Schulz appointed to Hogan’s cabinetSherry Greenfield

Republican Delegate Kel-ly Schulz said she was over-whelmed when Governor-elect Larry Hogan appointed her sec-retary of the Maryland Depart-ment of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR).

“I am obviously very honored to be asked by the governor-elect to take on this position with a department that seems to be an integral part of what he and I both collectively had talk-ed about during the campaign,” Schulz said. This is “about eco-nomic development and bring-ing the opportunities of more fiscal, economic creative ideas to the state of Maryland.”

Schulz said this was not a po-sition she had been seeking.

“As most of my constituents know, I really enjoy my job as legislator,” she said. “So when the new incoming administra-tion came to me to ask me how I

felt about it, it took a good deal of consideration. But I think it will probably be the best for Frederick County and for busi-nesses across the state. But no, it was not something I went in-to with the intent of becoming part of the administration at all.”

Schulz did serve on Hogan’s transition team.

As secretary of DLLR, Schulz said her main duties will be the day-to-day operations of the state agency.

“Which includes, you know, occupational, professional li-censing, including many dif-ferent industries across the board...,” she said. Schulz will also be “working with the unem-ployment insurance group and the racing commission. So those are kind of some of the different areas we will be managing. And, then we’ll be looking at the leg-islative agendas, policy agendas and regulatory agendas so that

all of those areas are in keeping with our goals to move forward with a positive business environ-ment and perception in the state of Maryland.”

Hogan’s new cabinet also in-cludes: Gail Bassette, president and CEO of TCE, Incorporat-ed, as secretary of the Depart-ment of General Services; Jim Fielder, Bel Air town adminis-trator, as appointments secre-tary; and Sam Abed, to continue his role as secretary of the De-partment of Juvenile Services.

“I want to sincerely thank all four of these distinguished and talented individuals for their willingness to join us in public service to our great state,” Ho-gan said, in a press release. “I look forward to working very closely with each of them over the next four years, as our new team endeavors to put Mary-land on a new path and change Maryland for the better.”

Schulz is the current Republi-can delegate for District 4A. She has been a member of the House of Delegates since 2011.

She has served on the House Economic Matters Commit-tee, Business Regulation Sub-committee, Workers’ Compen-sation Subcommittee, Women Legislators of Maryland, and the Maryland Veterans Caucus. Schulz is also a former federal appointee of the Environmental Protection Agency.

She will assume her new role as secretary of DLLR, after Ho-gan is sworn in as governor on Jan. 21.

“It looks as if I’ll probably be sworn in as a member of the House of Delegates at the be-ginning of the session, and then that process will start once the confirmation process starts,” Schulz said.

The Senate will hold hearings on her appointment as part of the confirmation process. Her new position in Hogan’s cabi-net also means Schulz will step down as delegate. The Freder-ick County Republican Central Committee will choose a new delegate to fill her vacant posi-tion.

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Heritage park improvementBy Sherry Greenfield

Walking and jogging around the Heritage

Farm Park in Walkersville will soon be easier since the town is planning to expand the walking paths.

The Walkersville Town Com-missioners, at their August 13

town meeting, unanimously ac-cepted a bid of $56,750 from Frederick County Paving to build 3,950 feet of new paths. Money for the project will come in part from the state’s Open Space Program. The town will contribute $23,135 toward the project, with much of that money coming from a reserve

fund for park development.“This project is definitely

needed,” Commissioner Debbie Zimmerman said. “This will complete the paths.”

Heritage Farm Park, located on Devilbiss Bridge Road across from Glade Elementary School, already has a 9-hole golf course, baseball fields, softball fields,

soccer fields, two covered pa-vilions, playground areas, and

walking paths.“I think extended paths will

be a wonderful addition to the park,” Commissioner Russell Winch said.

New playground coming

By Sherry Greenfield

The Woodsboro Regional Park will soon have a new

playground, thanks to a state grant of $129,356.

The Town of Woodsboro was awarded the Maryland Open Space Community Parks and Playgrounds Grant to use for the construction of a new, handicap accessible playground.

The playground structure is for children ages 5 to 12.

After soliciting design and pricing proposals from sev-eral recreation design compa-nies, town commissioners vot-ed unanimously at their Aug. 12 meeting to hire playground Specialists Inc., of Thurmont. The company will build the new playground on the south side of the Woodsboro Regional Park, east of Israel Creek.

“The whole purpose of put-ting together this proposal is that we want to start encour-aging usage at this end of the park,” said Commissioner Bill Rittelmeyer, who handled the bidding process.

The company has proposed designing and building the new playground for $126,272.75. They are proposing to use the remaining $3,083.25 to install

new barbecue grills, volleyball courts, and benches at the park - items the town had not origi-nally asked for.

“I asked them not to leave any money on the table,” Rit-telmeyer said.

The company has constructed playgrounds throughout Fred-erick County, including Wood-sboro, Liberty, North Frederick, Middletown Lincoln, Wolfs-ville and Emmitsburg elemen-tary schools. They have also built playgrounds for the towns of Thurmont and Emmitsburg, Fort Detrick, the Brunswick Crossing housing development, and the Middletown Valley Apartments.

Rittelmeyer said the new playground at the Woodsboro Regional Park will not have adult swings or a merry-go-round because of the wear and

tear on the rubber surface. A child swing suspended off the ground and pushed by an adult can be built.

“Swings where kids drag their feet will only tear the surface up and create a maintenance problem,” he said. “A merry-go-round where kids run in the same circle pushing it will wear and be a maintenance problem as well.”

Commissioner Ken Kellar said he was disappointed the playground will only have tod-dler swings. “My only regret is seeing those older swings go away,” he said. “To me it’s a loss of adult swings.”

Meanwhile, Rittelmeyer said nothing will be built until the town has the grant money in hand. “They won’t order a stick of equipment until we have the grant,” he said.

Trimmer praised Rittel-meyer for his work on the bid process.”I’d like to commend Bill for doing this,” he said. “He did an excellent job.”

Computer image of proposed playground

Parking problemsBy Sherry Greenfield

Relief could soon be coming to the residents living along

Frederick Street in Walkersville that are upset with people parking in front of their houses.

The Walkersville Town Com-missioners, at their Aug. 13 meeting, tentatively approved a plan to issue parking permits to those residents living across from the Glade Valley Nursing and Re-habilitation Center on Frederick Street. Issuing permits would al-low those residents to park on

the street in front of their hous-es. Each household would receive two permits.

“I think there does need to be a degree of restricted parking down there,” said Andy Dewese, the town’s code enforcement officer. “They live down there, so they should be able to park there.”

Parking signs are current-ly posted in front of the nurs-ing home restricting the number of hours a car can be parked. But the number of parked cars from nearby Walkersville High School and the nursing home has been

a frequent problem for residents.“There’s a lot of issues down

there now,” Dewese said. “It’s not a huge issue, but I think they should be able to park there.”

Commissioner Gary Baker said permitted parking should be for residents only. Restricted parking should continue in front of the businesses.

“I think the residents will be happy,” he said.

The council decided to take a formal vote on the permitted parking issue when Commission-er Chad Weddle is in attendance.

Weddle, who lives on Frederick Street, was not at the meeting.

On another note, Dewese said as the town’s code enforce-ment officer he has been busy this year investigating complaints from residents on issues rang-ing from tall grass to snow-cov-ered sidewalks. Dewese said so far this year, he has received 260 complaints from residents. That number is significantly higher than the 120 complaints he re-ceived last year.

Dewese, who blamed the win-ter’s bad weather for the rise in complaints, said the frustration comes when residents fail to no-tify their homeowner’s associa-tion first, before coming to him.

“They’re still coming in even if

they have a homeowner’s associa-tion,” he said. “If somebody has a complaint about a neighbor’s grass, go to the [homeowner’s as-sociation],” he said. “If they have [an association] that deals with it, and it doesn’t get done, I’ll take care of it.”

Failure to cut grass is a $100 fine from the town. The fine is posted on the homeowner’s wa-ter bill.

“We get our money,” Burgess Ralph Whitmore said.

Dewese said of the 260 com-plaints, all but two have been re-solved. The complaint process is unanimous.

“I’m not getting many dinner invitations,” he joked. “But it’s going good.”

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State attorney general rules Young’s appoint to Planning Commission invalidSherry Greenfield

Maryland State’s Attorney Doug Gansler ruled on Decem-ber 23, that Blaine Young’s No-vember 30 appointment to the Frederick County Planning Commission is invalid. “Mr. Young was ineligible for ap-pointment as a ‘citizen’ mem-ber of the Planning Commis-sion and thus never validly held the position,” Gansler’s opinion states. Gansler issued his opin-ion after a written request from Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner.

“I am pleased the attorney general rendered an expedit-ed opinion,” Gardner said, in a press release. “This is a victo-ry today for transparency, open government and the people of Frederick County.” Gardner said she forwarded a copy of the opinion to Young informing in of Gansler’s ruling.

Young could not be reached for comment. He has said that he has done nothing wrong

since he had the consent of the county attorney.

At the November 30 meet-ing, the commissioners in one of their last acts in office accept-ed Young’s resignation as liaison, and then immediately appointed him to a 5-year term, creating a new position, “citizen” member. To complicate matters, County Attorney John Mathias advised Young in a November 6 email, just 2 days after he lost the elec-tion to Gardner, how to appoint himself to the Planning Commis-sion. In the email, Mathias draft-ed a motion that enabled Young to resign from his liaison posi-tion and accept his new appoint-ment to the commission. “The motion should state...I make a motion that we accept the resig-nation of Blaine Young from his service as the county commis-sioner member of the Frederick County Planning Commission effective on the date he states and that Blaine Young be appointed a member of the Frederick Coun-ty Planning Commission to fill

a 5-year term effective Novem-ber 30, 2014,” Mathias said. But Mathias warned Young in the same email that “serving as both a County Commissioner and a Planning Commission member likely would violate the Mary-land Constitutional prohibition on having 2 offices of profit.... There are court decisions indi-cating that accepting a 2nd of-fice of profit serves as a resigna-tion from the first office of profit. If these opinions were to apply to your situation, you run the risk of being considered to have re-signed as a County Commission-er when you accept a 5-year Plan-ning Commission term.”

Mathias also prepared a legal memorandum for Gardner in which he concluded that on No-vember 30 Young served in two incompatible positions-- coun-ty commissioner and a member of the Planning Commission. “If Mr. Young were deemed to have resigned from his position of county commissioner, then he would continue to serve on the

Planning Commission,” Mathias wrote. “On the other hand, if Mr. Young was determined to be inel-igible to accept the second office of profit, the attempted appoint-ment of Mr. Young to the Plan-ning Commission would have been void from the beginning, and he would never have become a member of the Planning Com-mission.”

Gardner sent a letter to Gansler on December 9 asking for his opinion. “These actions by the prior Board of County Commis-sioners have created confusion as to whether Mr. Young, in fact, does serve as a member of the Planning Commission,” Gardner said, in the December 9 letter. “On November 30, 2014, Mr. Young served as both a county commissioner and as a member of the Planning Commission.... These are both offices of profit and incompatible positions un-der state law.”

Gardner then asked Young not to participate in any decisions with the Planning Commis-

sion. “The actions of the prior Board of County Commission-ers in attempting to appoint you to the Planning Commission for a 5-year term have caused a great deal of uncertainty and confu-sion,” Gardner said, in a Decem-ber 9 letter to Young. “I do not believe that this appointment was appropriate or valid and have asked the Maryland Attor-ney General for an expedited le-gal opinion on the legality of the appointment.”

Gardner saw problems if Young participates in the decision pro-cess. “Your vote on each case would be subject to legal chal-lenge, and the landowners, citi-zens, and developers of Freder-ick County are entitled to greater certainty in these important land use decisions by the Planning Commission,” she said.

But Young refused to recuse himself, saying his commission-er colleagues at the time wanted to appoint him to the planning board because he already has ex-perience as its liaison

2 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

NEWS

Woodsboro Walkersville Times

P.O.Box 502Woodsboro, Maryland 21798Office Number 240-446-9797

E-mail: WoodsboroEditor@gmail.com

Executive Editor: Ken Kellar

English Editors: Barbara Forrester, Sharon Kellar, and Esther Kline

Advisers: Michael Hillman, Marg Mills

Advertising: Sharon Graham, Nathan Carmona

Graphic Design and Layout: Joann Lee

News: Sherry Greenfield

Historian: Daniel Kellar

News and interesting articles are welcome and may be submit-

ted via regular mail to P.O.Box 502, Woodsboro, MD 21798 or

by email to WoodsboroEditor@gmail.com. To arrange advertising

contact the editor

Walkersville to build new water plantSherry Greenfield

The town of Walkersville is moving forward with plans to build a new $5.5 million water plant. Burgess Ralph Whitmore announced at the December 10 town meeting that they will be-gin the bidding process to acquire a new membrane filtration reverse osmosis system. Reverse osmosis is a type of water purification tech-nology. “The money isn’t secured yet, and it’s going to take months and months, but we need to start

the bidding process,” Whitmore said. Whitmore said, “I do not ex-pect to have any problems secur-ing the money for the new filtra-tion system.” “We shouldn’t have any problems with the banks out here,” he said.

Whitmore said, “the town will not have to borrow more than $1 million. The town will ap-ply for grants to help pay for the upgrades.” To help pay for the new plant, Whitmore said, “the state also suggested increasing the town’s water rates.” “The state said

we should charge 300% more for our water billing,” he said. “We’re cheap, cheap, cheap.”

Customers living within the town limits of Walkersville using up to 10,000 gallons of water pay $50, according to the town’s wa-ter rates. Customers living outside the town limits using up to 10,000 gallons of water pay $75. The fees are paid twice a year. Water meters are read the first of April and Oc-tober. Bills are mailed to custom-ers the first of May and the first of November. Water rates increase

for customers using more than 10,000 gallons.

Commissioner Russell Winch reminded the board that accord-ing to the recent audit the town was in good financial shape.

“Construction of the new plant is expected to take 18 months,” said Gloria Rollins, the town manager. But before building can start, water and sewer plans will need to be amended, and build-ing permits will need to be ob-tained. An engineering study on the new plant was completed sev-

eral months ago. “The first thing is to get it designed,” Rollins said.

The town’s current water fil-tration plant is over 40 years old. “It’s one of these things that ev-ery 40 to 50 years you have to get the ball rolling,” Whitmore said. The new system will pro-vide more water capacity for the town and reduce the amount of money the town is spending on chemicals. Walkersville spends about $170,000 on water chemi-cals each year.

A look back at 2014Marg Mills

With a historic election complet-ed this year within the county, the towns of Woodsboro and Walkers-ville have also experienced many changes within their own central and outlying areas. Here is a wrap-up of the news as reported in the 2014 editions of the Woodsboro/Walkersville Times.

