OAKLAND — Garrett and Allegany county boards of education met with members of the District 1 legislative delegation on Monday, asking the lawmakers to advocate for relief for both counties from the decline in state revenues due to the wealth formula and loss of student enrollment.

In the past three years, the delegation has been able to get some stoppage in the loss of state revenues, according to Sen. George Edwards. “We are trying to protect the coming year,” he said. “We fight to get what we can.”

The state isn’t going to fund the entire loss of revenue and the counties need to help out, Edward said, adding that the total funding number won’t be know until the dotted line is signed.

Allegany County government funds its school system at what is called maintenance of effort level, as required by the state of Maryland. The law requires a county to spend at least the same amount on a per pupil basis as the year before, so counties don’t go backwards in education funding. The state can withhold funding if counties don’t meet the requirement. Garrett County commissioners fund its school system above the maintenance of effort level.

Janet Wilson, superintendent of Garrett County schools, said if the Garrett commissioners had not funded schools above the maintenance of effort level, the school system’s finances would be even more dire than they are this year.

More here.

OAKLAND — The Garrett County Commission will decide the fiscal 2015 appropriation for the county’s public school system during a Tuesday meeting.

During a meeting in November, board of education members pleaded with commissioners for a funding number and Commission Chairman Robert Gatto, ex-officio member on the board, made a motion to designate $2.2 million to the board for fiscal 2015 with the amount to be reduced if funding is secured from the state. The motion died from a lack of a second. Also at that meeting, Commissioner Jim Raley indicated that he would like to wait until the Tuesday meeting to give the board a number because at that time the amount of state funding will be known.

During a meeting in Finzel in November to discuss the proposed closure of Route 40 Elementary, an accountant confirmed that the county doesn’t have $2.2 million to help the school system.

“We are going to have to dip into our coffers,” said  Jeff Conner of Fike, Conner & Associates CPAs, who looked at the county’s financials. “We do have some rainy day funds but it’s only going to buy us a couple years.”

The Garrett County financial forecast for fiscal 2015 looks bleak because it is facing a projected loss of $5.4 million. A previous estimate of a $2.5 million projected loss of real property tax revenue has increased by $700,000, to $3.2 million, based on the revision of assessable base calculations, according to Monty Pagenhardt, county administrator.

More here.

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.

MCHENRY — There are those who would look at the extended weather forecast for Garrett County and then shiver, complain and reach for the thermostat, but Boyd Church and Doug Oxford are not among them.

Church of Boonsboro and Oxford of Oakland are making sure their hooks are sharp, lines are not frayed and warm clothing is at the ready. Church and Oxford are ice fishermen and a blue norther blowing into Maryland’s westernmost county is good news indeed.

“I expect to be standing on the lake this weekend,” said Church. His optimism is not of the pie-in-the-sky variety. A veteran of high-country, hard water, Church understands the calamity that could take place if the ice cover is thinner than 4 inches. He fishes through the ice almost every weekend it is frozen. A second home in Swanton gives him a local base for his trips.

“I am trying to get Hallmark to change Valentine’s Day to sometime in August,” he said. “Then maybe I could fish every weekend in February.”

More here.

8:15 a.m. EST, December 11, 2013

I was particularly pleased to read Gregory Wilburn’s letter advocating for the state to rein in the use of road salt (“Road salt is killing Garrett County,” Dec. 7).

Sellers of road salt have long promoted it as a “cheap” solution to melt snow and ice. However, independent studies have shown that government use actually costs about $1,200 per ton in infrastructure damage — in addition to the upfront expense and shipping costs.

The studies flagged deteriorating infrastructure, polluted water sources and contaminated soil — all at taxpayers expense. If researchers had also calculated consumer damage costs — expensive vehicle corrosion, destroyed footwear, deaths to dogs — the amount would be even higher.

OAKLAND — The Garrett County financial forecast for fiscal 2015 looks bleak due to the fact that the county is facing a total projected loss of $5.4 million, according to a news release.

A previous estimate of a $2.5 million projected loss of real property tax revenue has increased by $700,000, to $3.2 million, based on the revision of assessable base calculations, according to Monty Pagenhardt, county administrator. On Nov. 30, the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation produced valued assessable base calculations that confirmed the projected loss in real property tax revenue. This additional loss, coupled with the loss of $2.2 million in revenue for the Garrett County Public School System, equates to a total projected loss of $5.4 million.

The contraction of property tax revenue over the past three fiscal years equates to a loss of actual revenue of $2.8 million or 5.85 percent, according to a news release.

At this point there is nothing that can be done to alleviate the dire financial loss, according to Pagenhardt.

More here.

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.

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.

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.

CUMBERLAND — Members of the legislature representing Allegany and Garrett counties in the General Assembly say their yearly meetings to hear constituent issues and concerns are important as they plan for the 2014 session in Annapolis. That session is expected to run from Jan. 8 to April 7, according to the legislative calendar.

“It’s important because it gives you the opportunity to meet face-to-face with your constituents. That’s the best form of communication,” said Sen. George Edwards. A fellow member of the delegation agreed.

“This is an obligation as representatives of the people … that’s our job. And I enjoy meeting with the public,” said Delegate Kevin Kelly. Edwards said it gives legislators an opportunity to hear what’s on people’s minds. Occasionally, representatives don’t know all of the concerns of citizens, Edwards said. Taxes are usually a recurring theme, and the delegation agrees with many citizens. Taxes are too high, delegation members said. Edwards and Kelly also said concerns about gun control laws passed during the 2013 session may be an issue.

The District 1 delegation includes Edwards and Kelly and Delegates Wendell Beitzel and LeRoy Myers Jr.

Beitzel said the meetings with citizens and county commissioners help legislators clarify their agenda for the upcoming session.

“The people can let us hear their views on issues likely to come up. They can also tell us what we should be opposing,” Beitzel said.

Meetings for public participation are planned in Allegany and Garrett counties. The Allegany County meeting is set for Dec. 9 at 7 p.m at the Allegany College of Maryland auditorium. The Garrett County public meeting is set for Dec. 19 at the Garrett College Continuing Education Building at 7 p.m. The Garrett County meeting will be attended by Edwards and Beitzel, who represent Garrett County.

More here.