Allegany County

CLARIFICATION An article in yesterday's editions might have created an erroneous impression regarding an Allegany County Circuit Court judge's order concerning Terrapin Run, a proposed development in Western Maryland. The judge ordered the county Board of Zoning Appeals to reconsider Terrapin Run, using a tougher standard for deciding whether the project is consistent with the county's comprehensive plan.

Cumberland -- It's a misty and miserable morning in Western Maryland - not exactly the kind of day that invites jaunts about town. Especially if you're an octogenarian. Especially if you don't drive. Could be a problem if your book cupboard is bare and all you want to do is curl up with a nice, fat political screed or a religious history book. But Cornelia Furlow, an 89-year-old, white-haired bibliophile, is not the least bit concerned. As expected, just a few minutes before 9 a.m., a boxy, colorful bookmobile bumps down her street and parks in the lot next to her low-slung brick house.

Seal discovered in Talbot yard released in ocean A 50-pound hooded seal discovered in a Talbot County backyard has been released into the ocean. Liz Fischer of Royal Oak noticed the seal in her yard Thursday morning. She called the state Department of Natural Resources, which asked the National Aquarium in Baltimore to retrieve the animal. Aquarium workers hosed down the seal, put it in a dog carrier and drove it to Assateague State Park, where it was released in the Atlantic. It was the third hooded seal found in Maryland in the past decade, according to Connie Barclay of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Program.

What's in a name? Plenty, it seems, when it comes to invoking Smart Growth in an increasingly bitter debate over a major housing development proposed in the wooded mountains of Western Maryland. The Columbia-based development firm seeking to build Terrapin Run, a 4,300-home planned community in eastern Allegany County, has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to obtain exclusive use of the name "Citizens for Smart Growth in Allegany County." That happens to be the handle used by a group of residents fighting the project, who have succeeded for the time being in tying the development up in court.

Somerset County: Princess Anne Police error scuttles drug case A police officer's error means that 21 bags of marijuana found in a man's car can't be used as evidence, a Somerset County Circuit Court judge has ruled. Judge Newt Jackson ruled that the traffic stop of 23-year-old Sean Hughes was without cause, so the fact that marijuana was found in his car cannot be used against him. The decision means the charges against Hughes will be dropped. Maryland State Police Trooper Tony Morton told the court that windows in the Ford Expedition that Hughes was driving were too darkly tinted.

Saddled with crushing credit card debt, a Western Maryland principal faked travel receipts and forged invoices for school books she never bought in an effort to line her own pockets, federal prosecutors in Baltimore alleged in opening arguments yesterday. But an attorney for Diane L. McFarland countered that the longtime Allegany County employee never knowingly stole anything and had substantial assets and a good salary. Custodians who unloaded books at Cash Valley Elementary School in LaVale will also back up her claims that she made legitimate purchases with school funds and that the books were delivered, attorney Fred Warren Barrett told jurors.

Let Allegany County remain rugged I applaud The Sun for taking issue with the Allegany County Terrapin Run development project ("Sprawl moves far west," editorial, May 4). This massive development would put thousands of homes near the Green Ridge State Forest. The editorial correctly identifies as part of the problem the fact that growth controls in developed areas are pushing new development out. But there is more to the story. This particular push is into vulnerable Allegany County, which has one of the state's weaker economies.

Opponents of a proposed 4,300-home community near Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany County say they are heartened by a judge's ruling that sent the project back to the county Board of Zoning Appeals for reconsideration. In a decision issued late last week, Allegany Circuit Judge Gary G. Leasure found that the appeals board erred in declaring the Terrapin Run project "in harmony with" the county's comprehensive plan, said William C. Wantz, a lawyer for opponents of the development. The judge ruled that the three-member board should have weighed whether the project was "consistent with" the county master plan, a more rigorous standard, the opponents' lawyer said.