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Oakland ready for third annual Winter Fest

Ice sculptures focal point for three-day celebration; activities planned for all ages

For the Cumberland Times-News
Cumberland Times-News

OAKLAND — Oakland Main Street is sponsoring its third annual Winter Fest on Feb. 19, 20 and 21, with a wide variety of activities planned for Garrett County residents and visitors alike.

Organizers said last year’s festival was a huge success and this year’s festival has been expanded to a three-day event. Once again, ice carving demonstrations will be held during the run of the celebration. The event relies on sponsorships from local businesses and contributions from the public.

Festival crowds will be treated to an encore performance by expert ice sculptor Bill Sandusky, whose company, Frozen Assets, has been a member of the National Ice Carvers Association since 1999. Sandusky, an award-winning ice carver who served Western Pennsylvania for 15 years, is now located in Colorado. This will be his third Oakland Winter Fest.

Five carvings will be created during the daylight hours with an additional 25 sculptures being displayed throughout town. Tons of sparkling ice art will grace downtown Oakland throughout the day and evening during the festival.

Highlights of the festival include:

• Progressive Dinner, starting at Oakland’s historic train station with diners arriving at each dinner course via horse-drawn sleigh.

• All-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at the local fire hall.

• Lighting ceremony, with most of the ice sculptures lighted after dark. During previous festivals, many people drove around downtown in the evening to see the sculptures.

• Announcement of Oakland’s 2010 Snowflake Toddler, selected by the community.

• An “ice throne” to sit on, providing an opportunity for photographs.

• Dragon slide.

• Frozen bowling alley.

• Snowmobile drag races.

• Snowman building competition.

• Wine tasting.

• Music by the Preston Madrigals and Maria Rose and Danny Elswick.

• Campfire with s’mores.

• Photo scavenger hunt

• Arts and craftr vendors at the train station.

• Food vendors

For more information, call Jim Johnson, Winter Fest Committee chairman, at (301) 616-4008, or Arlene Murray, Oakland Main Street manager, at (301) 616-2411.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Plow driver escapes burning truck in Garrett County

Cumberland Times-News

GORMAN — A Garrett County snowplow driver was able to escape from the truck just before it burst into flames Tuesday evening, according to the Garrett County Sheriff’s Office.

David Rolf was operating the 1998 Mack truck on King Wildesen Road at about 7:15 p.m. when it caught fire. Gorman Volunteer Fire Department put out the fire and the vehicle was a complete loss. There were no injuries, police said.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Funding Plans For Garrett County Scholarship Program To Continue

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The Board of Garrett County Commissioners continues to receive commentary that the Garrett County Scholarship Program will not be funded for future years.
“Statements related to a termination of this program are untrue and unsubstantiated,” a press release from the commissioners stated. “The board strongly believes that funding of this program that allows all Garrett County public school seniors to attend Garrett College at no cost will have many constructive and positive long-term consequences for not only the students who participate in the program but all of Garrett County.”

Read the rest of the article here
If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Board of Education Exploring Ways To Cut Its Budget

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BOE Exploring Possible Ways To Cut Its Budget

Feb. 11, 2010

The Board of Education recently held its regular monthly meeting, at which members discussed several ways of cutting back on budget needs. The board’s financial director, Irvin Fink, and school superintendent Dr. Wendell Teets are in the process of finalizing the FY2011 budget.
One of the proposed ideas to help cut costs is the renovation of some area elementary schools, and the possible closing of others. There are currently seven elementary schools – Broad Ford, Yough Glades, Dennett Road, Bloomington, Rt. 40, Crellin, and Accident. It was decided at the meeting that there will be a committee formed to study all seven schools, with the committee made up of members of the public as well as school officials.

Read the rest of the article here

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

North/South highway earns support of Cardin

Kevin Spradlin
Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — A meeting cancellation in Washington of local officials advocating for the North/South Appalachian Highway project didn’t stop the effort from getting a progressive bump forward.

