Town of Cheverly - September 13, 2018 Town Meeting

September 13, 2018 Town Meeting


	Town of Cheverly Meeting Minutes September 13, 2018 Call to Order Meeting called to order at 8:00 pm in the Cheverly Community Center. In attendance: CMs, Ivey, Eldridge, Garcia and MacKenzie Pledge of Allegiance Agenda/Approval/Changes Minutes – Town Meeting 8/9/18 Approved Minutes – Worksession 8/23/18 Approved • CM Ivey Motion to excuse CM Stewart and Riazi. Seconded CM Garcia. Approved 5-0. Town Administrator’s Report Mr. Warrington wanted to note that the Town is prepared for Hurricane Florence, by checking all chainsaws, fueling vehicles and clearing stormdrain grates. However, it appears that the path may reduce the severity of what we anticipated. Chief’s Report Chief Robshaw this year’s Public Safety Day is scheduled for Thursday, September 20^th. Please get their early as Mission Barbeque will be there early. We have a number of PG County resources. Please note that the driveway will be blocked off from parking on the sides. We will be selling baked goods for the COPS donation fund. Team Cheverly is expanding. Our crime rate is down this year and part of that is with the help of Team Cheverly. CM Eldridge thank you for responding to my concerns regarding graffiti and have the agencies given you any time frame for cleaning it up? Chief Robshaw I met with the state agency and the Public Works Director spoke to his counterpart, but we do not have a timeframe. CM MacKenzie is there a rain plan for Public Safety Day? Chief Robshaw no we do not have one as things have been set-up months in advance. We have not had one rained-out in the past 18 years. CM Ivey how many openings do we have in the Police Department? Chief Robshaw we are two down and just got two laterals. Two of our candidates that were in the academy were not able to complete the academy due to issues with testing. Recreation Council Barbara Pejokovich we just had the utilization meeting and everything went very well. Saturday, October 13^th will be the Flea Market. Tuesday, September 25^th at 7pm is the next Rec. Council meeting and all are invited. Green Infrastructure Committee No Report Cheverly Day Committee Mayor the Cheverly Day Committee will start in September. Planning Board Report Mayor everything is the same status regarding the Hotel and Craftsman Press. Citizen Input Claire Cheverly Village has two upcoming events. On September 29^th at St. Ambrose, PGFD will be teaching CPR and demonstrating defibrillators. You must register by the 16^th of September. Wegman’s Pharmacy will be here on October 6^th during the Farmer’s Market for flu and shingles vaccine. Bring your insurance card and there is a charge for these services. Traffic Study Presentation Mayor just as background, we hired a firm last year to look at a quadrant of the Town in an attempt to look at an overall rather than piecemeal way to address traffic, speeding, pedestrian safety and other related matters. Tonight we will be hearing the findings and recommendations from the consulting firm. Mr. Iian Banks provided background on the existing conditions observed and recorded at various intersections. Speed and volume were analyzed for areas in the upper quadrant. For example the speed limit is posted on north Parkway as 15 miles per hour and there were about 50% of the traffic was in excess of the posted speed limit. The pedestrian network is a mixed bag with sidewalks in some areas and none in others. There is a recommendations overview with short-term recommendations and long-term recommendations. Changing Inwood back to a two way street is possible given the width of the roadway. We are presenting recommendations for Parking, Crosswalks, Sidewalks, Intersections and Traffic Calming that the Town will have to discuss and implement as they see fit. Regarding Gast Park, we have a couple of different alternatives. We look at sidewalks internal to the park with exits from those sidewalks along with a narrowing of the roadway as you approach the park. Mayor announced that the Traffic Study in full can be found on our website under the News and Announcement section and that this broadcast will be posted on our website on Monday for viewing. CM MacKenzie I know you recommended raised crosswalks at the top and bottom of Jason Street, but it is so wide do you recommend anything else? Mr. Banks I don’t expect a change in speed on that street as a result of these raised crosswalks, but we do have the toolkit to