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McHenry selected as site of national race

Amateur event expected to draw 60 to 80 teams from 30 states

From Staff Reports

Cumberland Times-News

MCHENRY — The U.S. Adventure Racing Association has selected McHenry as the site for its 2014 U.S. National Championships of Adventure Racing, which consists of a grueling 100-mile/30-hour race, according to an announcement made by Deep Creek 2014.

“Hosting the 2014 U.S. National Championships of Adventure Racing is another amazing coup for Garrett County and right in our vision of becoming the U.S. epicenter of adventure sports,” said Deep Creek 2014 Executive Director Todd Copley. “No other destination in the world can boast that they are hosting both a world championship and a national championship in the same year — it’s unprecedented.”

This prestigious race, which began in 2000 and has grown into the premier amateur adventure racing event in the U.S., will be held in October. Teams from all over the country will compete in more than 40 regional qualifying events throughout the year with the goal of qualifying for the USARA Adventure Race National Championship. These regional champions will assemble to run, paddle, mountain bike and navigate using map and compass in a race that will begin at the Wisp Resort and Adventure Sports Center International and will then make its way deep into the heart of the wilderness.

The national championship will draw 60 to 80 teams from more than 30 different states. The event generates more than 150,000 visits to the USARA Nationals website during the 30-hour period of the race. Garrett County will be featured on banners at 40 qualifying events and will receive extensive coverage in Adventure World Magazine during the year leading up to the event.

More info.

Miami man, Maryland woman win Palm Beach Marathon on warm day in West Palm Beach

Updated: 12:01 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013 | Posted: 5:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013

By Hal Habib

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH —

A Miami man and a western Maryland woman won the 10th running of the Palm Beach Marathon on Sunday morning.

Bryan Sharkey, 26, of Miami crossed the finish line first with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 43 minutes, 46 seconds.

Jennifer Sober, 40, of Deep Creek Lake, Md., was first in the women’s field with a time of 3:24:09.

The race — which took runners 26.2 miles from West Palm Beach to Lantana and back — took place on a humid day with temperatures in the mid-70s and and periods of light rain.

Sober said the weather was the warmest of any of the 17 marathons she has run. Because of the heat, she decided to start out slow to conserve energy and to speed up later.

“It was my first strategic marathon,” Sober said.

More here.

Road salt is killing Garrett County

12:30 p.m. EST, December 7, 2013

The Maryland State Highway Administration is destroying Mountain Maryland. During the winter of 2012, the agency applied 48,352 tons of salt on 600 lane-miles of highway in Garrett County. That is more than 80 tons per lane-mile of highway.

During the same winter, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan received 305 inches of snowfall — 50 percent more than Garrett County — yet used only 24 tons of salt per lane-mile. Other locations, such as Minnesota and Maine, used only 10 to12 tons per lane mile during the same season.

I fully understand the need to keep our roadways safe during winter weather, but the third “snowiest” place in the U.S. used less than a third the salt Maryland did while receiving far more snow. Something is wrong with that.

Over the past 10 years, the SHA has contaminated hundreds of wells, deforested countless acres of timber and been directly responsible for the untimely demise of many motorists’ vehicles. It is time it was held accountable for the damage it has caused. It’s also time for SHA administrators to be held to the same environmental standards imposed on Maryland businesses and residents.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-garrett-county-sha-20131207,0,4911762.story#ixzz2uYnJF7Zv

Officials propose wind farm at Deep Creek Lake

Zoning change needed for project to occur

Elaine Blaisdell

Cumberland Times-News

OAKLAND — Messenger Limited Partnership has requested the Garrett County Planning Commission to amend the Deep Creek watershed zoning ordinance to allow a wind farm in the rural resource zoning district.

Wind turbines are prohibited in all zones of the watershed and the amendment would permit them in the rural resource zone only with the condition that the turbines would be 20,000 feet from the high waterline of Deep Creek Lake, according to Bob Paye, an attorney at Geppert, McMullen, Paye & Getty, P.C.

Paye suggested during a planning commission meeting Wednesday that the panel approve the request despite the fact that wind power has become a controversial topic. He asked for a favorable recommendation based “on the grounds this change would be consistent and compatible with basically all of the laws and principles and purposes that are in place, including your zoning ordinance and your comprehensive plan.”

The proposed wind project would be located in the northern edge of the zoning district, four miles north of Deep Creek Lake State Park and would have between 100 to 133 shrouded 100-kilowatt Ogin wind turbines, according to Lars Dorr, director of business development with Ogin Energy in Waltham, Mass. Ogin, which was previously FloDesign, manufactures wind turbines that are significantly shorter in stature at 200 feet, according to Dorr. They are smaller and less impactful, according to Paye. The wind turbines have a shroud around them, which makes them unique from the contemporary wind turbine, said Doerr.

More here.