Deputy Clerk, we're going to get started. I got seven o'clock here in the Aberdeen City Council chambers today is Monday, October the 14th, 2024. We are here for the regular meeting of the Aberdeen City Council. Assistant Clerk, can you call it roll please? Council President Hyab. Present. Council Menlandi Camp. Here. Council Member Montgomery. Here. Councilwoman Rijli. Present. Mayor McGrady. We have a full complement of the City Council here in Ratedew Business. We have with us Don Dove, the pastor of living hope Presbyterian Church to lead in the opening prayer and Councilman Montgomery has been conscripted to lead in the Pledge of Allegiance. So everyone, please rise. Welcome. Let's pray. Father, we are very grateful for the many gifts that you pour out on us each and every day. We're grateful for this community that you place us in. Pray that tonight you would bless this council meeting, bless the council, Lord, may they be wise and humble. May they have a deep desire to serve the people that this community might flourish. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Council the clerk has prepared for your review. The September 16, 2024 work session, September 23, 2024 work session, the September 23, 2024 work session, the September 23, 2024 council meeting in the September 32, 2024 work session minutes. Are there any changes needed for those if not as a motion to approve the set of four minutes as submitted by the clerk? Make a motion to approve. Thank you, Councilman Montgomery. Is there any discussion? I'll start the session. Thank you. Good Montgomery is there any discussion? I'll second thank you good. I'm sorry. Okay council president Hyab caught me in the momentary lapse of parliamentary Thinking yeah parliamentary procedure. Thank you. Is there any more discussion? Hearing none Lieutenant clerk can you call the role for approval of the minutes? Council president Hyab. Aye. Councilman Linda Camp. Aye. Councilman Montgomery. Aye. Councilwoman Ridgley. Aye. Four votes, the affirmative, the minutes are approved. Chief Trabert, I think we have a presentation that's not on the agenda, but I think of note. Please. Yes, sir. Corporal Haddicks is here. Most people know Corporal haddick's story. I want to I'm going to read something so I get everything right or a little recap of what happened. Who wrote this? The Corporal haddicks right? Or do you? Corporal haddicks did not write it. Okay. It would have said a lot more a lot better things about itself. No. No, but seriously, it's a story of determination, family, the willingness to strive to get better. It's an amazing story. It just already knows the first day when I got to the hospital right after it happened. I don't even think you remember me being there. He told me over and over and he's coming back. And he was so banged up from this accident. If you looked at it's a miracle he survived. And when I read this little recap it'll say one of the reasons he did survive is because one of the medics on the scene had some experimental stuff on there. They were able to use to keep him alive through a transfusion. So, let me redisquare a quick and then we'll go into it a little bit more. On Sunday, May 27, 2023, just after 4am, Acting Corporal James Haddicks was on duty driving to work from his residence in Delaware when a impaired driver struck him head on at the Christiana Parkway. The accident was horrific and both vehicles were destroyed. James suffered severe life-threatening injuries from the collision and was transported to the Christiana hospital for care. Later it was learned that the ambulance that provided care for James was involved in a test program involving whole blood being carried on board for severe trauma cases involving blood loss. Due to James blood loss, he was provided an on-site transfusion that kept him alive while it took firefighters and emergency crews about 45 minutes to cut him out of the car. The impact of the accident was immense and completely altered his life. For the next 18 months, James would undergo multiple surgeries and attended hours of rehabilitation and physical therapy to regain the use of his badly damaged body. Doctors told James it would be about four years until he would be able to return to work if ever. With the help of his loving wife, Emily, who stopped working to drive James to his many medical appointments and helped him recover mentally and physically from the crash, he cut his time to 18 months. Today we are honored to have James right here with us. He is back to work. He's doing a little bit of light duty right now, but he will be cleared for full duty. And we're at the police department and everybody should be amazed at his determination and perseverance to survive. I've never seen anything like it. Just talking about it doesn't describe the injuries that he had and the medical procedures that he had to undergo and I know that it was a lot for him but this man never gave up and of course he had the support from his family who were with him every bit of the way which helped him get through it because I don't think many people could not just because of the physical injuries but what it does to your mind emotionally and mentally, to be in that kind of condition. It's such a young age when you know you want, this is what he wants to do. This is what he came here to do. And that's with part of the way I believe, drove him to get here. He never stopped saying he was coming back. Not one time that he say, I'm giving up, I'm not going to make it, I'm going to be back. And he's an amazing story, he's an amazing man, he has an amazing family. So I just wanted everybody to know that he's back, he's here and he's ready to go and we are so happy to have you back. And you're a good man, you have a good family. Thank you. And if there's anything else we could ever do for you, please let us know because you've definitely done a lot for us just by getting through it and coming back to be with us and serve this community. So thank you very much. He got banged up chief, but I think that you glossed over the significance of the injury sustained. We were talking broken femur. What else? I'll repeat him for the microphone. He had a femre fracture. Femre fracture. Could you get an aligraf gun, which is where he basically has a death man's heart in his knee. Cadabra's knee. Yes. He had sent to New Macorex. He had to get glass shorts out of his eyes, but now the part of him to wear. Glass dug out of his eyeball. Yep. The most part of his hearing is he has to wear a hearing aid. Hearing aids. He was convinced that's the field course. He had blood in his lungs, two broken ribs, five surgeries, multiple lacerations, obviously, head to toe contusions. He had three blood imusions. One was in the field. Thanks to blood drive, they just started that. Where else he would die? Because he was dating out because it wasn't open to the fracture. So he was literally dating out. But he was dating out because it wasn't open to the infrastructure. He's sustained a lot. What's amazing? He's better looking today than he was before the accident. Now are you going to make them sit through the whole meeting? No, I told Nick and leave as soon as he's done that, that's to sit through this. But I just wanted everybody to know that this guy is definitely a hero. Most people would have given up. They would have took some kind of early retirement and went out and did something else. He didn't. He came back to do the job that he was born to do. And I just think it's such a great story. Councilman. Yeah, Officer Hadex, I just wanted, The last time I saw you was at the police officer's banquet. And I had told you that once we had found out about your accident, I had called my church and I had your name placed on our prayer list. And every day for new day prayer, they were lifting your name up in prayer. I believe in the power prayer. And I really do thank God that you're here and that you look good. Your wife is here beside you and you know you're gonna be here to see your children and grow up and be strong. And I just want you just you know just to take your time you know because your body's been through a lot. Just take your time and we're so glad to have you back. But what I would like to know is what happened to the fool that hit you. That's what I would like to know. It's not like it happened. We got six months of home confinement and also the license right here. That's all. Wow. Anybody else council? I'm going to shake your hand and send you out the doors. You don't visit to the rest of our meeting Listen the council wouldn't be here if we didn't have to be here, I know I appreciate you coming in I'm going to say that I remember that in the hospital there's a nurse telling me my dad was a nice guy. That's it. You want to come up on the first floor? How did you make it? See you guys. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to give you a hand. I'm going to to jinx it. Well, there he is. For our SB New Bureau 38 Taff Street, Winston's Choice Homes, I just want to say literally twenties months ago, I was pulled in by a local nonprofit to be the resident lead for a $50,000 United Way neighbors United grant. And that's because my wife Albert and I have been residents. I'm retired here for us as of 2014 doing 21 years. And my wife's a nurse out at the VA at Perry Point. And we had a statistician salon right next to 360 image that used to say treatment remostetics. It was a gold circle on there. And we had that since 2019. But since being pulled into this resident lead position, I have had the awesome privilege of doing conversations with Aberdeen residents from the east side to the west side, from the Hispanic community to the black community, documented, undocumented, faith-based secular, and just the data that we collected in these 50 conversations allowed us to have two community forums, where we also did some asset mapping in the Boys and Girls Club. We had delegates Johnson, the Air Councilwoman, Rijli was there for her economic development, hers of the city. But the whole point of it is we came up with two upstream challenges that we're going to be having community forums with in the upcoming months. There'll be letters going out to the mayoral staff and the council staff from end step, which is the new service training employment program, CEO and founder, Sharon Jacobs. There'll be letters coming from me, Crosby as the lead resident for the neighbors United Initiative. You'll see people wearing these shirts around Aberdeen. They say Aberdeen on the move. That's our core team of residents, the McCalls who are the HOA presidents for Winston's Choice family, the McDaniels who are the HOA presidents for Winston's Choice, as well as the pastors for a House of Resurrection of Jesus Christ connected to the pizza bowlies. The McColls have the Hava Heelin and Katina is also one of the executive leaders for the Boys and Girls Club. So we do a lot of stuff with them as well. So this year is all about empowering our core team as leaders. We're going to be collaborating across partisan lines, across social levels, and everything. We're looking to work with the police. I got my blue Aberdeen police band down. I was at the mayor's block party where I saw a councilwoman, originally. We do a lot, I'm gonna be doing some stuff with Mount Zion Baptist with Reverend JC Williams and Miss Whirlane Bryant. I'm actually in the project opportunity program up at the Converge building right up on Beards Hill right now. But I just wanted you to see a face so when you see the email with Crosby New Bill, neighbors United, you know who it is. All right, thank you. Hold on, Mr. Bill. What are the two projects upstream that you have adopted? You have to find out at the forum, sir. All right. We're gonna get an invitation. Say again, we're gonna get an invitation to the for sir you will be great the core team will be getting that out within the following week great thank you coming appreciate you top-back to follow mr. Newbell anybody want to follow mr. Newbell he didn't have any notes either good work work. I'm gonna call the public comment to a close. Council, we have a handful of items for new business and I'm gonna need you to humor me on some of these. The first of which is easy, the bid number 24, excuse me, 25-02, Roberts Way