JanuaryA second candidate has an-

nounced his intent to run for the recently created position of Freder-ick County Executive, making for a total of three that have stated they are running. Republic Commis-sioner David Gray has announced December 10 that he will seek elec-tion as executive in the November 2014 election.

The Town of Woodsboro is seek-ing a new town hall. The office is currently located at the Walkersville Fire Hall on 3rd Street and is pro-vided courtesy of the Woodsboro Fire Company. The Fire Company has recently indicated a need for ad-ditional space.

FebruaryThe Walkersville Code Enforce-

ment Officer, Andrew Dewese, a former police officer and Frederick resident, reported 127 total com-plaints for the 2013 calendar year,

24 percent less that 2012. Of the 127 complaints, 89 were voluntari-ly resolved, 26 were determined to not be a code violation, and 12 re-quired town intervention to resolve.

The Board of Education and the FCPS staff are currently working on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2015. This is a long process and has many critical steps.

MarchJason Boyer of Woodsboro re-

cently purchased the building that served as the Glade Valley Mill and an adjacent two-story house on Woodsboro Creagerstown Road, at auction for $70,000. Jason is the sole proprietor of JSB Woodwork-ing, Inc. He lives next to the prop-erty and will use the mill to expand his home-run business.

Frederick County businessman Justin M. Kiska has filed with the Board of Elections to run as a can-didate in the Republican primary to fill one of the two At-Large County Council seats in this year’s election

AprilFrederick County’s June 24 pri-

mary election will be nothing short of historic, when, for the first time, ballots will include candidates for a county executive and a seven-mem-ber county council. After years of failed efforts, voters in November 2012 overwhelmingly approved a

move from the county’s five-mem-ber Frederick Board of County Commissioners to a charter form of government. It is historic because the county’s commission form of government has been in place for 163 years.

The Woodsboro Bank has been a major financial and viable institu-tion for 115 years. The bank, now with seven branches throughout the county, will mark its special birth-day on May 1.

MayWalkersville residents who want

to replace their old and deteriorat-ing sidewalks are asked to contact the town. Town officials are compil-ing a list of residents asking to have their sidewalks replaced.

The Woodsboro commissioners approved a motion to paint curbs near intersections in accordance with the town code. The code re-stricts parking within 10 feet of in-tersections. Several safety concerns were brought to the town’s atten-tion at the April 8 town meeting.

JuneThe Woodsboro American Le-

gion Post 282 hosted the annual Memorial Day parade on a beauti-ful Sunday, May 25.

From the editorTechnology is not knowledge

– During the election campaign last year, I heard politicians on both sides say our schools have to keep up with the latest technolo-gy. I often hear the same demand from school administrators. What technology? New chemical and biological lab analysis techniques? Printed circuit manufacturing processes? Plastic fabrication and molding advancements? Scanning electron microscopes? New pack-aging and printing technology?

The answer is no to all of these questions. Usually administrators and politicians are talking about the latest electronic gadget that has a screen on it. The promoter of the device promises miracles for our students without mentioning all the potential distractions.

One of the latest rages is Pro-methean boards. From the dem-os I saw online, a Promethean board is rather like a giant smart phone with prices measured in the thousands. That’s the initial price. If you factor in the time it takes teachers to learn the system, the time they spend in class fussing with the gadget rather than speak-ing to the students, the addition-al technical support required to maintain it, and the things it can’t or doesn’t do, it looks to me like a really expensive non-necessity.

At the high school level, math, chemistry, and physics have not changed in any substantial way in nearly a century. Biology hasn’t had a development affecting high school classes since the under-standing of DNA (deoxyribonu-

cleic acid) in the 1950’s. Thirty and even fifty-year-old textbooks are more than adequate to cover these subjects. The civil war ended almost 150 years ago, the revolu-tion and founding well over 200 years ago. Shakespeare and Chau-cer haven’t written anything new in a really long time. All that is needed to teach the essential sub-jects that still form the foundation of modern civilization is some chalk, a piece of slate and some dusty old books. A few chemi-cals, lab specimens and some basic equipment would be helpful but not essential.

Next time someone demands the latest technology in our schools, please ask them, “Why?”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Walkersville Calls for ServiceMonthly Summary for Police Enforcement & Activities

Criminal & Miscellaneous

Calls

Traffic Enforcement

Motor Vehicle Collisions

Alarm 4 Citation 21 Accident Report 5

Assault 0 Warning 41 Non-Reportable 2

Assist other Police 6 SERO 7 Total Collisions: 7

Burglary 1 DUI 1 Other Activities

CDS (narcotics) 0 Total Violations: 70Community

Policing5

Disorderly 6 Foot/Bike Patrol 11

Domestic 0 Patrol Check 94

Juvenile Complaint 4 AIRS 137

MDOP (malicious destruction) 2

Miscellaneous 33

Missing Person 0

Theft / Fraud 2

Trespass 0

Warrant / Summons 0

Total Calls for Service: 58

JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 3

HISTORY

One hundred years ago this month January 4, 1915

Watch Night Service – The Watch Night service held at the Walkersville United Brethren church on New Year’s Eve was the largest in recent years. At twelve o’clock, the pastor, the Rev. Paul E. Holdcraft, presented the con-gregation with handsome vest pocket copies of St. John’s Gospel.

Misses Vina Eyler, Mary Finney, and Myrtle Eyler, of Thurmont, are visiting friends in Walkersville.

Mr. J. W. Long was taken sud-denly ill during his convalescence from an operation. He is now do-ing well and able to sit up.

The Reformed Churches of Walkersville and Woodsboro on Friday night gave a reception to the Rev. Ernest Weaver, pastor of the Walkersville church. Addresses were made by the Rev. Mr. Weav-er, the Rev. Arthur Day, and the Rev. Paul Holdcraft, Walkersville. The following numbers were also rendered. Recitations, Miss Ruth Hummer of Walkersville, and Miss Cutshall of Woodsboro; vo-cal solo, Miss Helena Stauffer; in-strumental music, Miss Mary Ni-codemus, Miss Annie McKinney, and Mr. Roy Sheeley. Ice cream, cake, and coffee were served.

January 9Directors of Institution Re-

elected at Meeting Thursday – Directors of the Walkersville Sav-ings Bank were re-elected at the annual meeting held on Thurs-day. The directorate is as follows: C. H. Thomas, B. I. Jamison, N. A. Fulton, M. F. Geasey, M. O. Ramsburg, David Cramer, J. H. Stauffer, C. A. Nicodemus, John Diehl, and A. G. McKimmey.

The directors organized as fol-lows: C.M. Thomas, president; N. A. Fulton, vice-president; Ed-win Devilbiss, cashier; and W. N. Stauffer, assistant cashier.

January 13New Candidates in Field –

This morning one more candidate made his announcement. He is H. Kieffer Delauter, who states that he is a candidate for the Demo-cratic nomination for State’s At-torney. Mr. Delauter was admitted to the bar in 1907 and has been practicing his profession continu-

ously ever since. He studied law under Judge Glenn H. Worthing-ton and has had his office with him since. Mr. Delauter has nev-er aspired for political office. He is a resident of the Middletown dis-trict and always has taken an active interest in political affairs. He has been a consistent worker for the Democratic party in his district. Several years ago he was a candi-date for delegate to the Democratic State convention, and was the sec-ond highest man on the ticket, se-curing 2313 votes. The high man secured 2402 votes. Mr. Delauter carried eight districts in the county. Prior to his admission to the Bar, Mr. Delauter taught school in the county for several years. He is 36 years of age, having been born on January 28, 1878.

January 14Hunting Creek on Rampage –

Reports of high water are being re-ceived from various sections of the county. Hunting Creek, near Crea-gerstown, became a raging torrent. The water rose to about 28 inches on the second floor of the Shryock mill. O. E. Shryock was kept busy moving things out of the way of the rising water. He used a boat in going from the house to the mill.

The water in Hunting Creek was about 15 to 20 feet deep. The bridge over the Monocacy on the Woodsboro and Creagerstown turnpike was impassable, being covered with water from Tuesday afternoon about 5 o’clock until 9 to 10 o’clock last evening.

The high water badly washed the road near the “Red Bridge” on the “Gas House” pike. About 10 feet of the bridge abutment nearest Frederick was so badly washed that repairs have to be made. The high water backed up in the race along the road almost to Frederick.

The high water covered the Is-rael Creek bridge on the Liber-ty pike to a depth of several feet. It reached around the house of Charles D. Harshman on one side, filling a cellar. It was the highest this stream has been for many years.

The County Commissioners have been unable to this time to ascertain the amount of damage

done to the county bridges on ac-count of the flood. It will not be until after the water has receded to normal that they will be able to learn just what damage, if any, has been done to the bridges. All roads leading to them have been greatly damaged, and it will re-quire considerable money to put them back in condition.

A small branch in Catoctin District, near the farm of Cyrus Blickenstaff, washed away a small bridge and the road was torn up for a distance of about 100 yards.

The greatest loss known to the present time to have been sus-tained by the county is that to the culvert near Reich’s Ford along the Monocacy. Practically the entire wall was washed away, entailing a loss of at least $400. The culvert is situated on the road leading from Reich’s Ford to the farm of Harry. B. Witter, and was just built last summer.

January 18Old-Time Butchering – An

old-time butchering party was held at R. W. Stauffer’s near Walkers-ville, on Thursday, which proved a very pleasant affair. The event also marked the birthdays of Miss Cel-la Zimmerman and Mrs. Clayton Zimmerman. There were about 30 persons present. After the butch-ering, a fine collation was served, which included turkey, chicken, ham, corn, beans, tomatoes, pickles, Maryland biscuits, ice cream, cake, and everything that goes to make up an old-time butchering dinner.

There were five hogs killed, which dressed about 250 pounds apiece.

Among those present were: Mr. and Mrs. Clayton Zimmerman and family, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Stauffer, Mrs. Charles Wilhide, Mrs. Gaugh, Miss Medla Wine-brener, Messrs. Joseph Wilhide, Charles Wagner, Ephraim Zim-merman, Roger Boone, and Mil-lard Wilhide.

Mr. Wilhide was head butcher. There were three helpers.

January 18Woodsboro Man Recovers

Turkey that was ready for Oven – “A natural taste for chickens” is the cause of Roy Wilson, his sister, Mary Wilson, and “his gal,” Eliza-

beth Palmer of Walkersville, appear-ing before Justice Miller, at Wood-sboro, this morning, to answer charges of chicken theft and Mary Wilson, also to answer a charge of disorderly conduct, it being alleged that Mary swore at Thomas Cram-er, of Woodsboro, from whom the poultry was stolen, when he went to the Wilson home and walked off with the mainstay of their Sunday dinner in the shape of a fowl yester-day morning.

For some time, Mr. Cramer has been missing chickens and his sus-picions led to Roy Wilson. Yester-day morning, Deputy Sheriff Smith received a hurry call to head for Walkersville, as Wilson was leaving Woodsboro with a bag which “be-haved” in a rather lively manner.

The Deputy, with Deputy Sher-iff Jones, hurried to Walkersville and just outside their place in-tercepted Wilson and the bag. It contained three chickens. Wilson claimed that he had purchased the poultry but after being lodged in jail and an investigation made ad-mitted, according to Deputy Smith that the fowls were stolen.

“And my gal and sister has a tur-key and two more chickens,” he is alleged to have stated. Whereup-on the deputy sheriff notified Mr. Cramer to go to the Wilson home and get some of his missing fowls.

It was when he went to the house and found a nice plump tur-key, all dressed and ready for the Sunday dinner, hanging there, that the swearing which resulted in a warrant being issued for the arrest of Mary on the disorderly conduct charge, is alleged to have followed.

January 20Zeppelin Flies Over Paris, Co-

penhagen – A private dispatch from Berlin reports that a Zeppelin airship sailed over Paris and that an aerial bombardment of the French capital is soon to begin.

January 21Aviators Prove Expert Pilots

and Marksmen, London – Com-ment of the British press today on last night’s airship attack is bitter in tone, many of the London pa-pers assailing the Germans in the same unmeasured language as at

the time of the Hartle-pool na-val raid. The event is being used as a text for editorials urging more rapid recruiting.

The Pall Mall Gazette says that the only fitting answer is the send-ing of fresh armies to the Conti-nent. The Westminster Gazette characterizes the raid as a violation of the rules of warfare. The Globe urges retaliation in kind, urging that there are several flourishing towns within easy reach of British aviators.

There is still a difference of opin-ion as to whether the aerial raiders were Zeppelin balloons or aero-planes, and the weight of opinion is veering to the latter, though a considerable number of observers believe they saw Zeppelins.

At Yarmouth, which is the larg-est of the towns visited by the air-craft, the police today issued a positive statement that the raid-ers were aeroplanes. The small size of the bombs and the few missiles dropped supports the theory that they were not Zeppelins, as those air vessels could carry a much more formidable cargo of explosives.

January 25Father and Son to Celebrate

Birthday – Today, C. E. Smith of Woodsboro and his son, R. Paul Smith, superintendent of the Hag-erstown and Frederick Railway Company will today quietly cel-ebrate the fifty-third and twenty-sixth anniversaries of their birth. Yesterday a reunion of all the members of the family was held at the Smith home near Woodsboro.

Those present were: Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Smith, R. Paul Rob-ert, L.W.C. Beulah, Edna, Nevin, Steiner, and Harry Smith.

Mr. Smith is one of the pro-gressive farmers of that section of Frederick county. His son has been with railroads since 20 years of age. Superintendent Smith be-gan as a stenographer in the of-fice of the Washington, Frederick, and Gettysburg Railway Compa-ny. He was promoted to agent, lat-er to auditor, then general freight agent of the Frederick Railway Company, and then superinten-dent of the Hagerstown and Fred-erick Railway Company, which positon he now holds.

The Walkersville Town Commis-sioners crafted a $3 million operating budget that currently does not call for a property tax increase in fiscal 2015. Commissioners, at their May 14 town meeting, introduced the fiscal 2015 budget, which starts July 1.

JulyWhat was reportedly the old-

est, continuously operating, fam-ily owned restaurant in the state of Maryland is closing its doors after 85 years of operation. The Cozy Restaurant in Thurmont closed its

doors during the first week of June and is up for sale.

The Maryland State Highway Administration wants to reassure motorists frustrated with the ongo-ing construction of the new bridge over Israel Creek on Md. 550 in Woodsboro, that crews are work-ing in earnest to complete the proj-ect this year.

AugustWoodsboro Commissioner Don-

ald Trimmer told his board col-leagues they need to do a better job of planning and tackling town proj-

ects. Commissioner Trimmer told the council they need to put togeth-er a 5-year plan outlining projects that need to be done.

