Lobbyist decision could come this week from county
Two more names in running to represent western counties in Annapolis
Matthew Bieniek Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND — A Western Maryland lobbyist could be named by the end of this week and at least two names are in the mix for the job: Bruce Bereano and William Miles, said Allegany County Commissioner Michael McKay.
“I expect an announcement Thursday,” McKay said.
It’s possible both men will be hired, said Frederick County Commission President Blaine R. Young. That’s because the budget for the lobbyist would cover a joint hiring, Young said. Each of four Western Maryland counties, Carroll, Frederick, Washington and Allegany, is contributing $5,000 to pay the lobbyist. Garrett County has opted out of joining the plan.
McKay said he suggested Miles after being introduced to him by Delegate Wendell Beitzel.
Bereano, a powerful lobbyist for many years, is still fighting to overturn a mid-1990s conviction for mail fraud, a conviction that cost him his law license but had little impact on his successful lobbying career.
Miles boasts a long career working in the Maryland General Assembly, including time as the legislative assistant to the speaker from 1993-95. Miles has lobbied since 1995 and has represented various clients including the horse racing industry. His current clients include FirstEnergy and the Maryland Legislative Sportsmen’s Foundation.
Hiring a lobbyist is an act of political realism, said Young.
“The fact is, do I like going this route? No. But I am a realist; we’re under a bombardment not only in terms of the votes and number of delegates … but the amount the big seven (counties) spend on lobbying,” Young said.
“Doing it the way we’ve been doing it … is not working,” he said. Young pointed out that the seven largest counties have full-time county executives who often spend a lot of time lobbying during the legislative session in addition to paid lobbyists. Rural county commissioners serve part time and most have jobs or businesses.
With a hearing on PlanMaryland coming up next week, “the sooner we can get going, the better,” Young said. The lobbyist, or lobbyists, will focus on three areas of mutual concern: PlanMaryland, laws relating to septic systems and watershed implementation plans for the Clean Water Act. These issues are where “all the counties agreed we had a community of interest,” Young said. The lobbyists will report back to each board of commissioners each week, Young said. They will be “eyes and ears” for the Western Maryland counties.
“We’re fighting to make sure we get fair and equal representation for our citizens,” Young said.
Young said the lobbyists will only speak for the counties in relation to these issues.
“Each county maintains its own voice,” he said, but “we have to band together to have a stronger voice,” Young said. McKay said he is planning to attend a rally to be led by Sen. E.J. Pipkin on Monday which is dubbed a PlanMaryland briefing and rally. “ While the panel of both sides will be limited to the number of speakers, a presence of local officials will signify to the committee that there are real concerns regarding the plan. The presence of county officials, farmers and landowners will show strength in our numbers,” Pipkin wrote in an email to Allegany County commissioners.
“Before the briefing there will be a rally on Lawyer’s Mall here in Annapolis to protest PlanMaryland. Because not everyone will be able to speak at the briefing, this will provide a forum for speakers to express their concerns publicly. Press will be in attendance, so a strong showing will impress,” Pipkin wrote.
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 Taylor works for, 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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Best Places to Ski Near DC, VA, & MD
Doreen Gentzler likes Wintergreen. Topper Shutt prefers Wisp. We posted the piece below on local ski resorts Washingtonians love in 2007, and the article has become one of the most popular travel pieces on our Web site. Below is the original 2007 article; we will continue to add updates as new information becomes available.
Fun Day on the Slopes
Often called the “skiing White House reporter,” Connie Lawn, BBC and USA Radio freelancer, has been hitting the slopes for nearly 40 years.
Lawn, who’s done ski reports for WTOP radio and Snowcountry.com, steals away when she can to Whitetail Resort in Pennsylvania. “When I was in New Zealand skiing at resorts used for summer training by the US Olympic ski and snowboard teams, I noticed that these have the same feel, the same conditions, and the same altitude as Whitetail,” she says.
Lawn isn’t the only White House reporter who likes Whitetail. Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier heads there with his wife.
“You can get there easily on a Saturday morning for a day of skiing,” he says. “The snow can be as good as out west. We like moguls, and they have trails with bumps. I’ve had a few wipeouts at Whitetail, so they definitely have some difficult terrain.”
