Armory

To Erin Brennan and the Hagerstown Jaycees, for gathering more than 10,000 school-supply items for needy children in Washington County. About 6,000 kids will benefit. To Roger Tappen of Waynesboro, Pa., who, along with nine other chefs in the area, put together a fund-raising dinner for the Franklin/Fulton Association for Retarded Citizens, cooking up an estimated $5,000 in donations. To West Virginia Gov. Cecil Underwood, for appointing a Holocaust Education Commission, to help citizens understand that even a so-called civilized nation can do great evil.

The former Hagerstown National Guard Armory could become a recycling and storage facility for surplus state and federal property, officials said this week. Making the state-owned building a satellite recycling and storage facility for the Maryland State Agency for Surplus Property in Jessup, Md., is one option, said Dave Humphrey, Maryland Department of General Services spokesman. The agency stores property such as furniture, computers and hospital equipment, he said. Another option would be to allow community groups to use the 328 N. Potomac St. building, but code violations must be addressed before that could happen, Humphrey said.

Hagerstown City Councilman J. Wallace McClure said Tuesday he wants city and state officials to meet with the president of a local nonprofit group to iron out any misunderstandings about the former National Guard Armory. The Rev. Philip Hundley, president of 21st Century Teens, has accused government officials in the last week of racism because his group no longer can use the 328 N. Potomac St. armory. The teen group and Has-Beens Boxing have to be out of the building by 8 a.m. today because the armory has several building code violations, city officials have said.

By JULIE E. GREENE Staff Writer An official notice was posted by Hagerstown's building inspector on Monday forbidding anyone from occupying Hagerstown's former National Guard Armory starting Wednesday morning. On orders from the building's owner - the state of Maryland - Hagerstown officials turned off electricity and water at the 328 N. Potomac St. armory last Wednesday because of overdue bills. Under city code, a building without power cannot be occupied, yet a nonprofit group was using the building on Monday and another held a meeting there Sunday.

By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer About 20 people, including a dozen children, vented frustration Thursday and sang outside the former National Guard Armory in Hagerstown, which is now without electricity and water. The Rev. Philip Hundley, pastor of An House of Prayer For All People and president of 21st Century Teens, said city officials reneged on an agreement to let his organization pay $1,500 of a delinquent water bill on Sept. 10 and work out a payment schedule. The adults at Thursday's meeting endorsed his plan to wait one more day before seeking a lawyer's advice.

This week's decision by the City of Hagerstown to shut off water and power service to the former National Guard Armory on Potomac Street is an act of racial discrimination, according to the Rev. Philip Hundley, a black minister and the head of one of the two youth groups the move leaves without a home. City officials insist their only concern was the more than $3,000 in unpaid utility bills. If there was racism in this incident, the hard proof is lacking. Even the Rev. Hundley says it was "real subtle.

By JULIE E. GREENE Staff Writer Hagerstown officials are expected to cut off power today to the former National Guard Armory, leaving homeless two nonprofit youth groups that have not paid utility bills since May, officials said. The Rev. Philip Hundley, leader of one of the groups, said Tuesday that he was being discriminated against by area power brokers. "I do believe this is a case of discrimination and so therefore I'm going to pull out all stops, whatever is necessary to do, because there are those who know that this is something that is being done by the power brokers of this community," said Hundley, president of 21st Century Teens.

By RICHARD F. BELISLE Staff Writer, Waynesboro WAYNESBORO, Pa. - Bill Trace and 14 buddies were at a fireman's carnival in Waynesboro in 1951 when they walked by a Pennsylvania National Guard recruiters tent. "It was an impulse. One guy said, 'Let's join up,' so we all did, right there. I was 171/2," Trace said. He retired as a master sergeant in 1994. When Trace joined, the unit was 22 years old. It was organized as a cavalry outfit in 1929. Remnants of horse stalls are evident in the bowels of the armory building on North Grant Street, now home to Detachment One, 1st Battalion, 108th Field Artillery, one of several units the National Guard has assigned to the building over the decades.

By VANDANA SINHA Staff Writer Lloyd A. May, a Hagerstown native who contributed more than 42 years to the Maryland Army National Guard, will now have his name on the new 20,000-square foot addition to the Randolph Milholland Armory on Roxbury Road. About 100 people and 40 guardsmen looked on Sunday as May, his wife, and several distinguished guests, including U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., Maryland Sen. Don Munson, R-Washington, and Washington County Commissioner Ron Bowers, helped unveil a 5-foot plaque dedicating the new facility to the retired chief warrant officer.

A Hagerstown youth group can continue to use the former National Guard Armory, but must have fire exits repaired within a month, a fire official said Thursday. Twenty-First Century Teens has until June 20 to repair or replace the panic bars on the exit doors to the gym at the 328 N. Potomac St. building, said Charles Cronauer, deputy chief state fire marshal. The group can continue to use the gym because the doors will open, Cronauer said. The rest of the armory is off limits until life-threatening safety violations are fixed, including adding an exit door upstairs, he said.