Garrett lawmakers won’t pursue collective bargaining
Commissioners request rights for roads workers
Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — Garrett County’s two lawmakers in Annapolis have decided not to pursue the Garrett County commissioners’ request to be granted legislative authority to mandate collective bargaining for County Roads Department employees.
Chairman James Raley said that after a lengthy strike in the 1970s, commissioners had the option of whether they wanted to voluntarily participate in the collective bargaining agreement with the Roads Department. There were no laws in place mandating the agreement.
Roads Department employees are represented by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 67, Local 1834.
“With two commissioners in support of this legislation, we are going to continue to operate the way we always have, without a mandate,” said Raley.
Both Raley and Commissioner Robert Gatto supported the proposed legislation, with Commissioner Gregan Crawford opposing, according to Monty Pagenhardt, county administrator.
The legislative request was addressed at a Dec. 20 meeting. Delegate Wendell Beitzel raised some questions and concerns and was told by Raley that various issues needed to be worked out and that information would be forthcoming, according to a letter from Sen. George Edwards and Beitzel.
“However, after repeated attempts, we did not receive the requested information. Some of the information generated was classified by Chairman Raley as privileged information protected by the attorney-client privilege,” states the Jan. 30 letter. “Due in part to these unanswered concerns, the members of the delegation did not reach a consensus regarding this matter.”
County attorney Gorman Getty III released a statement to Edwards and Beitzel in regard to the information they requested, according to Raley.
“The document that they requested was a client document. We wouldn’t share any type of document like that,” said Raley.
Raley said that he contacted the legislators via email on Jan. 6, 9 and 19 in regard to their specific concerns but didn’t receive any communication until the Jan. 30 letter.
Remaining legislative re-quests from the county have been drafted into legislation and hearings have been scheduled, according to a legislative update provided at Tuesday’s commission meeting. One request by the Garrett County Animal Issues Advisory Commission would give the animal control officer the authority to make an arrest and provide the county the authority to deal with animals at large and barking dog complaints. The legislation would give the manager of the animal shelter more authority rather than have the property owner go through a common nuisance-t type lawsuit.
The advisory commission also requested that the county be added to the Code of Maryland section regarding Regulations of Animals, which would provide for the regulation, humane treatment and keeping of domestic animals within the county, including the authority to assess a penalty of up to 30 days in jail or a fine of $1,000, or both, for a violation of the ordinance.
Legislation that would give the commissioners a say in snowmobiling on public land has not been drafted yet. The commissioners made the request on behalf of the Garrett County Snowdrifters.
Remaining legislative re-quests that have been drafted and have had hearings scheduled include:
• Increasing the hotel rental tax rate from 5 percent to 6 percent.
• Adding the ability for the Department of Public Utilities to assess late fees for water and sewer bills that are not paid by the due date.
• Enabling authority to appoint a member-at-large on the Salary Study Commission to replace a member from the League of Women Voters of Garrett County because the league has disbanded.
• Adding the county to the state’s Correctional Officers Bill of Rights, which would provide certain rights of a correctional officer in the county relating to employment, investigation and discipline.
Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com.
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Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
Garrett recycling rate noted
From Staff Reports Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — Garrett County has achieved a recycling rate of 45.17 percent for 2010, according to the county’s Department of Solid Waste & Recycling.
The Maryland Recycling Act requires each of Maryland’s jurisdictions to report the amount and types of materials recycled annually. Populations with less than 150,000, which includes Garrett County, are required to recycle 15 percent of their waste.
The county’s recycling rate for 2009 was 47.7 percent, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment, which ranked the county fourth in the state.
“It is now time for Garrett County businesses to report their annual recycling efforts to our office for 2011,” the department announced in a news release Tuesday.
All materials being recycled within the county or outside of the county and state are eligible and count toward the recycling rate. The 2011 recycling report forms are being mailed out with a deadline of March 16. Forms can be downloaded at www.garrettcounty.org.
Recycled materials include landscaping debris; carpet or cloth remnants; newspapers or catalogs sent back to manufacturers; wood waste to mulch/compost; oil filters; all mixed paper; toner cartridges; camera/film canisters; and all plastics. Common recyclables include aluminum cans; newspapers; cardboard; magazines; office paper; glass bottles and jars; electronics and mixed metal.
Businesses notice the benefits of recycling by enjoying a reduction in their monthly solid waste disposal fees. For additional information on recycling, call 301-387-0322 or email kmadigan@garrettcounty.org.
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Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
January 2012 Real Estate Sales - Residential
27 properties sold in January 2011. Sales were up considerably from January 2011 (18) and up from last month’s 20 sales.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the stats:
There are 46 homes under contract right now (46 last month).
The average list vs. ORIGINAL sales price was 78.69% – (last month 87.77%).
The ADJUSTED list vs sale price was 86.67 (last month 91.43%).
