Depending upon which definition you use, a “white elephant” can be either a valuable but burdensome possession for which a new owner cannot be found — and the cost of keeping it is impractical — or simply a nuisance object that you don’t want. In either case, Cumberland and Allegany County have their share of them.
Few of us could have anticipated a day in which our officials had to contemplate the demolition of the city’s two (former) hospitals at the same time they were planning to build a new high school.
Estimates are that it will cost $2 million to tear down the former Sacred Heart Hospital — which includes a relatively new wing that saw little use, if any — to make way for a new Allegany High School. The total cost of the school is estimated to be about $35 million.
Also, the city of Cumberland is asking for about $5 million to tear down the former Memorial Hospital, a property it owns.
The two hospitals were merged to create the Western Maryland Health System, which has a medical center on Willowbrook Road.
Also, Allegany County is facing the issue of what to do with the former Footer Dye Works at Canal Place. Estimates are that it will take $2 million to renovate or stabilize the place, including a cost of $1,500 each to fix its 146 windows to the point where the building can be “mothballed.”
Efforts to find new owners for the above properties have met with no success.
There is considerable sentiment for razing the Footer building, except that it is considered a historical site that for now must be left standing.
Controversy has surrounded the demolition — or proposed demolition — of many of our historic buildings, which are too numerous to list here.
As to how to finance or otherwise deal with these issues, we have no good answers. Good luck to those who must find them.
We do, however, have one question: What’s to be done with the old Allegany High School after it becomes empty?
Editorials
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Money pits
We have our share of costly ‘white elephants’
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High priority
Maryland school officials on Tuesday put an exclamation point on the need to take student-athlete concussions more seriously.
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Cashing in
As anyone who lives in the area knows, economic gains have been hard to come by in recent years. The opening of the Rocky Gap Casino Resort is one of the biggest boosts the region has seen in some time.
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Why have the media been silent all this time?
When I read the Cumberland Times-News Editorial this morning, Friday, May 17, entitled, “Outrageous,” I laughed like a kid at a birthday party!
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What are chances this much money will be spent on road?
I was intrigued by cost data summarized in reporter Kathy Mellott’s recent article, “Completing southern link of U.S. Route 219 said to be best use of highway funds,” which appeared in the Cumberland Times-News on Tuesday May 14 (Page 1A).
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School board should be doing better job with less money
The Allegany County Teachers Association (ACTA) board of directors recently submitted a letter to the editor asking the Allegany County commissioners to fully fund the Board of Education’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year (“Commissioners should fund school board request,” April 29 Times-News).
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Better ‘Click It’
If you notice more police on the highway this week, it’s for a couple of reasons.
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They do bite
This week is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. For anyone thinking that is not such a big deal, consider that 4.7 million Americans annually are bitten by dogs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Stop buying licenses; let them find the money somewhere else
A few months ago, I received two cards from the National Rifle Association. These were dealing with a legislative alert.
They asked that I should contact Sen. George Edwards and Delegate Kevin Kelly concerning the anti-gun legislation. -
Strength of gun laws is not reflected in grisly statistics
According to the FBI’s uniform crime reports, California had the highest number of gun murders in 2011 with 1,220, which makes up 68 percent of all murders in the state that year and equates to 3.25 murders per 100,000 people.
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An old story
What for years has been an on-again, off-again battle over funding between the Allegany County Commissioners and the Allegany County Board of Education seems to be growing even uglier.
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