Jay's Real Estate Blog – Page 366 – Find out about Real Estate in Deep Creek Lake

Town Of Oakland Receives Major Grant To Benefit The Dove Center

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Aug. 19, 2010

Oakland mayor Peggy Jamison announced to staff and board members of the Dove Center on Friday, Aug. 13, that the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development awarded the town of Oakland a Community Development Block Grant.
The grant of $800,000 will help the Dove Center build a new facility, which is projected to be completed in less than 18 months. The facility will provide storage space, private offices for administrators and counselors, and safe, secure shelter for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Criteria for the grant included demonstrated need and community support for a new facility. “Dem-onstrating need for the facility was relatively easy. The current shelter, with one bathroom, sometimes houses as many as 15 people,” stated a spokesperson for the Dove Center.

In addition to the grant, community support also helped to finance the plan for the new building. Two years ago the center, under the leadership of Edna Forsyth, organized Capital Campaign II, setting a goal of $200,000, which was a quarter of the amount applied for in the grant. Employees and volunteers set out to ask friends, family, neighbors, and businesses for donations. To date, according to the campaign’s chair, Pam Trickett, the total campaign effort has raised about $289,000, with donations still coming in.

Read the rest here.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

Deep Creek Do It All specializes in cleaning services in Garrett County & @ Deep Creek Lake. Give them a call (301-501-0217) or visit the website – competitive rates and quality results from a locally owned & operated company!

Ceremony Marks Opening of New GC Career Center

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Aug. 19, 2010

A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday marked the opening of the newest Garrett College facility, the Career Technology & Training Center (CTTC), located in the Central Garrett Industrial Park in Accident. The event was the culmination of a three-year collaborative effort of planning, designing, and building. The project involved input and funding at the county, state, and federal levels.
Julie Yoder, interim dean of Continuing Education & Workforce Development at Garrett College, welcomed guests to the inaugural event and introduced the speakers, who represented the officials, agencies, and businesses instrumental in the CTTC project.

Guest speakers included Garrett College president Dr. Richard MacLennan; director of Garrett County Economic Development Jim Hinebaugh; Garrett County commissioners Ernie Gregg, Dennis Glotfelty, and Fred Holliday; state Senator George Edwards; Robin Summerfield, field representative for U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin; Julianna Albowicz, field representative for U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski; Vickie Swink of the Maryland Department of Economic Development; executive director of the Garrett College Foundation Fred Learey; project manager, CRA Architects Adam Abraham; Willis Beitzel of Beitzel Corporation; assistant director of Garrett County Economic Development Frank Shapp; and Tom Vent, husband of the late JoAnn Vent, to whom Phase II of the CTTC project will be dedicated.

Dr. MacLennan thanked everyone who contributed to this endeavor. He underscored the importance of this new training facility to the long-term goals of the college. “Our mission is to make education accessible to everyone in the county. We will strive to match local training needs with local business demands,” he said.

Hinebaugh noted that the initiation of the second phase of the Garrett County Scholarship program targeting occupational studies directly coincides with the opening of the CTTC and further increasing opportunities for county residents. “We have expanded access to higher education which will better prepare our students for employment. We are growing our skill base in Garrett County,” he said.

Read the rest here.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

43rd Annual Autumn Glory Festival Scheduled For Oct. 6 Through Oct. 10

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Aug. 19, 2010

by Sarah Duck, GC

Chamber of Commerce marketing director

Enjoy the beauty of the fall season in the mountains as Maryland celebrates the 43rd anniversary of Autumn Glory with two large parades, concerts, band competitions, art exhibits, antique and craft shows, and much more from Oct. 6 to 10.

Known for scenic Deep Creek Lake and Maryland’s only ski resort, the Wisp, Garrett County is also home to the annual Autumn Glory Festival, a five-day celebration of autumn that celebrates the beauty of the local fall foliage. From Wednesday through Sunday, the area offers a wide variety of things to do indoors or outdoors.