The current # of active/for sale listings in MRIS (minus timeshares) is 562, down from last months 598. We have a 20.8 month supply of homes available (minus timeshares) based solely on the January sales numbers. (Last month was a 29.9 month supply).
Random observations:
•5 ‘newer’ homes sold in January (5 years old or less)
•It appears that 18 or so of these sales were vacation homes
•17 homes sold under $300,000 (last month was 14)
•19 homes sold under $400,000 (last month 15)
•1 homes sold over $ 1 million (0 last month)
•1 home sold for higher than full price or at full price (last month was 3)
•One house sold for 65.66% of asking price – 223 Old Crellin Rd
•The oldest home that sold was 102 yrs old (755 Sanders Ln)
•The average age of the homes that sold was 26 years (34 last month)
•3 condo/townhouse properties sold (4 last month)
Here are the statistical breakdowns:
Average Sale Price: $$333,937 (last month $276,290)
Average Days on Market: 250/264 (last month 117/150) (days on market with current broker/total days on market)
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
State wildlife crews preparing to visit bears
Michael A. Sawyers Cumberland Times-News
MOUNT NEBO — Harry Spiker and his Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service crews are preparing for an intense couple of weeks in March when they will visit as many as eight bear dens stretched across Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties.
The annual scientific ritual is hard, physical work that allows agency biologists to monitor the health, growth and location of sow bears and to check on cubs born during the winter.
“We have collars on eight sows and have confirmed that six of those had cubs,” Spiker said Tuesday.
During the bear hunt in October, hunters legally killed three collared sows, and a fourth sow somehow got out of a collar, reducing the number of bears that can be located via telemetry equipment.
“Every once in a while, a sow will just slip a collar. Usually it gets snagged on a branch. We put the collars on loosely, because the bear’s neck can grow rapidly when it feeds heavily before denning,” Spiker said.
There are four Garrett County dens to be visited: Monroe Run, Poplar Lick, Dry Run and a location between Westernport and Savage River.
In Allegany County, collared sows are denned near Rocky Gap, Georges Creek and in Green Ridge State Forest.
The lone Washington County bear is near Indian Springs.
“We actually worked a bear three weeks ago on the Green Ridge State Forest because the batteries were about to run out on her collar,” Spiker said.
That bear and her three yearling cubs were dislodged and then chased by the dogs of Calvin and Andrew Schrock.
“We ran for about 30 minutes, probably a mile and half before she went up a tree and we could dart her (with sedatives),” Spiker said.
The sow was in great physical condition, according to Spiker, who said the yearling cubs, which stayed nearby, appeared to be healthy as well.
“When I started doing this in the mid 1990s, if we had four collared bears that was a lot,” Spiker said.
Since then the agency has had as many as 17 bruins collared in a single year. The females give birth every other year.
Although there are no collared bears denned under porches or high in trees this year, that wasn’t true in December.
“We got a call from a resident in the Beckman’s area of Deep Creek Lake who had a sow and three yearlings staying under a porch. We had to go run them out of there,” Spiker said.
Once bear den surveys begin, crews work seven days a week, according to Spiker.
“After we work the bears in a den, we go back at least twice to make sure the sow hasn’t abandoned the cubs.”
Clarissa Harris is an agency biologist who has been on her share of bear den visits.
“Sometimes the hard part is just getting to the den if it is in rough terrain,” Harris said.
“Also, there are times when a sow will run before she goes to sleep from the drugs and then you have to find her and get her back to the den. That can be tough, physical work.”
Harris said there have been a few times when it was easier to carry three 6-pound cubs to the tranquilized mother bear.
“When that happens we build a makeshift den, maybe pull her up against a log and cover her with brush.”
Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
More here.
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
Sustainability standard
Features – Q&A
The Lodestone Golf Course project turned a scar in the landscape into a standard for new course development in Maryland. Its designers discuss the project with GCI.
Chris Wilczynski | February 10, 2012 |
The word “sustainability” gets used frequently in our new “green” world.
Given that there has only been a handful of new golf courses built within the U.S. during the last few years, it has been challenging to find much to talk about in this sector of our industry.
I recently learned about the Lodestone Golf Course facility in McHenry, Md., that fits sustainability to a perfect “T.” Prior to Lodestone’s 2010 opening, the property had been completely cleared by timber-harvesting operations. What was left was a site that was void of any significant vegetation, had damaged and poorly functioning wetlands and streams and an overall fractured environmental ecosystem.
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
Fracking might be years off, but the bills pile up
Legislature to weigh measures regarding controversial practice
by Margie Hyslop, Staff Writer
The General Assembly has key decisions to make this year on the controversial practice of fracking, years before it is likely to begin tapping gas from shale in the state.
