Category:garrett county
Tucker Community Foundation Offering 40 Different Scholarships
Posted: Feb 22, 2012 4:43 PM EST Updated: Feb 22, 2012 4:43 PM EST
By Jeff Schrock, Randolph, Tucker and Upshur County Reporter – email
PARSONS –
The Tucker Community Foundation is accepting applications from high school students for merit-based scholarships.
Students in seven counties in West Virginia: Barbour, Grant, Mineral, Preston, Pocahontas, Randolph, and Tucker County, and Garrett County, Md. can use the money regardless of their field of study.
The foundation will award more than $52,000 in 40 different scholarships.
More here.
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County's Liability Insurance Premium Decreases By 18%
Feb. 2, 2012
The Board of Garrett County Commissioners’ annual liability insurance premium decreased by 18% between fiscal year 2010-2011 and fiscal year 2011-2012, county administrator Monty Pagenhardt announced on Tuesday.
The Local Government Insurance Trust (LGIT), the county’s liability insurer, offers membership, longevity, and loss control credits toward the annual premium. The credits for FY 2011-12 accounted for $98,639 in savings to the county, according to Pagenhardt.
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“The premium is allocated yearly to the county departments, and the credits were deducted from the department’s portion of the annual insurance premium,” he said in a press release.
LGIT also offered for the first time a $1 million limit for excess liability at no additional charge to entities with primary liability coverage, providing additional security for liability coverage.
“This saved the county an average of $8,000 on the annual insurance premium,” Pagenhardt said. “Additionally, claims and losses for liability have been down for all county departments, which contributes to the decrease of the insurance premiums. County management and employees keep safety in mind, and this shows with the decline of claims and lowered premiums.”
He noted that the county has not been advised by LGIT or other insurance agents of any major increased to the insurance premiums for FY 2012-13.
More here.
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Maryland's Native American Tribes Struggle for State Recognition
Local Native American tribes struggle as recognition passes them by.
November 23, 2011
By Emaun Kashfipour, Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS – Every year around this time, Thanksgiving reminds many Americans of the relationship between Native Americans and Pilgrims who shared a meal hundreds of years ago.
But in Maryland, today’s Native Americans are not as well-known.
There are more than 20,000 Native Americans living in Maryland, according to the most recent census, and there are eight indigenous tribes who form and operate communities just like any other group.
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Garrett County's Most Beautiful Person chosen
Oct. 6, 2011
GC’s Most Beautiful Person for 2011 is Mary Frantz. The announcement was made on Tuesday during the county commissioners’ public meeting at the courthouse. The Friendsville resident was nominated by Mildred Wucik. Each year the pubic is invited to nominate individuals or groups that have made significant contributions to communities through their unpaid volunteer efforts. A local committee then chooses GC’s Most Beautiful Person. “Mary Frantz is one of our angels on Earth,” Wucik wrote in her nomination. “For many years she has participated in the Relay for Life and Hospice walks. For most years, she has been one of the top collectors.” In addition, Frantz has been a volunteer caregiver for the terminally ill for 27 years, helps numerous groups with their fundraising dinners, regularly donates to local food banks, visits nursing home residents and hospital patients to give encouragement, and transports individuals who can no longer drive. The commissioners presented Frantz with a proclamation and glassware from Simon Pearce. Sen. George Edwards also presented her with proclamations from the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates, congratulating her for being chosen the county’s Most Beautiful Person. Also nominated for the award were Tom Browning, Ann Smith, Don Sincell, Cindy Kutchman (posthumously) and Sandy Bell, Mary Jane Harvey, Mark Durst, Kathy Savage, Dick Schrock, and Brenda Brosnihan. Edwards congratulated all the nominees. “Thank you for all the outstanding work that you do to make Garrett County a much better place,” the senator said. Left to right are Commissioners Gregan Crawford, Jim Raley, and Bob Gatto; Frantz; and Edwards. Photo by John McEwen.
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O’Malley: Garrett should take caution with Plan Maryland
From Staff Reports Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — Garrett County commissioners are asking Gov. Martin O’Malley to take a cautious approach in implementing PlanMaryland.
The commissioners adopted a resolution Tuesday recommending that counties with less than 1 percent population growth over the last decade be exempt from PlanMaryland. Such a provision would apply to Garrett and Allegany counties, according to the 2010 census.
