Seven.
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Comments received will be summarized during the press
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On today's agenda, we acknowledge everyone's participation
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Press and public comment will be taken
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If you do care to speak,
please sign at the information table in the lobby.
Comments longer than three minutes can be submitted in the
writing for the commissioner's review.
We will now stand and be led in the Pledge of Allegiance
by commission, president Jim Moran,
Pledge of Allegiance to testify
the United States of America to the Republic
for which stands, one Nation under God, indivisible
with Liberty Justice for All.
Can you please remain standing for a moment of silence
for the passing of Wayne Humphreys?
Thank you.
All right, commissioners, we can move
to approve this morning's agenda.
So the agenda for our meeting today, July 14th, along
with the regular session minutes,
the sanitary commission minutes
and the closed session minutes from the June 30th meeting
have been circulated for review.
Any additions, changes, corrections?
Nope. Motion to approve the agenda as submitted
and the minutes as submitted.
Second, We have a motion
to second any further discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor signify the saying Aye.
Aye. Opposed? Alright, thank you commissioners.
So we just held a closed session under the general
provisions article sections 3, 3 0 5 B one for personnel,
section 3, 3 0 5 B seven to consult with counsel
and section 3 3 0 5 B three for land acquisition.
I do believe we have one government services contract motion
for for the personnel matter.
I move to approve the government relations contract
with Bruce Ano for FFY 2027.
Second. Motion to second. Any discussion on this topic?
See none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
Opposed? All right, thank you commissioners.
That brings us to press and public comment.
So we appreciate all citizens for taking time
to express views to the county commissioners.
Comments are limited to three minutes per person
comments longer than three
minutes can be submitted in writing.
This commission respects your desire
and right to convey your message freely.
When you come forward, please speak clearly at the standing
microphone states, your name, your address,
and your topic of interest.
And in keeping with the dignity of our office, we ask
that all views be expressed in a
respectful and civil manner.
We have, first on the list is Loring Mills.
Good morning commissioners. Good morning. Morning.
Morning. My interest is in traffic safety question.
My name is Loring Mills.
I live at 2 32 Topside Drive in Stevensville.
A decision was made by the planning commission last Thursday
to provide major site plan approval
for a manufacturing facility adjacent to target traffic,
routing and accessibility was considered,
but traffic safety for that particular activity
was not properly addressed.
The proposed facility is for a good company,
it's a great company, it's a great asset
for Queen Anne's County, the tech ops safety
specialty vehicles and that the county should support
whatever they can to help this company.
They provide items for security at national events.
My concern is the traffic consideration of that entrance
to the facility that was being considered.
The proposed entrance to the FI is on a sharp curve
of the Thompson Creek Road within 200 feet
of the MA most complex intersection we have on Ken Island.
That's where Route eight inter is interchanges with
Thompson Creek Road and Pier One Road.
That intersection is well documented
as a problem intersection In fact,
traffic backs up beyond where that proposed entrance is
to the facility for each one of the red lights.
Not every red light, but every few minutes a red light
back up occurs there.
And my concern is basically
how the heck are you gonna handle all the traffic on that
area and the aggravated aspects of that entrance
to that important intersection.
As you review the project, I review, IE urge the commission
to require an independent TRA traffic safety evaluation.
How does that impact the traffic there on that route eight
at that intersection?
That's very close. It's a lifeline.
It's a lifeline for a large part of the county
and a lot of business and activity there.
I just thank you for consideration of that safety effect.
I would like to offer my comments that I
provided to the planning committee
as thank
You.
Thank you.
All righty. Jay Stead.
Good morning commissioners.
Jay Fag, queen and Conservation Association.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak
and thank you for having the morning meeting.
It's kind of nice to see daylight outside.
I just wanna make a comment one on 26 0 5,
but two on these text amendments generally
because I've been following this stuff for a long time
and it seems like these text amendments are now getting
to a point where they're getting outta control.
And so anybody is entitled
to submit a text amendment in February.
More often than not, these things are coming forward for
a single landowner to try
and correct something either based on a bad investment
or a misunderstanding
or something related to their their property.
The problem is they're not taking into account the broader
impacts to the county
and legis legislation is supposed to work countywide.
And so what happens is some
eager attorney will come forward with a text amendment,
push it forward force staff to do a review,
force your attorney to do a review,
force my attorney to do a review.
And oftentimes they end up failing.
And so I hope at some point we can take a look at text
amendments generally with the aim
of hopefully doing away with them.
I have to say in my 20 plus years, I've never once
put forth a single text amendment.
And there's a reason because I try
and work through the commissioners,
bring forward a legislative idea,
let it go through the process.
This text amendment process I think is just
wr wrought with problems.
That brings me to 26 0 5.
I testified last time on it, this particular text amendment
and this particular parcel of land.
In short, in my view, the landowner bought a lemon
and now he's coming to you to try and rescue his investment.
At no point during his proposal
has he done any other traffic
studies anywhere else in the county.
There's been nothing to look at any
of the other intersections
where this text amendment would apply.
Your highest order
as a county commissioner is public safety.
By allowing what he wants to do at that intersection
undermines your ultimate responsibility
for public health, safety and welfare.
I submitted a paper to Todd, Mr. Mon just a moment ago.
I also submitted to you by email yesterday, I believe
that text amendment 26 0 5 is legally vulnerable,
but for a whole host
of other reasons which are articulated in this paper,
I hope you'll find a way to reject this outright.
You have plenty of reasons to reject it.
The Planning commission said no.
The Economic Development Commission said no.
The Board of Appeals said no
and your public works department has said no.
That should be plenty of reason.
Enough to just say no to 26 0 5. Thank you.
Thank you. Alright, Brenda Malaney,
I'm the eager attorney.
I believe so.
I I represent the two first text
amendments that are on your agenda today.
And would just like to recognize that the, you know, the law
and the process do allow citizens
to bring these text amendments forward to resolve issues.
The text amendments are there, whether you bring them
or a citizen or a business owner
or a property owner brings them to address specific issues.
That's why the mechanism exists.
The county has a short window where they can be submitted
and you know, we've, we've submitted in that window
to address an issue
that we believe results in a better situation for the county
supports business in the county
and would allow a reasonable review by the Board of Appeals
as we've proposed to modify the text amendment,
would allow a reasonable review by the Board of Appeals
through the conditional use process to ensure
that there are not significant adverse impacts created
at a subject location.
Recognizing that this change is requested to be countywide.
We do believe that it is reasonable.
I do want to point out that there's a lot of, you know,
there's some dialogue on social media on both sides
of this discussion related to the 3 0 1 intersection
that is adjacent to this applicant
who brought forward the citizen led
text amendments property.
That intersection is well over 100 feet from this property
so that that intersection is not at conflict with the law
as it currently exists.
There's a dirt road intersection between that intersection
and this subject property.
I don't believe that there are traffic concerns
or safety concerns related to
that intersection within a hundred feet.
But the intersection that I think is causing some
of this consternation and dialogue is well over 100 feet
away from the entrance to this specific property here
to answer any questions on behalf of either
of these applicants for these citizen led text amendments.
But just wanted to note that. Thank you
Laura Davis.
Morning everyone. Laura Davis Churchill, Maryland.
I'm a lifelong resident of Quin Annes County.
Grew up in Sellersville.
My husband and I have been in Churchill
for the last 10 years and I use the 3 0 1 4 0 5
intersection every day.
I used it on the way here. I will soon have children
traveling that intersection
potentially multiple times a day.
