Alright, we're gonna bring this meeting back to order.
Alright, good evening everybody.
Welcome to the Queen Anne County Commissioners meeting.
This is a public meeting
that is being aired live on our local cable television
station, QAC TV seven.
These media broadcasts provide county citizens an
opportunity to watch and review
our scheduled public meetings.
In addition to our live audience this evening,
we are providing remote options for citizens to watch
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Citizens Citizens may watch our meeting live on our website
at qac.org/live,
or on our public access governmental television channel
provided by Breeze Line Cable Services.
Citizens may also participate
by joining the live Zoom meeting by going
to qac.org/public comment
and citizens may also email comments
to public comment@qac.org.
All comments received will be summarized
during the present public comment period.
On tonight's agenda. We acknowledge everyone's participation
and by attending you acknowledge
that this session is both recorded and aired present.
Public comment will be taken
and is limited to three minutes per person.
If you do care to speak,
please sign up at the information table in the lobby.
Comments longer than three minutes can be submitted in
writing for the commissioner's review.
We will now stand and be led in the Pledge
of Allegiance by commission.
President Jim Marin.
I pledge Allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God
and indivisible with Liberty Justice for all.
Okay, that brings us to the approval of the agenda
and the minutes for this evening.
So the agenda for today's meeting March,
or excuse me, may the 26th, along
with the regular session minutes,
the closed session minutes, and the sanitary commission
minutes for May the 12th have been circulated for review.
We also circulated the minutes from the FY 27 budget
informational sessions last week on May 18th,
19th and 20th.
Any additions or corrections to any of the minutes
or the agenda?
Motion to add one agenda item on tonight's agenda.
Okay, second. All this in favor? Aye.
Motion to approve tonight's agenda as amended
and all minutes as submitted.
Second. All those in favor?
Aye. Aye. No session.
Okay, thank you Commissioner.
So we just had a closed session under the general provisions
article section three three F 3 0 5 B eight
to discuss potential litigation
and under section 3 3 0 5 B one
to discuss boards and commissions.
And I believe we do have one appointment
to make for boards and commissions.
So We received a letter from our board
of licensed commissioners, our liquor board,
and they voted unanimously
to support the reappointment of gene ransom.
So I moved to reappoint gene Ransom
to fill the vacancy on the board of licensed commissioners,
our liquor board, and also we're
appointing him as the chairman of the board.
This chairman will expire on June 30th, 2030.
Second. We have a motion in a second.
Any discussion on the second topic? Seeing none.
All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?
So moved.
Alright, thank you commissioners.
So next we have press public comment.
So this is the general press and public comment period.
We have a number of hearings tonight, so
I don't know if anybody's signed up for, we
Have no one signed up.
Would anybody like to speak? Seeing none,
we'll post press and public comment.
Okay. Commissioners, we can go into the legislation
portion of tonight's agenda.
So that would be Tab seven.
So under tab seven, item one, pages one through two,
we have the comprehensive water
and sewer plan, public hearing for the Marlin Farms
and Dominion sewer service area designation.
So Mr. Thompson, this is a A map amendment
to include the Marlin Farms
and Dominion sewer service area map in the comprehensive
water and sewer plan.
This is a area of public health concern.
It's been designated such since 1984
and this map amendment is required in order
for the public works staff
to pursue a public health exemption from the Smart Growth
Coordinating Committee for an extension of public sewer
outside of a growth area.
Mr. Thompson? Ready?
This is a public hearing being held
by the county commissioner Queen Edge County 5:40 PM
Tuesday May the 26th.
2026 in the commissioner's meeting room Liberty Building
1 0 7 North Liberty Street, central Maryland.
The purpose of the hearing is
to consider amending the Queen Edge County 2011
comprehensive order and service plan.
In addition to the hearing
and informational presentation was made on Tuesday,
May 12th, 2026.
The proposal being considered is the Marlin Farms
and Dominion service sewer service area map.
The amendment seeks to adopt the service area map
for the Marlin Farm subdivision
and the community of Dominion.
The map was removed from the draft 2011 comprehensive water
and sewer plan due to political concerns as
to the actual need to service these communities
as were the southern can.
Island sewer service area maps which were sub
southernly amended back into the plan 2014
there in question have been have been noted as areas
of public health concern since at least the 1984
comprehensive water and sew plan
and every subsequent plan since
text brief briefly defining the problem remains in the
2011 plan.
The service area, we carry a s sewer service designation
of S3 to anticipate service in four to 10 years.
And the project will require a subsequent map map amendment
to S two should the project proceed.
Copies of the proposed amendment have been available in the
county commissioner's office
or electronically through a request to
Allen quimbee@qac.org.
All hearing sites are accessible to individuals sign, lack
of interpreters and assistive listening
systems are available.
Part of record the proceeding will be a certificate
of publication indicating that notice
of the hearing was published for
two successive weeks in the Bay.
Times of record. Observer, I signed up. You
Signed up.
You want that? Your Thanks.
Do you have anything? You wanna say? Anything? No.
Commissioner, unless you have any questions?
Nobody signed up. Nobody's signed up. Nobody signed up.
Nobody wants to speak on this.
Okay, I don't Anyone have any questions up here?
Can we hold it for two more weeks?
Oh, that was quick and easy. Thank you
Alan, you got to go first.
There you go.
You living good or something?
There you go. Hey, you wanna put that in there?
Just, alright.
Thank you Mr. Quimbee. Yep.
All commissioner's. Moving right along.
Item number two on page five.
This is a public hearing on county ordinance 26 0 4
use is allowed to occupy in excess of 65,000 square feet
of gross floor area in the airport protection in Kent Island
Gateway District.
So Mr. Thompson, you've got the legal ad there.
You wanna read that please?
All right. This is a public hearing being
held May the 26th.
2026 at
8:50 PM regarding
county ordinance 26 0 4.
A bill entitled an act concerning uses allowed
to occupy an excess of 65,000 square feet
of gross floor area in the airport protection
in Ken Island Gateway
District in Queen Ann County for the purpose
of allowing boat sails and repair
and Marinas occupied more than 65,000 square feet
of crow floor area in the airport protection in Ken Island
Gateway AP KIG district in Queen County
by amending section 18 one
dash 34 D three, the code of public local law,
the Queen Ann County.
This the proposal received a favorable recommendation
from the Queen Ann County Planning Commission.
All hearing sites are accessible
to individual with disability.
Speakers will be limited to three EE for written testimony.
Can be submitted all
before the hearing date to the county commissioners.
No one's signed up. Is there any public comment?
Do You all have anything you wanna say?
I don't have anything specific to say in the amendment,
but I just wanna introduce you
to Mary Ellen, our senior planner.
She's been on with us since June,
but this is the first time in front of the board.
So I wanted to have her introduced,
but I don't think you probably,
do you have anything in addition to No,
unless you have any questions?
Nope. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you.
You wanna vote on it? I'll leave it over. Okay.
Alright, we'll leave it open for two more weeks. Thank you
Stephanie.
There wasn't no time sensitive with that. Is there? Alright.
Not that I, No, nothing Okay. That I'm aware.
Not that I Two weeks is not gonna hurt anybody.
I don't think so. I Ready?
So we leave? Yep. Our item. Hold
On. I'm sorry.
Hold on. So is it okay to hold that out for two weeks
or is there a time issue?
Are you here represent for Ryan?
So I'm here for Ryan, yeah. Okay. Is there a time concern?
Not that I am aware of, no. Okay.
Okay. Okay. We, okay, so we'll have a vote. You there is
Put You on the spot. Ask me a question.
It's recorded now. There you go.
Alright, commissioners item number three then
as public hearing on county ordinance 26 0 7.
This is for non-residential floor area in the Waterfront
Village Center district.
This is 26 0 7, page number six in
tab seven, item three.
Mr. Thompson, This is a public hearing being held
Tuesday May the 26th.
2026 at 5:50 PM in the county Commissioner meeting room
Liberty Building 1 0 7 North Liberty Street.
The hearings to receive public comment on county ordinance
number 26 0 7 A bill entitled an ACT
concerning non-residential floor area ratio in the
Waterfront Village Center Zoning District in Queen Edge
County for the purpose
of increasing the BuyRight maximum non-residential floor
area FAR from 30% to 40%
in the Waterfront Village Center.
WBC zoning district
removing the non-residential floor area bonus in the WBC
district and generally modifying
and addressing non-residential floor area ratio in the
Waterfront Village Center zoning district in Queen S County
by amending section 18,000 1, 26 F two
and N one A of the code of public local laws
of Queen S County.
The proposed ordinance received the favorable recommendation
from the Queen Anne County Planning Commission.
Copies of the ordinance have been available at the county
commissioner's office and on the, at the county website
speakers were limited to three minutes.
Each written testimony of any length can be submitted on or
before the hearing date to the county Commissioner's Office
1 0 7 North Liberty Street, Centerville.
All hearing sites are accessible, individual
with disabilities, sign language interpreters
and assistive listening systems are available.
Part of the record of this proceeding will be a certificate
of publication indicating that notice
of the hearing was published
for two successive weeks in the Bay Times's record observer
and as well as the recommendation
of the Queen Hans County Planning Commission.
No one signed up for their any public comments with respect
to county ordinance 26 0 7.
Real quick, just wanna ask the question.
So we're going through the, via the moratorium,
we're changing obviously commercial apartments
and they're not gonna be commercial apartments.
Will that automatically, if these were to pass through, will
that automatically, will that language update automatically
that they would be nonconforming at that point?
Or how would that work? If they're called commercial
apartments but they won't exist in the re
they'll be residential.
They won't be considered commercial any longer.
So they still would be applied in the same manner. Okay.
As the commercial apartments stand now in the code.
Right. Okay. Yes. Alright.
Any other questions for the public?
You want to, should have done this on the other one,
but for the public watching, what is this?
The nuts and bolts of this amendment?
The nuts and bolts would be per changing the FAR
to from 30 from, excuse me,
30 to 40, 30%.
30% to 40%. Which means what? To the general public.
Ah, so the floor area ratio is a sum
of all floors, including basements
and upper floors divided by the total floor area.
So that is, bless you. Thank you.
So what that means that, that regulates the floor,
the building size on a lot.
So by increasing the floor area ratio,
the building mass, so to speak, can be larger on, on a,
on a building site.
But also the, the other regulations, the
design criteria, parking regulations
and the other design guidelines,
critical area storm water requirements would still
prevail on this site.
Okay. Alright. Yeah.
Were you looking for a specific project?
Well, no, I was looking for how that 30
to 40 relates to the public. Okay.
That's all. And, and if I also make for, for the public
as well the, there are other,
this is also consistent
with many other commercial zoning districts, if I may,
on the town center, urban commercial, suburban industrial,
light industrial, Grayson, neighborhood,
commercial suburban industrial,
and the airport protection Kent
Island gateway districts.
And those are all also have 40%.
So they're all at 40%. Yes sir.
So we're just bringing this up to what everything else is.
Yep. Yes. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Appreciate it.
We're gonna hold that for two weeks.
Okay. Two Weeks. Moving on.
Alright commissioners item four on page seven.
This is public hearing on county ordinance 26 0 8.
This is for commercial apartments in the Waterfront Village
Center zoning district.
And the objective here is to add additional provisions
to allow commercial apartments within that district
to locate the commercial apartment dwelling on any same
floor, including the first floor.
So not necessarily the top floor, it can be any floor.
Planning commission also sent a favorable favorable report
to the commissioners on this amendment.
So Mr. Thompson,
Thank you.
This is a public hearing being held by the county Mr.
Queenan County, Tuesday,
May 26th, 2026 at 5:55 PM
and the county commissioner meeting room Liberty Building
1 0 7 North Liberty Street, Centerville, Maryland
hearings receive public comment on proposed county ordinance
26 0 8 ACT
concerning commercial apartment in the Waterfront Village
Center, WVC zoning district in Queen Ance County
for the purpose of allowing commercial apartments on any
floor, including the first floor in the waterfront billing
center zoning district,
and providing such commercial apartments
shall be located on the same floor by amending section
18 1 26 F
Four Of the code of public level laws
of Queen Anne County.
