Funding ‘critical’ for education
Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — Sen. George Edwards and Delegate Wendell Beitzel are currently proposing a bill — Senate Bill 586 — that will cap losses of state funding to any school district to a 5.5 percent limit, said James Raley, Garrett County commission chairman, during Tuesday’s meeting. Raley said commissioners supported the bill and encouraged residents to do the same, stating that, “education funding is critical.”
“Any action on the part of the board of commissioners as the funding source is not intended to usurp their difficult decisions,” said a public statement, read by Commissioner Gregan Crawford, during the meeting.
The county has committed to funding education said Raley, adding that last year the county gave an extra $1.7 million towards education.
“We stand to say that we are willing to give some additional funding this year even though we are going to have to look long and hard as to where we are going to find that funding. Because there is not a new Wind Turbine project, there is not a Marcellus Shale Gas extraction severance tax, there is not any real new revenue that is coming to the county,” said Raley.
The commissioners vowed that the county will emerge from this financial crisis and asked the community to keep faith.
“We ask that we remain respectful of one another as we continue to work through this evolving process,” said the public statement.
In fiscal year 2012, the Garrett County Board of Education funding level was reduced by the state by $1.5 million, according to the public statement. Until last year, the state was required to fund education at the same level as the previous year, according to Raley.
“Garrett County government has been experiencing a financial shortfall status and there are numerous challenges to secure funding for the provision of all public services for the residents, property owners, and visitors to Garrett County without operating with a structural deficit,” said the public statement.
In order to fix the financial situation that the Garett County Public School system is facing, Sue Waggoner, interim superintendent, developed a five-year plan that reduces the budget $3 million by eliminating programs, reducing budgets and positions, providing retirement incentives, reconfiguring fifth graders into middle school and by closing Dennett Road, Kitzmiller and Friendsville elementary schools.
The commissioners encouraged the board to review the retirement incentives and allow for the reduction of staff numbers without eliminating the jobs of new employees. The commissioners also encouraged the board to work with them to identify areas of overlapping services and practices.
“We have deliberated and identified the fact that public education is not only our number one fiscal priority, but also a notable objective of our future economic development vision. The downturn in the economy, reductions in state-level school funding require that all parties cannot continue to operate under the same paradigm. The new paradigm insists that we must not only do more with less, we must do better with less.”
To read the commission’s public statement in its entirety, visit www.garrettcounty.org.
Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com.
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Garrett commissioners to detail ASCI debt, reveal county’s position
Chairman says nonprofit group may consider transferring ownership
Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — The Garrett County Commission will provide a more detailed review today of Adventure Sports Center International’s debt situation and will make known the county’s position, according to Monty Pagenhardt, county administrator.
The commissioners made a public statement at the Jan. 17 meeting that they met in executive session earlier that day to discuss legal, financial and personnel implications for ASCI in regard to the default of $3 million of capital debt obligations.
ASCI is a nonprofit entity and not under the authority of the county commissioners, according to Pagenhardt. The financial institutions involved with the debt collection are Susquehanna Bank and First United Bank & Trust.
Adventure Sports Chairman Duane Yoder told The Associated Press that the group may consider transferring ownership to Garrett County or Garrett College.
The $3 million debt was incurred during cost overruns in construction of the actual whitewater course and pond, Matt Taylor, executive director of ASCI explained to the Times-News in a previous interview. ASCI broke ground on the whitewater facility in 2004 and opened in the spring of 2007.
“The ASCI whitewater course is a one-of-a-kind facility and a combination of unique building challenges and high cost of materials. Most of the facility was built in the years following Hurricane Katrina, which greatly inflated certain material and transportation costs (that) led to the overruns,” said Taylor in a previous interview with the Times-News.
Today’s 9 a.m. public meeting agenda will also include a briefing in regard to the county public school system’s fiscal 2013 budget.
The school system is $2.6 million in debt because of enrollment and wealth loss, according to the five-year plan proposal outline. The school system hopes to reduce the budget by $3 million by:
• Eliminating the high school driver’s education program, $200,000.
• Eliminating full-time school enrichment teaching positions, $165,000.
• Closing Dennett Road, Kitzmiller and Friendsville elementary schools, $2.16 million.
• Providing a retirement incentive.
• Reducing the transportation budget by $128,000.
• Reducing the maintenance budget by $100,000.
The five-year plan, developed by Sue Waggoner, interim superintendent of schools, also calls for:
• Reduction of six instructional assistant positions, $150,000.
• Reduction of academic intervention, $50,00.
• Reduction of three high school positions, $165,000.
• Reconfiguration of grade levels, making middle school fifth through eighth grades.
On Jan. 17, the board of education decided against moving fifth-grade students into middle school and instead considered a grade school alternative that will be based on next school year’s kindergarten enrollment numbers.
A decision on the proposed school closings will not be made until the March 13 board meeting.
“We are $3 million short. There is no way around the closings,” said Waggoner during the January public meeting.
