DRAFT
Town of Cheverly
Meeting Minutes
August 12, 2010
Call to Order
Meeting called to order at 8:00 pm in the Cheverly Community Center.
In attendance: CMs Riazi, Watson, Eldridge, Schachter and Tevault.
Pledge of Allegiance
- Motion CM Riazi to excuse Mayor Callahan. Seconded CM Eldridge. Approved 4-0
Re-Swearing in of Councilmember Laila Riazi
Vice Mayor Watson administered the oath
Agenda/Approval/Changes
Minutes – Town Meeting 7/8/10
Approved as written.
Minutes – Worksession 7/22/10
Approved as written.
Town Administrator Report
Mr. Warrington due to the weather, the crews have been out cleaning gutters and storm drains. Public Works had it handled by Noon today. The Public Works Department was flooded. Getting ready for the audit. They are on site for 2 weeks and our goal is to have the Uniform Financial Report to the State by October 31st.
CM Eldridge asked for clarification of on-street commercial vehicle requirements.
Mr. Warrington dual wheel vehicles and tow trucks are prohibited in R-55 at any time. Other vehicles with lettering can cover their lettering and ladder racks are not a violation, but leaving the ladders on is a violation. So, the ladders must be removed every night after 7 pm. There is a means to request an exception off-street, but it must be a hardship for the Mayor and Council to consider.
CM Eldridge we don’t have any guidelines as to the type of covering. Mr. Warrington we encourage the magnetic blanks, but they are expensive. Some use blue tarps and some use bedsheets. CM Eldridge can we develop some guidance? Perhaps we can put that on a future Worksession.
CM Watson some people have had concerns about parking. Mr. Warrington it is a public street and everyone has the ability to park on them. We do enforce the 72 hour parking without it moving on a complaint basis.
CM Riazi do you have any information regarding the permits on Medical Terrace? Mr. Warrington I did trade telephone calls with the attorney for the church and the last message he left was “I have good news”, but I don’t know what that good news is. I will try to find out tomorrow and relay that information to the Mayor and Council.
CM Watson where are we with the youth RFP’s. Mr. Warrington we have contacted Falls Church and I have forwarded their final document to you for review prior to the Worksession.
Police Department Report
Chief Robshaw our crime for the last month matched that of 1988 and our crime rate has been going down, less the era of burglaries, which we closed with arrests. We are on a roll as far as closing out our burglaries. We are equal to last year, which was a banner year as well. Public Safety Day will be September 21st from 5:30 pm to 8pm. Dinner will be served from 6-7 our partner this year will 3 Brothers with help from Pepsi. There will be a number of participants and there will be a lot of demonstrations. Just a note that our new towing vendor is returning funds to the Town. Your donation will go to auction and the Cheverly Police Department will be the beneficiary. We ordered 10 new citizen radios and we have 8 left. I encourage you to call me.
I would also encourage you to call for a ride-a-long tomorrow night for enforcement night.
CM Schachter what happened to the individual who assaulted a police officer? Chief Robshaw he is currently residing on Brown Station Road in the County jail. 40% of our assaults last year were against the police officers of Cheverly.
CM Watson I received a complaint on a home outside of town on 59th. Chief Robshaw we have some County officers joining us tonight and we will talk to them about this house.
Committee Reports
Barbara Pejokovich announced that the Flea Market is the 1st Saturday of October, October 2nd and I will be taking reservations on August 16th. Tables are only $15. 301-773-5883 is my number. The first meeting for the Recreation Council will be the fourth Tuesday in September. All are welcome.
Cynthia Robinson of the Green Infrastucture Committee. The Committee is writing the final text of the plan and there are many pieces of the plan. The strormdrain decal signage will happen this fall. We are planning a series of presentations regarding how residents can use their backyards for habitats. Also, how people can help with stormdrain run off on their own property. There is an excellent website on the plan and you just need to google Cheverly Green Plan and it will pop-up.
Citizen Input
Doug Alexander Ward 6 regarding a number of citizens who received tickets, but did not believe that they were going that fast. Asking to look at the results of the data of the tickets issued to see if the four of us that got tickets did not speed excessively. We have one elderly person who said she never ever speeds in Cheverly. The radar is said to be accurate and it may be, and I am sure it is accurate now, but I have calculations on my ticket that say I was going less than 37 miles per hour. It suggests that there were some issues at the beginning of this program. The analysis can be to take speeds for a week of the program in July and to graph that speed. If most are 37-45 and then you have a declining chart, then you would expect that data to be correct. If you saw a
bell curve or flat line then that would suggest the system is inaccurate. If that shows our tickets are incorrect than you should consider what to do with those tickets.