The proposed ordinance received a favorable recommendation
from the Queen Anne County Planning Commission
at their April 9th, 2026 meeting.
Copies of the proposed orders have been available at the
county commissioner's office
and on the county website speakers will be
limited to three minutes.
Each written testimony of any length can be submitted all
before the hearing date
to the county commissioners 1 0 7 North Liberty Street.
Bel. All hearing sites are accessible to individuals
with disability sign language interpreters,
and assistive listening systems are available.
For the record of the proceeding will be a certificate
of publication indicating that notes
of the hearing was published
for two successive weeks in the Bay Honor Director Observer,
as well as the recommendation
of the Queen Ann County Planning Commission.
No one signed up for this either.
Is there any, anybody have any public comment
with respect of the county?
1 26?
I'll take a stab at this one for the public.
Okay, so on,
I'll just take a a four story building right now.
First floor has to be commercial.
This allows that first floor to be apartments,
which somewhere in that building, the same amount
of square footage would be considered commercial.
It could be the top floor,
the second floor or the third floor.
Correct? Correct. There you go. 1.8, fuck on.
Alright, so there's no, there's no,
we're not adding more apartments than
what the zoning is is set at.
We're just moving around where you're open
commercial area could be correct.
It's, it is allowing more flexibility.
And this would just be in,
in the waterfront village center district, right?
Yes. So I got a feeling we're gonna start
And then WBC is located where it's,
there's only one WBC of the county.
It's in the Kent narrow. That's the
Kent narrow. Yes sir. Yep. Okay.
And this will allow them, which I think is a good idea,
is use some rooftop space, fourth floor space for the views.
So yes sir, no problem there. Any other questions?
Good guys. Okay, thank you.
We'll hold this for two more weeks. That's what I,
We good?
Okay. Alright, continue.
We have a few more of these and these are all citizen
sponsored text amendments by the way.
So that's why it's taking a little time.
We have these all stacked up here,
but item five on page eight,
public hearing on county ordinance 26 0 9.
This is amendments
to the transfer development right standards.
The objective here is to amend the transfer
development right standards to allow for a transfer
or parcel, which is designated
as open space following the conveyance of development rights
to be subdivided through the administrative subdivision
process to accommodate lot line adjustments,
but not to be reconfigured to create a new lot.
Alright, Mr. Mr. Thompson?
Thank you. This is public hearing being held
by the county commissioner
of Queen Anne County County Tuesday, may the 26th.
2026 at 6:00 PM in the county commissioner's meeting room,
Liberty Building 1 0 7 North Liberty
Street, central Maryland.
The the hearing is with, with respect
to county ordinance number 26 0 9
a bill entitled an Act Amendments
to the Transfer Development Rights TDR standards in Queen
Edge County, Maryland for the purpose
of amending the transfer development rights standards
to permit a transfer
or partial, which is designated open space following the
conveyance of development rates to be subdivided
through the administrative subdivision process
to accommodate lot line adjustments
but not to create additional lots
and generally addressing subdivision
of open space in Queen S County by mending section
18 1 1 0 1 A
and 18 1 1 0 4 A of the code of public local
local laws of Queen Hands County.
The proposed ordinance received a favorable recommendation
from the Queen Hands County Planning Commission at their
April 9th, 2026 meeting.
Copies of the ordinance have been available
to county commissioner's office prior to the hearing
and also online on the county website.
Speakers be limited to three minutes each written testimony
of any length can be submitted all before the hearing date.
All hearing sites are accessible, individuals
with disability language interpreters
and assistive listening systems are available.
For the record of the proceeding will be a certificate
of publication indicating that notice
of the same was published in the Bay Times record observer
for two successive weeks prior to light hearing, as well
as the recommendation
of the Queen Edge County Planning Commission.
Jeffrey Thompson.
Thank you Mr. Toon.
You want to come up here? Commissioners
Thought he'd give Mr. Thompson a break without anybody
testifying you were wearing him out.
This bill is really about being able to
permit administrative subdivision,
which is really just a lot line adjustment
between two adjoining property owners for TDR open space.
Important to note there could be no reconfiguration
of the open space, no additional lots, no changes
or restrictions applicable.
The only thing we're asking is to be able change ownership.
When you look at the, the map of the restricted lands
that was attached by Ms. Jones on the staff report that went
to the planning commission, nothing changes.
It may, it remains exactly the same
and it, we need,
as she pointed out in her report on page three, flexibility
because you never know where you're gonna draw
that line back when these, these open space
areas were created.
Nobody thought they might ever even sell their farm.
Now we're trying to sell 'em. Where do you cut the line?
And you might want to cut it along and stream bed.
You might want let all the farm field to go on one parcel,
on the woodland on another parcel,
might wanna run down a hedge row.
You're gonna take into consideration the roads on the farm.
It's just a common sense amendment to allow people
to subdivide their farms in a way that makes sense.
I mean that's really what it comes down to.
I really came up thinking he might have some questions,
but that's, that's really it in a nutshell.
Anyone else sign up? Anyone else?
Sign up a
want me to stand and sit wherever you're comfortable seat.
Alright. By the way, commissioners,
the signup sheet was taken away before we came in.
I think Mr. Parker and I both wanted
to sign up, but it wasn't there.
So I, okay,
Commissioners, good evening.
Jay Stead, queen Anne's Conservation Association.
My comments on ordinance 26 0 9 are gonna mirror my comments
on 26 10.
I'm gonna recommend a a no vote on this for right now,
but with an asterisk behind it,
which I'll come to at the end.
But just for the record,
we're not gonna be voting tonight at all.
I understand. Yeah, and I,
I'm gonna submit some additional things later on.
In any case, both the TDR program
and the N-C-D-N-C-D program represented an agreement
between the landowner and the county.
When these landowners signed up for it, they knew
what they were getting into.
They sold their development rights
or transferred their development
rights, whatever the case is.
And that's now included in their deed.
And so I understand what Mr. Thompson wants to do
by moving the lot lines,
and I'm not necessarily opposed to that,
but I also fear that you're opening up Pandora's box
because even though the open space may not be reconfigured
by moving the lot lines, you could open the door
for land use abuse in the way that you could open it up for
not only farm uses, which are already in our code,
but non-farm uses.
And if you look in our code at just the non-farm uses
that could be allowed on farmland.
You could have things like tennis courts,
lighted tennis courts, pickleball courts, all this stuff
that could ultimately be added.
And so you've got landowners right now
who have purchased property in either one
of these programs thinking
that this is deed restricted open space
and may end up having to deal with something later on.
Commissioner McLaughlin, you'll know full well on this just
with the landfill proposal over outside of Centerville.
All those people knew what they were signing up
for when they bought that property.
And now years later they're saying, oh no,
we don't want a landfill.
Imagine something non-farm related coming into the equation
at this late date.
You're gonna have this room filled
with people saying a bunch of NIMBYs.
And I'm always on the side of the NIMBY saying, you know,
we don't want this next to us
or we don't want that in our neighborhood.
And so I just feel like you're opening up Pandora's box,
the asterisk part.
I believe there's a way to solve this.
I'm not opposed to lot line adjustment.
And what I'd like is the opportunity to work
with Mr. Thompson on both these ordinances and try
and come up with a, with a solution
that takes away the non-farm,
the non-farm abuses that could occur
if we're gonna have lot line adjustments.
Where does that end? Right now?
There's 10,000 acres in both of these programs divide
by 128 landowners.
If you allow it for them,
you're gonna have to allow it for everybody.
And so with that, I'll end it.
And unfortunately I'll have to repeat some of this on,
on the next, the next ordinance.
Yes.
You wanna come back up Jeff,
This Joseph, so she can answer once
and much of what he had to say.
But you have the same restrictions
on the land before and after.
Jeff, can you sit down please?
Just so the microphone, we can't
Get the Chance the mic get you.
We can't hear you on tv. Thank you.
You have the same restrictions
applicable before and after.
Nothing different. Nothing changes.
That's the whole reason we drafted it.
The way we draft drafted it.
Whatever you can do now, you can do
after whatever you can't do now, you can't do
after just that period.
It's just that simple. All we're changing ownership.
We're drawing a line both sides
of the line in, in the open space.
There's subject to the same covenants. There's no change.
Stephanie? Yes. So
I mean I'm, I'm listening what, what I heard from Mr.
False, that is the uses
and that is somewhat concerning, right?
Is is there,
So there's no change in the use that can be
put on open space.
There's no what There's no chain from when going
through an admin process, if the text amendment was
to succeed, there would be no change on the uses
that would be permitted within that open space.
So any acreage that is in open space is restricted
to only the uses listed in 18 one dash 12, which is,
But does that dash 12 have pickleball courts
and lights and it has
Recreational uses.
But that's something if they essentially wanted to do now
that they, they could,
it also includes shooting clubs.
It includes all your standard farm,
farm accessory dwelling units.
It goes on to talk about also your,
your mine's up to five acres.
So there are uses that are not considered, you know,
your traditional farming uses,
but they are inclusive included in that language
where it does allow the, that use within the open space. So
Basically all you're suggesting is that if that you,
you kind of drill down into this
and perhaps maybe eliminate some of those non-farm uses.
What I'm suggesting is this, I understand what Mr.
Thompson's dilemma is on.
He mentioned a geologic feature on his land.
That makes perfect sense to me
because there might be a strip of land that is unusable
for a farmer or whatever.
And so I understand the need, the desire
to move the lot line.
All I'm suggesting is in circumstances
where you're gonna move the lot line that some
of those other uses of which Stephanie's mentioning along
with a whole long list of others which aren't mentioned
should be taken off the table
because these landowners made an agreement with the county.
The agreement's there, we get that.
Let's just try and tighten things up so there's no abuse
And they're not changing the agreement.
That's the whole point.
We're not trying to change the agreement at all.
Well then you should have a problem, problem if you want
to change, if you want to change the uses
that are permitted in the open space,
you should do it for everybody.
I mean if it's that important,
if you don't want it when I cut the line,
why would you want it now if you weren't gonna allow the
subdivision, they could do it now I'm just cutting the line.
No greater use, no lesser use. Exact same use.
So if you really want to change the uses in the open space,
then do it but do it for everybody.
I don't see why you would isolate on the,
on the subdivided piece.
And would it apply to both pieces subdivided
or does the person that keeps half of the open space
that say he could still do it?
He could always do. It's, it's only the person
that was granted that, that it doesn't make any sense.
So Stephanie gonna be open for two weeks.
Could you bring back, has this ever happened where one
of these uses has actually gone in come to fruition to come
to fruition on one of these particular spaces in North?
Just in general? In in general
For the entire, for Space County?
Yeah. Just curious to see
The non-farm uses, Correct?
Yeah. Could you bring that back? Yes. Alright.
That's all I had. Alright. Is there any other
Public comment with respect to county ordinance
26 0 9?
I feel like we're gonna get the same comments.
Gonna be like Groundhog Day on the next one, right?
Well with this, like I said,
we're gonna leave it open for two weeks.
You're gonna look that up for us
and if you guys wouldn't mind talking to each other
and within the next two weeks
I, no, and he actually, he actually did call me
and I suggested he talked to Stephanie and Amy
because I just don't see it.
I still don't see, right.
You know why special conditions would go
Before, after.
But I, but but you make a good point
and I don't disagree with that.
Is that maybe some of these issues should not be,
be permitted because the, the whole point
of you move in somewhere and you think this is what you got
for life and then you turn around and
I get that. So, and that may be so, and that,
And that's what I'd like to see is how often does
that happen to where is it a problem?
Is it not a problem? Is it something we should look at?
Well there's one that struck me was you said five acre
mining my, but that's there now.
So that's how they did up there in price.
The, the the solar five at a time. Oh boy. But
It's maxed at the five acres as I remember
Until you go to a major.
Right.
But I don't know that you could do a major in No you
cannot do a major, you cannot do a major on space on the
open stretch on de district.
