In your Jan. 21 article you wrote of more future brick work in the city streets. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that doesn't work. The bricks won't stay firm and those they put in a short period ago are bad.
Ever hear of a smooth cobble stone street?
If you can stir someone up, please let me know.
Herman T. Caudill
Maugansville
Thanks, Sharpsburg
To the editor:
A big thank you to Mayor Sid Gale, the Sharpsburg Town Council members, Lions Club, the Sharpsburg Elementary School teachers and students, and the many other interested folks who participate in the trimming of the Town Hall and the Christmas tree, the larger tree donated by Mr. Frabuck.
A very heart-warming scene as the very young and older paraded down Main Street to celebrate the upcoming beautiful holiday season.
The day, Dec. 7, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of World War II, remembered by many of us, those who served and in honor of those who gave their all. A silent prayer for each one, and especially for those of the most recent tragedy at the World Trade Center in New York.
Again, many thanks and God's blessings to each one. Let us continue this very impressive gathering, one to be remembered by our younger generation and by all.
May each of you enjoy a very happy and prosperous New Year.
Ann K. "Missy" Kretzer
Sharpsburg
Pay letter only erodes further teachers morale
To the editor:
The letter that Superintendent Elizabeth Morgan and School Board President Edward Forrest sent to the County Commissioners recently and that appeared in the Jan. 17 edition of The Herald-Mail is an outrage.
For our newly hired superintendent to be ignorant of the fact that teachers do not get paid holidays or vacation suggests that she has long ago lost touch with a basic condition under which teachers labor.
My sympathy goes out to our county's teachers, not because they receive no paid vacation or holidays, but because their boss, who is supposed to lead them, is so out of touch with them.
Furthermore, Dr. Morgan's disguised call for merit pay is neither subtle nor welcome. Dr. Morgan never used this term, of course, but merit pay by any other name, including "career ladder" is still merit pay.
It is a great idea in theory, but it is totally impractical. It is easily imagined, especially in Washington County, that if merit pay currently existed, anyone who wanted to climb the "career ladder" would have to write a letter to the editor in favor of increased administrative pay.
Most outrageous of all, however, is the letter's assertion that "we should not compare teachers' salaries to administrators' salaries as this will only lead to dissension in our ranks."
Is this to imply that if we simply don't discuss salaries, the teachers will be too stupid to figure out that their administrators are paid substantially more than they are?
If Morgan and Forrest think that such talk will "lead" to dissension, then they truly have no clue regarding teacher morale in Washington County. The fact is that morale is seriously, no, dangerously low, and the outrageous disdain that their letter shows toward teachers only erodes further what little morale is left.
Martha Pratt
Williamsport
Why downtown is avoided by many
To the editor:
Having lived most of my life in the big city of New York, I opted for settling in the lovely, more sedate suburbs of Hagerstown. I have been here for 15 years and learned early on not to bother trying to find a parking place downtown, so shopping there with four children was out of the question.
It wasn't until recently that our "parking problems" hit home. I was called for jury duty and assumed that since I would be doing my civic duty, I would be able to park in the parking deck and have my ticket stamped.
Upon orientation of my duties as a juror I learned that was not so. Although, I was grateful to learn that The Herald-Mail had designated an area for our use and that we could use the smaller parking deck.
Upon hearing this my heart went out to the senior citizens and handicapped people I saw in the group, as it could not have been easy for them.