I drafted an email, I sent it this morning.
So a little tardy on my part.
But I do want to express my feelings about
the text amendment change that's being proposed
for Ordinance 26 0 5.
I urge you to vote no.
As someone who has advocated to improve the safety
of the intersection at 3 0 1
and 4 0 5 for years, I find it deeply troubling
that the county is even considering reducing requirements
required setbacks for gas station entrances
and exits from a hundred feet to 75 feet.
The intersection is already one of the most dangerous
and frustrating in our county.
As you all are aware, every day residents have
to navigate high speeds higher than ever.
I would argue heavy traffic more than ever,
I would argue right Since the Delaware
Middletown bypass has been put in place,
limited opportunities to turn on the highway
and near misses that have become all too common.
The solution should be finding ways
to make this intersection safer,
not weakening the very standards that were put into place
to protect the traveling public.
What is especially concerning is
that the professionals charged
with evaluating these issues have already spoken.
The Department of Public Works recommended against the
amendment planning staff recommended an
unfavorable recommendation.
The Economic Development Commission also opposed the
amendment because of traffic safety concerns.
When multiple independent county departments reach the same
conclusion, that should carry significant
weight in your decision making.
This ordinance is not simply about one of a parcel of land.
If adopted, it will establish a countywide precedent
by reducing safety standards
for future developments across Queen Anns County.
A place we all know and love our community has been asking
for improvements to this 3 0 1 4 0 5 intersection for years.
We need to be meaningful.
We need to put meaningful investment in traffic safety,
better traffic flow,
and long-term solutions, not regulatory changes
that could increase the number of vehicle
conflict points at an already difficult intersection.
If this ordinance is approved
and development proceeds under reduc, I'm sorry,
reduced safety standards, I fear it will only be a matter
of time before a serious tragedy occurs.
Many of which have already occurred As it stands.
I sincerely hope we never reach a day when everyone looks
back and wonders why the warnings from the county staff,
public safety advocates and concerned citizens were ignored.
Please put public safety ahead of convenience
and development pressure.
The residents who travel these roads daily deserve
leadership that prioritizes protecting lives
over lowering established safety standards.
I respect each of you and I ask you to vote no
to Ordinance 26 0 5.
Thank you. Thank you, thank
You, thank you.
That's all we had signed up.
Would anybody else like to speak at this time?
Name and address.
Yes, Joe Ano lived here my whole life.
Senator Rome, Maryland, the owner
of Property and Price Station.
One thing I just wanna make clear is
that the intersection 3 0 3 0 1
and four five is not the intersection that is applicable to
what we're trying to change here it is the Dirt Road,
Carville Price Road, which is within a hundred,
not the not the highway intersection.
Highway intersection I know is an issue.
Every highway intersection on 3 0 1 is be is an issue.
I'm in full support of trying to find a solution
to make all those intersections safer.
We've recently received a letter from State Highway.
I know you guys have sent them letters to make 'em safer.
We received a letter from them.
They're gonna use our property to help
with their traffic studies to, to try to find a solution.
We're in full support of that.
But those intersections are not, don't, don't really relate
to what we're trying to do with this project.
This project here we are trying to help the commu,
it's a commercial property.
You know, it's been sitting there vacant for years.
The community out there wants something.
They've, we've for four years we've
been trying to figure out what to do.
They've come to us. They want gas, they want a gas station.
You know, there's no gas station along 3 0 1
for 30 mile stretch.
You know, there's no place to get fuel.
They have to go to Churchill, they have to go
to Centerville, they have to go to Delaware.
We're trying to help the
community here, the community there.
This is what they want. So I hope
we can find a way to make it happen.
Would anybody else like to speak?
We also have a couple people on Zoom
and if you are in Zoom
and wanna make public comment, could you please either use
the raise your hand feature
or answer the the chat that we have.
This email comes from Claudia Jewel.
As a lifetime resident of Ken Island
and a resident of Marlin Farms for 62 years,
I strongly request that commissioners
and the Department of Public works prioritize the extension
of the sewer system to Marlin Farms and Dominion.
Rising water levels and aging STIC systems pose a genuine
concern for homeowners and for the environment.
Every waterfront home with the septic system is a time bomb
for failure and our precious rivers will be the victims.
Planning for extension of the 5 5 2
system need to be started.
ASAP as far as future allocations, quarterly review
and approval appears to be the better plan.
Thank you for your consideration. That's all I have.
We better wave than I? No, I think we're good to deal.
Alright, we're gonna go ahead and close.
Press on public comment.
Alright commissioners, we can move into the legislation
we have this evening, or excuse me this morning.
Tab number seven, item one, page one,
county ordinance 26 0 5
supplemental standards for gas stations.
This is available for a vote.
This is supplemental standards for gas stations
to include fuel pumps, underground storage, fuel tanks,
canopies and Queen S County.
For the purpose of reducing the required distance
between an exit entrance to a gas station
to any intersection from 100 to 75 feet.
I think I, I would like to continue this item
for an additional two weeks so we can consider an
amendment to the ordinance.
So we're gonna hold that.
Okay. Alright.
Item number two, county ordinance 26 0 6.
This is for the maximum impervious surface ratio
for commercial and industrial uses in the suburban
commercial district that we're operating prior to
December 31st, 2025.
And this would increase that impervious percentage coverage
from 45% to 80%.
And also I would also like to continue this item
for an additional two weeks so we can consider an
amendment to the ordinance.
So we're gonna hold these two in two weeks, come back with a
possible amendment and move forward from there.
Okay?
Alright. Thank you Mr. President.
Item number three is the amendment
to county ordinance 26 0 9 for
transferable development rights.
This can be introduced
and forwarded to the planning commission for review
and recommendation if you so choose.
This would further restrict the allowable uses in open
space, which have been administratively subdivided under
other provisions of the legislation.
I'll introduce the amendment to 26 and nine. Alright.
Okay, item four is
likewise an amendment to county ordinance 26 10
for non-contiguous development.
Also can be introduced and forward
to the planning commission for review
and recommendation similar to the previous ordinance,
this would further restrict the allowable uses in open
space, which have been administrative loose subdivided under
the TD NNCD development districts.
We'll introduce the amendment to county ordinance
26 10 as well.
Okay. Alright. Alright.
That's all we had on the agenda
for legislation this morning.
Okay,
Next up we have Presentations.
So item first up we have Ms.
Melinda Ray, character counts coordinator.
So Melinda, come on up. Good
Morning, good morning, good morning, good morning.
I'm a morning person So this is perfect.
Alright, so I am here
to give you guys just an update on character counts
and where we stand and how our year went in the schools.
It went really well. I always do surveys with our teachers
and our students at the end of the year to kind
of figure out, make sure we're doing what we want to do
and that we're making the impact we think we're making.
So I have some stats for you.
We ask the teachers whether
or not they felt the school supported character counts
and they saw it like within their building
and other places outside of just the coaches coming in.
95% said that they, they did. So the schools are on board.
And then we have some great buy-in.
We've got some great schools and great faculty,
so I always love working with them.
93% of our teachers said
that they welcome the character counts coaches into their
classrooms, which is is nice.
And one of the questions I asked both sets teachers
and students was whether
or not character counts is making a positive
impact on their classroom.
What are the teachers seeing?
Is this helping the way we think that we're helping
and 91% of our teachers so
that they see a positive impact on our,
on their students from our character counts coaches.
So that's always exciting.
