This coming Thursday and Friday should be interesting around here, the G8 Summit will be hosted at Camp David and Frederick through Thurmont and Emmittsburg will see a significant increase in traffic, media and people.

They have closed the schools on Friday, but many area activities are still being held which in of themselves will bring many to the area.

The local Occupy Movement have several non-confrontational activities planned, including talks at the Frederick City Library and a ‘Block Party” planned at a large city park.

Some of the agencies at Ft. Detrick have decided to have their employees telecommute on Friday, so far for the NCI staff it is business as usual. Our program has employees who must work on Saturday; they changed some of the staffing so only people from the southern part of the county are scheduled to work that day in hopes of missing traffic issues between Frederick and Thurmont.

While the various LE agencies are fully staffed for the event, no real information on possible disruptions have been confirmed. Merchants have been advised not to have anything on the sidewalks that could be used as projectiles and to exercise caution, but other than that, it appears to be business as usual.

Our team will be on standby. Fire/Rescue stations, which in our county are all volunteer (some have career support), are being staffed, but no extraordinary plans have been made.

Most likely this will turn out to anything more than a media event, but if not I am sure things will be handled with minimal disruptions.

Time will tell-
Pete