On this day, Wednesday, September sixteenth, and as we typically do the Pledge of Allegiance and have a moment of silent questions.

So again, I want to welcome everybody in the audience as well.

We have some people from our delegation here as well, some from the uh from our towns.

We've got a lot of staff here.

Um I'll do some quick introductions and I'll start things off.

Uh my name's Mike Garrin.

I serve, I currently serve as Vice President of the Board of Carrier County Commissioners, and I represent District 4.

And District 4 is the southwestern part of the county, so that includes Mount Erie, all the way up to Woodvine, parts of Sykesville and up north towards Westminster.

So again, that is the southern southwestern portion of the county, and that is District 4.

Uh Commissioner Krebs.

Um, Susan Krebs from District 5 represent Sykesville Eldersburg and the Freedom Area 26 and 32 Carter.

Commissioner Tom Gordon, District 3, which is Westminster and the surrounding area.

And Kenny Kyler, uh, District 2, Hampstead, Manchester, and Finksburg.

And I'm going to briefly speak for the mayor of Manchester because she could not get here today.

And I've also been asked to tell you Delegate Thomas and had to be in Annapolis today, but he's over halfway here, so he'll he'll be here, but maybe a half hour late.

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm Christine Cambrari.

I am the interim deputy county administrator filling in for Deb Eppingham, who's the interim county administrator.

Great.

Well, thank you for having us this afternoon, and you'll get to meet the rest of my team as we go through the presentation.

Um, I'm Katie Thompson, Secretary of Transportation for Maryland.

Thank you for inviting us to provide an overview of our six-year draft consolidated transportation program as we fondly all know it at the CTP.

With me today are members of the broader MDOT team, and you'll get to hear from each of us in turn.

This is my first fall CTP tour.

You are my fourth county, and we started yesterday.

And what I really appreciated, even over the course of just the past day, is the opportunity to meet with you where you where you live in your counties and hear directly about the projects that mean a lot to the people who live, work, and pass through here.

Every day we see the work that you all do in partnership with us to improve Maryland and its transportation system, and we want you to know that your work helps us do our work, and uh we and our 10,000 employees are uh uh proud to work with you to achieve our shared mission.

At Mako, I appreciated the opportunity to connect and understand how better to partner together.

And during the conference, we discussed our shared transportation priorities at the meeting.

You requested sidewalks at two locations, including MD 30 at Manchester Valley High School and MD 140 and Sullivan Road.

District 7 has reviewed the locations and is working with the county on potential solutions to address the safety needs.

We look forward to continuing to collaborate on these important safety initiatives.

About me, uh Maryland's transportation network has immense potential, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to serve as secretary.

I've had the privilege of serving at the U.S.

Department of Transportation in multiple positions and also at the Federal Aviation Administration, and I know uh the value that public service can bring to the people uh who live in Maryland.

My work has been informed by by my life experience.

I grew up in a small rural town in Illinois, and I've had the chance to live in big cities across across the country, so I know what it means to have transportation that works for you wherever you live.

Um, combining that transportation experience with what with my lived experience, we know that it's important to deliver for Marylanders across the state where they live in rural areas or urban areas, and that's really what animates my work and I find gratifying.

We look forward to continuing to build on the Moore Miller administration's priorities.

There are three main transportation priorities that you will see in the CTP this year.

They provide the foundation for our six-year capital program.

The first pillar is safety.

Um, not surprisingly, that is and will always be our North Star.

Our our top job is to protect Marylanders and invest in projects that enhance the safety of the system and reduce dangerous crashes.

Through larger construction projects to repair and improve our roadways, we are improving vehicular safety for all of our road users and enhancing access.

We've also focused on protecting and maintaining what we have.

When it comes to essential infrastructure that keeps Maryland on the move, assets in the most critical condition are first in line for repairs, like repaving roads and replacing bridges.

Third, we're doing more with the incredible assets that we have so that they can work harder for Marylanders and grow our economy.

Turning to the details of this year's draft CTP, the six-year capital budget totals 21.9 billion dollars.

We're making meaningful and significant progress towards improving the statewide transportation system.

However, we are still operating under a constrained budget environment with construction and operating costs growing at a faster rate than our revenues.

That means that we are limited in our ability to bring in new programs, and we've had to make hard choices to prioritize must fund needs.

But recognizing that the new transportation, that new transportation needs will continue to emerge.

We are committed to modernizing and reforming the way that we do business to stretch every dollar as far as it will go.

That means improving our system of engagement with you on your priority letters and priority needs and enhancing how we prioritize and invest in both asset management and new capacity projects.

In doing so, we intend to offer greater clarity and understanding for trade-off decisions that we are making so that we can work together to deliver a world-class transportation system for Maryland.

We look forward to working with you to ensure our goal of delivering a safe and reliable transportation system for all Marylanders.

Before I hand it over to the team, I want to quickly emphasize some of our safety efforts.

We are very pleased that over the past two years, our roadway fatalities have dropped.

We see that as great progress, but we know that we have a lot more work to do.