Very good. All
Since we're both gonna be speaking on the next
One Right there. You had
Somebody else.
So actually, so this is actually a first too by the way.
'cause we've never had, is it two commenters
that's sitting at the same table
Together? You had another comment? I think our
Drew We we have something else.
Could I, could I get you guys
something to drink while you're here? He
On the neck, he's on the next one. This is very Parker.
I'm on the next one but it might help him.
I comment on this one as well. I'm Willard.
There you go. Thank You. Are you ready to start?
Okay, well he's, do you want to comment?
He wants 26 10 or you wanna comment? 26 0 9. It gonna
Be same thing.
It's gonna be the same thing.
It has addresses the same issue and concerns that have been
Raised.
You wanna put it on oh 9 26 0 9,
his testimony. It's up to you all.
Yeah, we can readopt it for 26 10. Yes.
Maybe Go ahead
and Willie Parker from Parker Katz in East
and I represent Ann Goodman
and her husband Jamie, who owned 14 acres of land adjacent
to 150 acres
of open space in the Meadows Edge subdivision on Dean Road.
They wish to buy a portion of that property.
An organic farmer wishes
to buy the remainder of the property.
They can't do it currently under the ordinance without this,
the amendment that we're proposing in 26 10.
It's open space on a non-contiguous subdivision.
Mr. T's concerns I think are unfounded when you actually
read the deeds of easement between the landowners
that created these open space
areas on non-contiguous subdivisions.
And the county passive recreational
uses are permitted such as arboretums, hiking nature areas,
wildlifes sanctuaries, public
and private parts, garden plots, beaches
surface mining is not listed here in the document.
And the document says where there's conflicts
between the ordinance
and the document, the deed of easement easement,
that's a perpetual easement on the land.
The stricter document applies.
So the county has anticipated the possibilities
of more intense
or less conservative conservation oriented
uses on these open spaces by the creation of the,
of the deed of easement.
The administrative subdivision process is an exhaustive
multi-agency input into that process.
And they can certainly put restrictions,
additional restrictions if need be.
But I, I suggest to you that the area of dirt that's covered
by the deed of easements is not gonna change.
Their restrictions are not gonna be changed.
Mere ownership of portions of that dirt will change so
that adjoining landowners can share in the
ownership of the land.
Happy to answer any questions that you have.
Thank you. Can you submit the information you have?
'cause I don't have that
One of the recorded needs of easement.
Yeah. Can I give it to Mr. Thompson? Yep. Yep.
Perfect. The younger Mr.
So Pat, I guess I guess we'll start with 26 10
and let you Stephanie.
Stephanie one.
Yeah, so in your books commissioners item
number six, page nine.
This is county ordinance 26 10 amendments
to the non-contiguous development NCD standards.
Okay. This is a public hearing being held
by the county commissions of Queen S County
Tuesday May the 26th.
2026 at 6:05 PM in the county commissioner meeting room
Liberty Building warns seven North Liberty
Street Centerville.
The hearing's on proposed county ordinance number 26 10
A bill entitled and that concerning amendments
to the non-contiguous development NCD standards in Queen
Anne County for the purpose
of amending the non-contiguous development standards
to allow a non-contiguous
and developed parcel, which is designated open space
to be subdivided
through the administrative subdivision process
to accommodate lot line adjust adjustments
but not to be reconfigured or to create new lots
and generally amending
and addressing the subdivision of open space
created on non-contiguous
and developed parcels under the Queen Edge County
zoning ordinance by amending section 18,000 1 98 at the code
of public local laws.
This proposed ordinance received a favorable recommendation
from the planning commission after April 9th, 2026.
Meeting copies of the ordinance have been available
to the county commissioner's office
and on the county website speakers will limited
to three minutes each written testimony that any length
may be submitted all
before the hearing date to the county commissioners.
All hearing sites are accessible.
The individuals with disabilities sign language interpreters
and assist system listening systems are available.
For the record of the proceeding will be a certificate
of publication indicating a notice of the saying,
which published for two consecutive weeks prior
to the tonight's hearing, as well as the recommendation
of the Queen Edge County Planning Commission.
Jeff, you've signed up.
Do you want to have anything else as I Yeah,
I will.
Yeah, I'll speak and Mr. Parker asked if he could come up.
The way this particular version came about was
Mr. Parker filed on behalf
of the Goodman's a proposed amendment
that would have permitted the subdivision
of the developed parcel open space.
I then, on behalf of Shirley Schaeffer, filed an amendment
of the same section in order to permit the subdivision
of the non-contiguous parcel, which is the transfer parcel.
And you transfer the rights over that parcel
clearly in conflict.
So then I drafted one on behalf of the grays trying
to incorporate both of our wants and needs.
And then Ms. Jones corral us all together
and we tweaked it
and it became what I ended up calling the reconciliation lag
of three competing text amendments.
And that way she didn't have to deal with, you know,
what's good and what's bad.
We all kind of agreed this was the best solution
and that's, that's what we're here to consider tonight.
Well, but Mr. Walker said about it is a deja vu
'cause it's, it's the same thing except for of course
TDRs are about critical area and NCDs about upland.
That's the only difference.
So we're trying to make the same amendment that I proposed
for TDRs, for non-contiguous, both the transfer
or parcel and the receiving parcel.
That's it's, but it's the same pitch.
We aren't reconfiguring, we aren't creating any new lots.
We just want to be able
to subdivide it only administratively
with an adjoining lot owner.
So it's a lot line adjustment.
No real change, you know, other than that, to be honest,
it's, it's, it's the same pitch I could give to you again.
But there's really no need.
It's just one's, one's critical
area and the other's up them.
But it's, it's to allow is,
and Stephanie again, Ms. Jones again in her report
for the non-contiguous point, it's about flexibility.
It's given us the flexibility
to cut those lines on a farm in areas
where it makes sense to cut those lines.
On our personal farm, there's literally a branch
with a ditch that's 50 feet deep.
Barry Waterman owns the adjoining property.
He can't get across there, not in any vehicle.
And he's gonna have a lot of guts if he goes down
and tries to get up the other side.
So back when we did our subdivision 25 years ago,
his predecessor, predecessor didn't pay for the land.
I created an easement that gave us all the use of the land.
So right now I have all the use hunt fish timber
till it do anything we want to do on it.
I just want to fix it. I mean, so my,
for my personal on the TDR, it's a fix it question.
Same for people with the NCDs.
I mean they need a reasonable way to carve, you know,
those lines between their respective
parcels in a way that makes sense.
This use issue very did point out.
I mean those covenants I've written, God knows how many
of 'em they talk in terms of passive recreation.
So I'll de depend on Ms. Jones to report back
to you what that really means.
'cause I don't think it includes pickleball,
fortunately I don't think it includes that at all.
So, but whatever it is, it's allowed now if you want
to address it, you ought
to address it in total not piecemeal
as a result of this legislation.
This legislation is doing nothing
but allowing parcel person A to buy from person B
and he's got the same rights, responsibilities
and obligations as as the original person
that coveted the property.
It just, we're not asking
to change anything other than ownership.
So when you look at those maps over what's eased in this
county, nothing changes.
The restrictions don't change, we can't move the lines.
It is what it is. And other than you're allowing two
adjoining property over there,
transfer parcel back parcels back and forth.
Did you want to Comment on,
I only thank you.
I only want to say
to complete the record on this public hearing on 26 10,
if you can incorporate my comments on
26 0 9, I'm happy with that.
You got it. If you wanna sit down.
Yep. I'll just reiterate some
of the comments that I made earlier without going
through the full pitch, I'm opposed to it.
I believe it does open up Pandora's box.
There's 128 landowners between those two programs.
If we allow it here, we're
gonna have to allow it for everybody.
And maybe that's okay, but what's the end game of this?
Are we gonna allow landowners
that enrolled in these two programs
to just routinely change their lot lines?
I mean, is this something that it was already
agreed to by the county?
Mr. Thompson wants to renegotiate those terms
a few years, a few years from now.
Are we gonna renegotiate it again?
Like what's the ultimate end game here?
So I just, I think there's some unintended consequences here
that I hope we can try and figure out.
Yeah, I'll just,
and I'll, I, I'm glad that you'll leave the record open
because I think what I'll do is try
and draft something up over the next couple days
that address both Mr. Thompson and Mr.
Parker's comments and submit that for the record.
I just have one last comment on that comment.
It's not really opening Pandora's back.
We're here for a tax amendment.
I'm asking you to allow all those people,
we aren't here about my property if it's Goodman property,
we're just saying it's the right thing to do for everybody.
So he suggested it could open it.
I'm asking you to allow everybody to do that.
That's why I'm here. It's not a Pandora's box issue.
It's, we got all this open space out there.
Why shouldn't those landowners be, as long
as they're not reconfiguring changing the restrictions
applicable to it, what difference does the county have
in and who owns it?
Some same restrictions. Nothing changes other than other,
And again, I, I agree there are circumstances
where those lines could be adjusted.
I'm not disagreeing with it.
I'm just saying that there are, there needs
to be some restrictions so
that we're not ultimately creating an abusive,
abusive practice here.
But we're gonna put that on Stephanie's shoulders
and find, you know,
I think we have a good idea of what we don't wanna see.
And you know, with the intent of open space before
and with the changes, we don't wanna see certain things
that you wouldn't have saw seen
when you first made the open space.
So that, that's a concern.
Did you have one last That's what I think one
Last Comment.
That's a very quick comment.
What the landowners agreed to
and committed themselves to when they signed these deeds
of easement for open space was the restrictions on land.
They did not enter into some agreement with the county
that said, only I can own that property.
Or only one person can own all of it.
That wasn't part of it.
In fact, some of the deeds of easement actually allow for
subdivision, but ordinarily
approval is needed to do that.
This is the process to gain the approval.
So we're not changing any commitment that Land L owners made
with regard to how the land is restricted.
Thank you. Well we're gonna leave it open for two weeks.
Stephanie's gonna vet this for us and bring it to us
and we'll go from there.
Do you just Thank you gentlemen.
Just to confirm, you want the same for the TDR
and the NCD open space?
Yes, please correct the numbers for both. Okay,
Great.
Yeah, I suspect the TDR is even more restricted just
because you're in the critical area.
Alright, thank you gentlemen. Thank
You.
Thank you. Alright, thank you everybody.
Alright commissioners, item number seven.
On pages 10 through 15,
we have public hearing on county ordinance 26 12.
This is the queen of County Forest Conservation Act,
chapter 18 two of the code of public local laws.
This particular amendment has been prepared by staff.
We have a presentation here.
This is a fairly comprehensive update,
so I'll let Mr. Thompson read the legal ad
and we can do the presentation to advise
and inform the board and the public at large.
So
This is a public hearing being held
by the county commissioner of Queen Edge County Tuesday,
May 26th, 2026,
6:10 PM in the county commissioner meeting room,
Liberty Building 1 0 7 North Liberty Street, central
Maryland with respect
to camp proposed county ordinance 26 12 a bill titled
an Act concerning the Queen Ash County Forest
Conservation Act.
Chapter 18 two of the Code of Public Local Laws
for the purpose of repealing
and replacing chapter 18, two of the code of pub,
code of Public Local Laws of Queen Ann County,
the Queen Ann County Forest Conservation Act,
bringing the Forest Conservation Act in compliance
with Senate Bill 5 26 in house Bill 1511,
which articulate numerous changes to MA
Maryland National Resources.
Title five, forest and Park.
Subtitle 16, forest Conservation
section five dash 1601 through five dash 1612
provided for definition rules of interpretation and purpose
provided for application
of the provisions amendments thereto
provided for qualified professional general requirements
of the declaration of intent
provided for forest stand delineation for
as conservation plans repairing buffers for retention
at forestation and reforestation, providing
for local conservation funds fee in lieu
and payments by credits
to an approved forest mitigation bank providing
for native tree species, species, financial security,
protective agreement
and standards for protection of trees, providing
for variances, inspections
and commercial timber harvest, providing for violation
of penalties and generally addressing the regulating
and protecting forest resources in Queen Ann County
by repealing and replacing chapter 18, two of the code
of public local laws of Queen Ann County.
