:35] I really appreciate that.

[2:26:37] That's a big deal.

[2:26:39] But what I want to focus on, and I think what we want to try to wrap up doing is we've got

[2:26:43] this $5 million.

[2:26:44] We've got this report.

[2:26:46] We've got a very capable and my view of a very capable advisory board that is willing

[2:26:50] to get involved and take a look at all this information to try to figure out where we want

[2:26:54] to use this money. I think we need to establish some criteria for what we do want to

[2:26:59] improve. In other words, you could improve a field from poor to great. But again, if it gets

[2:27:05] overused, it's poor again. I think we need to focus on whatever force multipliers we can establish.

[2:27:12] In other words, if there's a field that's not usable at all, or it's just really poor. Maybe

[2:27:18] that's a place where we need to look to spend this money because now you're adding

[2:27:22] an additional field as opposed to just upgrading one from you know poor to fair which I

[2:27:27] think is also something we need to take a look at. So if I'm not mistaken that's kind of

[2:27:31] what you're looking for from this board and I just happen to feel that the advisory board

[2:27:38] is the perfect place for them to start taking a look at these fields the money that we have

[2:27:47] spend and I think it's important that we spend it before it loses more and more value

[2:27:53] because we know how that's working with inflation. So I'd like us to focus on criteria,

[2:27:59] I don't know if we can all come to a consensus on that today, but I think that's where

[2:28:03] where we need to be moving forward. So Commissioner Garron and so you're saying the five million

[2:28:10] should be evaluated by the advisory council, also, but what about we specifically gave enough money, I think, to do the third phase of that part.

[2:28:25] Should that go through them too or, you know, should they have everything?

[2:28:30] Well, I think it's fair to say that. I mean, so you're talking about Crim Gold Park phase three money.

[2:28:35] We, that's a separate amount of money.

[2:28:37] This money for fields.

[2:28:38] Specifically for that.

[2:28:39] They can't change that, but should they?

[2:28:42] There is a framework for phase three, which already existed.

[2:28:47] It's a master plan.

[2:28:49] So, and I mean, of course, like I would imagine that probably gets shared with the

[2:28:52] advisory council.

[2:28:53] Some point of it hasn't, I'm sure it already has or it will, but I don't think there's

[2:28:57] much question as to what phase three will involve, but if we need to tweak and change

[2:29:02] things, certainly.

[2:29:03] or they can speed it up.

[2:29:05] Exactly. I mean, that's why I think the advisory board and you know, you're very familiar with

[2:29:09] the advisory board. I was on it.

[2:29:11] And you were on it and people are willing to put in the time and effort to, you know, in terms

[2:29:16] of the five million and trying to make some tangible improvements to, you know, whatever feels

[2:29:24] fall within that criteria. I think the advisory board is a great place to start. And they've

[2:29:28] got a lot of information now. They've got this packet. They've got this. I think that I just

[2:29:32] to be careful. I just wanted to be careful that we don't get in the weeds too much on this

[2:29:37] because again there are so many variables. The biggest one being regional availability,

[2:29:43] North Carol may have a bunch of empty fields but nobody's going from Mount Harry to North Carol to

[2:29:47] use a field. We're paying for fields. You're paying for fields. So, we're paying at Panther Plex,

[2:29:53] we're paying at the other copper mine facility for both fields and indoor. So, but my point being

[2:30:00] Even if there's a field available someplace, you know, you can't expect parents to get in a car and drive for an hour or so. Now, it's just, there's so many variables. So I think we need to be careful.

[2:30:09] But that's a good point. The electronic system does that help with that. Can I, if I'm the soccer coach at North Carroll, can I look at Westminster, can I look at?

[2:30:19] Absolutely, you can look at it.

[2:30:21] Yeah, you can.

[2:30:22] Yeah, so, so, yeah, hopefully they'd say, wow, there's a field 20 minutes away, not an hour.

[2:30:29] Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.

[2:30:30] So it's not easy.

[2:30:32] It's not an easy thing for us to try to fix,

[2:30:34] but I'm glad we took the actions we did in this last budget.

[2:30:38] I don't know, when the last board accounting commissioners

[2:30:41] did something like that, but we did it, and we did it in a big way.

[2:30:44] We allocated a lot of money to try to fix this problem.

[2:30:50] And I'm glad we're here where we are,

[2:30:51] but I just want to make sure we're given

[2:30:53] wrecking parks and everybody the some guidance that we're doing.

[2:30:58] And I think if I'm sorry, Commissioner Geron, I think you have a point there, you know, and I think we're going to get to it today, but my suggestion for everybody would be these criteria about what we're looking for.

[2:31:09] We emailed to bombingly so they can compile them and then once they have a list, we can discuss it in the next open session that we have.

