Welcome to the Fall Foliage Report for October 29, brought to you by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. We are looking forward to a full moon Hallo-weekend with peaking foliage in parts of central Maryland! Weverton Cliffs, South Mountain State Park, photo by Emily Bard Dan Hedderick, project forester, Forest Service, Allegany County, reports: “The end of last week was the best time to be out in Western Maryland. Now the wind and rain have set in to bring down our leaves. We are past peak. The forest will take a nap for the winter, but rest assured it…

Deputy State Fire Marshals arrested a Rawlings man within hours after determining he was responsible for intentionally setting a vacant home beside his residence on fire. On October 31, 2020, at approximately 11:15 a.m., neighbors called 911 after discovering a vacant mobile home on fire at 15807 Blooming Fields Drive SW, located within the Blooming Fields Mobile Home Park. Firefighters from Rawlings, Cresaptown, and other nearby fire departments arrived on the scene and discovered the rear of the approximate 20' x 80' mobile home on fire. Firefighters were able to contain the fire within ten minutes; however, the home sustained…

The Cumberland Mayor and City Council will hold several meetings the night of November 4, 2020.  These meetings would normally be held Tuesday, November 3, 2020, but are being rescheduled due to their conflict with Election Day. On November 4th, beginning at 4:15 PM., the Mayor and Council will hold an open work session.    At 5:30 PM, while still  in open work session, the Mayor and Council will close the meeting to discuss the City Solicitor's position, pursuant to Section 3-305 (b) (1) of the General Provisions Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland. At 6:15 PM, the Mayor and…

High rates of COVID-19 continue in Allegany County, with 46 new cases identified since Wednesday. This brings the cumulative total number of cases to 795. The latest cases include a male age 12 or under, five females and eight males in their teens, three females and six males in their 20s, two females and a male in their 30s, two females and a male in their 40s, two males in their 50s, five females and two males in their 60s, two females and four males in their 70s, and a female and male in their 80s. To date, 21,090 Allegany…

The body of a man found deceased in a wooded area in Garrett County this morning has been identified as the man reported missing from West Virginia who was the subject of multiple searches this week. The man is identified as Hassan Aino, 22, of Morgantown, West Virginia. He was pronounced deceased at the scene. His body will be transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy to confirm the cause and manner of death. Shortly before 8:30 a.m. today, Maryland State Police at the McHenry Barrack received a call from a man who…

Gov. Jim Justice held a virtual ceremony today to award over $2.3 million in Transportation Alternatives and Recreational Trails Program (TARTP) grants for seven projects in cities and towns across West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, and to award $300,000 in TARTP grants for three additional projects in communities across Wood County. The 10 grants awarded are worth a combined total of $2,686,639 and include projects in five counties. “I am excited to announce that we are giving out yet another round of these grants today,” Gov. Justice said. “They end up making our cities and towns a lot more presentable and…

Allegany College of Maryland’s Teacher Education Club will host its third annual Scholastic Book Fair beginning on November 9 and ending on November 22. The store is available online at https://bit.ly/34GQUAG and is open to everyone. Club members will use proceeds from the Book Fair to purchase Scholastic books for donation to local charities, libraries and schools.

Today, U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) applauded the enactment of the America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Act, a bipartisan package that includes the Chesapeake WILD Act, legislation introduced by the Senators to boost Chesapeake Bay conservation efforts by creating a new grant program within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to support habitat restoration in the Bay region. This program is authorized at $15 million. The ACE Act also increases the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program authorization from $40 million to $92 million. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Van Hollen has also…

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday issued an order renewing the state of emergency that has been in place since March due to the pandemic. “While Maryland’s positivity and case rates remain lower than most states in America, we are closely monitoring increases in some of our key health metrics as well as rising numbers in states across the country,” Hogan said in a statement. “This crisis is far from over, and this virus does not recognize state borders. I want to remind Marylanders that the only way to keep our state open for business is to avoid traveling to hotspots…

For a second consecutive day, Maryland added more than 900 new coronavirus cases, according to data released Friday by the state’s health department. Ten more deaths were reported, bringing the total to 3,990. The state’s positivity rate also increased from Thursday to Friday, from 3.52% to 3.71%. On Thursday, Gov. Larry Hogan said that although Maryland wasn't one of the 42 states dealing with a more pronounced spike in new cases, the state's residents should not become complacent about following CDC and state safety protocols.