By Mary Alice Murphy

For the first item of business in Thursday's first regular County Commission meeting of 2015, Commissioner Gabriel Ramos nominated and Commissioner Ron Hall seconded Brett Kasten to remain as Commission chairman.

Ramos said Kasten had been the chairman for the past four years and still "has my continued support. He's doing a great job." Hall agreed. Kasten thanked them for their confidence in him and said he would continue to do the best he could for the county.

During public input, Razanna Thomas, the Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and Partnership for Success II program coordinator, said she simply wanted to thank the commissioners for their letter of support for the latest grant application. "I hope to be back in March to tell you we were awarded the funding."

Roger Groves, Tyrone Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department chief, presented his year-end statistics for the department. "We had 277 responses to calls, of which 187 were EMS calls and 23 grass fires, with seven assists. The numbers include 14 false alarms, two structure fires, 21 vehicle-related or accidents, 2 train-related responses