Carroll County commissioners cancel distillery lease for proposed respite center, direct stakeholder reset

Carroll County Commissioners on Thursday voted to cancel the county lease tied to a proposed Carroll Respite Center that Access CAROL and LifeBridge Health planned to operate at the Distillery Building in Westminster, and directed county staff to convene a stakeholder group to rework the project and report back within months.

The decision followed a two-hour public discussion and a public-comment period in which local officials, hospital and health-system leaders and Westminster residents disagreed sharply over the program’s design, who it would serve and how the project reached a signed lease. Tammy Black, executive director of Access CAROL, told the board the proposed facility “currently does include 16 beds” and that Sinai’s $5,000,000 grant both “covers construction” and supports…