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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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Maryland primary election resultsUS Senate

(D) Chris Van Hollen

(R) Kathy Szeliga

District 8 US Representative

(D) Jamie Raskin

(R) Dan Cox

US President

(D) Hillary Clinton

(R) Donald Trump

Deadline approaches to participate in Walkersville memorial

Walkersville Town Commis-sioner Donald Schildt is coordi-nating the construction of a war memorial that will be funded by the purchase of bricks that will be engraved with your loved one’s in-formation. The deadline for order-ing your commemorative brick is May 11. The memorialized person needs not have been a resident of Walkersville.

The idea started Veterans Day 2014 when Walkersville Burgess and Commissioners discussed ways to Honor Veterans and de-cided to erect a wall of honor. The wall will be erected at Memori-

al Park in Walkersville. The wall should be erected in 2016 with a minimum of 100 bricks sold. Ad-ditional bricks will be added at a later date. The town thanks Fred-erick Brick Works for all their as-sistance. Bricks are 4”x8” and can be engraved up to 3 lines with 14 letters or spaces per line at a cost of $50 payable to Town of Walk-ersville.

Orders may be made at Walk-ersville Town Hall or with any of the commissioners. (Additional information can be obtained by calling 301-788-1056.)

Committee being formed to form a committeeCounty Executive Jan Gardner

recently announced the next step in ethics reform: the creation of an independent nominating commit-tee for appointments to the Fred-erick County Ethics Commission. The goal is to create an indepen-dent Ethics Commission.

At Executive Gardner’s request, the League of Women Voters will form a pilot Ethics Nominating Committee that will review candi-dates and make recommendations for appointment to the Ethics Commission -- two candidates for each pending vacancy on the com-mission. The five-member Nomi-nations Committee will be chaired by Mary Ellen Rhoderick from the League and will include a current member of the Ethics Commis-sion plus three additional mem-

bers. Additional members will be selected from the following orga-nizations: a Rotary Club in Fred-erick County; a faculty member or dean from either Hood Col-lege or Mount Saint Mary’s Uni-versity; a member of the Frederick County Bar Association; a local re-ligious or faith leader, or the Unit-ed Way. The committee will devel-op a rubric for scoring candidates and recommend rules and proce-

dures for future nominating com-mittees.

Executive Gardner commented, “I have worked since my first day in office to restore trust in coun-ty government and to ensure open and transparent government. I appreciate the League of Wom-en Voters’ willingness to work on this pilot program with the goal of making the Ethics Commission truly independent.”

Trout’s Market supports local community

Virginia Axline of Woodsboro won a 30-second shopping spree at Trout’s Market in Woodsboro. On April 19, she grabbed over $243.00 of groceries that in-cluded detergent, soap, football hams, bacon, and crabmeat. Ms. Axline commented, “I can’t be-lieve I got that much! I wanted a roast, and I forgot it. It was truly amazing and a lot of fun!”

The shopping spree was one of the prizes of the Great Gro-cery Giveaway and Best Wishes food donation program conducted this winter. For 8 weeks, customers bought a bag full of prepackaged groceries for $5.00 and then donat-ed the bag to go to the Woodsboro-

New Midway Elementary School food pantry (Community Part-ners). The response was wonderful with the pantry receiving over 200 bags.

Participants could win prizes, get online coupons, and enter to win for 7 weekly $25.00 gift cards, and finally a 30-second shopping spree.

It was something that Trout’s did to “jazz up” the grocery trips in February to April. That is usu-ally the slow time of the year for the grocery business.

“After a couple of weeks, it kind of caught on and the customers looked forward to it,” said Trout’s Office Manager, Beverly Anthony.

An example of a memorial brick you can purchase

Shopping spree winner Virginia Axline with John Trout, owner

Virginia Axline grabbing the goodies

Potential designs of the memorial.

2 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

From the Editor

We’ve expanded!A belated greeting to folks liv-

ing in the Worman’s Mill area, we hope you enjoy the Times. In April, the Times expanded its dis-tribution to your area (mailing route 39) for a new total mail-ing of 6843. The decision was made after our April edition went to print so we didn’t mention it last month. For some context, we started in 2013 with a mailing of 3550. Many thanks to all our sponsors who have kept the paper going and supported our growth. We still have a ways to go to cov-er the entire Walkersville High School district but we are getting there!

Merle and PrinceWe’ve recently lost two iconic

performers: Merle Haggard and Prince. They were two very dif-ferent artists that appear to have much in common. Both stayed on the road well past their peak glory days, and both were loved by their fans. They also may have “worked themselves to death” by eschewing basic medical care available to all of us. They also lived lives very different from our own.

Did they need the money? Did they love their work? Were they just greedy? Or was performing the only thing that kept them sane?

At the most basic level, we work to survive and enjoy our lives. How many people fantasize about having enough money so they wouldn’t need to work? But what is life like without the drive to work? I’m sure many could enjoy it, but I’m also sure many would go crazy without work to provide some focus and direction.

How would you live if you came upon wealth and fame? Would your marriage survive it? Would you take care of your health? Would you be proud of your lifestyle or would you have to hide it?

According to Daniel Gilbert, most of us cannot answer those questions. In his book, Stumbling on Happiness, he documents how

horrible we humans are at pre-dicting our happiness in differ-ent situations. One of the cases in the book has stuck with me as a stark warning. He wrote of a ca-reer man who loved to play golf. His retirement planning was easy: golf every day.

Several weeks into his retire-ment, the joy of the game start-ed to elude him. He realized that to enjoy the game it needed to be in a certain context. For this man, the context was that the golf round was played at the end of a hard work-week. The game was a reward and an opportunity to re-charge the batteries for Monday. Without the work context, the game became a frivolous waste of time and money.

So how would I have lived had I been born as Merle Haggard or Prince? I haven’t the slightest clue. Rest in peace gentlemen.

North Carolina and common decency

North Carolina has said “no” to the request or demand for transgender accommodations that place people of the opposite sex in multiple occupancy facili-ties designated for the opposite sex.

Some companies and enter-tainers are boycotting the state in response to the new law. The NC law is supposedly filled with hate and bigotry. I see it as filled with love and respect. Love of and respect for: chil-dren, daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, aunts, and grandmoth-ers. Ask those ranting about transgender “rights” what right a young girl has in a locker room or bathroom? Does she have a right to not be exposed to naked male bodies? You see, no matter what that naked delusional male thinks his “gender” is, his body is male and NC has rightly de-clared he has no business dis-playing it to girls and women.

But according to Bruce Spring-steen and his friends, only a big-oted woman would be offended by the sight of another woman’s penis.

Fracking, a cap on costFracking, love it or hate it,

benefits us all. Fracking and hor-izontal drilling have opened up inaccessible oil and gas reserves and re-invigorated regions where conventional drilling was un-economical due to low produc-tion rates. As a result, US drill-ing added enough supply to the global market of oil to signifi-cantly drop prices. One does not need to export oil to affect the global price. A barrel of oil pro-duced here means a barrel not purchased abroad which changes the demand for foreign oil.

These advanced drilling tech-niques however are expensive and add cost to any barrel produced using them. Therefore, in order to be profitable, the price of oil needs to be higher for a producer who uses fracking. Conventional-ly produced oil remains profitable at lower prices.

OPEC (Organization of Pe-troleum Exporting Countries) knows this and entered a produc-tion war with the west in order to drop oil below the marketable price for fracking. We benefit by low gas prices. However the US fracking operations have seen profits per barrel drop. They have dropped enough that some firms are stopping operation.

Although fracking operations are being reduced, their effect on prices have not disappeared. Oil speculators know that many frackable oil fields are sitting idle ready to be re-opened when oil prices rise again.

The effect of fracking and even the “threat” of fracking have a mitigating effect on the price of oil. OPEC knows that if they cut back production severely in an ef-fort to raise prices, fracking oper-ations will respond and curb the price rise.

So fracking, even when not being used, benefits us all at the gas pump. Every state that bans fracking chips away at the frack-ing price mitigation and strength-ens OPEC’s position in the oil market.

NEWS

Woodsboro Walkersville Times

P.O.Box 502

Woodsboro, Maryland 21798

Office 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 Foltz

Historian: Daniel Kellar

News and interesting articles are welcome and may be submitted

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

or by email to WoodsboroEditor@gmail.com.

To arrange advertising contact the editor.

Spread the News!Extra copies of the Times are available at

Trout’s Market in Woodsboro and Salon Allure in Walkersville. Get there early each month.

Walkersville Calls for Service March 2016

Monthly Summary for Police Enforcement & Activities

Criminal & Miscellaneous Calls

Traffic Enforcement

Motor Vehicle Collisions

Alarm 4 Citation 53 Accident Report 5

Assault 0 Warning 86 Non-Reportable 6

Assist other Police 15 SERO 22 Total Collisions: 11

Burglary 0 DUI 1 Other Activities

CDS (narcotics) 2 Total Violations: 162Community

Policing8

Disorderly 7 Foot/Bike Patrol 6

Domestic 5 Patrol Check 81

Juvenile Complaint 1 AIRS 134

MDOP (malicious destruction) 1

Miscellaneous 35

Missing Person 0

Theft / Fraud 1

Trespass 0

Warrant / Summons 2

Total Calls for Service: 73Merle Haggard worked up to the end

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 3

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

100 years ago this month

May 3, 1916German attack is repulsed by

French. The War Office today reported a lull in infantry opera-tions at Verdun while the Ger-man Crown Prince shifted his attack farther westward to the Argonne. At La Harazee, where the French on Monday dispersed a Teuton reconnoitering par-ty, the Germans launched an as-sault on the French positions.

In this assault, the Crown Prince’s soldiers used poisonous gas in their effort to overwhelm the French. The official commu-nique issued this afternoon stated, however, that this assault was re-pulsed and that the Germans suf-fered heavy losses.

Though infantry action at Ver-dun has been lacking during re-cent hours, violent artillery com-bats have continued about the positions of the Meuse River.

A French long-range gun bom-barded the railway station at Se-bastopol.

Last summer’s pests return to pester Frederick’s residents. Fred-erick was last night invaded by “an army” of bugs. Thousands of little, green, multi-legged crawling things buzzed over desks, in offices, and generally made known their pres-ence by petty disturbances and ir-ritations. The same variety of bugs swarmed in Frederick last year with each indication of rain, or on par-ticularly warm nights.

For the past few days, Frederick has been experiencing real sum-mer temperatures and breezes. On Monday, the mercury soared as high as 86 degrees. Yesterday’s temperature was not so warm, the highest recording being 80 degrees.

May 7U.S. force wiped out in raid

by Mexicans. A detachment of nine American soldiers forming the patrol at Glen Springs, Texas, was almost wiped out in a raid of Villista bandits across the border Friday night according to reports received by Maj. General Freder-ick Funston, today, from Maj. O. B. Meyer, of the Fourteenth Cav-alry at Maria, Texas.

According to Major Meyer, three of the troopers were killed, four are missing and two are wounded. The three dead men were brought to Marathon, Tex-as, this morning on motor trucks. Americans are forming a posse at Alpine to go south.

Two troops of the Eighth Caval-ry from Fort Bliss and two troops of the Fourteenth from Fort Clark were ordered by General Funston to the scene of the trouble this morning. Col. F. W. Sibley, Four-teenth Cavalry, has been ordered to take command.

The number of the Mexicans, and whether they were Villistas, was not stated in messages received here. The boy killed is supposed to be the son of Ellis Woods.

Glen Spring is in the isolated Big Bend district, and there was no news of the raid until the bod-ies of the soldiers were brought

to Marathon. Alpine is the coun-ty seat, and the sheriff there is re-ported to have organized a posse.

Boquillas is about 150 miles east of Presidio, in Grewston County, and a few miles north of the Rio Grande. It is some distance from the scene of former raids on the Lower Rio Grande.

The bandits are reported to have crossed into Mexico again on Saturday after raiding Demeers, 25 miles down the river, and tak-ing with them a man named De-meers, proprietor of a store in the village. One American soldier is reported missing.

A man named Davis fled to the hills with his wife when the attack was made and by hiding out the couple escaped with their lives. The time of this attack is said to have been 10 o’clock Friday night.

Several buildings and the tents of the soldiers were burned. The soldiers were driven back to the hills. There were only nine men in the soldier guard, all members of Troop A. Fourteenth Cavalry.

May 9Wilson calls guards of Texas,

Arizona, and New Mexico. Seven thousand fresh troops—4,000 mi-litia and 3,000 regulars—were or-dered today to guard the American border against Mexican raiders.

General Obregon, Carranza’s war minister, demanded again a time limit on the stay of the Amer-ican expedition in Mexico. The Cabinet decided again to refuse to accede to the demand.

Mexican Ambassador Arredon-do told Secretary Lansing that raids against the Big Bend coun-try in Texas were directed from the American side and that two fresh raids are plotted.

These are the outstanding de-velopments in the Mexican situa-tion today. The situation took on an unexpected seriousness over-night both by reasons of the recent attacks against the Big Bend and General Scott’s report that Ob-regon suddenly balked on the El Paso peace pact and was demand-ing limitation of the stay of the American punitive expedition.

In sending new troops, Presi-dent Wilson virtually drained the last of the regular armed forces of the United States before ordering out the National Guardsmen of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.

May 11Physician dies from scald-

ing. Dr. H. L. Donsife, formerly a well-known physician of Wood-sboro, died at Montevue Hospital early yesterday morning from the effects of being scalded in a bath tub the afternoon before. He was seventy-three years old and had been at the institution since 1909. His body was taken in charge by undertaker L. C. Powell of Wood-sboro and the funeral will take place this afternoon at 3 o’clock.

Whether death was accidental or intentional seems to be a mat-ter of speculation among the offi-cials at the hospital. According to

clerk J. A. English, Dr. Donsife was in the habit of taking baths. He went to the bathroom as usu-al between three and four o’clock Monday afternoon and a few min-utes later was heard crying for as-sistance by John Bachtel, anoth-er inmate. The latter went to the room and found the aged phy-sician sitting on the side of the tub with his right shoulder and side fearfully scalded. Bachtel was frightened that he could not tell how much water was in the tub. Donsife was removed to the hos-pital department and Dr. Charles F. Goodell, physician to the insti-tution, was summoned. The lat-ter was on a call in the country and Dr. W. G. McComas, physi-cian to the jail, was called and ren-dered medical attention. Later, Dr. Goodell and Dr. McCurdy ar-rived and went to the bedside of the injured man. Mr. English said he could not say whether Donsife turned on the wrong spigot or at-tempted to take his life.

