>Garrett school board will meet Tuesday
>Cumberland Times News
OAKLAND — The Garrett County Board of Education will hold a special meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Central Office, 40 S. Second St., for the presentation of the superintendent’s proposed fiscal 2012 budget and personnel recommendations.
Frankfort Middle concert Thursday
SHORT GAP, W.Va. — The Frankfort Middle School music department will present its annual Spring Concert on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the school gymnasium.
The free concert will feature the chorus, directed by Staci Calder, and the bands, conducted by Fred Kesner. Teal Steel will entertain before the concert begins.
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>April 2010 Residential Real Estate Sales - Market Update
>
April has come and gone and left behind another month of real estate sales in Garrett County & at Deep Creek Lake. There were 21 total sales, down one from last month and up 4 sales from April 2010.
I’ve been warning for months that the inventory is coming…and here it is. There are now 701 available properties on the market. I recall one day getting an update of 17 new homes – I believe last Monday. That number is up 103 from last month. Not surprising, as this is the time of year people like to start looking for their summer purchase. Homes show better in the warmer weather & the fresh landscaping/green grass helps a lot. The large portion of those ‘new’ listings are re-listed homes that didn’t sell last year.
Let’s take a look at the stats:
There are 43 homes under contract (38 last month).
The average list vs. ORIGINAL sales price was 81.62%, down from last month (83.51%).
The ADJUSTED list vs sale price was 87.31%, down from last month (89.63%).
The current # of active/for sale listings in MRIS (minus timeshares) is 703, up from last months 598. We have a 33 month supply of homes available (minus timeshares) based solely on the April sales numbers. This number is up from last month’s 27 mont supply.
Random observations:
•4 ‘newer’ home sold in March (5 years old or less)
•It appears that 11 or so of these sales were vacation homes
•14 homes sold under $300,000 (last month was 15)
•15 homes sold under $400,000
•2 homes sold over $ 1 million (same as last month)
•0 homes sold for higher than full price or at full price (last month was 4)
•One house sold for 52.63% of asking price – 139 Frederick Circle
•The oldest home that sold was 93 yrs old
•The average age of the homes that sold was 28 years (37 last month)
•3 condo/townhouse properties sold (3 last month)
Here are the statistical breakdowns:
Average Sale Price: $320,310 (last month $297,427)
Average Days on Market: 273/378 (last month 205/290) (days on market with current broker/total days on market)
Here’s a little something extra – more in depth stats by price range, from our friends at RBIntel.
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>The LAST remaining snow in Garrett County & Wisp
>I had been keeping tabs from my office window, watch & waiting – this last little bit of snow disappeared over the weekend. Winter is officially OVER 🙂
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>Community Athletic and Recreation Center (CARC) update
>Some photos I took last week of the progress at Garrett College on the Community Athletic & Recreation Center – it’s BIG!!
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>State battles woolly pest to save evergreens
>Crews inject pesticide, cultivate beetles to protect hemlocks
By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun
11:31 p.m. EDT, May 11, 2011
OAKLAND —— Survivors for more than three centuries, the towering hemlocks in Swallow Falls State Park are a remnant of the primeval forests that once blanketed much of Maryland before European settlers arrived.
But after evading loggers’ saws, storms and fires through the years, these evergreens now face a new threat — the hemlock woolly adelgid. A tiny insect from Japan no bigger than a pencil point, it coats hemlock twigs with a snowy waxy substance and slowly sucks the life out of the tree.
Nature Determined to save the largest stand of virgin forest left in Maryland, a small army of state workers and volunteers fanned out Wednesday in the Garrett County park in a bid to hold at bay this exotic pest, which has devastated hemlock stands elsewhere in Maryland and throughout the East.
“Hemlock woods are just a special place,” said Biff Thompson, a forest technician with the Maryland Department of Agriculture overseeing the effort. Their sheltering boughs cool the ground and water around them, he explained, and they’re home to upwards of 900 different species of insects, flies and other organisms. “There’s just a richness of life.”
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>Vacation Reality Show Seeks Contestants
>You — and 19 of your closest family members and friends — could score a free group vacation at Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland.
The only requirement? That your vacation (and any drama that arises thereof) could be viewed by millions of television viewers.
Sign us up!
Producers of a new PBS reality show called “Getting Away Together” are looking for a group of friends and/or family to spend six days on vacation. According to the official website:
The show aims to highlight “the rapidly growing trend of sharing a vacation with friends and family. From girlfriend getaways to family reunions and milestone celebrations, the series shows diverse groups of real travelers vacationing together in some of the most fascinating destinations and staying at spectacular vacation rental properties across America.”
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>Casting call put out for Deep Creek vacationers
>Film crew will document experience in rental property
From Staff Reports
Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Sun May 08, 2011, 10:53 PM EDT
— MCHENRY — Vacation Rental Managers Association, CSA Travel Protection and TripAdvisor are bringing a reality TV show/documentary to the Deep Creek Lake area called “Getting Away Together.”
Families or groups who are willing to share their story with a national television audience while on vacation in Deep Creek Lake can apply to appear on the show. The group will be given a six-day vacation at a luxury vacation rental home. Film crews will document the participants playing, dining and relaxing, while getting to know their story.
Submissions should be creative and use photos and/or video to share why the family or group is unique, and why it needs to get away together. Applications will be accepted by Sarah Duck at the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce, 15 Visitors Center Drive, McHenry, MD 21541 or via email at sarah@garrettchamber.com through May 15.
Groups must be available for filming Sept. 6 to 14 and must provide their own transportation to Deep Creek Lake.
