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okay all right call me or this is the
May 2024 work/ the mar city council for
the city of Rossburg roll call in your
ring Elizabeth commissioner Donnie
Carter here commissioner Nina forsight
here commissioner Kevin Grove here
Commissioner Adam Richie here and mayor
Robert flan again
here okay the first item we have to
discuss with you tonight is is the
budget Elaine has presented this to you
in the past but she'll talk to you a
little bit about it again here tonight
no major changes since last month but
the public hearing as
required um will be next Tuesday and
that's been
advertised so we have not made any
changes the budget ordinance and the fee
schedule that we discussed last month
would be presented in its entirety again
at your council meeting next week have a
public hearing and then the vote so if
you have any recommended changes that
you not brought to my attention sooner
please let me know so we can prepare
those revisions but
otherwise as we discuss
class on my way down here I was thinking
about the
budget and how you know most of our
budgetary money other than like grants
and stuff comes from city taxes and
money and the reason we're spending it
is for the people and I really like the
way that you and the rest of the staff
are conscientious
about getting the best quality without
overcharging and that that balance is
you it just seems like all really worked
very well to serve you know City
residents in most fiscally responsible
way you know also Forward Thinking not
just the cheapest thing now but you know
planning for the future so
congratulations well thank
you
that we are it you know a lot of you
know the state and the
county it's both been very public that
they've faced their fiscal challenges
this current year so um it feels really
good to come to you with a balanced
budget that will continue operations as
normal without any cuts increases in
taxes
so continuing to provide as best of
level of service as we can
yes everybody good yeah all
right next Lydia and Hayden I guess will
talk about that we have to have a public
hearing as required to apply to
cdbg
so they want to chat about their
intentions for that
application uh yeah basically just for
the sake of submitting the application
for the cdpg funding which is everything
we talked about at PACE this year um we
have to do a public uh hearing about it
so U it's almost just an ID copy of um
what we talked about at PACE it would be
the North Grant and Center extended
projects um both just fairly small
postage stamp sized um sewer separation
projects the typical ones we do we would
if we have to get in there move water do
that um there will be some sidewalks and
some pavement that gets done because of
it um but ultimately uh this this CSO
project both of them separate will
benefit all of Frostburg so it benefits
all of the different um socioeconomic
backgrounds in Frostburg because what
starts at one end of the Town creeps
down to the other
um so it's just it's kind of a boon for
everybody involved because it keeps our
sewage treatment costs Down For What
Cumberland builds the count the county
builds um everything ultimately makes it
way to right Crossing or to over the
edge of the Hill there through eer so
what we what we can reduce ends up
saving everyone in froster money so I
don't know if there's anything you want
to add about it just in addition to the
public hearing we'll uh need a
resolution of your support for
application of up to the $800,000
allowance and I'll give sort of a brief
quick snippet sort of like I just did
there next week okay all right the the
North Grand are we going to get rid of
all the stone up
there we're have to tie it off to
something yeah we actually Ray and I
were talking about that that we have to
make some we're gonna have to do some
elevation work but we're gonna we're
gonna make it work so yeah I'm excited
to get that one done those cobblestones
provideed traction or bread
now it's just going to be
like um probably yeah I mean it's it's
if we have a place to put them which we
should up behind the water treatment
plant um because we end up using a lot
of that stuff for um in different places
around town for the artistic uh
curbstones that we have to put back in
certain places so we end up looking for
those at least once a year so it would
be nice to have
yeah questions good okay if you need to
take
off Good Luck get kids
okay sorry I have like really the wrong
thing up right
now I'm a year behind
times I don't know how that happened
but
okay
um the
submitted their annual uh request to
appeal repeal the open container law for
Derby Day uh they're planning on having
day on Thursday July 4th not Saturday uh
Thursday July 4th but then the rain date
would be Saturday July
6th so there's any concerns with that
commissioner Chief worked out in the
past okay so that would be a resolution
at your council meeting as well okay
um Lydia is with us tonight to talk
about
arpa um we're winding down we're at um
just over seven months to obligate all