Another report is to the ef-fect that the physician was found hanging over the side of the tub which was full of water almost to the boiling point with the wa-ter still running from the spigot. It is said that the water was heated by a steam pressure of thirty-five pounds. Warden Stone of Bruns-wick, who had charge of the cor-ridor leading to the room of Dr. Donsife, was afterwards removed. It was said, however, that his re-moval is only temporary and has nothing to do with the accident. Dr. Donsife came from the vicin-ity of Woodsboro and is survived by two brothers and several sis-ters. He rarely had anything to say to the officials and on account of infirmities remained most of the time in his room.

May 13Hold auto driver for kill-

ing boy. Lester Hoover, 22 years old, was arrested in Baltimore and turned over to Deputy Sher-iff Palmer, of New Market, yester-day afternoon charged with driv-ing the automobile which ran over and killed six-year old William Tabler, son of Albert Tabler, near Plane No. 4, on Wednesday. Sher-iff Palmer was expected to return with his prisoner in time to give the latter an opportunity to secure bail for a hearing today, but up to midnight nothing had been heard of him. It was said at the jail at that hour that the deputy, who went in an automobile, might have been detained in Baltimore or along the road, but that in the event he got in, the prisoner would be kept at the jail until his hearing today.

Hoover stated at the time of the accident he was driving the car for his employer, William B. Ander-son, of Franklin, W. Va., to Balti-more. Mr. Anderson is a patient at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Mrs. Anderson and her two chil-dren were on their way to Balti-more to visit him.

He said that when his automo-bile approached a group of children

playing in the road he slowed down and sounded his horn. One of the children, the Tabler boy, he said, became confused and ran directly in front of the machine. After strik-ing the child, he said he stopped as soon as possible and picked up the injured lad and drove to his home. He said he left the name and ad-dress of Mr. Anderson and then came on to Baltimore.

As stated in The Post, the child died shortly after being picked up. The victim was on his way home from school and was accompa-nied by his brother. Hoover left the license number of his auto-mobile with Mrs. Tabler and it was through this that he was ap-prehended. After being arrested, he was taken to the Central police station and the authorities here notified. Deputy Sheriff Palmer was sent with an automobile to bring him to Frederick.

May 18Woodsboro suit in court to-

day. The case of the Burgess and Commissioners of Woodsboro against the County Commission-ers for about $1,000 alleged to be owing the town as a franchise tax will be heard by the court to-day. The suit has been standing for some time and has been the sub-ject of much controversy. Issues, however, have been joined and the case is to be definitely settled.

The Woodsboro authorities claim that for a period of ten years or more the town was entitled to

a franchise tax, which in the ag-gregate, amounted to $1,000 or more. When the County Com-missioners were asked to settle the account, objection was made on the ground that during the peri-od of the claim the town had no municipal organization and was, therefore, not entitled to the tax. Finally, a bill was introduced in the Legislature of 1914 to compel the County Commissioners to set-tle up. Immediately after the bill had been introduced, the Coun-ty Commissioners took issue with the measure. It is understood that an agreement was finally reached.

May 21Shortage of U.S. flags—Ger-

many stops manufacture. Plans for the celebration of Flag Day--June 14--in Washington have gone away. The custom has been to present a small American flag to each Government employee who contributed to the fund.

The committee in charge of this year’s celebration called on a prominent flag dealer and asked for prices on 10,000 small United States flags, such as could be worn on a coat lapel.

“I can’t sell you a single Ameri-can flag,” the dealer said.

“Why not?” asked the commit-teemen in surprise.

“Because these little American flags are made in Germany” he re-plied, “and we have not received any since the war. The supply we had is exhausted.”

4 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

GOVERNMENT

From the desk of County Councilman Kirby Delauter

It’s budget time and, as a Council, we get a full 25 work-ing days to review and approve a $560 + - million budget. That is 25 working days if you don’t have any other full-time job and could spend 10-12 hours daily on the review. The County Ex-ecutive waited until the last day per the charter to give us her budget for review. As a Council, we have no accountant on staff, no budget officer, and we’re not even subcontracting out to get advice from anyone with a CPA to assist in review of the budget. Last year, I was the only Coun-cil member to produce a budget separate from the Executive. The only Council members to do our own review of the budget were Council Member Shreve and I. Council member Shreve could not get his questions answered from the Executive’s staff, and he simply ran out of time. I could not get answers as well, so we had to ad-lib a few items. In case you didn’t know, on the Coun-cil we get treated like third grad-ers in time out by the Executive, her staff, and Council President Otis. Here’s an example. If I have a question of the staff on any is-sue, even a constituent issue, that is directed to me. Here’s the pro-cess. I contact my assistant, she contacts our Chief of Staff, he contacts the County Executive’s Chief Administrative Officer, he

contacts the County Executive Gardner, and she then decides whether or not I can have a con-versation with the staff member. More often than not, the answer is “no.” Here’s a real life exam-ple of how Executive Gardner uses her authority to help busi-nesses. I had an inquiry recent-ly from a local trash hauler that has had items from a contract he is hauling to the landfill, banned from dumping. Upon his request to me, I requested to speak to county staff about this issue. So I went to my assistant, who went to our Chief of Staff, who went to CAO Browning, who went to County Executive Gardner, and my request was denied to meet with the staff. After a few choice words showing my dismay with this decision, I was, however, af-forded one phone call to a staff member. As I see it, prisoners at the county jail get more than one phone call. I guess that’s where we rate in the Executive’s eyes. After the phone call, I was not satisfied that my constitu-ent was receiving justice. I have now made a formal inquiry a few weeks ago, and as of this writ-ing, no response from the Exec-utive Gardner or her staff. Here we have a county business, do-ing business in the county, pay-ing taxes in the county, em-ploying people in the county, being blocked from using the

one county resource that is re-quired by his business, and I as an elected official, can’t speak to the staff to get an answer. That is complete insanity and in no way a proper way to run a govern-ment effectively for the people.

Yes, this is the “Open and Transparent Government where everyone can be part of the pro-cess,” per the mantra of Can-didate Jan Gardner during her campaign. There is nothing open or transparent in this county government today. It is a com-plete politburo that targets busi-nesses and individuals that dis-agree with their agenda.

The County Executive Gard-ner has in her budget a $10.5 million increase above MOE (Maintenance of Effort) for the FCPS. Keep in mind, MOE is al-ready an increase over last year’s FCPS budget, so she is increas-ing the increase by $10.5 mil-lion. Again, the interesting thing is, we have two FCPS employees that will vote on this budget and this increase that will fund their employer and funds their sala-ries. Yes, people that somehow with a straight face can vote on the budget that funds their em-ployer and ultimately their own salaries. These are the same peo-ple that voted with the County Executive and Council President Otis to disallow my company to bid work in the county. Let me

clarify the hypocrisy. If my com-pany bids work in the county, I am guaranteed nothing, and if I happen to be low bid, we are the best deal for the taxpayer. Recently my company bid was awarded a project for the Town of Walkersville. We saved the Town $300,000 with our bid and donated over $1500 of work to a local Church adjacent to our work site. The County taxpayer won’t see savings like this since I was banned (after the fact) from bidding work in Frederick coun-ty after joyfully being elected by the people. Now, the two FCPS employees that are also Coun-cil members, by voting on this $10.5 million increase of your money, they are “guaranteed” that their employer and possi-bly their own salaries will bene-fit. They see no issue with this. You can see now with this type of logic running our county, it’s easy to see why transgender bathrooms appear to be normal as we’ve thrown all morals and common sense out the window. We’re back to the 60’s mantra of “If it feels good do it.” More to come later on the budget. We just received it last Friday, so it’s still kind of fresh off the press.

I am currently also working to do a lease back program for building schools. Again, County Executive Gardner has been in-volved in County government

for over 20 years. Early in her government career, she voted to increase impact fees for schools 300%. It didn’t solve the prob-lem then and, as she’s increas-ing these fees again today by as much as 60%, the math shows this same tired solution will not work. We have two local devel-opers that have stepped up and agreed to forward fund bond issuances for two elementary schools. While this is a wonder-ful and noble thing, it is not a long-term solution. I find it ironic that the very people the County Executive demonizes on a daily basis are the very peo-ple pulling her out of the fire by stepping up to put their money up front for schools and to help solve the problem, short-term. My lease back program (still in the working stages) should end the school debate once and for all. We can build schools private-ly and lease them back thus giv-ing both predictability and more bang for the taxpayer buck in the process. My plan will allow long-term planning for schools and, as long as we elect fiscally respon-sible adults into future office, we should never have an issue build-ing future schools. I still have a lot to do on this program, but preliminarily it appears it could be a long-term answer to what has been an ongoing problem in this county for decades.

From the desk of County Executive Jan Gardner

Budgeting with a purpose

It’s that time of year again!Let’s start with some good

news! Frederick County’s econ-omy is strong. Over the past year, Frederick County business-es have added over 3,200 new jobs, unemployment is hover-ing around 4% well below state and national averages, and Fred-erick County’s production of goods and services has exceeded a whopping $11 billion!

Sometimes people think the budget is a boring topic. But, the budget is actually the most important task we do together. How we allocate limited tax dol-lars reflects our community’s val-ues and priorities.

Our community values fiscal responsibility, and citizens ex-pect the county to be good stew-ards of county tax dollars. The proposed budget ensures that we live within our means while investing in our future prosper-ity. And, the proposed budget is budgeting for a purpose-- to en-sure great schools, a safe commu-nity, and a high quality of life.

Last year, my first budget ad-dressed the $10.4 million defi-cit created by the prior admin-

istration when they depleted reserve funds and spent this one-time money on ongoing expens-es. This year, my second budget begins to restore reserves by set-ting aside $2.5 million for this purpose as well as shifting fu-el savings into the fleet reserve. Restoring reserves and long-standing conservative budget policies make sure we are pre-pared for the next “rainy day.”

The proposed FY 2017 budget is fiscally responsible. It is devel-oped without any increases in county property tax rates or in-come tax rates. While tax rates remain unchanged, there is no doubt that you will hear accu-sations of tax increases because assessments and incomes have gone up. Building a budget on current tax rates is exactly what Governor Hogan did with the state budget and what surround-ing counties and municipal gov-ernments are doing as well. No one has accused Governor Ho-gan of raising taxes because he built a budget on current tax rates.

Budgeting with a purpose ensures exceptional schools.

We know that quality education lifts our students, their families, and ensures our long-term eco-nomic prosperity. The number one thing we hear from our busi-nesses and employers is a need for a well-educated and trained workforce. This begins in our K-12 public schools.

After years of flat funding, the proposed budget allocated $10.5 million to Frederick County Public Schools above mainte-nance of effort to make progress to ensure the best teachers and staff in our schools, and to pro-vide programs and curriculum to ensure our students are prepared for jobs or for higher education. This is a modest 2% increase in the school system budget. The budget also provides $500,000 in one-time funding to upgrade school technology, which is es-sential to keep pace with rapid changes in the field.

Budgeting with a purpose ensures safe communities. One of the fundamental responsibili-ties of local government is to en-sure the safety of its citizens. The proposed budget provides over $5 million to support our pub-

lic safety agencies including the Sheriff ’s Office, Fire and EMS, and 9-1-1 Communications. The budget supports Sheriff Jen-kins’ top priority to pay his dep-uties and corrections staff. The majority of new positions in the budget are in public safety with the addition of deputies, fire-fighters, 9-1-1 call takers, and an emergency planner.

Education and public safe-ty combined make up approxi-mately 75% of the county bud-get reflecting the community priorities.

Budgeting with a purpose ensures our high quality of life. The majority of the remain-ing 25% of the proposed bud-get is allocated to provide county employees with a well-deserved merit or step pay increase. Coun-ty employees are dedicated and hardworking and consistently deliver top-notch services to the citizens of Frederick County. As the economy recovers, it is ap-propriate to recognize the peo-ple on the front lines that main-tain our roads, handle our trash, make sure that water and sewer is always available, drive our transit

busses, and keep our community safe and our quality of life high.

The budget ensures seniors get services they need through Meals on Wheels and Senior Care, ex-pands operating hours of our three main libraries to 9:00 pm in the evening on weekdays, in-cluding the Thurmont Regional Library, and meets state and fed-eral mandates.

Budgeting with a purpose ensures we maintain and ex-pand our infrastructure to meet community needs. The capital budget provides funds to complete the Frederick High School project, to build a new Walkersville Branch library, and to reconstruct several roads and bridges around the county.

Citizens can be assured that the county budget is fiscally sound, protects our investments, and makes progress to ensure great schools, safe communities, and a high quality of life with-out raising tax rates. Freder-ick County will continue to be a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family. Our best days are ahead.

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 5

COMMENTARY

Should farms be paved with silicone?

Ken Kellar

When I was a student, I loved solar energy. It was technical, clean, and futuristic. Back then we were dreaming of orbiting solar ar-rays in continuous sun light beam-ing their energy back to earth.

Today when I see a field of so-lar panels I feel contempt. Those fields communicate strong mes-sages. They are a visual sign of the dominant influence of lobby-ists, crony capitalism and ignorant people trying to feel good. May-be an example will help make my point.

At Mount Saint Mary’s Univer-sity, Exelon installed a huge solar array for $50 million that could earn no more than $2 million in electricity sales in its first year at Maryland rates. That means it would take 25 years to pay off the investment with no other expens-es or any loan interest. No busi-ness would have built the array unless compelled by the govern-ment or heavily subsidized by the government.

A business metric used to evalu-ate a large investment that will pro-duce a stream of revenue over years is Present Value. If the present value of al those future cash flows is great-er than the investment it is consid-ered profitable. Otherwise it is not worth investing.

The present value of a $2 mil-lion per year payment for 25 years when you can get 1% return on an alternate investment is $44 million or $6 million less than the $50 million invested. Raise mar-ket investment return to 2% and the present value drops to $39 million.