During a Senate committee hearing Tuesday on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Earl Gohl Jr. as Appalachian Regional Commission co-chair, Sen. Ben Cardin called upon Gohl to make the project a priority.

Cardin also asked Gohl to support removing the prohibition on the state’s use of toll credits as matching funds for the Appalachian Highway project, which includes U.S. Route 219 from Interstate 68 to Meyersdale, Pa., and U.S. Route 220 from Bedford, Pa., to Corridor H in West Virginia.

The ARC is a federal-state partnership that helps fund sustainable community and economic development projects in a 13-state area from New York to Mississippi, including all of West Virginia and parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Forty-two percent of the region’s population is rural compared with 20 percent of the national population. Eighty-two of the region’s 420 counties are designated as economically distressed jurisdictions.

The goal of the ARC, established by an act of Congress in 1965, is to help the region achieve economic parity with the nation. Cardin’s words, said local stakeholder David Moe of the Garrett County Development Corp., are a major step in the right direction.

“It’s great stuff,” said Moe, also a member of The Greater Cumberland Committee, a multistate organization that has recently served as lead advocate for the highway projects. “Mr. Cardin is a great asset for Western Maryland. We’ve been privileged to work with him on this project and other items for Mountain Maryland. Without him, none of this would have been possible.

“It’s recognition at the top level of the problems with the toll credits issue, which can be resolved when the federal transportation reauthorization gets considered in the Senate,” Moe said. “The momentum is building.”

That could happen this year. The bill, which expired Sept. 30, has received short-term extensions. But within Obama’s jobs creation bill is the reauthorization — and with it could come resolution of the toll credits issue.

“If it is removed, Pennsylvania will be able to continue the construction of the (U.S.) 219 section from Somerset, Pa., to Meyersdale,” Moe said, “in addition to picking up the environmental studies on the 219 section from I-68 near Grantsville to the Meyersdale, Pa., bypass.”

Moe called both projects “integral to the development of the entire north-south Appalachian Corridor.”

Moe said Gohl, who has more than 20 years’ experience as an elected and appointed official in Pennsylvania, should be familiar with the struggles faced.

The meeting scheduled for Wednesday with members of the House of Representatives will be rescheduled, Moe said. Meanwhile, several congressional representatives have indicated their support for the project and for the removal of the toll credits prohibition. Already on board are Pennsylvania Congressmen Bill Shuster and Christopher Carney, U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett in Maryland and U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore-Capito in West Virginia.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

With upcoming snow, Garrett hoping for federal money

Megan Miller
Cumberland Times-News

OAKLAND — The snowstorm that began in Western Maryland on Tuesday afternoon could last through early Friday and pelt the region with as much as 15 to 20 inches of snow in the higher elevations.

That’s according to Pittsburgh National Weather Service meteorologist Rich Kane, who briefed the Garrett County Commission and other officials via telephone and video feed Tuesday morning.

“I think for Garrett County it’s going to be pretty wintry even through early Friday,” said Kane, who predicted accumulations of 14 to 20 inches by the end of the storm.

Kane said Garrett could also see high winds around 20 mph Wednesday and 30 mph Thursday, which could cause problems with drifting snow.

That’s bad news for roads maintenance crews and emergency services personnel, who put in long hours and spent large chunks of their budgets dealing with the weekend storm that dropped up to 40 inches on the county.

The weekend storm cost the county about $50,000 per day in overtime, equipment and materials costs, according to Roads General Superintendent Jay Moyer.

“As of Jan. 30, we had about $21,500 left in the budget to cover overtime,” Moyer said. “That’s gone now.”

Under the county’s snow emergency plan, several fire stations are put on standby to provide shelter if needed, and winter rescue teams from several agencies are alerted to be ready to assist residents. Anyone in need of shelter can call (301) 334-1930 to request help. Public safety officials also ask that residents make sure to keep their furnace vents uncovered for safety, keep an eye on snow loads on their rooftops and check on their neighbors.

