The St. Michaels Commissioner meeting audience Wednesday evening.

St. Michaels Commissioners discuss town issues Wednesday.

The St. Michaels Commissioner meeting audience Wednesday evening.

St. Michaels Commissioners discuss town issues Wednesday.

ST. MICHAELS — The St. Michaels Commission met Wednesday and looked at annexing a three-acre property called Environmental Concern Inc. into the town. Commission President David Breimhurst spoke on the matter and how it is affecting the town.

“I think we had an honest and open discussion about the future of one of the most significant properties in the town of St. Michaels. That’s the Environmental Concern property along San Domingo Creek. There had been some fears in town that it was going to be sold quickly to a developer. And there were rumors of 40 new homes being built over there and destroying the natural beauty of the area," Breimhurst said. 

"Tonight we learned that none of that was necessarily true. What we’ve learned is that Environmental Concern just wants to be able to correct a mistake that was made in the county map that put 3 acres of their property in the county and 7 acres in St. Michaels. What they would like to do is unify those two parcels and at some future date be able to sell the property without an umbrella of that nature,” said Breimhurst.

The commission did not make a decision on the Environmental Concern Inc. annexation at the meeting.

“What the commissioners have done is sent their request for an annexation of those three acres back over to the planning commission. The planning commission will consider all of the arguments on both sides and then return a recommendation to the commissioners and we’ll act on that,” Breimhurst said.

Next, the commission heard from public works about the need for a large filter that removes arsenic from the town’s drinking water supply. Arsenic levels in the water during testing were starting to get high due to a failing filter that is in need of being replaced.

“We’ve learned that one of our arsenic filters in the water wells is in its last stages of life. It’s an expensive piece of equipment at $98,000 but these are the types of emergency acquisitions that need to be made without any hesitation and I’m happy that the commissioners agreed that this is important to the future health and welfare of the town and that replacing this filter is a no brainer,” Breimhurst said.

Brian Thompson, town operations manager, talked about the arsenic levels in the water.

“There’s arsenic in the water now from the aquifer. It’s everywhere across the United States. It goes down from the minerals when it rains. That’s why we have these vessels and media in place. To remove it,” Thompson said.

The filter is very large and is critical for clean and safe water. It stands about 14 feet high and is 9 feet in diameter.

Next, the commissioners considered a charter amendment resolution that would allow for only two or three of the five commissioners to be able to write checks and make bank withdrawals with town funds. The Commissioners voted to retain the current longstanding practice of giving all the commissioners the responsibility of occasionally co-signing the town’s checks for bill payments.

Following that, the commissioners heard from Police Chief Anthony T. Smith about a crime report. Smith said there were two car thefts in town. In both of the car thefts, owners left the keys in the vehicle and in both instances, the car owners also did not lock the vehicles.

He cautioned people not to leave their keys in their vehicles and to lock their doors. Smith also talked about how officers helped two individuals experiencing drug overdoses.

“Some of the residents in that house seemed like they were out of it and that they would not make it, so the officers went in and hit them with Narcan and saved their lives,” Smith said.

The commissioners of St. Michaels meet the second Wednesday of the month for a public working session and on the fourth Wednesday of the month for a public legislative session.

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