Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the Thursday, May 7th, 2026 open session for the Board of Carroll County Commissioners.

As we always do, we'll begin with a Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection.

I pledge of the flight of the United States with America.

Under God, invisible with liberty and justice for all the I hope everybody's doing well today, and I hope you'll forgive us for running a couple of minutes late.

We all just came from the sheriff's annual prayer breakfast.

Absolutely wonderful uh morning of camaraderie and community and prayer.

And Commissioner Krebs will start with you for priority.

Carol this morning.

Well, I won't discuss that we just all came from the prayer breakfast, but it was excellent.

Uh today's the National Day of Prayer, and it is always that that breakfast has been going on for many, many, many years, and it's it's so satisfying.

They go all the way from the president all the way down to local law enforcement, our first responders and people that we just don't think about.

And you know, in this hyper political time of we always say that, but I think each year we think it gets worse that we just have to focus on what is right and good for the people that we serve and get get out of the rhetoric and just focus on what's important and you go back to the the book and do it, it all works out.

So anyway, like we did all just came from there.

This is where Commissioner Collars um coming from as well.

Um the only other thing I had this week, since I was on vacation last week, went to visit Minnie Mouse, I'm all mini mouse out with the grandkids.

But um on Tuesday when I came back, I had an opportunity to speak at the chamber breakfast, which is held at our local libraries.

Each of us go around and the chamber supports an event at our local library, and I had a great opportunity to for the first time to meet with some of the local businesses in my area and uh and share some of the good things we're doing, uh some of the things we want to do with our local um chamber members and our library.

So that's all I did this week, except for catch up.

Uh, glad to have you.

If I didn't answer your email yet, forgive me and give me a another week or so.

Glad to have you back, Commissioner.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garrett, nothing from new this morning, thanks.

Commissioner Gordon.

Thank you.

Uh good morning, Carol County.

I've got a few things this morning.

Uh first I wanted to give a shout out to uh Christine Murphy with CCC Fence.

Uh the Baltimore magazine uh somewhat recently did an article article called Women Who Move Maryland, and she was a Carroll County uh business operator that I wanted to mention because obviously always great to see uh Carroll County showcased.

So I wanted to give her a shout-out for that.

Uh secondly, wanted to give a congratulations to Emily uh Burns for being named Carroll County Public School Teacher of the Year.

As always, uh, you know, we take a lot of pride in Carroll County when it comes to our education and definitely our educators, and just wanted to uh give her uh congratulations and uh truly appreciate all the incredible work she does in our community, as do all our teachers.

Um also wanted to mention it's National Teacher Appreciation Week.

I wonder if they timed that around the same time.

But uh truly want to you know recognize and celebrate all our teachers for all the work, all the hard work they do, not only during school hours, but also after school hours, mentoring kids and just all the devotion they put forward in the community, truly truly appreciate the sacrifice and countless ways that they all make a difference.

This week is also go ahead, Chris.

Small business week.

So uh as we all know, our small businesses are a significant backbone of our community.

Um many of us do shop locally.

I would just suggest any time we can, let's please support our local businesses because they're not just businesses, they're families.

These are the people that not only support our nonprofits, but also our wreck and park teams, as well as uh keep Carroll County being what Carroll County is vibrantly.

So if you could, I would encourage anyone to take a moment, you know, shop, dine local, support our local businesses in any way we can.

And next I'm gonna move on to last night.

Last night, uh, as everyone knows the five of us were at the uh budget meeting, but before that I had the uh pleasure of being at the uh boys and girls club youth of the year event.

So, first off, you have in the one photo there, Aaron Bishop from the Boys and Girls Club with uh Weimar, who is a senior graduating who is the youth of the year for Carroll County.

Today he is in Hagerstown competing for the Maryland Youth of the Year.

So we might get number six.

Let's keep our fingers and toes crossed.

Uh just exceptional, exceptional evening for all the kids involved.

And then last night, I and uh Janae had the honor of um uh announcing a new scholarship that we had set up this year, and this was the first recipient.

This is Andrea who received it.

She is going to Salisbury next year.

So we created a scholarship called the Driven to Dream Scholarship, the scholarship which was established this year uh is to support a member of the Boys and Girls Club who demonstrate determination, strong character, leadership, and a commitment to achieving their goals.

Scholarship was created to help a deserving student pursue post-secondary education, vocational training, or other career advancing opportunities.

And we wanted the scholarship to recognize not only their academic effort, but also their involvement in the community, and as well as leadership and uh life-changing uh things as they move forward for the youth of the community.

So had a great time at that last night, and then had to rush over to our budget meeting, which was you know, it's a good turnout.

Last night was a pretty uh quick budget meeting, which I was not expecting.

And that is all for me.

Thank you very much, Commissioner Gordon.