Area Waterline Replacement. Council, you will recall that last year we started a Roberts Way neighborhood, which the neighborhood is called Aberdeen Hills. You might be familiar with the streets, Doris and Ruby and Roberts and Andrews. We identified a couple of years ago that the metal water lines that are supposed to be eight inches in diameter had corroded the term as tuberculation basically rusted instead of having eight inches of water going through them. They were down about an inch of water and the consequence for something like this is that you're not getting as much water flowing through the pipe as you should, which leads to more shrinking of the pipe size and ultimately it closes up, you don't get any water passing. So we initially replaced as part of the city's water and sewer line projects, a big section of that, and then repaved it last year what we did was we came through and we remember we had Beards Hill Road cut up where we were placing water lines and increasing the size of water lines and then connecting from Beards Hill Road out to Maryland 22 in order to be able to get the water from the new pumping station on Railbird Alley all the way up to the west side by way of new water pipe. Anyway we're up to we didn't have enough money to do all of these projects at the same time and so we broke the neighborhood water line replacement project into a couple of different phases. So this is the next phase of that. What you have before you is the description of work and the three bids for this. Mr. Torres, do I cover that fairly well? Yes, you did. Okay. And so you'll see the low bid that the Department of Public Works and the procurement officer, Sean Vragan, are recommending approval are to the low bidder for the project, DXI construction in the amount of $1,99,400. Can I answer any questions for anybody before I entertain a bid to approve this project? Mayor. Is this the last phase of this project? No, I think this is phase two. Mr. Torchard, is this phase two of three? This finishes up Robertsway, so you said it finishes it. Three of three. This is the last phase. For Robertsway. Robertsway. So then we got to go into the adjacent neighborhoods, depending on need, right? So there's a lot of areas of need. And so on a regular basis, we balance the priorities. And we say, is this a more important priority for the water fund in the next year. These kinds of projects run themselves for the most part, right? The contractor comes in and digs up the road and they dig up the pipe and they replace it with a like kind. In this case, there's going to be trench cutting. They're going to have to replace some valves. They're going to have to replace some hydrants. They're going to have to do 31 complete water service laterals. So not only our main, but they're gonna have to install a new water line into the house for a handful of these additional ones. As we identify these areas that need a lot of work, they get added to the queue. What is the nature of the question regarding Robertsway being the last one? I just wanted to know what stage of the project this was in, but I also would like to know, is there a projected date of completion for the project this was in but I also would like to know is there a projected date of completion for the project on estimated date? Based on last year's contract this should be completed by the end of this fiscal year. So if you provide me approval there's some processes that the contractors do as far as gank some submittals to us, but ideally they would start somewhere around January, February, time frame and then be finished by June. Okay, thank you. Do you have any more questions? I had a question on the matrix. I noticed on the points available, you waited certainly previous water utility experience highest, makes sense to me. Well I'm curious of as why did you wait the overall price and previous experience the city of Aberdeen equal? I would have thought one of those would have been a little different, maybe pricing would have been more important than previous experience. So I was just kind of trying to understand how did you come up with that criteria and what was your rationale? I don't have an answer on that. Because you're only five points away for each bid right now. It's quite close. It can make a difference. Not too concerned about that. Just more concerned about decision making process and what the priorities are when it comes to picking these folks out. So that's the only thing that got my attention that they were equal. Normally in a decision matrix, you've got different variables for each one. If you have a tie, you would normally go to the executive and say, I need you to break it, which ones got to be more. So okay, that's my question there. My guidance would be for a decision matrix, for your decision, each of those individual areas should have different points. Unless you're convinced that two are actually equal when it comes to the criteria that you've got for the city. I would think maybe pricing would be more important than maybe previous experience for the city of Aberdeen if you have previous water utility experiences number one, what's it totally agree with? But it's just a matter of how you actually do the decision. The so is the matrix then what you would change would be the available points in each of the qualifiers lump some pricing previous water utility experience experience changing the available points for each one Now mine is why is there a tie between two got it there's a good reason for it got it Okay, but in most cases as you go through each of these criteria with it you clearly come up with a priority where yeah This is one two and three. It's rare that you're gonna say these are tied got it But it makes a difference, as you see, when it comes to having numbers play out. Sure. So it's just more of a question of why they were equal. Got it. No issue of an answer either. No issues on the work. It really gets down to who gets the work based on that matrix. Because you can make the numbers do wherever you want to go, who gets the work. Right. Based on that matrix, because you can make the numbers do. Right. Wherever you want to go based on the waiting. Mr. Trojr, how long have we been using a points process like this? This is the second bid. This is the first one where we use a construction process. And we were working with a somewhat matrix process on the engineer and proposal for the hydraulic modeling. So what we're looking at doing is it's again, councilman. It's a member, it's a process of we're trying something different and the fact that we want vendors that are qualified and don't necessarily get the, basically, the lowest cost. And if they have that experience, and that could be experience in whether they had that experience here in Aberdeen or elsewhere, they can demonstrate to that. That's to us is a better marker than someone throwing out a cost. And then we basically essentially, I don't want to say have to accept, but the rationale of a bid being contested, you have ability to say we evaluate this through this comprehensive thing. So we're going to continue work through this process and solidify it. But I see a point. My question is, why they're tied. I understand the process, I get it. You don't have an answer for that, fine. My concern is it is better not to have them tied, because in most cases, you should be able to rank order the criteria or with guidance from the executive kind of go from there. That's all I really wanted to do. Do we publish a rubric with the bid documents such that the people bidding would know how they would be scored? I send me the bid documents to my- I don't have any answer, Mayor. It's good. Send me that and I'll look at it. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the low bid for DXI construction? Some moved. Thank you, Council President Haib, is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councilman Montgomery. Any more discussion? Assistant Clerk, can you call the roll for the approval of the low bid for the 25-02 project to DXI construction in the amount of $1,999,400 for the paving and water line replacement project. Council President Hayab. Aye. Council Member Lindy-Camp. Aye. Council Member Montgomery. Aye. Councilwoman Richley. Aye. Four votes, the affirmative. The bid is approved. Moving on to the second item here, Council. For a handful of years, the City of Aberdeen has had a multiple party agreement between the City of Aberdeen, the county government, regarding what's called MS4 funding. MS4 means municipal something, something you have to clean the rainwater. Yes, it means you have to clean the rainwater as a condition of state law in the state of Maryland and the county government allocates to us on the basis of how much land of the county is within the city of Aberdeen Money based on the property taxes they collect so they send us a check something like $200,000 a year That goes into our general fund budget and we have used that for our MS4 operations inside of our budget which is a Three-man crew associated with going around and making sure our storm drains are taken care of Rebuilding them and then cleaning the amount of advance of storms But also we've taken that money cleaning the mountain advance of storms. But also we've taken that money over the last handful of years and used it to fund through our design engineer KCI improvements to streams. They call this stream restoration. We have a permit with the Maryland Department of the Environment through the EPA to the Maryland Department of Environment to us, basically that tells us that we have to have a plan in place to treat the rain water that falls on 20% of the city of Aberdeen in a period of five years from six years ago. Right. You've got to have a plan five years from now to have 20% of the rainwater that falls on the city of Aberdeen treated for water quality. And as part of that, we've hired KCI and have been sending them money to design these stormwater improvements. Stream restoration is the highest yielding in terms of credits. So it's a crazy thing, but the engineers have an idea that if you fix a stream bed, if you plant buffers, and you straighten out the configuration of the stream, and you put the rocks in a position that they're supposed to be in, and you restore the stream, that this helps prevent bad stuff from getting its way all the way out to the Chesapeake Bay. And as a result, it has the highest cash for return in our permit purposes. Anyway, so as part of this engineering process, KCI evaluates everything in the city. And they look at the map and they say, where are their streams that exist that could be eligible for these restoration efforts. And so they've done a lot of this work, and they've got regular reports to the city and they evaluate and they say this stream over here off of Barnett has this quality in it and this stream over here off of Summerland apartments and this stream down here by Hills Day Elementary School has these qualities and if you were to do a restoration project this is what it could look like and this is what it's going to cost and they float all these things and as part of this work the city received a grant through Maryland Department of Natural Resources for $886,000 to do this stream restoration project. On the Carson's run, tributary, which is on the north side of the summerland apartments between there and 95. There's a description in these documents of what they're trying to do regarding reducing sediment and nutrients flowing downstream, reducing potential flood impacts, creating wetlands, protecting the infrastructure, water sewer and storm water, riparian buffer enhancement and engaging the community. So council, these are the documents that they say they're going to do for the money that we've already spent on design. All we have to do is approve the bid from KCI to do the project. You're approving the grant acceptance from the Maryland State and the next step after this is for the city to go out and solicit contractors to actually do the work. We are proving the grant that makes this an agreement between governments which requires an ordinance, doesn't it? This, I think it does. Okay, all right, all right, it's good. Not your fault, not your fault. My fault, I had this conversation with Council President and Hyab