And then we also pull students, we pull fourth
and fifth graders and some third graders,
but mostly fourth and fifth graders.
And this is always my favorite data
is what the kids are saying.
So 82% of that age group said that they enjoy the classes,
they enjoy the lessons from our coaches.
89% felt that the coach that they had was engaging
and then fun and, and they enjoyed their visits.
And then 72% of the students said
that they saw a positive impact from the te the
coaches in their classroom.
And 72 is obviously lower than 91,
but we're talking about 10, 11 year olds.
So that's a hard audience. So I think 72 is a good number
for them to say that they see a positive impact.
So I thought that that was kind of exciting.
And then I also, we allow our TE teachers
and our students to kind of make comments.
So I wanted to read you some of them.
These are from the teacher survey. I love character counts.
Having a community member teach these lessons
and be one more adult in a child's life who is teaching them
and pulling for them is wonderful.
It truly takes a village, which is one of my favorites.
The year was outstanding best in 11 years.
Coaches were great with kids, consistent and communicative.
These character counts lessons are
so valuable to our students.
Thank you so much for making sure our young students
are exposed to these lessons.
And all of this is obviously
because you guys allow character counts to continue
to run in our county and
because of our partnership with Q-A-C-P-S
and then some students commented too.
So I wanted to read you some things
that come directly from these 10 and 11 year olds.
This hard audience. I really like Character counts.
I think it's fun and interesting.
I hope that character counts stays in my life.
Another said my character counts is so nice.
She's fun and taught me
to care about other people's feelings.
She taught me good character.
Another one said I like that it was fun
and I got to write on paper, not on a computer.
I really like what they do at Character Counts.
I want to thank everybody that works at Character Counts
and helps me learn and have fun.
Thank you for going out of your way to help us.
What age is this? This is 10 and 11 year olds.
Yeah, another said our coach was really fun.
The best character counts teacher ever.
She tells stories that in lessons and she plays game
and she teaches us and the pillars are really the best.
And so these always make me smile.
It's one of my favorite things. I also do focus groups
with outgoing fifth graders who've had character counts now
since kindergarten to get their impact, the good and the bad
and the ugly all in between.
And that went really well. I did that
with all the outgoing fifth grade classes.
We had a small group, about five to 10 students.
I got some really good positive feedback on
where they wanna see the lessons going in
particular, which is exciting.
So I'm working on some new lessons for them.
The other thing that came up in one
of those focus groups was the kids really wanting
to be involved in character counts outside
of just their character counts lessons in their classrooms.
We do have student ambassadors in each building
and those two students in each school get
to do like announcements and special
things for character counts.
But a lot of the fifth graders wanted a bigger role.
And so in speaking with the school counselor at Matt Peak
Elementary, we're gonna do a pilot program this coming year.
We're gonna call it Character in Action,
which is basically going to be a character counts club.
So we're gonna allow kids to kind of join it.
The idea it's, it's kind of being flushed out right now,
but the idea is that these
students would choose a civic activity that they want
to accomplish over the year.
Something that they see that in the community they wanna
make a positive difference in.
And they would work as the leaders of this group to kind
of organize that, figure out an action plan, figure out
what they need and make
that happen over the course of the year.
And then I would support that through kind
of like monthly get togethers.
So we're excited about piloting that at Mad Peak Elementary.
We do have new lessons coming up.
Worked on a whole new series
for our kindergarten first grade group,
which I told you guys about the children's
books we're working on.
Or I'm working on fourth grade lessons right now.
And then I hope to do also a fifth grade kind of revamp on
what they, they do in their, their care accounts lessons.
And then the last thing you mentioned earlier,
we had a moment of silence for Mr.
Humphreys. He was an integral part of character counts
and is a huge loss to me and to this program.
Not to mention the community at large,
but the advisory board for character counts wanted
to do something to honor Wayne's legacy,
specifically with character counts.
And so we will have a committee that will meet in September
and we are going to be working on
what we're gonna call the Wayne Humphrey
Student of Character Award.
So hopefully an outgrowing fifth grader at every elementary
school will be chosen that exemplifies all six
of the pillars the way that Wayne did.
So we're looking forward to honoring him in that way.
And then as always, we're always looking for volunteers.
It is the summer, but I am already
thinking of next school year.
So all of you guys, I've got lots
of openings as of right now.
I'm going to speak to the board of Ed
in next month in August as well.
Businesses of character, if you guys have a business in the
county that wants to join us and kind
of help us promote our mission,
we're always looking for that.
And also advisory members.
I love getting feedback and my advisory council
is a great sounding word for me.
So that's pretty much the update.
I think I covered everything where
We're at.
So I have, not a question but more of a suggestion.
So getting back to that group
that you talked about, a fifth graders.
Yes. This new, what are you calling it again?
We're calling it Char, I'm
gonna call it Character in action. Character
In action.
So just like the club. So I feel
that the transition from fifth grade to middle school,
there's a huge disparity and
and desire to be cool in middle school.
Yeah. And I think that adds pressure to the kids
who have really focused as fifth graders or pre-K
or kindergarten up to fifth grade
and have practiced the six pillars of character
for those five years that they were in elementary school.
And then all of a sudden now they're faced
with a different dynamic.
And I think one of the focuses for this group
that you're talking about is somehow helping them transition
to the middle school level
and understand that the honoring those six
pillars is still important.
I completely agree. And one of the things
that I'm really looking forward to this particular group is
creating it an opportunity for children
to take leadership roles.
Because I think that that establishes self-esteem.
But to your point, when I sat down
with the fifth grade focus groups, one of the things
that came up and which is, which is why I wanna revamp kind
of our fifth grade lessons, is
that the fifth graders were very eager to kind
of flip the pillars a little bit.
In fifth grade. They said, you know, kindergarten
through fourth grade and currently through fifth grade,
the pillars are always about what you can do for others.
How can you be kind? How can you be a trustworthy person?
How can you show respect and all of those things.
So the fifth graders were like, you know,
we really need lessons on how to have self-respect, how
to be responsible to ourselves, how to be true
to ourselves, those type of things.
So the lessons are gonna kind of flip a little bit.
And so we're gonna be more reflective
and self self-focused in fifth grade is
what I'm looking forward to doing.
But I'm a former fifth grade teacher,
so I know exactly what you're talking about.
And it doesn't necessarily start when they hit sixth grade.
It's usually about January
of fifth grade when they come back from their holiday break,
something has flipped in these fifth graders
and it's, they're completely different students. And
The desire to be cool
and accepted at the middle school level.
Yes. And sacrificing some of those, those characters
that they haven't exhibited all those years thinking I gotta
ditch 'em because I'm now in middle school. And
Middle school is a huge age
of transition for these students.
Yep. And they're trying to figure out who they are
and how they relate in their groups.
And their groups are changing. It's,
it's a very difficult transition.
And so we are hoping that with,
by switching up the fifth grade lessons a little bit
and making them more in introverted,
we'll give these students a little bit more
just self-esteem, self-confidence, power to to say no
or power to make the hard, those hard choices.
'cause it is hard for those kids to do that.
But also walking the fine line of, you know,
my volunteers are just that they're volunteers.
They're not psychologists, they're not educators.
We wanna make sure that we're giving them lessons
that are broad enough
but we're not imposing, I don't know,
self doctrines on kids.
We want them to just give them tools to be self confident.
Good. Awesome. Anything else? Thank you.
All right. I'll see You guys soon. Thank
you for the update. Yeah,
Of course.
