ATTENDING: President Richard Allan, Commissioner Michael Acierno, and Clerk-Treasurer Susan Johnson. Terri Hogan from the Olney Gazette was also present. The meeting began at 8:00 p.m. at the Brookeville Academy.

MINUTES: The minutes for January were not available.

FINANCIAL REPORT: The financial report was reviewed and accepted.

REGULAR ORDER OF BUSINESS:

1. Operations and Maintenance – Academy – President Allan will be meeting with the Town's fire protection service when they perform a building fire inspection (smoke detectors and alarms) on March 2. Town Maintenance – President Allan asked Ms. Johnson to notify the Town's snow pushing contractor that they need to lift their plow blades when clearing North, South and Water Streets in order not to damage the gravel surface.

2. Schoolhouse – President Allan again updated the Commissioners about the status of the schoolhouse restoration project. The heating and electrical work has been completed. The electrical lighting fixtures are not installed because the fixtures have not yet arrived. Following the completion of the interior painting which should be this week, the wood floors will be installed.

3. Bypass – Carmen Harris, the current SHA project engineer, is no longer handling the bypass project as it is now out of the project planning stage. The next and final stage is engineering and final design and construction. The current cost estimate for the project is $18 million. President Allan suggested that we try and get partial funding for design and engineering which would cost approximately $2.1 million.

4. Local Government Investment Trust – President Allan and Commissioner Acierno met with Vance Petrella, LGIT, who was to perform a risk hazard survey for the academy and the schoolhouse. LGIT currently provides insurance for the Town Commissioners and the Town's buildings. Mr. Petrella has made his recommendations available to the Commissioners. President Allan proposed that based on the recommendations of the survey, the town should appoint a Commissioner to be responsible for risk management. He recommended that Commissioner Heritage be so designated. The town must respond to the report within 60 days. LGIT does not require that all its recommendations be completed in that time frame.

5. Town Election – After reviewing the changes made to the town charter on staggered elections and projecting elections into the future, it was determined that in certain years there will be two commissioners up for re-election. This year both President Allan and Commissioner Heritage’s terms will expire. Next year Commissioner Acierno’s term will expire. The Commissioners agreed to continue with this election cycle rather than attempt to do another charter amendment.

6. Montgomery County Park and Planning Issues - Archaeological Site –President Allan mentioned that there is a foundation for a church that was located in town at the end of North Street near the Teal house at 3 North Street. President Allan said he would contact the M-NCPPC Montgomery County Archeology staff to see whether they would like to investigate the site.
Proposed Connector Between North and Water Streets - There was a brief discussion concerning the Planning Commission's consideration of a connection between Water and North Streets as part of the Kirby subdivision development. Some residents have argued against building a connection. Mr. Kirby has offered to build the connection as part of his subdivision. The connection would allow for pedestrian and some vehicular traffic.

7. Miscellaneous Management Improvement Issues – Commissioner Acierno and Ms. Johnson suggested that future newsletters could be published in Microsoft Publisher which is on the town computer. They will be meeting to decide on a format. The Commissioners want the newsletter to the extent possible to be a monthly. Editorial material for the newsletter will be forwarded to Ms. Johnson within 10 days after the Commissioners meet. The next newsletter will have postcards enclosed requesting name, address, phone and e-mail address form each resident for inclusion into the town directory. Ms. Johnson has also been sending the newsletter out on e-mail and is asking those who have provided e-mail address if they would rather get a paper or e-mail copy of the news.

Signs – the design for the new signs designating three historic sites or artifacts was approved. There were several errors noted in the texts that Ms. Johnson was asked to have corrected by the vendor.

NEW BUSINESS

Maryland Mayors' Association Meeting - President Allan attended this annual meeting and briefed the Commissioners on the bill Montgomery Municipal League and its members are sponsoring on electrical aggregation. This bill would allow local governments to pool together to buy electricity at a lower cost for their residents. Each municipality would have the ability to opt-out. If they wanted to be part of the group purchase, the municipality would be required to enact an ordinance. All savings would be passed directly on to consumers.

The meeting adjourned at 10:00 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for March 14, 2004 at 8:00 p.m. at the Brookeville Academy.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Johnson
Clerk-Treasurer

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