CM Watson Mr. Alexander has distributed material and this may be on the agenda for a future meeting.
CM Schachter I have a question and I am going to ask it. I understand not having a fight with a citizen presenting an issue, but why are you not satisfied with the Mayor’s response. I find it incomprehensible that you are presenting these documents in light of the response. It has been explained to you that the speed of the vehicle is measured prior to the photographs.
Doug Alexander it is fairly simple science but anytime you can know the time and distance an object travels then it is easy to figure out how fast the vehicle is traveling. I did the math and came up with the speeds. It is the same science as the laser, its just that the laser can do it more accurately than I can do it.
CM Schachter I accept your science and will accept that, but the laser captures the speed prior to the cameras. Doug Alexander what difference does that make? CM Schachter it makes a big difference. People slow down after they see the camera.
CM Tevault after I spoke to Mr. Alexander I spoke to the Mayor and as an analyst I suggested to look at the number of tickets per day and if it goes out of calibration, it will go black and no pictures will be taken. It is another form of analysis.
Mr. Prabhakar 2035 Cheverly Avenue. It is correct what he said that the laser takes the reading before the picture, but it is a very small distance between the radar and the camera. You can see in the picture that nobody has on their brakes. I was riding a motorcycle for the 2 tickets I got. As you can see in this picture the bike has not applied brakes. The difference between the laser and the photo is so little that I can not be going the speed noted down to 32 miles per hour. It is not possible to go that change in speed without the brake light on.
Fred Price, Jr. 1709 62nd Avenue last week I met with the present SHA representative in Landover Hills about the clearing of sidewalks to and from Metro. I am not getting a response, but I would like the Mayor and Council to assist me in getting a response. A coordinated response to snow removal will be greatly appreciated. Thank you and have a good night.
Public Hearing – Request for Speed Hump 2900 BlockHillside Avenue
CM Watson the Mayor and Council may take action tonight or leave the record open. With that I open the public hearing.
Mr. Warrington we have done the necessary requirements regarding this petition. We have posted it in a newspaper of general circulation, notified the residents by letter, posted it in the newsletter and the Town Clerk has certified the petition. Noted that the mean speed is 21 miles per hour and that 85% of the vehicles are around 29 miles per hour. This is a very wide street and even with parked cars have very wide travel lanes. You have the data from the Public Works Director. The dead end makes it a lot of local traffic.
CM Watson are there any audience members that wish to speak to this matter?
Ms. Dozier 2900 Block Hillside Avenue, I live at the crest of Oakton Way and Hillside and they are zooming down the hill. I would really support the speed hump to try to slow down speeders.
CM Tevault because a number of people are on vacation, they have been sent emails and I will hand them over for the record. (Covingtons, Jones, Tevault and anonymous). I would not that a lot of people on the chart are going 0-15, but the device was placed near a child care facility and a lot of people were slowing down at that point. We have got to be proactive to slow speeding. The 2900 Block is very long and there is nothing from Forest Road with nothing to stop them. We have no place other than the beginning and end to put up a stop sign. I have a question as to whether there should be a recommendation of two speed humps? I would like to know if there is a reason not to have two speed humps.
CM Riazi when everybody expresses controlling the speed, do people indicate who is speeding?
CM Tevault there are some common vehicles that are speeding and the Chief has knocked on their doors and it may help for a short time, but it is not a long lasting solution. People don’t want to be told how to live. Unfortunately, that is sometimes the response you get.
CM Riazi would people on your street consider having two?
CM Tevault some of the residents were asking location some asked for two.
CM Eldridge I am fully in support of physical changes for a town wide comprehensive traffic calming analysis.
CM Schachter it may be that we don’t insist on speed humps in two’s, but it seems like this is a case where this is necessary.
CM Watson we can leave the record open or we can close now and render a decision. We will leave the record open and place this item for decision on the August 26th Worksession.
Mayor and Council Announcements
CM Eldridge public schools start August 23rd so really slow down and drive more considerately. Keep your eyes open and be safe.
CM Riazi thank you to all the individuals congratulating me, and feel free to contact me by phone or by email.
CM Watson items for the Worksession: Building Use, Chief of Police Annual Report, Discussion of Youth RFP Results, Meeting with County Council Member Harrison, Request to relocate a fire memorial, Request for Gast Park Equipment and Hillside Speed Hump. We will cue up the guidelines for truck covering for September. Cheverly Day 2011 will be May 11th and this is our 80th anniversary so it will be a parade year. Check Cheverly Day.com
Introduction O-4-10 Amending the Speed Hump Process
Mr. Warrington this Ordinance is before you as a first reading because of the major changes to the previously introduced Ordinance and under our procedures we return an Ordinance to first reading if major changes are made. What we are doing in this Ordinance is removing the requirement to post a legal ad for the public hearing in a newspaper of record. This is expensive and in this day and age not overly effective.