The state Department of Planning is scheduled to submit a final version of the regulations to the governor by mid-November.
PlanMaryland is O’Malley’s initiative to improve land development and create more cooperation between state and local agencies and was unveiled in April. Since then, a number of counties have voiced concern about the program, fearing that the authority of local planning agencies would be usurped.
In their resolution, approved Tuesday, the commissioners said, “The growth issues that Garrett County will face over the next few years are different than those faced in the urban and suburban areas of the state of Maryland and nationwide. The board believes that land management should be left to local jurisdictions as it is local jurisdictions that best understand their local growth challenges and needs.
“This proposed plan, as it applies to Garrett County, has the potential to stifle and suppress growth opportunities instead of incentivizing them. The board does not want to become an impoverished ward of the State of Maryland.
“Garrett County has resources that will allow the county to contribute to our own unique way. Embracing and acknowledging diversity gives our state and ultimately county and municipal governments strength and resiliency.”
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Ambulances in Allegany, Garrett getting checkups
Inspection ensures vehicles are road worthy, properly stocked with supplies
Jeffrey Alderton Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND — Allegany and Garrett counties are benefiting from a voluntary ambulance inspection program that ensures that the vehicles are roadworthy and properly stocked with necessary medical supplies.
Developed jointly by the Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical Services Systems, the Maryland State Firemen’s Association and the State Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council, the Voluntary Ambulance Inspection Program verifies certification that ambulances have received from the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The program also includes “verification of supplies and equipment inventory necessary to adequately care for patients in pre-hospital setting,” said Lt. Vince Pyle, the emergency medical services officer for the Cumberland Fire Department who oversees the ambulance operation along with Lt. Mike Kerns.
The city’s ambulance fleet consists of a 2011 and 2007 International model, 2000 and 2001 Freightliner and a 1996 Ford that is the only four-wheel drive ambulance in the department.
Logging nearly 5,000 ambulance calls annually, the ambulances hardly get a rest and three of the vehicles have recorded mileage above 100,000 miles. Industry studies indicate ambulance services typically get six years of service out of a new vehicle. City ambulance crews typically handle 13 to 14 calls per day. Most ambulance calls in the city take an hour from the time of the alert to the time of return to service to be available for the next call.
Plenty of preparation precedes the ambulance check-ups.
“We get all our DOT inspections, do a pre-inventory on ambulance supplies and hopefully have everything in place when the inspection occurs. For our citizens, it gives them a sense of security that our units are up to the accepted standard of care and that their tax dollars are being utilized in an effective and efficient manner.
“Our citizens are investing in the Cumberland Fire Department with their tax dollars and we are ensuring they get a quality product in return,” he said.
Pyle credits Kerns with being his right-hand man but the credit doesn’t stop there. “We have a great group of guys and gals that work hard to provide the necessary patient care and get back in service as quickly as possible for the next call,” said Pyle.
The ambulance inspections are being performed by Dwayne Kitis, MIEMSS regional director, and John Herath, Allegany County’s EMS chief. Sometimes the inspections include MIEMSS inspectors from Baltimore as is the case with this month’s inspections.
Kitis said, “The Voluntary Ambulance Inspection Program is not necessarily a requirement by the state, just strongly suggested to satisfy the medical director’s review of equipment. Some jurisdictions create their own ambulance inspection process that reflects their area needs and are less stringent than the state process. Maryland gives a seal of excellence when an Advanced Life Support ambulance, ALS Chase unit, or a Basic Life Support First Response unit has passed the inspection process.
“Citizens in the area should be reassured that both Allegany and Garrett County’s EMS/Fire Departments participate in this program. The VAIP Seal of Excellence is good for two years, however Allegany and Garrett counties are inspected every year, which reduces the occurrence of restocking errors or equipment failure. All types of vehicles get certified. BLS units include: chief utility vehicles, brush units, first-response vehicles and heavy rescue vehicles; ALS units include ambulances, ALS chase vehicles and ALS fire engines.”
Last year, Kitis inspected 47 ambulance units in Allegany County and 17 in Garrett County through the program.
Contact Jeffrey Alderton at jlalderton@times-news.com.
