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By Cindy Hoffman, Staff Writer

(Dec. 14, 2023) The following actions took place at Monday night’s meeting of the Berlin mayor and Town Council.

Stormwater upgrade

A motion was passed to provide up to an additional $100,000 to the stormwater management upgrade on Pine, Franklin and Nelson streets due to infrastructure issues and needs discovered once construction was underway. This includes a new fire hydrant and the location of fiber optics under the road.

Materials that were already ordered for the project will be used for other town projects.  The goal is to also provide new sidewalks on Pine Street.

Berlin Fire Company

The mayor and council decided to hold off making a decision on a request from the fire company to distribute a $136,000 balance from the American Rescue Funds to the company to pay on a loan for an engine and rescue equipment.

This payment will allow the fire company to reduce the term of its loan by approximately one year and save approximately $10,000 of interest. The mayor and council have a quarterly meeting scheduled with the fire company next week, so the decision was made to wait until their January meeting to address this issue and allow time for a discussion.

Town parking

 Councilman Jay Knerr asked the council to consider options for providing additional parking in the town. He said there is an option for 100-150 parking spaces in town, although he did not share the location.

Mayor Zack Tyndall advised that a formal letter should be sent to the mayor’s office outlining the parking option and that would trigger an executive session. He identified cost as an issue and said the council would have to look at ways to pay for this.

LEOPS funding

 A motion was passed by the council acknowledging the request of the Local Development Committee to phase out the planned use of casino revenue in the town’s general fund budget for the Law Enforcement Officers Pension System, or LEOPS, over future years.

A current multi-year plan was approved by committee, but there was concern on the part of its members about the town relying on casino funds solely for LEOPS.

Councilmembers Jay Knerr and Jack Orris pushed to provide a newmulti-year plan by the end of Fiscal Year 2025 instead of waiting until the end of 2026 to submit the next multi-year plan, which will begin in fiscal 2027, as required.

Council member Steve Green suggested changing the language of the motion to say the mayor and council are committed to submitting an updated multi-year plan by the end of fiscal 2025 for fiscal years 2027-29, which was approved unanimously.

Energy assistance fund

The town will match donations for the fund again this year. Donations can be mailed to the town hall and a notice will be on the town website at berlinmd.gov.