Authorization –Award of Bid Public Works Vehicles
Mr. Warrington the new budget CIP included the purchase of three vehicles. We are moving away from pick-up trucks and we going toward these medium sized vehicles with dump trucks with four wheel drive and salt spreaders. We think this is better for our long term strategic plan to get more dependable and longer lasting vehicles. We are recommending the purchase of the leaf truck and the two medium sized trucks. We are $18,700 short in the budgeted amount. Staff is recommending the budget adjustment to purchase all three vehicles. We have given the Mayor and Council some alternatives.
CM Watson I would point out that the three vehicles slated for replacement, one is a 1989 and one is a 1990 and both should have been replaced 12 years ago.
CM Riazi I remember the concerns during the storm of vehicles not functioning and citizens want our fleet to be healthy.
CM Schachter given that the installation of speed cameras on Route 202 is still an open issue and if not installed it will be a significant reduction in revenue. I don’t think we should purchase any vehicles.
Mr. Warrington the funding here is not out of proceeds for speed camera enforcement. This is not a public safety item and we are not moving forward on any items related to speed camera revenues. During the budget process the Mayor and Council were given charts that indicated Administrative Costs related to the speed cameras, Public Safety expenditures related to the speed cameras and regular Capital Improvement Program items. They were color coded and these three vehicles were part of the regular CIP items.
CM Schachter I haven’t come to grips yet with an accurate understanding of this. If there is Zero speed camera money and we need to spend for public safety which is a higher priority. If we need a new police car and it was to be funded by the cameras and that money goes away then that money is in competition with the dump trucks.
CM Watson we have a list of CIP items that we are not going to move on because of the lack of camera revenue, I do not have my list with me.
Mr. Warrington we have delayed the sidewalk in front of Hoyer, the purchase of snow blowers, 63rd Avenue repaving with its pedestrian safety factors. All the CIP items funded through public safety we have not moved forward.
CM Schachter is there anything in the budget scheduled to be purchased for the police department that we see as a higher priority than these trucks. Mr. Warrington we have purchased four new police vehicles in the second week of July.
CM Eldridge are these vehicles that had frames welded during the storm. We need to think about the safety of our employees and the reliability of our services. Mr. Warrington we will only have one leaf truck in the fall if we do not purchase the leaf vehicle.
CM Tevault the cost of repairs on these vehicles is throwing money in essence down the drain.
- Motion CM Tevault to authorize a budget adjustment to the Public Works vehicle account in the amount of $18,700 and to authorize the award of bid to for the purchase of a leaf truck and two dump trucks to Lindsey Ford. Seconded CM Schachter. Approved 4-0
Authorization for Resolution Regarding State Shared Revenue
Mr. Warrington we have been asked by the Maryland Municipal League to band together and act to get the State to give us our money back so to speak. The trickle down affect from the state taking funds targeted to go to municipalities and a resolution to go to our delegation.
CM Watson this resolution asks the General Assembly broadly and the 47th delegation specifically to restore the highway user revenues for municipalities that have been cut or removed.
Mr. Colaresi the resolution asks for the restoration, but also asks for empowerment to raise additional revenue from other sources. It broadens your taxing authority.
CM Watson is there an interest on the Council to promulgate this resolution for signature?
- Motion CM Eldridge that the Town of Cheverly issue this resolution to restore our ability to capture highway user funds. Seconded CM Riazi. Approved 4-0
Mr. Colaresi MML wants you to draft and pass a resolution. I would suggest that you have a resolution at the Worksession to pass and send.
CM Watson we can have that ready for the Worksession and place it on that agenda. Seeing no other items on the agenda, I will declare the meeting adjourned
Meeting adjourned.
Town of Cheverly
Summary of Action
August 12, 2010
- Motion CM Riazi to excuse Mayor Callahan. Seconded CM Eldridge. Approved 4-0
- Motion CM Tevault to authorize a budget adjustment to the Public Works vehicle account in the amount of $18,700 and to authorize the award of bid to for the purchase of a leaf truck and two dump trucks to Lindsey Ford. Seconded CM Schachter. Approved 4-0
- Motion CM Eldridge that the Town of Cheverly issue this resolution to restore our ability to capture highway user funds. Seconded CM Riazi. Approved 4-0
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