Bleachers

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Sweet. Cool. Awesome. Impressive. Gorgeous. When it comes to the new Trojan Stadium at Edwin Sponseller Track and Field Complex, only positive adjectives apply. "This is the best stadium in PA," Shawn Moore of Chambersburg said. Fans agree, Chambersburg's new digs are worlds better than the old stadium. "You can't compare them," Jeff Diller of Chambersburg said. "Its like apples and oranges. " For students, being able to jump on the bleachers to hype up for the kickoff is a case in point of how great the new stadium is. "If we did this at the old seats we'd fall through," Erik Rodenheaver, a junior at Chambersburg Area Senior High School (CASHS)

Two 14-year-old Clear Spring boys admitted Wednesday in Washington County juvenile court that they threw paint - causing more than $20,000 worth of damage - on Clear Spring High School's track and bleachers in September. Circuit Judge Donald E. Beachley, sitting in juvenile court, placed the boys, who already have been suspended from school for their actions, on 30 days of community detention and probation. Washington County Deputy State's Attorney Steven Kessell said his office is waiting on a final estimate of the damages to the school's track and bleachers, but - so far - it's about $21,000.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - After playing most of its home schedule at Shippensburg (Pa.) University, the Chambersburg Area Senior High School football team will return Friday night to a much different Trojan Stadium, but nothing compared to the changes the district will make there before the 2006 season. The Trojans (1-5) will host the State College Little Lions (3-3) in the 7 p.m. homecoming game, although the home grandstands have been demolished.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Chambersburg Area School District officials will know in less than three weeks whether there will be any bids on repairing the closed bleachers of Trojan Stadium, but time is running short until the start of the next football season. Bids on the project are due by Monday, June 27, and the board could award a contract on June 29, but Richard Bender, the district's director of buildings and grounds, said after Wednesday's Chambersburg Area School Board meeting he is worried about getting bids on the project.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - About 130 Chambersburg Area Senior High School students walked out of their school Thursday morning to protest a decision to move their graduation inside to the school gymnasium. They also circulated petitions and presented them to administrators. The decision to move the commencement exercises inside was made because the bleachers in 6,500-seat Trojan Stadium have been declared unsafe by school officials. Trojan Stadium was closed last month after a bleacher floorboard broke.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Buildings and Grounds Committee of the Chambersburg Area School District will make a recommendation to the school board next month on what to do with the high school's Trojan Stadium, closed last month after a bleacher floorboard broke. At Wednesday night's Chambersburg School Board meeting, the cost of repairing the bleachers was estimated at $1.3 million by Paul Taylor, an architect for Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates of Mechanicsburg, Pa. Replacing the bleachers would cost about $1.8 million and Taylor predicted that only the visitors section could be completed by football season.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Visitors to Martinsburg High School's Cobourn Field might reasonably assume that the aluminum, enclosed bleachers on the east side of the football field are for the home fans, and the wooden ones covered in chipped paint on the west side are for fans of the visiting team. They would be wrong. School officials are hoping to replace the home side bleachers and are counting on using proceeds raised by sales of "Martinsburgopoly," a localized version of the popular board game.

Mummers' Parade The 80th annual Alsatia Mummers' Parade begins at the intersection of Potomac and Oak Hill avenues and goes south on Potomac Street, ending just before Wilson Boulevard. Today, 7 p.m. Reserved seating is available. Chairs will be available in the North End, Public Square and at Bester Elementary School. There also will be bleacher seating at Bester. Tickets cost $8 for chairs and $5 for bleachers, and will be sold at the Alsatia Club, 141 W. Washington St., Hagerstown, today from 9 a.m. to noon.

You probably are a schoolteacher, an automobile mechanic or a systems analyst. You do not have my problems. You have no idea how hard it is to be funny in August. Everybody's on vacation, the politicians are all asleep and no one is doing anything, funny or otherwise. You pick up the paper searching for material and see the lead headline on the front page above the fold: "All is quiet a day after Bush's visit. " The story is about birds searching for crumbs in a deserted set of bleachers.