[2:31:16] And determine that you know, that's the list that we want to move forward with, so I think that was a sound idea that you had.

[2:31:22] I was just going to mention for Kremlin while you're on it.

[2:31:25] It might be better for the people that you're going to use Kremlin all down there.

[2:31:29] They might want to relook at the plan and just see, sort of, sign off on it or see if there's

[2:31:34] things that have changed.

[2:31:36] The people that are actually going to be using it, whether they're needs changed, you know,

[2:31:40] you're, um, Jordan.

[2:31:41] Yeah, that's probably an evolving discussion and we've had, we've had meetings and if there's

[2:31:45] any changes that we need to make, we can certainly do that because I think it's still early

[2:31:50] enough.

[2:31:50] But I do want to get started.

[2:31:51] You want to make sure that, just because it's a ten-year-old plan

[2:31:53] that this is still what their needs are.

[2:31:55] And I'm just looking at Hodges Park.

[2:31:57] I'd also ask that group.

[2:31:59] I word over that I'd never been there before.

[2:32:01] Live there.

[2:32:01] I walk by forever.

[2:32:02] I knew, never drove back.

[2:32:03] It's a mess.

[2:32:04] You could have a picture over right here.

[2:32:06] So on some of these, like, if that was filled in years ago

[2:32:08] and took a bunch of money, if it's going to cost so much money,

[2:32:12] the question is, is it worth it to do it there?

[2:32:14] Or should you try to, if there's somewhere else?

[2:32:18] I've been on, I've tried, I talked to the state.

[2:32:20] I had a call with their people for a Springfield

[2:32:24] other, see if anything was relevant with the hospital.

[2:32:27] They've done a major tree planting thing down there

[2:32:29] for hundreds of acres, so they put nice trees

[2:32:32] but they're taking up a lot of space.

[2:32:33] The only other space is possibly available

[2:32:35] and I haven't had time to ask the Red Council to go look,

[2:32:38] is there something around Freedom Park

[2:32:39] that is behind it that they saw the state owns

[2:32:42] that could be connected to it?

[2:32:44] So just bring that up,

[2:32:46] because again, I'd like to see more things right

[2:32:49] around where they already there so you can just add a little road and you've got parking

[2:32:52] and you've got some, you've got some things they're already.

[2:32:54] So if indeed, you know, if something is already poor and it maybe isn't the best place

[2:33:01] to do it because it, like Hodges Park makes sync again, it might be the best place to dump

[2:33:05] the money.

[2:33:05] If there's nowhere else, maybe that's what you've got to do, but don't just do it because

[2:33:08] it's there.

[2:33:09] You know, look, look for maybe other opportunities that might be more long-term, efficient

[2:33:16] And asked to even read them get guys to go.

[2:33:19] I've tried to look at Google Maps, but I've lost my

[2:33:22] tension span for it.

[2:33:23] I've had the conversation with the state.

[2:33:25] There's a few things possible down there,

[2:33:27] but not actually on the Springfield side.

[2:33:29] Unless the veterans thing doesn't go through,

[2:33:32] but we're praying that that goes through.

[2:33:33] So don't want to touch that for another 10 years.

[2:33:35] But you understand what I'm saying.

[2:33:37] I noticed there's a couple other fields in here that are poor.

[2:33:39] And they're not used.

[2:33:41] And if they're not used, or they're not used because they're poor,

[2:33:43] or they're not using them, just because they don't need them.

[2:33:46] Yeah, Hodges Park is a unique one because of the, like I said,

[2:33:49] that was a previous landfills.

[2:33:50] No, I'm just saying don't just feel like they're on their keeps on

[2:33:53] sinking and it might not be worth it.

[2:33:55] We could put solar, if it doesn't work,

[2:33:57] maybe put solar, pardon me.

[2:33:58] Yeah, the freedom does use quite a bit of it.

[2:34:00] And they do, they don't have to come with that.

[2:34:02] And to your point, Commissioner Krebs, when that list was put together,

[2:34:07] we did not go out to the Red Councils and ask,

[2:34:09] is this what you think is a priority for you?

[2:34:11] And I think that piece is missing.

[2:34:14] And the other thing is, in the long term, I know in Latin

[2:34:18] Canada, we're on a grand art place.

[2:34:20] Every of the, everyone in the high schools have beautiful

[2:34:22] for tough fields.

[2:34:23] My grand art is seven.

[2:34:24] She said she'd never play a grass again, like, but they use

[2:34:27] those all weekend and the little kids play sideways.

[2:34:29] And they have just taped the goes on the ground.

[2:34:31] So they have four games at a time.

[2:34:34] And so it's used constantly by the community.

