Today’s meeting began with the Invocation and Pledge followed by the approval of the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda included a letter of support on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office to Congressman Hoyer for a grant for $500,000 for License Plate Readers.
Next we presented four proclamations: National Healthcare Decisions Day, National Animal Care and Control Association Week, National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week and National County Government Month.
We then held a Public Hearing on a proposed change for 41170 Oakville Road, Mechanicsville to change the zoning from Rural Preservation to Rural Commerce. We had one person speak in support.
Moving into County Administrator time, our first item of business was review of upcoming meeting agendas—the Commissioners will not be meeting next week, April 19th. Second we approved the FY22 CARES Act Title VII Ombudsman grant award for $5,328—these funds will be used to purchase 2 tablets that can be used by seniors in Long-Term Care facilities to contact family members. Third we heard a brief from our Department of Information Technology on the status of broadband expansion—in the past three years more than 850 addresses have been provided Wired Broadband Access and we currently have approximately 2,050 registered addresses that do not have access to wired broadband. Fourth we heard an update on Electronic Vehicle Charging Stations and approved an updated list of locations that SMECO can utilize. Fifth we approved an agreement with New Market Management to manage the North County Farmers Market—they will receive $25,000 for the first year of management but afterwards will not receive additional funding from the county. Our last item of business was an update to the American Rescue Grant plan—we approved shifting some funds between FY22 and FY23 and allocating additional funds for broadband expansion and as a match to Senator Bailey’s bond bill for the failing Breton Bay pond dam/reservoir.
After that we heard final legislative updates from our County Attorney’s office. Thank you to our delegation for all of their hard work over the past few months of session.
During Commissioner Time I spoke about the Easter Egg Festival this past Saturday, planting trees in Cecil Park with the Sierra Club on Sunday and some upcoming events. Don’t forget that we have a Public Forum this evening at 6:30 pm—everyone is welcome to come and speak (or call in). Each speaker gets 3 minutes of time to talk about any topic they would like!
