TOWN MEETING MINUTES
Minutes of the February 4, 2004 Town Council Meeting
7:30 p.m., Trappe Town Hall


The regular Town meeting was opened by President Cheryl Lewis and called to order at 7:30 p.m. Vice President Bob Niemeyer and Commissioners Edgar Harrison, Danny Adams and Norm Fegel were present. Everyone stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. The January minutes were accepted as presented. The January financial statement was accepted as presented.

Executive Session - February 12, 2004

There was an Executive Session on February 12, 2004 at 6:15 p.m.

Council members present were: Cheryl Lewis, Edgar Harrison, Bob Niemeyer and Norm Fegel. The meeting was to discuss new employee for WWTP wages, benefits and Health Insurance.

Old Business:

President Lewis said that the town had received an application from Rocks and Rauch concerning a Preliminary Application/Concept Plan for the east side. The applicant submitted a concept plan for the new annexed area. Mr. Hall was asked at the last meeting to review and give his recommendation at this meeting.

Mr. Hall read his recommendation that the town delay granting conditional approval of the Preliminary Application/Concept Plan for the east side Planned Neighborhood and Planned Unit Development until March 2004.

President Lewis told everyone that Mr. Hall had been making a running list of issues that anyone might come up with to address to the applicants. She recommended that after the town meeting there will be a public work session where we can just discuss some of our issues tonight. This will include anyone here tonight who would like to join in with questions, details or anything that you might want to see. We would like for everyone to be involved in this development and to submit any questions that you would have about this development in writing to the town.

New Business:

Mr. Hall, Planner:

Mr. Hall said that the Talbot County Planning Commission is asking the towns to be present on Monday, February 9th at 3:00 p.m. to discuss the County Comprehensive Plan and the Gateway greenbelt issues. The County is meeting with all the towns and would like for the towns to be there at 3:00 promptly. Mr. Hall will attend this meeting along with Com. Harrison and possibly Com. Niemeyer.

President Lewis said that on Monday, February 9th she would be going to Annapolis for a rally on the school fund raiser, to recommend funding fully for the school system. Anyone may come; we are taking the children from the schools that want to go to see how our government really works.

Attorney Booth:

Attorney Booth presented Resolution 2-2004 a renewal of the promissory note that she had prepared for The Talbot Bank from the "1997" Sewer Plant upgrade in the amount of $102,742.99 of which we have just been paying the interest on for all of these years. We have now closed the bond and it is time to renew the note. The bank has agreed to renew for 5 years at 3% interest. Attorney Booth recommended that we sign the note.

Motion was made by Com Harrison that we adopt resolution 2-2004. Motion was seconded by Com. Niemeyer.

Vote: Adams – Y, Lewis – Y, Harrison – Y, Niemeyer – Y, Fegel – Y

Drake Ferguson:

Mr. Drake Ferguson told the town that he was still working on the memorial for Mr. Ed Cannon. He would like to be put on the March agenda concerning the memorial.

President Lewis:

Snow removal bid. They are in your packets to let you see what was spent for snow removal. We need to make sure that we stay in budget each year. We could not pay what was not on the bid proposal.

State of Maryland public meeting on discharge permit.

President Lewis said this was a State of Maryland public meeting on our discharge permit; it was just basically open discussion and questions on the permit. This was just the first step and it was quite educational. When we receive the next step we will publish it on the town bulletin or in the newsletter if we know in time.

If you would like to receive a newsletter please let us know, we can email you a copy.

Water bills:

Your water bills will be late this month due to the snow, and they may be higher than usual, please check the dates it may that you are paying for a longer period of time than usual. This means that next month your bill could be less than 30 days please don’t get upset it will work itself out. Your bill should pretty much balance out by April.

Announcements: The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 to go to workshop.
Respectfully submitted:

Cheryl Lewis, President

Joedy Cecil, Clerk