The copies
of the ordinance have been available to county wishes.
Office order seven North Liberty Street General Maryland
during regular business hours
and on the county website speakers were limited
to three minutes each written testimony length,
but could be submitted on
before the hearing date to the county Commissioners.
While hearing sites are accessible, individuals
with disabilities sign language, interpreters
and system less than any systems are available.
For the record of this procedure will be a certificate
of publication indicating that notice
of the hearing was published for two successive weeks prior
to the lights hearing in the Bay Times record observer,
no one has signed up to testify.
Do you have anything you want to?
Yeah, first I'd like to say thanks
to our entire department.
This is kind of a full entire department kind of work,
so I'm gonna let Doug give the presentation,
but everyone I think in the office
deserves credit on this one.
All right, good evening, Doug Summers County planner.
This evening I just want to provide
a brief presentation on proposed Forest Conservation Act
update and text amendment 26 12.
Very quick background between 2019
and 2022, several state level legislative measures
and directives resulted in a comprehensive statewide
forest analysis and study.
Out of the study, two bills were passed
by the Maryland legislature in 23 and 24.
The legislation led to a policy shift
for the state from no net forest canopy loss to a net gain
of forest canopy.
These goals are to be met through a combination
of initiatives that include strengthening
of the Forest Conservation Act
and several other forest oriented programs
monitored at the state level.
The deadline for implementation
of the Forest Conservation Act code updates has been set
for July 1st by the state.
For the Forest Co Conservation Act applicability will remain
the same as it applies to site plans, subdivisions
and grading and sediment permits.
There are some changes to exemptions
that have been in introduced to include
reduction in the scope of inter-family transfers.
There's an exemption from a forest forestation requirements
for solar projects
and there's a few new exemptions related
to stream restoration and residential housing.
One of the biggest changes is a
one-to-one reforestation rate.
So essentially if you cut a tree, you have to plant a tree.
The only exception
to this standard would be within the growth area
and with multifamily housing projects in which the rate is
reduced to one half, to one
another substantial chain is riparian buffer requirements.
Any un forested riparian buffers on a property
that's falls under the Forest Conservation Act has to
a forest or reforest or that has a forest
or reforest requirements, would need to completely plant the
un forested length of their buffer.
A couple other additional changes include the county must
now approve any clearing within priority forest areas.
There have been new areas added to that list.
Public notification is required for all forest crop plans.
The forest stand delineation types have been expanded.
Judicial review process has been introduced at the state
level and there's been a proposed fee
and lie rate increase
to ensure the county meets state
mandated canopy requirements.
This rate has been aligned
with the current critical area rate eight.
So in preparation for these changes,
the planning department has been busy reviewing
and updating documentation on all forest
conservation easements in the county.
We have collaborated, collaborated with our GIS team
to create new environmental layers
and to map all existing easement areas.
The department has revised worksheets, checklists,
and other related legal documents
and the team has worked diligently drafting county code
language based on the state's ordinance and annotated code.
DNR has provided essentially approval on our language
and it received a planning com favorable planning
commission recommendation.
The last thing we did was evaluate those current fee in lieu
rates, which have remained unchanged since the mid nineties
to ensure they generate sufficient funding
to meet state mandated canopy goals.
While fee in lieu is typically only
accepted when all their priority measures have been
exhausted or cannot be reasonably met on site,
it's important that the rate accurately reflects the amount
needed to achieve the program goals.
This kind of, this includes the kind
of presentation at this time we seeking adoption of 26 12
to include a new technical manual and approval of any
or updated fee and lie rates.
Are there any public comments?
Anybody have any public comment with respect
to county moving 26 12.
Okay, any questions? No. Great work on this. No.
All righty. We hold it open for two.
I can note we are the first probably on the shore
to get this moving, so
that's also I think a thing that should be
Mentioned.
Well done. Very good. Yeah, very good.
We typically, we, we, we have always, we've always expected
that, I mean, I just assumed he just
put if he came in and said We're ninth.
Thank you. Yeah, we never want to be behind ban.
That's no doubt. You guys, you are for now.
Two or three more.
All right, thank you commissions. Thank you.
Alright, we have two more legislative
items for consideration tonight.
Item eight, pages six through 18.
We have county ordinance number 26 0 5 supplemental
standards for gas stations.
The objective of this ordinance is
to amend the required distance
and point of measurement from which entrance
and exit from a property that contains fuel pumps,
underground fuel storage, tanks and islands.
Canopies and, and canopies are required
to be from the intersection.
So that's the intent of this ordinance.
Another citizen sponsored text amendment, it is here
for your introduction
and I will say that the planning commission did not have a
favorable report on this particular
Yeah. Amendment. I'll, I'll
Introduce that one.
Okay, thank you commissioner. And I'll
Take the next one.
Okay. Alright, moving on.
Number nine, item nine pages 19 through 21.
This is county ordinance 26 0 6,
maximum impervious surface ratio in the Suburban
Commercial District.
Also, this was for introduction.
The intent of this text amendment is to increase the maximum
and impervious surface ratio for commercial
and industrial uses in the SC district
that were operating prior to December 31st, 2025 from 0.45,
45% to 0.80 80%.
I wanna reduce 26 0 6
and also I'll mention that this also did get an unfavorable
recommendation from the plan commission, those two.
So we'll have hearings for those two bills
June 30th.
June 30th. Okay. Alright. Thank you.
Alright, thank you both Stephanie and Mr. Thompson.
Excellent. So that concludes all the
legislative items for this evening.
We can move into the presentations
portion of the agenda now.
Absolutely. All right. So if you wanna turn
it over to tab number six.
Tab six, item one, item one, page one.
We have our friends for the motorcycle
safety awareness month.
And gentlemen, you wanna come on up.
We have Ken Eaton, executive director of Abate of Maryland
for Proclamation 26 0 9.
And please Ken, introduce your, your guests here.
I have with me today. Gloria Callie, a longtime member
of a Bay of Maryland
and resident here of Queen Annes County.
And Mark Ner also not quite as longtime member, but a while
and in a resident here in Queen S County.
Excellent. I'm also a resident,
but it's kind of like the air club for men.
I'm also the executive director for the state.
Alright. As a resident
of Queen Anne County would expect
nothing less from you that Right.
Do you want us to proclamation first
Or you guys I can, I can speak real quick.
Do your presentation. Yeah, I can speak real quick.
I don't have a formal presentation for you,
but May is Motorcycle Safety
and Awareness Month across the country.
So we joined together with organizations like ourselves
who are state motorcycle organizations or other clubs
and riding groups that go throughout the country requesting
proclamations such as this
and awareness events throughout the country so
that we can raise awareness
and safety concerns about motorcyclists.
And it's really not just about telling the car drivers
to look for us, it's about telling the motorcyclists
to make sure you're ready for your ride
and make sure that you follow all the rules
and regulations as well as the cars.
So we all wanna just share the road.
Tomorrow we'll have our last MVA branch
awareness event.
We did three across the state, one in Hagerstown,
one in Salisbury, and tomorrow we'll be in southern Maryland
having the MVA officials, Chrissy Nier will be there
and we'll have some of the local,
Just a brief description of, of that,
that event. One of them,
Really what we do is show up at the branches.
The motorcycle safety program from MDOT is there
and has some literature that they can share with people
to raise awareness for motorcyclists and,
and motorist a beta Maryland will have a table there so
that we can share what we do throughout the state.
The, like I said, Chrissy Niger will be there and,
and present some awards to, to basically a be
and other organizations will have some
regional politicians show up.
There's been a, a new law passed this year that we,
we helped with that added a question
to the pool of questions
for driver's licensing exams in Maryland.
So previously there's I think 130 plus
or minus questions that come are available in the pool of,
of licensing in general, not just motorcyclists in Maryland.
The law that got passed this year requires
that at least one question
that shows up on everyone's exam is about
motorcycle safety and awareness.
At least we got one in there
And there's no sense in trying to remember the other ones
because it probably won't appear on the test again.
You're right. But thank you very much for once again.
Sure. Recognizing Maya's Motorcycle and Safety
and Awareness Month here in Queen S County.
We really appreciate it. Awesome.
All right. Well I have the privilege of,
of reading the Proclamation 26 0 9,
whereas safety is our highest priority for the streets
and roadways of our county.
And whereas Queenan County is proud to be a supporter
of motorcycle safety, education and awareness
and whereas motorcycles are a common
and economical means of transportation
that reduces fuel consumption and roadway wear
and contributes to a significant way to the relief
of traffic parking congestion.
And whereas it's especially meaningful that the citizens
of county be aware of motorcycles on the roadways
and recognize the importance of motorcycle safety.
And whereas the members of the Midshore chapter of Abate
of Maryland Incorporated continually promote motorcycle
safety education
and awareness to the general public in our county and state.
And whereas all roadway users should unite in the safe
sharing of roads throughout Maryland.
And whereas we encourage all motorists
and citizens to join together in an effort
to improve the safety and awareness on our roadways.
Now therefore, WEA County commissioners
of Queen Anne County proclaim the month of May, 2026 to be
known as Motorcycle Safety Awareness month.
I gotta Dial this up a little bit here
for you real quick,
but my dentist is not watching this
just kind of helps secure it in your folder.
I think it's important, you know, you get this warm weather,
you're gonna see more riders out there
and unfortunately you have situations where somebody
made a bad decision one way or another
and somebody gets hurt.
So somebody used to ride.
I appreciate your efforts statewide. Here you go.
Thank you. Alright.
And my normal PSA do not put your
grass clippings in the road.
Oh my God. It's
Against Queen Ends county law.
I just wrote through some on what mark did you,
I yell at my neighbor all the time
and he goes back out and puts 'em up.
We don't get many
motorcycles down the road, but it's
important. People don't even realize it.
You want your cuttings to go back on your grass anyway.
Yeah, it's, it's healthier for the grass.
Yeah. I've stopped probably just the last two weeks, three
or four times telling people, you know,
it's against the law, you know, so we give,
Give their address.
I can send 'em a letter. Thank you very
much guys, for your efforts.
Thank you. Thanks again. Thank you. Yep.
Have fun. Be careful out there.
Thank you. Okay,
commissioners, our next presentation is from Katie Dilley,
make Your Behavioral Health.
She's the CEO Sarah Fegan Midshore Behavioral Health.
She's the BHC. That's our update. I believe we have.
Yeah, here it's up on the screen presentation.
It's also in your books on pages two through 36. Sir.
Tab six, item two. Oh wait,
We can click. Okay, great.
Come on up. Even Better. Hello?
Yeah, Sarah Good evening. Good evening.
Thank you for having us. Hello.
As you said, my name is Katie Dilley.
I have the pleasure of serving
as the Chief Executive Officer at Mitchell Behavioral
Health, and I'm joined this evening by Sarah Fagan.
Hi everybody. I'm Sarah Fagan,
behavioral health coordinator, child
adolescent, young adult population.
So we have presented a very involved
PowerPoint this evening.
We will move through it swiftly, so,
and if you have questions along the way,
we're happy to take them.
We just appreciate the opportunity to be here.
This is our annual presentation.
I'm excited that we could get on the calendar for the month
of May, given that it is Mental Health Awareness Month,
which this is the 77th year
of mental health awareness month.
So it's really an honor to be here during this time to
give you our annual update
and also ask for your support with our letter of agreement
to continue to serve
as your core service agency in the coming year.
Great. So just a a little bit about our
organization, I'm actually gonna kind
of move through these quickly.
One of our newer installments into our sort
of organizational infrastructure is really identifying
our core values.
So just in the last couple of years, we worked
with our board of directors to enhance not only our mission
and vision, but to identify integrity, collaboration,
progressive leadership, and a advocacy
as our four real pillars of our organizational values.
This year, I wanted to include just a snapshot.
Sometimes folks get a little confused in terms of
what exactly RA Behavioral Health does
and where we fit in the system of care.
We are not a direct service provider.
We are a regional organization that
that oversees the providers in, in the network of care
of mental health and substance use services.
