Good morning, ladies, and gentlemen.

Welcome to the Thursday, June twenty fifth, two thousand twenty-six open session for the Board of Carroll County Commissioners.

As we always do, we begin with a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silent reflection.

uh service is today at 11 which I I went last night because I didn't think I should go today but it's it's uh you hate to see classmates and friends uh pass but it's part of life um I want to mention the election uh I want to thank the district two voters and Carroll County for uh the uh awesome win um we ran like we were in third place and uh and to get results that uh I had two and a half times the votes of my nearest competitor I had two competitors so it was nice to have such a solid victory I've uh I've put out to uh both of my competitors that I'd love to meet and talk to them about some of the issues uh um they do they ran good campaigns they worked hard and more power to them um on a personal note um two things uh Rhonda and I have been married fifty four years today congratulations don't worry about today she knows I have meetings but she has a list of uh anniversary guests that that we will discuss later and uh we have a graduation party this weekend so uh she's decided tonight's setup night so I can't even take her to dinner and it's interesting we're blessed with family um my oldest grandson was born today so he's eighteen today my uh birthday to him my next grandson it was it was boy girl boy girl but the next grandson was born yesterday so uh birthday to him a busy week for that um I want to mention Manchester Carnival um next week um fireworks parade the parade is I think Tuesday night and uh I I think uh it it it's it's unfortunate timing I think the GOP dinner is Tuesday night so a lot of the uh the delegation probably will be at the dinner not at the uh parade but but we'll walk in the parade and have fun um Father's Day was great um I hope everybody had a had a good Father's day and uh also last week Manchester did a 250th celebration uh Dutch Corner did a great dinner um I I had conflicts and couldn't be at dinner and uh we got uh to go box and great ribs great shrimp great great food but we didn't get to be there for it but we did go to town hall to listen listen to Joe Getty talk about the history of Manchester and uh primarily Manchester.

He had some other history stuff but primarily it was to talk about the town he was in and uh yeah he's uh such a great historian and uh the room was full um you love these jurisdictions we have in Carroll County.

Well they set up like they normally would for a meeting five five minutes before the meeting they used every desk chair in the building and uh every possible chair because people just kept coming in which is a good problem but and they handled it well but it's uh it's it was just a great night and thank you.

Thank you Commissioner Commissioner Gordon.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Uh first and foremost wanted to uh thank our fire EMS and law enforcement for their uh uh diligent and significant involvement in the event last week that took place on uh 140 and Sullivan there at the uh the sheets uh quite an exceptional uh uh turnout and uh great uh interaction between all the different agencies I'm not gonna name them all but obviously Westminster P the the Sheriff's Department State Police and our various fire and EMS uh McDaniel College Campus Safety as well as Carroll County Fire and the emergency services our volunteer services as well as the Maryland Department of Transportation and the United States Department of Homeland Security.

Very blessed and fortunate that it turned out not to be anything but uh it also shows how well we worked collaboratively when there are concerns in potential crisis.

So I want to first and foremost thank everybody for that.

That could have been an exceptionally uh uh life-threatening and horrible situation.

Uh secondly just want to mention real briefly it was a great turnout at the uh Westminster beer and barbecue stroll this past uh weekend a lot of great people turning out music food uh a lot of typical familiar faces and a lot of new faces so as always just great to see as we all do in all our communities people getting together and uh enjoying you know social fellowship and just enjoying the entertainment.

Obviously this weekend was Father's day big thank you to all the fathers, grandfathers, mentors and father figures uh all of us do what we can each day and sometimes it's tricky but truly want to thank everybody that uh looks out for not only their families but also the little ones that will emulate us in the years to come.

Uh the Saturday, June 27th will be the Corbett's Charge event, the commemorative event.

That's the 163rd anniversary of that.

Uh that will be starting at 11 o'clock at the Historical Society of Carroll County.

Uh there will be that that that location.

Also there'll be a memorial service that will be held at the uh the uh monument here by uh the courthouse, the old historic courthouse, as well as a number of other events.

If you're looking for information on that, I would look into either the Historical Society uh website and Facebook or also the uh the uh celebrating America page as well.

And then uh last but certainly not least, I wanted to bring up something that I think some people might find of interest with the 250 coming up.

On July 8th, there will be a public reading of the Declaration of Independence here in Westminster to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the public reading of that, which will be held on July 8th.

The reason it's July 8th is historically that was when it was first read publicly on the courthouse steps.

Uh it will follow the exact timeline of when it was read originally, which will be starting at 6 p.m.

here at the front of the historic courthouse.

I'd like to thank Judge Hecker for his involvement and and allowing that and and his assistance as well as Westminsters for the uh support with the uh police department with the roads.

If you're looking to attend that, I would definitely get there probably no later than about 530.

The expectation is it'll be quite a turnout.

And that's all for me.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Commissioner Gordon.

Commissioner Guerrin.

Thank you.

Um as was mentioned yesterday, it was election day, and thank everyone that turned out it seemed like it was less than normal.

I think maybe more people did absentee and early voting, but obviously elections are important.

I know people get frustrated sometimes and don't know much about folks, but um I thank all those people.

It always does my heart good when I see people coming in wheelchairs in the rain or on their walkers because they are so dedicated to voting in person and they've been doing it their whole lives, and it just reminds me how many people really value their vote, realize why they're there, and I appreciate all the people that um took the time to to exercise that right to vote.

Um Commissioner Collar, thank you for acknowledging your anniversary because that's good.

That's a good thing.

You get brownie points.

Next year is a big one.

Um we did have a meeting last night, and uh we had a great turnout.

It had a public meeting on a retirement villages and homes.

We've had a consultant here for a few months that has reviewed our code and done a very good job.

It was very well received.

It was an outreach meeting to people to find out what they're looking for.

There's a survey that's been sent out electronically if people want to fill that out electronically and send it back, what their preferences are, and it's all different things.

Uh so do we get a gauge of what types of communities they're looking for, what kind of amenities, what type of oh, we got pictures.

Well, good.

I didn't even send those in.

Thank you.

Um there's our consultant, and we had a lot of participation.

And there's some people there that are in current facilities that were saying some some challenges that they're having that hopefully we can not repeat, and that was very helpful.

We're gonna try to work with them.

So um I love community outreach.

And when we do these things, it we get so much feedback and so much appreciation of um often we say we want community participation, and we don't get any.

This was very well attended.

And a lot of people spoke on issues that we would have never even thought about.

So thank everyone who showed up and thank everyone who fills out the survey.