TOWN MEETING MINUTES
July 7, 2004
7:00 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 June minutes were accepted as presented. The June financial statement was accepted as presented.


Old Business:

ENTERPRISE WORKING BUDGET:

President Lewis stated that the Council has just had a workshop on June 23rd on the Enterprise Budget. She presented a working budget of the Enterprise Fund and stated that in order to balance the budget we would need a rate increase. The recommended increase shall be a basic monthly water service availability fee of $12.00, and a monthly water usage rate of $2.75 per thousand gallons. The fee for sewer charges shall be a monthly sewer service availability fee of $18.00 per customer and a monthly sewer usage rate of $5.25 per thousand gallons of water used.

The water and sewer capacity charges will be raised to:
Water$4,500capacity fee
 $1,360connection charge
Sewer$5,250capacity fee
 $1,360connection charge

President Lewis said that this will cost each household approximately $15.00 to $17.00 a month per household to cover our debt. This is the bare minimum to pay our debt.

President Lewis stated that these figures were based on a study done by MCET which is the Maryland Center for Environmental Training. They took all of our figures, population, debt and expenses and calculated them and than made their recommendation. The recommendation was that the rates be raised higher. MCET felt that we needed to raise the rates even more than we are raising them. Mr. Harrison said that it is kind of a shock but we have to do it. These figures do not include depreciation. We raised the rates before we needed to and we accumulated some cash. Then we built the plant and ran into some expenses that we did not anticipate, this caused our debt. 200 more new houses would make a big difference. We have no cushion to rely on now, so we have no option but to raise the rates. The discussion continued on the capacity charges and the reason for the raise in these charges.

Mr. Henry Outten asked if we had looked into grant money. President Lewis said we used the grant money that was available when we built the plant. There were no other questions. President Lewis scheduled the public hearing.

President Lewis then introduced Ordinance 7-2004

AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF TRAPPE ADOPTING A BUDGET FOR THE TOWN'S ENTERPRISE FUND AND ESTABLISHING THE TOWN'S WATER AND SEWER CHARGES, AND SETTING FORTH THE TOWN'S WATER AND SEWER EXTENSION EXPENSE POLICY.

Motion was seconded by Com. Harrison

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

Public Hearing scheduled for Monday, August 2nd at 7:00 p.m. on Ordinance 7-2004 adopting a budget for the Enterprise fund and establishing town's water and sewer charges.

STORM WATER:

President Lewis said she would like to schedule a workshop to sit down with the town maps, and discuss the storm water and try to come up with a plan.

Monday, August 2nd at 8:00 p.m. Storm water workshop.

COUNTY IMPACT FEE UPDATE:

President Lewis said that we were moving forward on the County Impact Fees, the Tischler study keeps coming back readjusted and the figures keep getting bigger. The County said that there would be sub areas where the money would be spent in the specific area where the impact was created. Mr. Hall prepared a map showing what the County considered the west side sub area and the east side sub area with Route 50 being the dividing line. The potential exists to collect the impact fees here and they can be spent anywhere in the County. That is not a sub area that is the whole county. Fees can be collected on this side of town and be spent in Tilghman. Mr. Hall felt that if we pay the impact fees for Trappe, we should be able to spend it in Trappe where needed. This legislation does not seem to be fair. We probably will never see any of this impact fee spent in our town.

President Lewis said the Public Hearing is set for Tuesday, July 13 at 2:00 at the County Council Chambers in Easton on the fees.

COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN:

Mr. Hall stated the County Comprehensive Plan is close to being finished and is ready now for public review. The Hearing is on July 15th at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m.


New Business

MARK BOWER:

Mr. Bower said that he was on the Vestry at St. Paul's Church in Trappe and that they have had a problem for some time with flooding in the cellar of the church. Mr. Bower was asking permission from the town to hook up a sump pump to the storm drain to alleviate the problem; the church will absorb the cost.

Com. Harrison said you are actually proposing taking the churches storm water and putting it into our storm water system? Mr. Bower said yes if it is possible to do this. There was a discussion on how and by whom this could be done. Mr. Harrison was concerned on physically doing the construction work, the actual connection between our storm water basin and whatever plumbing that you run up to whatever you do on your property is your concern. Mr. Harrison said that he would assume that you would run it up to your catch basin. There is an underground opening there and you need to bring it to the back. President Lewis said that town could do the actual connection; maybe we should give Mr. Bower the go ahead to get a price. The town could do the actual connection and we can get a price on this and let you know if this would meet the approval of the Church.

If you can find someone to do the repair and run to the catch basin and bring it back to opening underground cheaper, and it meets the approval of the town, we would allow the church to do it. President Lewis asked Mr. Bower to get a bid and some plans to submit and then we will turn it over to the Zoning Administration and the Wastewater Superintendent for approval, whether the town will do it or the Church depending on the bid.

CREEK WATCHERS REPORT:

Mr. Don Sullivan gave his report on the Creek Watchers stating that it was started in 1999 by three organizations. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Talbot River Protection Association. We have approximately 60 volunteers. We collect data and do a basic interpretation on basic water quality. Mr. Jerry Land gave us a copy of the report for review, showing the sites that they have on the first two pages and the water reports for the years 2001, 2002 and 2003. This report will be recorded with the town minutes. Mr. Land wanted everyone to know that they provide the data and it is available to everyone. Com. Harrison commended the committee for the job that they were doing.