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!
Brinkley Eyes Run for 6th
Frederick County state senator joins field of GOP candidates waiting to find out if Bartlett retires.
By Doug Tallman
December 4, 2011
Though Rep. Roscoe Bartlett represents the 6th congressional district as it exists, the new boundaries could turn the seat over to the Democrats, a potential Republican candidate said Saturday.
“At this point in time I think it’s in jeopardy of being lost, and I don’t want Nancy Pelosi as speaker again,” state Sen. David Brinkley said.
Brinkley announced last week he had formed an exploratory committee to gauge a bid for the 6th district seat.
The district’s current boundaries stretch from Backbone Mountain in Garrett County to the Susquehanna River east of Baltimore, concentrating many of the state’s Republican precincts.
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!
Citizen Shale hosting program this week
Presentation Thursday at Garrett College
For the Cumberland Times-News Cumberland Times-News
MCHENRY — Citizen Shale will present a free educational program Thursday at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Garrett College.
The speakers, Paul Durham, government affairs director for the Garrett County Board of Realtors and Emily Wurth of the Washington-based Food and Water Watch, will discuss economic issues, particulary land values, land use, and jobs claims as they relate to shale gas development.
The program is free and open to the public.
Durham’s talk is an opportunity for leaseholders to understand the impact of gas development on their land values, mortgage potential, and general enjoyment of land, which brings a great value to many of the properties in Western Maryland.
Wurth will discuss Food and Water Watch’s analysis of industry and government job claims and other economic impacts of the gas extraction industry.
“We are very excited to bring this timely information to our community,” said Natalie Atherton, Citizen Shale’s acting director. “Our county’s financial health is greatly dependent on real estate, especially vacation real estate, and local realtors are stepping up to the challenges associated with gas leasing. And Emily Wurth brings tremendous knowledge of another critical aspect of gas-drilling — jobs.”
Durham will outline the local realtors’ plan for a Maryland gas lease registry that the local board submitted to a state commission studying shale gas development. If enacted into law this spring by the General Assembly, the registry would require everyone who has leased their property for future gas development to record details of the lease at a state-run office, such as, locally, the Department of Assessments and Taxation at the Garrett County Courthouse in Oakland.
For more information, visit the website, www.citizenshale.org, or call Paul Roberts at 301-746-4287.
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!
Hide-and-seek: Tougher with moonshine
Prohibition-era bootleggers found out as much
JAMES RADA JR. Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND — The two revenue agents for the federal government crept into the woods around Oldtown on Nov. 15, 1931. William R. Harvey was the senior agent so he led the raid. They were after three bootleggers who they had been watching.
While making illegal liquor during Prohibition was a problem in Western Maryland due to the area’s abundance of forests and lack of population, it usually wasn’t a fatal one like it could be in the larger cities. For the most part, it was a game of hide-and-seek between the bootleggers who would try to hide their stills and federal agents who would try to find them. If a bootlegger was caught, he would serve a few months in prison and then start all over again when he got out.
Two of the bootleggers had been arrested previously for manufacturing illegal liquor. Now they would be arrested again.
Harvey and the other agent hurried into the clearing with their weapons drawn. One of the men nearest the woods dashed away, but it wasn’t like Harvey didn’t know who the men were. The two remaining men were John Ralph Davis and Emmett Judy, both of Oldtown. They had been caught with a 50-gallon still, six barrels of mash and two gallons of rye whiskey.
“After the officers had handcuffed Davis and Judy, they were fired upon by an unseen assailant from the woods, the shot narrowly escaping both the officers and the prisoners,” the Cumberland Evening Times reported.
Harvey returned fire with his .45 pistol. The unknown shooter appeared farther away up a hill firing a double-barreled shotgun, then he retreated back into the shelter of the woods. The gunfire exchange lasted for several minutes. Harvey fired 21 shots and the unknown attacker fired around 20 times. Since the agents had bound prisoners, they took cover and circled around their attacker in order to get the prisoners safely to the agents’ car.
