The Queen Anne's County Housing Authority reported progress on preventive maintenance and property renovations while noting persistent staffing gaps that drive contractor reliance.

Brian Barnshaw Jr (S7), who presented property updates, said preventive maintenance inspections started a year ago and produced fewer follow-up work orders on repeat inspections — at Graysonville Terrace, initial inspections generated 126 work orders while a year later the same inspections produced 43 work orders. Barnshaw described standard inspection items (smoke detectors, filters, faucets) and said tenant cooperation helped identify needed repairs earlier.

Property-level work counts shared with the board included Foxtown (five vacant-unit renovations and about 200 work orders completed), Fisher Manor (eight unit rehabs and about 300 work orders completed; porch and parking projects still awaiting engineering and bidding), Graysonville Terrace (five renovated units and roughly 240 work orders completed; roofs on a 5–6 year capital plan), Riverside (three full-unit renovations and ~169 work orders), and Terrapin Grove (15 renovated vacant units and ~500 work orders at that site). Scattered-site renovation work is also underway in Churchill.

Staffing remains an issue: Barnshaw said the maintenance team is short-staffed, limiting the authority's ability to perform in-house work and increasing reliance on outside contractors for plumbing, major electrical and some construction tasks; board members discussed the fiscal trade-offs of hiring additional technicians versus outsourcing. Barnshaw and the chair said adding one additional technician would substantially help operations and lower vendor costs over time.

No formal actions were taken; staff will continue capital planning and coordinate bids for larger projects. The board praised staff for visible improvements at properties and encouraged continued monitoring of work-order metrics.