The Board of Carroll County Commissioners held their open session on Thursday, July 23, 2026, at 9:00 AM in Room 311 of the Carroll County Office Building. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection, followed by Commissioner comments (Priority Carroll), and continued with approval of numerous purchases, contracts, grants, and resolutions. The board also received briefings on the 2025 Planning Annual Report and the Maryland Housing Certainty Act (HB 548/SB 325). Public comment was heard from two individuals.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thursday, July twenty third, two thousand twenty six open session for the Board of Carroll County Commissioners. As we always do, we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection. Your Honor, please approach the bench. Good morning. Good morning. Before I forget, I I just wanted to say you probably covered this priority Carol, maybe in the last meeting or a week before that, but on July the 8th, uh we had the 250th uh anniversary celebration of the reading of the Declaration of Independence. Uh Commissioner Gordon uh was instrumental in in that. And it was a really terrific event. You probably all heard about it and read about it. I I'd say we must have had at least a hundred people uh gathered around the historic courthouse for a reading of the Declaration of Independence. And uh that's the first time I've actually ever heard the Declaration of Independence read in its entirety. It's really fascinating. And it was really good to see how many people showed up for that on a kind of a warm evening. Uh it was pretty hot, even at five or six o'clock in the evening. But uh nice tribute. So thanks for I appreciate you allowing us to utilize the front of the property. So it is the ideal I thought uh location for that. So good morning. Thanks for uh making time on the agenda for me this morning. I'm requesting today uh this board's approval of a grant from the administrative office of the courts in the amount of sixty-four thousand six hundred and sixty-nine dollars and one cent. Uh it uh there is a slight typo. It says the amount is approved in the FY26, but it should be twenty-seven budget. These are for security upgrades, uh cameras on the out the camera on the outside of the building so we have better visibility uh out over the parking lot into the cemetery area where unfortunately from time to time there'll be maybe some acts of vandalism and that sort of thing, people's vehicles, and uh we need to be able to uh have security um video coverage of that, and also to improve security in our uh eight courtrooms. So I can give you the details on that if you want. I have 16 Cadell with me and I put your name again. And uh they could probably answer any technical questions. So any comments, questions, or direction from the board. I'm just gonna go ahead. I make I move the Board of Commissioners to approve the purchase of security upgrades for the Carroll County Courthouse for Marathon Technology Services Inc. and the amount of $64,669 and one son. Second. We have a motion, we have a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Judge. Thank you. Good to see everybody. All right. Up next, item number two priority Carol and Commissioner Krebs. If you're up for it, we'll start with you. Sure. Um just briefly, it was so nice getting up this morning and coming outside and it being cool instead of walking out into a furnace like we have been for the last few weeks and months. And it it just brought to mind about all of our public works employees and firefighters and EMS and just folks that still have to go about their jobs in on the air conditioned situations, and we all take, I think take that somewhat for granted. Um so I just wanted to just give accolades to them for suffering through this summer and hopefully they'll have a little relief. There's a lot of folks uh out there working and trying to do the best that they can. So just wanted to point that out. And then an accolade to Christina Green, who was um one of our workers who was working at the senior inclusion program, and there was a choking incident, and she was a hero and stepped up and calmly saved the day, and just wanted to every day uh good things go on with our employees, and just wanted to recognize that and uh shout them out.