[0:08] Ladies and gentlemen, call this meeting
to order. The mayor and board of
[0:10] commissioners for February the 10th,
2026. Can I get the roll call, please?
[0:15] » Yes. Commissioner Kleiner
>> here.
[0:17] » Commissioner Pearson
>> here.
[0:19] » Commissioner Don
>> here. Let the record show you have a
[0:24] quorum.
>> Thank you. Will you rise with me for the
[0:25] pledge of allegiance, please?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
[0:31] United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation
[0:37] under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
[0:42] » Commissioner Kleiner, would you do us
the honor of a prayer, please?
[0:45] » Sure.
>> Thank you.
[0:48] » Father, I thank you for this day. Uh we
ask for your wisdom, for your provision
[0:54] for this town. We ask for new police
officers and uh we ask for your
[1:00] protection over all of our citizens
and we pray Lord that you would lead us
[1:07] every day and guide us into your will in
Jesus name. Amen.
[1:11] » Thank you.
>> All right. Approval of the consent
[1:16] agenda. Town administrator, do you have
that?
[1:19] » Yes. Um, you have the town meeting video
summary of January 13th. You have the
[1:26] upcoming town meeting schedule, but more
significantly, we want to reintroduce
[1:33] the West Ningham Academy annexation
resolution. If you remember, we have
[1:40] been doing our due diligence to make
sure that um everything is in order.
[1:47] More specifically, we did apply for
grant money from MDE for the state to
[1:55] pay for a water line down to West
Ningham Academy, but we although we we
[2:00] got approved for that, the overall
approval process could be about a year
[2:06] and a half to go through. So, we wanted
to have a couple more discussions with
[2:10] MD to see how viable this is. And so
far, so good. they're encouraging us to
[2:16] move forward with the design of the
water line. So that's why we want to
[2:20] reintroduce the resolution to keep it um
upfront on it. So it's again you're not
[2:28] you're not voting to adopt the
resolution, you're just accepting it
[2:32] into the record and then that'll start
the normal uh 45day process.
[2:38] » And a copy of this resolution is on our
website.
[2:40] » Yes.
>> All right. Can I get a motion to approve
[2:44] the consent agenda, please?
>> I make a motion to approve the consent
[2:48] agenda.
>> I second it.
[2:49] » It's been moved and seconded. Is there
any further discussion?
[2:54] » Hearing none. All in favor?
>> I
[2:56] » I
>> Thank you.
[2:59] » That was an I.
>> Okay.
[3:02] » All right. Thank you, Commissioner
Dowling. Sorry. Uh, under public
[3:05] presentations, we do not have anything.
Uh, we are going to go ahead and skip to
[3:09] citizens input. Would anyone like to
speak this evening?
[3:16] Can we go here or can I just stay right
here?
[3:18] » Yeah, unfortunately you got there.
Sorry.
[3:23] » And all all you have to do is say you're
a resident of
[3:27] » I'm a resident of Rising Sun. [laughter]
My name is Chrissy Shepard. I just
[3:31] wanted to um to extend my um thanks for
the snow removal this year. It was
[3:36] definitely different. It's definitely
needed. Um, and my mom lives on Walnut
[3:40] Street, so the sidewalk, the removal of
all that, you guys, the um, town really
[3:45] did a great job, and I thank you so very
much for that. And that's all I have to
[3:48] say. [laughter]
>> Huge shout out to our public works crew
[3:51] for sure.
>> They did. They did such a great job with
[3:54] that.
>> All right.
[3:56] » You want any highlights of that?
>> Sure, Cal. Go ahead. Um, so one of the
[4:02] things the town has been doing since
2008
[4:06] is recognizing that when you get a
significant amount of snowfall, there's
[4:11] always so many places to put that snow.