Thank you. Thank you.
Next commissioners we have
Director Scott Hall from emergency services with
his update today and that can be located in your book
tab six, item two, pages two through 23.
And we also have it up on the screen here as well.
Good morning, Senator Director Haas.
Yes, good morning. Good morning everyone.
It's nice to be here in the morning.
We've been told to hold this to 10 minutes
so we're gonna speak really fast.
If you could hold your questions till the end,
I'm sure you'll have a couple questions for us.
Each one of us is timed out how long it's gonna take us
to do our, our component of it.
So I am going to immediately turn it over to Lori
to go over special operations.
How much time does she get and just keep Yeah,
how much time does she get about the more
not enough the more
We pause what time I'm gonna get.
Alright, so good morning.
I just wanna do a general recap of special operations.
It's kind of a vague overview of our staffing.
We've done some remodeling
and this is what our staff looks like now.
We have eight full-time employees
and we are anywhere from emergency management to logistics
to training under the emergency management umbrella.
Some of the things that we are currently involved
in or project updates.
We have recently submitted four grants for the county.
There's a list of them there.
We are also starting to work on our continuity operations.
We'll be reaching out to county departments very soon
so we can work on our continuity of the county government.
We're updating our strategic plan.
We are constantly working on our emergency operations plan
and evolving that.
So that's in case of any large scale emergency.
But we also work with individual groups this year we're,
we were contacted by the four H Fair so
that we can help them come up
with a safety plan for this summer.
And I think you'll see some added benefit to that
during four each week.
And then we also worked with hole in the wall over the last,
I would say three years to get them up and running.
And they're currently doing that.
We're working on a dam plan
and a dam exercise for all the dams
that are in Queen Annes County.
And then that is a mandate by the state.
We do that every five years.
And then we also continually touch the,
our emergency response team
or our cert team is active and growing.
We are in the schools, both high schools
and we are now expanding to two middle schools.
We did one last year.
We're also continually working on CPR staff,
the lead training and public outreach events.
Our logistics group, it consists of the radio,
the CAD analysts and the inventory control.
And then we have our training group
and they are training mostly in-house coordinating out of
out of our department to get enhanced training for EMS,
special operations and
and communication. And that is
Alright on EMS.
So first thing I wanna highlight is our staffing.
So this is our current staffing based off of
what we had coming out of FI 26.
This doesn't include that FFY 27 seventh unit.
So the important thing is from baseline we have zero
vacancies right now, which I'm proud of.
We've got one staff member that's in the process
to precept from EMT to paramedic.
We have four more that are in their mentoring process
to set them up for success to move up.
And then we have another four that are
enrolled in paramedic class.
So we're doing really well investing in our staff
and building a pipeline of a LS providers for us.
Fall volume wise, you can look from 24
to 25 we saw enhancement
or increases across the board in calls, transports
and depletions in 2026 were already
projected to be ahead in calls.
Transports are lagging a little bit behind then
what they would've been at this time last year.
But also June to September is the busy months
with the summer traffic.
So we expect that those numbers will probably hike up a
little bit over the company once.
Looking at our response times for our 1275,
we're holding pretty consistent around 13
and a half minutes on our 70th percentile.
We're also highlighting the 90th percentile
'cause it's something in our
strategic plan that we're looking at.
And that's kind of an industry standard
that you really wanna start with Nate,
your 90th percentile times, which we hold close
to 17 minutes right now.
Something that's contributing to challenges in our division
and we're seeing an increase in major
incidents throughout the county.
We've got a lot of large accidents.
We've had a couple of search operations that have happened
and we're seeing an increase in our priority cardiac
and respiratory patients.
And things to notice is
that these high acuity calls require multiple units
of people to manage the severity
of these people projects underway.
You guys are familiar with the whole blood grant.
We've talked about that last month.
We're just waiting for the funding to be released
to move forward with that project.
The replacement supervisor unit that we ordered in November
of last year is on the production line
and we anticipate to see delivery of it in September.
The cardiac monitors that you guys approved for us to do,
we have taken delivery of them
and we will do be doing training in the month of August
with a target in service date of August 26th.
And then we're also expanding our rapid sequence induction
program, which is the highest level
of innovation in airway care that we do.
Thanks to Lori's training folks, we're able
to really train up some folks outside
of our supervisor cadre
that were the only ones that had that skill.
So we're gonna increase the level of service to the citizens
of Queens County through that transport unit updates.
So we've got two new Fesco units that are
arrived in November and are in service.
The unit that we ordered in July of 23,
we finally got a production number on
and we're expecting to see that
around Thanksgiving of this year.
And then we currently have two units on order from Fesco
that were approved on August 27th
and shortly we'll be asking you for another one 12
to 18 month lead times on those.
And last thing I know it's on
all your mind The seventh unit.
So we have two paramedics for that unit that are scheduled
to start on August 12th.
We are open for EMT positions up until tomorrow afternoon.
We are gonna be conducting interviews on the 21st.
We're hoping to grab a couple of them to start in
that August 12th cadre.
And if not, we'll put them on an eligibility
list to start them in October.
With that, I'll over to Scott.
All right, so next on list is communications.
Phil thought it would be great to take a vacation.
So he was unavailable to come
today, so I'm taking his place.
The good news with our communications division is,
is we have 25 or 23 full-time staff.
Zach had to make us look bad,
but we have one vacancy and he has zero.
So we're working on the one vacancy just
orientation wise, when we do have a vacancy
and we bring in a new employee from scratch,
it takes us about 1200 hours to train the person
to get them fully functional by themselves on the floor.
So it's usually a huge ordeal
for us when we do have a vacancy call.
Volume wise, we're running just a little under 62,000 calls
to the center so far this year.
Of those calls, 28,000,
a little under 28,000 were emergency calls into the center
and required emergency services.
Phil has successfully passed the state 9 1 1 board
inspection, which is an annual inspection that we go through
and we actually passed with flying
colors and we're very proud of that.
Phil has also upped his QA and QI are quality assurance
and quality improvement programs throughout the division
and we've been lucky that the 9 1 1 board has funded a lot
of applications that we can use
to help us do quality assurance and quality improvement.
One thing that you approved several months ago was the
upgrade to our Vesta nine one one phone system
and it has been delivered, it's sitting in the warehouse
and we have a anticipated completion date of the upgrade
late August timeframe
and we should have a newly functional nine one one
phone system in the center.
We're currently coordinating efforts
with Talbot County's 9 1 1 Center to use their backup center
as our backup center when the courthouse gets its
renovations in the upcoming year.
Currently our IT department is working
with their IT department to make that happen.
And we still have a long way to go but we're hopeful
and confident that we'll be able to use Bert's Backup Center
as our backup center during
that timeframe of the renovations.
Last on the list is we recently had an audit done
through the 9 1 1 board to analyze our rate
that we charge on the phone bills.
If you're, if you remember about two years ago we raised our
rate from I think 75 cents to a dollar 50.
And it took us about two years to do that process.
Thank you Commissioner Wilson for getting in the middle
of it and expediting that process
even though I wouldn't really call it expediting it,
but you moved it along a lot quicker than what it could.
They basically on their analysis feel
that we could up up our fee
to $3 if we're comfortable doing that.
We can't do that currently.
I'm just putting a a a a reminder
that we could potentially do this
December timeframe is when we need, need
to start considering it and start
having conversations on it.
And why my bringing it up is the 9 1 1 board is not capable
of funding to the same levels that it has in the past
because the technology change.
