After a presence in Annapolis of nearly four decades, the annual PACE reception seems to carry as much vitality today as it did when it was created.
In fact, the 2013 PACE, held last month, was the largest in the last eight years, with more than 500 people attending, according to Bob Smith, co-chairman of the event. More importantly, those attending included 130 Maryland General Assembly members or their representatives as well as some federal officials.
The PACE acronym stands for Positive Attitudes Change Everything and was selected in the 1970s to highlight the many positives of our region. It also was created to lobby those in power in Annapolis for help on local projects and needs. The first several years focused on completion of the “missing link” between Cumberland and Hancock on what was then U.S. Route 48. The road was completed several years after the first PACE, enabling designation of the highway as an Interstate, I-68.
The 2013 version included a number of talking points, including the North/South highway, an energy corridor and support for Allegany College of Maryland, Frostburg State University and Garrett College. The proposed energy corridor would take advantage of the coal, natural gas, wind and water energy available in Western Maryland. Those resources could help Maryland become a leader in helping the U.S. gain energy independence, officials have said.
In recent years the Cumberland/Allegany County Industrial Foundation and the Garrett County Development Corp. have combined efforts and made the PACE reception a two-county event, followed by a breakfast the following morning. The breakfast has been a long-standing practice started by Garrett County as a followup to the PACE reception the previous evening.
Sixty-one corporate sponsors supported this year’s reception and breakfast and 26 displays — the most ever — greeted reception visitors.
The distance between Annapolis and Cumberland/Oakland doesn’t make it easy to personally lobby state lawmakers throughout the 90-day legislative session. PACE bridges that gap at the beginning of the session, enabling local officials to tell the Western Maryland story to legislators from all parts of the state.
It’s an effort that has often yielded leads on funding for local projects while at the same time allowing local leaders to make important contacts with state government and federal officials.
Editorials
Related Photos
-
It still works
It still works
Our PACE reception draws another big crowd
- Editorials
-
-
High priority
Maryland school officials on Tuesday put an exclamation point on the need to take student-athlete concussions more seriously.
-
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.
-
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!
-
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).
-
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).
-
Better ‘Click It’
If you notice more police on the highway this week, it’s for a couple of reasons.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
- More Editorials Headlines
-