So back in 2008, u Commissioner Pearson,
[4:18] you can recall and Chief Peterson, you
remember we were getting two very
[4:22] significant snowstorms within like a
week of each other. And so we pree or
[4:30] preemptively got contractors lined up to
come in and haul that snow out so that
[4:36] the next snowstorm had someplace for the
snow to go. Um, we don't get together
[4:43] every time there's a pending snowstorm,
but given the nature and the particulars
[4:49] of this particular snowstorm, we started
meeting on Tuesday, the week before, and
[4:54] we got all of our contractors lined up.
Now, here's a frustrating thing is that
[5:02] in past storms,
the state has declared a state of
[5:07] emergency and the town gets reimbured
for all of that expense. However, the
[5:14] state has a criteria that they will only
declare a state of emergency if the vi
[5:21] in the case of snow removal um or
flooding is if the end result exceeds
[5:28] 90%
of the end result of the previous one.
[5:33] So, what that basically means is they're
always adding a rung to the ladder. So
[5:39] unfortunately what that means is we've
not crunched all the numbers, but before
[5:45] you get involved in the labor of our
personnel, the town probably spent close
[5:51] to $35,000 in contractor fees and
getting this snow out of there. It'll
[5:57] probably be another chunk of of change
for our public works employees because
[6:03] they work, you know, non non-stop for
two, three days straight. So these types
[6:09] of snowstorms do cost a significant
amount of money, but we have internally
[6:16] and I know I speak for the elected body.
We just want to do things differently
[6:20] than you know you your what's that old
saying your grandfather's town
[6:24] government kind of thing. We want to do
it differently and we want to get that
[6:29] snow out in here. And so we take a lot
of pride and a lot of people don't
[6:34] realize it. We have three public works
employees that are moving that snow. I
[6:40] also want to obviously thank Chief
Peterson because he he and some of the
[6:45] police officers were getting behind the
wheel of snow plows also to to move it
[6:51] out of here. But I would put our people
up against anybody in state county in
[6:57] terms of clearing snow out of this
devel.
[7:01] Now, with that, I also want to say I'm
not naive to say that there aren't some
[7:06] nuances here and there. And we had
plenty of people that
[7:13] sort of attested to being experts in
snow plowing and telling us how we
[7:19] should and not be moving the snow. But I
just bec I I can't resist it. It's not
[7:25] as simple as redirecting the snow plow
when you're coming down the street. It's
[7:30] not that simple. And the best way I can
describe it is let's just use a funny
[7:35] number. Let's just say you had five tons
of snow between one curve on one side
[7:42] and one curb on the other side. Unless
you push that snow off the curb, you
[7:47] still have five tons of snow in the
middle of the street. So if you're
[7:51] moving the snow plow to not go across
somebody's driveway or go up on the
[7:56] sidewalk, you still have the same five
tons of snow in between the curve. So
[8:01] it's not as simple as just angling the
plow a different way. With that said,
[8:07] and our next step is in wanting to be
different than the typical local
[8:12] government, we also went out and rented
some equipment to be able to uh move
[8:19] snow and to help our residents because
this was a very unique snowstorm. And
[8:25] it's all well and good to say there's no
excuse for not removing snow off your
[8:30] sidewalk, but sometimes there is a valid
excuse. and having somebody out there
[8:36] having a heart attack or getting injured
is not worth that when at the end of the
[8:41] day we can work with some of the
residents to remove some of that snow.
[8:46] So going forward we are actively looking
at some creative pieces of equipment
[8:51] that we might be purchasing in the
future so that we don't have to have to
[8:56] take the standard hey that five ton of
snow has to go in your driveway. We
[9:01] don't want to be that way, but we're
going to need to get some additional
[9:05] equipment to uh be proactive about that
in the future. So,
[9:10] » all right, Cal, if you want to just roll
into your town administrator report.
