Hoop Hope Hooray Effort Brings In $22,000+ For House Of Hope
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Nov. 3, 2011
Hoop Hope Hooray, a fundraising and fitness effort spearheaded by Brenda’s Body Shop (BBS), brought in a total of $22,295, presented to the House of Hope this past weekend. The presentation took place at the final event of the campaign, held at Southern High School.
More than 150 people participated in the “hoopmania,” according to organizer Brenda Brosnihan, at the last event, which included entertainment, hula hooping, and dance.
“It was an incredible day with so much fun and energy all around,” Brosnihan said. “The audience was great and the participants’ enthusiasm was contagious. Completing this event with such an astounding amount of money raised in these tough economic times once again states the unbelievable generosity of the people in Garrett County. I’m so proud to live here and be part of such an amazing community that really exemplifies the House of Hope’s motto: ‘A Community of Caring.'”
The House of Hope has been attending to the emergency needs of Garrett Countians since 1978, often assisting when government funding guidelines restrict other area programs.
“Since the House of Hope never seeks or accepts government funding of any kind, this ministry has always relied on the sole generosity of the community,” Brosnihan said.
Sister Joanna Sinko and Sister Mary Ann Mazza, who operate the House of Hope, wished to thank all the sponsors, participants, and Brenda’s Body Shop for organizing the effort.
“The funds are so needed and we are so grateful to receive such an amazing do-nation,” the sisters stated. “Brenda’s leadership and vision to create such fun and productive events is a true blessing.”
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65 black bears killed in brief Maryland hunting season, wildlife officials say
By Martin Weil, Published: November 5
The brief season for hunting black bears in Maryland, an effort to slow bear population growth in the Western part of the state, ended 10 days ago with 65 animals slain, state wildlife officials said.
The Maryland Natural Resources police reported last week on several incidents from this year’s hunt, including one in which two men got lost Oct. 24, opening day, in fog and brush.
Police said they were notified that two hunters had become disoriented in a swamp area of Garrett County. After a six-hour search in fog and dense foliage, the two were found unharmed, police said.
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National EAS Test Slated For November 9
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Nov. 3, 2011
The federal government will conduct the first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 2 p.m. The Maryland Emergency Management Agency wants all residents to understand this event will be just a test, and not a real emergency alert.
The test will last up to three and a half minutes. During this period, regularly scheduled television, radio, cable, and satellite shows will be interrupted as the system is being tested.
“It is important to make sure the system works at the national level,” said Richard Muth, executive director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency. “The system is regularly used for local and regional notifications, but this will be the first national test. And I want all Maryland residents to understand that this will only be a test.”
The test is being conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as part of an ongoing effort to keep the nation safe during emergencies and strengthen resilience against all hazards. The EAS is an alert and warning system that can be activated by the president to provide information to the public during emergencies.
NOAA’s National Weather Service, governors, and state and local emergency authorities also use parts of the system to issue more localized emergency alerts. The test is an important exercise to ensure communication of critical information in a national emergency. Similar to EAS tests already conducted frequently on the local level, the nationwide test will involve television and radio stations across the United States and its territories.
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Victims of Crime Act awards grant money to area centers
From Staff Reports Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND — Western Maryland programs that rely on grants to operate are receiving help through the Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention.
The Family Crisis Resource Center was awarded $82,952 for its application titled Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Victims Services.
The Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Resource Center in Oakland, known as the Dove Center, received $60,175 for Comprehensive Services.
The Garrett County Department of Social Services received $7,672 for its Child Abuse Victims Assistance Program.
The funding was among $7,623,460 in federal grants to help provide services for victims of violent crime in Maryland. The money is distributed by the U.S. Justice Department through the Victims of Crime Act.
It supports programs that improve the treatment of victims by providing them with such services as crisis intervention, counseling, temporary housing, emergency transportation to court and criminal justice support and advocacy.
“The most important responsibilities we have in government are to create jobs and to protect the public’s safety,” said Gov. Martin O’Malley. “In living up to our commitment to public safety, we are committed to assisting all crime victims in the state. The O’Malley-Brown Administration will ensure that all victims in Maryland are treated with dignity and respect; that their rights are upheld; and that funds are available to provide assistance and support.”
When the Family Crisis Resource Center received a state grant in late September, its executive director, Sara-Beth James, said 80 percent of the agency’s funding comes from grants. The center has served Allegany County for more than 30 years and helps between 800 and 900 domestic or sexual violence victims and their children each year.
The Dove Center sees approximately 525 victims. Both agencies are private, nonprofit organizations that specialize in the intervention and prevention of domestic and sexual violence.
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Enjoying Western Maryland outdoors 90 years ago
By Ginny Brace
Special to the News-Post
Friends Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, President Warren G. Harding and Harvey Firestone are pictured on a camping trip the four took together in Maryland with their families.
Packing up the car and driving to enjoy outdoor recreation is something many of us do. A century ago most people lived without basic comforts we enjoy today, like central heating and plumbing. It would have been unusual to consider driving to remote areas to camp or hike just for the pleasure of the activity.
