Town of Emmitsburg to Host Business Seminar

  Are you thinking about opening a business or do you need new ideas on how to make your business successful?

On Wednesday January 26, 2011 – 7:00 p.m. the Town of Emmitsburg and the Frederick County Office of Economic Development will host a brief seminar on ways to open and maintain a successful business, and what resources are available to assist businesses.

The meeting will be held at the Emmitsburg Town Office, 300A South Seton Ave., Emmitsburg, Maryland, and will last about 90 minutes.

• Mission of the Frederick County Office of Economic Development (OED):  to support, retain and foster the growth of existing businesses in the County and to attract new companies to the County.

Industry focus: advanced technology, agriculture, bioscience, manufacturing, renewable industries

Business support: workforce development, small business assistance, entrepreneurial support  network, business technology incubator

Site selection: available properties, demographics, marketing

OED partners with many local economic entities:  Maryland Small Business Development Center, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, Fort Detrick Business Development Office, Tourism Council of Frederick County, Agriculture Business Council

Bottom line: despite “tough” national economy in the last two to three years, Frederick County has been holding its own.  We continue to see an increase in the number of businesses opening up shop (both small and large), primarily due to our proximity to D.C. and Baltimore and because of our great quality of life (mountains, farms, small town charm) and an award winning public school system and higher education prowess (FCC, Hood, Mount)

Speakers for event:

Randy Gray – marketing specialist, overview of OED services and activities

Michelle Day – business/career consultant, overview of Frederick County Workforce Services (training and grants)

Chris Olson – consultant, Small Business Development Center (Frederick County office), business plans, entrepreneurial support

Emmitsburg Planning Staff – Permit applications; how to apply for the proper permits

North Point Community Church iBand

This is really cool!

EBPA Honors Bob Rosensteel

On Friday, December 3, the Emmitsburg Business and Professional Association honored local photographer, Bob Rosensteel with the Extraordinary Community Service Award. Rosensteel was the driving force behind establishing the highly successful “Change for Food” program that collects pocket change at local stores and restaurants for the Emmitsburg Food Bank. The Change for Food program has collected nearly $12,000 over the past 18 months.

The video below contains comments from several of Mr. Rosensteel’s friends. Congratulations, Bob!

Kai Hagen: Outgoing Frederick County Commissioner says farewell

Frederick commissioner questions Office of Sustainability

from the Gazette

Office says county saves nearly $500,000 per year by encouraging green practices

by Katherine Heerbrandt | Staff Writer

//

Frederick County government has achieved major savings by going green, but at least one commissioner is not yet convinced that those savings are large enough or sustainable enough to warrant a separate office.

“I think the idea is OK, but I just don’t have enough information yet to understand if it is beneficial to us,” Commissioner Kirby Delauter (R) said about the county’s Office of Sustainability. “Overall, they say they are saving us money, but I haven’t seen enough evidence and am still skeptical.”

Formed in 2008 to coordinate and promote energy-saving projects throughout county government, the Office of Sustainability has a staff of five and a fiscal 2011 budget of $117,000. All but the director’s salary, benefits and supplies are paid for through federal grants with matching money from private entities like Allegheny Power.

Hilari Varnadore, the office’s director, was a county planner working 35 hours a week before moving to her full-time position as director.

Varnadore gave a behind-closed-doors presentation to commissioners Monday on the benefits of the office, which include saving $467,350 a year in fuel and energy costs, according to county documents.

Delauter said he is mulling over what he heard, and plans to ask for “hard numbers” to be able to decide if the Office of Sustainability is an asset to county taxpayers or not.

Commissioners have been meeting with department heads beginning the day after the election and will wrap it up on Wednesday. Meetings were closed, according to Commissioner Billy Shreve (R), so that commissioners could feel free to ask personnel-related questions and not have to schedule individual meetings to do so.

The goal is to determine how each department assists commissioners in their primary goals of creating jobs and lowering the financial burden on county taxpayers, Shreve said.

Shreve will not say how he views the future of the Office of Sustainability, but is a fan of Varnadore. He served on the board of Community Commons for three years when Varnadore headed the nonprofit organization that focused on building a sustainable future through education and outreach.

“We are looking at everything in the big picture and what deserves to be where, and I haven’t yet figured out where that office fits,” Shreve said. “I had the distinct pleasure of working with her [Varnadore] in the past and she is a very talented individual who is a big asset to us and what we are going through at this time, especially regarding MDE’s [Maryland Department of the Environment] requirements in stormwater and nutrient management.”

A few critics initially viewed Frederick County’s Office of Sustainability as yet another example of ever-expanding government bureaucracy with an ever-increasing price tag attached. But Varnadore counters that her office costs the county little and has aggressively pursued grants and promoted savings throughout every department of county government.

