Thumbs up, thumbs down

August 29, 1997

To the late Theron Rinehart, for his many years of service to Washington County charities and the Museum of Fine Arts. A kind and intelligent giant has left us.

To the members Rohrersville Band, past and present, for 160 years of providing live performances all over the area. There is a something about a march played by a live band that stirs feelings in a way that no mere recording can.

To Washington County's school board, for its reluctance to allow local business people help search for a new school superintendent. So much for public-private partnerships.

To four members of the Hagerstown Ice and Sports Complex board, who resigned less than two weeks after the rink opened, in a dispute with the director they recently named. There must be more to this story.

To Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, who jawboned the University of Maryland's board of regents into holding down tuition. Many cash-strapped parents are grateful, governor.

To officials of Washington County's Healthy Start program, which, among other things, is responsible for a dramatic decline in the infant mortality rate. The program involves nurses who visit pregnant women.

To Stephen Hummel and other members of the St. Mary's home-school association, for pressing the Hagerstown Council to curb prostitution near their school.

To the Washington County sewer advisory board, whose suggestion to scale back the Elk Ridge water project by using in-house labor will save the county more than than $400,000, at a time when the county needs every penny.

To the Washington County Commissioners, for moving ahead with a plan to market their sewage pre-treatment facility. We've got the product: now let's sell it.

To Vada Luedtke, sister of missing Patuxent Institution inmate Charles Carpenter, for not telling corrections officials he wasn't spending time at her home, as the Clear Spring native's passes required. Not my job, she said.

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