Sep 4, 2019
The weather today will be partly sunny with a high near 74 and a low around 54. A chance of showers, mainly between 2pm and 5pm. West wind 11 to 14 mph.
Eric Williams shared this pup enjoying Lake Life! See more area photos in our Photo Gallery.
Farmer’s Market is today beginning at 10am – from the market: “We are still seeing plenty of late summer vegetables, so don’t quit looking for tomatoes, peppers and zucchini – also cabbages, eggplant and cucumbers. The sunflower bouquets are gorgeous, one of the vendors is offering huge stalks of gladioli and potted mums are starting to appear. In my opinion NOW is the best time of the summer. Last week I made a huge tomato salad (with fresh basil, garlic and mozzarella) to take to my brother’s for his birthday, and I am still “turning” my half-gallon jars of raspberries in “hootch” mode.”
“The “Tow Like A Pro” brochure (developed by DNR and DCLPOA) was published here and was sent to all dock permit holders as well as local businesses and marinas. Take a look, if you haven’t already, to review safe towing procedures for water sports on the lake.
The Deep Creek Art, Wine & Beer Festival planning is in high gear. I am going to be a cashier for most of the day on Saturday — will I see you there? The event benefits GLAF and HART for Animals.
Next Wednesday the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce is holding a Marketing Roundtable event to learn about Garrett County’s new Performing Arts Center from Mary Callis, the Executive Director of the Garrett Lakes Arts Festival, The event is for members only and requires registration.
Is your company considering outside funding now or in the future? Organized by TEDCO, a FREE 90-minute workshop will be held at Rocky Gap to highlight the fund raising process, how investors evaluate opportunities by industry and best practices for raising capital.
Have a great day!
Sep 3, 2019
The weather today will be patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 78 and a low around 64.
This photo by Gail Burkett has been selected as our Photo of the Month! Congrats, Gail!
The regularly scheduled Cancer Support Group happens tonight at 6:30pm at the Garrett Regional Medical Center boardroom.
It’s also Ladies Lounge at Sipside Lounge: bottomless chocolate and specials all night.
Mountain State Brewing Co restaurant will be closed TODAY and TOMORROW and back open for Team Trivia on Thursday. Trivia starts at 6:30pm on Thursday and house prizes are awarded for first, second & third places.
Speaking of closed: the Deep Creek Lake Discovery Center will be closed until early 2020 for some significant HVAC repairs and upgrades.
The Addictions Counseling program at Garrett College has earned a Statewide and Health Manpower designation.
The August “Where Am I?” contest winner is Mary Ellen Dore. CONGRATULATIONS! Take your guess in the September photo contest!
We’d like to offer a big “welcome” to the Deep Creek Mountain Land Company as a new advertiser with Deep Creek Times. The Deep Creek Mountain Land Company has a wide selection of land and homesites available. Choose golf-front, mountain view, or lakeview sites and choose your own builder!
Sep 3, 2019
Adapted from the Wall Street Journal and edited for brevity by Mike Tumbarello
As I prepared to write the September Cover Story, I came across this opinion piece written by New York Lawyer Caroline Aiken Koster in the August 24-25 Wall Street Journal (my favorite newspaper). Based on some local, recent online “debate and discussion” (not on the Deep Creek Times) and the general climate of national and international socio-political divisiveness, I thought I would share this article with our readers.
If you are wondering what this could possibly have to do with our great full- and part-time community in the Deep Creek Lake area, please read-on. As you read the piece think about the veritable melting pot the Deep Creek Lake area is as locals, second home owners and over a million visitors from diverse backgrounds, geographies and socio-demographic segments come together to make Deep Creek Lake a very special place to live and visit. Here’s the article by Ms. Koster, shared here in the spirit of tolerance, understanding and courteous discourse, with some edits to save space. We are all different and yet we are basically all the same…
Pineville, Kentucky
Late summer is family reunion season in Eastern Kentucky. As a child I’d drive with my parents 3 ½ hours south from our home in Louisville to Pine Mountain State Park for the annual Appalachian gathering of the offspring of Abraham Locke and Marth Jane Horn. It’d been ages since I went, and it’s a long way from my current home in Brooklyn, N.Y., but this year I headed back.
My New York friends found this curious. “Do your relatives think you don’t fit in anymore?” asked someone at church. “Does your family all watch Fox New?” my tennis partner wanted to know. “Is anyone black?” wondered my Trinidadian housekeeper. “Don’t forget to tell them you let the Hillary campaign workers stay in your spare bedroom,” quipped a neighbor as I climbed into a cab for the airport.
I told them I was going for a dose of unconditional Kentucky love. I was hungry for the potluck fried chicken, fried corn, fried apples, and green beans sautéed in bacon grease. But I also sought escape from the 24-hour news cycle, the East Coast echo chambers and my like-minded friends on Facebook. I wanted to remind my husband and two college-age sons of the things we had in common with the rest of America.
My ancestors, Scots-Irish farmers probably settled here because it looked like home. They made moonshine and farmed the land where Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia meet. My paternal grandfather was crushed to death in a mine accident when my father was a child. My maternal grandfather lost both legs from complications of black-lung disease. My parents went to Eastern Kentucky University, moved to Louisville in the 1950s, and became teachers.