The newspaper reported that the attacker with the shotgun “is believed to have been the lookout stationed near the still and when he saw the officers arresting the other bootleggers, opened fire in an effort to obtain their release.” He was also believed to have been drunk at the time of the shooting.
The third bootlegger, Lemuel Keifer, was arrested at his home near midnight Nov. 15. Lewis Davis was also arrested Nov. 16 as the man who had fired on the agents.
Oddly, the newspaper also made note of some of the agents’ investigative techniques, which undoubtedly gave bootleggers in the county food for thought.
The Cumberland Evening Times said that many bootleggers were being arrested on Sunday because they let the stills idle during the week and worked them on the weekends.
“The bootleggers appear to believe that the officers work only during the week, but the large squad stationed here make it possible for men to be on the job at all times,” the newspaper reported.
When the case came to trial the following May, Davis was released because there was not enough proof that he was the attacker, but the three moonshiners were given sentences of three to six months in the county jail. Some served time in the Allegany County jail, but when it was too crowded, other prisoners would be taken to the Garrett County jail in Oakland.
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!
Deep Creek Lake panels talk concerns at workshop
Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News
McHENRY — The Property Owners Association of Deep Creek Lake held the second in a series of workshops on Friday to discuss five areas of concern for future well-being of the lake and surrounding areas.
The five areas of concern were developed at the first workshop, held on Dec. 3, 2010.
They are as follows:
• Economic benefits and cost.
• Commercial, agricultural and residential impacts.
• Communication and education.
• Erosion and sediment process.
• Biological environment.
For each of these five areas, a panel of experts was assembled to answer prepared questions from a moderator and also impromptu questions from participants in the audience.
In regards to the economic aspects of the lake, panel members were asked questions regarding what costs and benefits visitors might impose on the watershed and in what fashion the county and state account for those effects.
Garrett County has about 1.2 million visitors a year and the population of the county is about 30,000, according to Nicole Christian, president and CEO of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce.
“That is a significant impact on the number of people utilizing our roads, utilizing our services here. You have to consider that when considering the overall impact on the watershed,” said Christian. “Tourism is a very important driver of our economy. I think it’s safe to say the benefits far outweigh what the costs are.”
Another benefit of the visitors, is the fact that the transient population pushes economic development bringing in better technology, better restaurants and a better cultural environment, according to Jeanne Neff, who served as the president for The Sage Colleges in Troy and Albany, N.Y., for 13 years.
In regards to economic impact, panelists were also asked what responsibilities the county should accept to ensure a constant stream of visitors.
“I really appreciate the way the county commissioners have taken an active role in understanding all of the resources in the county and in trying to understand what their role is,” said Christian.
The panelists were also asked what can the tourism industry as a force be responsible for the stewardship of the lake. Christian noted that it was important when looking at tourism to consider not only the lake but the entire lake watershed.
“When we talk about the tourism industry we are talking about a lot of stakeholders, not just the people in McHenry or the property owners around the lake or the dock owners,” said Christian. “I think it’s very important from a stewardship standpoint that we always have very open line of communication from all the stakeholders; workshops like this are very extremely important.”
Christian said it was important to protect the county’s resources, but not so much so that it stifles the tourism industry.
“It’s important to protect what we have but not by putting up a fence around it,” said Christian.
In regards to the commercial, agricultural and residential impacts of the lake, panellists were asked if commercial and residential landowners should be responsible for their impact on erosion or lake quality.
The four panelists were in agreement that they should be held responsible for their impact.
There are already restrictions in place to reduce the impact on erosion and to maintain the lake quality and they are becoming more stringent, according to John Nelson, director of planning and zoning for Garrett County.
Nelson estimated that in two years there will be stricter regulations in regards to livestock in the streams.
They were also asked if what requirements/regulations are now in place to insure that the lake is not degraded by agricultural and residential contaminants such as E. coli, geese droppings and fertilizer.
Geese droppings are not favorable for the environment and are hard on the crops, however, the birds can be hunted, according to Bill Bischoff, a local farmer.
“If you don’t like the geese droppings, talk to the DNR,” said Bischoff.