[9:13] » Um, I don't really have anything other
than, you know, we have a lot of things
[9:18] going on, the uh snowstorm. Um, I would
warn folks, it is inevitable we are
[9:26] going to have water mane breaks. There's
just no way around that. When the ground
[9:31] freezes, it only takes a little bit of
shifting of the ground with thawing and
[9:35] freezing for these lines to break. We
have lines that are pretty much 80 years
[9:42] of age in our community. With that said,
we have applied for grant money to
[9:48] replace a good portion of those uh water
and sewer lines in the future, but we
[9:54] will have water main breaks in the f,
you know, in the very near future. As
[9:58] soon as this cold spell, you know,
freeze up, we're probably going to have
[10:03] water main breaks. And as always, we'll
do the best we can to get in there as
[10:07] quickly as we can, notify everybody of
the implications of it, and get them
[10:12] done as quickly as possible. But more
than that, we want to thank everyone who
[10:18] reaches out to our public works
employees. I can't tell you the amount
[10:22] of pots of coffee and soup and they get
more stuff than they can actually
[10:27] consume at some of these events and that
that makes us all feel good that the
[10:31] community the community as a whole comes
together to solve these issues. So, we
[10:36] appreciate you reaching out to us and
being supportive.
[10:40] » Thank you. Um, Chief,
>> um, I'm going to be brief first. Um, the
[10:47] officer we hired that's in the academy,
he's doing well, Mr. Lombardi. Um, he's
[10:51] doing well. He's down to a month.
>> All right.
[10:54] » Fingers crossed that he continues to
move forward and do well and we'll have
[10:57] him here on site in a month to do the
rest of his training. Uh, the search is
[11:02] still on for additional officers. The
starting salary is in the neighborhood
[11:06] of $60,000. And if you're out there and
you want to become a police officer,
[11:11] please come out and see us and uh we can
get started with your background
[11:15] investigation. Um
[11:21] and uh I lost my train of thought on the
rest of it. So that'll be my report.
[11:28] » Thank you, Chief Assistant Town.
>> I found it. I'm sorry. [laughter]
[11:32] Um, going back to what the town
administrator said about getting the
[11:36] information out. I I've noticed, which I
hate to look at social media, but I've
[11:41] noticed on social media, a lot of people
complain that we tried to broadcast
[11:45] information on social media and other
forms. Um, if you don't like any of
[11:49] those ways and don't want to wait for a
newspaper to have it, you can always
[11:52] text 888
se 77788.
[11:57] Text your zip code to that number. And
when we do have an event, you will get
[12:03] the emergency information sent directly
to your phone. So it's 777888.
[12:08] Text your zip code to that number and
we'll get you the information. That's my
[12:13] report.
>> Chief, that that's a really good segue
[12:17] into what one of the things that I was
going to actually bring up. Uh we do
[12:20] have communication capability in our uh
utility system and we have reached out
[12:26] to all the residents to please provide
us that information. We can do
[12:29] robocalls, we can do text messaging, and
it's a really great way for us to
[12:33] communicate to you if there's things
that we need to get out into your
[12:36] community. The only other thing that I
do have is we are in the I'm beginning
[12:40] the budget process. So, all the
department heads and and staff will be
[12:45] working on getting the budget ready. Our
goal is to be finished by the end of
[12:48] May.
>> Thank you, Judy. Moving forward into the
[12:52] mayor's report, I'm just briefly going
to uh mention our communication stuff.