So basic business finance math states the Mount Saint Mary’s so-lar plant should not have been built yet there it stands. What happened? Did Exelon want a strong diverse energy portfolio? Please! Solar plants provide ener-gy when nature feels like it, not when customers want it. During our January blizzard, guess how

much juice the Emmitsburg ar-rays where delivering. About zero is my guess.

Solar and wind energy facili-ties are so unreliable and inter-mittent that they do not support any reduction in conventional en-ergy providers: coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydro-electric. On a calm night, solar and wind pro-duce nothing.

The complicated real answer to why the Emmitsburg arrays were built is government mandates and subsidies. The energy industry is heavily regulated and governments compel the industry to build feel-good energy projects. To com-pensate for mandating financial-ly uncompetitive technologies the government provides myriad sub-sidies. Here is one example.

When the sun is out or wind is up, energy providers are com-pelled to buy the wind and so-lar electricity and at prime rates. This means that traditional en-ergy providers must lower their power output to balance things and thus earn less money. But as I showed above, even guarantee-ing a market does not cover the installation cost so further subsi-dies are needed.

But the story gets even worse. Solar cells age with their perfor-mance dropping about 0.5 % per year. Most solar cell warranties guarantee that performance at 20 years will be 80% of the orig-inal performance. No one really knows how long solar cells last because the new designs haven’t been around too long.

Just for comparison, a 1000 MegaWatt nuclear power plant costs a whopping $7 billion to build. However its annual reve-nue would be around $709 mil-lion, enough cash to pay off the investment in 10 years. Howev-er a nuclear plant has higher op-erating costs than solar so it will take longer then 10 years to pay off the construction loan but you can see there is a lot of cash to work with. For solar the money

just isn’t there so the govern-ment has to make up the short fall.

Due to the county receiv-ing several applications for very large solar arrays, the Coun-ty Executive has issued an or-der placing a hold on processing large solar project applications. The hold lasts 6 months unless Jan changes her mind.

Now Jan Gardner is wring-ing her hands over the decision whether or not to grant zoning exceptions in county agriculture lands to allow the installation of massive solar arrays. My advice is that there is really no issue to fret over. Those farm fields are already efficient solar “plants”. The plants, planted there, ab-sorb solar energy and convert it into food for animals or people. Paving over those fields with so-lar cells will not help the region. There will never be an energy di-lemma solved by those expensive arrays. The only beneficiaries are those that receive the crony cap-italism dollars; the land own-er and the installer of the subsi-dized solar cells.

Note: To arrive at the Mount Saint Mary’s solar array first-year annual revenue estimate I used their advertised annual produc-tion of 22 million-kW-hrs and the highest electrical rate I could find in Maryland which is 9 cents per kW-hr. I did not include any tax-es, fees or maintenance costs, all of which would lower the annual rev-enue.

Advertise with us!For more information, contact WoodsboroEditor@gmail.com

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6 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

COMMENTARY

This and That

PlantMary Klotz

As I write, local pawpaw trees are beginning to bloom. At print-ing, the trios of thick maroon pet-als will have fallen, revealing green centers, slowly swelling where pollination has prevailed. Per-haps only one tiny, banana-like green finger will extend from the round cushion and its central nip-ple. Sometimes as many as seven or more little fingers all grow in-to a curious mass of mysterious, smooth fruits, heavy to the point the branch curves downward with their weight. They are sensual and exotic, but inconspicuous, reward-ing only those taking notice.

But that will come later, if at all. As the blooms open and leaflets begin to extend, conversations ap-pear on social media lamenting the absence of pawpaw sprouts where carefully collected seeds were set out with hope. Extra care was given at every opportunity, with perplex-ing failure! That very care may have doomed the effort: perhaps the gar-dener patiently waited to plant in the spring, or kept the seeds safe in-

side through the winter. Pawpaws need freeze/thaw cycling to ger-minate. Perhaps failure arose from seeds wisely stored outdoors but kept too dry, or exposed to light.

These are native plants; they grow wild. How hard can it be? The hard thing is leaving them on their own and simply staying out of the way. Wild pawpaw fruits drop and rot, or are eaten. The shiny, mahogany colored seeds fall in au-tumn near the trees from which they came, in moist bottomlands, creek and canal areas, and are cov-ered by falling leaves. From under the leaf mold they sprout without any special attention, sending a taproot straight down, almost im-possible to transplant successfully and hard to spot that first spring.

Emulating what happens in the wild is incomparably easy and often stunningly successful. It requires tolerance for randomness--nothing grows in rows. The sprouts just ap-pear where they find conditions fa-vorable. You must not fuss over it--no fussing at all.

I employ this strategy widely. I get dogwood seedlings, redbud,

hollyhocks, and four o’clocks. I do not prepare the ground. I collect seeds as they ripen and fling them around. I do not store them over the winter; I do not cover them. I walk away, calling over my shoulder, “Live or die, it’s up to you.” Eventually, there are seedlings. I call them volun-teers. (Part two of this trick is learning what the infant plants look like, and not weeding too soon or too thoroughly.) I found my first volunteer, self-seeded Helleboros this spring--in the lawn that is bright with violets, self-seeded.

But, I fuss for love of my Meyer Lemon tree that has to be brought indoors before frost and watered faithfully. I dig $25 holes for $10 plants, digging deeper and wider than necessary, adding compost and improving the tilth, spread-ing the roots carefully, sifting the soil into them and minding the uprightness and orientation of the plant, and contouring the sur-face, watering deeply--weekly dur-ing the entire first growing season. After that first season of care, the

thing is going to survive or not no matter what you do.

Do kids still grow seeds in pa-per cups (or eggshells or milk car-tons)? How do they become ac-quainted with what it takes to have a pumpkin in autumn? While it doesn’t require grow-ing your own, it does require fa-miliarity, almost daily, with the silent, unhurried unfolding of growth. It may as well be gained from tomato plants in your own yard because you get the bonus of picking those tomatoes that you watched over since they were mere yellow flowers. You get to share extras with neighbors. My dad, who grew up in a Chica-go tenement, made sure we had a garden. He pulled carrots from the ground, wiped them on his pant leg, and we ate them right there. (I later worried that the bits of soil I’d eaten with the carrot might find their way to the water-melon seeds I knew I’d swallowed earlier. Uh oh--I’d planted seeds in Dixie cups at school--would there be sprouts in my belly?)

Universities in England are known for their architecture, which includes huge wooden beams. There are a number of stories about the foresters of the schools, passing down through their ranks cautionary notes about particular groups of trees, plant-ed and preserved over centuries for when the enormous structur-al beams will need to be replaced.

Lettuce that can be harvested in mere weeks is one thing. Trees for refurbishing of buildings, as they age through across centuries, is an entirely different time awareness. I am planting redwood trees. I may live to see them tower, but not re-ally mature. I’m planting them anyway.

We have traded away so much to have strawberries year round, hydroponic tomatoes, high tun-nel extended growing seasons, and worldwide transport of fresh foods that are not in season locally.

Reclaim the satisfaction of growing things yourself. Plant something, anything. Watch. En-joy. Be nourished.

Family room

ParentingChandra Bolton

I am passionate about my life’s work. I believe that it is the most important job that anyone can do. I hope that you are equally con-vinced that how you spend your days, where you put your time and energy, is also the most important thing.

I am a mom. I truly believe that there is no greater goal than raising

the next generation to be morally upright and motivated to make the world a better place. Bringing chil-dren into the world is both a state-ment of hope and an acceptance of responsibility. Children should feel both inspired and challenged by their upbringing.

Inspiring children requires en-couraging their creativity in all ar-eas of their life. I liked asking lots of questions to help thema think

about different aspects of the prob-lem. Sometimes called the “Socrat-ic Method,” it is supposed to teach them to think while helping them focus on the problem. It also hid the times I didn’t know the answer. When they were little, we tried to let them try out new ways of doing things. Sometimes it took several failures before they would accept that the usual method worked the best. Often, for the children, trying out their ideas was more important than the result.

Education gives them a founda-tion. Besides exposing them to new things through museums and na-ture videos, we took family walks around the lake near our house. When they got a little too close to the cute ducklings, they learned that mothers, even duck mothers, are very ferocious when defend-ing their babies. We also read lots of books and experimenting to re-inforce what they had learned. We once spent a morning in the back yard exploring erosion. Using a garden hose as our river, we rear-ranged rocks, branches, and dirt to create different patterns of erosion. At the end, we dumped a bucket of water at the top and watched the flood carry everything away. Leav-ing them outside to play, I went in to fix lunch. Upon my return, I was stunned to find that they had painted their arms, legs, and faces with the mud created in our exper-iment. Before I could scold them for the mess, the oldest child an-nounced that they had read that

Native American Indians covered themselves in mud to keep the bugs from biting them, and they were trying it out. Cleanliness won out over creativity that day. I insist-ed that they wash off their natural mosquito repellant before coming in to eat.

Growing up, I often asked my dad how something worked. As an industrial engineer, he could usu-ally tell me, or at least provide a logical answer. My husband had a similar experience with his civ-il engineering dad. I wanted our children to grow up asking those questions but also to encourage their search for answers. When driving down the road, we encour-aged them to find unusual things, things that stood out. Then we took turns trying to come up with three explanations for what it was and what it could be used for. In the age of Star Wars and The X Files, we had to add a rule that on-ly one explanation could involve space aliens.

Children have a natural curios-ity about the world around them; a desire to see and to know and to understand. What looks like destruction to an adult’s eyes can actually be deconstruction. That is, taking something apart to see how it was put together, to un-derstand how it works. Whenev-er something mechanical broke in our house, the kids would grab tools and take it apart. Dad was usually on hand to answer ques-tions and explain what all the giz-

mos and do-hickeys inside the case were and how they worked together. This led, eventually, to them researching and building their own desktop computers in high school.

All that creativity and curiosity takes time, and occasionally mud, to foster. Hopefully, they will take those traits and some perseverance and put it to work solving one of the world’s problems.

The parenting process seems to be like teaching them to ride a bike. At first you hold on tight, doing most of the work. Little by little you let them take over, giv-ing them the freedom and the re-sponsibility to stay upright and keep moving forward. Sometimes they skid on the gravel and get hurt. Sometimes they don’t want to try again. But parents are sup-posed to work themselves out of a job. So encouraging, even insist-ing, on their independence is nec-essary. As my 6th and 7th children graduate this month, one from college and one from high school, I can see the finish line. In 2 years, when our last child finishes high school, I’m looking forward to re-tiring to my sunroom and reading a frivolous novel, finishing that crocheted afghan for my chair, or actually making photo albums of the pictures we have been accumu-lating. Right now, I am off to vis-it my grandson. I can’t wait to see the dam he and his dad are build-ing on the creek.

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 7

COMMENTARY

A recipe for redistrictingJustin M. Kiska

Have you ever looked at the Maryland congressional districts, or those of the General Assem-bly? I don’t mean looking on your voter registration card or typing in your address on the Board of Election’s website to see which district you are in. I literally mean, have you ever looked at a map of the election districts? Did you ever wonder why they look like strange ameba-like creatures devouring the state?

There was a time, not all that long ago, that the county lines had a lot to do with the district boundaries. Population, natural-ly, plays a part as well, and dis-tricts CANNOT be drawn along racial or ethnic lines. But there is nothing that says they cannot be drawn along political ones. In fact, that’s pretty much how ev-ery state determines election dis-tricts. Whichever party is in con-trol of the state capital wins the prize. They get to draw the elec-

tion map in a way to try and help them remain in power for as long as possible.

It’s been going on for as long as anyone can remember.

In Maryland, with the major-ity of both the State Senate and House of Delegates firmly un-der the control of the Democrats, it’s no surprise that the districts would tend to favor Democrat-ic candidates. I’m not saying if the Republicans were in pow-er they would do any different. But during the last redistricting, under former Governor Martin O’Malley, the Democrats didn’t even try and hide the fact they were gerrymandering the elec-tion districts. Everyone knows it’s done, but you shouldn’t look like that’s what you’re doing. It seems though, that the governor and Democratic powers in Annapolis just didn’t care.

That is why today Frederick County has been divided up in the most ridiculous fashion, al-lowing the same congressperson

who represents Silver Spring and Takoma Park to represent Walk-ersville and Emmitsburg, while allowing the same congressperson who represents Gaithersburg and Germantown to represent Hag-erstown and Cumberland. When the lines were drawn the last time around, the Democrats wanted to make sure this area was no lon-ger represented by a Republican in Congress. That’s exactly what happened.

Again, that’s not to say that Re-publican controlled legislatures around the country haven’t done the same thing to Democrats.

Let me ask the question: Is this right?

I hope the majority of people would say it’s not. This is just one of the many, many, many reasons our country is being torn apart by politics. It’s become a game of one-upmanship. How is this good for anyone?

The answer . . . it isn’t.Earlier this year, Governor Hogan, our state’s extremely popular chief ex-

ecutive, proposed the idea of al-lowing a non-partisan commis-sion to draw the election districts. Talk about a novel idea. The fact is, out of the 50 states, only 6 use a non-partisan group to create their election maps. The rest do it the old-fashioned way, gerryman-dering.

When the governor proposed the idea of a non-partisan board, it was very clear, very quickly that the residents of Maryland sup-ported the idea. The leaders in Annapolis, specifically Speaker Busch and Senate President Mill-er, started out as hesitant of the idea before completely oppos-ing it. They don’t want to give up valuable Democratic congressio-nal seats. Someone suggested that Maryland should reform the re-districting system if a Republican leaning state did the same, there-by basically cancelling each oth-er out.

This is how our elected leaders are thinking.

There was also the idea of a re-gional plan for redistricting so Maryland wouldn’t be alone in doing so. Why can’t Maryland take the lead on this? Why do the Democrats just want to go along if others do?

The cry we’re hearing more and more from both sides is that the people want to have their say. So why not let them. Allow a non-partisan committee to draw the lines, not starting out by giving the advantage to a Democrat or a Republican, and let the best person win. Shouldn’t we want to have elected officials that can bring people from all sides to-gether? Doesn’t that make them the best for the job?

