By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer

(Jan. 16, 2020) During the Berlin Mayor and Council meeting on Monday, several motions were passed or considered for approval.

EDUs

The council approved a request for two additional Equivalent Dwelling Units (EDUs) for 305 Washington Street. Resident, and owner of the property, Duane Maddy first made the request two weeks ago to add two dwelling units, which will be used for both apartments and storage units.

Census count

Deputy Town Administrator Mary Bohlen requested a motion to allow the town to attach metallic census stickers to cars in preparation of the census count.

“Starting in March-April, you’re going to see a lot of ramping up in Worcester County in particular regarding the 2020 census,” Bohlen said.

Logos reminding people to call, go online or mail their responses for the census will be spread throughout the town and organizations to encourage people to finish the information before the July 1 deadline.

This is especially important for rural counties like Worcester, Bohlen said, because the misrepresentation is higher. For every person who is not registered, the county loses $18,000.

“That’s federal dollars that we could have in Worcester County for public consumption for health care, education, police, fire, our roads … it’s federal dollars that could come into Worcester County in the state of Maryland,” Planning Director Dave Engelhart said.

Town budget schedule

Finance Director Natalie Saleh reviewed a tentative budget adoption schedule to the council, which was approved and will now be published to the town website. Saleh will be meeting with capital heads of departments to discuss top priority items for the budget and consider items that could be held off until fiscal year 2022.

In this schedule, there will be five hearings and two casual work sessions open to the public, with the first one set for Monday, Jan. 27. The remaining meetings take place during the following dates:

Introduction of the first reading (tax rate) – Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m.

Tax rate adoption – Monday, March 23 at 7 p.m.

General Fund Budget Work Session – Monday, April 6 at 5:30 p.m.

Utilities Fund Budget Work Session – Monday, April 20 at 5:30 p.m.

First reading of budget – Monday, May 11 at 7 p.m.

Adoption of budget – Monday, May 26 at 7 p.m.