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Garrett County may not be on board with regional lobbyist
Commissioners will discuss issue over next several weeks, reports administrator
Matthew Bieniek Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND —Garrett County leaders have not committed to join with other Western Maryland counties to hire a lobbyist to represent the region, County Ad-ministrator Monty Pag-enhardt said late last week. He said statements that the five counties had reached a consensus about hiring a lobbyist were incorrect.
“The Board of Garrett County Commissioners has asked that I let you all know that no final decision has been reached on participating in the five Western Maryland counties funding of a paid lobbyist. … The board has taken the matter under advisement and will be discussing in the next few weeks,” Pagenhardt wrote in an email.
“We’ve had no discussion and our commissioners have some real questions … we have not agreed and may not agree to hiring a lobbyist,” Pagenhardt said in a phone interview.
Last week, Allegany County Commissioner Michael McKay said Allegany County planned to join other counties in hiring a Western Maryland lobbyist. McKay did not say the counties had formally agreed to the idea. The plan was for each of the five counties to put about $5,000 into the till to hire a lobbyist to represent the interests of the region in Annapolis.
The five Western Maryland counties are Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Carroll. A few thousand of the total will also help pay for an “event” hosted by the counties aimed at highlighting Western Maryland.
“It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way things work down there,” McKay said of the event.
The lobbying effort will be focused on the Maryland General Assembly session of 2012, McKay said.
The counties will probably come to a decision about their plans in October, McKay said. He’ll be part of a meeting of Western Maryland commission presidents planned for early October.
The idea of hiring a lobbyist started at this year’s Maryland Association of Counties meeting over the summer. County leaders discussed significant issues, including the controversial PlanMaryland. The discussions solidified the similarity of interests be-tween the counties, McKay said, which are dominated by rural landscapes and have strong agricultural roots. Many of the more rural counties believe PlanMaryland will usurp local planning decisions.
McKay said after further meetings he’ll have a better idea about possible candidates and the price to be paid for the hired hand in Annapolis.
In the past, Allegany County has at times hired a lobbyist, the most recent being former House Speaker Casper Taylor Jr., although the contract was with the firm for which Taylor works, Alexander and Cleaver. The firm was paid $17,000 a year and expenses, according to past Times-News reports. That contract began in 2008 and has subsequently expired.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com
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Garrett Countians Reflect On Memories Of 9/11
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Sep. 8, 2011
While it is not customary for the editorial staff of The Republican newspaper to cover national or international news, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, while some distance away, did indeed impact the lives of every resident, and did warrant attention and coverage in our news columns. Our focus at this newspaper has always been on our own, those of our mountaintop home, who either reside here, have made their home here at one time, or have close ties to the area still. Therefore, we deemed it appropriate to ask some of our own who were eyewitnesses to these terrifying events to tell their stories of that day, and to also express how the day changed them, or how they feel the events changed the world. We were pleased to receive several essays, all of which are published below….
…Matthew Sincell
Mtn. Lake Park native, current resident of Park City, Utah
Ten years ago I stood in Hamilton Park looking at the New York City skyline, camera in hand, and watched the two towers smoke. I had moved to Weehawken, N.J., on Sept. 9, 2001. I remember feeling as if I were caught somewhere between sleeping and waking, as if I and the gathering crowd of people around me were moving in perpetual slow motion. I didn’t know quite what was happening, but I knew deep inside that the world as I knew it was stirring. I was witnessing some great change. I found myself snapping a series of photos as each of the two towers fell. Somehow focusing on this tiny action of click, advance, click, advance, allowed me to document this moment with a certain detachment; as if looking through the camera lens made it less real. I understood intellectually that thousands of people were dying before my eyes, but emotionally it was impossible for me to comprehend. I think even 10 years later, it’s impossible for me to fully comprehend. I stayed in the city for nine more years, and watched, and was a small part, I suppose, of its resilience.
I witnessed things during those nine years that have made a permanent mark on me, on my own life-fabric. In a place where hate might have been the strongest, and perhaps most justified, reaction, I found instead that there was an outpouring of compassion. First, the compassion was extended toward the families of the victims. In my own profession at the time, theatre (which immediately after the event seemed about the most useless of professions), I saw fellow actors, writers, directors, and producers begin to write and perform plays to raise awareness and money for the families of the victims. There was a forum for the stories to be written down, remembered, and examined. A couple of years later, after the initial reaction to “protect our own and lash out at Muslims” subsided, I saw plays being written that attempted to get to the heart of why and how this all happened. This was done gingerly at first, because the wound was still so fresh. In some cases it was a matter of “not yet. It’s still too soon.” Gradually pain shifted into compassion and then into understanding, and then into a continued attempt to separate terrorists from a religion, which at its core is a religion of peace. I saw the sun continue to rise every morning. I saw people go back to work. I saw people walking forward, with scars, but walking forward.
