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PRESTON – Following a sparsely attended public hearing on March 3, Preston’s Commission held a special meeting on April 14 to continue discussing updates to the town code. The project has been a large but necessary undertaking according to town officials.
The draft was prepared by General Code, a professional third-party company. Town Manager Amber Korell brought forth a handful of changes that bring the code up to date, such as using language that accurately reflects Preston’s current circumstances – substituting “Chief of Police” with “Caroline County Sheriff’s Department” or “Mayor” with “Commission President” for example. Some of her proposed changes to regulations in the town code include removing a policy that requires permits for yard sales (considering the policy hasn’t been enforced in recent years) and adding approved fire pits to the list of acceptable methods of burning in town limits for the sake of resident campfires.
Commissioners agreed to leave the 10 p.m. to 5 p.m. curfew for those under the age of 18 in the draft code. They also agreed it was best to do away with the previous code’s overcomplicated noise ordinances in favor of a blanket noise ordinance: 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Friday through Saturday for “improper and unnecessary noise.” This ordinance does not apply to the trash pick-up truck. However, Korell assured those in attendance that the town sends a letter each year to the trash company stating that they cannot begin service until 6 a.m. or later.
Citizens were encouraged to submit comments and suggestions on the proposed draft code last month. Only one Preston resident, Chris Winter, submitted comments, most of which dealt with lingual errors. Preston’s Town Attorney, James Worm, was unable to attend the meeting but gave a written copy of his comments on the draft as well as each of Winter’s suggestions, either accepting or rejecting them.
Korell said the goal of the special meeting was to get more feedback from the commissioners on the draft code so that she can move forward with creating a new draft, which she hopes to have completed in time for the commission to vote on at their regular June meeting – the same meeting they would vote on the FY26 budget. The commissioners also noted that Preston’s Planning and Zoning Commission should take a look at any of the draft code’s sections relevant to their purview.
Commissioners Daniel Mulford and Steve Hildenbrand were absent from the special meeting.
