TOWN MEETING MINUTES
August 4, 2004
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, and Norm Fegel were present. Everyone stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. The July minutes were accepted as presented. The July financial statement was accepted as presented.


Executive Session: July 7, 2004

There was an Executive Session on July 7, 2004 at 9:10 p.m. Council members present were: President Cheryl Lewis, Commissioners Edgar Harrison, Norm Fegel, Danny Adams, Robert Niemeyer and Attorneys Brynja Booth and Dave Thompson were also present. The meeting was for legal advice on MDE issues.


Old Business:

LYONS ANNEXATION AGREEMENT:

Attorney Booth told the Council that they were working on getting the Lyons Annexation Agreement ready to present to the Council. We will set up a special meeting to discuss the agreement.

President Lewis stated that we have just had a Public Hearing on July 26th on the Lyons Annexation; we will be setting up a special meeting in a week to work on this annexation.

We sent a copy to the Talbot County Planning Commission and they recognized that this was in the County Growth area. The vote was four to one that it made sense to have this growth under the PN zone. They recommended that it be passed on the County Council.

SPECIAL MEETING:

President Lewis said that we will be having a special meeting on August 11, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. for an update of the Lyons Annexation. This is a public meeting.

VILLAGE REDEVELOPMENT SUB-AREA.

We will come back to this.

PAUL MOORE:

Mr. Paul Moore had his engineer Mr. Tom Davis and his surveyor Mr. Rob Hughes to discuss the issues on Mr. Moore's subdivision on Howell Point Road. The discussion was concerning the sanitary sewer connection service and the pumping station to the subdivision. The recommendations that DBF had for the pumping stations were also discussed at length. Mr. Hughes was very anxious to get a prelimary approval or a waiver to get ahead of the new hookup fees. It was suggested by Attorney Booth that she and Mr. Hughes would meet to discuss, and then at the meeting on August 11th, we will try to give Mr. Moore an answer.

ORDINANCE 6-2004 - AMENDING ZONING ORDINANCE "VILLAGE OVERLAY ZONE"

AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF TRAPPE 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 WITHIN THE "VILLAGE OVERLAY ZONE" TO PERMIT NON-RESIDENTIAL USES WITHIN THE VILLAGE REDEVELOPMENT SUB-AREA BY SPECIAL EXCEPTION.

President Lewis announced that there had just been a public hearing on the Ordinance and that the Planning Commission had just had several public sessions.

President Lewis asked Com. Harrison to give a presentation on the "Village Overlay Zone". Mr. Harrison said what he likes about this was that it did not give approval for commercial uses inside this residential area, without approval from the people that it most concerns.

Com. Harrison said that this will provide the opportunity for a small scale of in town activities for pedestrians, and it does give an opportunity to reject big large scale traffic producing commercial activities. We do feel that we need some revitalization for the town. Our attorney felt that this should be done by special exception so that the people affected the most by this such as neighbors, would have the opportunity to express their opinions on what they wanted next door or near them. Com. Harrison felt that this would give the maximum public input on their property, and they could address their concerns. The Council does feel that we need some commercial areas in the town. The discussion continued on the types of businesses, architectural guidelines, tearing down of homes and building something commercial in its place like a post office. Mr. Harrison said that would not happen according to the Village Overlay Zone, you would have to replace with something similar to what was taken down. There were some concerns that the Trappe United Methodist Church should not be included in this sub-area. Mrs. Nancy Dunn stated that it was in the church bulletin on Sunday and that she and Mr. Ferguson were the only ones to attend tonight's meeting. Her feelings were that everyone must be alright with it being included in the sub-area, since no one came to complain.

Mr. Drake Ferguson responded by saying that it was one of the largest buildings in the sub-area and he felt that would be in character with the town to have it in the Village Overlay Zone. There was a discussion concerning different issues that could happen with the Church.

President Lewis said one other issue was having a liquor store. This could be a possibility but will be controlled by neighbors, liquor board and the Council.

Motion was made by Com. Harrison to adopt Ordinance 6-2004 Amending the Village Overlay Zone.

Motion was seconded by Com. Niemeyer.

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

ORDINANCE 7-2004 - ADOPTING ENTERPRISE BUDGET - ESTABLISHING W/S RATES:

Commissioner Harrison read:

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.

President Lewis said that we have just had a public hearing, and we had quite a ample discussion with the public. The general consensus was on how we are going to meet the budget. President Lewis said that she would like to have everyone's opinion and that Mr. Croswell had added some impute on the new fees. The suggestion was to pass the ordinance and then review. President Lewis said she would like to submit the budget as soon as possible. Attorney Booth said that we can adopt tonight and revise at the next meeting.

The discussion continued on the budget and the consensus of where the new fees will be spent and why the increase. One of the main issues to the increase in the water bills was the fact that single people feel they should not be charged the same basic sewer rate as a family of four. Attorney Booth suggested that we will schedule and make an amendment if necessary.

President Lewis stated that we will have a public workshop and introduce the amendment based on the workshop. The effective date of the Ordinance was set for September 15, 2004.

Mr. Jim Miller of Seymour Drive should it be part of this amendment on how you will calculate the rates in the upcoming years? President Lewis said there will be an on going formula for future years, tied to the basic fee until the debt goes down. The formula will change with growth and reduction of our debt.

Ordinance 7-2004 will become effective on September 15, 2004.

Motion was made by Com. Harrison to adopt Ordinance 7-2004 Adopting Enterprise Budget Establishing W/S rates. Motion was seconded by Com. Fegel.

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

Public Workshop to look at fees in Ordinance 7-2004, Monday, August 16th at 7:00 p.m.

Com. Harrison said we need to come to this workshop if you have any concerns. What is on the table is the fairness of the amount that will be charged.


New Business

President Lewis announced that we are going to use Lank, Johnson and Tull to do the town audit for the year. We had used CBIZ - Beatty and Satchell, but we do not need a single audit this year and the price was much cheaper with Lank, Johnson and Tull.

Motion was made by Com. Harrison to accept Lank, Johnson & Tull for the Town audit. Motion was seconded by Com. Fegel.

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

The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 for a reception for Com. Niemeyer who is moving. The meeting will reconvene for a workshop.

President Lewis said we will reconvene this meeting at 8:25 p.m. Recommend that we go into Executive Session.

Motion was made by Com. Niemeyer to go into the Executive Session.

Motion was seconded by Com. Fegel.

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


Announcements: EXECUTIVE SESSION:

Respectfully submitted:

Cheryl Lewis, President

Joedy Cecil, Clerk