Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the Thursday, January 29th, 2026 open session of the Board of Carroll County Commissioners.

As we always do, we will begin with a Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence.

Liberty justice for all of the So first of all, I want to apologize for everyone for my absence last week.

I was sick.

Uh with me, I have Melissa Thorne, who is the economic development coordinator for the city of Westminster.

Um and we just recently dubbed her Miss Main Street.

Um in coordination with all of our eight towns and municipalities to encourage shopping local.

Shoppers were asked to support these small businesses in our community.

They had to spend $35 or more on a single purchase and then upload the receipt to our online form.

There was no limit of the entries they could have entered, and many submitted more than one receipt.

With each entry, county residents and visitors hope to be one of the eligible out of eight to win two hundred and fifty dollars.

And businesses were jointly promoting this contest, and they also had a chance to be a winner of a hundred dollars or more.

So these purchases were made at any small business downtown.

I know a lot of times we think shopping, retail, restaurants really could have been anything.

Could have been insurance providers, um, auto body shops.

So that was something that we decided to make eligible.

The contest ran from November 17th to December 24th, and we received 335 entries.

Most individuals spent well over $35 in purchases.

Uh the most entries we received was from the only Panoy store in Westminster.

So the contest generated meaningful economic impact by keeping our consumer dollars circulating within our local economy, helping our small businesses increase sales to ensure a busier holiday season, and reinforcing the importance of our locally owned establishments as key drivers of job creation, our community identity, and long-term economic resilience.

By incentivizing these shoppers to choose local businesses, the program strengthened our business visibility, increased foot traffic in our downtowns, and fostered stronger connections between the residents and the businesses that serve them.

The shop small win big contest also highlighted our collaborative efforts between our local governments and nonprofit partners, our economic development partners, and small business owners working together to sustain a vibrant commercial district and a healthy countywide economy.

The contest was made possible through our collaboration with Carroll County Downtowns, Carroll County Tourism, and of course Carroll County Economic Development.

The funds were made possible through Carroll County Tourism.

And now to present the winners, uh the many who could join us today with a check.

As we read uh as we read your name or business aloud, please come up to the front in front of our our table here.

And the shop small win big contest winners are Lindsay Sisler, Unwind Candles from Sykesville with owner David Neath, Kristen Henretti with Park Books on Maine in Sykesville with owners Chris and Melody Wukitch, Michelle Wilder shopped at Green Mount Station in Hampstead with owner Christopher Station.

Gwendolyn McCready shopped at Sunny Days Smoke Shop in Westminster with owner Rahul Ahuja.

Brittany Beavis shopped at Looped In Fiber Arts with owners Kirsten Grell and Diana Buck.

Lisa Careno shopped at Cultivated of Westminster with owner Tiambe Page.

Geraldine Norris shopped at Unli Panoy of Westminster with owner Jennifer Matthews, as well as Lalin Nyan, who actually lives in New York on Long Island, which is fascinating.

Right.

We extend our appreciation to all the participating shoppers and businesses for their commitment in sharing the local enterprise to supporting our local enterprises.

Incentives like Shop Small Win Big play an important role in sustaining Carroll County's economy, strengthening community pride, and ensuring that small businesses continue to thrive now and into the future.

Congratulations.

Well, congratulations to all of you.

And why don't all we three of you come up?

We'll do a picture.

We'll stay up here and stay stay up for the photo and uh and uh all at once.

Yeah, yeah.

They fight over the check.

Yeah, how much is a check?

250 for the winners and a hundred dollars for the shop owners.

That's awesome.

Kristen Martin said she's sending it right on the street.

Oh, yeah.

This is Dennis for Maggie.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

I appreciate everybody coming out this morning and obviously all the local businesses as well as those that shop there.

I'm gonna make one comment, obviously, not something that was probably planned this morning, but it's shop small, and we've got to talk about local business owners.

So I wanted to give a shout out to a local business owner in my area, Tiambe Page, Entrepreneur Extraordinaire, who of course has already told us that she has a rumored move in place.

I will leave the specifics to her when she gets there, but again, it's just great to see local business do what it does best, which is start, grow, and continue to grow and add more to our community.

So I just want to say thank you.

And to all of you that are, you know, working on your businesses and people that are watching that are looking at businesses, you know, talk to economic development, interact with any of the departments and individuals, whether it be municipal or countywide, and uh let's keep creating what we do in Carroll County, which is jobs and opportunity.

So thank you.