Today we began our meeting with the Invocation and Pledge followed by the approval of the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda included two letters: 1) a letter to the Maryland Department of Transportation advocating for the dedication of a stretch of Route 5 in honor of former Sheriff Joe Lee Somerville, and 2) a letter to Congressman Hoyer and Senators Cardin and VanHollen requesting an appeal of the FHA Loan Limits for St. Mary’s County to the same levels as Charles and Calvert Counties. The FHA Loan Limits letter is cosigned by the Commissioners, the Southern Maryland Association of Realtors, our State delegation and the NAACP 7025. After that we presented a proclamation for National Parks and Recreation Month.
We then moved into County Administrator time and our first item was review of upcoming meeting agendas. Second we approved an application for the Cooperative Reimbursement Agreement for the Circuit Court for Child Support Enforcement for $13,675. Third we approved an agreement with the College of Southern Maryland to allow for Paramedic students to ride along with on-duty paramedics and receive required clinical experience—this is a great partnership for our community! Fourth we approved an MOU with St. Mary’s County Advanced Life Support for sharing of EMS resources. Fifth we approved By-Laws for the Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee. Sixth we approved sending a written request to the St. Mary’s County Board of Elections advocating for three early voting centers in St. Mary’s County. Seventh we approved a budget amendment to close the FIN21 Capital Reserve and roll it to the FIN22 Capital Reserve—this is a standard practice at the change the county fiscal year and the budget amendment is for $94,149. Eighth we discussed plans for allocation of the American Rescue Grant funds. St. Mary’s County will receive in total over $22 million in Federal grant money for the American Rescue Grant, but we have requests from county departments and other agencies for over $69 Million. All of the requests are for good uses that would provide value to our community, but we want to make the most efficient use of the funds and get the most “bang for the buck”.
Next we adjourned as the Board of Commissioners and reconvened as the Board of Health for a discussion with Dr. Brewster on the status of COVID. There is growing concern about the Delta variant of the COVID-19, but vaccines are still available for anyone who would like to receive one.
We finished our morning by entering into Closed Session to discuss Personnel and Litigation. We will meet again this evening at 6:30 pm for a Public Hearing on LOSAP benefits followed by a Public Forum—everyone is welcome to participate!