Unbeknownst to the crowds that packed the Walkersville Volunteer Fire company carnival last month, police spent the week thwarting gang-related activity that threatened to disrupt the event. Problems for the police started on June 28, just hours before the start of the car-nival, when Walkersville Resident Troopers responded to a large gang fight at the Sheetz Convenience Store on Md. 194.

SeptemberThe Woodsboro Regional Park

will soon have a new playground, thanks to a state grant of $129,356. The Town of Woodsboro was awarded the Maryland Open Space Community Parks and Playgrounds grant to use for the construction of a new, handicap accessible play-ground.

Walking and jogging around the Heritage Farm Park in Walkersville will soon be easier since the town is planning to expand the walking paths. The Walkersville Town Com-missioners, at their

August 13 town meeting, unani-mously accepted a bid of $56,750 from the Frederick County Paving to build 3,950 feet of new paths.

OctoberThe weekend of October 18 will

see the return of Woodsboro Days. Last year marked the first time in approximately 25 years that a town wide celebration was held to recog-nize all things Woodsboro.

Walkersville Town Commission-er Chad Weddle has drafted new regulations designed to speed up

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

A look back from page 1

4 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

Quarry operationsKen Kellar

The Times visited Laurel Sand & Gravel quarry north of Wood-sboro to get a better idea of the operational situation driving the proposal to close a portion of Le-gore Bridge Road. Quarry man-agers Mike Myers and Jerry Blank described the operations and pro-vided a tour of the facility. When photographing events and places for the paper, I often regret that the paper’s photos must be printed in black and white, but that was not a concern at the quarry. The domi-nant color is gray and on the rainy gray day I visited about the on-ly color to be seen was the yellow of the trucks and loaders with the gray of limestone and steel color-ing the rest.

The scale of operations is pret-ty impressive. The quarry has a Grand Canyon feel to it. The rolling equipment looks famil-iar except it is bigger than what I am used to seeing. The small-est vehicles are the dump trucks we see rolling down our roads. Out in the town they are huge and imposing. In the quarry they look almost toy-like next to the huge loaders and piles of crushed stone.

The quarry produces limestone of various sizes for an array of us-es including: concrete, asphalt and other construction purpos-es. The crushed product is deliv-ered by truck and railroad. Origi-nally, the limestone was burnt to produce lime for agricultural use. The burnt lime would lower the pH of farm fields. Remains of the old lime kilns can be seen near the entrance of the quarry.

I was surprised to see small piles of various sands and grav-els for sale. The quarry sells small quantities of the materials to the public. I thought there would be a minimum order size measured in tons but not so.

The basic quarry operation in-volves bringing large rocks, blast-ed free from the bottom and sides of the quarry, up to the machin-ery that processes the stone. This is done with dump trucks that car-ry about 65 ton loads. Processing consists basically of crushing and sifting the crushed product to pro-duce the various grades of prod-uct. The quarry’s electric bill must be a whopper as all the fixed ma-chinery is electrically powered. The crushers, sifters, associated chutes and conveyer belts cover a signifi-cant area. More area is taken up by the huge piles of product depos-ited by the processing machinery. All this area is above a large region of un-mined limestone. The quar-ry wants to move all that gear over to the Barrick side across the road so they can dig and get at all that covered limestone. The operation after the equipment move would involve trucking material mined from the LeGore side across the road to the processing machinery on the Barrick side. From what I saw, there would need to be a regu-lar flow of trucks during all hours of operation in order to keep feed-ing the hungry crushers.

At the time of printing there is not yet a formal proposal regard-ing the road. For now, the Times would like to thank Mike Myers and Jerry Blank for taking time out of their busy schedule to show us around the quarry.

COMMUNITY NOTES

Remnants of the old lime kilns remain

Emmitsburg’s Rodney Poole refuels one of the large dump trucks.

A dump truck ready to drop its payload into one of the many crushers

A truck drives back into the quarry for another 65 ton load of stone

Some of the crushers and sifters that need to be moved to gain access to good stone beneath

JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 5

GOVERNMENT

Walkersville hosts MML meetingKen Kellar

The Town of Walkersville host-ed the annual legislative dinner of the Maryland Municipal League, Frederick County Chapter, which was held at the Walkersville Fire Dept. Social Hall on Dec. 5. The event was catered by Leiters’. The recent closure of the Cozy Inn Res-taurant in Thurmont necessitated a change of venue from the tradi-tional event location. Walkersville Commissioner Russell Winch, the current MML Frederick County Chapter Chair, arranged and host-ed the event which was attended by about 70 members and guests including representatives from the county’s 12 municipalities as well as several state and county level elected officials. Walkersville was represented by Burgess Whitmore and Commissioners: Baker, Schil-dt, Weddle, and Winch. Woods-boro was represented by Commis-sioners: Kellar, Rittelmeyer, and Spruill.

State MML President and May-or of Chesapeake Beach, Bruce Wahl, discussed the origins of the MML and some interesting facts. The MML originated when about a dozen Maryland municipalities collaborated in 1937 for the pur-pose of maximizing access to the Roosevelt administration New Deal benefits.

Maryland currently has 157 municipalities with the oldest being Annapolis, established in 1708, and the most recent being North Chevy Chase, established in 1996. The largest municipali-ty is Baltimore with over 600,000 residents. The smallest is Port of Tobacco with about 14 residents. Prince George’s County has the most municipalities with 27 while two counties have none: Howard and Baltimore. Of counties with municipalities, the one with the least is St Mary’s with Leonard-town.

The Mayor of Brunswick, Kar-en Tome, discussed the impor-tance of the MML’s legislative del-egation and the current MML priorities. As pointed out by State Senator Ron Young, Annapolis legislative action tends to be driv-en by county issues and munici-palities can suffer. MML acts to counter that trend by sending del-egations to promote municipality interests to ensure state govern-ment includes consideration of its municipalities.

A recent MML legislative pri-ority has been to recover the se-verely reduced access to High-way User Revenue (HUR). Since 2009, the municipalities have received $62 million of what would have normally been $270 million for road and infrastruc-

ture maintenance and improve-ment. The money had been di-verted for other state expenses. Other priorities include get-ting clarification on state re-quirements associated with mu-nicipality comprehensive plans. There is currently ambiguity in the approval and amendment process for such plans. District 4 Kelly Schulz spoke briefly and emphasized the importance of getting HUR reallocated to mu-nicipalities.

A third priority is resolution on how to implement a state 2010 ethics law requiring finan-cial disclosures. MML sees the

need for additional legislation to ensure the required private fi-nancial information is protect-ed and only released to the pub-lic when conditions specifically warrant such disclosure of nor-mally private information.

Newly elected County Execu-tive Jan Gardner introduced her governmental affairs manager, Roger Wilson, who will be her liaison with the municipalities as well as the County Council and the Frederick County Del-egation. Ms. Gardner indicat-ed the possibility of holding a monthly “Mayors” meeting to meet with representatives of the

county’s municipalities. She in-troduced 3 attending County Council members: Billy Shreve, Tony Chmelik and Jerry Donald.

The next state-wide MML event will be the MML annual legislative reception at the Mary-land Inn, Annapolis, on January 14 at 5pm. The next Frederick County chapter meeting will be held on February 26 at Schroyer’s Tavern (Maryland National Golf Club), in Middletown.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Walkers-ville Commissioner Russell Winch for the photograph of Jan and fact checking the article

Jan Gardner at the MML Frederick County Chapter meeting

(photo Russell Winch)

Wendi Peters obvious replacement for SchulzKen Kellar

The Frederick and Carroll County Republican Central Committees should not have a difficult time filling the District 4 Delegate slot soon to be vacat-ed by Kelly Schulz. Kelly plans to resign her delegate position upon her appointment by Gov-ernor (elect) Hogan as secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR).

When Kelly Schulz resigns her recenty won position after Gov-ernor Hogan takes office on Jan-uary 21 we will be losing an ex-cellent Delegate (hopefully for

the greater good.) We will need a suitable replacement for Kelly.

The obvious choice is Wendi Peters. Wendi has Kelly’s strong endorsement. She ran for del-egate in the spring Republican primary and had the highest vote tally of those not selected. She has earned the position through hard work and sharing her views with the community. Wendi is well qualified with a long career in the legal field and 8 years serv-ing Mt. Airy as a Councilwoman.

Unfortunately, the replace-ment process does not give us voters the ability to directly choose the new district 4 Del-egate. We can however commu-

nicate our choice to the political committee members that will be involved in the decision process.

On or about December 22, the Frederick and Carroll County Republican Central Committees began accepting applications for the expected vacancy in House of Delegates, District 4 (Frederick and Carroll Counties). Applica-tions were accepted until 5:00pm on December 29th. All residents of District 4 in Frederick and Carroll Counties were welcome to apply.

FCRCC Chairman JoeyLynn Hough explained, “We are com-mitted to having an open and transparent process. Each appli-

cant will get a fair up or down vote from the entire committee. The Frederick County Republi-can Central Committee has ap-pointed all nine of its members to serve on its nominating com-mittee.”

The vacancy announcement and application materials for the office of Maryland State Delegate were posted on the FCRCC web-site on Monday, December 22, 2014 (www.frederickgop.org.)

After the full committee reviews all applications, the final in-per-son interviews will occur the eve-ning of January 7th.

“I am working closely with the Carroll County Central Com-

mittee and we are both commit-ted to sending only one name to Governor-Elect Hogan to rep-resent District 4,” Hough con-cluded.

If you would also like to at-tend the next Frederick Coun-ty Republican Central Commit-tee meeting and tell them your views in person, their next meet-ing is Jan. 7th at 7:30 at Fred-erick Air, 3 King Ave, Frederick Md.

Below is the contact informa-tion of those involved in the se-lection process in case you would like to let them know your re-commnedation

Frederick County Republican Central Committee

FCRCC, P.O. Box 4133, Frederick, MD 21705 • Email: info@frederickgop.org

Joeylynn Hough (Frederick county chair),

joeyLynnf@aol.com, 240-315-6229

Edward Dacey, Ted.da c ey@gmail.com

Mary Rolle, mary.rolle@hotmail.com

Michael Hill, HillforFrederick@gmail.com

Michael J Bowersox, mike@bowersox.com

Cynthia Ada Houser, cynthiahouser@gmail.com

Cyndi Schaff, cmschaff@comcast.net

Billy Joe Shreve, bjshreve1@msn.com

Darren Wigfield, darren@darrenwigfield.com

Republican Central Committee of Carroll County

P.O. Box 2108, Westminster, Maryland 21158-2108

C. David Jones (Carroll county chair),

gopcharlie@qis.net

Larry Helminiak, larry@goplarry.com

Matt Helminiak, Matt@Helminiak.com

Melissa Caudill, mgover626@gmail.com

Kathy Fuller, elephantsremember@yahoo.com

Donald Hoffman, Donald31446@aol.com

Karen Leatherwood, karenforcarroll@gmail.com

Jim Reter, JReter0155@aol.com

And the final chooser:

Larry Hogan, 2635 Riva RD, Suite 100,

Annapolis MD 21401, 410-934-7007

the amount of time it takes to repair sinkholes opening up in the town’s corporate limits.

NovemberSaturday, Oct. 18, saw the sec-

ond running of the “Woodsboro 5K Town Run” as the kick-off event for Woodsboro Days. The day began with early rain showers but cleared by the 8 a.m. race time and made for good race conditions.

Police say they have no problems releasing information to residents on the criminal activity that occurs in the Town of Walkersville. Af-ter complaints that the Walkersville Resident Troopers need to do a bet-ter job of communicating the num-

ber of arrests they make and type of crimes that are committed, police have agreed to share that informa-tion with residents.

DecemberLaurel Sand and Gravel is pro-

posing permanent closure of a sec-tion of Legore Bridge Road north of Woodsboro. The company recently posted a public notice in the Fred-erick News Post: “ Notice of Intent to Petition.”

Walkersville may start issuing fines against the owners of the vacant commercial properties and empty store fronts that continue to deterio-rate and lay waste throughout town.

A look back from page 3

6 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

GOVERNMENT

From the desk of Delegate Kelly SchulzThere are many changes that

have occurred recently, and all were unexpected. Perhaps the greatest change that has oc-curred in my life is my recent nomination by the Governor-elect to serve in his Cabinet as Secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regu-lations (DLLR). It is obviously very important for you to un-derstand what that means to you, Frederick County and the State.

It came as surprise to me when asked by Governor-elect Hogan to take on the added respon-sibility of serving in his Cabi-net. I was, of course, honored to be considered for the op-portunity, but the biggest con-cern was how it would impact the voters of Frederick and Car-roll Counties who had placed their trust in me to serve them in the legislature. After a great deal of consideration, I realized that I could be a greater benefit to my home county by serving in a higher capacity and could make important changes that

would directly impact families and businesses at a higher level.

It should not come as a sur-prise to anyone that one of my repeated issues throughout the past 5 years has been the cre-ation of a strong business com-munity in Maryland. I have spo-ken about a perception that has spread across the country. Our state is less than ideal for busi-nesses to expand and flourish with the type of job growth that we need to be economically vi-able. Whether this is real or just a perception, it is a problem. Maryland’s ability to attract and retain high paying jobs has been inadequate—at best.

I have also spoken a great deal about the cause of this negative perception. We obviously spoke at great lengths about increas-ing taxes and spending, but we also talked about a regulatory environment that has treated businesses unfairly and without regard to their benefit within our community. We now may have the opportunity to turn that perception around.

The Secretary of DLLR has the opportunity to lead a state agency and create a culture that encour-ages business growth and job de-velopment. I am looking forward to that opportunity, but there is still some work that needs to be done before then, and a process that needs to be followed. It is important for you to understand the process.

It appears that I will still be sworn into office as Delegate in District 4 on January 14, the first day of the General Assembly. The Governor is sworn into office at his inauguration on January 21. A member of the Governor’s cab-inet is required to go through a confirmation hearing in the Sen-ate. This hearing by the Senate Executive Nominations Com-mittee will occur sometime after Governor-elect Hogan is sworn into office. I, along with other cabinet appointees, will need to get the approval of the Senate be-fore we are officially sworn in to our new office.

Assuming this takes place with-out any issues, my letter of res-

ignation will be submitted to the Speaker of the House and the process of finding a replacement for the vacant Delegate seat will begin. The Frederick and Car-roll County Republican Cen-tral Committees will each have the opportunity to send a name to the Governor for his appoint-ment. Each county has a specific process that they will go through in order to identify their chosen candidate.

However, you need to know that my work as your Delegate continues until a replacement is named. Over the past few weeks, I have submitted 14 pieces of leg-islation that have been worked on over the past several months. I also have several others that are in various states of comple-tion. Throughout the summer and fall, we have met with ma-ny constituents about legisla-tion that is important to them and their growth within Mary-land – whether it be education, business, or personal freedom issues. It was very important to work to get these initiatives

started in a timely manner be-fore January 14. The first few weeks of the General Assembly will be filled with getting those initiatives passed on to my oth-er colleagues so that they can take the lead on these issues should I move to a different of-fice. My goal is to have them in good hands by the end of the first week!