We have the pleasure of, of receiving oversight
and guidance from the Maryland Department of Health,
the Behavioral health Administration,
and we also work very closely in collaboration with all five
of our health departments in the region to procure
and oversee that system of care.
So we thought it'd be helpful to bring
that image to you all.
Just to give a little bit more context to kind of
where we fit into the system
of care Annually.
We have grown fairly significantly over the years
with the amount of funding that we procure
and oversee that comes through our organization
and comes back out into the community.
So we have this past year, we are right around close
to 26 million in grant funds, both a combination of state
and federal dollars that we are responsible for overseeing
and monitoring that comes into the community of care.
So the services that are supported by those grant dollars,
this is a nice snapshot.
There are several that we oversee.
We've tried to break it out to be a little bit more, kind
of easy to digest.
So just some pockets of overarching services that we manage
are the crisis and wellness
and recovery services in the region.
We have funding that's specific for our adults
and our aging population.
We have funds that support our specialty populations.
For example, individuals that require interpretation
to receive behavioral health services.
We procure those dollars to clinicians in the region
that can provide that service.
We also are the regional core service, not in addition
to being the core service agency, the continuum of care.
So we oversee funding for homeless services
for all five counties,
and we manage the round table on homelessness.
So we do receive funds from the Department of Housing
and Community Development, as well as the Housing
and Urban Development federal organization.
We have expanded significantly in the last few years our
funds to support our child and adolescent
and young adult population.
And then one sort of niche program
that Midshore Behavioral Health does have.
And most of the local authorities, as in the state, do not
as, we have a specialized forensic mental health program
where we work with individuals
that are involved in the criminal justice system,
that have behavioral health needs.
And some of these services are not just five counties.
We do procure and oversee all nine counties of some funding.
For example, our state opioid response dollars.
We oversee that for all nine counties on the shore, as well
as funding for our crisis response system
and those program services.
So those, that's a little bit unique.
And we do closely work with all nine counties to make sure
that those services are doing what they're supposed to
and the communities.
But we are the primary responsible entity to oversee them.
A lot of opportunities to get involved.
For, for those of you here in the room
and those of you watching online, we have several spaces to,
to convene our providers as well as community members
and individuals with lived experience.
Our work groups are something that we're very known for.
We've added several over the years that really kind
of are specific to a population or a need.
A couple of newer groups
that we've brought into the fold recently is we have a group
specifically for our autism providers and autism resources
and a group that is on the horizon for the coming year
as we will be establishing a A veterans work group as well.
All righty. I'm gonna go through some regional highlights.
You can go to the next one. Yep.
I'm gonna start with crisis response highlights.
Eastern Shore Crisis Operation Center.
It, they provide frontline crisis support for nine counties.
In fiscal year 25, there were 8,435 calls that came in.
And then for fiscal year 26, just the first six months,
there were 3,671 that came in.
There was a crisis interv
intervention training that was facilitated.
And in fiscal year 25, 23 individuals were trained.
And then in six months, the first six months
of 26 30 individuals were trained.
We're also pushing out the 9 8 8 initiative a lot.
And this is through samhsa, it's the suicide
and crisis hotline.
You can receive, you can text, you can call.
It's really convenient for the youth especially.
What's the response time on that? Oh,
It can vary.
We're working on that.
Is is is texting faster?
I dunno, I don't know the statistics on the text response
if it's faster necessarily.
There are some hot, the hotline averages can vary.
I know that we have had some issues with how swiftly
calls have been responded to
and we're working with the administration
and also at the federal level to make, you know, try
to work out those kinks.
I don't know the answer in terms of the text versus call,
but we can follow up on that.
I do know that one thing that recently was reintroduced
to the 9 8 8 hotline was the press three option
that had been removed.
It is now back, which is the, the option for our individuals
that are L-G-B-T-Q or and
and have a call that's more in that nature
that they can press three, that
that option had been removed temporarily and it is back.
So that's a positive thing.
Did they remove the survey? The survey,
Every survey request at the end?
I don't think they'll be removing that necessarily.
But that is, you know, 9 8 8 is something
that is governed primarily from our federal partners.
And then we are at the local level work with hotlines that
are the provider of that service.
So we have two providers on the shore,
our primary hotline on the Shore's life crisis
based out of Salisbury.
And then affiliated Ante group manages the backup 9, 8, 8
lines for the shore.
So now we're gonna look at the mobile crisis
team dispatches.
That's a five year comparison.
The bottom line, the green line is Queen Anne County
specific fiscal year 25, there were 70 dispatches.
And so far for fiscal year 26 there have been 60.
And then there's also the mobile response
and stabilization services,
which is a little different from the regular,
if you just call it regular crisis number.
So this team is approximately eight weeks in duration.
They provide intensive services to children, adolescents,
and their support networks.
And this is available in eight
or six of the eastern shore counties.
And we recently have applied
for it to be in all of the counties.
There's some grant dollars. Yes. Okay.
So this is a newer program to Metro Behavioral Health
and as well as to the state of Maryland.
So the community support partnerships is funding
that has come through the out
of Maryland's blueprint dollars dollars
to be earmarked specifically
for our consortium on coordinated community supports,
which is funding for behavioral health service expansion
in our public schools.
So Queen Annes County has benefited
significantly from these dollars.
We've been able to grow your provider
networks substantially.
That's serving your youth in the schools.
And I have to say, Rachel Soff is here.
Rachel is our hub liaison.
So she is part of a two person team that is responsible
for overseeing and implementing this program.
We have a wonderful governing structure to make sure
that the services are doing what they have signed up to do
as well as an advisory council, which is comprised
of families as well as youth that have lived experience
and have received services.
So it's just remarkable.
We're very pleased that we've been able to secure
our grant moving forward this year.
So we're hopefully getting ready to
be contracting with our provider network.
And we do represent all five mature
counties with that funding.
I apologize. So
what is the 1025 students in the tier one through three?
Meaning the severity level?
No, those are the individuals that were served.
So a thousand students in Queen Annes County.
So they met with counselors.
Yep. Providers, yes. Provided by
Besu Behavioral?
No, no, we're not, not, we're not a provider.
We have Pro right. A provider network that is funded, who's
Our provider in the county. We
Have multiple, I think there's not nine
in Queen Annes County,
nine different groups serving the county provider groups.
Not all of them are funded through these dollars.
There were some in place that were, had contracts
with the schools already
before these dollars became available.
This is just allowed for those to those services
to expand greatly
and also include substance use services as well.
So it's been, it's been tremendous to see,
To see the impact.
So, so this portion,
how long have, has it been available? I mean, is it,
We're going into our third year of services.
These dollars had been earmarked in the
budget for several years.
It took a long time to figure out how to get them pushed out
and available into the counties.
We were selected as actually a pilot group.
So we were one of the first groups in the state to be able
to have these funds come into the counties, which is great.
So we're, we're a little ahead of the curve with that,
which has been wonderful.
The challenge is that the, the, that the need is so great
and, and the funds are somewhat
limited in the budget climate.
So we have had to do quite a bit of advocacy
to preserve this funding.
'cause the last thing we wanna do is
to see services that are working.
Well go away because, just because of the funding source.
So I'm, I'm just trying to wrap my head around this.
It's a lot the nine different, they're not nine different.
I think there could be more than it might think.
It might actually be 12 total. I would like to get the exact
Numbers for you.
So 12 clinicians, but 12 different
Provider groups? Yes.
So it could be 50 25 or, I mean
He's talking about the, the number
of clinicians. Yeah. Oh, I,
I don't know how many clinicians that speaks to,
but there are, several
of the providers can provide services by way of telehealth.
So it really opens up a spectrum of a lot
of different providers to be available.
How many individual clinicians that supports, I
would have to look into that.
I don't know if we know that off the top of our head. No
Worries.
So a lot of the thousand
students could be weekly,
so they have like a weekly session at the
school? Am I understanding?
It could be, yeah. Yeah, it
Varies.
So Tuesday at 11 o'clock that, that's actually good. It's
Very good.
Yeah. And so it provides three tiers of services.
So there's sort of broad tier one,
which is more community and kind of educational
and sometimes can involve families.
And then as we move to up to tier three, which is really
that one-on-one where enhanced clinical support.
So we have in several different models
of care, evidence-based practices are supported under these
dollars and are actually required to be
provided to be eligible for the funding.
So there's been a lot of investment from the national center
to, to make sure that
what these dollars are supporting are going to vary quality
providers with refined skills that are,
are expected to be delivered.
So tier three is one on one more
Intensive? Yes.
And it could be virtual or in person.
Yep. Thank
You.
Yeah. And this is done in very close collaboration
with your, your leadership in the schools.
All the providers are vetted through your superintendent
and your mental health team.
And then we, we make sure to do all of sort
of the ground level monitoring and, and site visits
and ensuring that these providers are actually doing
what they've set out to do in their, in their proposals.
But it's a pretty complex procurement process.
They make a supply year, I can imagine year, year over year
for these dollars and a lot of administrative lift
to just make them available.
But that's our job and it's okay. That's what we do.
Great. I will say out of the first group of dollars
through the consortium funding, we were able
to earmark money to have a formal needs assessment done
for the region across the lifespan.
So that was wonderful
because those dollars would not be available given
the current budget climate.
So we did contract with an organization
called Do East Partners to partner with our organization
to do a full spread assessment, which actually
was this time last year coming to a close end, we wrapped up
that needs assessment at the end of June of fiscal year 25.
And wanted to highlight just a couple things that came out
of that assessment that are, may, may be of interest.
So no surprise that top two things
that showed up really across the board were,
or top three housing needs, mental health services
and transportation, which we know is a,
a very complex issue on the shore.
Lots of concerns just
around mental health and substance use.
Most counties in the mid shore reported concerns
around alcohol consumption as a primary
substance use concern.
So mind you, this is information that was reported
by community members so that that voice is so critical
to inform our work.
So really you're hearing straight from your community
members with these survey results.
We pulled out a couple things specific to behavioral health
that came up out of Queen Annes county residence.
So as I mentioned, that piece around alcohol was brought up.
Also just concerns around depression
and just mental health in general.
One thing that I think we're on a path
to see our provider network starting to grow
and get a little more traction
with infrastructure in the county.
But there that really there the ratio of residents
to provider availability in the
county is challenging.
So, you know, a lot of, we find that a lot
of members are going to neighboring counties
to receive services like Talbot County.
So we're working on that.
We've actually had quite a bit of movement in the last year,
especially with substance use providers of different forms,
different levels of care coming into the county.
So that's positive movement.
Alright. Alright.
So suicide prevention.
We have a Midshore Suicide coalition
and this is in partnership with Channel Marker.
The goal is to provide education and awareness.
A few events
and I'll just put
forward Events.
We'll just start with the events. So we had Kevin Hines,
if you guys have ever heard of him.
He had a Stay Alive presentation.
We've established the Lethal, a Lethal Means subcommittee
out of the Darkness Walk.
And then they were having a community event at the Queen
AIDS County YMCA on June 5th.
And that's from four to seven bridging our community
building hope and connection.
It, it's going to focus on youth wellness
and there is gonna be a presentation
by Matt Reynolds, if you've ever heard of him.
Yeah. He's in an internationally known speaker, a gentleman
with lived experience, actually a survivor of suicide.
Same with Kevin Hines. So Right.
And his, his niche is really working with, with students.
So we're excited to welcome him here at the,
at the Y here in Centerville next week.
That's great. Alright.
And there's some more on suicide prevention.
This is in regards to gun safety.
During fiscal year 26,
Midshore Behavioral Health initiated a firearm
safety and awareness campaign.
I mentioned earlier, crisis intervention training.
There's been over 900 gun locks and safe distributed
and then there's some data right there comparing deaths
by firearms versus other lethal means.
And in Maryland there were 599 suicide deaths.
45% of those involved firearms.
And that's up 1.8% from 2022
and then going purple together.
We host this every year.
We switch around the counties, you know, to try
to include everybody and make it accessible.