Both the county and Maryland declared a state of emergency in the weekend storm, and some Garrett officials believe more snow could mean the county will receive a federal emergency declaration.

A federal declaration would channel federal dollars into the county that could be used to reimburse county services for extra costs incurred dealing with the storm. Overtime and equipment costs for snow removal efforts, public utilities work and emergency services like police, fire and emergency medical services could all be reimbursed for amounts spent over their normal operating costs, explained Garrett County Emergency Management Director Brad Frantz.

But there are a lot of variables involved in receiving federal emergency aid. For example, new regulations put in place in recent years state that snow storm accumulations must be within 10 percent of a county’s record snowfall for the county to qualify, Frantz said. For Garrett, that means a snowstorm needs to drop about 45 inches in one event.

The forecast for Tuesday’s storm called for far less than that, but it could still push the county over the threshold if both the Tuesday and weekend storm are counted as one event, Frantz explained.

“We don’t yet know for sure if that will happen,” Frantz said. “But there’s a chance they may call this one event, since they’ve extended the state of emergency from the weekend through the beginning of the week.”

Allegany County, too, might come near its qualifying threshold if the storms are considered one event, said Dick DeVore, acting chief of the Allegany County Joint Communications Center. But he emphasized that there’s no way for the county to be certain about that.

“We believe that potentially we’re going to be close to that threshold,” DeVore said. “But ultimately, it depends on what data the National Weather Service uses to calculate snowfall in the county. And there are a lot of other moving parts.”

If either county receives a federal emergency declaration, the other would be eligible for aid as an adjoining county, Frantz said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service had issued a winter storm warning in effect through late Wednesday afternoon for Allegany County. The forecast predicted accumulations of 6 to 12 inches in eastern and central Allegany County, and a possibility of up to 20 inches in the western areas.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Heavy snows breaking budgets

Megan Miller
Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Snow removal budgets in Allegany and Garrett counties are meaningless at this point, roads supervisors say.

“The budget has crumbled. We still haven’t calculated all of the most recent numbers, but it’s crumbled,” Allegany County Roads Division Chief Jim Lashley said Monday. “We might as well just tear it up and throw it out.”

Lashley said all county roads were open as of Monday, but cleanup from the storm required maintenance crews to work 16-hour shifts all weekend. That added up to more than $50,000 just in overtime costs from Friday to Sunday.

“Usually we only budget $80,000 for the whole winter, and most of the time we’ve stayed under that,” Lashley said. “But it depends on the kind of winter you have. This is the worst it’s been for a while.”

Allegany County crews must clear snow from about 550 miles of roadway, working from four garages, located in Cumberland, Frostburg, Oldtown and Little Orleans. The Cumberland and Frostburg garages operate seven snow-clearing routes each, while the outlying garages operate five.

Lashley said county snow removal funds aren’t tapped out yet, but could be soon if more storms keep pelting the area.

Garrett County’s overtime budget is nearly or completely exhausted, according to Roads General Superintendent Jay Moyer.

Already this winter, the county has used more than 12,299 man hours of overtime, Moyer said.

“We’ve prepared for this by banking $1.5 million from our paving budget last year,” Moyer said. “We’re probably going to start using some of that money.”

Garrett halted its paving projects at their halfway points and has been holding that money in reserve in case it would be needed for a rough winter, a practice the county began in 2008.

“What’s hurt our budget more than anything is that these snow events have fallen on weekends and holidays, so those hours are all overtime,” Moyer said. “We’ve also had these guys working seven days a week at times, and that gets expensive.”

Moyer said cleanup from a storm that hit earlier in the winter cost the county between $42,000 and $50,000 per day, and that one was not as severe as the one that hit Friday. That cost doesn’t include money spent on anti-skid material and equipment maintenance, he added.

The county budgeted $812,000 for fuel for its equipment, and has spent $408,000 so far. It budgeted $750,000 for anti-skid, and has spent $422,000 of that money.

Moyer said the county should be in good shape in both of those areas.