earlier. So in our charter in section, you wouldn't believe it under authority of the city council, and then you go A, B, C, D, E, and then it gets into the city of Aberdeen and other government entities since this is a government entity. Then this requires an ordinance to approve this MOU plus the city of Aberdeen apprenticeship standards applications. The next item on your agenda and the member and the agreement for the Hartford County drug task force following this. So what I'm going to be asking for, this is where I need you to humor me, Council. In L2, L3, and L4, what I'm going to ask for, each time this comes up for discussion, is I'm going to ask for you to approve the introduction of an ordinance that says, we don't have the copy in front of us, but it's going to say we want to have an ordinance that will approve MDE grant SR2 stream restoration project acceptance and Then the clerk will prepare that ordinance and put it on for public hearing in our next regular council meeting where we will be able to have a public hearing on it and then Deal with it and do course. One, yes, suggestion, and with a couple suggestions. One being through our conversation and what we looked at, I believe, one avenue to correct these in the future, I think going through the whole ordinance process is changing it so that we can just do these through a resolution one might in and out done. The ones that aren't related to it, I believe policing, is that correct? Yes, but. Yeah. Yes. Right. Anything, so state law requires any agreement, intergovernmental between matters of police and shared protection requires and ordinance. And that's the majority of the things that we do anyway. And so I thought it'd be easier just for the keeping all of the ordinance rather than change the charter. Understood, and I think most of them are that way, but we do have several that are like this that come from time to time. The other option that we have rather than introducing tonight all on piece as a discussion point is introduce and suspend the roles and do it all done to the next meeting. I don't like to do that, but in regular practice in most places, these types of ordinances, these types of agreements would be done in one night through a resolution, you wouldn't have a degree to see it at the county council. It doesn't go throughout month and a half long process to approve an agreement that, you know, nine times out of ten, there's no, no, any question or any conversation on the piece. And I know these are, these are time and they should be done and we should have to wait a month and a half to execute them. So it could be approved with an emergency ordinance, the next meeting, they could be approved tonight with council consent, subject to understanding that there's going to be an ordinance for approval with the suspension of the rules of the next meeting to get it done in a reasonable manner. I know these are timely items. So hold on to your point. To your point. The only reason that an ordinance requires the second meeting is because of our rules, right? Like it's not a state law, it's just our practice in the charter says in order to adopt an ordinance. Right. So theoretically, we could amend the charter to say, ordinances that apply to memorandums, don't require that waiting period, they could be introduced and voted on the same day. Either way you do, you're still making changes at the charter and see the way you're looking at it, you're still making changes at the charter and so the way you're looking at you're making a change at the charter. Either you add the resolution, it can be a part of resolution or you take, like you said, take out the one piece for ordinances that are like this. I think it's probably cleaner with the resolution approach, but I agree with you that we should expedite these. How do you think we should dispense with these three matters so that we can move on with the agenda and then we can come back and deal with the bigger picture issue. I would be comfortable approving them if the council is willing to consent to ordinances for an introduction and adoption at the next council meeting. I think there are in any other case that would be the best that would be the practice Not going through a month and a half long process And I and I understand appreciate the timeless to them Is that emotion I just have a process question yes, sir Because this is a grant, that is the reason why. No. Between the state and us. No, just because it's intergovernmental. So P.P. I don't know what the section is. So let's call it section 125. The section P.P. says council authority is to buy ordinance approve agreements between governments. But in this case this is a grant that we've received from the state of Maryland. Correct. The way I read it. Through the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Right. So we've already been granted this by the state. So what I'm confused about is why is there a trigger and need for an ordinance? Because that would mean that every grant, because we apply for it. In this city that I've heard about, yes, I haven't seen ordinance as come to that effect. Oh, really? I made a yes, yes, that is the case. That's a lot of grants. This is why we have not seen it. You've heard me say every time We could this if we got to look at this process because every time Everything intergovernmental between the Department of Commerce Department of Housing Community Development the federal government Should have an ordinance to show that the City Council approved it under the current role of the City Council in the charter Would you let me read this section you? You may, Charter. P.P. please. All right, so Section 5 of the Charter says under P, P, that the council has the authority to make agreements with other municipalities, counties, districts, bureaus, commissions, and governmental authorities for the joint performance of a cooperation and performance of any governmental functions. So I said to the city attorney, are you telling me that that says that we have to have an agreement approved by ordinance for everything that we do with any government? And he said, uh-huh. That's not the case with other municipalities. If we change that language so that it said where it stems from is it's the section that describes the power of the council. It says the council can do these things. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, M, P, Q, S, T, U, you know, all the way down to P, P, it says approve agreements. Say it again, council president. It says, let me scroll back down. To make agreements with other municipalities, counties, district, bureaus, commissions and governmental authorities for the joint performance of or cooperation in the performance of any governmental functions. So anything that we get partnered with any governmental agency. It does seem clear, the way they do it in Cumberland is they have an agenda at the beginning of their meeting and I looked at this because I was going to visit Cumberland and they have at the beginning of their agenda 17 items that are grant approvals and MOUs and agreements and The council says yes to the consent agenda and they're all approved and then they go on to the rest of the meeting That's been a discussion point on and off for the years whether we have a consent agenda item and We require to do that as I'm gonna spell it That requires us to do that. There is not it is the charter of the city that requires it except for matters associated with police protection Three minutes in governmental that requires an ordinance by state law We're we're constraining ourselves by saying that it has to be done by ordinance rather than through resolution Which every other place would do it as a resolution in one night and be done or not gonna change it today No That's my point. Which every other place we do as a resolution in one night and be done. We're not going to change it today. No. Before the sake of streamlining it for the future, we need to consider changing the fact that we have approved. We have not been following the charter. What happens to all those grants that have been approved before tonight? I suppose, I suppose, Beth could sue us for not following the charter. And then we'd have to fight in court and the judge would say you're right. But that is a fair question of the lawyer. Yes, agreed. What do we do to reconcile? You can't. The past. He's got to go forward. No, no, no, I'm or you and I'm nothing. No statement made. I can do it. Everybody recognized, so the way contract works is, it's an agreement. And then satisfied by the actions therein. So if both parties comply with it, what do you get to do? I mean, we're going to go back and say, you know, the grant money that we received for the $5,000 EGLE statue is no good because we received the money and we spent it, we built the Eagles statue, you know, to me there's got to be some statement Given what you're saying right now To address the past can't change it, but it's been addressed publicly and officially Yep Contractually that makes sense because if it's not written down, it's not true It's not true. It's not true. It's not true. Thank you Put an ordinance at all, all grain agreements a bit between the date. Yeah, I mean, are approved by the Marion Council. You just can't waive, you know, to protect you in the city, I really think. I mean, let's look at it more. When you look at the P.P., we can evaluate. P.P. is pretty confusing to me. Right now. I mean, you're probably right. I mean, I trust your judgment over. Well, it just doesn't make any sense to me. Over my own interpretation of the PP. So right now, that affects two through four. Looks like it. Yep. Do we not table them? We can bring it back. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. emergency at our next meeting because we have in our charter a provision that says that an ordinance must have a seven-day period where it rests after introduction but we may suspend that with a simple majority calling it an emergency and then it can be acted on the same day. So what the Council President is proposing is that if it's the consensus decision of this body to at the next council meeting act as if these are emergency ordinances introduce them, postpone or excuse me, suspend the rule that prohibits the action on, you know, without a seven day period and then adopt them at the next council meeting as a way to ameliorate the waiting period between introduction and then later adoption after public hearing. But, and therefore, it would be treated just like a resolution as it would be. What's a resolution? A resolution is a firming something. Take a position, it stands, agreeing to something. It's the council, it's the mayor and council saying we stand by this or we agree to this or we disagree to this. And it is a lower threshold. And those are typically introduced and adopted on the same night. Most in most cases. They don't go through a multi-meeting process. Are these three documents in emergency? Nope. When it comes to the time that we need to get this done, does anything going to fail, tons of savings? Chief, what happens if we take a month to adopt the Memorandum of Agreement for the Harper County Drug Task Force? Nothing happens, but we're holding up the agreement between us and the other agencies that have been waiting for this. Because they have repulsed solutions. Does it change what we do? We've been doing the same thing for years. The agreements the same as it has always been basically. So that doesn't change anything. We will still operate the same, but I would like to get it done as soon as possible. Thank you. Is that same thing with the apprenticeship program? Mr. Torster regarding the apprenticeship program. Mr. Tortor, regarding the apprenticeship program? The apprenticeship program just essentially, this is the first step of several steps before Maryland Youth Council can vote on accepting us as an applicant for this apprenticeship program. So step one is we sign the agreement. I would say once the agreement is signed, the signed agreement then the state comes out, they inspect our site to make sure that we provided all the requirements and then it's put in front of the Youth Council board as a vote. So they have to actually vote to approve this. As it relates to the state or grant agreement, I'll