There is a large brunt on the money for the grants
that the 9 1 1 board, which will require us to pay more
for services that the board has covered in the past.
The good news is I am currently a voting member on the board
and Jeff Rank sitting behind me is probably gonna get even
with me for talking to him into being a
member of the 9 1 1 board.
But he is the fiscal administrator that's on a 9 1 1 board.
I'm very proud of both of us being able to to participate in
that and thank you Jeff for saying yes
and you'll probably never say yes to me ever again.
Next on the list is fire Marshal Jeff, take it away.
So I'm Jeff Morgan, I'm a fire
marshal for Queen Hills County.
Currently in our office we have two full-time people.
We have a one fire marshal
and then one full-time fire inspector, two plans examiner.
And we have five part-time contract personnel,
which includes one part-time fire inspector,
two plans examiner and four part-time inspectors.
These are the stats from January through June.
They're half year stats.
It averages to 183 activities plan reviews per month,
which breaks out to nine average activity plan reviews per
county workday, which excludes holidays and weekends.
If you look at the stats over on the side,
I'll just point out a few of 'em.
The bucket final,
which are residentials in the county residential units,
it's 121 we've done so far this year.
Hydros are 124
and the inspections we've done is 269.
We've had three complaints that we follow up on
and those are citizen complaints that come in
through an email system.
They can go online to the fire marshal,
they can put in whatever problem they have
and we'll come out and we'll take a look at
what the issue is and get back to 'em if they So a desire.
And we've done 277 plan reviews this year so far.
And our total right now is 1,094.
And then this is a breakdown from 2018 when I took over
to the present and you can see the,
the reds are all the activities such as inspections,
bucket tests, complaints, anything like that.
And the greens are the plan reviews
that we've done in those years.
And he says this is for calendar year. So that's all I have.
So at the end, there's one thing that Lori forgot
to mention, and I am not walking outta here without
mentioning it 'cause I'm very proud of it.
But the Maryland Emergency Management Association recognized
Queen Annes County Special Operations Division
with two awards this year, which I'm extremely proud of.
One of 'em for Queen Annes County was a multi-agency
sheltering exercise.
Received the preparedness project
of the year award for that.
The second award that she received was
for Queen Anne County Cert program
and we received the community project
of the year award for that.
Why is that significant? Because there are 26 primary local
jurisdictions that compete for these awards.
There's basically six of 'em throughout the year.
We receive two of 'em, which is unheard of.
We've got a staff of three lori's part-time of that staff
of three doing emergency management work.
And most of these agencies in the larger jurisdictions have
well over 20 people working in their
emergency management division.
So we're outperforming with three compared to
what the larger jurisdictions are doing.
So I'm extremely proud of that.
And that's the end of our
presentation. So you have any questions?
Very good. So what Scott saying is if we reduce his
workforce a little bit more, they work harder, right?
And we get more awards Reputation, what I said
So much for job security, Great job on those awards.
I, I think people, what they don't see is sort
of the local government working quietly, the background.
And it's a lot of the planning
and preparation that you do for if there's an emergency
that allows you to respond so effectively
and people don't see those exercise going on,
but they're constantly being evaluated
and it's amazing work that you guys do. So thank you. Thank
You.
Well, one thing, you guys have always been role players
for us on, on these drills.
I think you won a an academy award Commissioner Moran on,
on a couple that you've done for us.
And Phil has always been behind us on everything that we do
and basically is on a unit every time we
have an event that we're covering.
So, so all of you thank you for
What do for, well I I'm gonna get, hopefully I get one
more chance, one more attempt at working
the, the Bay Bridge race. We are
Hoping, hoping that you are there for us. Yeah,
That I just, just one discouraging comment
regarding your presentation
and certainly out of your control,
but you talk about units that we ordered in 2023 and
and we're and they've just entered production.
Yep. So, you know, trying to plan that far out on, on
and anticipate what our needs are gonna be in the future,
knowing how long it takes to get equipment in.
So kudos to you and your staff.
I I just become a common factor that you guys lead,
you know, the state in a lot of categories
and that a lot of organizations in other county
jurisdictions want to be like us.
So kudos to you guys. Outstanding work. We
Appreciate your support.
Well we couldn't do our work without you,
so thank you for everything you do for us.
So, real quick question, Lord, has the state
or is there any rumblings of the state addressing the
battery emergency systems in terms of
from an emergency management standpoint
because we're only gonna be able to hold 'em off for so long
and one of the fears is they get in
before we actually have a plan
on how we're gonna deal with
'em. If something was to happen.
We have not heard anything or the state but, and
It has not hit a state level on the emergency management
Side at all. Okay.
We talked about battery storage for
Solar large.
Yeah. Actually it's gonna be more than just solar now.
It's gonna be for a lot of things. Yeah, yeah.
Standalone and everything else. So yeah. All right.
Well between that and data centers
and everything else,
we're not worried about data centers right now.
We got, we got more,
We got a year reprieve
There, but, but you're not wrong.
That's where the, that's where the big battery,
I was out Frederick County at
that hyper data center out there
and a number of batteries they're gonna have out there.
If that catches own fire, the whole county's gonna go.
I mean there's just no way they're gonna contain that.
Right. 180 acres of batteries.
It's just gonna have to let it burn out. Yeah.
It's the only way to do it. Yeah, unfortunately. Anyway.
Well that's good to know the state's on it.
Be some Well thank
you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
Scott, while you're here.
Commissioners, they, they had two action items.
Do you wanna cover those real quickly? Yep.
Alright, So if you wanna turn to tab number three,
commissioners tab three, item number 11,
pages 46 through 50.
This is for the emergency services billing rate increase
proposal in the addition of a lift assist
and treatment without charge transport charge fee.
So they've conducted an analysis of their current rates,
Medicare reimbursement trends, inflation factors,
and looking at neighboring jurisdictions.
And it's been determined that our existing rates are
significantly below regional benchmarks
and there is a recommended increase of 200% in those
transport charges to better align with prevail market rates
and improve cost recovery.
And to establish a charge for lift assist responses,
which are an increasing, increasing in call volumes as well.
So
I move to approve the increase in ambulance billing rates
and authorize the implementation of charges
for lift assistance services
and treatment without transport services as recommended
by EMS and slash mc.
Second, We have a motion
to second any further discussion on this item?
Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye. Aye. Opposed? So moved.
Thank you commissioners. And item 12 on pages
51 through 54.
This is a request to order an additional ambulance
with an expected delivery date of 18 to 24 months.
As we we know, we have
a Huston Houston Galveston area contract purchasing program
agreement that will enable the department
to procure a 2027 Ford F five 50
for $394,259.
I move to authorize the director of the department of EMS
to purchase 1 20 27 Ford F 5 54
by four Horton Model 6 23 ambulance
through the Houston Galveston Area Council
Cooperative Purchasing Program from Fesco Emergency Sales
for $394,000 and
$259.
Second, We have a motion and a second on this item.
Any discussion? Seen none.
All those in favor signify the saying aye. Aye. Opposed?
So moved.
Thank you commissioner. Alright, thank
You.
Motions a little lower on that, huh?
And the last one, the stretcher
And the power lit Separate on
That, that so it,
if we know it's under 400,000, it's like woo.
If we ordered that As
A 20% markup, if you order it
through them versus going straight to the manufacturer
On this, I I assume that sooner
or later you're,
your orders this make four that we're waiting on now.