A federal grant of $659,800 is good through 2014 to support staffing, a grant Varnadore said is in the process of becoming permanent, like the Community Block grants administered by U.S. Housing and Urban Development. “As the head of Community Commons, I led efforts to bring money in and diversify the financial portfolio and I am doing that here as well,” Varnadore said. “It’s all about leveraging resources.”

But grant money comes from taxpayers, regardless if it is local or federal money, according to Delauter. “What is it going to cost us when the grants run out?” he said. “It’s like having a baby dropped at your doorstep. You are responsible for raising it until it is grown.”

Varnadore’s office brokered a $500,000 grant to install solar panels at Oakdale High School, and expects $750,000 in grants and private contributions next year to be spread over the next three years to implement a program to encourage homeowners to become more energy efficient.

“The Frederick County Green Homes Challenge will help county residents and households to save energy and save money at home – similar to how the county saves through its building assessments and retrofits program,” Varnadore said.

Her office supports and encourages projects from small to large scale, from turning off the lights to recycling trash to a solar thermal project to save money at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center, the largest user of hot water of the county’s 41 buildings.

The county has achieved ongoing annual energy savings of $75,880, and has saved $930,000 with fuel conservation over the past five years, according to county documents.

The various departments were not initially charged with tracking financial savings, but rather reducing energy use. That changed in August, Varnadore said, when staff and the 13-member Sustainability Commission decided it was beneficial to track cost savings.

Frederick County government is looking for efficiencies across the board, not just in energy costs, she added. “Sustainability is all about achieving balance in the environment, social and economic sectors, so we have to consider all that and make sure our decisions balance all three,” Varnadore said.

Commissioners’ President Blaine R. Young (R) believes that there are many opportunities for savings, and appreciates much of what the Office of Sustainability does in this regard. Some of the more “outlandish” projects, such a developing a “green roof” would not get his backing, he said.

“We are obviously only going to do what makes sense and produces a cost savings,” Young said.

kheerbrandt@gazette.net

Net zero energy – carbon neutral mixed income residential project comes to Fredereck

While some scoff at the thought of sustainability it only takes education – image the old home built to consume energy and the new to be built that produces energy; now which one will be worth more in the future?.

Today the City of Frederick Republican mayor and Democrat president of the County Commissioners together welcomed Nexus Homes to the City at the project’s groundbreaking. Always good to be first and while the Emmitsburg leadership struggles with addressing sustainability (the town says it is losing money recycling, while Middletown with same trash carrier is not??), the first net zero carbon neutral project built in a historic district in the country belongs to Frederick. Bringing in energy savings components at affordable prices $290,000 – $320,000.

– Photovoltaic panels for each home.

– Geo thermal ground source heat pump – together saves 70% on heating and cooling costs.

– Total recovery ventilation system the converts airflow to energy.

– Indoor air quality/ low vocs.

– Third party verification of construction and energy components.

– more

Opportunities abound for communities that want to do something for the next generation. We have a historic district. Shouldn’t we do something? While our taxes have leveled off, service fees have increased. Each household pays over $1,000 to town and police salaries…

What service organization with four board members who live in town recently had three of them get citations from the town?

Answer: EBPA

Don Briggs, town resident and Chair Frederick County Sustainability Commission

Meet the Candidates Live Video Broadcast

The video broadcast will begin at 6:30PM on 9/15.

Click here to watch the video broadcast.

Wednesday, September 15
6:30pm – 9:00pm
At the Carriage House Inn
200 South Seton Ave.
Emmitsburg, MD

This event is sponsored by The Emmitsburg Business & Professional Association. The live video feed is sponsored by Conjostudios, LLC.

Emmitsburg Citizens Advisory Committee minutes – June 9, 2010

Citizen’s Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes

June 9, 2010

Meeting called to order at 7:34pm.

In attendance: John Schwenkler, Rick Olesek, Ann Kulceski, Denise Etris, Larry Little, Don Briggs

1. Denise announced that she will type up the committee members’ contact information and distribute the list among the committee.

2. Charles Schneider is a new member of the committee; he had to work overtime tonight but Denise will fill him in, and he will be at our next meeting.

3. Denise brought up the grease trap ordinance: The water and sewer facility has had a problem with grease backing up the system and failing to break down in the holding ponds. This is an expense for the town to deal with, and also a nasty job. The town proposed to create an ordinance requiring business and organizations to have a grease trap of an appropriate size; you must apply for a permit, with a $100 fee, and then be approved by a plumber at a significant cost, and must pay to have the grease traps emptied, certify this work, etc. The businesses and churches in town are bearing the financial brunt of this ordinance, since they are the easiest source of grease to control; however, it seems that this burden should be shared by households in town as well. So Denise proposes that we recommend to the town to include in the next water bills information about how properly to dispose of grease (e.g. biodiesel collection points, a grease collection point in town, freezing grease and putting in the trash, using it to feed birds, etc.). People need to know that over time failing to do these sorts of things will cost them money by damaging their household sewer systems as well as that of the town.