have to check to see if there's any prohibitions as to putting this out, this contract out on the street and where we're running it, where we might run into some issues is that there's certain windows in the time of the year that the stream is closed for construction activity. And so depending on when this agreement is accepted could impact this. But I'll have to check with my associate engineer to see if we can put that out in the street and work this tangentially. But those are the only things that I have mayor. Sounds like it's timely. Is that what you're saying? Chief, you got to get this thing done. Yes, sir. I would like to. Yeah. All right. I'm just going to get there. It sounds timely. It's up to you. What are your proposing council in Montgomery? Well, we'll go with the most timely way to get this completed. So there'll be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. It would be the course of action. that we all agree with what's going on here. Yes, right. We have to have the discussion because I do have some questions. Well, do you want to take it on the one, like on the first ordinance, or the first agreement, then the second agreement, and the third agreement with the same motion subject to conversation each one? It's not an official act. It's just a sentiment that we're going to proceed to this at the next meeting. agenda item. What do you want to talk about? I don't want to jump around. Okay. Okay. Just keep going down here. Forgive me. Forgive me. When you get to your one I want to talk to or address out. Okay. Entireject. So I was talking about the SR2 stream restoration project and we went down that rabbit hole of the charter and I'm sorry for the. Okay. So with that matter, I understand that there's an educational outreach component for the public with that. How does the city plan to facilitate that? Is one person going to be assigned and responsible for the educational piece? I have an answer to that. Okay. Since I read the agreement. In the scope of work, page four out of 14, it talks about several project goals, outcome F. Because I think what you're getting at, which is installing an educational sign, like I'm quite sure what that means. Work with the city green team, I don't know who they are. Summaryland residents. I know who they are. Aberdeen High School. Students and others to complete storm drain stenciling. I saw that. But I what I need to know is who's going to head that up. Oh the consultant the the representative of KCI as part of this deal. That wasn't made clear. So when we get to that point I would like keep Aberdeen beautiful to be considered to help out with that. We'll be happy to include them. That's all great. Thanks. And that's all I have for that matter. Thank you Anybody else have any comments on the SR two stream restoration. What else you got please? Yeah KCI When did they perform the assessment? they started in 2021 and there were approximately nine or ten different locations around Aberdeen. We basically SR1 through SR9 or SR10. And we looked at those areas that were closely related to those tied to public land. Many of the areas were not considered because they abuddied against or butted through private property. So it's been since 2021? That's correct. Is there a chance that in three years the assessment could have done as part of this small allocation of resources to the design project. We spent $125,000 in the first year and they surveyed and they picked out the areas that made more sense to target based on the water that was flowing into them. So like if you got a stream out in the middle of nowhere, it doesn't make sense. But if there's a stream at the bottom of a great big hill with a lot of property that flows into the stream, that's a higher credit to Restore and so SR2 is the one that made the most sense after three years of evaluating and designing different solutions To do with this so it wasn't immediate it was starting in 2021. I think we allocated $125,000 from the general fund budget. And then in 2022, we allocated $150,000 to do this design. And then in the most recent year, it got nailed down as this being the choice. And so the design is design complete. The design is complete. And so this project is right as right it go out for bids. So all the plans. So forgive me. The design is complete. The project is right as right to go out for bids. So all the plans. So forgive me. So Casey Eyes is not going to be doing this. It will be done by whoever gets the low bid. That's correct. So in essence, the next step is when an agreement is reached. And the state essentially allows us to, we have to work in conjunction with the state essentially allows us to, we have to work in conjunction with the state. The bids will get submitted out. When the bids return, we actually have to evaluate them, also submit them up to the state. And they will have a chance to evaluate those bids as well and then provide jointly a recommendation related to the contractor to be able to do the work. And so to be clear, what we're talking about is the grant agreement that describes the scope of what the work is that was proposed by KCI to the Department of Natural Resources so that they will agree to this, then we will get that approval, then we'll go out to bid. Yeah, that's correct. Exactly. There's more opportunities to work on this. I don't know if KCI does this construction work. So this is like, there's a couple of big players you've seen their trucks run around Hartford County to do this kind of work. Like it's gonna be like the KCI or the engine nerds that you hired to do the design. And then the guys with the trucks and the machines come out to do all the work. It's a different operation. Yeah, it would not be a design build. And because it's due to the amount of money there's other factors as it relates to wage rates and things like that. So since it's state money, we have to follow all the rules related to those requirements. Good, any more questions on that one? On the project site, forgive me, I don't have the plans and that's fine. This is it won't interfere potentially with any recreational or any other future use to the city's site that we have right there. I know the Planning Commission made recommendation for recreation on the site. And I know that is it primarily to the eastern side of the site? It's primarily the stream. I mean realistically, I don't want to simplify it, but figure 20 to 30 feet of each side of the stream bed is about the maximum extent that it's going to go through. Essentially, what they're trying to do is they're trying to slow down the velocity of the stream so that things like erosion doesn't occur. So they're going to be working on slopes and stuff like that within the stream bed. It would just be great to see what it looks like now so that when it's done we can kind of see it before and after on the project. We just have it. Well, we'll be happy to get some of those. Yeah, just out of the three other thing. And I assume people like this would be similar to the projects that they were done by the county only by them run up the real road several years ago. So, the state of Maryland has made a big deal about encouraging different routes to professionalism of our young people, including and not limited to the state of Maryland. So, the state of Maryland has made a big deal about encouraging different routes to professionalism of our young people, including and not limited to college, including and not limited to getting directly into the trades after high school, because college is not for everybody. One of the ways that they do this, they have this Maryland apprenticeship program. We've been trying to recruit in specifically in the Department of Public Works, Water and Sewer Operations, young people who have an interest in serving their community in the water and wastewater operations and maintenance stuff. And so through the Harvard County Public Schools and the apprenticeship navigation program of the Maryland Department of Labor, we've got the opportunity to participate in the youth apprenticeship program of the state of Maryland. It's crazy that these things take these kinds of agreements to be complied with, but that's what we're trying to accomplish. And what we're asking for with this is to apply to the Maryland apprenticeship program so that we can be considered for Participation in the program yeah, and mayor just add some additional things I'll read off of what the Department of Labor says is once they receive the application, which is the first step. The next step is to review, in essence we have an agreement in place to review. They will schedule a site visit where the students will be working. They will identify the qualifying occupation, the related instructional piece, and to further explain how this program works. Once the application package is complete, it will be presented in Maryland, apprenticeship and training council for approval. And then once they approve that, then we are considered a participant under that program as an authorized vendor that the schools can use. And then we would work to solicit with potential students to work those type of apprenticeships. And the goal is to fill a need within our public works department where we want to be able to grow operators and to be licensed within the state of Maryland. Good, any more questions? How many students do you anticipate being able to have the capacity to take? And what are they going to do? Councilman, this is the first step. So honestly, I don't have an answer for that. The goal is to be eligible for this and then to be able to work with either a Hartford County technical or to be able to get those to find out who is who would be even considered. Okay. Anybody else? Can we move on to the next one? We're already talking about that one. We talked about that one already, didn't we? Sort of. It's the drug task force. I think it Sort of, it's the drug task force. I think it's worthwhile talking about what the drug task force is and how it is a collaboration between the city of Aberdeen, the Bellair, the town police department, the Harvard Grace Police Department, the sheriff's office and the state's attorney. Each of these entities by way of agreement become members of this task force that's been around since, I don't know, 2002. How long has it been around you? I started almost 40 years ago. So before 2002. It's involved in the different things that basically 40 years ago it started, it was a lot different, but it's been around. And so it's a collaborative effort between these different government entities that contribute different things. The sheriff's office being the biggest law enforcement agency participating, participates, contributes the most officers to it. But each of the divisions, the Aberdeen, Belair and Habitigrais, send a representative full-time basis to participate in the task force. It's they conduct investigations into drug and gang activity where those, you know, worlds interact and then they do investigations and swat stuff and it's all identified if anybody wants to read the specifics of the agreement here. And we've been members since it was created, I guess,en has and as often as we were able to we send somebody I think for a short time we didn't have somebody deployed to the task force in the last five years or so when we were under staffed. You're allowed to be vacant for a certain period of time before you have to vacate the whole operation but we've no good. Good. Anybody have any questions about what this task force entails? I do have a question, Mayor. Do we have an associate member from Aberdeen assigned to the task force? In the agreement, it said that a non-law enforcement organization or department head could be assigned as an associate member? Are you interested in assigning an associate member? We've never done it. I don't know of any agency that does but it's something we could look into. I guess my question is is there any benefit to it? The task force in itself is such a win-win proposition for us because the Sheriff's Office pays for everything there. I mean, all the civilians, they have both of the sworn officers, they pay for all the equipment. The only thing that we have to pay for is the officer's salary and available. Everything else is paid by the task force. And not only do