A group of famous friends, calling themselves the Vagabonds, started camping on a regular basis in the summers over 90 years ago, with the media reporting. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, often with their wives, families and help, and accompanied by others including naturalist John Burroughs and President Warren G. Harding, led the trend toward summer vacation outdoors recreation trips.
Starting with a trip to the Florida Everglades by the Edisons and Fords in 1914, the group vacationed nearly every summer for 10 or more years, camping in Western Maryland during the summer of 1921.
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Taking down biggest bear in annual hunt makes 12-year-old a celebrity, hero in small Western Maryland town
By Don Markus, The Baltimore Sun
5:30 p.m. EDT, November 4, 2011
Before this year’s Maryland bear hunt, Colton Lucas was considered a typical 12-year-old living in the Western Maryland town of Kitzmiller. He loved to hunt and fish with his father, Joe, and play football with his friends. His priorities haven’t changed in the past two weeks, but the seventh-grader has become a local celebrity. And a hero.
He’s received the acclaim for killing a bear — a 376-pound male, which according to Mayor Mike Brady had been terrorizing the residents of Kitzmiller for several years.
It was the largest bear killed of the 65 taken during the four-day controlled hunt that ended Oct. 27.
Karen Lucas, who grew up in the town of about 300 on the Potomac River’s northern neck near the West Virginia border, could sense the civic pride after the family had loaded the bear her son killed on the bed of their pickup to take it the local taxidermist to get it mounted.
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Commissioners Hold Public Hearing; Residents Oppose Junkyard Proposal
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Nov. 3, 2011
The Garrett County county commissioners held a public hearing Tuesday morning on granting a junkyard license to Oakland area businessman Don Nine of Don’s Classic Car Company, 5062 Hutton Road. More than 20 neighboring property owners attended the event.
The vast majority of them indicated their opposition, either through verbal testimony or a show of hands, to granting the license. Their main concerns were a possible decline in property values and negative impacts on the environment.
“Don has made this application pursuant to the Garrett County Junkyard Ordinance; that ordinance has been in effect since the late 1970s,” explained Director John Nelson, Garrett County Department of Planning and Land Development.
Nelson noted that the document is not a zoning ordinance, but a premise that falls under the authority of the State Highway Administration because of proximity issues pertaining to public roads.
“The process outlined in the application gives the commissioners the discretion to hold a public hearing on any application made by a property owner who wishes to establish a salvage yard or automobile salvage junkyard on their property,” Nelson said.
The county currently has nine licensed junkyards, noted Mark Weber, licensing and enforcement inspector. He said the county has received numerous complaints from neighbors about the Nine property over the last three or four years.
“Mr. Nine has brought his property into compliance intermittently over this time,” Weber said.
He said his office has been working with Nine, who wants to bring his property into compliance, try to get a junkyard license, and be “legitimate.”
“He has effectively met the requirements of the junkyard license regarding setbacks,” Weber said. “He does not intend to run a business as junkyard per se.”
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S'no time like the present
By Judy Colbert judy@judycolbert.com
November 3, 2011 | 9:30 a.m.
Although you’ve barely put away your bathing suits, the folks at nearby ski and winter resorts have been preparing, almost since the last snow season ended, toward this winter.
No, we don’t have 15,000-foot mountains that climb above the tree line, but we do have plenty of options within a few hours drive. Snowmaking starts as soon as two consecutive nights are cold enough to let the frozen mixture stick and accumulate. Tentatively, the slopes are scheduled to open between the day after Thanksgiving and the middle of December, and will stay open until the middle or end of March. They run out of skiers long before they run out of snow, which means plenty of room and no lines for spring skiers.
For now, if you want to interact with the snow with a minimum of time and travel, here are a few suggestions and a short update on some of the “what’s new” information.
At Deep Creek Lake, you can enjoy cross-country skiing, snow shoeing, tubing, ice skating (on an outdoor 50-foot-by-85-foot oval rink), and a mountain coaster at the Wisp Resort. Wisp has the state’s only vertical slope (700 feet) to go along with those other activities and a zip line that runs during the winter. Within the Deep Creek area, you can also go snowmobiling, enjoy a sleigh ride or go dog sledding.
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Easements delay Thayerville water project
Garrett County officials waiting on 33 property owners before work can begin
Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — The construction of the $8.3 million Thayerville Water Project by RK&K Engineers of Keyser, W.Va., is pending on 33 easements that are required from private property owners for the installation of a main water distribution system, according to Linda Lindsey, director of Garrett County Department of Public Utilities.
The county hopes to have all easements in hand by the the end of January and advertising for construction bids will soon follow.
“We are currently and have been working diligently on obtaining the easements for the system. As soon as we get all the easements we can move foward with construction,” said Lindsey during Tuesday’s county commission meeting. “If we see that we have the majority of them (easements) and don’t have any real conflicts indicated with people, we can go ahead and advertise for the construction bids.”
John Pucciano, secretary of the Mountainside Home Owners Association board, questioned what is holding up the project and noted that the project needs to move along as quickly as possible.
“This year, we have had two homeowners dig new wells. The longer this delays, the more homeowners will be spending extra money to dig new wells.”