“By the time winter’s over, we anticipate we’ll have used the full amount budgeted, but we don’t anticipate going over that,” he said.

The county had all roads open in time for schools to hold classes Monday, but Moyer said he was concerned about the storm that’s expected to arrive today.

“We’re hearing there may be winds involved in the next one, which could cause more problems for us because of drifting,” Moyer said. “We already have snow stacked up about as high as we can stack it in a lot of these places.”

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Businesses Asked To Complete 2009 Recycling Reports

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Feb. 4, 2010

The Garrett County Solid Waste and Recycling Division is requesting that local businesses complete their 2009 recycling reports by the March 15 deadline. Forms will be mailed this month.
The Maryland Recycling Act (MRA) authorized the Maryland Department of the Environment in 1988 to reduce the disposal of solid waste in Maryland through management, education, and regulation.

The MRA requires that each of Maryland’s jurisdictions develop and implement recycling programs and report the amount and types of materials recycled annually. Populations with less than 150,000 are required to recycle 15 percent of their waste.

“Therefore, we are requesting that each business in Garrett County report its recycling efforts within the county or outside of the county and state,” said local recycling coordinator Kim Madigan. “The Solid Waste and Recycling Division is proud of the Garrett County residents and businesses who helped us achieve a 47.95 percent recycling rate in 2008. These efforts are applauded.”

Read the rest of the article here

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

January 2010 Home Sales – Garrett County / Deep Creek Lake

A typical slow January month in Garrett County & at Deep Creek Lake with only 9 residential sales (details here). One reason that it’s normally slower in the winter months is that November and December buyers (who will close in January) are typically pre-occupied with the holidays, shopping, etc. Some other reasons include the weather – who in their right mind WANTS to move all of their stuff in the middle of a Garrett County winter if they don’t have to?

Also, the new lending rules that are in place now are causing some previously unforeseen delays with financing, etc. There are 30 ‘contracts’ right now which will presumably close this month or next, so the market conditions are definitely improving some.

This is certainly debatable, but 6/7 of these sales appear to vacation homes or 2nd homes, while the majority are primary residential. This certainly makes a difference in pricing strategies, specifically demand-based pricing.

The average list vs. ORIGINAL sales price is 87.97% (up 3% from December), though the ADJUSTED list vs. sales price is 91.53% of asking price (up 1% from December).

The current number of active/for sale residential listings is 586. 30 of these homes are under contract. This is a net reduction from December 2009 (16 less homes for sale, 7 more under contract). Slowly but surely, our inventory numbers are coming down! Prices have stabilized and are increasing on average over the past few months!

Here are the statistical breakdowns:

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Despite recession, Garrett County housing market still lively

Courtesy of the Daily Record:

Although Garrett County justifiably bills itself as a year-round resort, it definitely is the place in Maryland when it comes to winter recreation, largely thanks to the presence of Wisp Ski Resort and its proximity to other skiing venues in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

In addition to downhill and cross-country skiing, WISP’s winter activities include snowshoeing and tubing. Deep Creek Lake features ice fishing. And winter sleigh rides are available too.

Nor surprisingly, the most desirable property is waterfront on Deep Creek Lake. In mid-December there were 49 lakefront properties on the market with prices ranging from $499,000 to $2.99 million.

At the low end is a lakefront cottage with three bedrooms and three baths with 163 feet of level lakefront. The opposite extreme? A three-level property with seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, one half-bath and five fireplaces, sitting on three-quarters of an acre.

read the rest of the article here

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Category: garrett county

Oakland ready for third annual Winter Fest

Plow driver escapes burning truck in Garrett County

Funding Plans For Garrett County Scholarship Program To Continue

Board of Education Exploring Ways To Cut Its Budget

North/South highway earns support of Cardin

With upcoming snow, Garrett hoping for federal money

Heavy snows breaking budgets

Businesses Asked To Complete 2009 Recycling Reports

January 2010 Home Sales – Garrett County / Deep Creek Lake

Despite recession, Garrett County housing market still lively

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