My cousins – educators, health-care workers, ministers, career military officers, contractors and small business owners – are sprinkled across the South. There’s a lot we disagree on… There was no avoiding tough conversations, no unfriending, no ghosting or canceling. My son Winn described racial profiling in New York. Cousin Diana said the same thing happens to her black grandchild at a nearby Target. Everyone hated racism, but some said it was hypocritical to accept “reverse racism.” Culton, my son, explained “white privilege” to some skeptical looks.
Like many Americans, I’ve been alarmed by studies and polls suggesting we’ve lost empathy for one another. Up in the mountains, love and civility forced us to talk it out. There was no room for identity politics when we sat elbow to elbow at the picnic table. We all knew we had to get along if we want to come back next year.
In the evening, we gathered on cousin Sylvia’s broad front porch. She’s 76 and holds everyone’s hand when she speaks to them. “We love you, sweetheart,” she purred to my beaming elder son. There was liquor there, so long as you kept it outside. Aunt Gertie doesn’t approve.
Touching down at LaGuardia Sunday night, I was grateful to be home. There were five pounds of white half-runner beans in my carry-on and five bottles of Kentucky bourbon in my checked bag. My family was still drunk on corn pudding and sausage gravy. My country accent had crept back, which would amuse my colleagues and tennis partners. I felt the love from a common bond and a connection to the rest of America. I want to bottle it up and share it with my neighbors and Facebook friends, but I don’t know how.
Sep 3, 2019
The Garrett County Commissioners and Garrett College are working jointly to implement a 2.5 grade-point average as the minimum college GPA for students to continue receiving Garrett County Scholarship Program funding.
Beginning with the fall 2019 semester, students receiving scholarship support from the county-funded program must earn a 2.5 GPA each semester in order to continue receiving funding. The previous GPA requirement was 2.0.
“We feel it is reasonable to expect that level of achievement in order for students to receive a county-funded college education,” said Commission Chair Paul Edwards, adding, “The commissioners remain committed to supporting our local students attending our county’s community college, but we also have a fiscal responsibility to taxpayers to ensure their tax dollars are being used wisely.”
In addition to the 2.5 GPA requirement, the revised procedures set up an appeals process for students who do not reach the 2.5 standard. That process will allow students with extraordinary circumstances to petition for a probationary semester in order to raise their GPA to the required minimum.
“The commissioners have been extremely fair in this process,” said Dr. Richard Midcap, Garrett College’s president. “I understand their rationale for the change, and I appreciate the flexibility they have provided in approving an appeals process that allows us to consider special circumstances.”
The change does not impact students who achieved the previous requirement of a 2.0 GPA in spring 2019. However, both new and returning students will have to achieve a 2.5 GPA this fall in order to be eligible for spring 2020 scholarship funding.
Midcap noted that Garrett College has a wide array of support services, including tutoring, and said College staff plan to even more actively engage with students who struggle academically.
“The 2.5 is a more challenging requirement, but we have the resources at the College to assist students who need help in meeting that requirement,” said Midcap.
The program will continue to provide tuition and fee support for eligible Garrett County high school graduates for up to 64 credit hours and any required developmental coursework. Current Commissioner Jim Hinebaugh, who was then the county’s economic development director, was the guiding force behind the program’s launch in 2006 as the first program of its kind in the country.
The program was expanded in 2011 to include non-credit certificate programs and dual enrollment.
Eligible individuals who plan to attend Garrett College may go to the GC website (https://www.garrettcollege.edu/images/admissions/financialaid/gcsp-application.pdf) to obtain a program application.
Sep 3, 2019
The Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) recently awarded Garrett College’s Addictions Counseling program the coveted Statewide and Health Manpower designation.
“The MHEC designation recognizes that this program provides a key tool in addressing a statewide problem,” said Dr. Richard Midcap, Garrett College’s president. “It reinforces the rationale we had for creating this program – to develop a cadre of trained professionals who can help address an addictions challenge faced by our region, our state and our nation.”
As a Statewide and Health Manpower program, students from across Maryland who wish to study in this Associate of Applied Science program can attend Garrett College at GC’s in-county tuition rate. The state reimburses GC for the difference between the in-county and out-of-county tuition rate.
“The primary impetus for the program was to prepare local students for employment in a career field that has strong employment potential and addresses a community need,” said Nicole Nightengale, GC’s assistant professor in addictions counseling. “However, we are more than willing to offer that same opportunity to students across the state at in-county tuition rates.”
Nightengale noted that the AAS program provides both theoretical coursework and hands-on instruction and field experiences.
“Both components are necessary to attain certification as a Certified Supervised Alcohol and Drug Counselor [CSC-AD] through the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists,” she explained.
“The Addictions Counseling program has great potential,” continued Nightengale. “The helping field is very demanding and Garrett College exhibits the high academic standards necessary to prepare students for work in the Addictions Counseling field.”
Sep 2, 2019
Happy Labor Day!
The weather today sounds like “summer weather” to me! Partly to mostly cloudy with a high near 73 and a low around 58. Just a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. West wind around 10 mph.
Enjoy your holiday and we will be back tomorrow with the September edition!