It's that time of year!  As the seasons change from winter to spring, the sidewalks along National Highway in LaVale are once again covered with grit and gravel left from winter snow plowing and salting of the highway.

The LaVale Civic Improvement Association (LCIA) is looking for volunteers, and asking for your help with sweeping the sidwalks clean, on Saturday, April 12, 2025.  Please meet in the LaVale United Methodist Church parking lot at 9:00 AM.  If possible, please bring your own broom and gloves, and optionally a leaf blower.

Residents and businesses along National Highway are asked to sweep the sidewalk in front of their properties.  The gravel and abrasives should be swept onto the shoulder of the road, where it will be removed by a street sweeper.

Hello LCIA Members,

Are you a dog lover?  If so, the LaVale Civic Improvement Association (LCIA) is looking for volunteers interested in being on a committee to explore the possibility of having a local dog park here in LaVale, MD.  The committee will be responsible for surveying the need for a dog park, the location, and establishing the cost, etc.

If interested, please email the LCIA at lcia21502@gmail.com for additional details or to be added to the volunteers' list.

Sincerely,
Wayne D. Foster
LCIA President

LaVale Volunteers Pay Tribute to Tina Midgarden
Oct. 26, 2023

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Tina Jo Midgarden on Monday, Oct. 9, at the age of 73.  Tina was born in Cumberland on Dec. 27, 1949, to the late James E. Midgarden and Helen M. Midgarden.  She was the oldest of their five children.  After graduating from Olympus High School, she attended the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she earned her degree in elementary education in 1971.

Upon moving from Salt Lake City to LaVale, Tina worked at and helped to open the JoAnn Fabrics store in LaVale Plaza.  She also began teaching at various schools in our Appalachia Mountains region.  Tina and Paul "Pete" Rose focused on her love of handmade crafts, and they opened the Magnolia Rustique Craft Shop in Cumberland.

In January and September 1996, Tina started attending meetings about the damaging floods that were happening in LaVale.  By 2005, the Braddock Run Watershed Association had formed, with Tina as a charter member.  After her retirement in 2015 from Hunter Douglas, Tina also began attending the meetings of the LaVale Civic Improvement Association prior to the two organizations merging their meetings.  Then, in 2019, she along with several other volunteers accepted a position on the civic association board to provide leadership and rejuvenate the association as other long-serving officers retired.  Tina served as secretary from May 2019 and remained an active member of both associations until her death.

Always a willing volunteer, Tina took part in work groups helping to clean up the LaVale parks, sweep the sidewalks, weed the gardens and pick up litter along the LaVale streetscape.  Her creativity with handcrafts for holidays was superb.  Not only were her decorations amazing in her office while working at Hunter Douglas, but her home as well.  Halloween was Tina's favorite holiday.  For many years, with the help of her loving son – Daniel Rose – she would always set up a complex "haunted porch" to delight the neighborhood trick-or-treaters at her home in LaVale.

Tina loved and cared very much about LaVale.  It was her fond wish that more residents, especially the young families, would willingly take part in the future of LaVale to continue to move the community in a strong positive direction.  We've lost a great friend and champion of LaVale.  Thank you, Tina, for your dedication, hard work and caring.  Rest in peace!

LaVale Civic Improvement Association