“We’re going to have fun today,” a county council member noted upon entering the Bradley meeting room for their May 3 meeting. The room was filled with smiling faces, and congratulatory and celebratory moments would prevail. The meeting got off to a good start by naming Dan Schekenburger as the new director of the Upper Shore Workforce Investment Board and then honoring the Talbot County Department of Corrections for its exemplary service.
Bill 1498, a proposal for Talbot County’s Fiscal Year 2023 annual budget, was Introduced by County Manager Clay Stamp and described in detail by Finance Director Ken Davis. The FY2023 budget includes investments in infrastructure, expansion of paramedic services, recruitment and training for volunteer firefighters, enhanced support for the sheriff’s office, funding of educational requests, and cost of living increases to address recruitment and retention issues.
The $112.6 million FY2023 budget increase of 7.5% was attributed in large part to sewer extension throughout the Bay Hundred and sanitary improvements countywide. Sanitary tax rates would go up 40-50%, but those costs would be offset by the county’s $14.3 million FY2022 budget surplus. And an even larger budget surplus has been forecast for FY2023.
Clifford Coppersmith, President for Administration of Chesapeake College, reaffirmed that enrollment was up at the college and thanked the council for their support during challenging Covid times.
Sheriff Gamble expressed his appreciation of the council’s support and the FY2023 budget proposal for additional staff and new quarters. “We couldn’t do anything we do without the support of the council,” he emphasized in closing. His expressions of gratitude were returned in kind.
Superintendent Kelly Griffith expressed her gratitude in no uncertain terms. “I am really here to say to all of you, thank you…You have listened, and you have asked excellent questions of our budget…and I really appreciate your collaborative spirit.” And Easton High had experienced its highest graduation rate ever.
Dana Newman, Director of Talbot County Library, and Susan Sherman, President of the Talbot County Library Board of Trustees, thanked the council for its support of the renovation of the St. Michaels library and making it possible for the library to continue to serve the community.
Bill Shrieves, President of the Board of Directors of Upper Shore Aging, and Childene Brooks, Manager of Brookletts Place Senior Center thanked the council for its commitment to the seniors of our community and continued support for their programs. As throughout the meeting, expressions of gratitude were reciprocated.
This meeting was an opportunity for our community’s leaders and our county council to share well-deserved expressions of gratitude for the many services they provide, Tax increases elicited a brief pause; but just 2 of Maryland’s 24 county jurisdictions currently have lower property tax rates. A positive and congratulatory mood prevailed.
This positive mood carried into the council’s brief and upbeat May 10 meeting. We learned that Council member Corey Pack would be in Colorado this summer to accept an award honoring Talbot County’s resilient strategy in addressing the Covid pandemic, and President Chuck Callahan would be “stunned with all the positive energy” that evening.
Resolution 328 was up for a vote. This would address the council’s ability to introduce resolutions to our Comprehensive Plan on any legislative day, rather than on a quarterly schedule, and it passed unanimously. We might wonder if had it been introduced earlier, if it might have allayed some of the confusion as attempts were made to alter the course of Lakeside’s wastewater treatment plans.
Talbot County is in great shape; but in one of Maryland’s wealthiest counties in the wealthiest nation on earth, couldn’t there be a way to honor our Comprehensive Plan’s requirements for wastewater treatment for Lakeside?
We will surely have a positive outcome eventually, possibly even in a timely manner; but there is currently no legal requirement, or anything “in writing” as council member Laura Price requested, to require the state’s most recent wastewater treatment standards for Lakeside’s first 120 homes. Considering also the unprecedented size of this development, public awareness and concern for the health of the Bay, couldn’t we simply do this?
It has been over a year now since a petition requesting reconsideration of the Lakeside project was introduced. A lawsuit was scheduled before a hearing would finally be granted. Several resolutions have since been offered and defeated. Despite the facts presented and decisions of our Planning Commission, three members of our county council have refused to require compliance with our Comprehensive Plan.
The Public Integrity Project, a nonpartisan citizens’ organization, is moving on. A litigation team is currently preparing the lawsuit demanded by these circumstances. We will certainly hear more from the developer’s attorney. He participated frequently in county meetings; but should this proceed to trial, we also hear from those who have had relatively few opportunities to present their concerns.
The county’s FY2023 budget will be voted upon at the council’s May 17 meeting. The council is likely looking forward to another pleasant evening. Our county’s office of law may be less jubilant.
Carol Voyles is a graphic designer/illustrator who retired to the Eastern Shore and became interested in politics. She serves as communications chair for the Talbot County Democratic Forum and lives in Easton.
Reed Fawell 3 says
Lets hope the “lawsuit” includes the nearly endless ways that the Lakeside Site Plan violates the express terms of the Lakeside comprehensive plan, as well as the town of Trappe’s Comprehensive Plan, as well as Talbot County comprehensive plan, and their related zoning documents, as well as the State’s, the County’s and trappe’s transportation plans, starting with the theft of Route 50 and radiating out from there throughout the County’s and region’s entire road net. And thanks also to the fact that Lakeside, in practical effect, is little more than a poorly planned massive single use track subdivision that wraps a so called “regional shopping center” that will be wedged between the heavily traveled Route 50 and a 120 acre wastewater spray machine serving 6,000 people, while sited atop the headwaters of Miles Creek, a key tributary of the Choptank River.
Taken altogether, it is not possible to imagine a more gross violation of the comprehensive plans, and good planning and zoning practices, applicable to this particular site called Lakeside. Nor is it possible to imagine a project that, by reason of its design, layout, and use, will have a greater potential to export massive costs and adverse impacts throughout its immediate neighborhood and its entire region and fragile environment. For example, Lakeside, and its surrounds within Town of Trappe, will result in the need for a second Route 50 with a new additional bridge across the upper Choptank. Remarkably, this is contemplated within town of trappe’s own planning documents.
In short, Lakeside is totally unfit for its site and its locale, a massive traffic generator atop the only interstate highway serving a narrow peninsula that is surrounded almost entirely by water, save for its narrow north end that itself is also severely constrained by huge bay, and plethora of tidal rivers, creeks, estuaries, and marshes, of regional and national importance.
Carol Voyles says
I appreciate your perspective. Your concerns are certainly shared.
Reed Fawell 3 says
At base, the Lakeside problem is, and always has been, a real estate problem, one of extreme malpractice, amplified by a governance problem, one also of extreme malpractice.
Hence, compared to the massive hydra-headed threat that Lakeside (as configured) has for far too long posed to all of Maryland’s Eastern Shore south of the Bay Bridge, the threat posed by the Town of Trappe to La Trappe Creek, however tragic, is a trifle (de minimis).
To date, we’d been shooting at the wrong target. The lawsuit needs of fix this. It is our (Talbot County’s) last chance.