Yes. So we're not gonna put 'em all in service
when they come.
'cause you're gonna end up with a, a year in your cycle
that you're gonna have to replace four ambulances.
They're gonna stagger as they come in. Yeah.
So, but we need to, the fleet
that we have on the street right now, we need
to replace desperately.
So we'll transistor 'em as quick as we can.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you commissioners. Thank you. All
Right.
Thank you. Great presentation.
And and Todd, I'm
sorry, I think we're a couple minutes. No,
You're fine.
We're good. Alright.
Commission sticking with our action
items in tab number three.
We'll go back to item number onell leading off Proclamation
26 19 Parks and Recreation Month.
That explains everything. That
Explains a lot. It's Parks and
Recreation month.
That's right. That explains a
Lot.
There's a theme
And it's FY 27 Now.
Yeah. What did they say? Go when the
Hooker's hot or whatever back.
Well then it's hot strike. Well it's hot, right?
I've got good practice.
So I You want me to read the proclamation first? Sure.
Or have him go and then justify it. Nevermind. All right.
Proclamation 26 19.
Whereas Parks
and Recreation are an integral part
of communities throughout this country,
including Queen Anne's County and Wears Parks
and Recreation promotes health
and wellness, improving the physical
and mental health of people who live near parks
and wears Parks and Recreation,
encourages physical activities by providing space
for popular sports, hiking trails, swimming pools,
and many other activities designed
to promote active lifestyles.
You should probably have umpiring in in there as an activity
Where has parks and recreation programming education
activities such as out
of school time programming youth sports
and environmental education are critical
to childhood development.
And whereas Parks and Recreation increases a community's
economic prosperity through increased property values,
expansions of local tax base, increased tourism,
the attraction and retention of businesses
and crime reduction.
And whereas Parks and Recreation are fundamental
to the environmental, environmental
wellbeing of our community.
And whereas Parks and Recreation are essential
infrastructures that make our communities resilient in the
face of natural disasters and climate change.
And whereas parks and where our parks
and natural re recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty
of our community and provide a place for children
and adults to connect with nature
and recreate outdoors,
which has a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing.
And whereas the US House of Representatives is designated
July is Parks and Recreation month now
therefore be it resolved by Queenan County Board
of County Commissioners.
The July is recognized as Parks
and Recreation month time
by the Queen Annes County Commissioners.
Thank you. And while he's here
That's right.
While we're here, it is the beginning of a new fiscal year.
So we have the next three items.
Item two, three and four are
for new field lighting projects using the Keystone
purchasing agreement with Muscow.
The first one is for White Marsh Park
lighting on one baseball diamond
and installation of additional infrastructure
for future field lighting. I move to all,
Lemme Finish, you're done. No,
No we're gonna because we're gonna do all three together.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. The second one is at bat's neck
for one baseball diamond retrofitting the artificial turf
field lighting and electrical panel bat's neck park.
And the third item, item four is
for a softball field at Bat's Neck Park as well.
I moved to authorize the Department of Parks
and Recreation to contract with Musco to install lighting
for number one one baseball diamond
and install infrastructure
for future field lighting at White Marsh Park for a total
of $525,368 two one
baseball diamond retrofitting the artificial turf field
lighting and electric panel work at Bats Neck Park
for a total of
six hundred seventy eight five hundred and thirty $2,000
and three one softball field at Bats Neck Park
for an apartment amount
of $294,035 contingent upon
grant funding from DNR program. Open space.
Second. Second. We have a motion
and a second on these three items.
Any discussion? None.
All those in favor signify by saying Aye. Aye. Aye.
Opposed? So moved.
Alright. Actually I know we've already made
but I just want just a quick comment
and I apologize 'cause you raced through that.
But I think it's significant to remember that
by putting these lights on the fields we're we're expanding
the ability to use those diamonds beyond
what daylight hours offer.
So it's important because with this huge need for Fields
usage, with all the different youth sports organizations
that have evolved over the years in our
community, this is key.
So huge money well spent.
Yep. Yeah, sure. Alright.
The next two items, five and six are for new equipment
for our parks and recreation department.
The item five is for
2 20 26 Chevrolet 2,500 trucks.
The second item, item six is for a Ford F five 50 truck
from Hertrich Fleet Services with a dump bed
and snowplow package.
I moved to authorize the Department of Parks
and recreations to purchase number one two 2026 Chevy 2,500
HD trucks with Snowplow packer package from
Hertrich Fleet Service Inc.
In Denton, Maryland for $108,688
and two one 2027 Ford F five 50
truck with dump bed
and snowplow package from Hertrich Fleet Services Inc.
In Milford, Delaware for 108,767.
Second. Okay,
we've got a motion to second on these two items.
Any discussion? None.
All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
Opposed? So moved.
Thank you commissioners. And our final item for
Director Chanley is a parks stage rental fee increase on
pages 24 through 26.
And the Parks and Rec advisory board is recommend
to increase the rates for stage rental fees
effective August 1st.
And essentially this is just for the security deposit,
transportation and fuel surcharge fees.
So just recovering our costs to deliver the stage
If somebody borrow It right or rents it.
Yes. Those fees are continued to be waived
for nonprofits and co-sponsored events that
I move to authorize the Department of Park recreation
to increase the rates for stage rentals according
to their updated rate schedule sheet.
Effective August 1st, 2026.
Second. Got a motion to second. Any discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. So
Thank you.
Just if you don't mind real quick, because this Parks
and Recreation month, I'd like
to acknowledge our recreation staff that is here.
Yep. We got James Miller, we've got Curtis,
Nick sti, Liz Pearson, Isabella Cheney,
and Karen er here.
And they're the ones who put together,
that's a big part of our organization that, you know,
it's a small group and they do a large,
large activity for all of us.
So they should be acknowledged
For.
Alright, well done. Thank you. Thank you all.
Thank you again for thanks for being here today.
Good to see everybody take care.
You All right? All right, commissioners, moving along.
Item number eight in your books on pages 27
through 28 is an MOU with the Maryland Department
of Transportation, MDTA
for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Flagpole.
And this is a mechanism to allow us to collect donated funds
for the newly erected flag pole down by the Bay Bridge.
I move to execute the memorandum of understanding
with the Maryland Transportation Authority
for the flagpole located at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Second, We have a motion to second into discussion.
So funding mechanisms are payback mechanisms.
Well, M-M-D-T-A couldn't accept donations from the local
American legions and VFWs directly.
So we were acting as a conduit
to receive those donated funds to help
Pay and then pass it through
Pay for that project. Okay.
Okay. So that, that was really, they,
they just can't accept those donations.
So this was a mechanism to allow us to get that
and gotcha for the project.
Yeah.
So not that we would promote gambling of any sort,
but if you are a member of any of the American Legions post,
they are gonna be committing half of the proceeds
that they receive on the machines
that they have at their location
towards the payment of this flag.
So, gamble away
and if there's an issue and a problem,
dial the 1-800-GAMBLING problem number.
Okay. Is there any other discussion?
Let's get that flag paid for.
Alright. Seeing none, all those in favor
signify saying aye a.
Aye. Aye. Opposed? So
Moved. Sorry Jim.
Thank you commissioners. Item nine.
On pages 29 through 43, we have a,
a conservation reserve enhancement program, a crep agreement
of sale and project agreement
for the relief farm LLC 90.7 acres
of a 338 acre farm owned by relief farm ready
to be submitted to Maryland DNR
for review and final approval.
