The Easton Town Council’s latest meeting last night featured a lengthy debate over residential RV and boat parking, an update on a major Easton Utilities generator failure, and clarification of a proposed cybersecurity partnership with the Maryland National Guard.
The most animated discussion centered on town rules governing RVs, boats, campers, and trailers parked on private property. Council members said some residents who have kept vehicles in their driveways for years have recently received enforcement notices, raising questions about whether the rules should be loosened.
Rev. Elmer Davis Jr. questioned why the town should prohibit an RV in a driveway if it poses no safety problem, while Dr. David Montgomery said some residents see front-yard RVs and trailers as affecting neighborhood appearance.
Council President Don Abbatiello supported looking for more flexibility, especially for corner lots and for people whose boats or utility trailers are tied to their livelihood. One example involved a waterman who reportedly was fined because his boat extended beyond the permitted building line.
Staff will return with possible revisions.
Easton Utilities also reported that Generator Unit No. 7 at Power Plant One suffered a catastrophic failure and small fire Friday night. The generator, installed in 1954, had logged more than 107,000 operating hours. No one was injured, there was no structural damage, and residents did not lose power. The failed unit represented about 2.5 megawatts of Easton Utilities’ roughly 66 megawatts of generating capacity.
Utilities officials said they are now examining replacement options and possible additional generation capacity. The utility also addressed questions about a proposed cybersecurity partnership with the Maryland National Guard.
If approved, the partnership could include vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, threat hunting and cybersecurity exercises at no cost to Easton Utilities customers. Officials said the public notice that prompted questions used federally required language that Easton Utilities could not modify.
Council members also revisited Easton’s Halloween ordinance, including restrictions on trick-or-treating by children over 12 and rules against masks that conceal a person’s identity. For now, the council appeared inclined to leave most of the ordinance intact while considering a medical-mask exception.
And in one of the evening’s lighter code-review moments, council members questioned whether Easton still needs an ordinance prohibiting the throwing of “missiles” such as snowballs and baseballs in town streets.
Snowballs may soon be safe from the Town Code.
Watch the full meeting here
One Response
The class division within Council is painful, one of them is clearly not interested in the “common folk”.