It has been a life changing ex-perience to be able to serve you and your family in the House of Delegates over the past 4 years. I am honored to have earned your trust. I promise that I do not take that lightly and will continue to do everything to continue our trusting relation-ship. Frederick is my home. That won’t change. You have a neighbor who will bring your issues directly to the Governor. Please know that I am on your side and look forward to our continued communication.

Happy New Year and God Bless!

Kelly

From the desk of the President of the County Council, Bud OtisDecember 1 we were all

sworn in and then shared lunch at Winchester Hall. Af-ter lunch, we went to the first floor hearing room to hold our first meeting and elect officers. Billy Shreve and I were nomi-nated for the Presidency. I de-cided to accept the nomination as I felt it was time to move in a new direction. Having lost the election for the County Exec-utive position but winning the County Council, I felt that with a split government we needed to get back to the positive issues that helped us win the Council seats. The voters told me they

were tired of the negative cam-paigning and wanted us to work towards solving the County’s business issues.

With the change in govern-ment from County Commis-sioners to County Council members, everyone is learning what the differences are, and we still are not sure of all the finer points. January 6 we will be voting on issues of how the Council is to run and all that we are responsible for. The char-ter gave broad plans but not in much detail. We hope to have a better handle on things after our January 6 meeting.

The first big issue facing the Council is the budget for 2016. The 2015 budget is coming up with a negative balance of be-tween three to four million dol-lars so far. We will not know how bad it is until we get the final numbers from the state on the taxes that were collected from the sales taxes and incomes tax-es. One never really knows until all the final numbers are in, and then we can start to get a han-dle on the budget. The Coun-ty Executive Jan Gardner puts the budget together and then it is sent to the Council. We can move budget numbers around in

the budget to a limited degree, and we can lower the budget, but we cannot raise the budget. It is important that the Coun-ty Executive and the County Council work cooperatively. If we do not, you the voter will be the loser. You sent us to Win-chester Hall to work towards so-lutions not political grandstand-ing. In my acceptance speech, I told Jan that “I would agree where I could agree and disagree when I needed to, but I would not be disagreeable.” That is what I learned in the past elec-tion from listening to our great voters in Frederick County. You

want us to get the job done, and I intend to follow your advice and do just that.

Some votes are not easy and I expected that, I just am get-ting use to the fact that not even your friends will always under-stand your votes. I will stand for the principles I ran on and I will study each vote, and I hope I re-flex your values as well as mine! I am working hard to move the County in a positive way and not dwell on past problems. This is a great County with very smart voters, and I think that’s what they want me to do.

JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 7

GOVERNMENT

David Vogt appointed to House Appropriations Committee

Frederick, Maryland (December 22, 2014)-- Republican State Del-egate-elect David Vogt (District 4) has been appointed to the House Appropriations Committee, his of-fice said on Monday. The Appropri-ations Committee is the House bud-get committee, reviewing legislation related to the State capital and oper-ating budgets and fiscal procedures.

“This appointment provides me with an excellent opportunity to work with Governor-elect Hogan and other legislators to cut spending and budget responsibly,” Vogt said. “We absolutely must get our fiscal house in order, and I will serve as a voice of responsibility and restraint on this committee.”

Spread the News!

Extra copies of the Times are available atTrout’s Market in Woodsboro

and T.R. Sayor Company

in Walkersvile.Get there early each

month. They go fast.

From the desk of Kirby Delauter, Frederick County Council, District 5

The newly formed and elected County Council had its first meet-ing on December 1, 2014. It was more of a symbolic meeting just to discuss a few items and choose the President and Vice President. My vote for President was for Bil-ly Shreve. Billy and I served on the previous Board of Commissioners, and Billy and I thought he was the best choice since he has a good un-derstanding of the history of events that have taken place. He knows the county staff and had a good plan to move the Council forward.

Our first meeting to discuss agenda items was December 16. Several items on this agenda I have problems accepting. One is the Developer Rights and Responsi-bilities Agreements (DRRA) and the second is the appointment of a Board of Education (BoE) liai-son at a salary of $41,000. First, is the DRRA. The County Exec-utive, Jan Gardner, has issued a directive to the County Attorney not to attend the court hearings from lawsuits filed by Friends of Frederick. Friends of Frederick are a group that previously sued the County as much as 18 times and lost every suit they filed. They file frivolous claims that tie up the courts, and they lose ev-ery time. In this case, the main

issues I have are that the coun-ty entered into a contract agree-ment with these DRRA, and now the County Executive is not hon-oring these contracts, which will cause high dollar lawsuits to be filed against the county. Also, Friends of Frederick were huge supporters of Jan Gardner dur-ing the election, which should bring up serious ethics violations as well, since she has determined to not defend the agreements in court for a case brought on by an organization that supported her during the campaign. It doesn’t take a Harvard law professor to

see that if you have a signed con-tract agreement, and you don’t honor that agreement, you will lose in court. Get your wallets out because the County Execu-tive has put us in a very bad po-sition from day one. The second issue is the BoE liaison position. The County Executive hired Jan-ice Spiegel at $41,000 per year to fill this position. This is nothing more than the Executive using your tax money to complete a po-litical payoff. Janice was on Jan’s campaign team, and this position is a payback for her support; plain and simple. We have two very in-

telligent teachers that were elect-ed with Jerry Donald and Jessi-ca Fitzwater. My question is, why can’t they be the BoE liaison since they are paid by the BoE and are now being paid by the taxpayer for their role as Council mem-bers? They are more than quali-fied, and it would cost the county taxpayer $0 instead of additional dollars to do so.

These are my concerns right out the gate. We will be discuss-ing these, and I will continue to shed light on any fiscal issues I feel are not in the best interest of Frederick county.

County Council Members (left to right) Jerry Donald, Jessica Fitzwater, Tony Chmelik, President Bud Otis, Billy

Shreve, Kirby Delauter and M.C. Keegan-Ayer

The invocation preceding the Dec. 1 swearing in of the County Council members and Executive held at the Weinberg Center.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

from all of us at the

Woodsboro Walkersville Times

8 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

COMMENTARY

You can’t go home againMarg Mills

It had been 40-plus years since IIt had been 40-plus years since I returned to the house where I grew up. During those years, I had passed by it many times, looking for a “for sale” sign that might mean my family could buy it. In fact, my late husband used to go by the house too, saying that if the house my grandfather had built on Fairview Avenue ev-er became available, we would try to purchase it.

A few years ago, the sign was posted in the front yard. Finally, I thought, I might be able to go home again. Although my hus-band had passed away a few years before that, I was still very inter-ested. It’s a big house, and surely we could make it into two living areas, like our present home has, and my daughter and her fami-ly could live in one, and I would live in the other. We were all ex-cited, especially since I had talked about the house, and my family

had only pictured it for years, nev-er actually seeing it. An added bo-nus would be that we would live closer to all of our jobs in Fred-erick.

We called the realtor, made the appointment, and arrived full of high expectations. Now I wasn�t naïve enough to think it hadn�t changed over the past 40 years. The original family, who pur-chased it from my grandmother, had raised a family there. And, I knew that it had probably been renovated to suit their needs. So, I thought I was prepared. I wasn’t.

We walked up the steps to the front door, and the wrap-around porch hadn’t changed. It had been a great place for my brother and me to play when all the neighbor-hood kids came over on a rainy day. It still was, and I remem-bered all the games of mother-may-I, red light blue light, jacks, hopscotch, and even jump rope we had played on that porch. I thought it would be great for my granddaughter when she had

friends over, and they wanted to play outdoors. So far, so good….

However, when we walked in-to the front entry hall, that all changed. Nothing seemed the same. A wall had been taken down to eliminate a small pan-try between that room and the kitchen. Before, the pantry had housed a washing machine (a wringer one, of course) that my grandmother pulled out into the kitchen on Mondays. Back in the day, Mondays were always “wash days” and Tuesdays she did all the ironing.

All right, we could do without the small laundry room. I was sure it had been relegated to an-other, probably more convenient part of the house. We went into the kitchen next. What a change that was. Growing up, the kitch-en had been my favorite room in the house. Back then, it was a huge space, with a large table and chairs in the center, enough room for at least eight to sit and eat comfortably. Along one wall had stood a large Home Com-fort wood and coal range, with the hot water heater attached to one side. In the winter that heat-er was warm on the outside, and from the time I can remember, I always had a small rocker in the corner, where I felt warm and cozy and could rock and read on a cold winter day. I also did most of my homework in that corner. Now, it was just a large room with some cabinets, an

electric stove, and a refrigerator. No memories for me there.

Next, we went into what had been our formal dining room, where as a family we gathered for all our evening meals. The room had been turned into more of an office/sitting room, not at all what I remembered. Going upstairs was another disappointment for me. The large front bedroom, the room that had been my grandpar-ents’ room (and off limits to us kids) had changed from an adult bedroom into one for a young girl, wallpaper and two twin size beds. The other bedrooms were somewhat changed, too, one with built-in bookcases for a library. The large back bedroom, the one that had been mine, now was a master bedroom. But it still had the doorway that led out to the balcony, where I had spent many hot nights swinging in a hammock tied to the railings. We didn’t have air conditioners then as the house always seemed to stay cool on hot summer days.

Then we went to the back-yard. I wouldn’t have recognized it at all. The back porch was no longer there as it had been years ago, and the yard, which had two wonderful cherry trees, just right for climbing, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, a large garage had been built in the yard. The lady who now owned the house was sitting in the backyard. I spoke to her for a few minutes, explain-ing that I had previously lived

there. She told me that her hus-band had passed away the year be-fore and that she would be leaving many wonderful memories be-hind when she made the move to live with her daughter in southern Maryland.

Looking around the neighbor-hood as we left, not much on the outside had changed, except the families that now lived in the houses. No longer would I be able to sit on that porch and see the Reberts, or the Carmacks, or even the Kellys. They were all gone; all the people who had made that a neighborhood when I lived there. The families there now are mak-ing their own memories. My fam-ily left that day to discuss the pos-sibilities. We agreed that it would be hard there to have two separate living spaces, which we now have and really enjoy. Ultimately, they decided to stay just where we are. I agreed.

“You can’t go home again,” is the first line of a country song called “The House that Built Me.” And it’s true. That house on Fair-view, the one where my grandfa-ther and grandmother raised their family, and later where I grew up, was the house that built me. But I’ve moved on. The memories will always be sweet. But I don’t have to live there to remember how much fun we had there back in the day. I went back. I saw it. I re-membered. And now I’m content, continuing to make memories right where I am in Walkersville.

Family roomThe American dreamChandra Bolton

This time of year, Martin Lu-ther King Jr.’s speech about his dream for America is on ev-eryone’s mind. He hoped for an America where we were all judged by “…the content of our character….” While his an-cestors did not choose to come here, many others did. What dream brought them to Amer-ica? What does make America unique?

For some, the word unique implies superiority and sets off an outraged storm of criticism. I am better than you; therefore, I don’t have to respect your life, property, etc. I can use you for my own ends, as a thing instead of a person. How sad that we cannot acknowledge our amaz-ing national heritage without this attempt to stifle any justi-fiable pride in our accomplish-ments as a nation.

Every nation has pride based in its culture. Watching a recent movie about chefs in France, the pride the French have in their cuisine, was a major theme. The prestigious Michelin stars for restaurants are French. That country also has a government

language police to enforce laws requiring all published works, even advertising, to be trans-lated into French. The number of non-French songs on the ra-dio is limited. And while I am personally appalled by the idea, especially the infringement on personal liberty, the French view this agency as necessary to pro-tect their culture.

I think Americans are unique because we bring to this coun-try the best traditions and val-ues of our original homes. Those who immigrated were character-ized by a desire for freedom: po-litical, economic, or religious; each new arrival had a desire to choose their own destiny. Com-bined with a willingness to take risks, they joined hope for a bet-ter life with sacrifice and hard work. A clear vision that enabled them to see what life would be like if they stayed in the world they knew. They chose to set out in hope.

I would argue that a strong practical streak, creativity in solving problems, and a willing-ness to work hard are key parts of our national character. As Amer-icans moved westward, they had to create their homes, business-

es, and farms with only the tools they could carry and the natural resources around them. If they needed something, they made it themselves. This is still an American strength. My grand-pa made his own woodworking tools using electrical motors and other spare parts salvaged from equipment that had broken. In the tradition of immigrants who moved out onto the frontier, he could make or do most every-thing necessary to provide for his family.

On the frontier, neighbors banded together to help. This is still a tradition here. When we needed fences in our neigh-borhood to contain all the ac-tive toddlers, all the neighbors got together to do the work. The same cooperation extended to flooding during a big storm. We were all outside, in the rain, dig-ging out stopped up ditches and drainage pipes to keep the water out of each other’s basements.

Education is another big part of achieving the Dream. Better-ing your situation through learn-ing new skills has always been important to us. Whether find-ing a mentor to teach you the skills you need, attending com-

munity college, or a university, that push to learn is part of the American spirit. There are ex-cellent universities many places in the world, but the idea that everyone can get a college edu-cation is uniquely American. This idea has led to an exten-sive network of world class ed-ucational institutions. Commu-nity colleges often provide that first step, not just for local resi-dents, but attract those from all over the world who need a start on a better life. My son took a chemistry course at a local com-munity college. His study group included young people from Ko-rea. Strongly motivated, they ex-plained that if they didn’t make straight A’s, they would have to return home to poverty. Educa-tion was the only chance to lift themselves, and their families, out of that world. Though not yet American, school was truly a chance at the Dream for them.

None of this implies that in-dividuals in other countries don’t value, or possess, the desire for education, ability to work hard, or willingness to sacrifice. Watching any Olympic event will show these are international virtues. However, Americans be-

lieve that everyone is capable of achieving the Dream. Not just the rich or the gifted or those born into the right families--ev-eryone. And once you do, it is time to reach out to those who need a little help.

Spread the News!

Extra copies of the

Times

are available at

Trout’s Market

in Woodsboro

and

T.R. Sayor Company

in Walkersvile.

Get there early each

month.

They go fast.

JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 9

ARTS

A local celebrityKen Kellar

At noon on a mid-December Saturday, I tuned into WFMD (am 930) to see if The Forgotten Men had finally been forgotten. And so it had, I think because the hosts appeared to run out of material af-ter their first show. I would tune in from time to time hoping they would change their talking points. Unfortunately, the few samples I experienced all blended together. I found myself forgetting to tune in and thought the show title to be quite appropriate. This time how-ever, a new show was on called Suc-cess Matters. I was surprised to hear that one of the two hosts was Jen-nifer Charlton who lives on Angus way off of Coppermine Rd. just outside of Woodsboro. You may re-member Jen as she ran for County Council at Large in the last spring Republican primary. She lost that race but did win the Miss Mary-

land pageant in 1985. Presently she is Executive Director of Mission of Mercy, a $2.4 million healthcare organization. Jen’s co-host is Cyn-thia D. Miller, President of Miller.Omni.Media, Inc.

