Our business meeting began with the Invocation and Pledge followed by the approval of the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda also included minutes from our Southern Maryland Joint Commissioner Meeting with Calvert and Charles Counties and a letter to Charles County stating the intent to withdraw from the Tri-County Animal Shelter agreement in September. We then celebrated Dr. Rebecca Bridgett’s retirement and presented several proclamations—if you have a few minutes to go back and watch this portion of the meeting, I encourage you to do so.
Next we held a Public Hearing on changes to the zoning ordinance for Solar generation. This ordinance is the culmination of a year’s work by our solar task force and a lot of input from citizens. We had four speakers at the hearing.
Moving into our Main Agenda, we approved a request to change 23595 Pike Lane and 23556 Three Notch Road in Hollywood from Rural Preservation to Residential Mixed-use to be more inline with the neighboring properties. Next we voted to deny the request to change the split-zoning of 29871 Three Notch Road in Charlotte Hall to entirely Town Center Mixed-use.
Moving into our County Attorney Legislation review time, we heard updates on various bills in Annapolis and we voted to approve a letter of opposition to HB 506/SB 603 that would allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine. If this passes in Annapolis, it will hurt our small, locally owned stores. We also approved a letter of opposition to SB 552/HB 365 Climate Crisis Plan Requirement. We approved a letter of support for HB 275/SB 273 PFAS Chemicals Prohibitions and Requirements with amendments.
Entering County Administrator time, we started off by reviewing upcoming meeting agendas – there will be no Commissioner meeting next week due to the President’s Day holiday. Second we approved the FFY2023 Maryland Highway Safety Grant Application for the Sheriff’s Office for $23,500 with no required county match. Third we heard the semi annual brief from the St. Mary’s County Library. Fourth we approved the acceptance of the Childcare Stabilization Fund Grant award on behalf of Recreation and Parks from the Maryland State Department of Education for $84,650—this is an increase from the $77,090 originally anticipated for this grant. This funds will be used for the school age care operating costs. Fifth we approved a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement for the renovation of the Foxchase Village Apartments in Great Mills—this program provides a tax cut to encourage the renovation and development of a property and to help ensure the financial success. These apartments will provide affordable housing. Sixth we approved office space lease in the Captain Walter Francis Duke Terminal Building at the St. Mary’s County Airport for SOMD Seaplanes. Seventh we approved an extension of the MOU with Calvert County for the disposal of solid waste at the Appeal Landfill—there is a 7% increase in tipping fee from $78.57/ton to $84.05/ton. Eighth we approved an employment contract for our new director of Public Works and Transportation, Mr. Jim Gotsch – welcome to St. Mary’s County Government! Our final business item was approval of updates to the St. Mary’s County Government Manual of Personnel Policies and Procedures—this includes the removal of the previously mandated OSHA vaccination policy and some updates to work schedules and holiday leave policy.
We ended the morning with Commissioner Time (I spoke on the weird Southern Maryland weather and the Olympics). We will reconvene at 1:30 this afternoon for a Budget Work Session to discuss the Impact Fee Calculation, CIP project changes, the Homestead Credit Cap, and the Income Tax percentage and growth.
POST UPDATE: During our Budget Work Session and discussion on the CIP budget the commissioners approved the Great Mills location for the YMCA. We agreed to reduce the County Income Tax to 3.0%, set the anticipated growth at 5% and hold the Homestead Property Tax Credit steady at the current rate. These are all steps in building our next budget.