This past year, September 27th,
it was at the Churchill Park here in Queen Anne County.
There was approximately 40 community resource vendors
and 150 attendees.
This is a really, really fun event that families
and kids are invited to and it truly really is fun.
It's a great way to bring awareness to this topic.
This one, You want me to do this? Yeah. Okay.
So the Rural Advancement of Maryland Peers,
this is a new program that we just received grant dollars
through the Department of Labor to support.
This is really highlighting our workforce
and our peer support network, getting them trained
and certified to be able
to get into the behavioral health workforce.
Since this, they are recognized for incredible work
and the training is off, often cumbersome and expensive.
So we have secured these dollars for the next two years
to hopefully train 15 individuals
to become certified peer support
specialists, which is great.
We are also working closely
with the Eastern Shore Area Health Education Center.
They also receive some dollars
through this grant opportunity.
So we'll be doing some things in
close partnership with them.
I'm gonna jump through a couple of these just
'cause I'd like to get to more Queen Annes County
specific highlights.
One thing I will share, these are sort
of high level highlights.
We've been doing a lot of work
with your leadership in the judici judiciary space here in
the county in partnership with Kent County.
We meet monthly, we're looking at doing a potentially a
pilot diversion project,
which we actually just submitted a grant
for hopefully getting funding for that today
that would support individuals that are in a need
of mental health support that are in detention
to have an alternative location to either
complete their sentence time
or just have some stabilization during their detention.
So fingers crossed. But we've done a lot of great work.
I know that Judge c Cville
and Judge Knight, we're also piloting a project
where we are receiving with the permission
of the petitioners, anyone who is filing
for an emergency petition for an indi, a loved one
or a person in their neighborhood
or a friend, that we are getting a referral to follow up
with that support network
to offer our services when someone is in need of that level
of emergency petition intervention.
So that's a new initiative we started within the last
quarter and it's been very successful.
Okay. Just a couple of our signature events.
We annually host a sequential intercept model
mapping conference.
We have done this for the last 14 years.
That's looking at how individuals move in
and out of the, the criminal justice system
and where we can divert them from incarceration.
We just hosted our,
I guess it was our 15th annual across the lifespan
conference I wanna say.
And this year's focus was suicide prevention
across the lifespan.
And as Sarah mentioned, we are looking forward
to our going Purple event, which
of course is coming up in September.
Oh, I don't know what just happened. Sorry.
Speedy. This year we had a couple of new
signature events that were folding into our
other events that we put on.
We are doing Good Samaritan law training in the counties.
We just got some funding
to do this specifically in the coming
year in Caroline County.
This year we did it in Talbot.
And we have a workforce excellence program
that we've started out of our continuum of care leadership
that has another class coming up here in Caroline County.
We started down in Dorchester.
So we're moving that program through the counties.
And of course we love a good visit from our state
partners and colleagues.
So this is just kind of highlighting a couple
of visits we hosted over the last year.
We had the leadership of the consortium,
which we just touched on in the National Center
for School Mental Health came in August.
We had our partners through the Office of Prevention
and Promotion through BHA visit us at our across the
lifespan conference.
We have strong relationships
and partnerships through the Maryland Office
of Overdose Response and that work.
We've touched on the governor's office for crime control
and prevention and policy.
That's something that the state is really putting a lot
of attention behind is just how we're meeting the needs
of individuals
that get involved in the criminal justice system.
So let's turn it back over to Sierra.
So some Queen Anne County highlights already
mentioned the going purple.
Each county is a local care team.
I attend Queen Anne County local care team.
Katie is the board president
of the Queen Anne County Local Management Board.
Let's see. We work very closely
with the Queen Anne County Local Addictions Authority.
I already said the forensic mental health team participates
in the Queen Anne County Problem Solving court.
And we just did a volunteer day at Queenstown Landing,
which was in Queen Anne County, which was really fun.
We did bingo, karaoke was a hit
veterans group, all sorts of stuff.
We tried to alternate counties with our volunteer day too.
So, okay.
Some new initiatives on the horizon.
You may have heard that Maryland passed legislation
to adopt an assisted outpatient treatment program.
The Eastern Shore is part of a pilot one group,
or phase one group, I should say, for
rollout of this program.
So it's all nine counties of the Eastern Shore, along
with Anne Arundel County.
Baltimore City are scheduled to go live on July 1st
with implementing assisted outpatient treatment.
There's been a lot of work that's gone into this,
but there's still a lot that we don't know
until the program really gets off the ground.
This would allow for an additional opportunity for
family members or loved ones are concern concerned community
members to file an order to
have an individual be engaged in their outpatient treatment
for their, their beha, serious and persistent mental health.
This is just for adults.
There's a lot of requirements
and criteria to be eligible to receive an order.
The shore, we are hoping to have at least
two care coordinating teams.
We haven't gotten confirmation on
that from the administration,
but as soon as we know who our care coordinating teams are
for individuals that have an assisted outpatient treatment
order, we will certainly be working closely with them.
And our rural health transformation program.
So the competitive funding
for the behavioral health service expansion dollars,
were due today at 2:00 PM
and I'm glad that to say that, that we submitted.
So we put in a few,
I think really interesting transformative
partnership requests.
So holding hope there.
Those dollars have a lot of different
initiatives tied to them.
But of course behavioral health is the one
that we're focusing on.
So we have some three priority areas around mobile,
mobile treatment expansion, suicide prevention,
and as well as our diversion initiatives.
So we're, we'll see, we'll hopefully here over the summer
if we've been able to have those dollars be awarded.
Okay. And then here we have some statistics.
These are Medicaid claims.
So mental health consumers was 1,655.
Queen Anne County represents 16
or represented 16.2% of the mid shore individuals.
And then for substance use, it was 769 consumers
with the highest utilization areas.
Mental health, it was outpatient services, 95%.
And then for substance use, it was labs, which was 68%.
And then this is the point in time count.
This is through the continuum of care,
the Homelessness Prevention Services
that Katie mentioned earlier.
So the point in time is a count of sheltered
and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on
a single night in January.
HUD requires that they do an annual count.
So this year it was 27 sheltered, which would be emergency
or emergency shelter or transitional housing.
And then one unsheltered, which is a place
that's literally not met for a person to live in.
And we just thank you for your support
and this is how you can get ahold of us.
If you have any questions, we're happy
to take additional questions as well.
That was very comprehensive. Thank you.
Thank you. We didn't even read it all.
That's a great report. No, it's a lot
of information we appreciate. We appreciate your time. It
Is a lot.
I don't know how you keep it straight.
Yes. Alright. We also have the fiscal year 2027 letter
of agreement for Right.
Your consideration tonight as well.
It's an action item. Tell Oh
Yeah.
Yes. Great presentation. Oh, thank you. Very good.
$168 million Rural Health Transfer
Transformation grant.
That was due today or the paperwork was due today.
Does that, that's
For the pillar two, the 160 eight's broken up
into some clumps.
Only eight. Only 16 million of it is for behavioral health.
Is any of that going towards can be used
for the $5 million MA match for the USDA?
No, it can't be used for that.
It's federal. Federal funds. Yeah. Oh, I know.
Can't use federal to match federally.
So I Are you speaking?
Are you, I can you want me to?
You're just addressing your email from the other day.
Yeah. Come on up Bryce. Yeah.
Can you kinda lay that out for, for us?
I'm Sorry. Could
You kinda lay that out for us?
What your thoughts are on the cross?
Was it crossroads at, in Dorchester?
Oh, so short. So Katie
and I have been talking about
what other options there might be for use
of this USDA funding for youth services.
I had met with the USDA team
and also had discussions with the congressman's office on
what truly the parameters of that funding are.
If there's any flexibility in there,
if the PHP stuff doesn't work out.
Katie and I had a meeting with the CEO Kara, what,
two weeks ago, Carol Morris, a couple weeks ago.
They are looking to build a, a outpatient center per se
for mental health services out of Cambridge.
And they were looking for additional capital funds
to complete that facility.
And there's a number of services that
will fulfill services across the lifespan
to include youth services and,
and according to the USDA team,
that sounds like it's a possibility as long
as we're addressing youth mental health needs in the region.
And they would start serving, I think around age.
I think it was five years old enough. Five.
Yep. So is it essentially a, it's, it's, is it,
it's not A-P-P-H-P.
It's more of a,
you go in for an hour and then you, you have therapy
And you leave.
It's not partial hospitalization. No.
But they would have multiple levels of care available there.
But partial hospitalization is not one of them.
And and what would they be,
what would be the I don't have the, the care,
I don't have their, I don't have the full list,
full proposal, but it was what PRP outpatient
Mental Health. Outpatient mental health.
And to do some, I think some education and training.
They're gonna have an industrial kitchen there
and hopefully do some, some sort of
Life skills.
Does it have to be built in Cambridge?
Could it be built in Easter?
That's something that's been in the Queen County.
That's something that's been in the works
since before COVID
To to do it there in Cambridge.
Yeah. Do they have another, they have
another facility that way they
Have a facility right here in your
backyard in Centerville.
Is it being utilized as well as the new place could be.
Oh yes. That, that's a provider
that serves all five counties.
So I know there's a lot of specific information that's
provided in the correspondence as well.
I didn't bring any of that with me. 'cause
I That's okay. That's
All right.
It's just an option for your consideration. Yeah. And yeah,
There's, and you know, other things
to consider is maybe looking at extending it
to more than one provider, if that was an option,
or if there's a provider that might need vehicles.
And then we talked about that.
Yeah, the USDA team was pretty clear
that the capital funding could be used for vehicles.
Any capital equipment tied to that.
If there was specific, for example,
on a lab equipment that you might want.
There was a lot of flexibility there.
But the, the, the key is the operational piece.
And of course, the match is still a concern.
Can a provider or somebody else meet
that match the 25% match that's required by USDA?
So is is universal Maryland completely out
of the picture for the, the second floor of the ER
at Cambridge to be a PHP?
That is my understanding.
But they're, they're exploring
how they can expand their outpatient services
to also support the entire lifespan.
But the partial hospitalization is not something
that right now they're looking at,
they're looking at expanding their intensive outpatient
treatment program as well as reestablishing the hope is
to reestablish their bridge clinic, which
I don't wanna speak on behalf of Shore
Regional, but, so And when you say
intensive, do you mean inpatient?
No, you mean intensive outpatient?
Yes, intensive outpatient to include providing that
for children and adolescents.
Right now they have intensive outpatient,
but it only serves adults.
Adults. But they are looking to expand it to serve youth,
but that's not partial hospitalization.
The complexity with partial hospitalization is the
requirement to provide education to have school
provided while youth are attending the PHP.
So youth, PHP is a much harder service
to lift up.
So right now, my understanding is that's not
what they're entertaining.
It's not the priority.
And to add to that,
they don't need capital funding for that.
Right. The facility in Cambridge is set up
to accommodate something like that.
Yeah. Where we're, our hands are kind of tied
with this USDA funding for capital funding.
Now of course, there could be creative ways to put it out
for interest so providers could respond.
I think we were just trying to provide you some options
of current capital projects that we know are underway.
Thank you. Sure. Appreciate it.
Yeah, appreciate all you do. Seriously.
It's a, it's a tough job.
Well, we have good partners
and we appreciate your support.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Appreciate the presentation. Thank
You.
All righty. We get a Motion with it?
Sign the letter. Yeah,
I make a motion to sign the letter for FY 27.
Great support. Second.
Got a motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed?
So moved. Thank you. Thank you.
You Thank you. Thank you.
All right, commissioners, we can move into the
action items for this evening.
First we have from the Department of Public works,
under tab number two we have one item, pages one
through seven item one pages one through seven.
This is for the Board of Education administration building
over at the Vincent on Vincent Street Lot 19 B.
And this is a, a plat
and a deed of dedication to transfer
that particular 4.7 acre parcel of land.
Or the new board of education administration building is now
occupied by the board of Ed over to the board
of Education members.
And that's a traditional thing.
So Lee Edgar's here if you have any questions about
that, but that's a transfer.
