If fifth-grader Kendall Bowling ever serves as a town commissioner, Bel Air Mayor Susan Burdette knows residents will be in good hands.

Kendall, who goes to Homestead-Wakefield Elementary, was presented a student achievement award during Monday night’s Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners meeting at town hall.

“We are looking forward and hope very much you will be sitting up there on the dais one day and running this town. We’ll be in very capable hands,” Burdette, the chair of the board of town commissioners, which carries the honorary title of mayor, said to Kendall.

Kendall was joined at the meeting by her parents, her younger brother, her grandmother and several staff members from Homestead-Wakefield.

Not every time a student is honored is the entire achievement award read, but Burdette said she was compelled to Monday night because “there really are so many and they’re all equally important. You worked very diligently to earn it.”

Kendall has a 4.0 grade point average, is a member of the school band, the Enrichment Art Program, the Recycling Team, is a physical education helper and is part of the school’s Patriot Program as a distinguished patriot.

She won an art contest this year and her drawing is featured on a Homestead-Wakefield T-shirt.

Outside of school, Kendall is in Girl Scouts and is involved in her church, Bel Air United Methodist. She had volunteered with organizations such as Tabitha’s House, the Food Pantry, Tragedy Assistance Program Memorial Day Weekend for Survivors, Operation Shoe Box and Mason Dixon Community Service Shelter.

She has also collected funds to donate cookies to veterans at Perry Point, Welcome One emergency shelter, Clean Water Project in Cambodia and has made and donated blankets and toys for animals at the Harford County Humane Society.

“We are so proud of you in the Town of Bel Air,” Burdette said. “It’s just amazing all the things she does for her age.”

New police uniforms

In addition to honoring Kendall at Monday’s town meeting, the commissioners voted unanimously to award a contract for $11,668.15 to Red the Uniform Tailor of Lakewood, N.J., for new uniforms for the Bel Air Police Department.

The contract is being piggybacked on one with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center, Police Chief Charles Moore told the commissioners.

The purchase will provide uniforms to town police officers for a year, Moore said.

The commissioners also unanimously approved the reappointments of Lois Kelly to the Planning Commission and Michael Simini to the Tree Committee.

Enough seats in schools

All public schools in the Town of Bel Air are below the 115 percent of capacity threshold and will be over the next five years, Planning Director Kevin Small told the commissioners, which means there are no building moratoriums.

A growth assessment of the school system’s population is done every June as part of the 1997 Smart Growth Areas Act, Small said, and those numbers are forwarded to the town.

Development is restricted in areas where a school’s enrollment is higher than 115 percent of its capacity, or are projected to be within five years.

“Based on the report… the town meets the adequate public facility threshold,” Small said.

Originally posted on BaltimoreSun.com.