we have an officer in there, but we utilize all the services that task force has to offer, which is local state and federal law enforcement agencies that can help us investigate crimes across the country, actually, because we have federal people in there. So, as far as having a non-swarm person in there, I don't know of any that are there, but if somebody is interested, we can take a look at it. Thank you. Hey, Bayaz. So subject to what we've discussed tonight, I would like to proceed with the council's consent or feedback that we've proceed and have the adoption through an ordinance under introduction of as emergency ordinance at our ordinances at our next council meeting. Is everybody cool with that? Yes sir. We'll get those drafted in around for a sponsor. That'll be the path going forward. Excellent. The next item is Barracuda Licensing Agreement. Barracuda is the provider of a service that we use for information technology. Specifically it's a service that runs in the background that stops infiltration into our email system by way of bad actors. I don't need council approval for this. I can't commit the city for a period of multiple years. Okay, I can't tell this group that I'm going to pay you for three years because our budget is a one-year thing. So next year the council could say we don't want a fun bear cuda and I could I'd have to go to them and say we're not doing that. But what the IT guy Brad Grant is proposing here is that we would sign a three-year deal to not have increases in the price over the next three years for this specific service that he says is necessary for the service of the city. So with your blessing, I would like to sign the three year agreement so that I can go and do this with the understanding that it will be asked for funding in two consecutive future years. With the same price. Anybody have any questions or thoughts what we're talking about? How do we know Barracuda is the best course of action to mitigate the issues that are listed. It almost sounds like a sophisticated, not an antivirus. When it comes to incoming outgoing spam and personating email protection, email archiving, backup for support for APG, what I don't want to mayor is you invest, we invest three years, $105,000. Yeah. Have we went to Norton Security or any of the industry folks to come in and do an assessment just to give us some guidance to say, yeah, Barracuda is the best based on your conditions or we've got something better because we take care of worldwide licensing. It's good. So system source who is the entity that Aberdeen has an agreement with to provide support services for all of our IT lives in this space. And I've asked the CEO the same question. It's like it's a black box How do I know for $280,000 a year what we're getting with the total package that we're paying you for is any better than The sucker down the street could provide for the same money and so We've been with system source for going on 17 or 18 years and and they're pros and the space what they're gonna say that they are They're pros and they would say that too. But it's a challenge to compare apples to apples given the black box that it is. So every couple years we go through the process of shopping the entire package of support services and the city has stuck with them for all this time based on price and service and the responsiveness that we get from them as a vendor and Their recommendation is to do this because it saves us money over three years Recognizing all the faults that could possibly exist Of course the company is going to recommend their services to you and tell you it's the best. My only question is how do we know there's not something better out there? Have we had an evaluation from Northern Ireland and of Irish other companies that do this similar piece just so you can do a comparison yourself to see if indeed $105,000 over three years is what 177 people need in the city to protect themselves. I just want to make sure we save the money. That sounds like a lot of dough for what this does right now, based on the email. And I know you're saying you're very confident that the gentleman who is asking us for the $105,000 says that he can continue to take care of things. And he's been doing it for 17 years. Yeah. I mean, normally we got forbids. You get three vendors out there as you pointed out in your email and say, okay, an Arab virus, do you provide this? System source, do you provide this? Another anti-virus company, do you provide this? antivirus company you provide this yep and then you could look at it and sure enough say wow it's worth $105,000 that's just a lot of money 35 grand a year I agree I agree and given that I've done IT most of my life I'm always skeptical whenever the person who's asking me for the money just telling me it's the best way to go and I've been doing business with you for 17 years. So do you know the right questions to ask, and I could put you in the room with Brad Grant, and you could ask these questions, so we try to get an answer, because I can give you a list of vendors tomorrow that you could go out to that would come in and make an assessment of the city for nothing because they want your business. So how you know they know what they're doing. So that's the problem I've had is they want the business and so they tell you well you've got all these deficiencies that we could fix for a million dollars. Well, Norton Antivirus is a worldwide company and they've been doing this for several years. So it's bad. For DOD, for the state, for personal. The only thing I'm offering to you is if you have options available to you before you invest $10,000 in $5,000. I would feel more comfortable spending the city's money. If you don't have those options and all you really have is somebody who is really asking you to write the check to them, trust me, I'm the best guy. That's a flag for me. Well, you got a little over 10 days before this. We've got unlimited time. Like nothing breaks in 10 days. I mean, it says the purchase must be made by close of business on Friday, October 25th. If that's what it says, I agree. But were they going to not honor the price on the 11th day? I don't know. I'm not an IT. I've never worked in IT. Could you make a good deadline question? I don't know. So I'm asking, I don't want us to be without protection while we're shopping around. That's one of the threats that they make. That, you know, if you don't do this, then your system will be at risk. It's hard because it's a black box, you know. Black guess you're between a rock and a half, please. Or you just go to them and say, can you extend it for three months? Let me do some evaluation. That way you keep your protection, you keep everything going. I just think an investment at 36 months of 105 grand, without having any clear opportunity to do some evaluation, I think is risky. Okay, good, thank you. Nothing against Brad, he's a great American, but I just want to make sure we're spending the city's money as wisely as we can. Got it. It's a lot of dough. Okay. This is Grever. the city's money. As wise as we can. Got it. It's a lot of though. OK. Mrs. Grover, do you have anything for updates from staff? No mayor. Again. Mr. Torture. If you've had an opportunity to see the news, there is some information about the lead and copper rule and what we're doing here in this city as it relates to having a public portal page which will in essence identify suspected areas where there is a fitting that might have a lead joint, a lead solder joint. The initial deadline for the first phase of identifying this is in two days from now, October 17th. We have submitted our application of potential areas and of the approximately 5,000 or so users that are connected to the city system. We've been able to remove 50% of those service connections. Things like when the building was constructed, when the information related to when ordinances prohibited certain uses of that. So we have information as early as 1965 that we're able to take 50% out. The next step is that of the 50% that's left, we have three years to whittle that down. We are required by law to notify the 50% and through a series of dialogues related to a website where you can self-report the city can do some what are called exploratory digging. We can whittle that down. The EPA mandate is that from today, we have 13 years to eliminate lead and solder joints within the city. So we've met stage one and the Sotter joins within the city. So we've met stage one and the next step over the next three years is to widow that down. So you'll be seeing some information. We will have a public portal. Our consultant, GHD, is required to put this information out. And so there'll be a link on our website for this, as well as letters being sent out to those residents. But I just want everyone to know. So in case you happen to see the news relating to the lead and copper rule, we've met the initial state of compliance. Do I have any questions? So you said that 50% of the water service connections are 50% cannot be identified. We can't find legal records or documents. So there's a criteria. Okay, hold on. So we're talking, so we got a water main in the street. It's a pipe that's in the street. That's correct. And then there's a connecting to that is a fitting, a fitting that goes from the main to the house. To the water meter. To the house. Hold on. The fitting goes from the main To the water meter. To the house. Hold on. The fitting goes from the main to the water meter. Where we count how much water they use. That's correct. OK. Then from there, there's another fitting that goes to the house. That's correct. We're saying that the connection to the water meter, now the connection from the main all the way to the house. So the Latin copper rule ignores the fact as far as ownership between private and public. It's placing the burden on the public water purveyor to verify the connection from the main to the house connection. Okay. Interesting. And so where we've met the compliance, the next step is to through some exploratories, through some additional things to how can we know that there's no lead in the fitting. So in 2013, the EPA changed the law, and you have to use lead-free fittings, which they didn't have lead-in number four. Everybody used them until then, and then they were certified lead-free. You can only use those as part of code. It says there is. There is, there was ordinances put into place, and rules and regulations back in the 1960s where you couldn't use those particular. Can we tell by looking at them? Like if it's a nod, yeah. So ideally what we're looking at is what type of material the line is. And then from there we can deduce or deduct based on this and so we might have to do some sampling and then let's say we know theoretically if we were opening up all of the meter crocs we could be able to look at the meter croc and make this determination because you got your new set coming in now it's now it's actually what have to do with a test date to the actual fitting where the main was. So it's a pre-and-depth process. So the EPA in the state allows us to have a lot of different means to be able to whittle that down. So we could say that even though we don't have any records in Hillsdale, a Hillcrest, we know they were built in 1963 and if we sampled one or two of them, at different locations, we can extrapolate that these 287 homes are right. And then we take them all home in the doors. That's correct, exactly. So it's, we have a three-year process to be able to do that. And there's a number of factors that we have to do. But yes, exactly. It's a representation. What if we discover lead? Then we have 10 years to remediate it. Do we have to remediate it? We have to remediate it. We have to pay for the entire water service up now? Yes. Yes. OK. Yes. And so that's part of the rash now so the entire nation is under this Is edic good this law counsel any questions about the led copper rule That's all I have mayor chief what else? That's all sir, so I have mr. Jack Yeah, good. And the council. I guess, I'm too, let you know that the audit of our last fiscal year sinful soon. And it's expected to be done by the end of this month. The other doors were here last week and would be walking with them seriously. So hopefully to be done. But you know, this. So Mr. Jack, you mean the annual audit that we do, whether we like it or not every year to make sure that we're following all the government accounting standards board requirements associated with record keeping and financial management and how we had a clean audit report, unqualified audit report going back as long as we have records for. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Jack. That's all right. This is Horn. I think you're next. Do you want to go? Does it make a do-a-song? Some of us don't know who this is. Do we all know who this is? It's Slimer. It's Slimer, right? Name Spangler. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. they're going to have some carnival games. We've also partnered with the police department. They're doing their public safety. So we'll have police cars, far trucks, police dogs, special vehicles out in the park. So I'm hoping everybody comes down for that one. I think they're going to be lined up at 11 o'clock inside the park. And our dogs don't like to be at this so much. It's hey. No other dogs in the community, huh? State or sheriff's office or? No one. Okay, so the kids have a lot to do that day. I'll back up a little bit on the 22nd. The chamber is having their coffee chat downtown at Scoops, eight o'clock in the morning. Great networking capability. Talk to some local businesses and so forth. Donnie opens his place up early for us to be able to do that. Then we jump ahead this week. the city of San Francisco. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. the buster's going. Talk to me about the sandwich boards. They've been delivered all but two. This body doesn't know about the sandwich boards. So we had purchased six sandwich boards to try them out. If you want to. The sandwich board is a is a 18 by 24 inch outside standing up thing that you could put a message on. OK, so we're talking about. I like the great big one you see in the park. That's the sandwich board of a monga side. But yes, we want to everybody kind of be uniform throughout the Main Street area. So we want to try that and so far the ones that have it, love it. So if we're inclined to buy some more for some of the businesses downtown that need them, we'll go ahead and do that. But you'll see a cohesiveness of them going down Main Street and you know throughout Main Street area, park street Do they have on them? They don't. I don't have a big enough spot on the wood to be able to do that because you didn't want to go with the other ones. Okay. I mean, with this to try it, we didn't know how it was going to be received. So good. But they're loving it so far. Good. The other thing is, D's flourst on this 16th I believe is that tomorrow, the Thursday. Thank you. They're doing a free bouquet giveaway to give back to community. You can come in and get a bouquet, keep it for yourself, give it to somebody else, but they've aratized it on my website, Facebook page, so please stop by and see them. They do some great things, so they've got some free bouquets. I don't know what size is what flowers, but hey, bouquet of flowers can always be nice to the body Good, please stop by Thank you. Thank you Next is the final opportunity for public comment anybody who'd like to address the microphone can come up and do so Please keep your comments to under three minutes per person Welcome, you do Michael have it's tough to follow miss Vicki, but I'll be real brief less than three minutes per person. Welcome. Good evening, Michael. It's tough to follow Ms. Vicki, but I'll be real brief. Less than three minutes for sure. Regarding the stream restoration project, if they, I don't know where they did their evaluations, KCI, but sometime in the future, the drainage area below the pond, that set the intersection of Mount Royal Avenue in Route 22. There's a big pond there beside St. Paul's. The drainage area below that, on our family walks, we've walked through the woods. It's 100% wooded area. It's beside the field at the Aberdeen Middle School and behind St. Paul's. It is really bad, he wrote it. It's crisscrossed itself and cut over again. And at some point in the future, if anybody wants to take a look at that, I suggest doing that and put that on the list maybe in the future for one of these other stream restoration projects to keep all that mess from getting in the bay. And in the other things, real brief, when you guys have these lengthy discussions, three of you tonight happen to be sitting back near chairs talking back and forth. It's a little tough to hear in the back row sometimes, but for the benefit of folks at home, try to remain vigilant and talk into the microphones. Not. You're coming out about the stream at the Liberty Mill School. There's also a stream at Lisby Hillsdale that would be a great candidate for stream restoration, but we don't get credit for the ones on County Government property. And so we're only doing the ones that Aberdeen will get credit for is how it came to that right? So I assume the property below St. Paul's County Public Schools. Is it okay? We're state highway so there's a line of minutes. It's not a safe. They go. They have their fence up at their right away. Yeah, Harvard County Public Schools. Thank you, Mayor Anybody else for public comment? That's boys in 631 Westwood First of all there's still no stop signs at the exit into the legends going on to Beard's Hill in Milton You got another email this evening about it. Yes, so please secondly I was fortunate enough to host a golf tournament fundraiser for Officer Haddicks and the amount of love and support that came from the Aberdeen Police Department for him and his family was absolutely amazing. And I'm glad to see you still doing so well. But you guys really stood by him 100%. So thank you very much. Secondly, the Lions Cup is doing their spaghetti supper, October 22nd, so please find your favorite lion and get tickets for next Tuesday night for the seven at the Wetlands Golf Club thank you so much. Anybody else? Let me call the public comment to a close. Councilman Linda Camp, do you have any business this evening? A couple of things, questions, I guess. Have we scheduled a meeting with the new owners of the Ironbird so we can figure out? A couple of things, questions, I guess. Have we scheduled a meeting with the new owners of the ironbirds so we can figure out? Now, would the concession agreement just gonna be, or is there a concession agreement? Or, so we're still waiting for the report from the arbitration. We had finished all of the arbitration. We paid everybody already, the lawyers. And the last thing to do is wait for the judge to issue his opinion. We expect to receive that in the next couple of weeks. And I thought it made more sense to wait for that to come through before we set that meeting up. But I will email them to schedule it based on their availability and make sure you're aware of that when that schedule. Liaison report, Park and Rec, basketball, dance, rugby I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. I'm a little bit more careful. school so we're headed this Thursday to halls crossroads to walk those kids to school and in another group school in the Bakerfield to greet those kids and also read to the students. That's all we're doing with that. Great. I like that. Councilman Rijli. Thank you, ma'am. Just a couple of items. So a representative from the link bus system did visit the Golden Age Club. I was not able to attend that meeting, however, I did have an opportunity to speak with the president of the Golden Age Club. I just met her out and about as well as one of the other members Mrs. Galawai and the president told me in her estimation that the questions that the Golden Age Club had about the bus length system were answered to their satisfaction. I did receive a follow-up email from Tara Lothrup who was the legislative aide to county councilwoman Jessica Boyle-Sattles. And in the email she told me that they discussed the concerns and feedback with the office on aging, the concerns that the Golden Age Club had about the office on aging. And as a result, a representative from the office on aging is happy to come to the club and speak with them at one of their meetings. And I hope to be able to have it in my schedule or time to attend that. Tara also told me that they secured a presentation for the Golden Age Club from the Office of Drug Control Policy who will be doing a presentation on safe medication and disposal. I also believe Ms. Lathrop told me that upper Chesapeake Hospital is providing some support and services to the club as well. I assume that they will be coming out at some time to do a presentation to the group. And I'm so glad that the group is getting some attention. This is long overdue. And we're going to keep plugging away to make sure that some of these long, staining concerns that the members of the Golden Age Club have had will continue to be addressed. And that's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Council Member you council member thank you mayor. Earlier this week I attended the Aberdeen Police Department monthly meeting I've been going to that every month I encourage council members they've not been to the monthly meeting it's a great opportunity to get real metrics of what's going on in the community when it comes to calls and you also pick up other tidbits of information that's that's very helpful. Some of the notes I made that I understand we're going to be getting two more speed trailers in the community that have what the police refer to as LPR and from my ride alongs. What I know is it's a sophisticated box that could basically read a license plate in one second. So those being deployed out in the community will certainly hopefully be in areas that need traffic calming and certainly having that technology on it where I can read the license plates, may pick up and also catch some other things that we're not catching right now. The, on Friday night, I rode with APD ride along. It's my sixth one since I've been on the council. This was a different one for me because it's the first time I rode at night. I rode on a Friday night at 6 to 9 p.m. It really opened my eyes to what the community looks like at nighttime because I had always rode in the past from maybe 12 to 3 or 3 to 6 based on my schedule. One of the things that really struck me were the amount of homeless in our community. And I know the mayor, the police, our service groups in this community have gotten together, sat right here and came up with some really great recommendations on how to get things done. But I really believe now we're at a point where residents, rightly so, are calling because of homeless at Festival Park and other areas and now let's getting to our business community. Business members are now calling the police when it comes to how the homeless are affecting their business when it comes to who's out front, who may be sitting there. My concern is while we have a tremendous amount of caring concern, certainly with the police because they're the first responders that see all of this, I really believe now we're at a point where this is bigger than just Aberdeen. And I know Mayor, you had talked to the group a month ago to try to get some kind of a plan together. But I really think my recommendation is maybe we get the leaders together the county executive yourself and the state Representatives because I really think this is going to take bigger than Aberdeen to solve and it would be great to have them in the same room To share with them what our problem is and at least get the head nod that we get it we see it But I'm really concerned now we're at a threshold where who we have there to meet the homeless and where it's hitting our citizens, our business community, I wanna get ahead of it before it gets to a point where it just gets out of control where our current support agencies really can't handle it. And it's not for a lack of what's been done here. I just think we need county leadership and state leadership because it's going to take their support, I think, to help us. And I believe before we make a plan, we probably need to make sure we all see the same problem and they get their buy-in. But there needs to be some kind of a short term, I think, way to compassionately care for the people that are in our community. The officer