[12:57] Uh we are working really hard to um not
only reach residents on social media,
[13:02] but find other avenues to do it. Um
we're collecting emails. We're going to
[13:06] have text alerts. We're going to do
everything we can to try to alert our
[13:10] citizens when something goes wrong. Uh
we are not immune to the fact that we
[13:16] have a lot of older residents that may
not be on social media. Um so by
[13:20] providing a text alert system, we're
hoping that they'll be able to sign up
[13:23] for that. um or at the very least have
an email that they can access to get
[13:28] important alerts. Eventually, what we're
looking at doing is um getting it so
[13:32] that if we have a water main break,
those alerts would go directly to that
[13:36] street uh and uh those residents would
be notified immediately that their water
[13:40] service may be effective if something
goes wrong. Same thing with uh community
[13:44] festivals and other things that we have
going on. We're going to work on ways to
[13:48] uh improve our communication. Uh, I do
want to just again say a huge thank you
[13:54] to our public works team. Um, to chief
to Cal. Uh, we had numerous meetings
[13:59] during the snowstorm. Uh, and they both
worked super hard to keep our residents
[14:04] informed of what was going on. Um, while
also dealing with some tricky issues of
[14:09] motorists being trapped uh on their road
on the roads um as well as some
[14:15] developments that weren't happy about
the snow removal. Um we're super
[14:19] thankful for them. Uh we're super
thankful for our public works crew. Um
[14:24] they ended up having to do a water mane
break right in the middle of the snow
[14:27] removal um in sub-zero temperatures. Uh
we can't thank them enough for all that
[14:33] they do uh for our community. Uh couple
of bad bills are coming through right
[14:38] now because the uh session is uh the
state legislature is now in session. Uh
[14:44] we've written a couple of opposed uh to
those bills. Uh, one of them is a
[14:48] juvenile justice reform act that is
going to be heard on the 12th. Um, that
[14:53] is something that Chief Peterson and I
are going to be opposing. Um, there's a
[14:58] few other ones that are now coming up uh
regarding local zoning authority uh that
[15:03] the state has put forth. Uh, we continue
to keep an eye out on what's coming down
[15:07] from the state and what may be affected
by uh how the town may be affected by
[15:12] legislation coming from the state. Uh
moving forward into commissioner
[15:16] comments. Uh Commissioner
Dowling said that he has no comment. So
[15:22] Commissioner Kleiner
>> um just a brief report. We only were
[15:26] able to meet once as as the uh planning
commission for January because of the
[15:31] weather, but we continue to have good
discussions. Um, and I too want to share
[15:37] my thanks to the Department of Public
Works and to Calvin and Chief and
[15:41] everyone who worked late and worked days
and days into the storm. And also, um,
[15:47] there have been a few water main breaks.
So, it's just it's not ever lost on me
[15:52] that they're away from their families
overnight sometimes um, and their
[15:56] families are missing them. So, thank you
so much. That concludes my report. Thank
[16:01] you, [clears throat]
>> Commissioner Pearson.
[16:05] » Well, I have the fortunate saying that I
was sitting in Florida when all this
[16:12] happened. Okay.
>> And it was I think it was 81 that that
[16:17] Saturday. Uh
>> however, when I got back,
[16:22] » I heard nothing but positive things
about our public works and all. I mean,
[16:29] my neighbors were coming up to me saying
they did a great job and all. So, even
[16:34] though you're not here, word gets out
pretty quick of the job they did. And I
[16:40] want to just say I appreciate what they
did. So, that's the end of my report.
[16:45] » Calvin, did you have a brief comment
regarding the zoning stuff?
[16:48] » Yeah, I I think it's important um to
step back for a second. If you remember
[16:54] when the cannabis legislation came in
and people wanted to know why we were
[17:01] allowing cannabis in the community. Um,
another one that comes in that trunk
[17:07] there is solar panels. What I'm alluding
to is our state government is
[17:16] navigating towards taking local control
away from local government to regulate
[17:22] these things. So let's let's talk about
what that means. It's a rural community.