I asked Jen and Cindy how they happened to end up on a radio show. Cindy explained, “Jen and I were introduced at a fundraiser event several years ago. The hosts knew that she had worked for Han-na Barbera and I had worked for Disney, so they assumed we would hit it off. We did, and we had been looking for a way to work together in production for years.

“Last summer, I mentioned to her that I had met with WFMD to discuss creating a talk radio show in which I would interview top en-trepreneurs in the area. Jen told me that she had worked at WFMD and had also wanted to produce a talk show. We decided to partner on the venture and after speaking

with other trusted colleagues and WFMD management, we created the concept for Success Matters! Our first show aired Saturday, De-cember 6, 2014.”

So what is the show about? “Suc-cess Matters! is a show designed to inform our listeners not only about the fascinating businesses and orga-nizations that exist locally, but also about the truly intriguing – and in-spiring – stories of the people who created them. We are finding that though there is no one perfect path to business and personal success, there ARE common traits among the people who reach and sustain their ultimate goals in life. Tune in every Saturday from noon to one to learn from the most amazing people you’ll ever meet!”

Jen and Cindy have both led very interesting business lives and you can read more about them and their show on the WFMD website.

An Agatha Christie classicWay Off Broadway’s 2015 sea-

son opens with And Then There Were None, a classic murder mystery by the one and only Ag-atha Christie. Previously known as Ten Little Indians, ten strang-ers are trapped on an island. One by one they are accused of mur-der; one by one they start to die. One by one, statuettes of little soldier boys on the mantel fall to the floor and break as those in the house succumb to a diabolical avenger. In this mystery, a nurs-ery rhyme tells how each of the ten “soldiers” met his death un-til there were none. It all begins when a mysterious voice accuses each of having gotten away with murder and then one drops dead - poisoned. One down, nine to go.

The novel, And Then There Were None, was first released in England in 1939 and is con-sidered by many to be Christie’s masterpiece. By 2009, the book was Christie’s best selling work,

with over 100 million copies sold, also making it the world’s best selling mystery.

Several years after the book was published, Christie adapted the story for the stage. The play, with a new ending, different from the novel, opened in London in 1943. The following year, a pro-duction opened on Broadway.

Bringing Agatha Christie’s characters to life on the stage is a cast that is made up of actors from the tri-state region. Veter-an Way Off Broadway perform-ers include Sarah Biggs as Ve-ra Clythorne, Jessica Billones as Emily Brent, Matthew Craw-ford as Philip Lombard, Bill Kis-ka as General MacKenzie, and Jordan B. Stocksdale as William Henry Blore. Making their Way Off Broadway debuts are Dino P. Coppa, Sr. as Judge Lawrence Wargrave, Timothy M. Day as Dr. Armstrong, Joseph Leon as Rogers, Matt Provance as Antho-

ny Marston, and Amanda Spell-man as Mrs. Rogers.

Way Off Broadway’s produc-tion runs January 9th – Febru-ary 28th with performances every Friday and Saturday evening and matinees on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sunday of each month. In the eve-nings, guests arrive at 6:00 p.m. for dinner with the show begin-ning at 8:00 p.m. For the mat-inees, doors open for lunch at 12:30 p.m. with the show begin-ning at 2:15 p.m. Ticket prices vary by performance with Friday evenings and Sunday matinees be-ing $44 for dinner and the show and $48 on Saturday evenings.

To purchase tickets, one can stop by the theatre in person or call the Box Office at (301) 662-6600. For additional informa-tion about And Then There Were None, or any of Way Off Broad-way’s productions, including its one-of-a-kind Children’s Theatre, visit www.wayoffbroadway.com.

Jen Charlton and Cindy Miller, co-hosts of Success Matters!

10 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

LIBRARY

A PAge from WAlkersville librAry57 West Frederick Street, Walkersville, MD (301) 845-8880

New events for a new yearLinda Murray

A new year brings new possi-bilities and there’s no better time than January to introduce yourself to all that your library in Walk-ersville has to offer. If you have a little one, start the year with a memento of the one before at the Time Capsule Noise Makers program on January 6 at 11 a.m. Geared toward toddlers, attend-ees are encouraged to bring along small mementoes, which will be used to make a personalized tam-

bourine to take home and keep. At the end of the month on Jan-uary 29, we’ll be celebrating Na-tional Puzzle Day for preschoolers with special activities planned for those ages 3 to 5 years.

Also, in recognition of Nation-al Fitness Month, the January cal-endar has activities for all ages. Everyone can benefit from a les-son in Chair Exercises on Janu-ary 10 at 10:15 a.m., where we’ll be learning how to make the most of all those hours spent sitting in front of TVs and computers. Teen

Potterheads can live out their fly-ing fantasies (sort of ) in a Quid-ditch match on January 24 at 10:15 a.m., and little ones can find their happy place with a spe-cial Toddler Yoga class on January 17 at 10:15 a.m.

Beyond that, the month will be filled with our usual schedule of story times from Babies with Books (Mondays at 10:05 a.m.) and Transition to Twos (Mondays at 10:45 a.m.) to Time for Twos (Tuesdays at 10:05 a.m.) and Pre-school Story Time (Wednesdays

and Thursdays at 10:15 a.m.). Sci-ence at Sundown returns on Janu-ary 13 at 6:30 p.m. for elementary school kids and our new Side by Side – Stories and STE(a)M story time runs at lunchtime on Thurs-days at 1 p.m. Teen programming continues on Monday, Wednes-day and Thursday afternoons with a variety of activities for those ag-es 12 to 18 years, and our spe-cial homework club, Pizza Your Homework recommences in the new year on Thursday evenings at 6:30 p.m.

Finally, adult patrons of the li-brary might have noticed in the past few weeks that their section of the library is looking well cared for – this is due to the arrival of Katie Thompson, our new adult reference person on staff. Katie is new to us at Walkersville but has been working in the Freder-ick County public library system for some time in the Middletown branch. So if you do drop by the library in the new year make sure to say hi to Katie and all the rest of the staff – we’re excited to see you.

The Thurmont Regional LibraryEditor’s Note: I recently discov-

ered the Thurmont Library during early voting. I knew it was there, but I had never visited. Well, the new building is amazing. Forget about books; it’s worth a trip just to experience the beautiful architec-ture. The facility is larger than our Walkersville library and, according to Tammy who works there, under-utilized. Here are some of the things going on in January:

Special Programs for Children and Teens

For Preschoolers - Playdough Playtime! Chase away winter blues and explore homemade playdough with your child! Help develop fine motor skills and have creative fun. Children ages 18 months-4 years with an adult. Friday, January 16, 10:30am. Register online at fcpl.org or call 301-600-7212.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math): Future-makers: Drawing Machines: Cre-ate miniature electromechanical creatures that draw fantastic pat-terns or wiggle all over. Children Grades 3-7. Note: this program is 90 minutes. Saturday, January 17,

1:00pm-2:30pm. Register online at fcpl.org or call 301-600-7212.

Preschool Power: Fairy Tales and Fables: An afternoon of fun for our preschool friends. Enjoy some favorite stories, and then take an active role in acting them out! Along the way, you just might learn a lesson or two. Tuesday, Jan-uary 20, 1:30pm-2:15pm. Regis-ter online at fcpl.org or call 301-600-7212.

Snowmen at Night: Have you ever wondered what snowmen do at night? Find out at the library and then make your own snow-man sock craft. This program for all ages will be presented twice. Monday, January 26, 1:00pm and Tuesday evening, January 27, 6:30pm. Register online at fcpl.org or call 301-600-7212.

Teen Volunteer Corp: All teens, aged 12-18, are invited to a Teen Volunteer Corp (TVC) in-formational meeting. The TVC collaborates with staff on special projects throughout the year. You might find yourself helping with children’s activities and programs or using your art skills for dis-plays and crafts. Earn school ser-

vice hours too. This is a good way to get work experience and meet new people. To learn more, join us Thursday, January 8 at 5:00pm. Register online at fcpl.org or call 301-600-7212.

STEM for Teens: Trivia Con-test and Cupcakes: Have fun test-ing your STEM skills with our trivia challenge. There will be prizes, plus everyone gets to dec-orate (and eat) a cupcake! Thurs-day, January 15, 5:00pm. Register online at fcpl.org or call 301-600-7212.

Special Programs for AdultsComputer Basics Series - A new

session of our Computer Basics se-ries begins Wednesday, January 7, with volunteer Mike Mathis. This 3-session series features computer labs teaching specific basic com-puter functions with step-by-step instructions. Sessions include in-formation on using personal and library computers. There will be opportunities to ask questions. Attendance at all three sessions is strongly encouraged. Classes are held in the Thurmont Library small meeting room. Winter ses-

sion dates are January 7, February 4, and March 4. Please call 301-600-7212 to register.

Two Free Job Assistance Opportunities

Drop in! Goodwill of Monoca-cy Valley and the Thurmont Re-gional Library partner to provide free job counseling every first and third Tuesday. This includes one-on-one help with interviewing, resume writing, online applica-tion help, and computer train-ing. Can’t make it to the work-shop? Jobs Assistance Packets are available at the information desk during open hours. This com-munity partnership was created to help place people in job situ-ations. Thurmont Library small meeting room. Tuesday, January 6 and Tuesday, January 20, between 3:00pm and 5:00pm.

A free Job Seekers Success Workshop sponsored by the Maryland Workforce Exchange will be held at the library on Fri-day, January 31 at 1:00pm. Vis-it www.fcpl.org to register or call the library at 301-600-7212. The workshop will provide valuable, practical advice for those who

need a job or job change. Instruc-tions will be included on how to utilize the Maryland Workforce Exchange Virtual One Stop web-site. This is a pilot outreach pro-gram from the State of Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Frederick County Workforce, and Frederick County Public Libraries.

Free Income Tax AssistanceBeginning January 31 through

the end of March, trained vol-unteers will provide free assis-tance at the Thurmont Library on Wednesday evenings and Satur-days. Through the IRS VITA pro-gram, median to low-income tax-payers are able to access free tax preparation services for simple re-turns for individuals earning less than $51,000 annually. Drop in times are: Wednesday: 2:00pm-7:30pm, Saturday: 11:00am-4:00pm.

For more information, contact Linda Frydl, Li-brary Associate, Thurmont Regional Library;lfrydl@freder-ickcountymd.gov or 301-600-7212.

Spread the News!

Extra copies of the Times are available atTrout’s Market in Woodsboro

and T.R. Sayor Company

in Walkersvile.Get there early each

month. They go fast.

JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 11

SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY

New WHS theatre students present two productions in JanuaryErik Secula

Fresh off the success of WHS Theatre’s production of A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the theatre department will present two full-length productions from their brand new actors in the Introduction to Theatre Class. The class will present Murder in the Knife Room and Disney’s High School Musical, both in January 2015. These one-time-only performances will showcase WHS The-atre’s newest talent.

Murder in the Knife Room is a comedic full-length play directed by senior Advanced Theatre Production student Dakota Rosell. Join us at the WHS stage for

a murderous whodunit, where any one of the cast members could be the killer! The show will be per-formed on Monday, January 12, at 7:00pm. Tickets are available on-line at http://whstheatre.seatyour-self.biz/.

High School Musical, directed by senior Advanced Theatre Production students Miranda Secula, Hanna McWilliams, Emily Goins, and Annie Moreno, is a full-length musical based on the blockbuster Disney movie. Tap your toes to “We’re All in This Together” and cheer as the Wildcats battle their foes on the bas-ketball court. The show will be performed on Thurs-day, January 22, at 7:00pm. Tickets are available on-line at http://whstheatre.seatyourself.biz/.

WHS student run out of town on a rail? No, just WHS students practicing for

an upcoming show

Have You Met…Kathryn Zimmerman Nicodemus

Hometown: WalkersvilleFamily Members: Charles A., husband; Kathryn N. Baker, daughter, and husband, Gary; John C. Nicodemus, son, and wife, Ellen; five granddaughters and one grandson, and four great-grandchildren.Occupation: RetiredFavorite Food: Roasted chicken with all the trimmings Favorite Restaurant: Gladchuk’sFavorite Movie: “Sound of Music” In My Spare Time: Read, sew, garden, and play piano and organBiggest Pet Peeve: Barking dogsTwo people I would like to invite to dinner: Past President George W. Bush and wife, LauraThree things I would take on a desert island: My husband, Charlie, suntan lotion, and foodThree unnecessary things I carry in my pocket: I don’t carry unnecessary items.

Thank youGlade Valley Community

Services thanks the businesses, churches, schools, organizations, and individuals who contribut-ed generously to our 2014 Holi-day Toy Shop. Because of your generous support, 171 children (through age 12) and 77 teenag-ers of 95 families in the Glade Valley area will have a merrier Christmas than otherwise would have been possible.

Special thanks to the Town of Walkersville for use of town fa-cilities, and Self Storage Plus, Walkersville, for their generous donation of a storage unit to store the toy shop items and use of their van to move the toys to/from the storage unit and town hall.

Glade Valley Community Ser-vices, Inc. Board of Directors

Holiday Toy Shop Committee

12 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

HISTORY

Living historyKen Kellar

Artist Jo Israelson has created a beautiful and functional home and work place out of an old building in Union Bridge. She was recently kind enough to share her home and its history with the Times.

Back in 1987, Jo started a search for a studio to support her DC-based art business as a sculp-tor and site-specific installation artist. The studio/ home had to be suitable and affordable. Her ev-er-expanding search circles, cen-tered on DC, finally cut through Union Bridge, Maryland. There she found a building with a very rich history that had been vacant for 30 years. The large building (3500 sq ft) had been the location for the pumper of the local fire company, a store, a theater, and a town hall which included a jail with barred doors and windows.

When Jo bought the building, it had an inch of bat guano on the floor thanks to all the broken win-dows. A number of birds breathed their last in the building, and their carcasses littered the floor.

Jo began recovering the build-ing, starting with shoveling guano and clearing out the dead birds, by commuting from DC on weekends and “camping” in the old property. It took her 5 years to clear the place out enough to start improving the property. A couple more years of work and Jo had a beautiful home.