try to address it in the future. CM MacKenzie there are stop signs at the top of Jason and Joslyn and I have heard that people think of them as optional. Do you have any recommendations to make them more applicable? Mr. Banks We can make them more visible and perhaps more enforcement. Not obeying the speed or a stop sign is probably your neighbor, which is what happens in a small town. CM Eldridge can you talk objectively about the issue of congestion. Mr. Banks looking at the data, the level of service in this area is an A or a B where you are waiting about 10 seconds. In the big scheme of things is there congestion in the Town, Where people think there is access coming out on 62^nd to get on Route 202 you must remember that the timing of the lights are dependent on the amount of traffic in each direction. The most vehicles get the most amount of time. CM Eldridge did you see any streets where speeding was way over 50%? Mr. Banks Looking at the graph, vehicles traveling above 30 mph is only a very tiny sliver. Also, anytime you have a speed limit of 15mph, it is going to exacerbate the numbers to show an increase in speeding. You don’t want to shame people, but they are probably residents. CM MacKenzie what might improve the safety around Gast Park? Mr. Banks we propose a sidewalk inside the park and then you can connect them with crosswalks to get in and out of the park. You then can park elsewhere and be able to access the playground area from other parking spaces around the park. CM MacKenzie at Forest Road to Town Park you say you are still trying to find the best area for a crosswalk? Mr. Banks yes there are challenges and there are concerns about a 4 way stop and where to locate it. CM MacKenzie what kind of quality of life impact will come from additional bump outs? Mr. Banks yes there may be some limits to parking, but field observations prove that there still will be parking in the area and people do park up to the actual stop signs. Mayor I am curious about whether we are missing an opportunity to direct traffic at a macro level? Mr. Banks without looking at where the students are coming from, we can assume they are coming off of 202 and taking the most direct access from Cheverly Avenue. Sandra I live on Jason Street and I would like to ask the Police Chief for more enforcement. Also, there are no sidewalks on Joslyn on either side. It is hard to park in front of our house when there are events like the Christmas play at the church. Nicole and I live on Monroe Street. There are no sidewalks as you come off of 202 to 62^nd Avenue or on Monroe so they walk in the street. There is an idea that it makes the Town closed off. I feel it is a safety issue and not a good look for Cheverly to be closed off. Mr. Banks it’s a fair point. Ms. Crystal Lal I live close to 64^th Avenue and Inwood. A lot of people dropping off at the school ignore the stop sign at 64^th and Inwood. Mr. Banks we have provided the Town with a tool kit that perhaps they can apply to this issue. Mayor we have had success with raised crosswalks and you should request one. Father Charles St. Ambrose school was built in the 1950’s and back then children walked to school and the parking lot was empty. There are two recommendations that I would like to comment on, first was to make a 50 foot red line area. This area will eliminate the current on street designated handicapped parking spaces. As it was mentioned, Jason Street is wide and we try to control speed with the crossing guard at the top of the street. After the 8am deadline for drop-off the parents must park in the parking lot, walk the kids in and sign them in. The road goes one-way during drop-off and pick-up to lessen speeding and avoid confusion. We are willing to work with the Mayor and Council on this matter. I would ask that Jason Street still allow for parking since it is so wide. CM MacKenzie what do you think about no parking on the convent side? Father Charles I would like to measure and see how that would affect things. CM MacKenzie I know that in Greenbelt they mark spaces for parking. Would that be helpful? Mr. Banks most marked spaces are designated for 25 feet long and most cars are not 25 feet long. You will get more spaces and parking if they are not marked. Mayor to wrap-up this meeting is online and the Traffic Report is online as well. We will be moving forward by looking at the recommendations and I would note that our budget is finite and we will be moving forward with this in