Questions about this proposal: Where is the sewer system backing up? In several locations. Are there other places where sewage can be filtered between the source and the holding ponds? Even if this is possible, it would be prohibitively expensive. Is it possible to monitor subdivisions or neighborhoods to see where the grease is coming from? Denise will look into this; but it is not clear whether it is possible or what good the data would do us. Larry Little suggested that the presence of garbage disposals in newer homes may make them contribute more to this problem.

Rick Olesek pointed out that one difficulty with including an insert in the water bill is that many people may fail to read it; he suggested that it would be easier to share a lot of this sort of information with the town if there were a monthly or quarterly newsletter that went out. One difficulty with this might be the cost; this is part of what makes it attractive just to put an insert in the water bill. But Rick emphasized that there are many ways the community could be served with the distribution of such a newsletter. Discussion of these matters continued for a while; one suggestion was that a community calendar might be created online and posted at various places around the town. It was emphasized that creating a calendar or newsletter for community events does not exclude providing information separately, e.g. in the water bills or in the newspaper, about the grease problem.

Denise’s summary of the grease issue: We will get something in both newspapers, as well as the next water bill. We will have to determine what to include in it, perhaps identifying a town collection spot for grease. (It was observed that the town has no collection spot for other things, e.g. motor oil and Christmas trees.) Our recommendations: Recycle it; throw it away; or use it for activities. Larry Little stressed that the information should be presented in a low-key manner. There was unanimous agreement on the committee that Denise will send something around for the other committee members to review, and will bring up the topic at the next town meeting.

4. Don Briggs mentioned that Catoctin Orchards will take the town’s organic waste if we are willing to have it picked up separately; this would cost a bit up front but would significantly reduce tonnage fees. Apparently they do this in Middletown, and maybe also Thurmont – Don will check into these towns’ experience, and Denise will add it as an agenda item once we’ve gotten more information.

5. Revisiting the possibility of a calendar or newsletter: The ideal would be to set up a basic framework and then have non-profit organizations submit their own information about their events. Denise suggested that we start with a community calendar, which would be online as well as displayed in the center of town and distributed in Jubilee, the post office, the library, the deputy’s office, and possibly elsewhere, and then move to creating a newsletter depending on how this goes. Organizations that want to have their events listed will e-mail an administrator to have their events added. Rick and John suggested that Google Calendar would be an effective means of doing this, and Larry emphasized the importance of getting the information out in a printed form as well. The town would be asked to have somebody administer the calendar, to pay for printing, and to handle distribution. There was unanimous agreement that Denise will add this as an agenda item for the July 6 town meeting.

6. Don emphasized the importance of thinking of downtown Emmitsburg as the “lobby” to our homes, in the same way as the lobby of a building is to its owners. Is there anything the town can do to improve the appearance of the historic district? Denise also observed the poor condition of the sidewalks; and the issue of tree replacement and sidewalk repair was brought up. Rick asked whether this sort of work could be assigned to people required to do community service. Denise will bring this up under administrative business at the next town meeting.

7. Rick mentioned his dissatisfaction with the town’s Christmas decorations, and Denise suggested that we might work on this issue with Parks and Recreation in the future.

8. Larry emphasized the importance of publicizing this committee’s work to citizens and making it clear how citizens can have us address their concerns. Denise will work on this.

9. Larry suggested that a community garden could be created in front of the municipal building. Two concerns: this is the county’s land, so we would have to get permission; and there are problems with vandalism. There is plenty of time to look into this before next spring.

10. Our next official meeting will be August 4.

The meeting adjourned at 9:09pm.

Respectfully submitted,

John Schwenkler, Committee Secretary

Kirby Delauter – BoCC interview with Joan McIntyre on Adam Avery TV

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/9181176

FREDERICK COUNTY RECYLES…

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic…and Recycling!
Back to School With the “4 R’s”
For students, parents and teachers starting the new academic year we’d like to offer some tips on going “green”—no matter what your school colors are!
Lunches: According to the U.S. Energy Information Association, the average school-age child generates 67 pounds of waste per school year just from disposable lunches. With 40,210 students in Frederick County public schools…that means 2,694,070 pounds of waste could be headed from cafeteria to landfill this year! Instead, try to pack your child a “waste-free” lunch—one in which everything can be eaten, reused, recycled or composted at home. A sturdy, stylish lunch tote and a refillable bottle are valuable investments that can both reduce waste and increase your student’s nutritional choices! When packing lunches, avoid using plastic baggies or buying products in single-serve disposable packaging; instead, try placing chips, cookies and veggies in small reusable containers, or check out products like the ‘Wrap-n-Mat’ (www.wrap-n-mat.com) for sealing up your sandwiches! And since paper towels are not recyclable, think about adding a few washable napkins to your back-to-school basics list.

Read more here – download the PDF: Vol 2 Issue 3.pdf