The group may not exceed 20 participants and the winner must be at least 24 years old.
Residents of Garrett County and employees and affiliates of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce are not eligible to participate.
All applications will become property of Pine Ridge Television Inc.
“Getting Away Together,” part of the Vacation Rental Managers Association’s Discover Vacation Homes awareness initiative, will follow participants staying together underneath the same roof in vacation rental homes, villas and condos across America. The show calls attention to compelling life stories, destinations, “best-kept” travel secrets and tips to help viewers make decisions about their upcoming travels.
Each episode features a new group of travelers in fun locales with vacation rentals as their home base. The series is produced by Emmy Award-winning PineRidge Film & Television Co. for distribution exclusively on PBS member stations nationwide. The Deep Creek Lake episode will be among 13 travel destinations during the series run.
Garrett County sponsors of the show include the Chamber of Commerce, Garrett County Economic Development, Railey Mountain Lake Vacations, Bill’s Marine Service, Bill’s Outdoor Center, Honi-Honi Bar, Uno Chicago Grill Deep Creek Lake, Arrowhead Market, Garrett 8 Cinemas, Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations and Long & Foster Resort Rentals.
For more information, go to www.visitdeepcreek.com
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>Department of Natural Resources program gets back to basics, teaches how to grow, preserve Earth's bounty
>
Friends Delight Store, a part of Deep Creek Lake State Park in Garrett County, is a former general store that now features locally made crafts. It also has a small classroom, where the “Green Gardens to Green Homes” workshop was held.
By Karen Gardner
News-Post Staff
Photo by News-Post photo by Karen Gardner
GARRETT COUNTY — Saving the Earth begins at home, and the “Green Gardens to Green Homes” workshop aims to help homes become greener places.
A dozen women converged on a former general store in Deep Creek Lake State Park for the workshop in mid-April. There they learned about ways to make their home lives more Earth-friendly, and how to grow and preserve their own food.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources planned the workshop in response to requests made at its annual Becoming an Outdoors-Woman workshop each fall. Those workshops have included classes in vegetable gardening, canning and preserving, and greening the home.
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>Redistricting revisited - gazette.net
>Perhaps the most important — and entertaining — political exercise of the year is congressional redistricting, a process that began to take shape with the census count last spring. Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected to name a redistricting advisory committee in days.
The U.S. Constitution and the state constitution require Maryland to redraw its congressional (and legislative) district lines every 10 years, after the decennial census numbers come out, to reflect one person, one vote. The ideal size for each of the state’s eight congressional districts is 721,529 residents….
…From west to east, the 6th District spans heavily Republican Garrett County to northern Harford County. Prior to 1992, the district had a strong presence in Montgomery County and Democratic representation.
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
>Thieves targeting road signs in Garrett
>Jeffrey Alderton
Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Thu May 05, 2011, 11:35 PM EDT
— OAKLAND — Garrett County spends up to $5,000 annually making and replacing road signs, not counting the costs for labor and travel to replace signs that are stolen or damaged.
“Ever since I’ve been here for the past three years, there are work orders for stolen signs,” said Jay Moyer, general superintendent of the Garrett County Roads Department. Some signs are inadvertently damaged, such as by accidents or snowplows, but about half of the signs replaced annually by the county are for signs that have been removed by thieves.
Signs for a range of purposes are placed at certain sections of county roads and at designated intersections for traffic and pedestrian safety.
“This has become a safety issue. Taking these signs is going to end up costing someone their life,” said Moyer concerning endangerment posed for motorists and pedestrians with the sudden absence of legal roads signage.
Officials have also heard reports that signs are stolen to turn in to metal salvage operations or to use as a “slide plate” for four-wheelers.
Whatever the reason for the thefts, Garrett County officials want to bring thefts to a halt, and they are seeking the pubic’s assistance to do just that.
“The illegal removal of these signs by anyone who disagrees with the assigned speed limit, traffic yield warning, or other determination could very well be the foundation for a serious accident and injury to what could be a number of persons,” said County Administrator Monty Pagenhardt.
Anyone who is found to be stealing county-owned signage will be charged and prosecuted. The violators could be charged with misdemeanor theft which, upon conviction, carries a jail term of up to 18 months and/or a fine of up to $500.
“Anyone who wishes to report any suspicious activity related to this matter should contact the sheriff’s office at 301-334-1911 or go to www.garrettcountycrimesolvers.org. Reports that lead to an arrest may be eligible for a monetary reward,” said Pagenhardt.
Garrett County is also dealing with the continual problem of trash, rubbish and tires being thrown into wooded areas off highways. Anyone observing such activity is asked to contact their nearest police agency and provide suspect and vehicle information that could lead to the perpetrators and charges of illegal dumping.
Under Maryland law, anyone dumping litter weighing less than 100 pounds and of volume less than 27 cubic feet may be charged with dumping litter. Upon conviction, the offense carries a 30-day jail sentence. Violations of items weighing more than 100 pounds and of volume greater than 27 cubic feet carries a penalty of one year in jail and/or a fine of up to $12,500.
In addition, under Maryland law, anyone discharging litter on a public highway, bridge or waterway may be issued a littering citation that carries a fine of $140.
According to the Maryland State Highway Adminstration, approximately 275 to 300 signs in Allegany County are replaced annually and an estimated 125 to 150 each year in Garrett County. Most of the replacements are due to thefts or damages by paintball and bullets, according to an agency spokesman.
Contact Jeffrey Alderton at jlalderton@times-news.com
If you or someone you know is considering 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! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.
