The Carroll County Board of Commissioners held an open session on Thursday, August 20, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. in Room 311 of the County Office Building, Westminster, Maryland. The meeting included a retirement proclamation for County Administrator Roberta Wyndham, a post-primary election report, several departmental briefings, a presentation on a proposed Freedom Center for veterans, and a block of procurement approvals. The meeting concluded with agenda reviews for the following weeks.
And two the Republic for which it stands. Liberty justice for all. Two it's nice to see everybody again. I hope everybody is doing well. And I think Commissioner Kyler, we start with you today. Oh my gosh. Last week uh was Mako, and uh that's uh when I was on the other side of the fence, I'm not sure I thought um that that was a a good time for commissioners, but it's very meaningful. And uh the first year I probably did more sessions and less other outside talk. Now it's like um you need to schedule meetings and see people outside of the sessions you want to go to. So it's it's a it's a great time. Um talk to Shock Trauma, BGE. Um I'm on the legislative committee, and we s we spent an hour and a half, two hours working on paring down the initiatives. Uh we meet again in late October to get them down to four, which is their rule is it has to be four. We probably started with 35. Um plenty of events. Uh um I was probably seven to till uh ten p.m. was about my work day. Um Secretary Rosteen, Secretary Coker, who's working on a task force for Royal Um issues, which is pretty good. MDOT, Secretary Thompson, and um District 7 was there represented. So uh um some years um maybe they didn't include the individual district, but I think they are in all their meetings now, and uh we're we're lucky District Seven in my my humble opinion is the best district in the state, but uh uh it's it was a good meeting, good discussions. Uh we ended up with the crab feed, which is always a good evening, and you see so many people there. I left uh a half hour early. I don't know if anybody was there later. I was told the governor was actually gonna sing with the band, but I don't know whether that happened or not. Um on Saturday there was a ribbon cutting of Westminster Liquors, um, right next to uh Chick-fil-A, where the old right aid place was. Um that is a great business for Westminster. Um when right aid left, they uh they were kind of squirrely with their liquor license, which made it hard to uh for somebody to come in there, but they worked it all out and they were in. I'm sorry I missed the ribbon cutting uh between Mako and getting back, but um I understand it was a good crowd and it's a good business. They did compliment how well both the liquor board and permits worked with them to uh they said neither one were easy, but they were prompt and on time and saved them some time. On uh Monday I got to walk the turf field at community college. The uh the turf was down, but the the sand and rubber wasn't placed yet. Um that's a a picture they sent. The PM sent us this morning that the logo is painted that wasn't there on Monday. And uh I think September 17th, they're doing a uh uh a grand opening of dedication, and there will be um after the dedication there will be a women's and a men's soccer game. I d I didn't realize it. Um and it's probably a good cost savings measure. The men and women are normally both home the same date. Um so and and the way games they travel together when possible. Um but uh the turf field looks good. Um and and Roberta, do you it's uh five or six million dollar project, probably. Yeah. 5.4. Yeah, yeah. And uh so a great project, something good for Westminster. The track will be rubber. Um, and some of the field events uh will be up the hill from it, and they have two what I consider pretty small bleachers, but um it's a natural banks there, so it it'll be interesting and uh more power to them, and uh we need turf fields in Carroll County, and um I'm glad we we got one that's quasi public. Hopefully, it'll be used by the community a fair amount. I did my chamber breakfast at Finksburg Library on Monday. Um good interesting crowd, and uh only one question during the meeting, but got to talk to a lot of people afterwards. Um we had veterans advisory this week.