I applaud Governor Hogan for trying to take the lead on this, and I hope he continues to fight for redistricting reform. It may not sound like the “sexiest” issue to talk about, but it is one that is more important than most people realize.

Still as a statueCharissa Roberson

Vibrant, slim blades of green concealed her in a fragrant bow-er. The sunlight, drifting through the lush grasses, settled over her dappled shoulders like a blanket of warmth. Above her head, the light branches of a dogwood tree dipped and swayed. The breeze was dancing through the trees and tall flowers, but down here, nestled next to the earth, the chill wind could not penetrate. She sighed with contentment, snug-gling her tender muzzle deeper into the roots of the grass. Her belly was pleasantly full, her bed was soft, and the day was quiet, peaceful, and golden.

Stay still. Her mother had ten-derly nuzzled her before loping away. Stay safe.

She twitched her short, fluffy tail and brought her tiny hooves to her chin, making herself the smallest shape she could be. Small and quiet, she thought. That’s what I am. Still and small and quiet. Thinking of this, she tried to calm her little twitching tail. I mustn’t let anything see me, she told herself. The responsibility made her feel rather proud.

Snap. Her ears stiffened. Her nose be-

gan to shudder delicately. What was that sound? It couldn’t be her mother—she was silent as she stepped across the grasses and twigs. And…what was that smell? She sniffed deeper. She had smelled the trace of this scent in the air, but it had never been this strong. Whatever the source of the smell was, it must be close.

She huddled down deeper in-to the grass, suddenly fearful. The approaching thing was a stranger.

Her mother hadn’t told her what to do if someone disturbed her quiet rest. The only thing she had said was to lie still. So that must be what I have to do, she thought, trying to stay calm. I have to be very, very still.

The rustling and cracking came nearer. Taking a deep breath, she froze.

Her chest stopped rising and falling, her eyes didn’t blink, her tail lay motionless—not a hair on her coat trembled. Inside, she felt her heartbeat quicken against her ribs. She hoped the stranger would not notice.

The noise grew louder, louder, and then it stopped. She sensed the stranger very close. The smell filled her nose until she could hardly smell anything else. She resisted the urge to blow it from her nostrils, instead forcing her body to remain immobile.

A sound, like a sudden intake of breath, came from somewhere above her head.

“Wow,” the stranger emitted. Its voice was very different from the birds and other creatures she had heard. These sounds were completely new to her. She didn’t let her ears swivel to the noise, though they itched to. Be still, she reminded herself. Be still….

“That’s incredible!” It was the voice again. “How can they make a garden statue so life-like?” The tone became softer, more hushed. “It looks just like a baby deer!”

She waited for the stranger to leave. But it didn’t. It stayed, and she could feel it watching her. Oh, her muscles hurt, and she needed to breathe, but she couldn’t risk moving her body. She sensed that she was not yet revealed to the stranger. She was

safe as long as she kept perfectly still. If she didn’t, she didn’t know what might happen. And she would have disobeyed her moth-er’s command.

Be still. Her chest was starting to burn, and her vision to fuzz. She had to breathe. She just had to. She struggled to hold on just a little longer, to keep control of her desperate body...then there was no choice. She no longer cared about anything except getting a breath of that fresh, cool air.

Abandoning all restraint, she filled her lungs in one wild gulp. The stranger instantly leapt sev-eral feet in the air and staggered backwards, giving a startled yelp.

From below in her bed, pant-ing heavily, she turned her eyes and ears towards the stranger. Its wide eyes stared back at her. For a moment they stayed there, gaz-es locked, regarding each other wonderingly.

Then something began to nudge at her as she felt her fear returning. Somewhere deep with-in her an idea was whispering, growing quickly to a command. It was more forceful even than her mother’s order. It was some-thing she knew without needing to be told.

Leaping onto her graceful, spindly legs, she bounded out of the grassy bower, across a neat row of flowers, and towards a grove of trees. She ran off on her small hooves, and as she did she flagged her tail—it seemed the right thing to do. She left the cu-rious, noisy creature standing in the grass, staring after her with an open mouth. When the stranger was gone, she would return, and she would be still and safe once more.

8 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

COMMENTARY

How school choice can save our failing education systemAmber Athey

Public schools are failing our students, parents, and teachers. While state and local govern-ments keep spending more on public schools, educational out-comes have remained relative-ly stagnant, leaving the United States lagging behind other in-

dustrialized nations. The US ranks 22nd out of 27 countries, with a graduation rate of just 73%. Stu-dents are similarly lagging in math, science, and reading. There also exists a significant gap in ed-ucation opportunity for students from minority and low-income backgrounds, leaving them stuck in a cycle of poverty with no way out.

Why does government continue to place emphasis on more fund-ing for schools that are failing our children? Why not offer an alter-native?

School choice is our alterna-tive. Through a variety of pro-grams such as education savings accounts, vouchers, tax cred-it scholarships, and homeschool-ing, students have the opportu-nity to receive an education that best fits their needs. School choice programs lead to improved edu-

cational outcomes, higher grad-uation rates, flexibility in the education process, and parent sat-isfaction in their child’s schooling.

Let’s use the example of edu-cation savings accounts (ESAs). ESAs function by taking a por-tion (usually 90%) of the money the state/local government would use to educate a child and put-ting it in a savings account acces-sible only to the parent. The mon-ey may only be accessed to pay for educational purchases such as pri-vate school tuition, homeschool-ing materials, online courses, etc. Any unused money at the end of a school year may rollover into a 529 college savings plan. ESAs al-low the parent to customize their child’s education, and offer low-income families the opportunity to move their child out of a fail-ing public school and into a school that better fits their needs.

The benefits to any school choice system are twofold: they improve a child’s outcome, and they usually do so at a lower cost to the taxpayer. An even further ben-efit is that the introduced compe-tition encourages public schools to improve to prevent students from leaving. In every empirical study done on school choice, students who participated in school choice showed marked improvement as

did the students who stayed be-hind in the public school.

Washington, DC implemented its very own school choice voucher program in 2004. The DC Oppor-tunity Scholarship Program allows children from low-income families to receive a voucher so they may attend a parochial school in the District that they otherwise would not be able to afford. The result? Students who used the vouchers to attend private schools had gradu-ation rates of 91%, compared to graduation rates of 60% in DC public schools. Graduation rates are an incredibly important metric because a high school degree dra-matically raises income, lowers in-carceration rates, and even has an effect on marital stability.

Education is the best predic-tor of someone’s future success. As such, it is vital that we offer the best opportunities to students so that they may become produc-tive and satisfied adults. Teach-ers’ union bosses desire the status quo—more pay and more teach-ers for underperforming schools—while school choice offers the way forward—lower costs, happy par-ents, and improved outcomes.

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MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 9

ART

See Cinderella at the METThe Maryland Ensemble The-

atre (MET) and the Fun Com-pany are bringing magic to the theatre with the performance of Cinderella. Watch dreams come true for one young girl with the help of her magical Fairy God-mother, some fairy dust and a lit-tle bit of hope running through May 15 (Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30 p.m.).

The story of Cinderella was first published in 1634 and has been adapted numerous times throughout the years, including works by the Brother’s Grimm, Rossini, Prokofiev, Rogers and Hammerstein, and of course the classic Disney film. The oldest documented version comes from China and the oldest European documented version hails from Italy. Julie Herber, Fun Compa-ny Artistic Director at MET, is a founding member of Theatricks, who made a musical adaption of the classic folk tale and will be bringing it to our second stage. This sprightly musical version of the beloved classic fairy tale will

enchant audiences of all ages. Un-der the sharp, menacing eyes of her Stepmother and Stepsisters, will Cinderella ever get to dance with the Prince? With her fearless charm, kind heart and a little bit of help from her Fairy Godmoth-er, she just might! But will she make it home before the clock strikes twelve? And who will the slipper fit? The show will feature original music and lyrics by Mer-yl Cullom. The show is best suit-ed for ages five and up.

This alluring spectacle of Cin-derella would not be be possi-ble without our lovely cast. Cin-derella will be played by Shelly Hierstetter, Prince Champi-on by Daniel Valentine-Mo-rales, The Fairy Godmother by Surasree Das, The Stepmother by Laura Stark, Trillvia (step-sister) by Amanda Spellman, Shrillvia (stepsister) by Caitlyn Joy and Lord Roland by Thom-as Scholtes. The talented ensem-ble will be directed by the wand of Julie Herber, who will also be choreographing. To assist Her-

ber will be stage manager Lydia Hadfield, musical director Jen-

nie Huntoon, set designer Ra-chel Grant Smith, costume de-

signer Cody Gilliam and lighting designer Giovanni Kavota.

Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre announces “auditions”

The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre continues its 2016 Season with the musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, opening Friday, May 6th.

Spelling Bee centers on an eclec-tic group of six mid-pubescents vying for the spelling champion-ship of a lifetime. While candid-ly disclosing hilarious and touch-ing stories from their home life, the tweens spell their way through a series of [potentially made-up] words hoping to never hear the soul-crushing, pout-inducing, life un-affirming “ding” of the bell that signals a spelling mistake. Six spellers enter; one speller leaves! A riotous ride complete with audi-ence participation, The 25th An-nual Putnam County Spelling Bee

is an award-winning laugh extrav-aganza.

Unlike almost all other musi-cals, Spelling Bee enlists four audi-ence members to join the cast for each performance, becoming con-testants at the spelling bee them-selves. With countless unscripted moments, hilarious over-the-top characters, and a spelling cham-pionship title on the line, Spelling Bee is a laugh riot.

The show will run from May 6th through June 25th with per-formances every Friday and Satur-day evening and matinees on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sunday of each month.

Daniel Valentine Morales as Prince Champion and Thomas Sholtes as Lord Roland in the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s Cinderella.

The cast of Way off Broadway’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

10 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

LIBRARY

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

Get in the game: Summer is here!The Summer Challenge, the li-

brary’s summer reading program, is here! Starting May 1st, people of all ages can read, learn, and explore the community for a chance to win fantastic prizes. The Walkersville Li-brary, along with all branches of FC-PL, has worked with local business-es and organizations to partner with us for a great lineup of activities and programs.

Here’s how it works:Register at fcpl.org/summer or

stop in at your local library.

Log activities online or keep track on your gameboard (pick up at your library).

Finish 4 badges to earn a free book and entry into our prize draw-ings on the first of each month through September 1. Finish 5 or more badges (online players only) for entry into the MVP prize draw-ing for extra special prizes.

Find Summer Challenge code signs in local businesses, parks, and organizations. Enter the code from the signs online to collect even more badges.

Adults, kids, and teens are in for great fun. Check out our program guide for the latest program of-ferings, and visit fcpl.org/summer for details about our fantastic priz-es. We’re giving away rafting trips, amusement park passes, museum tickets, restaurant gift certificates, and much more. There is some-thing for everyone, and it’s always free to participate!To kick off Sum-mer Reading, the Walkersville Li-brary will be hosting May the Fourth

Be with You Party (Star Wars) on May 4th at 4 p.m. Feel free to dress in

costume of your favorite Star Wars character! A Great Horned Owl will visit the library on May 11th at 1 p.m. for Wild About Owls. Children are invited to step into the world of Narnia on May 24 at 6:30 p.m. as Rose Hill Manor Park & Children’s Museum visits the library; and Ex-plore Light on May 31st at 6:30 p.m. during our Science at Sundown pro-gram.

Happy Birthday National Park ServiceFrederick County Public Li-

braries are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service with a variety of pro-grams both in library branch-es and in the National Parks lo-

cated in Frederick County. As part of this celebration, the Na-tional Park Bison mascot visited the Walkersville Library in April to meet the children of the com-munity. Ranger Tracey Evans of

Monocacy National Battlefield came along with the bison to read stories to the group. To find other programs that are part of the cel-ebration, visit FCPL.org.

Community supports Walkersville Library

The Walkersville Library wel-comed several guest speakers this spring who took time out of their busy schedules to share knowledge and excitement with the patrons. Nearly 70 people gathered in the li-brary to meet a group of local stars--the cast of The Little Mermaid, in-cluding Ariel and Prince Erik. Cast

members from the Walkersville High School’s spring theater per-formance graciously gave their time reading stories, hosting a scavenger hunt, and doing creative activities with the young patrons.

As part of the Wild About…se-ries hosted by the Walkersville Li-brary each month, Ranger Jeremi-

ah Corbin of Cunningham Falls State Park brought tadpoles and frogs to a gathering of 31 patrons. Children learned about the life cy-cle of amphibians, and now have an aquarium of bullfrog tadpoles in the library to observe the life cy-cle changes.

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 11

Advertise with us!For more information, contact WoodsboroEditor@gmail.com

5

UPCOMING EVENTS

Upcoming Events

April 25 – May 8Fundraiser – At Trout’s Towne Restaurant, when you buy an omelet, dessert, milkshake or Troutware item they will donate $1 to MS So-ciety Team Raimist

May 7Church Supper - Johnsville United Methodist Church Spring Supper12 Noon - 5:00 PMFried chicken & Chicken pot-pieBuffet style - all you can eat!Adults - $12.00 children 5 - 10 $6.00 under 5 freeCarry out available 12 - 3:00 PMBake table available11106 Green Valley Road (RT 75)Between Libertytown & Union BridgeFor more information 410-775-7217

May 8 Mother’s Day

May 9 – 22Fundraiser – At Trout’s Towne Restaurant, when you buy an omelet, dessert, milkshake or Troutware item they will donate $1 to Mar-tinsburg VA hospital “Shave & Haircuts”

May 10Gov’t – Woodsboro Town Meeting 7pm

May 11 – Gov’t - Walkersville Town Meeting 7:30pm

May 23 – June 5Fundraiser – At Trout’s Towne Restaurant, when you buy an omelet, dessert, milkshake or Troutware item they will donate $1 to the Walkersville LEO’S which is the junior Lions club

May 23Gov’t – Woodsboro Town Meeting 7pm

May 25Gov’t - Walkersville Town Meeting 7:30pm

May 30Memorial Day

Maple Run Golf Club

Pro Shop18 hole courseGolf carts availableOnline tee time booking

13610 Moser Road, Thurmont, Maryland 21788 (301) 271-7870 | maplerungolf.com

12 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

COMMUNITY

The Rosebud Perfume Co.