mind. Adoption O-4-18 Amending the Personnel Section Healthy Families Act Mr. Warrington the State has passed legislation regarding leave and the Town must amend its current Personnel code in order to be in compliance. We were very close to being in compliance, but this will be passed in September and will make us whole. This will change aspects of our sick leave policy. • CM Ivey Motion to approve O-4-18 Healthy Families Act. Seconded CM MacKenzie. Approved 4-0. Second Reading O-5-18 Amending the Housing Code Mr. Warrington the change in this legislation comes out or out Police Department/Code Enforcement division. There is an issue with properties not being inspected for rental licenses. There is no provision for revocation if there are 3 scheduled rental inspections and access is not granted by December 1^st of the year. There is only a handful that this law will allow them to deal with this matter. Award of Contract &Budget Adjustment – Leaf Machine Purchase Mr. Warrington we are looking to replace one of our older leaf machines. We had hoped to get a propane or CNG machine, but that technology is not yet available. We had two bids, but in order to do that we must first make a budget adjustment since the amount bid exceeds the amount we budgeted. • CM MacKenzie motion to make a budget adjustment in the amount of $10,300. Seconded CM Ivey. Approved 4-0. Mr. Warrington now we are recommending that we award the bid to the low bidder, Old Dominion. CM Eldridge I am curious as to what the cost of a street sweeper would be? Mr. Warrington at least $150,000. • CM Ivey motion to award the contract to Old Dominion. Seconded CM MacKenzie. Approved 4-0. Mayor cast the fourth affirmative vote. CM Garcia absent. Letter of Opposition to the FCC– Small Cell Towers Mayor I sent out information today. The State has been trying to gain input for States, Counties and Municipalities to have a say in the deployment of these items. This letter of opposition to the FCC will be one of many by a number of government entities. • CM Eldridge motion to authorize a the Mayor to send a letter of opposition to the FCC to Small Cell Towers. Seconded CM MacKenzie. Approved 4-0. Mayor cast the fourth affirmative vote. CM Garcia absent. Budget Adjustment – Contractor Street Tree Plantings Mayor the Town Council at the last Worksession saw a presentation by Nathan McElroy regarding the Cheverly Tree Canopy. The Mayor and Council have decided that planting trees is in need of improvement as we were at 46% and now are at 44% since the original study 25 years ago. To that end, we can supplement what we are currently doing by hiring a contractor to plant trees throughout the Town in the tree planting boxes. • CM Ivey motion to approve a budget adjustment in the amount of $15,000 to hire a contractor for street tree planting. Seconded CM Eldridge. Approved 4-0. Mayor cast the fourth affirmative vote. CM Garcia absent. Mayor and Council Announcements CM MacKenzie Saturday is Sip Local. There are still tickets available. CM Ivey this Saturday there will be a block party in Ward 2. It will be from 3 to 8pm and bring something as it will be banquet style. It will be on Valley Way between Euclid and 59^th Place. Mayor I have an announcement from CM Riazi. The Town has been in opposition to a club just outside of Town known as Fuego. They were asking for a liquor license and last week that request was denied. For the Worksession we have an SHA Response, Small Cell Towers, Traffic Survey Recommendations, November Worksession Date, Graffiti, Election Supervisor Feedback and Electronic Signs. Town of Cheverly Summary of Action September 13, 2018 MOTION CM Ivey to excuse CM Stewart and Riazi. Seconded CM Garcia. Approved 5-0. MOTION CM Ivey to approve O-4-18 Healthy Families Act. Seconded CM MacKenzie. Approved 4-0. MOTION CM MacKenzie to make a budget adjustment in the amount of $10,300. Seconded CM Ivey. Approved 4-0. MOTION CM Ivey to award the contract to Old Dominion. Seconded CM MacKenzie. Approved 4-0. Mayor cast the fourth affirmative vote. CM Garcia absent MOTION CM Eldridge to authorize a the Mayor to send a letter of opposition to the FCC to Small Cell Towers. Seconded CM MacKenzie. Approved 4-0. Mayor cast the fourth affirmative vote. CM Garcia absent. MOTION CM Ivey to approve a budget adjustment in the amount of $15,000 to hire a contractor for street tree planting. Seconded CM Eldridge. Approved 4-0. Mayor cast the fourth affirmative vote. CM Garcia absent.