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.

And to the Republic, which is stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

And it's interesting.

But so they film in the individual, so you have no idea who's giving it to you.

And you know, it'll be interesting to see how they work it out.

But uh what are they handing you?

Like what what do you have to pass along?

It's like a flowers in a vase that says something about the library.

It's uh now you're embarrassing me because I I just I just passed it on and didn't I I said is this a gift for me, and they said no, you need to pass it on.

So yeah, but uh and I did it in front of Fink's Burg Library on a nice sunny day, so that was good.

Um we have Deb now sitting here, and Roberta's officially gone.

And we're looking at uh evaluating and interviewing uh a replacement.

Um Rhonda and I uh went to uh an Oreo game, and uh of note during the campaign prior to the primary, we didn't have time, and uh um we gave away tickets or did whatever, but we've gone and of interest um they've won both times we've been there.

So, yeah, they're there we're sitting watching it, and that was the second game.

The stands were were pretty full.

It was uh, I think a Friday night, but uh I was surprised.

Um the first time was a midweek night, and uh the stands were somewhat empty.

But again, it's uh support your Oreos, support your ravens.

Um Ted's not here with his Steelers thing on, so I can say that.

Um then tonight we have our uh uh public hearing for Market Street.

And that's it.

Thank you very much, Commissioner.

Commissioner Gordon.

Thank you.

Uh I've got just a couple things of note.

Uh first off, wanted to mention that uh one of our local nonprofits, Flying Colors of Success has announced the retirement of their longtime president Mike Hardesty, which is effective October 30th.

He started working as a camp counselor at the ARCS Carol Carroll Summer Camp during his years as an undergrad and then attended at Western Maryland.

After graduating, began a 43-year career as a ceramic and wood instruct woodworking instructor for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, continued his studies in pottery and ceramics at Columbia Visual Arts College, and eventually went back to Western Maryland, now McDaniel to earn a Masters of Science degree in special education and human service management.

During his 33 plus years at Flying Colors, he was proud to participate in the downsizing and closure of state institutions as well as the development of accessible housing in Carroll County.

Fiscal conservative Mike was extremely proud when Flying Colors became completely debt-free in 2025.

He also has been a strong advocate for direct support professionals who worked tirelessly to increase the DSP wages.

Mike was going back into teaching ceramics part-time in the WBEC program at Carroll Community College and will continue to share his passions and advocacy for citizens with intellectual disabilities in retirement.

And I just wanted to wish him all the best.

Obviously, he uh has done so much for our community as so many people do uh supporting and just helping everyone in our community, and I wanted to mention that as that's exceptionally noteworthy and what a uh amazing career.

So absolutely best and congratulations to him.

Also wanted to mention this morning, congratulations.

Uh Matt, can you switch the slide there?

Thank you.

Uh congratulations to Rebecca Mann, the cafeteria manager at North Carol Middle and Spring Garden Elementary Schools, who was awarded the Maryland School Nutritional Association Manager of the Year by the Maryland School Nutritional Association.

You know, I I say it all the time, and I realize sometimes I probably sound like I say it too much, but I I know I don't.

Carroll County has we have great people in our community, and we just we just do so many amazing things together, and that's what it all comes down to is all of us working together for the benefit of all in our community.

And uh one more Chris, if you could switch the slide.

As we all know, we lost Dolly Parton earlier this week, obviously not a Carroll County resident, but I bring her up following these other two local individuals to uh mention just a couple key points.

You know, while she was uh an award winner of nine Grammys, eleven Academy of Music Awards, ten country music awards, three American music awards introductions into various Hall of Fames.

What stands out most about her is her success she used to lift up other people quietly, giving millions of dollars to families facing disasters, supporting children's hospitals, medical research, helping communities recover after tragedies, investing in education, and repeatedly using her own resources to help family with lost homes, loved ones, and stability through devastating circumstances.

Probably one of her most long-lasting gifts is the Imagination Library, which was created in 95 to honor her father who could not read.

Program is now gifted more than 300 million free books to children around the world, uh given to children the chance to discover the joy of reading regardless of a family's income.

And I have to say I think she understood something that is incredibly powerful, which is sometimes helping someone doesn't mean giving them a handout.

It means giving them the opportunity, a book, a chance to learn, or simply a reason to believe there's a better way to do things in the future.

And I think it's something we can all learn from.

We may not have Dolly's wealth, fame, or resources, but we all can give our time, our talents, our compassion, our resource, and a helping hand to help those in our community.

And uh I think that, you know, as we all know, she'll be mentioned for and remembered for many things, but I think her philanthropy, humanitarian uh involvement and the champ and being a champion for children was the ultimate rewards.

Uh her generosity tells us who she really truly was.

And I mentioned all three of these individuals this morning because again, Carroll County, we're very known for interacting, whether it's our nonprofits, just helping your neighbor.

And I think that's something that, you know, we all have days where life gets a little stressful.

Other things kind of interact in our lives that aren't the easiest, but I think we've got to remember at the end of the day, we're all here together.

Uh everything that I've ever seen us accomplish as a community, whether it goes back three years to when we had the uh power line issue on 140, it was people doing it together.

And if there's one message I'm gonna leave everybody with this morning is that we're all in this together, and let's make sure we actually work together.

We can have differences, we can have a lot of different ideas, but at the end of the day, we're one community.