With the warmer weather comes the Ospreys and the Maryland Osprey and Nature Festival is just around the corner. It will take place Saturday, April 1 at the Drum Point Club; a place for all to see live raptors. Net proceeds will go towards the Owl Moon Raptor Center, a non profit that rehabs injured raptors. The event begins at 11:00 a.m. and will commence at 4:00 p.m. rain or shine.
Calvert is fortunate to have the largest Osprey breeding population in the world.
Sal Icaza , a retired real estate developer and now founder of the Maryland Osprey and Nature Festival, received a commencement at Tuesday's board meeting after Icaza shared a presentation for the upcoming festival.
Permits and fines
The Encompass Citizens Portal is a website and is up and running in Calvert County on March 1. Calvert County consumers can find the portal at encompass.calvertcountymd.gov.
The customer's dashboard will be available 24 hours a day. Customers can apply for permits through the portal without traveling to county agencies. Each step of the process is time stamped.
Permit reviews are concurrent from environmental health. External agencies are receiving and reviewing in real time.
Gone are the days of paperwork sitting on someone's desk and Commissioner President Earl F. Hance asked where consumers could comment or send in complaints.
Payments are processed on the site. A transaction fee of 2.7 percent for credit card payments and a fee of $2.25 for an eCheck.
Inspections can be scheduled as soon as March 1.
If a citizen does prefer to apply on paper, they will still get the online access to follow up with the process.
Emails will be sent out to consumers as well. There will also be a place for highway maintenance and solid waste bulk pickup. Code enforcements can also be noted into the portal.
Hance is thrilled with the progress and the soon to be efficient system.
"In the same kind of tracking system, I get a response back and then I get an update so I don't feel like my complaint fell into a trashcan." Hance stated.
County staff will also be able to go into the portal and note if they need maintenance within their governmental office.
Capital Projects
Capital Projects Analyst, Veronica Atkinson presented the Communications and Media Relations, Technology Services and Planning and Zoning fiscal year 2024 and six year budget.
The six year budget of almost 17 million dollars will enhance research and development within county government.
Commissioner Mike Hart (R) raised an eyebrow when discussing the budget for the water distribution system replacement.
"Technology goes in to reduce labor…. Now we've created a system that's going to need more funding. Is the juice worth the squeeze? It's a small system. It's about 5,600 customers [that it serves]."
The four million dollars covers the maintenance cost for the term of five years.
Hart is asking what will be done with the old meters; some of the meters are only three to five years old when the life expectancy of the meters can be 10 years.
Hart questioned whether or not replacing meters can be put on hold for now.
"At the end of the day, somebody's got to pay for it," Hart said. "We need to see on paper real dollars; whether consumer or government, we need to see it on paper."
County Administrator, J. Marcus Willis stated that the convenience stations and recycling centers do not pay for themselves. They are serving as a safe, clean way for consumers to dump trash.
Enterprise Funds, Sewer
Discussing a budget is never a simple task. An ENR upgrade is available for partial grants aside from labor. The 2024 fiscal year budget for water and sewer if 13 million dollars. The six-year projected budget asked for is over 97 million dollars.
As the systems are aging, it was stated that becoming more proactive about maintaining the systems is necessary.
The transportation budget will be discussed at next week's meeting.
Jennifer Moreland, department of community resources; representing the Calvert County Family Network asked for an increase and did get approval to increase the budget from the actual award.
The CCFN website states that the organization is a local management board that operates in each Maryland jurisdiction, partnering with county leadership, public and private agencies and businesses to build communities in which all children and families thrive.
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