I'll also mention too, that we did just receive notification
from the Maryland IAC.
They voted to approve the transfer of their former
headquarters down on Chesterfield Avenue back
to the county commissioners.
So they're working through some miscellaneous details,
but that'll be coming back our way here in the
next month or so.
That's right. I move
to execute the de transferring ownership
of lot 19 B adjacent to one 15 Vincent Street Center
of Maryland to the Board of Education of Queen Annes County.
Second, we have a motion. Second. Any discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye a.
Aye. Opposed? One absent.
Thank you commissioners. Thank you. Alright,
Thank you commissioners.
Thank you Lee. Thanks for being here.
Next meeting will be daytime, right? That's
Right. Thank you.
That's right. All right, commissioners,
we got some action items to cover here this evening as well.
They're under tab number three.
So if you wanna flip to tab number three, item one,
pages one through 10.
This is a petition to intervene in Maryland Public Service
Commission case number 9 8 6 8.
So there's been an application filed for a certificate
of public convenience to construct three co-located solar
generating facilities totaling 9.98 megawatts.
This is on 6 74 acres of property just outside here
of Centerville on adjacent to the 3 0 1 3 0 4 interchange.
It is within the town's growth area
and the town of Centerville's tier two growth area.
This is a clear attempt
to circumvent standards found in both Maryland code public
utilities codes and our zoning code
and our planning staff has recommended
that we intervene in this particular case
because it's inconsistent with the spirit of all of our
objectives here with solar projects.
I moved to file a petition to intervene in the application
of TPE MD QA 15
A-L-L-C-T-P-E-M-D, QA 15 BLLC
and TPE MD QA 15 C-L-L-L-C for a certificate
of public convenience and necessity
to construct three co loaded solar voltaic generating
facilities totaling 9.98
megawatt in Queen Anne County, Maryland.
Case number 9 8 6 8
Second.
We have a motion to second any discussion.
Oh, what do you begin, right? Yeah.
Yeah. Amy, give the Reader's Digest version
of what's going on here broadly and,
but this case specifically in
Queen Annes County, if you could,
The concern with this case, and the reason that I've come
before you with this request to intervene, is the fear
of the precedent that would be set by not
directly interacting with the CPCN process at this point.
When 9 31,
the Renewable Energy Act was passed last year and we had to
accordingly update our solar provisions.
We all kind of came in line with
the siting standards as outlined through that legislation.
Basically utility scale solar is
permitted to be cited in accordance with those standards.
And community solar projects are
have a lighter standard since the update of our code
and since the approval of
the renewable energy legislation,
we've predominantly seen community scale solar projects.
We have not seen utility scale projects like we had seen
prior to Senate Bill 9 31.
This bill rather,
this proposal is located at the intersection of Route 3 0 1
and 3 0 4 and it is in the town's designated growth area.
Tier two. During the negotiation of
that legislation last year, we successfully
put a prohibition on major
solar development within the town's growth areas.
What this project is, is a combination of three
co-located community solar projects
that in its entirety basically constitutes
a major utility scale project.
So what I did was put that
in writing to the public service commission, that I found
that the application as submitted
was a pretty clear attempt to circumvent some
of the key standards that were negotiated in very
long and hard fought battles
during the previous legislative session.
And I really called upon,
hopefully the Public Service Commission to,
to make some kind of a determination as to whether
or not they also were going to deal with
what looked like a complete,
a clear circumvention of the standards. I mean,
This is blatant, I mean,
I felt that it was, and I felt that
I had enough legal ground through consultation
with our planning attorney to put in writing that when
it lands in the county, we would treat it as
one comprehensive major
solar energy generating system rather than three separate
community solar projects.
So in an attempt to get a determination on
that very interpretation that
would be applicable to any other project
that we might see in any of our growth areas,
and also wanting to make sure
that we're following the letter of the law as
was dictated to us through the last legislative session,
we wanna make sure that
that interpretation is also going to be supported.
Because my concern is that
we might see other applications like this
or other applications that I haven't thought of yet
that are also circumventing some of those standards.
Yeah, you, you take a 400 acre farm
and you just do 40 10 acre solar projects,
you still have a 400 acre farm
of solar at the end of the day.
But like we, it circumvents our personal property tax on
utility grade solar, which goes back to farm preservation.
Not to mention Kent County has a project over there
that was developed into solar.
That was their last piece of priority growth area
that had water and sewer to it.
So they solar, they lost it, they put solar there.
This is a priority growth area for Centerville.
We we're having all these conversations about moratoriums
and we won't be able to build on the island.
We're gonna have to build into towns.
But then we're, if we take that town land
and put solar on it, we can't build on it,
which is where we would have to build.
So there's a lot of things going on here
that are just bad about all this honestly.
And the town did submit a letter, so we submitted a letter
and the town of Centerville did
likewise in accordance with the complete list,
deter the completeness determination deadline,
which the public utility law judge established the
application was found to be complete.
But as a result of the letters that were submitted,
there was a request that the applicant submit a brief
that addresses the points that were raised in our letter.
And this intervention is meant to, if we intervene,
we will have an opportunity to al also submit a brief in,
in the deadline that is established
by the public utility law judge.
So I think it's important
to be engaged in that conversation.
And the town of Centerville is considering intervening
as well, but they,
their council does not meet until next week.
Very well. We have a motion and a second.
Any further discussion? Seeing none.
All those in favor signify saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?
Abstained. So moved.
Alright. Thank you Amy. Thank you commissioners.
Our next item, item two pages 11 and 12.
We have drafted a resolution number
26 0 7 for your consideration.
This is to initiate a temporary moratorium on the approval
or processing of applications for data centers.
This has been a big issue around the state of Maryland.
I think there's at least six other jurisdictions
that are considering similar pauses for development activity
for data centers, for obvious reasons, their energy usage
and necessity for large, large areas and farms.
So this is a, would be an effort for us to work
with the zoning team and draft
and craft appropriate designations
and standards for this type of use.
In, in Queen County, we really don't have anything
that fits the, the mold currently for, for data centers.
So for your consideration, this is 12 months,
I move to adopt resolution 26 dash seven
temporary moratorium on the approval of processing
of applications for data centers.
Second. Second. Got a motion to second. Any discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
Aye. Opposed?
That counts as it an aye. Okay. Five. Oh.
Alright. Thank you commissioners. Thanks Amy.
Thank you Amy put that on your list as well
for new assignments.
Alright, thank you.
We've already been working on this one, so
you're happy to have a break.
Alright, Commissioners we have next we have a series of
conservation research re conservation reserve enhancement
program, agreements of sale, and Mr.
Joe Pippin's here from as well.
He's prepared these so we can, I'll, I'll try
to summarize these, but these are all ready to be submitted
to the Department of Natural Resources
for review and final approval.
That includes agreements of sales, project agreements,
and all those have to be signed by the county commissioners.
All the funding for these programs are
provided by the program open space,
no county funds are being utilized.
So with that brief introduction,
item number three on pages 13 through 27 is an agreement
of sale and project agreement
for the big Oak Big Oak Farm LLC.
This will add 97.5 acres to, to the CREP
totals that we have in Queen Ians County.
Alright, so I'm gonna change your agenda up a little bit.
I move to execute each
of the conservation reservation enhancement program,
easement agreements of sale
and project agreements for the following properties owned
by Big Oak Farm LLC, the agreement owned by Robert
and Dean raci
and Catherine raci Eastman successors to the co-trustees
of the trust created by the last will
and testament of Robert E. Dean
and owned the one owned by Mardel View Farms, LLC
and the one owned by Alice M. Kirby
and Brenda Cheryl Kirby.
Second We have a motion and a second.
Any further discussion? Aye,
Well thought out.
Seeing none. All this in favor signify by saying aye a.
Aye. Opposed? Goodnight Joe.
Good seeing you, Joe. Great job. Thanks
For coming by.
Keep 'em coming. That's right.
All right, well that concludes action items
3, 4, 5, and six.
So, okay, moving on. Item number seven, pages 76 through 88.
We have the Bay Bridge run 2026 MOU between us
and the Maryland Transportation Authority
for the event on November 8th of this year,
I move to execute the memorandum of understanding
with the Maryland Transportation Authority
for the annual Bay Bridge run scheduled
for November 8th, 2026.
Second. Got a motion a second. Any discussion here?
I hope they can get it in the weather. C rates.
I hear you. All this in favor signify by saying Aye.
Aye. Aye. Opposed? AB saying five Oh.
Alright. Thank you commissioners.
Item eight on page 89 is a request for
economic development incentive funding
for Tide Water Direct.
This is for the EDIF commission.
Recommended the approval of $1,599 in grant funding for
forklift training for Tide Tidewater Direct.
I move to approve the disbursements $1,599 from the
Economic Development Incentive Fund, workforce Fund
for forklift training for to Tidewater direct LLC.
This disbursement of funds is contingent upon a signed
agreement between Economic Development Incentive Fund
Commission and the Tidewater Direct
and will outline the conditions of the agreement
and performance of the project.
Second, got a, a motion in a second. Any discussion?
The, so I, I have a question regarding this, this ask
and the one after the ask, please come on up.
Heather,
You were that close.
You were that close. It
Was good to stand up.
So I know that originally when
we introduced this program years ago, it was obviously one
of the main drivers, correct me if I'm
wrong, was job creation.
Yes. Okay. So I mean, I, I'm just,
I'm simply playing the devil's advocate.
I mean, anything that we can do that helps businesses
that already employ Queen County citizens and,
and so this first ask of the $1,500 for the training,
again, is an easy ask.
I don't see all it does is really just take Quinan County
employees that work there already
and just train them to operate a forklift.
Right? So we have two portions
of the economic development incentive fund.
I think it was in 2022 after COID lightened up.
We had some money that we were unable
to get out the door related to job training.
So this, the commission voted to move
that into the economic development incentive fund specific
to workforce training.
And the goal of it is, it can be an existing employee,
but to, to skill them up so that they are able
to make greater wages because they have a certificate
or some sort of skill.
So some of the thing, we haven't done a lot of these,
so I understand your confusion.
Some of the other ones that we've done, we've done one
for PRS and that was like management training
and then we have another one in play
for like human resources and management training.
So those then provide them with a skill, a certificate
that they could stay employed there
and receive more in wages and
or they're more marketable should they
leave that organization.
Not that that's what we're advocating to do,
but, so there is about, it was 250,000 that was allocated
to this workforce training.
And we have slowly
but surely little bits at a time given out.
Okay. That's a good explanation and I appreciate it.
That's all I have.
Okay. Seeing no other
discussion, all those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye. Opposed? Five O.
Alright, thank you Commissioners. Thank you Heather.
Stay right there. We have number item number nine on
pages 90 and 92.
This is another request for EDIF funding for Aging Stronger.
And they are purchasing a body composition device
that provides precise body composition
and bone health assessments that support early intervention
and healthier aging.
This is a total cost to this project is $55,000.
They're requesting $50,000 in EDIF funding
to support the purchase.
And they currently employ one full-time staff member,
three part-timers and they're gonna hopefully get another
additional full-time position
sometime over the next three years
to support their business down.
I move to approve the Economic Development Incentive Fund
conditional loan up to 50,000 to the aging Stronger
for their purchase of the DSA device.
The disbursement of funds
is contingent upon a signed agreement
between the Economic Development Incentive Fund Commission
and Aging Stronger outlining the terms
and conditions of the funding
and the project's performance
as submitted in the economic development incentive
fund application.
Second. Got a motion to second Any other discussion?
So me again? So we're committing up to $50,000
for this business to purchase a piece of equipment loaning
It's a loan.
Yeah. Okay. Conditional loan. Yeah.
Okay. I I understand that component of it with the hopes
that in the next three years
they're gonna be able to hire one person.
Okay. Alright. That's all I have.
All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? No abstained.
4 1 4 1. Alright.
Alright. Thank you commissioners. Thank you Heather. Thank
You.
All right, commissioners. Item number 10 on pages 93
to 103, this is the termination of open space easement
and amendment of deed
of forest conservation easement for Mr.