[17:27] We like the rural nature of the
community and people pick and choose
[17:31] where they want to live. If they want to
live in an urban area, they can live in
[17:34] an urban area with public
transportation. if they want to live in
[17:38] a rural area, maybe the side effect of
that is there's no public
[17:41] transportation. But what the state has
been doing over the last couple of years
[17:46] and and and I'm going to sort of call
them I don't want to say quite threats,
[17:52] but what they keep gravitating towards
is a one-sizefits-all way of regulating
[17:58] things. So they are looking to take away
and not just the town of Rising Sun, not
[18:05] just Cecil County, but every county in
every town in this state the ability to
[18:10] regulate residential zoning. So what
that means is that if you go into the
[18:16] Summer Hill development and you say,
"Wow, it's a halfacre piece of land and
[18:21] that's just the right amount of land I
want for the size house that I want." Or
[18:25] you could go down to uh break or I'm
sorry uh Keles Mill and say, "Well, I
[18:30] want a townhouse development. I want to
move down there." You're not going to
[18:35] have that right effective October of
2026 if this legislation gets passed.
[18:41] And the new legislation is going to be
no community can require a lot size
[18:48] larger than 5,000 square feet. So, I
believe um you live on Manor, is it?
[18:55] » Yes.
>> Yeah. [snorts]
[18:56] That's like half the size of your lots
right now on Manor Court. So, we're not
[19:02] going to be able to regulate lot size.
We're not going to be able to regulate
[19:06] house size. We're going to have to allow
houses to be five feet from the property
[19:13] line, which means they're going to be 10
feet apart. And we're not allowed to
[19:17] require a setback of greater than 10
feet. Which what that means is you will
[19:24] not see anybody parking in a driveway in
front of a home again because the
[19:30] average car a sedan is anywhere from 16
to 22 feet long. So unless these cars
[19:36] are going to block the public sidewalk,
that's what we're going to be dealing
[19:41] with. which means we're going to have
more traffic parking out on residential
[19:46] streets. Some of those streets are
older, might not be wide enough. We've
[19:51] talked before about the changes the town
has made to in our zoning code that's
[19:56] going to be eliminated. And the other
thing they're talking about doing is
[20:01] allowing any residential property that
has not been subdivided in the last
[20:08] three years to subdivide. So, not to
pick on Manor Court, but what that
[20:14] particularly means is Manor Court people
could say, you know what, I want to
[20:18] build another building behind my house
and I want to rent it out to people and
[20:23] we can't we can't charge impact fees for
that. So, what that means is the sewer
[20:29] and water repairs that the town has made
in the past, the high sewer and water
[20:35] rates, we're not going to be able to
pass that along to new development in
[20:40] the future. So essentially what that
means is future land owners are going to
[20:46] receive more profit for their land and
developers are going to be able to build
[20:50] more houses which is profit for them but
the existing taxpayers are the ones who
[20:55] are going to have paid for that sewer
and water infrastructure. So when you
[21:00] think about it your head just like just
wants to pop like what is the logic
[21:04] behind that? But I think it was Ronald
Reagan who always said the this the nine
[21:10] scariest words are, "We're the
government. We're here to help you."
[21:15] That's what it sounds like the state is
trying to do is help different
[21:20] populations or communities, but they're
trying to do a one-sizefits-all.
[21:25] So, that's pretty scary. And we're going
to lose control in the future if that
[21:30] bill is passed.
>> Yeah. And I think that uh Cal and I are
[21:34] are putting forth a letter to the
housing committee um in the general
[21:38] assembly because that's who's putting it
forward right now. Um and those
[21:43] legislators we hope to reach out to and
explain uh what is going on and and uh
[21:48] how it's going to affect our rural
community.
[21:50] » And I think the Maryland Municipal
League is also
[21:53] » they are
>> writing against it too.
[21:56] All right.
On on our schedule, you can see our
[22:00] board of zoning appeals, upcoming town
events, upcoming town holidays, our
[22:04] trash, recycle, and yardway schedule. Is
there anything else to come before the
[22:07] board this evening? I think this is our
shortest meeting we've ever had.
[22:12] » No,
>> I think it was 11 minutes.
[22:15] » Can I get a motion to adjurnn?
>> I make a motion to adjourn.
[22:18] » Second it.
>> It's been moved and seconded. All in
[22:20] favor? Meeting ajourned.