Del. Heather R. Mizeur (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring said she is in the process of filing several bills that would affect the hydraulic fracturing of rock to mine natural gas, including a proposal that would place a 2 percent tax on the transfer of oil and gas leases and sales of mineral rights.
Her measures would require oil and gas companies to disclose detailed information about their operations in Maryland on a public website, said Mizeur, who is among 14 members of a state advisory commission.
Although western Maryland contains just 1 percent of the massive Marcellus Shale formation and mining of the gas likely is several years away, the issue is hot throughout the region, as fracking takes place in neighboring states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
More here.
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
December 2011 Real Estate Market Update - Residential
20 properties sold in December 2011. Sales were down considerably from December 2010 (34) and off from last month’s 29 sales.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the stats:
There are 46 homes under contract right now (58 last month).
The average list vs. ORIGINAL sales price was 87.77% – (last month 81.51%).
The ADJUSTED list vs sale price was 91.43 (last month 90.56%).
The current # of active/for sale listings in MRIS (minus timeshares) is 598, down from last months 712 – (there is always a mass expiration of homes on Dec 31 every year). We have a 29.9 month supply of homes available (minus timeshares) based solely on the December sales numbers. (Last month was a 24.55 month supply).
Random observations:
•1 ‘newer’ homes sold in December (5 years old or less)
•It appears that 13 or so of these sales were vacation homes
•14 homes sold under $300,000 (last month was 19)
•15 homes sold under $400,000 (last month 19)
•0 homes sold over $ 1 million (3 last month)
•3 homes sold for higher than full price or at full price (last month was 1)
•One house sold for 77.52% of asking price – 2928 Mosser Rd
•The oldest home that sold was 122 yrs old (271 Legeer Rd)
•The average age of the homes that sold was 34 years (37 last month)
•4 condo/townhouse properties sold (4 last month)
Here are the statistical breakdowns:
Average Sale Price: $276,580 (last month $399,020)
Average Days on Market: 117/150 (last month 191/208) (days on market with current broker/total days on market)
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
November 2011 Real Estate Market Update - Residential
29 properties sold in November 2011. Sales were up considerably from November 2010 (22 sales), but couldn’t hold pace with last month’s 36 home sales.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the stats:
There are 58 homes under contract right now (69 last month).
The average list vs. ORIGINAL sales price was 81.51% – (last month 83.89%).
The ADJUSTED list vs sale price was 90.56 (last month 90.35%).
The current # of active/for sale listings in MRIS (minus timeshares) is 712, down from last months 728. We have a 24.55 month supply of homes available (minus timeshares) based solely on the November sales numbers. (Last month was a 20.2 month supply).
Random observations:
•2 ‘newer’ homes sold in October (5 years old or less)
•It appears that 18 or so of these sales were vacation homes
•19 homes sold under $300,000 (last month was 19)
•19 homes sold under $400,000 (last month 25)
•3 homes sold over $ 1 million (0 last month)
•1 home sold for higher than full price or at full price (last month was 2)
•One house sold for 79.16% of asking price – 196 Main St
•The oldest home that sold was 112 yrs old (8736 George Washington Hwy)
•The average age of the homes that sold was 37 years (35 last month)
•4 condo/townhouse properties sold (7 last month)
Here are the statistical breakdowns:
Average Sale Price: $399,020 (last month $309,621)
Average Days on Market: 191/208 (last month 174/224) (days on market with current broker/total days on market)
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
Red In Morning, Sailors Take Warning
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If that ancient adage were completely accurate (“Red at night, sailors delight; red in morning, sailors take warning”), Tuesday’s weather would’ve been much more severe, as this was the scene early that day, captured on a digital camera by Deb Swiger. But Tuesday’s weather was actually quite fair on the Mountaintop, with perhaps one little shower of rain. The weather is going against most adages these days, continuing on with unusually warm temperatures and bringing next to no snow. While that makes for more ease in traveling and keeping warm, it is still an odd state of affairs for a population that is used to far more wintry conditions. The groundhog apparently did see his shadow this morning, predicting six more weeks of winter. So perhaps February will bring weather more characteristic of Garrett County at this time of the year.
More here.
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
Md. county won't bail out whitewater course
Posted: Feb 07, 2012 12:19 PM EST Updated: Feb 07, 2012 12:19 PM EST
OAKLAND, Md. (AP) – The Garrett County Commissioners say they won’t bail out a manmade whitewater course near Deep Creek Lake.
The nonprofit Adventure Sports Center International asked the county last month to consider taking over the mountaintop complex, including payments on about $3 million in bank loans.
The commissioners said Tuesday they won’t consider a takeover that would include the debt obligations.
The center’s operators defaulted on the bank loans after the group that owns the nearby Wisp ski resort stopped paying them for marketing services. The Wisp owners filed for bankruptcy protection in October due to a slowdown in sales of vacation home sites.
More here.
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!
