Cover story: Is now the time to buy a second home?
By Michele Lerner SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
If you long to retire within sight of the Chesapeake Bay, by the shores of Deep Creek Lake or atop the mountains at Wintergreen, you may be thinking about taking advantage of today’s low interest rates and affordable prices to buy your golden-years dream home right now.
Financial advisers and Realtors suggest that while this might be the right move for some homeowners, the decision to buy a second home should be made only after careful consideration of the impact the choice would have on finances and lifestyle.
“The first and most important consideration is to make sure that buying another home doesn’t compromise your overall financial plans,” said Ronya Corey, a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch in the District.
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!
Judge grants new trial for W.Va. man in Garrett deputy's 1979 slaying
By DON AINES dona@herald-mail.com
2:16 p.m. EST, November 23, 2011
HAGERSTOWN—
More than three decades after he was convicted of killing a Garrett County Sheriff’s deputy, Roberto Oskar Rezek was granted a new trial this week in Washington County Circuit Court.
Judge Daniel W. Moylan on Monday reversed Rezek’s 1980 convictions for first-degree murder, robbery and other offenses in the 1979 shooting of Deputy David Livengood during a burglary at an Army-Navy surplus store in Oakland, Md., court records said.
Moylan ruled that the instructions on the law given the jury by Judge Frederick C. Wright III should have been binding and not advisory. In his opinion Moylan cited two Maryland Court of Appeals decisions in 1980 and 1981 which the state’s highest court ruled “the court’s instructions are binding on the jury.”
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Augie's Adventures: Goodyear DuraTracs first field test
Posted: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 7:00 am
By Andy Aughenbaugh, Times Outdoors Writer | 0
Back in October, I spent some time in Garrett County chasing whitetails. The recent rains had the trails on our hunting lease wet and muddy. The logging operation on a section of the property had the main access road a clayey muddy mess.
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Garrett wind project fined by MDE
CUMBERLAND — A wind project in Garrett County was among 51 recent major enforcement actions taken by the Maryland Department of the Environment for alleged violations of requirements for land, air and radiation management, water and wetlands.
White Construction, Synergics Roth Rock Energy LLC finalized a settlement agreement to resolve alleged sediment control violations that occurred during the construction of the Roth Rock Wind Farm near Red House. The agreement requires White Construction to pay a $35,000 penalty to the Clean Water Fund.
Ronald Eversole paid $1,000 to the Clean Water Fund to resolve alleged sediment control violations associated with a fill site in Cumberland.
Three Allegany County property owners were alleged to be out of compliance with lead risk reduction standards.
David Ghunaim and Jacqueline V. Ghunaim of Oldtown were issued an administrative complaint, order and penalty seeking a combined $16,500 for alleged violations at one property.
Michael G. Hughes of Cumberland was issued an administrative complaint, order and penalty seeking $22,000 for alleged violations at two properties.
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Draft Marcellus study raises concerns for county commissioners
CUMBERLAND — A great economic development opportunity for Garrett and Allegany counties, and the state of Maryland, will be at stake if a draft study is adopted by a commission examining drilling for natural gas in Marcellus shale formations, said Allegany County Commissioner Bill Valentine.
“From what I see, the state wants to make (drilling) so restrictive that they’ll never come in,” Valentine said.
The draft report includes a proposal shifting the burden of proof for civil liability in accidents and damages that could be related to Marcellus shale drilling.
Valentine is a member of the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley, that met last week in Garrett County.
While the draft report is labeled “for discussion purposes only,” Valentine said in his mind it’s where the majority of the commission seems to be headed.
“If there are any problems, the presumption is the driller is guilty,” said Valentine. “I would think there would be constitutional issues,” with that approach, he said.
The language is contained on page 22 of the draft report, which is available online at the link below.
“The law could provide that, if the parties fail to agree, the permittee would be strictly liable to the resident, landowner or business for damage caused by the activity,” the draft study reads.
There are somewhat similar laws related to coal mining, although in those cases, the presumption is rebuttable, according to the draft study.
Special laws aren’t needed to address environmental concerns related to drilling.
“We’ve already got the laws on the books,” Valentine said.
Allegany County Commissioner Creade Brodie Jr. is also concerned about the situation.
“I ran on it in my campaign. We have potentially the biggest economic windfall to Allegany County in a long time. It’s happening all around us; if we wait a couple of years, it will be too late,” Brodie said. “I don’t understand this … in these economic times,” he said.
“A lot of it has not been thoroughly discussed,” Valentine said. The first draft recommendations are due Dec. 31, and the December meeting is now planned as a conference call. That idea doesn’t sit well with Valentine. The shale commission plans to present recommendations on legislation to tax drilling and establish liability standards by the end of the year.
Recommendations on best practices for natural gas exploration and production are to be delivered by Aug. 1, 2012, and a final report including environmental impacts of drilling is to be issued by Aug. 1, 2014.
“These meetings are supposed to be open to the public. How do you make a conference call open to the public?” Valentine asked. Besides, the last meeting lasted 4 1/2 hours.
Another point of contention is that the draft report includes language advocating laws essentially telling counties how to spend the money they receive from mineral severance taxes.