A labor of love by women in Woodsboro

Michael O’Connor

What if Norman Rockwell ran a pharmacy in turn of the centu-ry Frederick county? What was the country and economy like in that period? We often see movies that try to set themselves in that period, think of Downtown Ab-bey in Woodsboro. You watch the TV and you see all the gauzy shots and soft music, but it misses the “feel” of that era… no matter how much they work to get the sets right… it transports the viewer but it doesn’t feel right… Imagine then walking up to a building in downtown Woodsboro that can transport you back in time almost 125 years! Walking through this door will give an overwhelming sensation that you truly are back in that time. One can almost hear the chatter of the ladies making hundreds of quilts, smell the dis-tilled oils from the pharmacy and feel the sense of urgency as local citizens met in this building in April 1861 to express the citizens’ determination to remain in the Union. So where does this story begin?

In the 1890s, America became the largest economy on the plan-et for the first time. It had gone from the 10th largest economy in 1850 to the largest in forty years. The American economy of 1890 was larger than that of Great Brit-ain, France and Germany com-bined. We all think of the advanc-es made in that era of railroads and steel but who thinks of the advances we made in chemistry. One of those advances was some-thing we use every day but hard-ly think of, namely petrolatum or petroleum jelly used for chapped skin, cuts and burns. Prior to that we used earwax as balms!

Balm had been around since before the ancient Egyptians and the first American balms were based upon earwax. An 1832 book, “the Frugal Housewife” said that nothing was better than earwax to prevent the painful ef-fects resulting from a wound by a nail and also recommended ear-wax as a remedy for cracked lips. . (Source:Wikipedia article)

In the late 19th century, pe-troleum was replacing whale oil

as a lamp oil and as expected, this upset a young chemist who made his living refining that whale oil. Robert Chesebrough, the young chemist who was out of work because of petroleum, went in 1859 to Titusville to see what new petroleum byproducts had commercial potential. He noticed that although rig workers disliked a paraffin-like material forming on the drilling rods as it caused them to malfunction, they used it on cuts and burns because they believed it hastened healing. (Source:Wikipedia article) Chese-brough took the unrefined black “rod wax”, as the drillers called it back to lab, and developed a light-colored gel, “petroleum jel-ly”. He patented it as “Vaseline” ®, U.S. Patent 127,568 in 1872 (Google Patents).

Chesebrough traveled around New York demonstrat-ing the product to encourage sales by burning his skin with ac-id or an open flame, then spread-ing the ointment on his injuries and showing his past injuries healed, he claimed, by his “mira-cle product”. The company histo-ry claims that new mothers used it as an absorbent shield for dia-per rash; workers in extreme cold weather used it to relieve their dry chapped skin. Even Commander Robert Peary, it is reported car-ried a jar of Vaseline® when he travelled to the North Pole; as it was the only thing that wouldn’t freeze in those extreme condi-tions. By the late 1880s, Chese-brough was selling Vaseline® Pe-troleum Jelly nationwide at the rate of one jar per minute and Petroleum Jelly was the stan-dard remedy for skin complaints. (Source: http://www.vaseline.com.pk/about-us/history/)

Besides chemists, pharmacists were often at the fore in develop-ing new products or medical in-novations. In the 19th century, Civil War veteran John Stith Pem-berton (July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888) was an American pharma-cist, and best known for being the inventor of Coca-Cola. His pro-cess was that of developing a con-centrated syrup which was then added to carbonated water. Pem-berton made many health claims

for his product, touting it as a “valuable brain tonic” that would cure headaches, relieve exhaustion and calm nerves, and marketed it as “delicious, refreshing, pure joy, exhilarating”, and “invigorating” (Source:Wikipedia article).

Meanwhile in nearby Utica, Maryland a local school teacher and Woodsboro native, George F. Smith became a pharmacist in 1902 and started serving that same Coca Cola. After the busi-ness moved back to Woodsboro, Smith started making a balm called “Balsam of Rosebuds”. Bal-sam is a sap that forms on cer-tain trees and shrubs and owes its name to the biblical “balm of Gil-ead”, a rare perfume used medici-nally. The product was very popu-lar and Smith closed the pharmacy and moved into the current build-ing, the old Smith hotel that had been the site of the Civil War se-cession and Union discussions. Smith’s success in the business was one of many in that era, a rags to riches story ending in the 1920s with his and his family’s future se-cure (Company website history).

A lot of stories could have end-ed at this point and gone no fur-ther. The Depression, changes in business regulation with the ad-vent of the Food and Drug Ad-ministration, the rise of the MDs over the Pharmacists and intrinsic challenges of running family busi-nesses could easily have cratered the Woodsboro firm like a thou-sand other businesses. It didn’t and therein lies the next story, one of grit and determination.

Rosebud was a unique but common business for the early 20th century. They had a prod-uct but the challenge was, in 21st century parlance, the na-ture of the early 20th century supply chain and distribution. Smith manufactured Rosebud on site. This meant that assem-bling the balm botanicals into an infusion oil was done in the hotel. This then had to mixed into the base and then boxed, all by hand. Vivian Smith-`Clipp, Smith’s granddaughter remembers filling the tins with salve using a spatula.

A number of local Woodsboro people worked in the business and Smith-Clipp remembers chil-dren being about during dinners and parties playing all through the building. Her eyes fade away and moisten when she talks of the children riding down the par-cel chutes from the upper floors. She takes the visitor and former stranger into yet another room, a hidden gem of artifacts and me-mentos, revealing a hand built sled built by a local blacksmith, used to take Rosebud products up to the Woodsboro railroad station which is still there.

Rosebud’s business model was one made possible by the ubiq-uity of rail transport and the par-cel post system in the early 20th century. But it was the mail order business that fueled its growth us-ing agents selling Rosebud prod-ucts door to door. “Back in the 1920s, my grandfather amassed a fortune with Rosebud Salve,” said Linda Pruitt-Michielli, Smith’s great granddaughter.

It’s hard to think of this as a pathway to wealth but it was that in that last century. Warren Buf-fett as a teenager sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola bottles, or week-ly magazines door to door. Evan-gelist Billy Graham worked as a Fuller Brush salesman during the

summer after high school, and outsold “every other salesman in North Carolina” (Wikipedia). The Company’s website says that over 70,000 agents sold its products in exchange for rewards that includ-ed cameras, watches, rifles and hand bags. The business thrived, using children and neighbors to peddle salves door to door in the 1920s up through the 1940s. A 1929 company calendar extols the salve “of which more than 2 mil-lion boxes are sold yearly.”

The process broke down dur-ing the depression. Smith-Clipp remembers her grandfather, Dr. Smith didn’t have the heart to us-ing the legal process to get the money he was owed. She credits his frugality and savings from the 1920s as getting them through the depression because the business wasn’t there. The story might have ended there but it hung on.

In the 1990s, two high-end beauty chains in Manhattan, C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries and Ricky’s, revived the Rosebud brand. In 2003, Rosebud went global with newspaper articles on its salve in the London Times. (Numerous other press articles cite this Mi-chelli-Pruitt statement.)

In 2007, the Woodsboro com-pany went back to its “trust” roots

The founder’s granddaughter Vivian Smith-Clipp surrounded by boxes of product and correspondence

A sled built to take product up the hill to the train station

The UPS truck has replaced the sled and steam locomotive

CONTINUED ON PAGE 13

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 13

COMMUNITY

The Rosebud Perfume Company continued from page 12

with the cosmetics firm Sepho-ra and the handshake deal for a new product, the “Minted Rose”. Sephora was already selling Rose-bud Salve and Strawberry Lip Balm in 2005. Pruitt-Michielli, a former art teacher, explained how nervous they were …”We hadn’t developed a new product in 20 years.” Now Pruitt-Michi-elli says, Rosebud is working with the State of Maryland to get regu-latory approval from the Chinese government to sell their prod-uct in China! And the challenges go on for a family business that has weathered seismic changes in the industry only to survive into its fourth generation, breeding a sense of worker loyalty that could only be envied. In 2002, Experi-

ence Works Inc. presented Eth-el V. Cutshall, 97, office worker, an award as Maryland’s Oldest Worker of the Year. Her tenure began during the presidency of Warren G. Harding in 1921, and outside of taking several months off to have her two children, con-tinued uninterrupted for the next 84 years into the second term of President George W. Bush until 2005. (Various news releases) To-day, her daughter continues Cut-shall’s work at Rosebud.

The story ends today with a local business possessing deep Woodsboro roots that becomes part of the 21st century global economy. This supply chain ac-tivity starts in Woodsboro and goes to the three largest econo-

mies in the Globe, The United States, China and the European Union. Rosebud still markets a balm borne of roses with biblical roots, the Balm of Gilead. A work scene where artifacts of a last cen-tury coexist with their most re-cent acquisition, bar code print-ers.

A fitting and loving tribute by local women to a man who loved Woodsboro, was its mayor for 19 years, held musical concerts from his building and drove his favorite car, a Packard to Atlan-tic city each year to attend the Miss American Pageant in Atlan-tic City, New Jersey. “We’ve been busy” as Smith-Clipp, his grand-daughter said with a twinkle in her eye!

A note from Dr. Mimi

In today’s fast paced society, few of us are free from the effects of stress on our bodies and lives. The key to winning the war on stress is under-standing how to manage it. Here are three steps that will help.

First, know that stress will come. You know your “hot buttons” and who pushes them. So why stress out over something you know is going to happen? Sounds easy enough.

Next, take ten minutes at night to organize the things that must get done the next day. Don’t make your list too long or vague. Be reasonable in what you can achieve in one day.

Finally, proceed through your day with quiet confidence and humility. Proactively setting goals and com-pleting them is very helpful in de-creasing stress. Staying focused is a necessity. Studies show that the in-ability to handle stress is a major cause of headaches, neck pain, and lower back pain.

See a chiropractor to get your spine checked to see if you can live with less stress and greater health for the long term without the use of drugs and surgery.

Public servant recognizedJennie Covahey Editor, Frederick Chapter DAR

Leah Fleming, a local Amer-ican Red Cross volunteer, was presented the National Commu-nity Service Award of the Na-tional Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) during a recent volunteers meet-ing at Red Cross Headquarters in Walkersville, Md. This award recognizes citizens for their out-standing achievements in cultur-al, educational, humanitarian, patriotic, and citizenship work in their communities.

Fleming has been an active volunteer with the American Red Cross for 14 years. She has been a leader in both the Disaster Re-lief Fund and the Red Cross Ser-

vices to the Armed Forces Pro-gram. She is currently a volunteer member of the Western Mary-land Chapter Board of Directors, a member of the Feeding Team, and an American Red Cross Government Operations Team member. She sacrifices thousands of hours of time and generously gives personal comfort and assis-tance to those in need.

In 2012, Fleming received the prestigious Wertheimer Fel-low Award from the Community Foundation of Frederick Coun-ty and used the accompanying monetary award to establish The Leah Fleming Fund Support-ing American Red Cross, which funds emergency services as well as training for new Red Cross volunteers.

Woodsboro residents Lily Bandy age 9 and Claire Bandy age 11 took it upon themselves on Earth Day to collect several bags of trash around the Woodsboro Park. Thank you!

Community Service Award State Chairman Rebecca Moyer, Frederick Chapter Regent Joanne Baum, National Com-munity Service Award recipient Leah Fleming, and Frederick Chapter Community Service Award Chairman Delores Shade

14 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

COMMUNITY

A 529 Plan can help with those college bills

We’re at the end of another school year. If you have young-er kids, you might be thinking about summer camps and other activities. But in the not-too-dis-tant future, your children will be facing a bigger transition as they head off to college. Will you be financially prepared for that day?

A college education is a good investment – college graduates earn, on average, $1 million more over their lifetimes than high school graduates, accord-ing to a study by Georgetown University – but a bachelor’s de-gree doesn’t come cheap. For the 2015–2016 school year, the av-erage expense – tuition, fees, room and board – was $19,548 at a public four-year school and $43,921 at a four-year private school, according to the College Board. And by the time your children are ready for college, these costs may be considerably higher, because inflation is alive and well in the higher education arena.

Your children may be eligible for some types of financial aid and scholarships. But even so, you may want to consider some college-savings vehicles – and one of the most popular is a 529 plan.

A 529 plan offers a variety of benefits, including the follow-ing:

High contribution limits – A 529 plan won’t limit your contri-butions based on your income. In all likelihood, you can con-tribute as much as you want to a 529 plan, as many states have contribution limits of $300,000 and up. And you can give up to $14,000 ($28,000 for a married couple filing jointly) per year, per child, without incurring any gift taxes.

Tax advantages – Your earn-ings can accumulate tax free, provided they are used for qual-ified higher education expens-es. (529 plan distributions not used for qualified expenses may be subject to federal and state in-

come tax, and a 10% IRS penalty on the earnings.) Furthermore, your 529 plan contributions may be eligible for a state tax deduc-tion or credit if you participate in your own state’s plan. But 529 plans vary, so check with your tax advisor regarding deductibil-ity.

Freedom to invest in any state’s plan. – You can invest in a 529 plan from any state – but that doesn’t mean your child has to go to school there. You could live in one state, invest in a sec-ond state’s plan, and send your student to school in a third state, if you choose.

Money can be used for virtu-ally any program – Upon grad-uating high school, not all kids are interested in, or prepared for, a traditional four-year college. But you can use your 529 plan to help pay for qualified expens-es at a variety of educational in-stitutions, including two-year community colleges and trade schools.

Of course, a 529 plan does have considerations you will need to think about before open-ing an account. For example, your 529 plan assets can affect your child’s needs-based finan-cial aid, but it might not doom it. As long as the 529 assets are under your control, they typical-ly will be assessed at a maximum rate of 5.64% in determining your family’s expected contribu-tion under the federal financial aid formula, as opposed to the usual 20% rate for assets held in the student’s name.

In any case, though, a 529 plan is worth considering. But don’t wait too long – as you well know, your kids seem to grow up in the blink of an eye.