[2:34:38] So I don't know if there's a long term plan,

[2:34:39] the school system sort of valued that number of years ago.

[2:34:43] But it's something to think about because we do overused these fields and then we put lights on.

[2:34:47] I mean you put lights on fields, they're going to be overused because they're grass.

[2:34:50] They're never rested.

[2:34:52] And so putting lights on a turf field at a high school where they could be using it.

[2:34:55] And then the community could use it on the weekends.

[2:34:57] It's just a conversation.

[2:34:59] Might...

[2:35:00] We need to come up again to have them regionally. And then have to be a plan for that.

[2:35:05] All right. Well, thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. We will get you the emails with the criteria that we think might be considered. And we'll talk about it again in an open.

[2:35:11] Not next week, though, big. Thank you. It's not all of us will be here next week.

[2:35:15] That's correct.

[2:35:16] The following.

[2:35:17] Yeah. Next week. Right.

[2:35:19] The next week. That will be.

[2:35:20] Right.

[2:35:21] Okay. So we will not schedule it for next week.

[2:35:23] Okay.

[2:35:24] All right.

[2:35:25] Thank you. Thank you very much.

[2:35:26] Thank you.

[2:35:28] All right. Thank you.

[2:35:28] Thank you.

[2:35:29] All right, unless you will move into the public comment portion of hour. I probably have more questions

[2:35:34] I have to answer

[2:35:38] And I will email you about him still lines

[2:35:42] We'd like to hear back from with the rent councils. That's about all this and what do they seeing this yet?

[2:35:46] What's that?

[2:35:47] They seeing this down.

[2:35:48] They will, but see, they will

[2:35:50] Because we got to get this group going with you guys.

[2:35:55] So we've got right for that, I think, well, I say, I see we, I think Rick and Park says a plan for that.

[2:36:03] Deb, do we have anybody here for public comments?

[2:36:05] We do not.

[2:36:06] Matt, do we have anybody on the line for public comment?

[2:36:10] No, sir, we do not.

[2:36:11] All right, thank you very much.

[2:36:12] We'll now move into the admin open section of the agenda.

[2:36:14] Does anybody have anything today for admin open?

[2:36:18] All right, hearing none.

[2:36:19] need a motion to approve the closed minutes for cyber security from August 27, 2026.

[2:36:26] We have a motion to be the second.

[2:36:29] We have a motion to be the second.

[2:36:30] Is there any discussion?

[2:36:32] Here are none all those in favor?

[2:36:34] Aye.

[2:36:34] All those opposed?

[2:36:36] Motion carries unanimously.

[2:36:38] We will now move into agenda review.

[2:36:44] Good morning.

[2:36:45] One to how are you?

[2:36:49] All right.

[2:36:50] It's a first up agenda review for the week of Monday, September 7.

[2:36:53] Monday, September 7th, county offices will be closed in observance of Labor Day.

[2:36:58] Tuesday, September 8th, 10 o'clock a.m. Board of County Commissioners open session, which

[2:37:03] is a work session for retirement zone and codes. There will be no public comment at that,

[2:37:07] but everybody who is interested in streaming or attending is welcome to do so.

[2:37:12] For clock PM, Chamber of Commerce, Leadership at Vest, I'm sorry, Leadership Carol PM Connections,

[2:37:18] class of 2027 Reception at Best Western and West

[2:37:21] Minister.

[2:37:22] And then at 7 o'clock PM,

[2:37:23] Egg Center Board Meeting at the Egg Center

[2:37:25] and West Minister.

[2:37:26] Once they September 9th, Farm Museum Board Meeting,

[2:37:29] I will be attending that.

[2:37:31] Thursday, September 10th, 8 o'clock AM Board of County

[2:37:33] Commissioners closed administrative file by

[2:37:35] open at 9 o'clock.

[2:37:37] Item number one priority, Carol.

[2:37:39] Item number two, contracted word for

[2:37:41] courthouse annexation envelope.

[2:37:44] Envelope.

[2:37:44] Ruth window replacement.

[2:37:46] Item number three contract renewal for geographic information system software maintenance and support.

[2:37:52] Item number four, spending authority for Chesapeake Employers Insurance for Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association.

[2:37:58] Followed by public comment, add men to open agenda review.

[2:38:02] At 5 o'clock PM, the MML Quarterly Dinner for the City of Westminster Commissioners Kyler and Krebs will be attending.

[2:38:07] And then Friday, September 11th, 2026-830 AM,

[2:38:11] The 911 commemoration ceremony 25th anniversary commemoration ceremony at the public safety training center here in Westminster, and

[2:38:20] No worries the commissioner's Gordon Kyler and myself will be attending

[2:38:28] And I can get information if somebody's interested at dinner the other night a guy invited me to upper coves

[2:38:38] thing and touring the new building down there and that's in the evening because I told him I can't do it in the morning.

