Ches. Beach lowers property tax rate

Public information restrictions passed

Friday, May 23, 2008

Mayor Gerald Donovan said he understands that everyone is paying more for electricity, food and gas so the town council agreed to lower one cost for its residents.

‘‘Tax bills will actually go down next year,” he said. The town is fortunate to have the revenue to cut the tax rate, he said, adding that it will be below the constant yield tax rate of .392.

‘‘Some people are going to criticize me for this because it’s an election year,” Donovan said, ‘‘but this has nothing to do about the election year.”

And some may not want to cut the tax rate fearing that the assessable base is going to go down, he said, but he thought it was the right thing to do.

The largest addition to the proposed budget’s capital fund projects is $800,000 for the Chesapeake Beach Railway Trail. The federal government provided more than $1 million to the trail project, and state and private funds have also contributed to the continuing work on the trail, Donovan said. Donovan added that he thinks it’s a wonderful asset to the community.

Another large addition is the $450,000 allotted for renovations to the Chesapeake Beach Water Park. The park had a net gain carryover in fiscal year 2008 of $293,490, and grants to the general fund totaling about $125,000 will be reinstated to the park’s budget next year so a net of more than $12,000 is estimated. Revenues are projected to be just shy of $70,000.

Revenues for the Chesapeake Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant decreased significantly from last year’s $11 million due to an increase last year to help offset the upgrade cost. This year’s budget projects $4 million for water treatment plant revenues with total operating expenditures up about $45,000 over last year.

The water treatment facility still needs to address the enhanced nutrient reduction (ENR) phase of the upgrade, and the town received seven qualified bids for the engineering services, Town Attorney Eric Blitz said.

The state lowered the appropriate levels of waste water nutrients because of environmental problems with the bay so the town needs to comply with the new treatment standard of ENR, councilman Bruce Wahl said.

The total estimate of the project will run upwards of $20 million, Blitz said, with professional fees costing $2 million. Consultant Paul Woodburn created a ‘‘scope of work” for engineering services and suggested that the bid go out in two stages.

‘‘We are under enormous pressure from the state to get going. We’re the lead agency so the burden is on us to do this,” Donovan said.

The general fund budget’s revenue is projected at $4,277,850 and the grand total of expenditures is estimated at $3,999,300 giving the town a net gain of $278,550. The general budget includes a 4-percent salary increase for town employees, Donovan said.

Most of the figures remain relatively unchanged. The town’s debt will also remain the same, increasing about $15,000 with debt of the seawall project and bonds from previous years.

The budget will be up for public comment at 7:30 p.m. before the next town meeting on June 19, and copies are available at the town office.

No public comment on public information

The town scheduled a public hearing time prior to the council meeting to hear comments on the ordinance to adopt a fee and procedures for requesting public information. No one in the packed town hall had any comments on the ordinance.

Donovan said he did not calculate the rate per hour last month properly and said the rate to research information would be $25 an hour and not $12.50 an hour as he mentioned at the last meeting.

Councilman Patrick Mahoney asked about the first two hours of research being free under the law, and Blitz and Donovan confirmed they would be free, but requests need to be in written form.

Blitz also said under law the town can decide to preserve documents in litigation, and in some cases, documents can be withheld for ‘‘attorney⁄client privilege” and for ‘‘executive privilege.” Electronic documents can also be put on ‘‘lock down” with notice of litigation.

After explanations of the amendments to town procedure on obtaining public documents, the town council voted all in favor of adopting the new ordinance.

Theft concerns

Calvert County Sheriff’s Office Dfc. Brian Tilley addressed concerns of recent thefts from vehicles in the town saying three juveniles are being held and two adults could be charged in relation to the thefts.

Items were stolen out of 11 cars that were parked unlocked on Bay View Avenue and 26th and 27th streets.

Tilley urged residents to lock their car doors.

‘‘I never locked my cars’ doors at my home, but now I do,” Donovan said.

First Sgt. Matt McDonough and Tilley are reviewing the cases. Mahoney then requested the deputy to patrol the area south of the boardwalk saying there has been frequent night activity in that location.

Trash collectioncontract awarded

The trash collection and recycling contract was awarded to Calvert Trash with a bid of $398,537 for the year’s contract, which included the water park and public trash areas. Bay Area Disposal had a base bid lower than Calvert Trash, but with additional trash removals added, its bid was about $25,000 higher.

A representative from Bay Area Disposal questioned the bid of Calvert Trash being complete, but Donovan and Blitz reviewed the bid’s requirements and found it complete and then commended his bid as a competitive bid. Donovan also said that he would like to see an employee incentive added into the contract to encourage employees to do their work well.

New board member

A few planning and zoning cases were reviewed this past month by the planning and zoning board and they appointed a new member to the board, Eleanor Nelson, with the town council’s approval.

The board gave final approval for 75 lots that were in the original plan of Chesapeake Village. The board gave preliminary approval for the development plan for 56 new units in the critical area section to Richfield Station. It also approved a preliminary plan for eight townhouses on Cox Road.

Roland’s Grocery Store expansion was preliminarily reviewed and was discussed with the applicant and interested adjoining owners, according to planning and zoning board documents.