of the 8.4 million that the city has
received in arpa
funding and um there's a few well
there's a project l wants to talk to you
about and just kind of go over where
things Li lie and um kind of our plan
moving forward so I'll turn it over to
Lydia and
then so I passed around uh where we're
at with the funding everything in the
orange on the top right is not obligated
they're just for General projects so
anything that came up with Public Works
sewer um my recommendation would be to
kind of stop with the spending in that
category to see where um um the Gateway
comes in and and then we have things
planned for purchases Capital purchases
that we could make to to use that money
but maybe just wait off until we hear
about the Gateway um so that equals that
460 amount currently what we haven't
earmarked for anything is the 30 almost
54,000 so we have around 814,000 not
obligated to any projects currently so
the one I wanted to talk to you guys
about today today uh is a playground
equipment at Glen Denning it was
installed in
2003 whenever the rec complex was being
worked on um the structure then was
$113,000
we applied for POS and Community parks
and playground funding for the cost of
the playground um we didn't get the
community parks and playground funding
we did receive POS funding but we had to
reallocate a portion of that that we
were going to use for the playground for
the pickle ball courts whenever we
decided to move forward with that so we
talked with Brandon with game time they
have a grant program that'll match 50%
or 100% whatever we put in for
playground equipment that's in September
and he's just looking for a budget to
kind of start working with a design for
that
playground he
that well I guess with that and
considering the installation cost we're
looking at needing
$200,000 since we didn't get the CPP
funding uh we've already removed the two
to fivey Old play area because it's
deteriorated we've removed several
slides and and stairways on the larger
and the 200 would get us um what we
equivalent to what we have with keeping
the swing set so just looking to see you
guys has had any other
questions another thing you know the
restrooms are not in great shape up
there either upside the playground yes
so I did fail to mention that I did talk
to uh commissioner Richie about the
restrooms I went up took some pictures
did uh an estimate to update them it
cost about
$7,000 um and I think that the 200,000
are bu we would be able to allocate the
some of the POS money that we had
towards the playground if we got 200 of
our um playground equipment is very
expensive man the the lucrative State
funding years seem to be not there in
the near future at least and um I think
L Denning that playground in particular
is probably the most popular playground
in town um having that age children I am
Fielding a lot of question what happened
to the little place you know so um I
think Brian has a sign up there saying
improvements are
coming um and did a Facebook post
but it does seem like a lot of money you
can buy a lot for 200,000 but there's a
lot of liability that the playground
companies have to ensure and safety
measures and so forth and so on so um we
felt this was a good investment of arle
money um and just
is something that a lot of your
residents care
about get a lot of good use there's
always a lot of lot of kids up there all
the time it's us I get the bathrooms
dressed up and get some new playground
stuff very
nice any other questions okay so that
would
be um a resolution then to allocate that
money all funding to the playground
equipment obviously it wouldn't be the
bit award yet but um we would just take
care of that or of a resolution what all
needs to be done to the
bathroom in particular the partitions
are rested so that's uh we just did a
restroom that's about $3,200 for
partitions um the toilets are all right
we need new urals faucets s dispensers
350 for paint floor ceiling um the door
frame restroom signs I have a category
for miscellaneous but the one of the big
expenses is those bathrooms are on a MAG
lock and someone tried to pry open the
one of the
doors um whenever it was after it was
locked and it bent the frame so that's
about $1,500 to $1,800 just to replace
the one
door you can see the damage on but the
ceiling was updated in the last two
years and there's new LED lights
fixtures and I think we'll be able to
use all the the toilets so I think 7,000
would cover up with us doing the
installation thank um another one so we
have the salt facility at
alternate and that was as part we have
the number on that because that was part
of the bid um not ready to make a
recommendation to move forward with that
or not um the fire
department uh came to us with a couple
months ago and just wanted to put it on
your radar I told him again this would
be something that we would wait till um
we had a clear picture of these bigger
projects and other needs of the city um
is replacing their like change copy sign
at the fire department with an
electronic um LED changeable message
electronic messaging center is what we