No county dollars are associated with this crep easement.
I move to execute the Crep easement agreement of sale
and project agreement for the property owned
by relief farm LLC.
Second. Got a motion to second. Any discussion?
Very well. All those in favor sign public saying aye. Aye.
Opposed? So moved.
Thank you commissioners. Item 10,
we have a resolution here.
This is resolution number 26 0 9.
It's a slight modification to the moratorium,
which is resolution 25 12.
This resolution is to extend the one year deadline on the
Board of Appeals conditional use approvals that for projects
that may have been caught up in that, in
that approval process, that will stay the timeline
for a particular project and,
and that the approval which would
otherwise expire on July 16th, so they will not have
to return to the Board of Appeals
for a conditional use approval they've already received.
I move to adopt resolution 26 0 9
Second.
Okay, we have a motion to second on this. Any discussion?
And again, this is modifying the moratorium imposed
by the resolution 25 dash 12.
Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying Aye. Aye.
Aye. Opposed? So moved.
All right. Thank you Commissioners.
We've completed items 11
and 12 with Director Haas,
item 13 on pages 55 through 57.
This is from our liquor board.
This is for performing arts nonprofit organization,
beer and wine license.
They, the recently approved
and voted to pro promote legislation for new beer
and wine licenses for performing arts groups.
And the board respectfully requested the commissioners
forward this particular legislation to the delegation
for introduction at the next legislative session in 2027.
And this was generated via the Churchill Theater.
They were requesting a beer
and wine license for plays and shows.
I move that the proposed legislation 27 dash 1 0 2,
performing arts nonprofit organization, beer
and wine license as submitted by the liquor Board,
be forwarded to our legislative delegation
for consideration, an introduction
during the 2027 legislative session.
Second, We have a motion to second any discussion
As the commissioner lays liaison to the board of ed,
I mean to the liquor board, it's, they're constantly coming
to the liquor board for a one day
license or a one event license.
And, and it just made more sense to go this direction,
you know, to give them that, that ability to not have
to keep coming to the liquor board every time
they're gonna have an event at the theater.
So this was something that they discussed and worked out
and it's, it's a good idea.
Perfect. Very good. Any other discussion? Seeing none.
All those in favor? Seat opposed saying Aye. Aye. Aye.
Opposed? So moved
All commissioners.
Item 14 on page 58 is a letter of support
for a grant application being submitted by Hope for All.
And this is for a Veteran's home subdivision located in
Grayville on Melvin Avenue.
And the project would include pre-designed planning,
schematic design, design development,
and vacuum sewer remain upgrades going forward.
So if they get the grant, so nice project,
I move to execute the letter of support to
Maryland Historic Trust for hope
for all Veterans Home Subdivision Project.
Second Honor. Motion to second. Any discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor signify to say aye. Aye.
Opposed? So moved.
Thank you commissioners. Item number 15
is a procurement policy addendum and a donation
and sponsorship policy revision on pages 59
through 110.
So addendum one to the procurement policy supplements are
existing procurement policy specifically
for procurements funding in whole
or part with federal grants Cooperative agreements
or pass through funds locally funded
projects are not effective.
But this basically just puts us into compliance
with the federal uniform guidance
and states that we're at conflicts with any of those
that the, the addendum will control
for federally funded projects.
And secondly, the donation
and sponsorship policy replaces our old donated policy,
a donated property policy with a broader donation
and sponsorship program covering cash, gifts, real
and personal property in kind services, et cetera.
We don't use that very much, but we wanted
to have something, you know, on the books in case we have
those opportunities going forward.
This is just a general update. Yes,
If you have any questions, director Jeff rank
penned this policy in these amendments. So these
I move to prove Addendum one,
federal procurement compliance addendum
to the county's procurement policy 400 dash zero one
and place the county's donation policy
with a new donation sponsorship policy.
400 dash one both to be effective July 14th, 2026.
Second, we have a motion in a second.
Any other discussion? This isn't gonna make
It more difficult, right?
This isn't gonna make it more difficult for donations.
No. It'll just create some guidelines
to better monitor the donations.
So a lot of donations come in and have restricted uses
and makes sure that we use funds for that
and is, and are entered into our books properly.
And, and, and this authority,
the commissioners have the ability to, to make any kind
of changes or waive certain restrictions
on a case by case basis.
Okay,
Any other discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor sign public saying aye. Aye.
Aye. Opposed? So moved.
Thank you commissioners. And our final item today is item
16 on pages 111 through one 14.
This is Budget Amendment CC one for the Board of Education.
This provides $500,000 to the Board of Education
to fund two district-wide rotating behavioralists
and four middle school mental health support staff positions
as approved by the board. Last month
I moved to approve Budget amendment CC one,
increasing the Board of Ed operating budget
by 500,000.
Second. I have a motion in a second. Any discussion?
Move all those in favor. So same aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?
That'll move. Alright, commissioner,
That's all we had.
So we're at just five minutes shy
of pressing public comments.
Part two on the agenda.
There you go. Anything, nothing, nothing online.
Nobody wants to speak.
Alrighty, we'll close pressing public comment.
Go to round table, we'll go backwards. All right.
Happy Bastille Day to our,
our French American Commissioner.
There you go. Mr. Mr. Moran. Thank you.
And Commissioner Ell and do Oh, that's true. Yes.
So I wanted to make sure, acknowledge,
believe we ell for both of you.
And then I wanted this, we, we,
we passed on two text amendments today
to have them have some modifications and coming back in
and we've gotten a bunch of emails
and some for some against, right?
Both split. But it, it highlights an issue
that we've talked about a lot in the past
that it still always seems to escape.
The public dialogue is speaking
to the actual issue that's before it.
So a lot of what we've received against is it's dangerous
because of 3 0 1,
but the ordinance that they're seeking to change
has nothing to do with the proximity to 3 0 1, right?
'cause 3 0 1 is more than two
and a half times, oh, the distance from that property than
what the minimum safety standards are in the ordinance.
So it's nothing to do with 3 0 1.
It's I think what Carville Price Road is the road.
So if you're saying it's dangerous, right?
And you're saying it's because of 3 0 1, that's not
what the ordinance speaks to.
You really need to speak to what is the volume
of traffic coming off Carville Price Road
that creates the danger.
That's, that's the issue that's being addressed by that.
And I think a lot of people are forgetting that not
to discount the issues with 3 0 1 and safety concerns.
And we have been doing a whole bunch of stuff with the state
to try to address those
and trying to get federal grant funding
to try to improve those intersections.
But, but that's not the intersection,
that's the issue of the ordinance.
And I don't think people are understanding that.
And so a lot of times when people come
and they speak against something
and they're speaking to something that is not the issue
that's coming up and then they
feel like, well, nobody listened to me.
It's like, but you, but you weren't talking about the issue.
So also tech ops, we had the gentleman here talking about
what's the traffic impact of
where the new location for tech ops is.
And I hear all these people saying all this traffic,
but it sounds like to me of people
who don't really know much about tech ops, right?
And they're assuming a traffic flow.
Tech ops does not have hundreds of employees. 25. Yeah.
I mean it's 25 maybe with a new thing they'll get up to 35
or 40 hopefully more, more jobs.
It's not a lot of traffic that are coming in.
Tech ops does not have a whole lot
of tractor trailers coming in.
I mean, they have a piece of equipment that comes in
a bus from DEA
or you, you have a support van for Spokane Police Department
and it's there for several months being worked on,
not coming in and out.