Ten years later on Sept. 11, and every year since, my heart aches in remembrance of what was lost, the sacrifices made by those in the towers, the rescuers, and those who continue to work at ground zero today. I think of my friend, Ray Stapleton, my housemate, who spent the better part of four days in hell, with no sleep, climbing into the rubble of the towers hoping to find some small sign of life.
I also think about what was gained. I think about the strength of the human spirit. I think of my family. I think of how impermanent, how precious, and how beautiful life is. When I want to tell someone I love them, I tell them now. Now is the moment to live life. Now is truly what we have. These are the things I think about 10 years later.
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State Marcellus commission will meet in Garrett
Matthew Bieniek
Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Mon Aug 29, 2011, 11:21 PM EDT
MCHENRY— The county with the most to gain, or lose — depending on who you talk to, on both the economic and environmental front, will host the next meeting of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission.
The meeting is set for Oct. 7 in Room CE-224 (the Continuing Education Building Lecture Hall) at Garrett College in McHenry. The meeting is currently scheduled to start at 1 p.m. and run until around 4 p.m.
State Department of the Environment staff are preparing briefings on liability and revenue issues, said Brigid Kenney of the MDE. The meeting will be the second one for the committee following the initial meeting at Rocky Gap in early August. The meetings are open to the public.
Among Garrett County members on the shale commission are county commissioner James Raley, Sen. George Edwards, Shawn Bender of the Garrett County Farm Bureau and Paul Roberts, a Garrett County resident, citizen activist and owner of Deep Creek Cellars winery.
The liability and revenue issues brought a number of at the first meeting. The liability issues concern how the state can assure repairs to roads and land damaged by drilling as well as funding should a disaster occur, among other concerns, commission members said. Commission members are also trying to figure out the best mechanism for permitting costs and taxation and how tax revenue should be divvied up.
Chairman David Vanko, a dean in science and mathematics at Towson University, has said commission members would have a steep learning curve.
Some commission members have advocated a baseline scientific fact-gathering, possibly paid for by the natural gas industry. One problem has been that it’s impossible to tell if methane in the water of some Pennsylvania communities occurred naturally or because of gas fracking, mainly because no studies or measurements took place before fracking began.
The commission will present recommendations by the end of the year on legislation to tax drilling and establish liability standards.
Recommendations on best practices for natural gas exploration and production are to be delivered by Aug. 1, 2012, and a final report including environmental impacts of drilling is to be issued by Aug. 1, 2014.
Marcellus shale formations throughout the Eastern U.S. harbor large untapped natural gas resources.
The total value of the natural gas in Allegany County’s Marcellus shale could be close to $15.72 billion, with the average well earning $65,000 to $524,000 yearly, University of Maryland Extension staff has said.
In order to get the gas trapped in Marcellus shale to the surface chemicals, water and sand are pumped underground to break apart rock formations and free the gas.
Critics are concerned about the impact on groundwater and drinking water. The technique would likely be used if drilling began in Western Maryland.
A process used in Canada, though, uses carbon dioxide gas, which is believed to have less significant environmental impact.
Vanko has said he hopes consensus can be reached on most of the issues the committee is expected to review.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com
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Tough economic times put libraries on the defensive
Montgomery’s libraries have lost about 37 percent of their funding since 2008 — the largest statewide
by Erin Cunningham, Staff Writer
A sign early at the Technology Center earlier this month annouced that the area is closed at the C. Burr Artz Public Library in downtown Frederick. Public libraries around the state have seen their budgets cut in recent years.
Some of Montgomery County’s libraries became infested with ants and cockroaches earlier this year when the county cut back on cleaning and vacuuming of the buildings.
The county was able to come up with the money to pay for pest control, according to libraries Director Parker Hamilton, and the bugs are gone.
“Thank goodness,” she said.
But there still is a concern about the sanitation of the buildings, which are being cleaned about three times per week; a year ago they were vacuumed daily, Hamilton said
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