January 2011 – Page 8 – Jay's Real Estate Blog

Railey Realty #1 AGAIN in 2010! 16 years in a row!

Railey Realty was #1 in real estate sales in Garrett County for the 16th straight year!

Out of 290 homes that sold in 2010, Railey Realty particpated in 117 of them on the listing/seller side of the transaction and 134 on the sales/buyer side of the transaction.

Out of the 80 total lot/land sales in 2010, Railey Realty particpated in 42 of them on the listing/seller side, and 40 on the sales/buyer side of the transaction.

Another positive note: there were 33 more home sales in 2010 than 2009.

More analysis coming in the next few days…

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!

Railey Realty Resort Report Winter 2011

The latest copy of our Resort Report is now available. Great articles about the last year of sales, the Wisp Ski train, the new commissioners, new tax assessments. Feel free to contact me if you would like an opinion on on the value of your property or if you have questions about your assessment. I know I will be fighting mine and I will post a ‘how-to’ soon.

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

Just Listed: 31 Reserve Dr – GA7504484

Listing # GA7504484
$3,500,000

Stunning Waterfront Home! Just completed at The Reserve at Holy Cross.”Castle Style” architecture, 8,500 sq ft of living area, 5 bedroom suites, several indoor and outdoor entertaining areas, hand crafted interior/exterior finishes & elevator access to all 3-levels. Exclusive 1.5 acre lot w/ 252 feet of frontage, great views, privacy & individual 3-slip dock system.

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

Survival of the Fittest – Deep Creek Lake

Finding a drink of water has been a bit of a challenge of late for those in the wildlife community, as this muskrat was observed lapping up a cold swig from frozen Deep Creek Lake this week. The little furry fellow was watched and photographed by John Mogle, Salisbury, and family, and the photo was submitted by John’s brother Tom Mogle, who resides in Cumberland. The Mogles were staying in a rental unit along old Rt. 219/Deep Creek Drive. The muskrat was spotted on the ice where the roadway crosses a small patch of the lake. “We kept tabs on the fella the entire holiday weekend,” said John Mogle. The high temperature for every day of December until this week has remained below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but a warm-up – with some rain – if forecast for the next few days.

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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

Risk of shale gas drilling is miniscule – Baltimore Sun

Just shortly before Christmas, the op-ed section of this fine newspaper was used to perpetuate a message of fear and to spread half-truths regarding a real opportunity for Maryland. Del. Heather Mizeur, our esteemed colleague from Montgomery County, implied, as her central thesis, that if Maryland does not follow New York’s lead and pass a “moratorium” on a certain technique for natural gas drilling in the state, then the Chesapeake Bay would likely be set ablaze.

Putting a moratorium on natural gas drilling for fear that some may eventually find its way into the Chesapeake Bay would be akin to eliminating Maryland’s burgeoning bio-tech industry as a way to prevent bio-terrorism.

The Marcellus Shale rests under our homes, our family’s homes, and the homes of our constituents. It is not present in any other part of Maryland and is only found in Garrett and Allegany counties. Natural gas has been drilled in Garrett County since the 1950s. Though hydraulic fracturing technology has not yet been used, other more traditional methods of natural gas extraction have, to our knowledge, not caused any environmental damage. Further exploration into the Marcellus Shale could have a positive impact on our local economy by providing much needed jobs and added revenue.

For example, many of our local farmers are beginning to find they can no longer make a living selling their crops. They are often left with two options. They could either sell their land to developers, or just “keep on keeping on” and hope for the best. Yet, with increased governmental regulations and interference, these desperate farmers may never see that brighter day for which they hope.

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

LETTER: 'Industrialization' of ecosystem comes at great cost to our region

News-Tribune
Posted Jan 04, 2011 @ 02:13 PM

Keyser, W.Va. — Consider this for a moment: The citizens of Mineral County do indeed have a right to know the content of an agreement between themselves U.S. Wind Force over the serious matter of decommissioning industrial wind turbines. Nearby Garrett County, MD has nothing in place to adequately protect the folks from the ever-changing wind LLC’s.

The City of Cumberland is considering an offer to sell thousands of acres in its watershed.

Garrett County’s Backbone Mountain industrial wind turbine array is nearly complete, with no public safety or health protections, and a proposed mine under the Casselman River awaits local and state approvals. There is no decommissioning agreement at all and the previous commissioners refused to enact any taxpayer protections.

The City of Frostburg is providing city drinking water to Samson Resources to use for hydrofracking just outside of its watershed in an exploratory search for Marcellus Shale.

Hydrofracking is a drilling technique that, because it injects millions of gallons of water-hogging and toxic chemicals into the ground, should be done with a high level of due diligence, to include independent monitoring systems and regulations in place that secure groundwater and protect the public health and well-being.
Frostburg officials have also hired an engineering firm to see if the Piney Watershed Impoundment might also be a good place to consider hydrofracking the City’s freshwater aquifers and stream tributaries for shale gas exploration.

In all cases where it is employed, the work should be monitored by experts employed by the public, but paid for by the developer.