that I rode with said the same thing that we heard in the meeting here. They come here because there are so many resources in our community. Which in a way is a compliment to our community when you think about it. But by the same token, it continues to kind of perpetuate a non-solution for those folks to kind of get them going. So I hope we can maybe get the leadership together. Just for a quick session to agree that there is an issue, see the problem, and probably more importantly put some mitigation measures in quite quickly to kind of help us when it comes to support that we may need. Aberdeen Community Center, I shared with the council probably in early June, after visiting the Golden Age Club a few times. Some recommendations for Aberdeen Community Center design. I'll send that back out to you again this week, because now I have the Aberdegrace Community Center design that I've gotten from one of the council members there. My concern is that the proposal that we saw in March that was offered by the county executive, I really don't think is going to meet the cut when it comes to feedback that we have gotten from not only the Golden Age Club but just citizens in general. And I really believe that October 2022 design and matches very closely to what Havardegraise has now. So my hope is that we can agree on a design as a council and maybe working with you mayor. We can hopefully have the folks that are designing. The community center be able to make some alterations. If they are compliant with any alterations that we like, I really believe it would be healthy if we would have whatever office is designing this, come in and make a presentation to us at the council, so that everyone here can kind of see who's making the design based on our recommendations, and more importantly, the public can make comment when they see these designs in front of them to kind of give us some new feedback. Two last points we had Hurricane Milton as many of you may know last week. My mom lives in between Tampa and Sarasota so she was right in if you will the bulls eye of that. She did okay. I would just say if you have family members that live in Florida, give them a call and see how they're doing. The insurance companies down there, not all of them, are really wreaking havoc with many of the older people that are there when it comes to getting claims done and getting things completed. There's still people without power. So if you have friends or family that live or snow bird down in Florida, check in on them and give them a call just to see how they're doing. And the final point I've got is in a few days tomorrow, the 15th October is the last state of vote, registered vote. If you have not registered to vote no matter what your party is, I know you probably have an opinion. And this is a big election. So if you don't register to vote by tomorrow, you will not be able to vote in the November election. So if you vote already registered, great. Tell 10 friends that may not have so they can come out and vote in November. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council President Hayab. I'll let go councilman Montgomery, particularly on the getting, I'm making sure everyone participates in the democratic process this November It's very important that we all do so you can Register during early voting day of in the cast provision that's the only other option that you have out there to vote But otherwise you needed you registered by tomorrow and our nearest early voting site which opens next Thursday Isn't have a grace activity center off of a little So, make your plans to vote early or on election day. The Planning Commission met last week to review the feedback we provided and the definitions that we sent over to them from our last work session. Ms. Grover is working to get everything together with the notes that we both prepared and we'll have it over to you so I want to thank you for working with me on getting everything together there. And the deals that note taking from the planning commission session, that should be over to you all this week. For our work session a week from tonight, the goal would be to then have an ordinance prepared for introduction at our next Council meeting two weeks from tonight on the definitions and on the table of uses. There'll be more work on the development code after that point as well. But this is a point where we need to move this portion of our work and the planning commissions work along to the next phase. So we're to come on that at the next meeting, look for the document and eventually sponsorships circling around on that. So that will go through the regular three meeting process. The, since the last meeting we had the B&O dedication, the Mariner and I attended and he spoke at that event. Definitely worth the visit during the December 3rd open house. They had a good display of the different historical elements with the Aberdeen room, historical society, friends of the B&O station. We've had some good collaborative discussions on what the future uses on this site. And optimistic that now that the exterior is completed that the next phase can move forward and hopefully, maybe there's some state funding out there for the next phase of this upcoming legislative session. But of course, they are tight on funds this year, so we'll walk to a wait and see. But good event worth the visit, 50, so years in the making. I have a meeting this past week with Representative from Visit Harvard to discuss their litigation, they're back and forth with the county executive on funding for Visit Harvard without taking a side on the issue. There is legislation in front of the county council coming up tomorrow night for introduction that will mandate that the funds go to visit harford entity by then in tourism entity. The legislation doesn't impact the cities and the towns that get the 50% portion from the hotel text levied in the city. So it won't impact our percentage. Biggest thing that we can hope for, whether it's visit Hartford or the counties, and to do that they have tried to set up is that these events do bring dollars back to average on top of all parties coming to average. So if they have an event, particularly sports tourism, they utilize our hotels. They provide me some data, I'll be happy to share with everybody about just one event and how it impacted hotels in Aberdeen, Edgewood, beyond. So it's important that however this shakes out that NITD is operating because it helps not just the kind as a whole, but it does directly impact us because a lot of the hotels are in Aberdeen and in Belcamp. So that legislation will be introduced tomorrow night at the County Council. I'm also working with NSTEP on another project through the InnaF Act. The initiative is through one of the governor's housing, not housing but priority legislation this past session to focus on lifting families up through poverty, most of families with children through different initiatives, wraparound services, and partnering with different community-based organizations, local government, and the school system. So some of the data that I've shared with you through Harvard Community Action Agency on services that we provide in Aberdeen is being utilized with Ms. Jacobs and others, and I was on work meeting last week with them. They have another one this week. So she is focused on the Aberdeen census area that qualifies which is a portion of the east side of Aberdeen and the partner school of being Huls-Ross Roads. So more to come on that. The little tidbit of good story. That my fire department board meeting this week, they had two applicants that were coming into the department, they reviewed them before they go to the full board, and come to find out they're both going to be new residents at Aberdeen Overlook. And this is just an example of many people that I've seen that come to Aberdeen, including George back there, that are investing in Aberdeen and coming and living in Aberdeen in these projects that we have on the west side. And of course, the state we all know is facing a major housing shortage. And this family came up, went to the fireworks of Ripon Stadium, took a wrong turn off a long drive, and turned into Aberdeen overlook. a long drive and turning down a really no-look. And it's all, it's all a great opportunity and I'm moving up from Baltimore County to Baltimore County. It's a young family with the young kids. So it's great to see those faces, not just the cars and the driveways, but the faces and people giving back and getting involved in their community. Another success thing I can correct me if I'm wrong, the water line is going with Havardy Grace. It was multi years in the making so college to your team, Minerabales involved, you know, Kudos to them and of course our partners in the city of Havardy Grace. That was a multi, about three year thing in the making, four years in the making process. So good example of collaboration and partnership between municipalities. And once there's also shout outs, watch sharper and company, the structure is coming along great every year. I don't want to take any of the mayor's thunder. But you're taking all the more. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll give most of it to you. No, you can't please proceed. But the walls are up. the trust is up, the building is rocking and rolling, coming right along, I visited the site today. And the guys were out there, and it's great to see some other grand dollars of it receive coming around and invest back in the downtown of some of the other work that Vicki is doing. There's not only the Baltimore Business Journal, there's not WBL, Channel 2, WABC, they did a good highlight on a variety of things, but highlighted watch tower as well. So it's great to see progress, and a lot of things that we've all been visiting for a long time and mirrored certainly credit to you on being very hands on that project here in the downtown area. Lastly, just wanted to thank you for the information and of course, it encouraged the council and if it's good to night or at a work session on the whole scope of what's going on and ripped in with MLB requirements that they have that to be reached at a certain point, getting MSA funds, working through the checklist to receive those funds, to make the checklist to receive those funds, to make the improvements to the state, in which is very, very important. And of course, the looks like steady but slow progress as well on federal funding for SWAM matters. And I want to thank you, Mayor, for working that along through the process and advocating for that. So Beth already covered the Lions Club, which of course is always a great event to attend on the 22nd. Otherwise, the week from tonight, and at least one discussion item will be the follow-up from the Planning Commission work session and getting the ordinance ready. Subject to you all either 6 or 7 o'clock in your availability. Subject to your availability 6 That's it. Subject to your availability six or seven o'clock. What is it? Whatever I can go six, nobody's six for the worst work sessions, but I don't want to feel with any potential sports things. I definitely want to have everybody there. It's six o'clock. What are we talking about? It's six o'clock. Six o'clock. Yeah. Monday, six o'clock. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Marker calendars. All right. Thank you. So, Councillor, we've been deep in the weeds on planning on the comprehensive plan for a couple of years. And then we turned into comprehensive rezoning and then we turned into the ongoing process of revisions to the code and the table of uses and partnership with the Aberdeen Planning Commission. And I fear that we have gotten too far into the weeds on this that we have not had a shared dialogue with each other and with the Planning Commission on what we're trying to achieve with code amendments. So some of the code amendments involve things like eliminating apartments, things like changing definitions and changing the P to the slash and the whatever the thing on the table. And I think it would be productive for the City Council and for the Planning Commission to break down what exactly we're trying to achieve. What is it that we're trying to get to in 10 years? If you put yourself in a helicopter and you lower yourself down at the B&O Railroad Station in Aberdeen and you look around at the future in 10 years or 15 or 20 years, what does that look like in your ideal scenario? And then we back into what that code change looks like. If we do the same thing sitting at the M-track Rail Station, if we do the same thing sitting at long drive and 22, I think that's a fruitful way for this body to say what is it we're trying to get to rather than arguing and negotiating on which things are going to get cut and which things are going to get added. Because with that message delivered to the Department of Planning and Community Development we can say this is what we want to see here and then we can say how do we get there and then task the department with coming up can say how do we get there and then task the department with coming up with the code changes to get there. Versus what I think we've done is said we don't like car washes and so we don't want any more car washes. Instead of this is what we'd like to see, how can we limit the future eventual outcomes to this handful of things. We want this area to be a residential neighborhood with potential neighborhood stores. We want this area to be dedicated to logistics and we don't want any potential logistics anywhere else. Those kinds of 10 year visions, we can do it neighborhood by neighborhood or block by block or region by region and within the city I think it's important that we have that dialogue because otherwise all we're doing is changing letters and It feels reactionary rather than forward looking and so I encourage you guys to think about this over the next couple days Think how we could have a productive conversation in this regard if it's me and you individually having these Conversations and then me put them together. Are you talking to Phyllis? Are you talking to each other? I don't know But I really think that by only worrying about the thing that's right in front of us Which is changing the the dots and the peas and the a's and the stuff on the letter that we're losing The the long-term vision that we have available to us at this point in time So it's not a criticism, but I think we can do better. To come up here, watch Tower Boys. Come, come. The watch tower guys officially signed the lease at the October Fest. We had a little, we pulled the council president and hired an eye on the side. We did a little talk thing and then they signed the lease. We were on site today. The contractor that we have hired to put the building together on the exterior of the shell, put up the rails last week and so we got four rolls. And then today they put the trusses across the four rails and tomorrow they'll sheathe it with plywood on top. And then in less than two weeks we'll have a waterproof tight structure and then the reason we were on site today with these guys is we were working out the specific details of what the windows and the doors are going to look like so the handoff that happens between the city and the tenant in Washed Tower Brewing Company goes smoothly so we know what we're paying for they know what they're paying for and we're rocking and rolling into the future. I don't know what I wanted when I called you up here. But you can say something now if you would like. You don't have to. Thank you for everything that you've done. You haven't new house yet? It's not working ground yet. It's a lot 110. A lot 110 at what street? You have a street? I don't know. Yeah, it's got a street name, but I don't know. OK, you're not taking mail there yet. That's what Adam was asking. I'm like, I don't know. I got bigger things to worry about here. I'm going to go down here. Somebody else has taken care of that. That's not going to be here. Are you part of Aberdeen? We're excited. Good. We're not done yet. There's more work to come. Thanks guys. I appreciate you being here. I'll keep running my mouth on the news to get Aberdeen more. Very good. Thank you. Today also we met. I had a meeting with Steve Horne with the economic, and a couple of members of the Aberdeen Masons, which is in the building adjacent to Continuous to 22 Howard Street. It's been over the years another black box situation where we don't really know what's going on in there, we don't know when they're there. It was a really great conversation with their current large master, Mike Bowen, or Ballon, who has a relationship with Councilman Montgomery with their current lodge master, Mike Bowen or Bowen, who has a relationship with Councilman Montgomery in his defense contractor role. He's a systems engineer, very smart, very competent. I think he's doing a good job leading the lodge. The purpose of this meeting was to figure out what their future looks like at that site to see if it's available for Aberdeen to continue our revitalization efforts and they expressed a desire to work with us on negotiating potentially helping them move to a new location, freeing up that additional 3,000 square foot building in between our existing 18-hour street and 22-hour street for more cool stuff. And so it was a very good conversation, hour and a half with those boys. And they want to participate. And I wrangled them real hard to get them involved in Christmas Street. And so it was proposed that they wear their mason's aprons and Rudolph the Red Nose, reindeer noses, as they march down the street. If that's the minimum that they can put together and so we're going to try to get them involved in that. As we have been meeting with people in the community, as we've been talking to representatives of halls, crossroads and we've been talking to folks in all the different organizations across the city, I've been trying to wrap everything in the we can do stuff together umbrella, let's say, and saying, come and participate with us in our Christmas street thing. It's our thing. Do the thing with us. And I'm trying to get everybody involved in that as a way to get them to contribute to all the other cool stuff we do, with a community calendar, with our newsletter, with trying to get people on the same page with all the cool stuff that's happening here. And so as you talk to people, pitch to them, you've got an organization of three or more people, participate in Christmas tree. We'd love to have you. You know, it doesn't take a lot of work. It's a short parade and the weather's always great. All right. The water line between Habitegrees and Aberdeen. So Aberdeen had a need for water because the county government was charging us more for water. So we've got a handful of sources of water. One of the sources is pulling water out of wells. Another is buying water from the county. And the county charges us the retail rate for water. So they charge us the same rate that they charge somebody who lives in Abingdon, who's got a water service lateral down their street and then a water service connection then a meter. And so we don't get any discount on the volume of water up to 600,700,000 gallons of water a day that we buy from them. And so we started pursuing alternatives way back in 2018 and 19, which precipitated in a all-hands council meeting in the Harvard-Grey City Council chambers where we struck this agreement. We were all wearing our coronavirus masks and standing six feet apart in the Havard de Grace City Council chambers way back in 2020 when we struck this deal. Four years later, we put in a mile and a half of water line at a booster station. Havard de Grace put in a mile of water line that connected to their main. And last week we turned on the booster pump at Railbird Alley on Route 40 and water has been pumping with some problems here and there, but regularly from habit-a-grace into Aberdeen's water system. So people, if you've seen any cloudiness in your water, it's a different route the water is taking now. It's harmless to drink the water, but it could be cloudy as a function of stirring up pipe from different angles of the water flowing. But it's a really great thing and we've got a lot to be proud of with the relationship that we have with Havardy Grace and the opportunity to get this water at something like 70% of the cost that we pay Havardy County for water. Which on net at full capacity will save Hdeen $2,700 a day from the rate we pay Aberdeen, the rate we pay Aberdeen, by Arford County and Aberdeen Grace. $2,700 a day times 365 days a year is a lot of money. And so it doesn't sound like a lot in the scope of our system, but it's a lot of money and those savings continue out for the whole term of 20 years. And so I'm proud of that. The Army Corps of Engineers, because you raised it, the City of Aberdeen has a need to replace the water lines, the sewer lines, and the, and there is no existing stormwater facilities in the neighborhood notice Juan Meadows on the east side of Aberdeen. There is a federal program that we learned by way of our lobbyists that we have to help us with getting funding for this project that allocates congressional money to drinking water projects. Something like $100 million and Maryland was allocated to this fund so it says only for Maryland $100 million and so we went through the congressional earmark process trying to get into this. We got through the Appropriations Committee but we didn't make it into the full Congress for a vote on our $9.2 million project. And we thought that our goose was cooked and we had to wait another 18 months for this. Well then we learned that the Army Corps of Engineers who we had interacted with in the last year who was expressed support for our project is allowed to tap this money unilaterally. And we invited Mr. Jason Stick from the Army Corps of Engineers to come to Aberdeen next week. October 25th. October 25th. To come to Aberdeen to see the specifics of this project. We have a real opportunity for them to get excited about it to tap this money and to run this project. The benefit of this council and for the benefit of the public is that if they do the project, they run the totality of the project. They do the public messaging to the community about shutdowns and replacements. They will excavate, they will replace the waterline and the sewer line and the storm water because we already have a hundred percent design complete drawings for that to pass off to them and let them run it. So we haven't done it before but we're excited about it in that regard. Mayor, we don't have to go through all the hoops that we would have with the congressional route. There will probably be hoops. I don't have to go through all the hoops that we would have with the congressional rock. There will probably be hoops. Okay. I don't know what the extent of the hoops will be, but it is the Army Corps of Engineers and whenever it's the government. It is not known to be a light bureaucracy. Okay. But it's exciting nonetheless. They might fund the project and they might be able to tap that funding and then do the project in totality. Otherwise, we've been kicking butt on making progress on lots of little things. We've got the Veterans Day celebration happening at Aberdeen Veterans Memorial Park on November 11th hosted this year by the VFW. We've got the Council Work Session scheduled seven days from today and the second floor conference room starting at 6 p.m. The trunk or treat as Mrs. Horn referenced is Saturday, October 26th from noon to 2 p.m. So in the warmth of the October sunshine, noon to 2 at Aberdeens Festival Park, we have had thousands of people come to this. So if you have small children to bring them, and we will have plenty of candy. Regular council meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 28th and Council Chambers. The Planning Commission will meet on Wednesday, November the 13th, the Economic Development Commission says Wednesday, November the 20th. Do we have an Economic Development Commission. We meet here in Aberdeen City Council chambers and talk about a whole variety of things and we're always looking to get more people involved. So if you want to be involved in economic development, if you want to learn more about planning, if you want to learn about the AOT Aberdeen on the move. AOTM, enterprise that's happening, go to the forum that we don't know the subjects of yet, but we will find out soon. Keep Aberdeen beautiful, of course. Happened last Saturday. Anything else, council? Thank you. All right, good meeting. We're adjourned. Thank you.