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by Laura Beall, your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

Local volunteers recognized

The Frederick County Volunteer Fire & Rescue Association (FCVFRA) and Ladies Auxiliary held the 23rd Annual Awards Ceremony on Monday, April 18, 2016. The event was held at the Walkersville Volunteer Fire Company. The dedicated men and women of the Frederick County Volunteer Fire & Rescue Service were recognized

for extraordinary efforts and lifetime achievements. (Photos, Jenna Kellar)

Several local volunteers received FCVFRA Presidential Special Recognition Awards:

For the Lake Linganore Dam swift water rescue on June 27, 2015:

Woodsboro VFD Dive Team – Sr. Team Leader – Matt Wiles

Walkersville VFD - Chief Randy Williams

Walkersville Rescue Company – D/C Jeff Eyler

For the West Main Street Emmitsburg house fire in December 7, 2015:

Woodsboro VFD Chief Micky Fyock

Walkersville VFD – Chief Randy Williams

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 15

HISTORY

What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen

The Demobilization

Bastiat, Frédéric (1801-1850)

A nation is in the same case as a man. When a man wishes to give himself a satisfaction, he has to see whether it is worth what it costs. For a nation, security is the greatest of blessings. If, to acquire it, a hundred thousand men must be mobilized, and a hundred mil-lion francs spent, I have nothing to say. It is an enjoyment bought at the price of a sacrifice.

Let there be no misunderstand-ing, then, about the point I wish to make in what I have to say on this subject.

A legislator proposes to dis-charge a hundred thousand men, which will relieve the taxpayers of a hundred million francs in taxes.

Suppose we confine ourselves to replying to him: “These one hundred thousand men and these one hundred million francs are indispensable to our national se-curity. It is a sacrifice; but with-out this sacrifice France would be torn by internal factions or in-vaded from without.” I have no objection here to this argument, which may be true or false as the case may be, but which theoreti-cally does not constitute any eco-nomic heresy. The heresy begins when the sacrifice itself is repre-sented as an advantage, because it brings profit to someone.

Now, if I am not mistaken, no sooner will the author of the pro-posal have descended from the platform, than an orator will rush up and say:

“Discharge a hundred thou-sand men! What are you thinking of? What will become of them? What will they live on? On their earnings? But do you not know that there is unemployment ev-erywhere? That all occupations are oversupplied? Do you wish to throw them on the market to in-crease the competition and to de-press wage rates? Just at the mo-ment when it is difficult to earn a meager living, is it not fortu-nate that the state is giving bread to a hundred thousand individu-als? Consider further that the ar-my consumes wine, clothes, and weapons, that it thus spreads business to the factories and the garrison towns, and that it is nothing less than a godsend to its innumerable suppliers. Do you not tremble at the idea of bring-ing this immense industrial activ-ity to an end?”

This speech, we see, concludes in favor of maintaining a hun-dred thousand soldiers, not be-cause of the nation’s need for the services rendered by the army, but for economic reasons. It is these considerations alone that I pro-pose to refute.

A hundred thousand men, costing the taxpayers a hundred million francs, live as well and provide as good a living for their suppliers as a hundred million

francs will allow: that is what is seen.

But a hundred million francs, coming from the pockets of the taxpayers, ceases to provide a liv-ing for these taxpayers and their suppliers, to the extent of a hun-dred million francs: that is what is not seen. Calculate, figure, and tell me where there is any profit for the mass of the people.

I will, for my part, tell you where the loss is, and to simpli-fy things, instead of speaking of a hundred thousand men and a hundred million francs, let us talk about one man and a thou-sand francs.

Here we are in the village of A. The recruiters make the rounds and muster one man. The tax collectors make their rounds al-so and raise a thousand francs. The man and the sum are trans-ported to Metz, the one destined to keep the other alive for a year without doing anything. If you look only at Metz, yes, you are right a hundred times; the pro-cedure is very advantageous. But if you turn your eyes to the vil-lage of A, you will judge other-wise, for, unless you are blind, you will see that this village has lost a laborer and the thousand francs that would remunerate his labor, and the business which, through the spending of these thousand francs, he would spread about him.

At first glance it seems as if the loss is compensated. What took place at the village now takes place at Metz, and that is all there is to it. But here is where the loss is. In the village a man dug and labored: he was a worker; at Metz he goes through “Right dress!” and “Left dress!”: he is a soldier. The money involved and its cir-culation are the same in both cas-es: but in one there were three hundred days of productive labor; in the other there are three hun-dreds days of unproductive labor, on the supposition, of course, that a part of the army is not in-dispensable to public security.

Now comes demobilization. You point out to me a surplus of a hundred thousand workers,

intensified competition and the pressure that it exerts on wage rates. That is what you see.

But here is what you do not see. You do not see that to send home a hundred thousand soldiers is not to do away with a hundred million francs, but to return that money to the taxpayers. You do not see that to throw a hundred thousand workers on the market in this way is to throw in at the same time the hundred million francs destined to pay for their la-bor; that, as a consequence, the same measure that increases the supply of workers also increases the demand; from which it fol-lows that your lowering of wages is illusory. You do not see that be-fore, as well as after, the demobi-lization there are a hundred mil-lion francs corresponding to the hundred thousand men; that the whole difference consists in this: that before, the country gives the hundred million francs to the hundred thousand men for do-ing nothing; afterwards, it gives them the money for working. Fi-nally, you do not see that when a taxpayer gives his money, whether to a soldier in exchange for noth-ing or to a worker in exchange for something, all the more remote consequences of the circulation of this money are the same in both cases: only, in the second case the taxpayer receives something; in the first he receives nothing. Re-sult: a dead loss for the nation.

The sophism that I am attack-ing here cannot withstand the test of extended application, which is the touchstone of all theoreti-cal principles. If, all things con-sidered, there is a national profit in increasing the size of the army, why not call the whole male pop-ulation of the country to the col-ors?

Claude Frédéric Bastiat was a French classical liberal theorist, po-litical economist, and member of the French assembly. Many of his concepts are ingrained in modern economic and political theory. The ease with which his essays can be re-lated to current events and debate is a testament to his insight.

Advertise with us!For more information, contact WoodsboroEditor@gmail.com

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16 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

HISTORY

History of Walkersville sewing factory

In 1924, my father, Robert N Nicodemus, Sr. purchased from the Frederick County Board of Education the old four room pub-lic school building which was built in l897. The 66’ x 34’, two story building is located at the corner of Frederick Street and Crum Road.

The 1.37 acre lot was sold Sept. 27, 1878 by Daniel Burri-er to Board of County Commis-sioners for $5.00. My father pur-chased the property with the four room school building in 1924 for $1400.00.

The building sat idle until 1929 at which time they started sewing

pajamas on the second floor for a Baltimore firm named Keegan and Grace. In 1930, a 66’ x 200’ one story brick addition was added to the back of the two-story struc-ture. The firm name, N. R. Gar-ment Co., was a partnership be-tween Robert N. Nicodemus, Sr. and Merhl Reddick. Pajamas were made for many years for the BVD Corp. in Baltimore,

Beginning in 1944, the firm be-gan manufacturing men’s sport shirts for Marlboro Shirt Co. in Baltimore. Al Watson was hired to be the manager of the factory. In the late 1940’s the firm name was changed to Robert Terry Garment Co. Messrs. Nicodemus and Wat-son named the firm after their first born children – Robert and Terry.

For many years the company struggled to be a profitable op-eration, some years losing up to $30,000 per year. Other years they would break even, but never a profitable year. On January 24, 1950, the USA minimum wage went from 40 cents an hour to 75 cents per hour. This almost put the company out of business.

On June 13, 1950, Robert and Helen Nicodemus’ sons, Robert, Jr. and Charles, graduated from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Bob had a de-gree in Mechanical Engineering and Charlie had a degree in Sci-ence in Business. On June 14, 1950, Al Watson left the busi-ness and the Nicodemus brothers became Company Vice President and Manager of the Robert Terry Garment Co. Bob was in charge of overseeing the mechanical side of the business, and Charlie was in charge of hiring and firing em-ployees, keeping the books, and securing contracts from manufac-turing companies.

As a college graduate, I earned $30.00 per week in 1950, 1951, and 1952, working many weeks 50 to 60 hours per week. In the fall of 1951, I took my briefcase and went to New York City to seek contracts to make men’s sport shirts. I visited the Arrow Shirt Co., the VanHuesen Co., Marl-borough Shirt Company, and the

McGregor Sport Shirt Compa-ny. The Arrow, VanHeusen, and Marlborough Companies showed no interest in our contract sewing operation. McGregor Company at that time was managed by broth-ers, Danny and Joe LePore, one a business student and the other an engineer. I had with me a pic-ture of our factory and they just could not believe our building was a brick building with hard wood flooring. All McGregor factories were cement block buildings with concrete floors. Such being the case, the LePore brothers wanted to come visit our factory. Seeing our operation, they immediately agreed to do business with us. So in 1952 we signed contracts to be-gin making men’s sport shirts for nationally advertised McGregor Sportswear. They told me if we were successful with making their shirts, at the end of one year, we would have to become a union shop.

With the new McGregor con-tract, our factory for the first time became profitable. We start-ed to cut, sew, press, and box be-tween 600 to 800 dozen shirts each week. For years we were paid $4.50 to $7.00 per dozen for mak-ing shirts and McGregor paid us $7.50 to $11.00 per dozen for making shirts depending whether it was short sleeve or long sleeve shirts. After 52 weeks with Mc-

Gregor, I called the employees together at 3 P.M. on Friday and told them if they came to work on Monday at 7 A.M. they would have to become members of the Amalgamated Garment Workers Union of America and start pay-ing union dues. Every single em-ployee showed up Monday morn-ing ready to go to work.

For five years the Robert Terry Garment Co, Inc. prospered and our employees prospered making a tractor trailer load of men’s shirts every week or two. The tractor trailers went to Dover, N J, Mc-Gregor Distribution Center.

In 1957, McGregor told us that foreign shirts were coming into the USA much cheaper than we could make them and advised us to go out of business and save the money we had made. The union was in agreement and so the Rob-ert Terry Garment Company went out of business in the spring of 1957.

Part 2 of our Robert Terry Sew-ing operation with McGregor will follow next month. Names of our outstanding employees and the parts they took in our sewing fac-tory will be told.

Article presented by Walkersville Historical Society President Mrs. Bonnie Leins, and written by Charles A. Nicodemus

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 17

BOOK OF DAYS

AudubonOne of those enthusiasts who de-

vote themselves to one prodigious task, of a respectable, but not remu-nerative nature, and persevere in it till it, or their life, is finished. He was born of French parents (May 4, 1782) in the then French colony of Louisiana, in North America, and received a good education in Paris. Settled afterwards by his father on a farm near Philadelphia, he married, engaged in trade, and occasion-ally cultivated a taste for drawing. Gradually, a love of natural histo-ry and an intense relish for the en-joyment of forest life, led him away from commercial pursuits; and be-fore he was thirty, we find him in Florida, with his rifle and drawing materials, thinking of nothing but how he might capture and sketch the numerous beautiful birds of his native country. At that time, there was a similar enthusiast in the same field, the quondam Scotch pedlar and poet, Alexander Wilson. They met, compared drawings, and felt a mutual respect. Wilson, howev-er, saw in young Audubon’ s efforts the promise of a success beyond his own.

Years of this kind of life passed over. The stock of drawings in-creased, notwithstanding the loss at one time of two hundred, con-taining a thousand subjects, and in time the resolution of publish-ing was formed. He estimated that the task would occupy him fifteen more years, and he had not one sub-scriber; but, notwithstanding the painful remonstrances of friends, he persevered. In the course of his preparations, about 1828, he visit-ed London, Edinburgh, and Paris. We remember him at the second of these cities, a hale man of forty-six, nimble as a deer, and with an aqui-line style of visage and eye that re-minded one of a class of his sub-jects; a frank, noble, natural man. Professor Wilson took to him won-derfully, and wrote of him, ‘The hearts of all are warmed toward Audubon. The man himself is just what you would expect from his productions, full of fine enthusi-asm and intelligence, most interest-ing in his looks and manners, a per-fect gentleman, and esteemed by all who know him, for the simplicity and frankness of his nature.’

In 1830, he published his first volume with ninety-nine birds and one hundred plates. His birds were life-size and in colour. The kings of England and France placed their names at the head of his subscrip-tion list. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and member of the Natural History So-ciety of Paris.

In 1834, the second volume of The Birds of America was published, and then Audubon went to explore the state of Maine, the shores of the Bay of Fundy, the Gulf of St. Law-rence, and the Bay of Labrador. In the autumn of 1834, the second volume of Ornithological Biogra-phy was published in Edinburgh. People subscribed for The Birds of America with a view to posterity, as men plant trees. Audubon men-

tions a nobleman in London, who remarked when subscribing, ‘I may not live to see the work finished, but my children will.’ The naturalist, though a man of faith, hope, and endurance, seems to have been af-fected by this remark. ‘I thought—what if I should not live to finish my work?’ But he comforted him-self by his reliance on Providence. After the publication of his third volume, the United States govern-ment gave him the use of an ex-ploring vessel, and he went to the coasts of Florida and Texas. Three years after this, the fourth volume of his engravings, and the fifth of his descriptions, were published. He had now 435 plates, and 1,165 figures, from the eagle to the hum-ming-bird, with many land and sea views.

Audubon never cultivated the graces of style. He wrote to be understood. His descriptions are clear and simple. He describes the mocking-bird with the heart of a poet and the eye of a naturalist. His description of a hurricane proves that he never ceased to be a careful and accurate observer in the most agitating circumstances.

Audubon died at his home, near New York, on the 27th January, 1851.

OATMEAL—ITS FORMER USE IN ENGLAND

Edward Richardson, owner of an estate in the township of Bice, Lancashire, directed, in 1784, that for fifty years after his death there should be, on Ascension Day, a dis-tribution of oatmeal amongst the poor in his neighbourhood, three loads to Ince, one to Abram, and another to Hindley.