E. coli is rarely contracted from water and it is not showing up in tests done by the Health Department, according to Bischoff.
Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com.
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!
Candidates clambering for shot at Bartlett seat
Well-known Republicans eye primary run
by C. Benjamin Ford and Katherine heerbrandt, Staff Writer
Seeing the incumbent as particularly vulnerable, opponents, including a couple of high-powered fellow Republicans, are lining up to take on longtime U.S. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett.
Within the past two days, Maryland GOP Chairman Alex X. Mooney announced an exploratory bid to challenge Bartlett, whose 6th District was redrawn by Democrats in the recent redistricting process.
State Sen. David R. Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market also announced the formation of an exploratory committee.
And Bartlett’s longtime chief of staff, Bud Otis, resigned after news broke that he was seeking support for his own possible bid.
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County will pay $5,000 for lobbyist
Matthew Bieniek Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND — Allegany County is all in, with several other Western Maryland counties, after county commissioners voted Thursday to spend $5,000 to help hire a lobbyist to represent the region during the upcoming 2012 General Assembly session. The money will also help pay for a legislative reception at some point during the session.
The vote came during the commissioners regular public business meeting.
“Normally I don’t usually like the idea of lobbying or lobbyists. But we’re in a situation where we need all the help we can get in Annapolis,” said Commissioner Creade Brodie Jr.
Commissioners passed the motion unanimously.
The funds for the lobbyist will come from the county’s other legal and professional funding category, where the funds are already available, said Commission President Michael McKay.
“All the counties are in … Carroll, Frederick, Washington and Allegany,” McKay said in an interview Wednesday. Garrett County earlier declined to participate.
There has been some discussion of expanding the idea to a lobbyist for all of rural Maryland, but that is not on the table currently, McKay said.
“We kind of hope this is going to be a springboard. We’ve not asked any of the other rural counties to jump in on this (at this point),” McKay said.
The other counties involved have all approved at least $5,000, McKay said. “In the future, we’ll be picking that person or persons,” he said.
Representatives of the counties involved will probably discuss a hire at an upcoming Maryland Association of Counties meeting.
Patricia Sweitzer said she didn’t agree with the idea. The area already has elected representatives to represent the county, she said. In addition, she didn’t agree with the funding because lobbyists often do “underhanded” things and lobbying takes place outside the regular legislative process.
The idea of hiring a lobbyist began at this year’s Maryland Association of Counties meeting over the summer, McKay has said.
County leaders discussed significant issues, including the controversial PlanMaryland. The discussions solidified the similarity of interests between 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.
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 Taylor works for, 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.
McKay has said he’d be interested in “a young gun out to make a name for himself.”
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com.
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!
Bay foundation: Video shows fracking sites polluting air
Natural gas wells and related processing sites in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia are spewing “invisible” plumes of air pollution, according to an investigation by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The Annapolis-based environmental group hired an infrared videographer to check 15 natural gas drilling and compressor sites in the Marcellus shale region of the three states. The special camera picked up the heat signature of gases billowing into the air from 11 of the sites, or nearly three out of four.
Robert Howarth, an ecologist at Cornell University in New York, said the gases being released in the video most likely contained methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and other other hydrocarbons, including possibly benzene and toluene.
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University purchases eco-friendly energy
With addition of three local wind and solar sources, officials hope to cut carbon emissions in half
By Claire Saravia
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Faced with the goal of cutting carbon emissions in half by 2020, the university purchased green energy from three local wind and solar sources that will soon provide part of the campus’ power for the next two decades.
The University System of Maryland partnered with the state Department of General Services last year to launch the “Generating Clean Horizons” initiative — a 20-year power purchase agreement launched in 2008 with several green energy producers in the area. Soon, the solar plants and two wind farms will be operational.
The system purchased 10 megawatts — or 20 percent — of the annual energy produced by Roth Rock Wind Farm in Garrett County, Md., which began operating in July. Additionally, officials bought all 55 megawatts of West Virginia’s Pinnacle Wind Farm, which will begin producing energy in December. The system also invested in a 15-megawatt solar project at Mount St. Mary’s University set to launch next year.
More here.
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