The county commission will also discuss the Good Will Volunteer Fire Department boundary dispute. The fire department, which is located in Lonaconing, wants to provide service in Garrett County and receive fire tax revenue. The commission has no authority in this matter and the fire department has received a letter from the Public Safety Department explaining that there is a process, according to Pagenhardt.
The land-use management work session that was supposed to be discussed today was rescheduled to Feb. 14 at 1:30 p.m. to allow sufficient time for review and discussion.
Also on the agenda:
• County roads department will provide an update on the status of Westernport and Lower New Germany roads and an update on federally mandated radio equipment.
• An update will be provided on the Garrett County Airport and its 50th anniversary plans.
• A 2012 legislative update will be provided.
Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com
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With deep concerns over fracking, a Va. county says no to more gas drilling
By Darryl Fears, Published: February 5
In BERGTON, Va. — Carrizo Oil and Gas had every reason to believe this rustic town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains was an ideal place to build Virginia’s first well to explore for natural gas in the state’s Marcellus Shale.
Carrizo liked Bergton’s location — eight miles from the West Virginia border, not far from where other operations are extracting gas. Carrizo bet that gas was locked in the shale under the town and put up tens of thousands of dollars for landowner leases as collateral.
All it needed to start the job was a special land-use permit from the four Republicans and one Democrat on Rockingham County’s Board of Supervisors.
Carrizo didn’t even come close. Concerned about controversial drilling methods, the supervisors never voted on the permit, and recently the company shelved its application following a two-year pursuit, ending its immediate hopes of exploring for gas.
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$3 million would be better spent on schools, not ASCI
To the Editor: Cumberland Times-News
I am a local Garrett County resident, pay taxes and am a voter. I am very concerned about the finances of Garrett County Commissioners budget and the Garrett County Board of Education’s budget.
The biggest percentage of the locals in the county cannot afford to go to Deep Creek Lake to do extra activities.
The Garret County Board of Education needs $3 million from the county commissioners to keep the schools open that helps educate our children and grandchildren.
These are well maintained schools. Why close schools because people in the past did not make good financial decisions?
If the county commissioners do not fund the board of education to this capacity, our children will be cheated out of a good secure education. They will be put in schools that will be over state capacity and be in over crowded classrooms.
This means more discipline problems and less instructional time. Overcrowded classrooms mean our test scores will go down. This also means losing good young teachers. I really believe cuts could be made in other areas, starting at the top with pay cuts and unnecessary spending.
The county commissioners will be meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7. At this meeting they will be making a decision whether to pay ASCI out of debt for $3 million. For anyone who doesn’t know, ASCI is located at “The Wisp” Deep Creek Lake.
I really believe this $3 million should be spent on our children’s education!
People, please go to the meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7 and voice your opinion on this matter. Once they decide to help ASCI there will be no saving our children.
Remember, our future is in the hands of these children! Help save our schools!
Gerald “Jerry” Wilson
Oakland
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DNR talks Savage River trout at open house
Michael A. Sawyers Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND — More than 30 people came to an open house Saturday to hear about brook trout management in the upper Savage River drainage, some traveling from as far away as Baltimore and Sugar Grove, W.Va.
The Maryland Fisheries Service, a part of the Department of Natural Resources, conducted the meeting at Allegany College of Maryland to discuss impacts of special regulations in place for brookie fishing during the past five years.
Beginning in 2007, the use of bait and the keeping brook trout in 111 miles of the river’s drainage was prohibited. Much of the drainage is made up of tributaries flowing into the Savage River Reservoir or the river that feeds it.
“There has been no significant improvement (in the brookie population),” said Don Cosden, chief of the freshwater fish management. “In fact, there has been a drop across the board.”
Cosden said bad reproduction of baby brookies throughout the study period have made the results inconclusive. Robert Hilderbrand, PhD, of the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Sciences, Appalachian Lab in Frostburg, directed the study.
Reproduction was poor, Cosden said, because of high water flows in some years and low water flows in others.
Visitors to the open house were given the opportunity to supply written about the brook trout management.
“We had the gamut,” Cosden said. “Some passionately told us we had made the wrong decision (with the regulations). Some agreed with the regulations and some wanted the regulations to be even more strict, such as a moratorium on fishing.”
The complete study is available at www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries as is a place for online .
Cosden said all public will be reviewed and considered in future management decisions.
Doug Oxford, Oakland, said he is an avid Garrett County brook trout fisherman who has mixed emotions about the regulations.
“In 1987, a friend and I would start at the top of Poplar Lick and fish all the way to the bottom. We would catch 200 brook trout using small red garden worms and hooking them in the lips. We put them all back,” he said.
On the other hand, Oxford said he doesn’t think all fishermen have the knowledge and skill to use bait to catch brook trout in that manner. More fish die that swallow hooks into their throats or gullets, according to Hilderbrand.
The regulation will remain unchanged for now, Cosden said. The agency will continue annual population surveys of brook trout by shocking them with electric current for weighing and measuring before their return to the water.
Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
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Pittsburgh native Wallisch is savoring his X Games gold in slopestyle event Read more: Pittsburgh native Wallisch is savoring his X Games gold in slo
By Karen Price, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 3, 2012
Tom Wallisch scored the highest marks in the history of the slopestyle event to win gold at the X Games in Aspen, Colo., last week, but he took his first jumps ever as a pint-sized skier at Wisp Resort in Garrett County, Md.
The Pittsburgh native graduated from Chartiers Valley in 2006 and headed west for the University of Utah and, of course, more snow. In the nearly six years since, Wallisch has become one of the best slopestyle skiers in the world.
It’s a distinction he admits isn’t typical of someone who grew up in Western Pennsylvania. But the 24-year-old resident of Salt Lake City said that’s the beauty of slopestyle, a discipline that involves performing tricks on terrain park features such as rails, walls and jumps. You don’t need to have access to the biggest, steepest mountains to do it.
Read more: Pittsburgh native Wallisch is savoring his X Games gold in slopestyle event – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/lifestyles/fitness/s_779727.html#ixzz1loJPpaf2
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State Of The State A Prelude To Tough Legislative Session Ahead
Feb. 2, 2012
by Dave Nyczepir
Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS – Gov. Martin O’Malley made his case for job creation and same-sex marriage Wednesday, promoting his most ambitious agenda to date in his sixth State of the State address.
O’Malley stressed his administration’s goal of growing the middle class and family-owned businesses, labeling this year’s budget a jobs budget.
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To balance that budget, the governor has proposed $800 million in spending cuts and reductions this year, but his new job creation initiatives would require new taxes on everything from income to gas. Cuts alone won’t do it this year, he said.
“In fact, to achieve balance over the last three years, we have relied almost entirely on cuts,” O’Malley said. “But with 84 cents of every dollar we invest allocated to public education, public safety, and public health – and with one of the smallest state government workforces in the country – every passing year leaves fewer and fewer responsible options for budget cutting.”
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Funding for regional disaster operations on chopping block
By Kevin Rector, krector@tribune.com
February 7, 2012 | 9:43 a.m.
When Howard County decided it wanted a system for disseminating emergency information to its citizens via text message, it tapped into a pool of federal funding to create NotifyMeHoward, which launched in November.
When the H1N1 flu virus posed serious threats to the area’s population in 2009, jurisdictions in the region — including Howard — collectively stockpiled the drug Tamiflu in case of an epidemic.
And if a large-scale terrorist attack were to occur in the Port of Baltimore, emergency responders from Howard and other local counties would be able to quickly coordinate assistance efforts with city responders, thanks in large part to the region’s interoperable Central Maryland Area Radio Communications system.
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BOE Postpones School Closure Advisory Meeting
Feb. 2, 2012
The Garrett County Board of Education has announced that it will postpone its special meeting for the presentation of the Dennett Road Elementary, Friendsville Elementary, and Kitzmiller Elementary advisory committee reports.
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The special meeting for these advisory committee reports to the Board of Education will be rescheduled for a date to be announced after the board’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 14.
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Keeping streams, waterways clean will help bay
The Times-News reported in December on Maryland’s efforts to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and how Allegany County did its part by submitting a local plan to the Maryland Department of the Environment (“State’s bay cleanup plan to EPA concerns clean water advocates,” Dec. 20, Page 1A).
More recently, I read that our legislative delegation to Annapolis has been talking about the importance of Chesapeake Bay cleanup and making sure funding is available to get the job done “Beitzel’s bay cleanup bill hearing set: Delegate wants Chesapeake funds used ‘for their intended purposes’,” Feb. 2, Page 1A).
But while we hear a lot about the need to restore the Chesapeake Bay to good health, we also need to remember how important it is to make sure our local streams and waterways aren’t polluted.
For example, after every large storm event we read in the newspaper about thousands of gallons, sometimes tens of thousands of gallons, of polluted water running into our waterways from combined sewer overflows.
Problems like these demand our attention and need to be corrected. This is what our local Watershed Implementation Plan is all about — identifying and implementing practical solutions that will correct real problems.
Here in western Maryland we are fortunate to have high quality water in rivers and streams like Fifteen Mile Creek in eastern Allegany County and the Savage River in Garrett County that residents and visitors alike can enjoy. Let’s be sure we protect these treasures.
I’d like to commend the team led by Angie Patterson in the county’s Department of Community Services for all the hard work they did on Allegany County’s plan. Work like this is often thankless, not easy to get done, and many of us in the community aren’t even aware that it’s going on.
Our rivers and streams and the Chesapeake Bay weren’t polluted overnight, and it will take time and effort from everyone to clean them up — and yes, money, too.
We appear to be off to a good start, but we know there’s more to be done.
Let’s hope our government officials will stay focused on the big picture — clean water in our local rivers and streams and ultimately in the Chesapeake Bay.
Dale Sams
Cumberland
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