The report advocates putting the revenue into a special fund to build the counties’ human and physical capital and also aid those adversely affected by gas drilling.
Valentine was also concerned that the commission voted to eliminate its goals statement on page six of the draft study, which included ensuring that “the citizens of Maryland, especially those most impacted by the industry, receive significant benefits from gas production.”
The vote on eliminating the goals was nine to six, Valentine said. This was supposed to be a study, but “most people have already made up their minds,” he said.
If the process continues to drag on, potential natural gas developers will conclude “it’s not worth it to us and move on,” Valentine said.
Marcellus shale formations throughout the eastern United States harbor large untapped natural gas resources. The total value of the natural gas in Allegany County’s Marcellus shale could be close to $15.72 billion, with the average well earning $65,000 to $524,000 yearly, University of Maryland Extension staff has said.
In order to get the gas trapped in Marcellus shale to the surface, chemicals, water and sand are pumped underground to break apart rock formations and free the gas.
To view the draft study, visit: http://www.mde.state.md.us/programs/Land/mining/marcellus/Pages/upcoming_meetings.aspx
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!
Maryland weighs risks, rewards of shale gas drilling
Posted: Monday, November 21, 2011 9:00 am | Updated: 9:54 am, Mon Nov 21, 2011.
By Sarah Meehan Capital New Service | 0
WASHINGTON — Critics have blamed hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” for environmental disturbances including landscape degradation, air pollution and groundwater contamination — conditions which may affect the health of surrounding areas. But the jury is still out on whether these claims are valid.
“We still see it as very early days of the process here. … At this point, we’re still collecting data,” said Samuel Lesko, a Northeast Regional Cancer Institute physician who is exploring fracking’s health impacts on Pennsylvanians. “We’re trying to be very broad about it since we don’t know what types of illnesses might be attributed to these activities.”
Although the effects of fracking remain undefined, its threats are gaining credence as drilling creeps closer to Garrett and Allegany Counties.
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Monday Roundup: Motivation and Land Values
Bill Dunlap is a Maryland artist who uses barns as his canvas. See his other work here. Dunlap wrote about this project: “This is a barn in progress, although I probably won’t be able to finish it until we get warm weather again in the spring, and painting on lap siding is a slow process. The barn is in Garrett County, in Western Maryland. In the spring I’ll be adding more elements and poetry. The poem will be something great from local Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn.”
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!
Overall, Deep Creek Lake Is Healthy, Stresses DNR Secretary John Griffin
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Nov. 17, 2011
Deep Creek Lake is healthy, Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin stressed during the Garrett County commissioners’ public meeting on Tuesday afternoon at St. Peter’s Catholic Church parish hall in Oakland. More than 100 people attended the 2½-hour event, which focused on DCL issues.
Griffin and other state officials updated local residents and property owners about the status of the lake, reviewed their plans and goals for the watershed, and listened to public .
“Based on our three years of monitoring data, the overall state of the lake is healthy, which is good news – good water quality, diverse plant and animal life, and moderate loads of nutrients,” Griffin said. “That’s not to say there aren’t some areas of concern.”
As stressed by DCL property owners at the meeting, those concerns include sediment build-up in certain coves, the increase of an invasive plant called Eurasian watermilfoil, and low-water levels. Individually and collectively, owners indicated, these three major factors prevent them from using and enjoying their land to its fullest extent, which includes swimming, boating, and business development.
“We realize there’s been a lot of concern over the last year [about Eurasian watermilfoil],” said Director Bruce Michael, DNR resource assessment. “People are complaining that it’s exploding over the lake.”
He said field staff conducted an initial reconnaissance survey of the plant earlier on Tuesday to prepare for a more detailed study that will be conducted in the upcoming spring and summer. Michael said a targeted strategy would then be developed to assess the spatial distribution of the plant over the entire lake. That survey and existing data will then be used to develop a plan in 2012 to address the issue.
“We’re going to work with the property owners to look at some potential intermediate steps that we can do to protect infrastructure for the upcoming year,” Michael said.
He noted, however, that Eurasian watermilfoil is very difficult to tackle.
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!
Paying respect
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Military veterans of the United States were honored Friday, Veterans Day, across the country, and Garrett County took part in the observance. Various ceremonies were held throughout the area, including a parade and commemoration event in the county seat. A parade with veterans and the Southern Garrett Marching Band got under way in the morning, leading to the Garrett County Courthouse. While the original plan was to have the proceedings outdoors at Veterans Park, blowing snow resulted in a change of venue, and the crowds gathered inside the rotunda for the remainder of the ceremony. Maj. Gen. Melissa Rank, retired assistant Air Force surgeon general, offered the speech for the day, and members of both the American Legion Post 71 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10077 provided the welcome, invocation, special singing, the placing of the wreathes, and a 21-gun salute. Pictured is U.S. Marine Corps veteran Paul Shogren, quietly offering his salute to fallen comrades. Photo by John McEwen.
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Wisp Winter White Sale
Wisp Winter White Sale – Saturday, November 19, 2011
There have been snow flurries throughout the day here in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. Mother Nature & Old Man Winter are helping prep the stage for the Wisp Winter White Sale, only two days away!
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!