Years ago, the late Malcom Rakestraw typed up a history of the building for Jo. The following are some excerpts. The building was built in 1884 as a town hall at a cost of about $3000. The town hall was often used as a theater. In addition to local talent shows, a group of players trained in Chau-tauqua, NY would perform as part of their national tours. Admission charges didn’t cover all costs so printed booklets sponsored by ad-vertisers were sold. The first floor held W. L Sponsler’s store. The store sold groceries and kerosene used for lighting homes and the street lamps. A portion of the first floor held a jail whose barred win-dows and doors still remain.

When motorized fire engines were purchased in the 1920’s, the fire company ripped out the wooden first floor and installed a concrete floor atop steel railroad track. That robust floor remains intact. Also, during the 20’s, silent movies were shown in the theater with a local lady providing musi-cal accompaniment. Earle Buckey and Oswald Baker installed a gas-oline engine and electric genera-tor to run the movie projector as the town was not yet electrified.

The Union Bridge Fire Com-pany occupied the building until 1967 when modern equipment required a new facility.

Since then, Jo has converted the firehouse to a studio and home with a series of zones of ever- in-creasing comfort and refinement.

The first floor has a garage feel and is the physical work area al-though the original high, deco-rative, tin-covered ceiling adds some elegance. Jo recently walled up the garage entrance since the roll up door, which is still in place in the rolled-up position, lacked adequate insulating properties. The jail region has been convert-ed into a bathroom. The work ar-ea sports a wood-burning stove which works but can take a long time to heat up the spacious first floor.

The second floor is dominat-ed by a huge finished open studio space which made up most of the old theater/town hall. No garage-feel here with beautiful wooden floors, a 15-foot vaulted ceiling and trimmed with beautiful cast molding given to Jo by a friend.

French doors lead into the co-ziest part of the building, Jo’s liv-ing quarters which include a full bathroom, small bedroom, living room, dining area/kitchen, and a bedroom loft. The multilevel apartment makes elegant use of the original high ceilings. In the loft one round window gives out-side views while an opposing win-dow provides a view down in-to the adjacent studio. The most striking feature of the apartment is the custom made tubular steel railing framing the stairs and loft. The lines of the railing flow beau-tifully.

The tour of Jo’s house was fol-lowed by a walking tour of the town of Union Bridge. Along the way we met Angelo Monteleone, owner of Original Pizza and quite a local history buff. His restaurant has hundreds of historical photo-graphs and items on display. One could learn a lot about Union Bridge while waiting for one of Angelo’s handmade pizzas. When Angelo learned we were working a story for the Woodsboro-Walk-ersville Times, he excused him-self momentarily and returned with an old metal sign advertis-ing Barrick’s & son lime treat-ment, Woodsboro, Md. that he acquired at an auction. The Times informed the Woodsboro His-torical Society of the sign on the chance they might want to pur-chase it from Mr. Monteleone.

While visiting with Frank Tun-zi at the Buttersburg Inn, he hap-pened to notice that his Italian home town of Bari was featured in the Times December edition of Book of Days. Bari holds the re-

mains of St Nicholas and is the destination of pilgrimages.

A striking feature in Union Bridge is down by the railroad tracks. Here sits a vintage train station serving as the Western Maryland Railway Historical So-ciety Museum which is a series of large brick buildings in beautiful shape. The museum buildings are across the street from active rail-way administrative and service buildings. The seamless flow of historical to modern railway fea-tures forms an elegant combina-tion of modernity and history.

While Jo’s primary artwork is stone sculpting, she is also for-mally trained in photography and cinematography. She has com-bined her cinematography skills and interest in her town’s history to produce a couple historical vid-eos. They can be viewed at:

http://vimeo.com/34449570 The Union Bridge Hardware Store

http://vimeo.com/34449201 The 50 Year Game

Our tour of Union Bridge ended with a visit to Jo’s Quaker Meeting House. There, Jo shared a pamphlet describing the Quak-er faith. A few passages describ-ing the importance of minimizing distractions in order to hear God’s “still small voice” caught my at-tention, “To be more receptive to revelation, Friends practice sim-plicity and integrity… Simplici-ty requires clear priorities and of-ten inspires plainness and lack of clutter.” Perhaps I’m taking the Quaker description too literally, but Jo’s focused work as an artist

conducted in her large spacious uncluttered home/studio indi-cates she is doing quite well in liv-ing up to the ideals of her faith.

Many thanks go to Jo Israelson for sharing her home, town, and faith with the Times.

The exterior of Jo Israelson’s historic home and studio in Union Bridge

The 1st floor work area showing the walled in garage opening.

The 2nd floor former town hall and theater now serve as an open studio area.

Ms. Israelson’s multi-level living area.

The elegant lines of the custom-made railing edging the bedroom loft.

JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 13

RELIGION

A message from Pastor Sean

A new year is upon us and what will it bring? Will it be another year of the same or will it become a year of transforma-tion? On the first day of the New Year, many of us will con-template these questions and many will discern the direction our life path should follow. Of course, many things or events will take place in 2015 that we will have no control over. There will be other things and events that we will have absolute con-trol over. But alas, there will be

things that we think that we have no control over but, in re-ality, we will actually have more control over than we may real-ize that we have.

One issue that immediately springs to my mind regarding what I think I have no control over but actually do have con-trol over is peace. Not simply peace within myself, but peace in general. This past year, it es-pecially seemed like there has been a rampant increase in vio-lence and social unrest. We con-tinue to engage in wars abroad while dealing with our own “wars” at home. The continued school shootings, the racial dis-cord, which has erupted with the recent grand jury decisions regarding use of excessive force within our law enforcement of-ficers, the constant bickering, and conflicts between our poli-ticians and our political parties, and the list can go on.

All of these issues can seem overwhelming, and you may say to yourself, “I have no con-trol over such large systemic is-sues as these.” But before you dismiss yourself from becoming

a solution to these larger issues, think again about how you may actually have at least some con-trol in these circumstances. Think about how your response to these issues can influence not only you but the people close to you. Often our response is a re-sponse based on fear. A fear of not having control, a fear of the unknown, a fear of protecting “us” against “them,” and a fear that stems from forgetting that “us” and “them” have all been created in God’s image, and so there is only “us.”

As a Christian, I use the life of Jesus as my example. Jesus lived in a time of political and economic unrest and yet his life exemplified the way of peace and inclusiveness. He heals people, feeds people, and shares meals with sinners and leaders alike. Jesus crossed both politi-cal and cultural borders. Jesus never said that the way to peace is through war, but rather his example shows us that the way to peace is through love.

Some of you may be tempted to get out your bible and point out all of the war and violence

that can be found in the various books. Some of you may want to point out specific scriptures and laws and, yes, you can pull out random scriptures to sup-port practically any view point. But there are biblical scholars who remind us that our scrip-tures are set within the context of peace. The bible begins with the Garden of Eden where God dwells with us. We have many stores of forgiveness like Esau forgiving Jacob. We have stories of people doing good for ene-mies like Elisha healing Naa-man, who was a general of the invading army. We have stories of crossing boundaries and wel-coming the stranger like the story of Ruth; again the list can go on and on.

So how can you promote peace this year? Leave your fears behind; get out of your comfort zone. Learn about other cultures, other religions; make friends with someone who is not of your same socio-economic background. Get to know the “them’s” out there, don’t simply rely on what some-one else says about “them,” find

out for yourself. Volunteer at a shelter, work with a group like “Habitat for Humanity,” mentor a child, visit a nurs-ing home, smile at a stranger, and make a stand against injus-tice. Put your fears aside and see God’s face shining back at you in everyone that you meet. With these small steps we can all make a difference and, yes, we can move towards a world of peace and reconciliation for all. May the peace of God, which surpasses all our understand-ing, be with you all.

Join us on Sunday mornings to hear more about God’s love and good news for us—worship is at 9:00 am at 8 North Sec-ond Street, Woodsboro, Mary-land. For information about our service or for other ques-tions about what you read in this article or about St. John’s United Church of Christ, call the church phone at 301-845-7703 or email Pastor Sean at Pa s to rDeLawder@ao l . com. You may also visit us at Face-book—stjohnsuccwoodsboro—we welcome you to share your thoughts.

When did the church start? (cont.) (Matthew 16:13-19)A few months ago a discussion

was started regarding when the church started. We learned that we can find that the assembly of believers in Jesus Christ, known as His church, started with the Lord Jesus and His disciples. We also discovered that Jesus Christ is the owner of His church, since He bought it with His own blood (Acts 20:28). With this in mind, we must understand that our doctrine and methods are all given to us by Christ to do His work on Earth, which we call the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).

II. The power of the church Just as the church is owned by

Jesus Christ, He also has given it power through His Spirit (Acts 1:8). As we consider the text presented, we must know that this power is the power to con-quer the gates of Hell. Imagine, if you will, the massive city with unbreakable gates that is the City of Destruction (this is not a re-al city, but a figurative one). Ev-ery soul that has ever been born is locked within these gates with no hope of escape because of the curse of sin that keeps them in-side, separated from a holy God. Jesus states that His church alone has the power to march up to the gates of Hell and help lost, sinful souls escape!

Imagine the power that the church of Jesus Christ has at its fingertips! Why do we have such power? Because we have had the Gospel preached to us (Romans 1:16) and bear within us the wit-ness that Jesus is the Savior, the

very Son of God. Jesus alone has overcome death, sin, and Hell! When we tell others about Him and they believe in Him, we have just helped to pull them through the gates of the City of Destruc-tion, using the keys to the king-dom of Heaven: the Gospel itself!

Beyond this power, the church of Jesus Christ has the power to make decisions regarding itself on Earth. The Bible commands many things regarding the ad-ministration, method, purpose, doctrine, etc. of the church, but it allows each assembly to be an independent body that makes its own decisions regarding the things that are not covered. This passage explains that, as long as the assembly is following the rules of Scripture, God agrees with its decisions to bind or loos-en certain things on Earth and binds or loosens them in Heaven. Matthew 18 is a similar passage that speaks on the decision mak-ing authority of the local church (spec. Matthew 18:18).

III. The purpose of the church To conclude, we can also find

the purpose given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Many church-es believe their purpose is to draw in the world by becom-ing more like it to give them the Gospel. They change their mu-sic from God-honoring music to that of the world. They even em-phasize programs, pragmatism, business models, and entertain-ment, instead of the preach-ing of God’s Word! The truth is that the assembling of ourselves together is not for those lost in

their sin; it is for those that fol-low Christ!

The Lord Jesus Christ had one purpose upon this Earth: to seek and to save the Lost (Luke 19:10). Yes, He did preach, heal, and do many other good works, but every action He performed was for the purpose of drawing men to Him. In like manner, when Jesus ascended to Heaven and left His disciples on Earth, He gave them only one pur-pose: preaching the Gospel to the lost and teaching His doc-trine to those that believed in Him (Matthew 28:19-20). Like the Lord Jesus, our church does good works in His name, but ev-erything we do must have the purpose of getting out the mes-sage of the Gospel to make disci-ples. If we fail to do these things, we will have failed to do what Je-sus commanded us to do.

Many believe today that it is enough to simply clothe the na-ked, feed the hungry, and help the sick without giving the Gos-pel message. However, if we fail to preach the message of Christ to others, we are only helping to send clothed, well-fed, healthy people to Hell, and we are fail-ing to please the Lord Jesus in the process. Only the Gospel has the power to save lost sinners, and only Christians that believe in the Gospel for salvation know that it is the power of God un-to salvation, not good works or religion. Because of these truths, it is every believer’s duty to give the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost!

Many others believe that it is enough to simply preach the Gospel to the lost without per-sonally teaching them the doc-trine of Christ. If we fail to do both of these things, we are ef-fectively throwing spiritual in-fants to the curb, leaving them to fend for themselves spiritu-ally. This often ends in spiritual catastrophe for the newborn be-liever since they have no defense against the world, flesh, and Devil. It is as much a church’s duty to personally disciple new believers as it is to preach the Gospel to the lost. Both are parts of the Great Commission and are the duty of every local church; to neglect either one is disobedience to the clear com-mand of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The church has one own-er that bought it with His own blood: the Lord Jesus Christ. We have power given to us by the Lord Jesus to storm the gates of

Hell with the Gospel and make independent decisions that are upheld in the courts of Heav-en. We also have one purpose, which is to get the Gospel mes-sage to the Lost that they might be saved and be mentored and trained to one day tell others about Jesus themselves.

James Bussard is the pastor of Heritage Park Baptist Church that meets at 8 N. 2nd St. in Woodsboro, MD @ 11:30am on Sundays and throughout the week. For questions or comments about this article, please call (301) 304-2127 or write him at Heri-tageParkPastor@gmail.com. For more service times and informa-tion about the church, please go to www.FrederickforChrist.com or call (301) 304-2127.

14 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

FOOD

Celebrate winter and the Super BowlMarg Mills

This year the Super Bowl will be played on Sunday, February 1. The stadium at Glendale, Arizo-na, will be filled to capacity. But also, sitting at home in comfort-able, armchairs and sofas, will be families and friends all waiting for the kickoff.

It’s one of those times when ev-eryone needs to be in on all the fun. So that means even the cook should plan a meal that won’t keep him or her away from the televi-sion for too long.

There are lots of things that can be prepared the day before, refrig-erated overnight, and then put on a buffet table so everyone can eat and enjoy the game. Vegetable and cheese plates are a good example.

A low-country Carolina boil is a hot dish that can be ready to dump in a large stockpot and boiled before the kickoff. It can be made of a wide variety of ingredi-ents, great for cold weather gath-erings, and you can select what to include depending on your tastes. In the southern states, it usual-ly includes crawfish, but shrimp

are just as good, better probably if you’ve been raised in the more northern states.

Using your largest pot, you should start with several stalks of celery. If you place them on the bottom, the other ingredients have less chance of sticking. Red potatoes, quartered; frozen corn on the cob; onion; smoked sau-sages, cut into two-inch chunks; and peeled shrimp (the larger ones are better) are some of the things you can use to make the boil. Just add a box of chicken broth, water to fill pot about half full, and some Old Bay, and once it starts to boil, put a lid on it and let it go until everything is well cooked. When it’s all done, drain and put on a large platter so your guests can select their favorites. (Recipe at bottom.)

Dips and chips are a must at any Super Bowl party. And a hot buffalo wing dip, artichoke dip, or any number of other favorites can be served up with plenty of tortillas and potato chips.

How about some hot chili, that can easily be kept hot during the entire party. Or some sweet and

sour meatballs can also be put to-gether early in the day and left on a low setting in a slow cooker.

Super Bowl parties are not for-mal. They are best attended in jeans and sweatshirts, especially if one of your favorite teams is on the field. It’s a fun way to get together for an evening of enter-tainment and good food and cer-tainly easy to plan and prepare. Just use your imagination, pre-pare ahead, and enjoy the party with your guests.