Clifford Higgs.
This owner is requesting approval to dissolve cluster lots,
2, 3, 4, and five and a private road Garson lane.
And he's proposing to create a slide lot number two
at six acres.
So this is all permitted within that zoning district
and the, they were allowed one slide lot
based on the acreage.
So the cluster lots were being dissolved.
The slide lot technique does not require open space.
That would get terminated as well.
And all the open space that was required with the,
with the original cluster lot subdivision.
So that's where we are.
I move to execute the termination of open space easement
and the amended deed of forced conservation easement
for the Clifford Higgs minor subdivision plan.
Second. You got a motion? Second. Any discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
Aye. Opposed? So moved.
Alright, thank you commissioners.
And our last item tonight, we have a desk item.
This is from the Y River Oyster Program.
This is a letter from Mr. Bruce Abel
Bruce, the last man standing.
Oh, last man standing request requesting continuing
funding support of the Y River Oyster program.
Their request currently is for $55,000
to match funds they have raised by the community
and to increase the spat plannings by an additional 15
to 20 million spat on shell over three acres.
So you're so far year to date, how much have you raised
Year to date?
About $110,000.
$110,000. Just from the neighborhoods down? Yes
Sir. That's
Correct.
Just from the public. Gotta love that.
And you're asking for 55,000 correct. From us.
So you're gonna be doing about $165,000
worth of spat on shell
Total? Yes
Sir.
Yeah. And how many
Acres in, in one year?
How, how many acres would that
Track?
There's each, each boat, each vessel.
Well I'm saying if $165,000 is gonna buy
how many acres of seeding?
Nine acres. Nine acres. Wow. Okay.
Per our, so, so since, since you were so graciously
approved funding last fall,
we've more than doubled the number
of homeowners that are involved.
Families and the, and the dollar amount.
So the program's really taking off, we're doing well.
Each barge you're committed to a barge or,
or we shared a barge.
You met our matched our funding last fall
and together we will plant one barge
next week, two weeks, sorry, June 6th.
And each barge will filter about a million plus gallons
of order per day.
So what we're asking now is to do two more barges.
So we've raised more than that 50 plus thousand dollars.
And that's what we're asking you to help match us.
So we can do another 2 million gallons per
day filtration.
Those that don't know it, the Y river is a sanctuary,
so these cannot be harvested.
And sooner or later, you know, when they mature out,
you know, hopefully in the next, you know, three
to five years, the spat will be coming off of those and,
and flowing out into Eastern or Eastern Bay
and attaching out there on, on some of the other beds
that have not been that lucky.
So, you know, I think it's an investment in the future.
It's, it's like what we do for the farms.
You know, once, once those oysters mature, we don't have
to spat on shell anymore.
We move more towards, you know, helping other bar,
other oyster beds.
So Mr.
Abel, you can be Harvested.
Yeah. Correct. These can't be right.
Mr. Abel, can you explain the process
for our viewers on how do you do all this?
So you buy the spat from Horn Point,
So Correct.
So no, not from Horn Point.
So what we did, we, we went out
and got the community involved first.
Okay. And their donations, we will accumulate,
we're a nonprofit, we're Midshore Community
Foundation is our sponsor.
So we work with them, we'll take the money
and then we'll buy them from a grower, not Horn Point.
It's actually seed to shock if you wanted to know that.
Seed to shock. Correct.
There's a, there's a same company that's doing
the seeding in Eastern Bay for the state of Maryland. So
You're, you're not putting them in tanks.
They're grown in tanks for the fat to go on the,
they're grown in tanks, they're Shell
Is in, they've already done that.
That's correct. They've already done that for you?
That's correct. That's correct.
And how big are they when you put 'em on the barge?
Are they dime size or?
No, microscopic size. Microscopic size.
But this past April we did go down
and we scuba dive down.
Oh. Took samples from our last planting.
We're very happy with the results we've talked,
we will be taking that data
and presenting it to Noah as well as
ORP and kind of helping us assess that.
But we're very happy.
We've seen three, four oyster real oysters on that are
that used to be spatter now oysters, one
and a half to two inch size oysters.
That's great. So it's, it's working.
How many people have been involved in the program with,
with, with you guys and, and raising the money?
There's a handful, like five.
But you mean how many people?
But, but there's a, again, there's
over 70 families.
Okay. That's the number I was looking for
And probably 20 to 25 others that are involved,
but just want information.
Okay. How, and that is about 22%
of the homeowners on the Y River. Okay.
How, how deep is the, are the oysters in,
how, how deep would the water
Now the, the perfect depth is 15 to 18 feet.
I didn't know that. That's interesting.
Alright. Why is that the sweet spot?
I'm Sorry, what's that? Is that, that's
the sweet spot for
Well that's, that's recommended. That's what
You got. That's what you
Got.
That came from the DNRN. Ah, yeah. And, and Noah
Actually.
Right. Which we're not going to do.
So the, the locations are determined by the DNR.
We are not picking those locations comes from side scan
information that came from Noah so that we,
that we, and they know that we're replacing the spa
and Shell is suitable for growth and, and success.
So because it's a sanctuary are are they going
to allow you to turn them up
after a few years to get the sediment off
of them to bring them back up?
There's a word for that. And I forget what it,
You only need to do that where the, where the,
When they're right. When they're adults.
No, when they're dead. When they're dead.
You're, you're removing that sediment
so you can plant new spat onto the shelves.
So hypothetically if the reef is
alive, you don't have that set. You,
You don't have to do that. Right,
Right.
So, yeah.
Alright, well I mean, I guess, you know, I'll make a motion
that we award the Y River Oyster program
$50,000 second.
We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstained five.
Oh, very good. Thank
You very much. Yes, thank
You Mr.
Abel. I was, there's another program
that our people are doing
Where They're, they're putting
The baskets.
Yeah, yeah. You gotta have enough salinity.
So like in the river you get up too much fresh water,
you know, he's down by the mouth of the river,
So, so he gets enough salinity. Yeah.
And I'm sure he gets, you know, you're
Talking about the baskets.
Yeah, It's a great program.
It's the MGO program primarily it,
it's an educational program
so outta each basket you're getting a, a small number
of spat actually.
So Sure.
Rivers estimates that you're gonna get 250
spat out of each basket. We did
Millions, 20 million.
Right. So. Right.
It's it, but it's a great program and I fully support it.
And then you can bottom leasing where you can,
somebody can basically rent
The acreage And acres
and just put the baskets on the bottom
or float 'em, you know, it just depends on where they are
and what the salinity's doing. So, yeah.
Yep. How many folks do you think did the basket
program just guessing?
I, I, I couldn't guess. Goodness.
What, what number I throw out might be Yeah, totally off
QAC, channel seven did a piece on
and jumping by the name of Bill who, who
raises oysters from the baskets office peer.
And he's got a total of 12
and they start a spat in a small little basket and,
and then they progressively get older.
You're seeing an oyster that's four years old
that's grown on the bottom of the bay
and his are the same size after a year and a half.
So the water clarity around his peer is amazing. Grass.
The nutrients or something. Huh?
The nutrients are on a higher level.
I, I would recommend that you, that you, yeah.
Watch that segment on QAC, channel seven.
It's fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.
Thank you. Well,
You know, I, I think that the five
of us up here sitting here, you know, did a lot
for the farms and I think this is another way, you know,
you know, the farms are in great shape
and we, we will continue with that.
But if we can get the Y River to explode with oysters
and then move away from it, I think, you know, that's,
that's a, that's a good thing for everybody. Good thing
For everybody.
Honestly, I'm surprised that you're the only
ones that have approached us.
Well, they've raised the money. That's what I'm saying.
You know, they, they, they have the skin in the game
and, you know, almost at a two to one rate.
And I think that that's commendable by far.
So, thank you Bruce. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you for saying be the last man. Yeah.
Thank you. At least it wasn't worth nothing.
That's a, a good thing.
Alright, well, no press of public comment. Nothing to read.
We're we're good to go. So, round table.
You wanna go, boss? Yeah.
So all the high schoolers are graduating this week
for Queen Anne County and Ken Island High School.
So to all of the graduating seniors,
we're all very proud of all of you.
So congratulations and go do great things.
Number three, Go past me,
Patrick, you ready? Got
Anything?
I've been approached strangely, not strangely, by a number
of teenagers asking if we would
do a mental health town hall,
which I was really, I'm,
you know, I'm taking it seriously.
Okay. So I'll I'll let you guys know. Yeah.
I'm not sure what, how it would work.
Would it be at the high school?
Would it be at the fire department?
And their thoughts are is that it should be over the summer,
because if you wait till school, then if anything comes out
of it that's proactive, we'd like to give the school time
to, to think about it and implement it.
Sure. And the, the yellow card program
that's being done at Talbot is the gold standard.
So we'd like
to encourage the public school to look into that.
Awesome. So cool. You ready, coach?
Yes, sir. So,
transportation planning meeting tomorrow at five
30 at the Ken Island Library.
Residents can review the draft region now
2027 Transportation Improvement Program and provide comment.
This plan aligns with the MO
Consolidated Transportation program.
Juneteenth Festival is coming up for Canard on June 13th.
It starts at 8:00 AM with a Father's Day haircuts
and a continental breakfast followed
by the parade at 10 o'clock.
Grayville Community Center's also doing the Juneteenth
19th or the 13th? Where'd you say?
June 13th. Okay. For the Canard Festival. Okay.
Graceville Community Center's also having a Juneteenth
celebration on the 19th from four to eight.
We celebrated Emergency Medical Systems week last week.
And congratulations to Sierra Gardner named BLS Clinician.
That's basic life support of the year.
And Sarah Tory was the Advanced Life
Support clinician of the year.
There's still time to review, there's still time to,
there's actually a few days still left over.
Jim, if you don't mind.
The Shrink Rack program is accepting bags at the
Grayville Transfer Station,
and you can receive your bag from West Marine, either one
of our libraries, ACE Hardware Stevensville,
the town Hall building in Centerville.
Just as a reminder, you have to take the zippers
and the vents off.
And then last I want to share the fact that I got to attend
yesterday's Maryland State two, a baseball game
where Ken Island High School, varsity baseball
competed against Hereford for the two-way State Classic.
They lost three to two with two outs in the bottom
of the seventh inning on a,
a walk off a blooper into right field.
But this is the first time in 18 years that
at a Queen Ance County high school baseball team has
attended the state playoffs.
So kudos to those young men.
There was actually three freshmen on the team,
so very, very deep.
But I, I wanna attribute the success
of the baseball programs at both our high schools
to the youth baseball programs
that are feeders into those programs.
We're turning out some great kids that are playing the game,
so kudos to Jack Cheney, the coaching staff
for the Ken Island High School boys varsity baseball team.
And of course, the young men that fought very, very hard
to get to where they were last night
and just could make it happen in the two outs.
Runner on first two balls, two strikes,
and the next pitch.
Just a blooper in the right field. And, and Hereford won.
Played a good game. They won on a walk off,
but kudos to those boys
and I look forward to watching them come in the future.
I think they're only graduating two or three seniors
and they have two freshman starters.
So this is gonna be a great program. Great job boys.
And we look forward to watching you guys do it.
And again, next year. That's all I have.
I I, I don't have anything to add,
but you may want to give the lacrosse team a
Shout out to.
Yeah, oh yeah. A also too, the lacrosse team, they went
to their, their state championship game.
They fell short as well.
But again, and making it to the,
the state championship game huge for all the school,
all the, the two A schools in the state of Maryland
and make it to that championship game, win it or lose it.
It's a huge accomplishment.
So absolutely to Bobby Willie and his coaching staff
and the Ken Island boys varsity lacrosse team.
Very good. Yep.
Good. I just wanna give a shout out for the senior summit,
you know, ah,
you gotta love our seniors.
That's all I got to say. I appreciate everything they do.
And they had over 850 people show up. Food is great.
Event was great. Great weather. I'm very, very proud of 'em.
I'm happy to sit on that committee with them. And with that,
Make a motion to adjourn.
Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you very much.