CUMBERLAND — Allegany County Commissioners are supporting the community as much as they can while bracing themselves for more rough waters in the not-so-distant future.

At Thursday’s meeting, the commissioners passed the resolution to partner with the North South Appalachian Highway Coalition to advocate the completion of the North South Appalachian Highway.

“The Greater Cumberland Committee has obtained similar resolutions from Garrett County, Maryland and Somerset County (Pa.) ... a similar one will be going before Mineral County as well,” said Matt Diaz, the county’s economic development director. “We request the county commissioners to pass a similar resolution to show a united front in support for this project.”

Commissioner Jim Stakem said they have had meetings in Annapolis with Gov. Martin O’Malley as well as discussions with the governor’s top local aide and Western Maryland representative regarding this subject.

“We feel this is a very, very important issue for Allegany County and economic development,” he said. “The three commissioners are definitely on board with this and would like to see something done with this.”

And though Stakem said there is money available for the North South Corridor study, there may be trouble when it comes to the county budget cuts.

Commissioner Bob Hutcheson said the main topic of discussion at the Maryland Association of Counties was the budget, budget and budget.

“There will be more cuts to counties,” Hutcheson said. “There’s already about a $450 million deficit that needs to be filled; but the Highway User Fund will be hit again, the teacher retirement fund will be hit again and possibly that the disparity grants may be hit.”

Hutcheson adds the county cannot afford the cuts it is going to get, but officials will just have to wait and see what happens and handle it accordingly when it occurs.

At Thursday’s meeting, the commissioners also accepted the rezoning resolutions for the Yoder Property in Cresaptown to be changed from an industrial zone to residential and three properties to be rezoned from residential to commercial: the Dudiak property, 11055 National highway; Holiday Inn Express, 1078 National Highway; and the MacFawn property, 913 National Highway.

Contact Tess Hill at thill@times-news.com.