Low Country Carolina Boil

2 pounds red potatoes, cut in half4 links smoked sausage, in 2-inch pieces2 pounds peeled shrimp6 pieces frozen corn on the cob4 stalks of celery1 medium sliced onion1 box chicken broth2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning1 fresh lemon cut in slices

Place whole celery stalks on bot-tom of pan. Add a box of chicken broth and fill pan about 1/2 full with water. Stir in Old Bay sea-soning. Add potatoes, sausage, corn, onion, lemon, and boil un-til potatoes are about done, about 20 minutes. Add shrimp and boil about 5 minutes until they turn pink. Drain well, pour onto platter.

Buffalo Wing Dip

2 large cans chicken breast12 oz. bottle hot sauce2 large packages cream cheese

1 cup ranch dressing2 cups cheddar jack cheese shred-ded

Saute chicken in hot sauce. Add cream cheese and ranch dressing, simmering on low heat until cream cheese is melted. Stir con-tinuously. Pour into 9 x 13 baking dish and top with shredded ched-dar jack cheese. Bake at 350 de-grees for 30 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips.

Artichoke Dip

8 ounces chopped artichoke hearts4 ounces parmesan cheese8 ounces mayonnaise8 ounces cream cheese2 ounces green chiles

Mix everything together except 2 ounces parmesan. Put in quiche-like baking dish. Sprinkle with 2 ounces parmesan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until brown and bubbly. Serve with tor-tilla chips.

JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 15

BOOK OF DAYS

New Year’s Day festivities

As New-Year’s Day, the first of January bears a prominent place in the popular calendar. It has ever been a custom among northern na-tions to see the old year out and the new one in with the highest dem-onstrations of merriment and con-viviality. To but a few does it seem to occur that the day is a memo-randum of the subtraction of an-other year from the little sum of life; with the multitude, the top feeling is a desire to express good wishes for the next twelvemonths’ experience of their friends, and be the subject of similar benevolence on the part of others, and to see this interchange of cordial feeling take place, as far as possible, in fes-tive circumstances.

Every first of January that we ar-rive at is an imaginary milestone on the turnpike track of human life: at once a resting-place for thought and meditation, and a starting point for fresh exertion in the per-formance of our journey. The man who does not at least propose to himself to be better this year than he was last, must be either very good or very bad indeed!

The merrymakings of New-Year’s Eve and New-Year’s Day are of very ancient date in England. The head of the house assembled his family around a bowl of spiced ale, comically called lamb’s wool, from which he drank their health; then passed it to the rest, that they might drink too. The word that passed amongst them was the an-cient Saxon phrase, Wass hael; that is, To your health. Hence this came to be recognised as the Wassail or Wassel Bowl. The poorer class of people carried a bowl adorned with ribbons round the neighbourhood, begging for something wherewith to obtain the means of filling it, that they too might enjoy wassail as well as the rich. In their compo-tations, they had songs suitable to the occasion. What follows is an example apparently in use amongst children:

Here we come a wassailing,Among the leaves so green, Here we come a wandering,So fair to be seen.CHORUS: Love and joy come to you, And to your wassel too,And God bless you and send you a happy New Year,And God send you a happy New Year!

CHORUSWe are not daily beggars,That go from door to door;But we are neighbours’ children,Whom you have seen before.CHORUSBring us out a table,And spread it with a cloth; Bring us out a mouldy cheese,And some of your Christmas loaf. CHORUSGod bless the master of this house, Likewise the mistress too,And all the little children,That round the table go!CHORUSGood master and mistress,While you’re sitting by the fire, Pray think of us poor children, Who are wandering in the mire.CHORUS

The Penny PostThe 10th of January 1840 will

be a memorable day in the history of civilization, as that on which the idea of a Penny Postage was first ex-emplified. The practical benefits de-rived from this reform, are so well known that it is needless to dwell up-on them. Let us rather turn attention for a few moments to the remark-able, yet most modest man, whom his species have to thank for this no-ble invention. Rowland Hill, born in 1795, was devoted through all his early years, even from boyhood, to the business of a teacher. At the age of forty, we find him engaged in con-ducting the colonization of South Australia upon the plan of Mr. Ed-ward Gibbon Wakefield, for which his powers of organization gave him a great advantage, and in which his la-bours were attended with a high de-gree of success. It was about the year 1835, that he turned his attention to the postal system of the country, with the conviction that it was susceptible of reform. Under enormous difficul-ties, he contrived to collect informa-tion upon the subject, so as to satis-fy himself, and enable him to satisfy others, that the public might be ben-efited by a cheaper postage, and yet the revenue remain ultimately undi-minished.

The leading facts on which he based his conclusions have been detailed in an authoritative docu-ment. ‘The cost of a letter to the Post-Office, he saw was divisible into three branches. First, that of receiving the letter and prepar-ing it for its journey, which, un-der the old regime, was trouble-some enough, as the postage varied first in proportion to the distance it had to travel, and again, according as it was composed of one, two, or three sheets of paper, each item of charge being exorbitant. The du-ty of taxing letters, or writing up-on each of them its postage, thus became a complicated transaction, occupying much time and employ-ing the labour of many clerks. This, and other duties, which we will not stop to specify, comprised the first of the three branches of expense which each letter imposed on the office. The second was the cost of transit from post-office to post-of-fice. And this expense, even for so

great a distance as from London to Edinburgh, proved, upon careful examination, to be no more than the ninth part of a farthing!

The second branch was that of delivering the letter and receiving the postage —letters being for the most part sent away unpaid. Row-land Hill saw that, although a con-siderable reduction of postage might and ought to be made, even if the change rested there, yet that, if he could cheapen the cost to the Post office, the reduction to the public could be carried very much further, without entailing on the revenue any ultimate loss of serious amount. He therefore addressed himself to the simplification of the various processes. If, instead of charging ac-cording to the number of sheets or scraps of paper, a weight should be fixed, below which a letter, whatever might be its contents, should only bear a single charge, much trouble to the office would be spared, while an unjust mode of taxation would be abolished.

For, certainly, a double letter did not impose double cost, nor a tre-ble letter three-fold cost upon the Post-office. But, if the alteration had rested there, a great source of labour to the office would have re-mained because postage would still have been augmented upon each letter in proportion to the distance it had to travel. In the absence of knowledge as to the very minute cost of mere transit, such an ar-rangement would appear just; or, to place the question in another light, it would seem unjust to charge as much for delivering a letter at the distance of a mile from the office at which it was posted as for deliver-ing a letter at Edinburgh transmit-ted from London. But when Row-land Hill had, by his investigation, ascertained that the difference be-tween the cost of transit in the one instance and the other was an in-significant fraction of a farthing, it became obvious that it was a nearer approximation to perfect justice to pass over this petty inequality than to tax it even to the amount of the smallest coin of the realm.

With regard to the third head, all that could be done for lessening the cost attendant on delivering the letters from house to house, was to devise some plan of pre-payment which should be acceptable to the public (so long accustomed to throw the cost of correspondence on the receiver of a letter instead of the sender), and which, at the same time, should not transfer the task of collection to the receiving-office, while it relieved the letter-carriers attached to the distribut-ing office; otherwise comparatively little would have been gained by the change. This led to the propos-al for pre-payment by stamped la-bels, whereby the Post-office is al-together relieved from the duty of collecting postage. Thus, one by one, were the impediments all re-moved to the accomplishment of a grand object—uniformity of post-age throughout the British Isles.’

It necessarily followed, from the economy thus proposed, that the universal rate might be a low one, which again might be expected to react favourably on the new sys-tem, in enabling a wider public to send and receive letters. A broth-er of Mr. Hill had, a few years be-fore, suggested the Penny Maga-zine. Perhaps this was the basis of Mr. Rowland Hill’s conception, that each letter of a certain moder-ate weight should be charged one penny. The idea was simple and in-telligible, and, when announced in a pamphlet in 1837, it was at once heartily embraced by the public. Neither the government nor the opposition patronised it. The Post-office authorities discountenanced it as much as possible. Neverthe-less, from the mere force of public sentiment, it was introduced into parliament and ratified in 1839.

The Whig ministry of the day were so far just to Mr. Hill, that they gave him a Treasury appoint-ment to enable him to work out his plan, and this he held till the Con-servative party came into power in 1841. Having been by them bowed out of office, on the allegation that his part of the business was accom-plished, he might have shared the fate of many other public bene-factors, if the community had not already become profoundly im-pressed with a sense of the value of his scheme. They marked their feeling towards him by a subscrip-

tion which amounted to fifteen thousand pounds. On the re-placement of the Whigs in 1846, he was brought back into office as Secretary to the Postmaster General; in which position, and as Secretary to the Post-Office (to which honour he attained in 1854), he has been duly active in effecting improvements having the public convenience in view. Twenty-one years have now fully proved the virtues of the Penny Postage, under favour of which the number of letters transmit-ted by the Office annually has advanced from 77 to 545 mil-lions, with an addition of outlay or cost on the part of the pub-lic amounting only to fifty per cent. Nor has England alone to thank Rowland Hill, for there is no civilised country which has not adopted his scheme. It was surely by a most worthy exercise of the royal power that the in-ventor of Penny Postage received in 1860 the dignity of Knight Commander of the Bath.

16 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

IN THE COUNTRY/PETS

A Day in the life Frederick County Dairy Princess Katelyn Allen

The cold and seemingly bleak days of January may have many longing for hibernation and the warmth of the indoors, myself oc-casionally included. The world does not quite stop though, and work must go on. This is especial-ly true of farmers across the coun-try, including dairy farmers. Rain or shine, snow or sleet, each day presents different challenges and opportunities for a producer. A day on our farm might go some-thing like this …

First thing in the morning is the first milking. We start at about 5:30 to get the parlor and all the equipment ready and set up. Then we bring the cows over from the barn and begin milking while the stalls are cleaned and bedded up. These measures are taken to ensure that the cows will be as comfort-

able as possible. During milking, another person mixes up the spe-cial ration designed for the cows and feeds the entire barn. Then the heifers, between six months and two years, are fed grain and hay. It usually takes about an hour and a half to complete milking the approximately 115 cows we have. After the cows are taken back and happily eating, the younger calves are fed milk and a small portion of grain. Only when all the animals are taken care of do the people get a quick break to eat breakfast be-fore the rest of the day’s activities.

Every day on a farm brings something new. For example, the herd veterinarian could come to check on the cows or help care for a sick animal. Our vet usual-ly performs pregnancy exams on the cows that have been bred or vaccinates calves. He might rec-ommend different management practices or techniques to improve

herd health. For all farmers, the relationship with the veterinari-an is vital in keeping the herd safe and healthy.

Perhaps after a visit from the veterinarian, in warmer weath-er, someone would plant corn or soybeans, or even bale hay. These field jobs depend on the cooper-ation of Mother Nature and ma-chinery but are necessary so that our animals always have access to quality feed. Just as the afternoon winds down, it is time for the sec-

ond milking of the day, and we get to work preparing the parlor and dairy.

The same milking procedure as in the morning is carried out, and usually everything goes as planned. Cows are chewing their cud, heifers are munching on hay, and calves are settling down. Right before heading in for the night though, we make one last round and may find a cow ready to go into labor! Often she will be just fine on her own, but we stick around to make

sure. Soon, a new, wet baby calf is lying in the straw being licked dry by its mother. We head home in the dark.

While not always easy or typi-cal, a day in the life of a dairy farm-er is quite often exciting. The ma-ny roles filled by today’s producers ensure that their cows are cared for extensively in order that a steady milk supply can be maintained. Thank a dairy farmer today!

Squirrel fishingCharissa Roberson

Amid the happy confusion of opening the presents stuffed in our Christmas stockings, my father laughed. He held out an item he had just unwrapped.

We crowded around to see what it was. The package was a squirrel bungee-jump. Judging from the il-lustration, you tied corn to the end and the squirrels leaped for it, “dis-tracting them from bird feeders!” it proudly advertised.

We all chuckled, the funny gift reminding us of many mirthful memories regarding squirrels. This wasn’t the first time we had played with them. The memories that were now stirred up came from a few years before …

I crouched on the floor with my sister, excitedly breathing in her ear. She was kneeling by our sliding glass door which looked out onto the deck. In her fingers she gripped the end of a piece of twine. The string ran outside through a nar-row slot where the door was cracked open, across the deck, and up onto the rail, where our bird feeders were hung. There was also an open feed-er for the squirrels which was filled with seeds and a few peanuts. The other end of the twine vanished in-side this pile.

We waited impatiently. A squirrel was perched on the edge of the feed-er, his jaws working as he brought paws full of seeds to his mouth. He was a rather large specimen, with thick gray fur and a bushy tail, like a nobleman’s feathery plume, fluff-

ing up over his head. He bent for-ward and retrieved one of the rare peanuts, expertly splitting the shell and chewing the nuts with his long white teeth. The nut was obviously to his liking, for he climbed inside the feeder, searching for another. Huddled by the sliding glass door, we watched with bated breath. The squirrel searched through the pile of seeds and triumphantly produced a peanut.

We giggled with glee. The nut had a piece of twine tied around the middle of its shell; the other end

of this string was inside the house, held by my sister. She waited until the squirrel had wrapped both his paws around the nut, and then she tugged.

The squirrel staggered forward, dumbfounded, as the nut tried to pull away from him. Stubbornly, he held on, his claws gripping the shell, refusing to let go of his prize. Barely controlling our laughter, we steadily pulled back on our end of the string. The squirrel’s back paws fastened onto the edge of the feeder, his front paws greedily clutching the

peanut in a death grip. We drew the string back, tugging the peanut. Fi-nally the squirrel let go. He sprung back into the tree, his tail whipping. We rolled on the floor with laughter while the squirrel retreated up into the branches and scolded furiously.

When the squirrel had vanished, we crept outside and replaced the trick nut, waiting for our next visi-tor. This time, however, it wasn’t a squirrel.

A little titmouse, ignoring the bird feeders, hopped lightly to the open feeder. She proceeded to crack the little seeds. We watched her eat, not expecting any action from the tiny gray bird. Her little beak chewed happily, her wings flutter-ing as she hopped farther into the feeder. The titmouse alighted on the tied peanut. My sister and I stared at each other. We certainly hadn’t expected such a small bird to take interest in our peanut. But the lit-tle titmouse was pecking at the shell.

My sister tugged experimentally on the string. The bird was perched on the peanut, and as it was gen-tly pulled forward, the bird came as well. She seemed unbothered by the fact that her snack was mov-ing. Perplexed, we began pulling the string in. The titmouse rode the nut like a skier all the way down onto the deck planks, balancing skillful-ly. Her little claws gripped the shell tightly, and she started pecking furi-ously at the string tying the nut. The peanut was halfway to the glass door when the bird’s little beak severed the string. The titmouse gripped the nut in her claws and flew off.