Two things holding up the project are the design and easements, according to Lindsey. The design has been difficult because of the elevation and some of the legal documents make it hard to decipher who actually owns what property and roadway.
Once the project begins, it will consist of three construction contracts — a main distribution system; water storage tanks, booster stations and a water treatment plant; and another distribution system. The construction contracts are split into separate distribution systems because an issue with the proposed Glendale bike path arose. The final portion of the distribution system will be located on Glendale Road from Zeddock Miller Road to the Glendale bridge.
“We split the distribution system up so that we could go ahead and proceed with the main distribution and not hold it up for the Glendale Road bike path,” said Lindsey.
The project will include the construction of a 1,013,150-gallon tank; a 156,000-gallon tank; a water treatment plant; and 100 gallon per minute and 40 gpm water booster stations.
The project cost is based on a 20-year loan at 4 percent interest with property owner tax calculated at 23 cents per $100 of the property’s assessed valuation.
Design plans and specifications are complete for the first two construction contracts. The second portion of the construction project requires a Maryland Department of the Environment review and construction permit, which was issued Sept 14. The construction of the entire project will take 360 days.
The county has received some easements. The homeowners association donated the site for the plant, wells and the distribution system.
“We have the purchase rights of the two water storage tanks and the water booster station,” said Lindsey.
In 2005, the county commissioners received a petition from residents in Mountainside and Thayerville requesting public water service to the area. The water supply in those areas has a high iron content and the supply has either decreased or ceased in some wells, according to Lindsey.
“Arsenic has also been detected in some wells in the area, and a residential condominium development has been notified by public health officials that their supply is under the direct influence of surface water,” said Lindsey.
Between 2007 and 2008, the county developed two wells with good water quality and supply at the Marina Club, which is owned by Mountainside HOA. On Sept. 1, 2010, the MDE issued a water appropriation permit for the supply and withdrawal of 188,000 gallons of water per day from the marina.
In 2009, the county commissioners approved the Thayerville Water Project and in 2010 entered into an agreement with RK&K Engineering for the work.
The water project will service areas located along U.S. Route 219 in the vicinity of Thayerville beginning at Leo Friend Road and continuing south to approximately .6 mile from the intersection of Glendale Road and U.S. 219.
Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com
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Commissioners question rebid process for courthouse chiller
Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News
OAKLAND — Garrett County commissioners discussed two bids at their public meeting Tuesday — one pertaining to refuse containers and one for replacement of the courthouse chiller. The first bid was approved and the latter was not due to issues with the project having been rebid.
The county’s purchasing department asked to award the chiller bid to Beitzel Corp. of Grantsville for $114,829. Chairman Gregan Crawford made a motion to award the bid to Beitzel but it died due to lack of a second.
“I’ve expressed some concern about that (the rejection of bids) because I need to know exactly what was changed in the re-up of this thing,” said Commissioner James Raley. “Basically we rejected prices that certainly gave competitors an advantage in bidding again.”
Raley made a motion to review both sets of specifications put out in the request for proposals and all the documentation surrounding the bid. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Robert Gatto with Crawford opposing.
“It kind of works both ways, too,” said Crawford. “The last price that was bid the first time was $112,500 (by R.H. Lapp and Sons Inc.) and it was the lowest bidder. When it was rebid, they did the exact same model and they added $6,000 more to it. So to me it looks like they took the competitive advantage to say ‘we were the cheapest bidder the first time out; for whatever reason it’s worth $6,000 more to us the second time around.’”
Raley questioned why the project was rebid.
“My understanding was that it was not about the price. It was about our providing different information in a bid package,” said Raley. “I would caution you and ask you in the future to make absolutely sure that when you put out an RFP that you dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s. I really wanted to see the bid amounts that were put out last time.”
When the initial bid began, it was done with wide-open speculations and it was like comparing apples to oranges, said Brian Bowers, the purchasing agent for the county.
“We thought the fairest thing to do for all bidders was reject the bids. By rebiding, we did save over $1,800,” said Bowers. “We make sure that we get the best deal for the county. We gave the bidders a true chance at winning the bid with good specs versus a wide-open spec range.”
The same three companies participated in the initial bid and the rebid, according to Bowers. The third company was South Mountain Mechanical Contracting.
Crawford noted that on the bid tabulation, everything was identical except for the labor costs.
Corporate funding for the chiller project will come from a Maryland Energy Administration grant. The county would be responsible for $43,538 of the project. Everything needed for the project, including the invoices, has to be completed and turned in by June 1 in order to receive the grant funding.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the bid award for $32,096 for refuse containers to Stoltzfus Steel Manufacturing of Lewisburg, Pa. The bid was for three 40-yard closed recycling containers for $16,236, two 30-yard closed containers with dividers for $10,830 and one 30-yard closed container without dividers for $5,030.
Crawford questioned how the steel containers being used now wore out. The steel containers were rusted and unfortunately people threw things away that would be corrosive to the metal, said Charlie Junkins, buyer for the county’s purchasing department.
The warranty on all the containers is one year from the date of purchase and they will be delivered in 30 to 45 days.
Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com.
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