The Garrett County Chamber of Commerce’s annual Autumn Glory Kickoff Dinner featuring live musical entertainment and recognition of the annual Autumn Glory Golden Ambassador will kick off the festival on Wednesday, Oct. 6.

Thursday features the Oktoberfest dinner and concert by the Oom-Pah Band and a firemen’s parade.

The week continues with historic area tours, antique and craft shows, fine arts exhibits, both swing and oldies dances, a farmers’ market, 5-K walk, storytelling and book festival, musical concerts, dogsled events, a quilt show, corn maze, art glass exhibits, outdoor adventures, shopping specials, and a wide variety of other activities.

The Official Maryland State Banjo Championship, Friday at 7 p.m., features banjo contestants of all ages competing for top honors.

Saturday, Oct. 9, offers musical entertainment in Oakland at the Front Page Stage, on Second Street near the post office, and on the Box Car Stage at the train station.

The Grand Feature Parade begins on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Oakland. Clowns, floats, bands, and plenty of sidewalk vendors increase the festival atmosphere. That day will also feature the Western Maryland Tournament of Bands at 6 p.m. with high school field show competition, as well as the State Fiddle Championship and Mandolin Contest at 7 p.m.

Antique and craft shows continue Sunday, joined by the Autumn Glory Festival Car Show in Oakland and a no-hands sundae eating contest at Lakeside Creamery.

Garrett County’s annual Autumn Glory Festival landed in the international spotlight last fall when the popular travel web site MSN.com listed it tops among fall festivals in the world. To the delight of locals and visitors alike, Autumn Glory in Oakland beat out Paris’ Festival d’Automne (#5) and Munich’s Oktoberfest (#7) – in addition to a bevy of domestic celebrations, including San Francisco’s Dias De los Muertos.

“Music, parades, and awesome colors are at the center of this festival,” noted the site, plugging in particular the Grand Feature Parade, the Maryland State Banjo and Fiddle championships, and the Tournament of Bands.

For the past two years, travelchannel.com has also listed the Autumn Glory Festival and Garrett County as one of America’s Three Best Autumn Road Trips, and in 2008, baltimoresun.com listed Garrett County as one of the top five locals for fall foliage.

For more details about Autumn Glory, visit www.autumngloryfestival.com or contact the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce at 301-387-4386.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

Commissioners Announce Plans For DCL Emergency Numbering System

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Aug. 19, 2010

Garrett County government is teaming with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to develop and distribute address signs around the Deep Creek Lake shoreline, the county commissioners announced on Tuesday.

The signs, which will be affixed to docks, allow emergency personnel to identify and relate a location on Deep Creek Lake to be a landmark, enabling responders to reach an incident without unnecessary delays.

Numerous calls for assistance come from boaters using cell phones, and determining a precise location of the caller is difficult, according to Director Brad Frantz, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management,

“Presently, our 9-1-1 call-takers get information from such calls that display longitude and latitude,” Frantz said. “While this gives us a general location of an incident, with all the inlets and coves around the lake, it may not be precise enough to approach the call from the correct road. This can result in delays for fire, EMS, or police units.”

Read the rest here.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

Community Calendar – August 20-22 2010

Here are some local happenings this weekend in Garrett County & Deep Creek Lake:

Southern Rescue Squad Yard Sale
Town of Oakland

08/20/2010 – 08/21/2010
9:00am Come get great bargains and support the Rescue Squad. Lots of school clothes and other items will be available.

Aug 20th – Aug 21st
Starts at 9:00 am
__________

Music at Penn Alps Concert Series
Penn Alps Restaurant & Craft Shop

Ten concerts will be presented at MPA’s regular venue at Penn Alps, Grantsville, and two concerts at Windsor Hall in Cumberland. All concerts begin at 7:30 PM on Saturday evenings.