My sister and I stared at each oth-er for a second and then laughed. Beaten by a little gray titmouse! To recompense for our tricks, we went out and filled the feeder with two handfuls of peanuts, no strings attached, thanking our backyard friends for playing with us.

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JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 17

IN THE COUNTRY/PETS

January FFAElizabeth Knight

There are lots of exciting fund-raisers happening in the coming months to help support your lo-cal FFA chapter. These fundrais-ers help Walkersville FFA not on-ly raise funds for our chapter, but they also help us branch out and involve the community in what we do.

Walkersville FFA is hosting their annual Clayton Lenhart Me-morial Sausage Grind on Friday, January 23. This event is proudly sponsored by the Walkersville FFA Alumni. They are providing regu-lar and hot Italian sausage. The sausage costs $3.00 per pound and you can buy them either loose or in a link. All of the proceeds ben-efit the Clayton Lenhart Scholar-ship Fund. If you are interested in helping out, sausage can be pur-chased from now until January 7. To order, call 301-845-8364 or email walkersvilleffaalumni@ya-hoo.com. Orders are to be picked up on January 23 between 3 and 8 pm in the Ag department.

November/December’s citrus sale brought in great results! We sold a total of 190 cases of mixed nuts and citrus such as navels, tan-gelos, juice oranges, red grapefruit, and a holiday gift pack which in-cludes: oranges, apples, apple but-ter, peanuts, cashews, and peanut brittle. We will also be hosting a strawberry sale coming at the end of January into February. Con-tact Walkersville FFA at 240-236-7345 for more info on these up-coming sales.

For the December chapter meeting, members were to get into teams to participate in team building exercises. First the teams were to wrap an item they were given in newspaper. The team with the best wrapping job was given a prize. Then members were given popcorn and string, and they were to see which team could string the most popcorn in a certain amount of time. This ac-tivity helped members learn how to work together to accomplish a

similar goal. An important part of FFA is learning leadership and teamwork so the chapter officers have found ways to teach these qualities to the members in fun and creative ways. President Eve-lyn Etchison said, “We wanted to incorporate teamwork and fun in-

to our meeting so we decided to use a couple of fun, Christmas activities to do it.”

For more information about FFA check out www.mdffa.org and www.ffa.org or contact your local chapter.

An FFA team building exercise

18 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

ASTRONOMY

Outside - It makes all the difference.Mrs. Richards was my 5th

grade teacher. In 1964, she gave my class a hand drawn star map of the winter sky and the constel-lations that mapped the winter heavens. She drew it herself and ran off the blue-lettered copies on an ancient mimeograph machine. (For those of you old enough, you remember the fumes!)

Orion, the Hunter, dominated the sky. You could follow his belt upward to the evil red eye (Al-debaran) of Taurus, the Bull, and downward to the brightest night time star (Sirius) that marked the nose of Canis Major, the Big Dog. The Winter Triangle stars. The Winter Circle stars. We lived in rural Ohio, an area where you could see the constellations that Mrs. Richards drew. Yes, we had to learn the constellations she deemed important and the major stars, all of them. She gave us a test. They are etched in my brain to this day and I was not scarred by having to memorize.

In 1967, I saw my first seri-ous meteor light up the night sky at my grandparents’ house. It was a fire ball that caused all of the cousins playing hide and seek outside to be still and awed. This gigantic meteor was written about in the local newspapers the next day.

The next summer I went to church camp. My fellow ‘camp-ers’ and I were blessed with the chance to sleep on the ground for a couple nights. The stars were brilliant, the Milky Way

was clearly visible and so were the dozens of ‘shooting stars’ that graced the sky above - my first meteor shower.

In 1975, I took a young lady on a one and only date to a lit-tle Hungarian restaurant. After a meal of awkward conversation, I dropped her off at her family’s farm house. On the way home my eyes drifted out the win-dow and saw a phenomenon in the night sky. I pulled over and stared above the fallow fields; the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, were stunning. The drift-ing, pinkish-white curtains that moved slowly across the north-ern heavens are still vivid in my mind.

Most people remember the first time they saw Saturn through a telescope. In 1977, my second year of teaching in Cambridge, Ohio, there was a neighbor who brought out his tiny refractor telescope. Over a dozen peo-ple that night saw Saturn, a tiny white dot with ‘ears’ as Galileo once proclaimed.

In 1979, my wife and I went about as far north as we could drive in Alaska. We experienced the sun dipping slightly below the horizon. It refused to allow the stars to appear. There was no visible ‘night time.’ It was the first time I really thought about where I was standing on the earth.

The first year at the Earth and Space Science Lab (the ‘planetar-ium’), 1988, we used an 8 inch Celestron reflector telescope and

saw the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, three to the right and one to the left of the planet. In the past 26 years, there have been thousands of people in Frederick County who have seen the moons of Jupiter through the ESSL tele-scopes.

Simple ‘aha’ moments equal permanent memories. We re-member things that we do and the experiences we have that are special. Think about the experi-ences and memories you have. I do not have empirical data, and although my memories shared with you deal with astronomy, I am guessing that many of your fond memories took place out-doors.

The first IMAX movie I saw about space travel, the first Full Dome Planetarium production about black holes, or my first La-ser Light Show? Sorry, but I can’t remember those. And, no offense to all my dear friends who have presented at the great meetings I have joyously attended through-out the years, but I can’t remem-ber any of your PowerPoint pre-sentations.

Parents, you are hereby chal-lenged to create some ‘aha’ mo-ments. A good start is the star map below and viewing the win-ter sky. You can visit the ESSL for an evening program and view something exotic through the telescope.

And to any young people who read this article, if you think you will learn all there is to know in

your years of school, you are mak-ing a big mistake. There is simply not enough time to learn every-thing in school, so don’t miss an opportunity to go outside and ex-perience things for yourself. You won’t regret it, and you’ll have some life long memories.

Thanks, Mrs. Richards.Jeffrey GrillsCo-director ESSL

The Earth and Space Science Lab is a part of the Frederick Coun-ty Public Schools. Public programs are available on certain evenings and days throughout the year. In-formation is found at the ESSL website:https://education.fcps.org/essl/. The next public event will be Winterfest and will be held on Monday, January 26, 10:00-3:00.

Farmers’ Almanac“A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other”

Anonymous

MID-ATLANTIC WEATHER WATCH: Fair, very cold (1,2,3,4,5,6); snow (7,8) and rather cold (9,10,11,12,13). Heavy snow (14,15,16) turning fair but very cold (17,18,19,20). Nor’easter, heavy snow, and windy (21,22,23) remaining windy and cold with some lake-effect snow (24,25,26,27). Fair and rather cold (28,29,30,31).

FULL MOONJanuary’s FULL MOON has been often been referred to as HUNGER MOON be-

cause of the difficulty Native Americans had finding food at this time of year. It has also been called WOLF MOON because of the increasing number of wolf packs wan-dering closer and closer to their camps looking for food. It will occur on December 25th making it CHRISTMAS MOON in 2015!

HOLIDAYSCelebrate New Year’s Day on Thursday, January 1st. Famed civil rights leader, Mar-

tin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. In 2015, the official day set aside for his remembrance (the third Monday of January) falls January 19th. We must all take a moment to reflect on the great movement he began and how far we have come as a result.

THE GARDENBe sure to shake or brush off heavy snow from the branches of your evergreens and

shrubs. The light fluffy snow poses no real threat, but if it should become wet and fro-zen, the weight dramatically increases. Branches are more brittle when the plants are dormant, and the weight of the snow may snap them off.

Scout tree branches and limbs for signs of egg masses.Cut the branches off of your Christmas tree to use as mulch in the garden.

A GOOD GARDEN STARTS WITH GOOD PLANNINGBegin planning your garden now. Buy an extra wall calendar and dedicate it to till-

ing and planting activities. Look ahead and record the last projected frost dates for

your region and mark down when to plant seedlings indoor. Check out this useful website www. usna.usda.gov/Hardzone to determine local hardiness.

Pick up a few gardening books and magazines that are available, clipping out pic-tures that appeal to you. Sketch out the designs you would like to incorporate into your own garden.

Collect nursery and seed catalogs now and remember to place any orders early. Be-fore you order, check out return policies, guarantees, and shipping charges.

Get together with some of your ‘gardening friends’ and combine orders to save on shipping costs.

Time your early gardening and lawn activities with anticipated sales at local mer-chants. They are sometimes a great deal and have their products available immediately and at no extra cost (i.e. shipping).

SPOIL THOSE HOUSEPLANTSAnd now is the time to spoil those indoor plants! They not only brighten up the

house but they also rid indoor air of nasty pollutants. Extra watering is required to keep them from drying out indoors. They also need to

be rotated periodically to ensure they receive adequate sunlight all around during the winter months.

Dust on the foliage can clog the leaf pores, so periodically wipe them with a damp cloth or a quick shower under the kitchen sprayer. Always use room temperature water when watering or misting your house plants!

On cold nights, it is always a good idea to close the curtains or blinds between the window and your house plants. NEVER place your house plants between the curtain and the window!

Make sure that your plants have sufficient humidity, by setting them on a tray filled with moistened, clean pebbles, or by simply setting a cup of water nearby.

J. GRUBER’S THOUGHT FOR TODAY’S LIVING“The next twelve months offers us a world of promise; it all depends on each one

of us and how much we are willing to give of ourselves to help make it a better world”

DECEMBER-JANUARY6:00 P.M. TO 10:00 P.M.

To Use Map:Hold map over your head with North pointing toward the north-ern horizon on the Earth. The position of a constellation should mstch the location of a constellation on the map. Constellation and asterism names are all capitalized. Names of stars have only the first letter capitalized.

JANUARY 2015 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 19

STORY TIME

Brave Max

From a Nutting Party and Oth-er Stories by Emma Brown, copy-right 1880

“Come and see old Max!” ex-claimed Robin, one sharp, winter morning as he came running in with checaglow; “he’s lain down right in the middle of a great snow-drift out in the chard, and I’ve called and called, but I can’t make him budge an inch!”

“Let’s put on our rubber-boots,” suggested Percy, “and see what’s the matter.”

“Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching,” sang Robin, as en-cased in their ‘high tops’ the two little boys ploughed through the deep snow.

How strange it seemed out in the orchard, where the white drifts lay level with the high fences, and the low boughs of the apple trees were quite hidden under the soft, new-fallen snow. Could it be the same place where they had had such frol-ics in the fall?

“There he is, don’t you see, Per-cy—way out here by the further tree,” exclaimed Robin, pointing to a little black heap all curled up in the midst of one of the highest drifts.

“Why, there must be something or somebody under the snow,” said Percy. “Oh, oh, OH! do look here, Robin!”

It was a funny enough sight, surely; for there rest asleep upon the warm, shaggy coat of patient Max, lay great black “Topsy” and her four little kittens.

How they all got into the or-chard was a mystery but it was probably owing to Topsy mousing propensities, which often tempted him to take long excursions from the safe precination (?) of home.

Her little family had evident-ly followed her down to the corn-house, where a nest of mice had kept them all so busy that the blinding drifting snow storm, of the night before, had taken them unawares.

When mamma heard the sto-ry, she said that reminded her of what old Max did ‘once upon a time’ when they lived up in the northern part of Vermont.

“You know your grandfather has a large sheep farm,” she be-gan, “and the flocks were of-ten scattered, and some of the young lambs lost upon the hills, where they went to pasture.

“That was the reason why he wanted a genuine shepherd dog, and sent directly to Scotland to procure Max.

“The dog, even from a little puppy, was wonderfully care-taking, faithful, and intelligent, and watched the flocks with the utmost vigilance.

“One night late in October, while the sheep were still pas-turing on the hills, there came one of those early, unexpect-ed snow-storms, that seem to throw one with a plunge right into the depths of winter.

“Max was up on ‘the moun-tain,” as your grandfather al-ways called the high hill on the west of the little valley where the sheep-cotes were built, and early that morning he came running down into the farm-yard almost beside himself with leaping and barking and whin-ing.

“Thinking that something had happened to the flocks, fa-ther called two or three of the

farm hands, and they all hurried up the mountain, Max running far ahead and barking wildly all the way.

“At last, long before they reached the sheep-cotes, the dog stopped and began to paw eagerly all around a strange-looking heap that lay just under a large spruce tree.

“Upon coming nearer, the men saw a shepherd’s crook in the snow, and just beyond a poor boy, who had evident-

ly lost his way in the blistering snow-storm, and fallen down utterly behindered (?) and ex-hausted.

“With some difficulty they aroused him from his stupor, and brought him to the farm-house.

“I shall never forget how Max tried to show his delight by all sorts of dog language which the poor boy revived, and we car-ried him to home on the other side of the mountain.”

20 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | JANUARY 2015

UPCOMING EVENTS

Hair Services•Permanent Make Up•Hair Color•Waxing Services20% offfor new customers

All services Now hiring stylists!

David's full-service salon has something to meet all of your salon needs. You'll leave looking and feeling the best you've

felt since your last visit. Welcome to men, women and children of all ages!

David’s Salon301-845-4050 | 126 Walkers Village Way, Walkersville, MD 21793

Upcoming EventsDecember 22 - January 4

Fundraiser - Please help the Woodsboro and New Mid-way PTA by visiting Trout’s Restaurant anytime from Dec 22 – Jan 4. Trout’s will donate $1 to Woodsboro and New Mid-way PTA for every omelet or dessert purchased during this time period.

January 5 -18Fundraiser - Please help

the Walkersville Marching Band by visiting Trout’s Towne Restaurant anytime from Jan 5-18. Trout’s will donate $1 to the Walkersville Marching Band for every omelet or des-sert purchased during this time period.

January 13 Govt. - Woodsboro Town

Meeting at 7 pm

January 14Govt. - Walkersville Town

Meeting at 7:30 pm

January 25Dinner - Mother Seton School

HSA Spaghetti Dinner. Janu-ary 25, 12:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. at Mother Seton School. Enjoy a delicious spaghetti dinner among friends at our annual event! With meatballs and sausages and a homemade sauce, you will not leave hungry! While you’re here, don’t miss the opportunity to purchase a bag of our special-ly-branded Mother Seton School Coffee, “Valley Blend”, which is available for a limited time. Tickets are $8 ages 11+, $5 ag-es 3-10, ages 2 and under FREE. Contact 301-447-3161 to pur-chase tickets. For more informa-tion, visit our website at www.mothersetonschool.org.

January 26Govt. - Woodsboro Town

Workshop at 7 pm

January 28Govt. - Walkersville Town

Meeting at 7:30 pm

January 31Dinner - P.U.R.E Love, Inc.

1st Annual Fundraiser DinnerSaturday January 31, 6 pm-10

pm. Dutch’s DaughterTickers are $45.00. There will

be silent auction items, 50/50 raffle, dance performance

Funds go towards our cultur-al arts program and our summer art camp. For information call 301-304-5980