The sarcastic definition of oats by Johnson, in his Dictionary—’A grain which in England is general-ly given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people,’ has been the subject of much remark. It is, how-

ever, worthy of notice that, when the great lexicographer launched this sneer at Caledonia, England herself was not a century advanced from a very popular use of oatmeal. Markham, in his English House-wife, 1653, speaks of oatmeal as a viand in regular family use in Eng-land. After giving directions how it should be prepared, he says the us-es and virtues of the several kinds are beyond all reckoning. There is, first, the small ground meal, used in thickening pottage of meat or of milk, as well as both thick and thin gruel, ‘of whose goodness it is needless to speak, in that it is fre-quent with every experience.’ Then there are oat-cakes, thick and thin, ‘very pleasant in taste, and much esteemed.’ And the same meal may be mixed with blood, and the liver of sheep, calf, or pig; thus making ‘that pudding which is called hag-gas, or haggus, of whose goodness it is in vain to boast, because there is hardly to be found a man that does not affect them.’

It is certainly somewhat surpris-ing thus to find that the haggis of Scotland, which is understood now-a-days to be barely compatible with an Englishman remaining at table, was a dish which nearly every man in England affected in the time of the Commonwealth. More than this, Markham goes on to describe a food called wash-brew, made of the very small oatmeal by frequent steeping of it, and then boiling it into a jelly, to be eaten with hon-ey, wine, milk, or ale, according to taste. ‘I have,’ says he, ‘seen them of sickly and dainty stomachs which have eaten great quantities thereof, beyond the proportion of ordinary meats.’ The Scotsman can be at no loss to recognise, in this descrip-tion, the sowens of his native land, a dish formerly prevalent among the peasantry, but now compara-tively little known.

To illustrate Markham’s remark as to the quantity of this mess which could be eaten, the writer may adduce a fact related to him by his grandmother, who was the wife of an extensive store-farmer in Peeblesshire, from 1768 to 1780. A new plough-man had been hired for the farm. On the first evening, coming home just after the sow-ens had been prepared, but when

no person was present in the kitch-en, he began with one of the cogs or bowls, went on to another, and in a little time had despatched the very last of the series; after which he coolly remarked to the maid, at that moment entering the house, ‘Lass, I wish you would tomor-row night make my sowens all in one dish, and not in drippocks and drappocks that way!’

Then came fair May, the fayrest mayd on ground,

Deckt all with dainties of her season’s pryde,

And throwing flowres out of her lap around

Upon two brethren’s shoulders she did ride,

The twinnes of Leda ; which on either side

Supported her, like to their soveraine queene.

Lord ! how all creatures laught, when her they spide,

And leapt and daunc’t as they had ravisht beene

And Cupid selfe about her fluttered all in greene.

From The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

18 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

The Earth and Space Science Laboratory – a 54-year FCPS institution!Jeffrey Grills

With the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union and their im-pressive space program in the late 1950’s, America had been punched in the nose and knocked into the ropes. In a massive coun-ter to the Soviet space program, the United States implemented a

huge educational push to develop an interest in space technology.

In 1962, the Frederick County Public Schools received a partial grant to install a Spitz A3P plane-tarium. Almost a thousand plane-tariums were installed throughout the country during the ‘space race.’ The original planetarium was in-stalled in the industrial arts wing

of the old Lincoln High School on Madison Street in Frederick. At this same time, Lincoln High School became known as South Frederick Elementary School.

The FCPS Planetarium became known as the Earth and Space Sci-ence Lab and has been supported by the public school system and the general public for almost 54 years. This is very unusual. Ma-ny school systems throughout the country decided in the 80’s and 90’s to no longer support astron-omy and space studies with their planetariums. Over the course of the past 5 decades, the ESSL has been visited by over 1,000,000 students to study various sciences that are a part of their school cur-riculum. Astronomy and space sci-ence have been an integral part of the ESSL program, but so have ge-ology, meteorology, oceanography, and many life sciences.

As the years passed and the county began to grow, the limit-ed space and the physical condi-tion of the old ESSL was becom-ing more apparent. A fund raising campaign began in 2002 to build a new facility on the same school campus. Within 5 years, a million dollars of private funds and mate-rials had been donated or pledged to the project. The State of Mary-land, Frederick County, and Fred-erick County Public Schools pro-vided the remaining amount. In 2009, the new facility was open for business.

The new 12,000 sq. ft. build-ing includes the Ausherman Plan-etarium that seats 90 people. It is equipped with an optical and digi-tal projection system. The Natel-li Observatory houses a 14 inch Meade telescope, a 3.5 inch hy-drogen sun telescope, and sports a 15 foot dome. Two large student classrooms, an expansive entrance area and hallway include a variety

of science exhibits and displays, 45 different aquariums and animal habits, and a 2-acre arboretum complete the Frederick County Public Schools Earth and Space Science Lab.

From Drupal, the roaming iguana, to Cassiopeia, the hedge-hog, the ESSL has a plethora of animals. A variety of snakes, liz-ards, and turtles comprise the rep-tile category. A puffer fish, a sting ray, a moray eel, and dozens of va-rieties of salt water fish fill the 14 salt water tanks. Striped bass, blue crabs, and terrapin turtles fill the 5 tanks on the Chesapeake Bay ex-hibit. Turtles, crayfish, and a vari-ety of freshwater fish fill the large pond stream area and surround-ing aquariums. Tarantulas, pira-nhas, a veiled chameleon, a variety of toads, and emperor scorpions complete the animal list.

This dynamic display of animals is directly related to the FCPS Liv-ing Materials Center located at the ESSL. The LMC has been a part of the FCPS science program for almost 40 years, providing teach-ers with various animals, plants, and other science related materi-als needed to instruct their specific science units.

If you have read this far, please do not call us to donate your red-eared slider turtle or any baby rab-bits you find in your backyard! J

All elementary age school chil-dren in grades 1-5 and some 8th grade and high school groups vis-it the facility throughout the year as a part of their science study. Teachers arrange the trips accord-ing to their respective science units throughout the year.

The ESSL has always offered a variety of evening planetari-um shows and summer matinees. These events are open to the pub-lic and help provide much of the revenue to build new displays, purchase new programming, and provide animal care. With a staff of two, the public programs are very dependent on those who vol-unteer. The Natelli Observatory is open during the evening shows if the weather permits.

The ESSL also provides a se-ries of summer camps: a variety of camps for students going in-to grades 2-10 that span the life, space, and physical sciences.

You are invited to visit the web-site to find out more about the programs available and visit, if your schedule permits. https://ed-ucation.fcps.org/essl/

EARTH AND SKY

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 19

Food artKen Kellar

My college-student daughter brought home some very interest-ing bagels she had picked up dur-ing a weekend in Philadelphia. They were made of brightly col-ored dough so they looked like a rainbow or a tie-dyed t-shirt. My wife ate one and reported it tasted like a normal bagel. While looking at one of the two remaining pretty works of art, I noticed the colors matched our kitchen walls and art work very nicely. Recalling from my college days a preserved loaf of bread that was used as decoration on a fireplace mantle, I Googled “preserving bread.” The search yielded several sets of instructions, all about the same: dry out your bread and shellac or lacquer it.

I put my bagels in a 170-degree oven for two hours. They came out looking the same as they went in. I bought a spray can of shellac (you can use a can and paint brush too).

I sprayed several coats of shellac on the bagels making sure they were plenty dry before flipping them over to ensure there was no stick-ing to the newspapers I used to protect my table. I sprayed extra

amounts in the center holes of the bagels thinking if mold started, that would be the place.

A couple thin finishing nails pounded in the dry wall and voi-la, bagel art that should last years.

IN THE COUNTRY

Back yard gardenerKen Kellar

Last year I planted my garden mid-April and lost a dozen or so plants to a late April freezing spell. So I curbed my enthusiasm this spring, and I’m waiting until the start of May to plant. I could have put in some seeds, but I was out of town the last week of April so the garden will be bare dirt until May.

This spring, I was lucky enough to have some friends lone me a rototiller. This was my first time ever at the controls. The “before” and “after” pho-tos were taken about 30 min-utes apart. The experience was in sharp contrast to last year’s shov-eling drudgery. With the tiller, once I got everything churned up nicely, I wanted to keep do-ing laps. Seeing all that hard clay soil being churned up and get-ting all fluffy felt so… well you

just have to experience it yourself sometime.

I know when it’s time to plant I’ll have to do some light (hope-

fully) hoe work to tidy up the freshly sprouted weeds, but most of the tough work is behind me thanks to a few ounces of fossil

fuel. With my winter pile of composted horse poo, shredded paper, coffee grounds, and other random vegetable material nice-

ly tilled into my garden, it’s hard to imagine anything refusing to grow well this season!

A nice crop of late winter/early spring weeds looked pretty daunting until...

… say “hello” to my leeeetle friend… …a tamed garden ready for some touch up and planting!

Shellac-preserved bagels

20 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

A new river runs through it (Part II)Ken Kellar

On April 9 the Chesapeake Bay Foundation held a tree and shrub planting event on Harold Staley’s 30-acre farm on Opossum Town Pike. Scores of volunteers par-ticipated. Some were girl scouts and others where members of Eco Sikhs based out of their church in Gaithersburg. Thousands of trees and shrubs were planted along the 1500 feet of Tuscarora Creek running through the farm field to stabilize the shoreline and shade the waters.

Back in October 2015, we re-ported on Mr. Staley’s ongoing stream restoration project and he invited us out to see the progress. Rob Schnabel, a Watershed Res-toration Scientist from the Chesa-peake Bay Foundation, explained the major funding sources for the project. The ‘several-hundred-thousand-dollar’ in-stream resto-ration performed by Ecotone Inc. was primarily funded by the State

“flush” tax that we all pay. The approximately $12,000 of trees and shrubs being planted were funded primarily by the Chesa-peake Bay Trust which in turn is funded through the sale of “Save the Bay” license plates. The Ches-apeake Bay Foundation operates its own nursery to produce the plants.

Tree species being planted in-cluded: sycamore, pin oak and river birch. Shrubs included silky dogwood and arrowwood vibur-num.

The silky dogwood were plant-ed as live cuttings. Dormant shoots are clipped during the winter prior to budding and are merely shoved into the ground where they develop roots. The trees were potted and planted in holes augured out by Ecotone.

Mr. Schnabel discussed some of the design features of the new-ly formed creek bed. If the banks are too high, heavy flows stay in the channel and gain speed caus-

ing heavy erosion. If the banks are too low, the stream can lose its way and meander all over the place. The design goal is for the banks to provide a nice defined stream bed to keep adequate depth for fish to thrive in normal times. During high water times the stream rises above the banks and spreads keeping the flow slow and minimizing erosion.

Mr. Schnabel pointed out the power of the running water. On an inside bend of the creek, per-haps 12 to 18 inches above the normal stream level, was a field of stones sized from gravel to a fist or baseball. Those stones (or cob-ble) were moved there from the stream bed during heavy rains. Mr. Schnabel said that’s the way it is supposed to work, so, so far so good.

Mr. Staley said that the De-partment of Natural Resources assessed the creek and found 12 species of fish as well as a surpris-ingly large population of caddisfly larvae (a good thing). He showed us the vernal pools used to catch silt during flood times and isolat-ed from the creek during normal flow. He noted they were quite popular with frogs and toads. He showed us frog egg clumps and hundreds of teeny tadpoles.

When all is done, Mr. Staley will have less tillable land avail-able as the trees and shrubs are planted quite a distance away from the creek. As partial com-pensation for the loss of tillable acreage, he applied to the Depart-ment of Agriculture Conserva-tion Reserve Enhancement Pro-gram (CREP). Mr. Staley will be compensated under the CREP program for a 10-year contract period.

Mr. Staley invited the Times back to see the final results. We’ll pencil in June of 2017 to give all those shrubs and trees a chance to get established and push out a zil-lion leaves.

IN THE COUNTRY

The new man-made stream bed and potted trees staged for planting (photo Jenna Kellar)

Chesapeake Bay Foundation scientist Rob Schnabel (left) and property owner Harold Staley. You can see the large stones or “cobble” in the left background that were lifted and deposited during days of high water flow. (photo Jenna Kellar)

All planting was done by volunteers. Holes were pre-dug by the stream bed contractor (photo Jenna Kellar)

An artificial riffle used to oxygenate the water. (photo Jenna Kellar)

MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 21

PETS

Spread the News!Extra copies of the Times are available at

Trout’s Market in Woodsboro and Salon Allure in Walkersville. Get there early each month.

An invitationLinda Shea Director, Frederick County Animal Control & Pet Adoption Center

This is your formal invitation to the Animal Shelter’s Annual Open House. On Sunday, May 15, 2016, the Frederick County Division of Animal Control and Pet Adoption Center will be open from 11:00am until 2:00pm. In addition to our normal shelter routine, we will have representa-tives from animal rescue organi-zations and dog training groups, service pet organizations, and local veterinarian offices. For the young people in your fam-ily (and young at heart) there will be a craft table, face paint-ing, and Moon Bounce. For your canine or feline family members, we will be available to microchip your pet upon request--$15 in-cludes implanting and registering the chip. We will have our tra-ditional raffles for gifts and ser-vices, ranging from dinner out to salon treatments. And if all that isn’t enough, we will have food and snacks available, donated by local venues.

For those of you who may be reluctant to visit the Shelter, the Open House offers you an al-ternative look at our facility. It reflects the community effort among a variety of outlets to help homeless animals. We encourage you to see firsthand the commit-ment we witness on a regular ba-sis from the citizens and animal welfare organizations in Fred-erick County to the pets in our community.

From our shelter animals’ per-spective, our Open House is an-other day to be seen by poten-tial adopters. Hazel and Skittles are two of our longer-term resi-dents that have been patiently waiting on our adoption floor. It is our hope that, for them, our

Open House turns into a Forever Home.

Call 301-600-1546 for more details. Open House is always a

lot of fun and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday, May 15th.

Hazel – 2yrs old, Female, Domestic Short HairSkittles – 3yrs old, Male, American

22 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | MAY 2016

RELIGION

MID-ATLANTIC WEATHER WATCH: STORMS (1,2) turning cloudy and mild (3,4,5); showers in the northern part of the region, STORMS in the south (6,7,8). Fair, very warm (9,10,11,12,13) with more STORMS, cooler (14,15,16); fair and warm (17,18,19,20) with still more STORMS, heavy rains in the south (21,22,23,24). Fair and very warm (25,26,27) with more showers, STORMS and cooler (28,29,30,31).

