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Planning staff seek expanded intern term, legal budget rise as GIS contract ups annual cost
Summary
Planning, Housing and Zoning presented a maintenance-oriented FY26 budget with a higher year in a three-year GIS contract, increased legal fees tied to solar projects and a request to extend an intern from one semester to a full academic year to support GIS and town mapping work.
Planning, Housing and Zoning staff presented an FY26 budget described as largely maintenance-level but with specific increases driven by multi-year contracts and legal needs.
“There's a 3 year GIS contract that was approved, and that contract has different amounts for each year,” Planning staff member said, explaining an up year in the contract raised costs by roughly $9,000 for FY26. Staff also requested increased legal services funding — estimated at about $6,700 — citing legal representation needs tied to solar project reviews.
Staff asked commissioners to fund an intern for both fall and spring semesters (the county previously approved one semester under contingency). The intern, from Washington College, would perform GIS work including mapping Rock Hall’s fire hydrants and entering data into town infrastructure tracking tablets so both county and town systems gain the dataset.
Under capital, planning proposed one-time furniture updates for four planners and the department’s back room, noting much of the department’s furniture is older and was inherited from other departments. No major capital projects were requested.
No action or vote occurred on the item; staff said they would proceed with the proposed intern schedule and furniture planning if commissioners include the items in the FY26 appropriation.
Ending: Staff offered to answer follow-up questions and said design and procurement planning would proceed if funding is approved.