Event Website: http://www.musicatpennalps.org

Aug 21st
__________

Celebrate Kids Day!
Tourism Events

08/21/2010
noon – 6 pm, Ridegeview Valley. CELEBRATE KIDS DAY is an opportunity for kids to play outside, enjoy the countryside and be the focus of attention all afternoon. We plan to have games, a petting zoo, fire trucks, State Police demonstrations, celebrities and much, much more.
__________

Mountain Fresh Farmers Market – Oakland
Mountain Fresh Farmers Markets

Join us in downtown Oakland for a homegrown farmers market including fresh produce, baked goods, jams & jellies, crafts, personal care items, goat cheeses, and more!
Wednesdays & Saturdays 10 am to 1 pm
June 5 through October 30

Aug 21st
Starts at 10:00 am , Lasts 3 Hours
__________

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

New listing: renovated waterfont cottage, type A dock

Listing # GA7418006 $569,000
179 Doc Thompson Rd

Vintage lakefront cottage on a grassy, level lot @ southern shores of Deep Creek Lake. The original cottage has been totally gutted and restored from the studs in! Modernized in virtually every way, the house overlooks a rare, undeveloped lakefront setting. Type A dock, dead-end road, storage building & a peaceful cove. Move-in condition, well-insulated (R19) for year-round use. Hot tub! Sunsets!

More details here.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

Deep Creek numbering docks to assist emergency providers

Officials hope system will better pinpoint incident locations
Megan Miller
Cumberland Times-News

— DEEP CREEK LAKE — A new feature required for docks at Deep Creek Lake could help emergency services personnel respond more quickly to situations on the lake.

In the coming months, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources will distribute a sign bearing a unique number to every dock at the lake. The numbers are individual 911 addresses specific to each dock.

The addresses and signs are intended to provide landmarks for the public and emergency services to pinpoint specific locations on the lake, according to Brad Frantz, director of the county Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management.

Frantz said it’s proved difficult to determine the exact location of people who call for help from cell phones while on the lake. That forces emergency responders to waste critical minutes searching for the correct route.

“Presently, our 911 call-takers get information from such calls that display longitude and latitude,” Frantz said in a prepared statement. “While this gives us a general location … it may not be precise enough to approach the call from the correct road. This can result in delays for fire, EMS or police units.”

Each dock’s location will be plotted in the 911 center’s computer-aided dispatch equipment, which will allow emergency services to determine the fastest route to reach it.

The address numbers will be based on mileage along the lake shore, using the dam as a start and end point. That means that the numbers will reflect each dock’s specific distance from the dam.

The numbering system will be similar to the system used to assign address numbers to buildings. Each one-tenth of a mile equals 100 increments in the address number. For example, a Sand Flat Road home located exactly one mile from the road’s starting point will have an address of 1000 Sand Flat Road.

In the same way, a dock that is exactly one shore mile from the dam will have an address number of 1000.

The dock addresses have no relationship to the 911 addresses of buildings on shore.

DNR will act as the enforcement agency to ensure dock signs are displayed. That agency will also be responsible for maintaining the signs, Frantz said, including rearranging signs if a dock is moved.

The joint project between Garrett County government and DNR will cost approximately $14,000, split equally between the two entities. Garrett County’s $7,000 portion will be paid through an allocation from the state Emergency Number Systems Board’s trust fund. The fund is fed by a fee tacked onto the phone bill of every customer in the state, and the money is only used for 911-related projects.

Frantz said the timeframe for distributing the signs is tentative and based on how quickly the vendor can make them.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

Gearing up to go camping – Baltimore Sun blog

A Swallow Falls & Deep Creek Lake mention 🙂

Susan Reimer – Baltimore Sun
August 19, 2010

I am not very fond of camping. And I am not very good at the principal requirements of camping: not bathing for several days, finding my way to the bathroom in the dark, cooking over an open flame and sleeping on the ground.

But if you ever go camping, you might want to have me with you. What I am missing in fire-starting, I make up for in list-writing. Go camping with me, and you will never be without something you need.

My husband’s brother, Dan, and his young family love camping, and they began to invite us empty-nesters a few years ago. Not wishing to betray our age or our sedentary lifestyle, we agreed with weak smiles.

When it became clear that this would not be the last invitation to camp — and not having had such a bad time after all — I did what I usually do when presented with a new task or activity: I researched the living daylights out of camping.