TORNADO WATCH: The Hagerstown Town and Country Almanack sees no tornado activity in the Mid-Atlantic Region for the month of May.

FULL MOON: May’s FULL MOON occurs on Saturday, May 21st. It has often been called FLOWER MOON because of the many flowers that bloom during the month. The Huron tribe called it BUDDING MOON. Early American farmers often referred to it as MILK MOON because of the noticeable in-crease in milk produced by their cows as the weather starts to warm.

SPECIAL NOTES: Rogation Sunday is May 1st; Ascension Day is Thursday, May 5th; Pentecost falls on May 15th (and is also Whit Sunday); and Trinity Sunday is celebrated on May 22nd. World No Tobacco Day is celebrated on Tuesday, May 31st, and National Day of Prayer and Cinco de Mayo both fall on Thursday, May 5th.

HOLIDAYS: Mother’s Day in 2016 falls on Sunday, May 8th. Be sure to remember her on her special day with a telephone call, a sentimental card, a nice flower arrangement, or by just spending some quality time with her. After all, she is the one who gave you the gift of life! Armed Forces Day is Saturday, May 21st, and Memorial Day falls on Monday, May 30th, which officially starts the 2015 summer season! Plan to do something special with family and friends, but don’t forget to remember the fallen. Their sacrifices protect our precious freedoms and ensure our way of life.

THE GARDEN: Once your last frost date has passed, warm season crops can be planted. When the ground temperatures reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit, it is safe to begin planting Okra, Pumpkin, Sweet Po-tatoes, Eggplant, Peppers, Peanuts, Watermelon, Cow Peas, Black-eyed Peas, Crowder Peas, Butter Peas, and Butter Beans. Trim up hedges and shrubs to shape and tighten them with new growth. Most flower-ing shrubs will respond to a light trimming at this time of year. Don’t trim away too many of the emerg-ing buds or you won’t have as many flowers. Begin pinching annuals and perennials so the plants fill in and produce more blooms. Prune evergreens when the new growth starts to turn a darker shade of green. Hold off mowing the lawn until it reaches a height slightly higher then recommended. This will give the lawn a jump-start and make it stronger. Set the mowing deck to trim the grass back one-third, and then gradually lower it to the proper height for the specific type of grass

J. GRUBER’S THOUGHT FOR TODAY’S LIVING:“Gardens are for all ages: the young; for hope of the future; the elderly

or fond memories of the past; and for in between, the rewards of a good life now.”

Farmers’ Almanac“A mother’s arms are made of tenderness

and children sleep soundly in them”Victor Hugo (1812-1889)

A note from Pastor Sean“By this everyone will know

that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) Such a simple sentence, an easy verse to understand. It does not take a religious scholar or a pastor to interpret this verse; it is clear, concise, and to the point. If you have love for one another, then people will know that you are a Christian. In the verse just before (13:34), Jesus gives a new command, “just as I have loved you, so you must also love each other.”

t seems so easy, and, in fact, it is easy if we are loving people who we choose. But Jesus does not tell us to pick and choose who we love; he tells us to love each other just as I have loved you. That is the hard part. We

tend to love people who we deem worthy of our love, peo-ple who are like us, but when it comes to people who are differ-ent, it becomes a very different story. If we truly love as Jesus loves us, then our world would look a lot different. Our discus-sions and policies would be a lot different. If we truly love as we are commanded, then we would not still be dealing with issues of justice, race, poverty, hun-ger, homelessness, living wages, health insurance, and numerous others.

So often, I have encountered people who say they are not reli-gious or do not go to church be-cause Christians are judgmental and hypocritical. If we as Chris-tians truly love as Jesus loves us,

then those labels would not be applied to us. If we love as Je-sus loves us then people would know that we are Christians by our love.

Some readers may not like what I have written here, but I think that it behooves us to re-flect on motives and our actions. So often, our responses to situa-tions are not based on love but are based on stereotypes, precon-ceived ideas, and prejudices both conscious and unconscious. If we are truly people of the Chris-tian faith, then we need to evalu-ate if we are living as Christ in-structs us to live and, if we are, then there will be no denying that people will know that we are Christians by our love.

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, MD. For information about our ser-vice or for other questions 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 Pas-tor Sean at PastorDeLawder@aol.com. You may also visit us at Facebook-- stjohnsuccwood-sboro – or at our website – www.stjohnsuccwoodsboro.org. We welcome you to share your thoughts.

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MAY 2016 | WOODSBORO WALKERSVILLE TIMES | 23

Og — Son of Fire Irving Crump , 1922

CHAPTER IX SACRIFICED TO SABRE TOOTH

WHY had they not killed him?This question puzzled Og more

than any other. Certainly they had had ample opportunity. That night, there in the sequoia forest, they could have strangled him and left his body for the wolves. Or at any time during their long tree top journey they needed but to drop him from the branches of one of the high palms and the crash to the ground would have broken ev-ery bone in his body. And again, when they attacked him, Scar Face could have broken his back, but refrained, or the group of war-riors together could have literally torn him limb from limb, yet they had not done so. Surely it could not have been cowardice that had stayed them, nor yet mercy, for mercy was a quality that Og knew but little about and the tree men nothing at all. Why then had he been spared?

Og puzzled with this question many times in the days that fol-lowed, and tired his slowly devel-oping brain to absolute fatigue more than once in pondering for a reason.

It was strange position he found himself in. He was a prisoner. He knew this only too well, for dur-ing the hours of daylight Scar Face and some of his stalwart fight-ers crouched at points of vantage and Og knew by their demeanor that he could not pass them and go where he pleased. But his was a strange sort of prison. They had hurled him into a veritable blind canyon carved by nature in the rocky side of a mountain, whose high walls tapered from their broad opening into the pleasant valley, to a narrow declivity be-hind him that ended in the black and foreboding entrance of a great and deep cavern.

Og feared this cave, as did the wolf cubs. They kept as far away from the black entrance as they could, and always they watched it with signs of terror in their eyes. Og could read their fear in their growls and bristling hair, and in-stinct told him, too, that death lurked there in some terrible form. Just what it was he could not un-derstand, for his sensitive nose, or delicate ears, or yet that strange protective instinct that was his, did not give him any definite in-dication of what the danger might be. Still danger, he knew, was there and he too kept as far away from the cave’s entrance as possible.

He and the wolf cubs were al-lowed to roam at will up and down the canyon, from the cave to its very mouth, where it looked out upon the broad and sun-lit valley, but beyond this point they could not go for always Scar Face and his tree people were on guard to prevent him. It was at the mouth of the canyon, that, once a day, he found food. The tree peo-

ple always at midday left a pile of strange fruits and stranger nuts for him to eat. There on a flat rock they laid them and Og knew by this that they were afraid to come further inside the canyon in which they had made him prisoner.

The strange diet of fruit and nuts was at first distasteful to Og. The hairy people were meat eat-ers and fruit formed a very small part of their diet, save berries and certain roots and barks, which his people had learned to use. But the tree folk were not flesh eaters, and they gave him only what they ate themselves, but they gave in abun-dance, and Og, after a day o£ fast-ing, found that he could eat this new food with a certain degree of relish.

This being a prisoner was strange and unpleasant to the hairy boy and for a time he did lit-tle but sit among the jagged rocks, with the wolf cubs beside him, and wonder what it was all about. But on the second day, as his nu-merous cuts and bruises began to heal, his spirits lifted and pres-ently he began seeking about for ways out of his difficulty. The dis-covery that the tree folk were pre-vented by fear from entering the canyon, although it aggravated his fear of the lurking menace of the cave, also made him realize that in his prison he could do about as he chose without any interference from them. This fact discovered, Og forthwith set about making himself weapons, for he felt that he might need them sooner than he anticipated.

A stone hammer was his first thought, and as he cast about among the rocks for desirable ma-terial, he could but think of the valuable weapons he had once possessed in the fire brands. How he regretted the over-confidence and the lack of vigilance that had made him let that precious fire burn out. Oh, if he only knew of some way of rekindling the flame; of calling back the Fire Demon.

Although there were rocks in profusion scattered about the can-yon, Og was surprised to find that there was really a dearth of good material for a stone hammer. The rocks were all too large or of the wrong shape, and he spent a great deal of time searching and wan-dered all too close to the forebod-ing cave, before he recalled quite suddenly, and with a great deal of interest, the methods he had em-ployed in getting the stone knife with which he skinned the wolves that day in the sequoia forest. He remembered suddenly that, not finding satisfactory material, he had broken a sharp scale from the large rock, by pounding it with another stone. Why not do the same thing to shape a hammer head?

Og sat down and thought the idea over. Then he found the best shaped stone he could and puz-zled over it for some time before he proceeded with his first effort at craftsmanship. The stone was too heavy and too long. Og re-

alized that if he could break off one end it would be nearer what he wanted. He proceeded to beat it against a bowlder and present-ly he was rewarded by having part of it break off, leaving in his hand a rather good hammer head. But, this achieved, Og was not satisfied. He surveyed the product and real-ized that it was not as satisfactory as the last one he had possessed. It was too irregular and misshapen. The question then took form in his mind, why not reshape it with the aid of other stones?

Elated with the idea, Og pro-ceeded to find another stone that he could handle, and after a search he picked up one about the size of his fist that was black and ex-tremely hard. Og did not know that he had fortunately found a piece of flint. With this and the rude hammerhead in his hands he sought out a flat rock, and sitting down with the hammer head be-tween his knees, proceeded with his task of shaping it, while the guards of the tree people looked on from the mouth of the canyon with apish inquisitiveness.

But Og had not chipped more than a half dozen strokes when he made a startling discovery, one that made him experience a strange mixture of fear and elation. He proceeded first to chip away a jagged corner of the hammer head with his piece of flint, when sud-denly, and much to his astonish-ment, the flint gave off a series of fire sparks. So startled was Og that he dropped the black stone and sat staring at it in amazement. He had discovered fire again.

After a time he picked up the flint and felt it carefully. It was not hot, yet it contained fire. That was strange. It was black. The cool-ing volcanic rock from which he had lighted his resinous torch first was also black. Was this, then, the same kind of fire rock? Og searched about and found a stick. He touched it to the flint; held it there a long time yet no tiny spi-rals of smoke rewarded him as he expected. Still he knew the fire was in the rock. It leapt out when he struck it against another rock. He tried it, and with the second tap more sparks flew.

Og examined the flint careful-ly; turned it over and over, felt it again, tried once more to light the stick, then, still holding it in his hand, he sat and thought and thought and thought, until his brain grew tired. The fire was in the rock, of that he was certain, but how to get it out and in his possession, under his control, was a vexing question.

Ere long the hammer head was shaped to his satisfaction. To se-cure a handle and tough bark with which to lash both stone and stick together was not difficult, for among the rocks was scrubby veg-etation that yielded him both of these necessities. Og put his now valuable chipping flint in a safe place, while he worked diligently but carefully at making the rest of his hammer.

The corning of night was fraught with unpleasantness for Og. A prisoner there in the can-yon, with the menacing entrance of that mysterious black cave be-hind him, and the guards of the tree people on the alert and clos-ing his only way of escape, made more acute his inherent fear of the hours of darkness. How glad he was to have the company of the faithful wolf cubs then.

Before night was well upon him, Og and the wolf cubs climbed as high as they could on the sides of the canyon and, huddled behind a huge bowlder, with their faces turned toward the rear of the can-yon and the entrance of the cave.

And it was well for Og that he decided to climb part way up the canyon wall and take shelter be-hind the bowlder, for hardly had he become comfortably huddled down with the wolf cubs nes-tled close to him, when the nar-row confines of the canyon echoed with a wild blood-chilling roar and, through the blackness of the canyon, Og could see in the en-trance of the cave two glowing eyes and the outline of a huge sa-bre-toothed tiger.

Softly, yet swiftly, Og reached out and covered the mouths of the wolf cubs, for he knew that a whimper or growl from them would bring the great beast down upon them in an instant. Then like statues, without the move-ment of a muscle, they sat there and watched the great beast come slowly forth from the cave, stretch itself and yawn, then test the wind by throwing up its massive, ug-ly head. And as Og watched just a glimmer of the real idea for his imprisonment in the canyon took shape in his brain. Had they left him there as a sacrifice to this beast?

Og was close to the truth of the matter, though, of course, he could not know all of the details of how the great, sabre-toothed one, at times, made life miserable for the people of the tribe of Scar Face, appearing suddenly and col-lecting toll from their numbers, only to disappear just as suddenly and leave the pleasant valley qui-et and unmolested for weeks. To the tree people the great tiger was a terrible monster and a mysteri-

ous one. They knew that it came from the cave and returned to it. They thought that it slumbered there and came out only occa-sionally, when extremely hungry. They did not know that this cave ran clear through the base of the mountain, and was really a back-door to the great beast’s real den, which opened into another val-ley beyond the mountains, a far more desirable valley from the ti-ger’s point of view than that of the tree people, for hunting was better there with beavers, and sloths, ox-en, deer, and wild horses in abun-dance, any one of which made a better meal for him than did the thin and wiry tree people. That was why the great sabre-toothed one left the den only occasional-ly by the back door to hunt in the valley of the tree people. Her pe-riodical visits, however, were ter-rifying to the ape men, for always the great cat caught one of their number out in the open, or, fail-ing this, climbed one of the tall palms, in which the tree people made their rude homes, and tore down the rough and flimsy plat-forms they had learned to build, and wiped out a whole family in its ferocious effort to get at least one victim to take back to the den. That was why Scar Face and his people had carried Og all the way back to the valley, and that was why the whole tribe rejoiced when he was brought in a prisoner. For weeks they had been dreading an-other visit from Sabre Tooth, and they felt that if they could furnish a victim she would leave them un-molested for a time at least.

Og sensed a great deal of this as he and the wolf cubs crouched trembling behind the big bowl-der part way up the canyon wall and he watched the great beast pick its way slowly and deliber-ately among the rocks while fear gripped his heart.

Suddenly the tiger stopped and lifted its nose toward the sky, at the same time moving its head and thick muscular neck slowly from side to side. It was trying to trace the direction of an odor that came down on the night wind, and Og instinctively knew that the odor was his odor and that the sinister beast had detected his presence in the canyon.

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