So it's not a high volume, frankly, if you're worried about
traffic volume is a safety issue for that parcel,
you should want tech ops
because it is probably the least impact to traffic
of any other business that could go there.
And then the other issue when people are writing about it
saying you shouldn't let tech ops there,
or some people will say it's already decided actually yes,
it has already been decided.
It's called zoning. Zoning of what can go into a piece
of property is already decided.
That's why the business chooses that property.
Because if you have a business and you wanna expand
and you go to a real estate agent, you don't say,
show me any piece of property where maybe I could build it.
You say, here's my business, what parcels are available
where I can do what I do.
And zoning will say, yes,
this is already legally allowed there.
So has the decision been already made
that a business like Tech Ops could be in there?
Yes, absolutely. A hundred percent.
That was done a long, long time ago by zoning.
It has been zoned for that.
So the decision is not whether a business
like that could go there.
It is. Does the concept plan fit within the requirements?
And so if, if there's opposition to that, you need
to look at the specific issue that's coming up
before the planning commission.
Because if you speak about like a challenge
to zoning when it's already been zoned,
the planning commission can't change the zoning based on
public comment that would trigger all
kinds of lawsuits for the county.
We did a town hall expressing a lot of
how development works in Queens County
and all the vast rules that are in place.
And it's not just county law.
There's state law, there's federal law
that all impacts these things.
And so it's important whether you're for
or against the project that you're actually looking to
what is the issue that's being decided on.
And then look at the law surrounding that
so you can actually speak to the actual issue.
Because if you're not, you're,
you're not talking about the issue that's being decided.
So you're gonna feel like your voice
wasn't heard or, or impacted.
But if you're not talking to the actual issue, then it's not
what the jurisdiction of that board who's deciding on it,
it's not what they're allowed to decide on.
And I think we get into a lot of times where people get
frustrated or sort of disenchanted
because they're not focusing in on the actual issue.
So I, and and since that came up twice today,
I wanted to point that out again.
I pointed out a lot, and hopefully it starts to click in
with people, but there, there is a vast amount
of laws in place as to where things can and can't go.
And it's not anybody just waving a wand
and deciding at one hearing.
Thank you. So I just wanna put that out there. Appreciate
It, appreciate it.
I'm, I'm, I'm not following that, so I'm good.
I I for my time to, to Chris used, I, I think it,
those were important issues that he made.
Sometimes we, we, we miss the big picture, you know,
we're we constantly looking at things at 37,000 feet
and we're not really looking at the focus of the point point
that's actually trying to be made.
So thank you Chris. Well done.
Patrick Fernos restaurant, worked there,
worked there for years, and then a convenience store.
It seems like this is a issue that is,
as you spelled it out correctly.
Secondly, Wayne Humphreys, what a great man.
He has done so much for the county
so much that we don't know.
He was heavily involved the playground
at Old Love Point.
And I worked with him on that.
And I remember, you know, 25 years ago, him coming to the,
the church talking about this character counts thing.
And he's, he was just a, a really wonderful man.
Third, that blood infusion program I am
really excited about.
Of course we'll never know whoever needs it,
but it is a phenomenal step forward for mobile units
to be able to get access to blood on, you know,
during an MCV on Route 50 or 3 0 1.
It, it really is extraordinary.
And finally, the flagpole,
I would have to say that it's probably
the most positive input I've heard
of since living in the county that the,
and the commissioners put this together, the,
the o overwhelming response was 99
to 99% Lost it, missed
It, right.
I mean terms like majestic and, and
It made my day.
I woke up as I was
Driving and then when, then when the flag wasn't up,
they just came unglued, like where's fly? Where to go?
But isn't that nice? Isn't that nice?
More excitement than when the Chipotle opened it.
And that was a big deal on Ken Island.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
This was much bigger than Chipotle. Yeah, it was.
Anyhow, so it seems like we were able
to rectify part of the problem.
It would still be nice if we could get it to fly
Thanksgiving and Christmas,
but right now that's not on the docket.
So I think we need to either send a letter to, to Richard
and to the governor saying, Hey, you know, can we come up
with more than five or six times a year
where this is gonna fly?
Yes. The smaller flag is a
bandaid, but that's about what it is.
It's beautiful. I went
and looked at it yesterday from Walt Petrie's place.
It's still a pretty big flag. It is.
I mean it's still pretty big.
Commissioner, I don't know if you're on,
have a meeting coming up,
but is there something we can do to try
to get them to put it up more often?
You mean as far as brag, you mean?
Well, I think the thing is we need to take control of it
if, or the American Legion
let the American Legion take it up and put it down.
That's what they do. They're exceptional at it. But
The, the safety concern.
Yeah, safety concern.
Yep. But right now we go out
and change the lettering on the overdoses and deaths.
So I, I think we qualify to be able
to handle putting the flag up and down,
but we'll see them at maco
and we can as a collectively
as a group voice our opinions to that.
I'd like to see 'em bump up the size of the interim flag.
It's 10 by 15, let's jump up one or two sizes
and seats, you know, 15 by
25.
15 by 25. This one now the, the smaller
One.
Yeah. Okay. So the big one's
30 by 50.
Right. So it's half.
And that's, and that's a monumental task
to take that down and raise it.
It takes multiple people. Yeah.
And obviously concerns, you know, with the weather and,
and how quick the weather can change and,
and getting somebody there to get that down.
There's a lot of, I mean, again, we, we talk about terms
of like majestic,
but understand there's a, the human aspect of it on
what it takes to make that majestic look happen.
And then I think that's where a lot of the,
the devil is in the details and getting that done. So
Between the county and the American Legion,
I think we could figure it out.
Yeah, I'd love to see that work out. Yeah.
But that again, you know, addressing the issues.
But perhaps maybe, you know, M Mdot does some training
for a handful of these Legion members, you know, and,
and so they understand the processes
and what some of the restrictions will be and just coming
and going to that area on the bridge again.
That's the concern. Right.
Again, I don't think it's a safety issue. Where do
They park?
How do they get there? Right.
And they don't have the proper, you know, vehicles
that have all the lights on it.
Yep. The nine yards. So the county does,
and we've done, like I said, we've maintained the sign, so
it'd be nice to have the support of the American Legion,
but, you know, we'll, we'll do the, you know,
put people out there to do it.
We'll have that discussion at Mako
and we'll go from there. Yep.
Our, I, I mean respectfully, our, our DW
and our sheriff, I mean, they're, they're on 3 0 1 every day
or Route 50 and they're,
they're pulling off in the median to do something.
Right. Even though it's a state road.
They're picking up this, they're doing that.
I think we could figure it out.
Yeah, Well if they would, if they would let us do it.
Well again, that's the goal, right? Okay.
It Patrick? Yes sir. Alright, Jeff,
Just a shout out to the red Exco.
I got to witness 'em. Well, yesterday, well
Done.
They had eight of 'em, nine people lined up
and I actually witnessed him, somebody behind me, two cars
behind me, tried
to jump in when they saw the police up in the distance
and got right two cars behind me.
And as we got up there, I looked back
and that guy was out there, he just yanked him.
Even though it was a half mile back,
he still grabbed him from behind me
and said, no, you're over there.
And they had, I'm gonna say they had 10
or 11 there, the car hold over just Oh yeah.
Writing a ticket. So I loved it, loved it.
Didn't have to ride down the middle and keep 'em out.
So, yeah, that's all I got. I got nothing.
So motion, make a motion to adjourn.