call them um
and then they said you know if the city
would fund that the city would have
access so like there was an emergency
you know we could kind of overtake it
and put messages out on it as well um
but then you know it could be a revenue
source for them like they had in the
past just managing that change copy sign
is kind of a lot yeah they they had
already also said that we could put our
our events if the city was having an
event sure that we could use that sign
and advertise that event good so yeah we
have they have gotten some Bas some
basic information on that and talked
about it so that's a potential um
project there's some big ticket items
that like if by some miracle that
Gateway project the roundabout project
comes in as expected and within the
grant funding um we could use a new
street sweeper that's probably
$150,000 right there so um there's a lot
of things that I know the outside
departments have identified as wants not
needs but it could be a good way to
upgrade equipment that we have or get
new equipment that we don't have to make
sure we're taking advantage of spending
everyone every last one of those dollars
so
but kind of holding tight um a little
bit I mean it was really good news where
the parking lot construction came in it
and but
the Gateway is kind of still what has me
nervous I'd hate to be $300,000 short
and just blown
$300,000 on a new plow truck you know
something not blown
but it would that'd be hard hold that
back as long as we can yeah yeah so and
as long as it's ordered
obligated by December 31st we're okay
so we should have a clear picture about
it yes I did want to add that the grant
for the playground is in September so if
we wouldn't end up needing all of that
we would know by September so we can
reallocate and then all the projects
that I removed um from the top of the
list and represented as completed
projects amount they're all on the city
website under Administration if you'd
like to read the synopsis of what we've
done
okay those AR programs certainly have
come in handy they've really helped a
lot immensely once in a
lifetime um there's a few other things
uh that I just wanted to touch base on
um many thanks to Lydia for doing so i'
I've told some of the team here that
sometimes it's the smallest projects
that are the hardest projects and the
church sign at the intersection of 36
and 40 Lydia did the large part of a
coordination with the churches as well
as the sign company I got an immense
positive feedback on Facebook um so it
looks good so thank you
viia um congratulations to everyone uh
but the city won the Maryland Rural
Water Water System of the year um award
last week at the Maryland Rural Water
conference
and some of us were on the front page of
the paper so that was good PR but um I
think more importantly just the the
recognition for what the city's done
over the past 30 to 40 years with
building the water system and then um
supporting our neighbors to the south in
their time of need
so plus the gold and it's an award the
optim you know what it's called yeah
there's that word but it's we've met all
three metrics uh that the EPA wants us
to achieve in terms of source water
protection of our of our Sur I'm sorry
of our surface water so taking measures
to eliminate the presence of
cryptosporidium in our water supply so
we were only one of four rural
jurisdictions in Maryland to receive
that
so we did not win the taste of the tap
award which means we have the best water
but we're competing with wellwater
communities like it's just not it's not
Apples to
Apples tastes
very and then lastly um between this
week between right now and next Tuesday
we're going to be migrating to new um
meeting online meeting software so we
will no longer be using this I Compass
product product we're actually migrating
to the Civic plus product so it will be
better integrated with our
website
um and we'll the live stream um people
will have to go directly to the YouTube
page to find the live stream that'll be
the probably the biggest change but this
is about a 50% cost savings and annual
subscription so between the cost savings
and the better integration with the
website um we thought it was the most
prudent move so um Jamie on Bethany's
staff has kind of taken the lead with
Bethany and I doing a little bit um but
many many thanks to Jamie for leading
that and uh so we'll be getting
everything switched over and so going
forward for people looking for the
meeting if they would have this I
Compass the Frostburg City whatever this
Frostburg city. Civic web bookmarked
they would just need to go to Frostburg
city.org
and then go to the meetings there so
it'll be more similar to like the
counties and cumberland's meeting
software
so um but hopefully I mean and your
agenda will look different in terms of
font and layout but the content will
remain the same so but just wanted to
give you a heads up on
that that's all I have but I'd like to
turn it over to you all to answer or
address anything of
concern all right very good thank you
all very much have a good evening