[2:38:45] He goes and I'll forward everybody when I get it. It's in the evening they'd love to have us.

[2:38:51] You mean fire department? Is that what you have?

[2:38:54] Thank you very much, Commissioner. Thank you.

[2:38:56] All right, Saturday's September 12th. She was nothing on the formal calendar. Sunday, September 13th.

[2:39:01] Commissioner Tyler has the podcast. Does anybody have any corrections or alterations for the first week of our agenda?

[2:39:07] All right, here and none, I'll move into the second week of our agenda, the week of Monday,

[2:39:12] September 14th.

[2:39:14] Monday, September 14th, re-clock PM transit advisory council with Commissioner Kyler.

[2:39:19] Tuesday, September 15th, 9 o'clock AM, planning and zoning commission with Commissioner

[2:39:23] Gordon.

[2:39:24] 12 o'clock PM, former students and friends of Robert Moton High School lunchbox talk at the

[2:39:29] Historical Society with Commissioner's Gordon and Kyler.

[2:39:31] Also, 12 o'clock PM, the judging of Carroll County Arts Council exhibits for commissioners

[2:39:37] to a support.

[2:39:38] I will be attending that and then also at 2 o'clock PM, the Veterans Advisory Meeting

[2:39:44] with Commissioners Gordon and Kyler.

[2:39:46] Wednesday, September 16th, 2026, I don't know what I'm reading the year.

[2:39:50] Wednesday, September 16th, M.D. consolidated transportation program tour, all of us are

[2:39:59] County.

[2:40:00] Community College Board of Trustees meeting with Commissioner Kyler, and at 7 o'clock PM, emergency services advisory council with Commissioner Garron.

[2:40:07] There is a September 17th, 8 o'clock AM Board of Commissioners closed to admin filed by open at 9 o'clock AM.

[2:40:14] Item 1 priority, Carol, and the aging your way expo, I guess that will be a presentation on the pending aging your way expo.

[2:40:21] Item 2, approval of resolution for consideration of bond, bond authorizing resolution.

[2:40:27] Item number 3, text amendment for chapter 158, cluster subdivision, item number 4, text amendments for chapters 155, 156 and 158, accessory dwelling units, item number 5, text amendments for chapters 91, 155 and 158 for age restricted housing, item number 6 request request approval for bylaws for veterans advisory council and commission on aging and disabilities, item number 7 approval of bylaw revisions for the emergency services advisory council.

[2:40:57] followed by public comments, administrative session open, and agenda review.

[2:41:01] At three o'clock PM, the James D. Ball athletic complex kick-off celebration at the Community College with Commissioner

[2:41:07] Kyler. Friday, September 8. Yes. At 6 p.m. from 6 to 7, that is the Arts Council actually giving

[2:41:17] Commissioner Award that we all judged. I want to try to make it there but at the community college there's two games following the thing so I'll put me put that down and put put me down for that.

[2:41:37] What would what day is that? Thursday the 17th. Thursday the 17th.

[2:41:42] All right, and I've got it on there, okay, so I've got it on my calendar, so yes, I'm going to go to the

[2:41:52] committee college thing, and then I'll probably go to the Arts Council, so it's already up here.

[2:41:58] And Wanda, if you could add me to both of those as well.

[2:42:01] Thank you.

[2:42:06] Thank you everybody.

[2:42:07] And Friday, September 18, the 1230 PM, the Manchester Fire Department,

[2:42:12] She's crab feast and then Saturday, September 19th, she was nothing on the formal calendar

[2:42:19] and Sunday, September 20th, Commissioner Gordon has the podcast.

[2:42:23] Are there any other additions, corrections or alterations to the second week of our agenda?

[2:42:27] The man just, they're far apart, men's crab feast, can't be that day.

[2:42:36] I'll have to look at what the data is.

[2:42:39] I'm not here, so I definitely won't be there.

[2:42:42] But I don't think it's that day, but let me double check.

[2:42:48] I know I have those emails.

[2:42:49] So that'll be pending then for the chiefs crab feast.

[2:42:55] Does anybody have any other alterations or corrections for that week?

[2:43:00] Art here and none, I need a motion to go into closed for land acquisition

[2:43:03] and then to adjourn thereafter.

[2:43:05] So move.

[2:43:06] Be the motion we have a second.

[2:43:07] Second.

[2:43:08] Be the motion we have a second.

[2:43:09] All those in favor?

[2:43:10] All right.

[2:43:11] All those opposed?

[2:43:13] All right.

Board of County Commissioners Open Session

Agenda

Transcript