My first step was to take my reporter’s notebook and tour the campground, noting what other camping families considered essential: rope on which to hang wet clothes, for example. And I made notes of everything Jill, my brother-in-law’s capable wife, had in her camping arsenal.

On my way home from that trip to Swallow Falls near Deep Creek Lake, I found a discount store and filled my cart with just about everything on my list. (I planned to search for recommendations and bargains on the big-ticket items, such as a tent, sleeping bags, air mattresses and stove.)

Read the rest here.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

Inside the Mind of an Appraiser

Great article & video sent to me by a good friend:

by Stefanos Chen, posted Aug 12th 2010 6:37PM

First impressions are everything in real estate — a fact Paul Isolda, an appraiser with 22 years of experience, knows all too well. Isolda has seen every home staging disaster under the sun, from tacky cabinetry to dingy flooring. One discerning glance from him could mean a final appraisal worth thousands less-or more-than the price you put on your property. That’s why AOL Real Estate’s What Works Now enlisted his help to share all the dos-and countless don’ts-that go into a successful home sale.

The most important thing to keep top of mind, says Isolda, is to see things from the eyes of a prospective buyer who ultimately want to make a home their own. That’s why one of the most sought after features homebuyers look for is a kitchen stocked with sturdy granite counter tops — they’re simple, elegant, and allow the buyer to play with a blank canvas.

That said, not all renovations are smart ones. “If you overspend on a kitchen or bath renovation,” Isolda says, “you’re less likely to recoup that investment on the market.” Keep in mind that the value of your home is tied directly to the property value of surrounding houses. Before splurging on a major remodeling project, Isolda suggests you find out the value of comparable homes in the neighborhood, as your price will vary relative to their worth.

Surprisingly, says Isolde, “You don’t want to be the best house on the block-your neighbors are pulling your value down.” Instead, he says, “you’d actually prefer to be the worst house on the block, because then your neighbors are pulling your value up.” So before investing in that new chandelier, find out how your house ranks among your neighbors. You might just be better off investing in a new paint job, fixing a sidewalk, or re-wiring your home.

Read the full article here.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

Be on the lookout for kids returning to schools

Cumberland Times-News

— Students will be returning to area schools within the next few days, so motorists will need to be on the lookout for them.

This will be particularly true during the morning and afternoon hours, and to be aware of increasing traffic congestion in and around schools and the neighborhoods in which they are located.

Tomorrow will be the first day for students in Mineral County, W.Va. Hampshire County, W.Va., students will return to schools on Aug. 23. Allegany County schools start Aug. 24, and Garrett County begins the new year on Aug. 25.

Just as drivers are urged to be alert, parents should tell their children about some safety tips as they head back to school. Children are unpredictable and not always mindful of traffic safety.

AAA says parents should tell their children to always obey crossing guards, look both ways each time they cross the street, use crosswalks and corners to cross the roads even when cars are not around, not to run or rush, and to remember that motorists can’t always see them.

They also need to know that they are no match for cars, which are are bigger and faster than they are,

For their part, motorists should slow down and obey the speed limits, particularly in school zones and residential neighborhoods, and be prepared to stop quickly for school buses.

The law forbids motorists from driving around stopped school buses, something that has proved fatal for children in our area.

Drivers also should avoid unnecessary distractions. It’s already illegal to text while driving in Maryland, and it soon will be illegal to talk on cell phones.

If possible, drivers also should modify their routes to avoid school zones altogether.

If you are thinking of 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! 877-563-5350

Town Of Oakland Receives Major Grant To Benefit The Dove Center

Ceremony Marks Opening of New GC Career Center

43rd Annual Autumn Glory Festival Scheduled For Oct. 6 Through Oct. 10

Commissioners Announce Plans For DCL Emergency Numbering System

Community Calendar – August 20-22 2010

New listing: renovated waterfont cottage, type A dock

Deep Creek numbering docks to assist emergency providers

Gearing up to go camping – Baltimore Sun blog

Inside the Mind of an Appraiser

Be on the lookout for kids returning to schools

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