Mr. NIEMEYER'S RESIGNATION FROM COUNCIL:

President Lewis read Com. Niemeyer's letter of resignation from the Town Council.

Attorney Booth discussed the fact that we would need a Special Election according to our Charter. We will need to have the Special Election within 90 days of Mr. Niemeyer's resignation. The Town will advertise for the vacancy on July 14, 2004, for filing certificates of nomination which must be done by Friday, August 13th. The Special Election will be held on Monday, September 13th.

GARY BRIDGES:

Mr. Gary Bridges and his wife Pat of 3784 Rumsey Drive came before the Council with a complaint about the property owned by the Brown's, located approximately 4" behind their property line. Mrs. Bridges is very concerned about snakes, rats and mice on this property since she has found some rats in her garage. Mr. Bridges presented pictures and minutes from the web site concerning the issues that he had brought before the Council on several other occasions.

In 2003 the Bridges put up a $3,500.00 stockade fence on their property to hide the view of the weeds and saplings. The weeds and saplings have now covered the fence and they feel that it is time for the town to do something. Mr. Bridges read some codes from the 2000 International Building Code and 2000 International Residential Code, and town ordinances which he felt pertained to this issue. Mrs. Bridges asked why the town would let something like this continue? President Lewis explained that the ordinances and codes that they had read did not pertain to this issue since no one lived in the house in question, it is not considered a sub standard house. President Lewis also advised the Bridges that the Commissioners and the town attorney have walked the area. Attorney Booth stated that one issue in this situation is that the Court is reluctant to declare something a nuisance unless they can prove that it is a true public safety hazard to the citizens. I looked at the grass to see if it violated your weed ordinance, and yes there are some areas that are above 6" and need to be addressed. The Court does not allow towns to just condemn someone's property unless there is a valid purpose and the town pays for the lot. If you can find documentation that there are rats, then the courts will take appropriate action. She also stated that we have had these cases in many towns and legally there is not much that can be done.

President Lewis said we don't think we have any legal ground that's why we asked for legal advice. The Health Department has said there is nothing there that we can do anything about.

Ms. Bridges asked why can't the property owner be told to clean up the weeds and the trash that is behind our fence? Mr. Outten asked the question has anyone approached the owners about what they are planning to do with the property?

The discussion continued to discuss the ways of handling the situation. Ms. Brown was present and was asked to clean up the area.

INTRODUCTION OF THE VILLAGE REDEVELOPMENT SUB AREA LEGISLATION:

Commissioner Harrison introduced Ordinance 6-2004.

AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF TRAPPE AMENDING SECTION 30 OF THE ZONING ORDINANCE ENTITLED "VILLAGE OVERLAY ZONE", AND ADOPTING AN AMENDMENT TO THE TOWN'S VILLAGE OVERLAY MAP BY ADDING A VILLAGE RE-DEVELOPMENT SUB-AREA WITHIN THE "VILLAGE OVERLAY ZONE" TO PERMIT NON-RESIDENTIAL USES WITHIN THE VILLAGE REDEVELOPMENT SUB-AREA BY SPECIAL EXCEPTION.

Mr. Hall said that the Planning Commission has been working on this ordinance for 3 to 4 months and the methodology to delineate the Village Re-Development Sub-Area within the established Village Overlay Zone. The Village Redevelopment Sub-Area complies with the Comprehensive Plan in that it directs convenience village scale shopping, restaurants, doctor's offices etc to the traditional cross roads village core that once had commercial businesses. The proposal of the planning commission was that all the new uses would be allowed by special exception in order to provide greater public comment and participation to the Planning Commission for review and recommendation to the Board of Appeals. There would be neighbor notification by mail and posting of a public hearing with the Board of Appeals. Applications would still come back to the Planning Commission for site plan review, design guideline review and subdivision review if needed. The Planning Commission's motive was to enhance public participation in the Village Redevelopment Sub Area and tie the village sub area directly to the village overlay zone which qualifies for enhanced architectural treatment and flexibility. Mr. Hall presented a map that he had made to let the public review the proposed Sub-Area boundary. Attorney Booth said that the underlined zoning on these properties does not change, most of them are in the R-1 zone. The only thing the Village Redevelopment Area does is to allow some uses by special exception if the applicant makes a request. Attorney Booth said it just gives more flexibility to the property owners. It will be advertised and the property owners will be notified.

Com. Fegel seconded the introduction of Ordinance 6-2004.

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

Public Hearing will be on Ordinance 6-2004 Amending Section 30 of the Zoning Ordinance entitled "Village Overlay Zone" and adopting an amendment to Town's Village Overlay Map by adding a Village re-development sub-area with the "Village Overlay Zone" to permit non-residential uses within the Village Redevelopment sub-area by special exception on August 4th at 7:00 p.m.

Com. Niemeyer wanted everyone to know that Mr. Dick Darling was in the hospital in Seaford, DE.


Executive Session:

Com. Harrison made a motion to go into Executive Session. The motion was seconded by Com. Niemeyer.

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


Announcements: The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted:

Cheryl Lewis, President

Joedy Cecil, Clerk