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

GC Commissioners To Attend Annual MACo Conference

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Dec. 30, 2010

Board of Garrett County Commissioners chairman Gregan Crawford and Commissioner Bob Gatto will join their counterparts from throughout the state at the Maryland Association of Counties’ (MACo) annual Winter Conference, Jan 5-7, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Hotel in Cambridge.

The conference theme is “Building a Solid Foundation,” with major emphasis on county government service delivery, especially during difficult fiscal times.

Among the topics covered in depth will be laws regarding public ethics and open meetings, requirements under Maryland state law that apply to business conducted by county officials.

Session topics will include the following:

•”Maryland’s Economic Forecast for Local Government and Its Effects on the County Budget”;

•”Local Land Use Challenges: Past, Present, and Future”;

•”Managing Fiscal Realities and the Tough Times Ahead”;

•”Local Corrections: Keeping Citizens Safe and Secure”;

•”Providing Services for the Young, Old, and Those in Between”;

•”The Future of Transportation Funding in Maryland”;

•”Making the Grade: County/School Board Roles and Relationships”; and

•”Surviving the TMDL Flood.”

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

Delegate Attends Pro-Sportsman's Legislative Event

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Dec. 30, 2010

Del. Wendell Beitzel and Sen. John Astle, co-chairmen of the Maryland Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, gathered with state legislative leaders from across the nation recently at the annual National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses (NASC) Sportsman-Legislator Summit to address hunting, angling, trapping, and conservation issues in state capitals across the country.

The three-day summit of conservation, industry, and state legislative leaders was held Dec. 6–9 at the Grand Hotel Marriot in Point Clear, Ala. The theme for this year’s meeting, “Yesterday’s Heritage and Tomorrow’s Promise,” describes the mission of the NASC in building upon past successes to address the challenges of the future.

“State sportsmen’s caucuses have made significant strides in the past few years, but this meeting and the issues discussed and debated provide a valuable foundation for our future efforts to promote and protect the interests of sportsmen and women in the halls of state government,” said Rep. Mike Pitts of South Carolina, NASC executive council president.

“It is obvious from the level of support and participation of the hunting and fishing community, that everyone understands the significance of the NASC,” said Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation states director Bethany O’Donovan. “Many of the most important decisions affecting our outdoor traditions are made by state legislators; the policies they craft, debate, and enact will impact every single individual who spends time hunting, fishing, or trapping.”

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

Looking back – and ahead – B'more Green Blog

January 3, 2011

Looking back – and ahead

As we start a new year, it’s worth looking back at the big news of the past year – if only because many of those developments will resonate through 2011 and for years to come.

So here’s my list of the top 10 green stories of 2010:
…
4) Wind gets a push offshore, and lawsuits on land: The prospects for giant turbines eventually catching the sea breezes off the US East Coast grew last year, with pushes from the Obama administration and from states like Maryland. The Interior Department set up a “fast track” approval for offshore wind leases, and in November invited bids for placing turbines a dozen or more miles off Ocean City. The state’s first two industrial wind projects got built on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County, but conservationists filed suit alleging the turbines would harm endangered bats.

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

GC Commissioners Propose Adding Ridgeline Protection To Comp Plan

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Dec. 30, 2010

The new Board of Garrett County Commissioners is proposing that language to protect mountain ridgelines from development be included in the county’s recently revised Comprehensive Plan.

“I’d like to refer this matter back to the Planning Commission so they can have a public hearing on including language that was previously omitted from the Comprehensive Plan,” said commission chair Gregan Crawford during the board’s public meeting last Tuesday.

The 216-page Comprehensive Plan, which serves as a policy guide for future growth in the county, was adopted by the previous board in October 2008.

In order to be consistent with that updated plan, the county’s three principal land development ordinances – the Deep Creek Watershed Zoning, GC Subdivision, and GC Sensitive Areas – were revised earlier this year.

Updating the plan and ordinances was a four-year-long process by the Planning Commission and other county officials. Numerous hearings and meetings were held in which the public gave suggestions on various issues, including ridgeline protection.

Director John Nelson, GC Department of Planning and Land Development, said the commission’s initial Comprehensive Plan draft included language about protecting ridges from wind turbines and other tall structures. He presented the commissioners with copies of that proposed language.

“The idea was that there would be sighting requirements for development in the Sensitive Areas Ordinance – so there would be certain height limitations from the very pentacle of the ridge – preferably, that the wind turbines would be situated down slope from the very crest of the ridge, and that there’d be a maximum height from that crest at the ridge as well,” Nelson said.

Those concepts, however, were removed before the plan’s final adoption, he noted.

“I think omission of this language runs contrary to the Heritage Plan and to the Comprehensive Plan,” Crawford told Nelson.

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

Month: January 2011

Railey Realty #1 AGAIN in 2010! 16 years in a row!

Railey Realty Resort Report Winter 2011

Just Listed: 31 Reserve Dr – GA7504484

Survival of the Fittest – Deep Creek Lake

Risk of shale gas drilling is miniscule – Baltimore Sun

LETTER: 'Industrialization' of ecosystem comes at great cost to our region

GC Commissioners To Attend Annual MACo Conference

Delegate Attends Pro-Sportsman's Legislative Event

Looking back – and ahead – B'more Green Blog

GC Commissioners Propose Adding Ridgeline Protection To Comp Plan

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