Construction Site

Two deer got stuck Tuesday night inside a fenced-in area at the Washington County Free Library construction site on South Potomac Street in Hagerstown, city police said. Several residents helped Hagerstown police and Maryland Department of Natural Resource officers corral and free the animals during the 90-minute incident that started about 6 p.m., city police Sgt. Ben Lyncha said. Lyncha said he believed the deer got into the construction site through a small portion of the fence that had been pushed in. Once the deer got out, one took off down a nearby alley and the other down Potomac Street, Lyncha said.

Westbound Interstate 70 west of Williamsport was closed for more than three hours Thursday morning after a crane at a construction site at Conococheague Creek tipped over, Sgt. Cain of the Maryland State Police said. No one was injured and no vehicles were damaged when the crane tipped over, Cain said. A worker operating the crane overextended its reach, causing it to tip over at around 12:02 a.m. Thursday, Cain said. Crews are working on a bridge rehabilitation project on I-70 over Conococheague Creek.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - Doors were stolen from the construction site at Waynesboro Area Senior High School at 9:30 p.m. Monday, Waynesboro police said in a news release. An employee saw a maroon, older-model Ford pickup truck in the center courtyard at the high school, police said. The employee allegedly saw two males loading steel doors onto the truck, police said. The employee yelled and the suspects fled, police said. Police said that about 10 pink doors were stolen. They had been taken from inside the building and were outside during renovation.

gregs@herald-mail.com A 37-year-old man suffered head injuries and broken bones Wednesday morning when he fell about 30 feet from a roof at a construction site on Wesel Boulevard, Hagerstown Police Department officers said. The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was flown by a Maryland State Police helicopter to Washington County Hospital for treatment. Detective Patricia Moulton said the man, whose last known address was in Columbus, Ind., was stabilized at Washington County Hospital and transferred to the University of Maryland's R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Doug Owsley, a nationally known forensic anthropologist who is said to have handled more than 10,000 human skeletons, has determined that a human skull found last week at a new school construction site in Jefferson County belongs to a teenage black girl who might have died before the Civil War. Jefferson County Sheriff Robert "Bobby" Shirley and Detective Tracy Edwards made the announcement Thursday morning at a press conference....

A stairway at a construction site on West Baltimore Street in Hagerstown appears to have no destination Tuesday.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania State Police are investigating the theft of power tools worth about $2,000 from a construction site over the weekend. Police said the tools belong to Brandale LLC of Chambersburg and were taken from a home construction site on Foxhill Drive in Scot-Greene Estates. The tools were stolen between 4 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Monday.

Washington County Public Schools will hold a groundbreaking Oct. 30 for the new Bester Elementary School, according to school system officials. The public groundbreaking is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Workers are installing a fence around the construction site this week, according to an email from Project Manager Traci Coldsmith. The new school will be built behind the existing Bester Elementary School at the corner of South Potomac Street and East Memorial Boulevard in Hagerstown's South End. Crews also are installing sediment controls for the construction process and stabilizing the construction entrance off Mill Street, Coldsmith said.

Motor, canoe, tools stolen WILLIAMSPORT -- Someone stole a boat motor, a 17-foot canoe and tools from a home in the 14300 block of Clear Spring Road this month, according to a Washington County Sheriff's Department press release. The theft happened sometime between April 6 and 13, deputies said. Nothing taken in Arby's break-in CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police in Chambersburg said they are investigating an attempted burglary Thursday at Arby's at 10820 John Wayne Drive.

More than 800 gallons of diesel fuel was stolen on two separate days this week from a construction site at the intersection of Downsville Pike and Rench Road, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Department. The first theft was reported Monday morning when workers went to the site and found 630 gallons of diesel fuel was missing, Lt. Mark Knight said Wednesday. Another 230 gallons of diesel fuel was reported missing from the site Tuesday morning, Knight said. Knight said police think the thefts are related and that the second theft probably occurred because the perpetrators found the site was an easy target for fuel theft.

While touring the construction site of the new Bester Elementary School on Wednesday, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said he supports the county's request for slightly more than $1 million in state funds for the project on top of the $7.6 million already provided for it and was “very optimistic” that it would be approved. “This is a well-run construction project, taxpayers' money is being well spent, the kids are going to benefit, the faculty will benefit, the state will benefit,” he said.

Westbound Interstate 70 west of Williamsport was closed for more than three hours Thursday morning after a crane at a construction site at Conococheague Creek tipped over, Sgt. Cain of the Maryland State Police said. No one was injured and no vehicles were damaged when the crane tipped over, Cain said. A worker operating the crane overextended its reach, causing it to tip over at around 12:02 a.m. Thursday, Cain said. Crews are working on a bridge rehabilitation project on I-70 over Conococheague Creek.

Washington County Public Schools will hold a groundbreaking Oct. 30 for the new Bester Elementary School, according to school system officials. The public groundbreaking is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Workers are installing a fence around the construction site this week, according to an email from Project Manager Traci Coldsmith. The new school will be built behind the existing Bester Elementary School at the corner of South Potomac Street and East Memorial Boulevard in Hagerstown's South End. Crews also are installing sediment controls for the construction process and stabilizing the construction entrance off Mill Street, Coldsmith said.

Despite being nearly $200,000 short of its fundraising goal, The Salvation Army has started construction of a $1.8 million project in Hagerstown that includes new offices, a gymnasium and renovation of the organization's existing women's and children's shelter. Salvation Army Maj. Robert Lyle said Monday he was hopeful that donors would step up to contribute the rest of the money. “We do have a lot of folks in this community who are sympathetic to what we're doing,” Lyle said.

Construction has begun at the site of a new Sonic drive-in restaurant on Dual Highway near Edgewood Drive in Hagerstown. Crews broke ground March 16 at 1710 Dual Highway, with plans of opening by mid-May, a Sonic franchise official said Monday. Nick Stamnos, director of operations, said a job fair is planned for April 21 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a conference room at the Hampton Inn, 1716 Dual Highway, just behind the construction site. The company seeks to hire 80 or more entry-level positions, including cooks, skating carhops, drive-through workers and switchboard operators, Stamnos said.

Two deer got stuck Tuesday night inside a fenced-in area at the Washington County Free Library construction site on South Potomac Street in Hagerstown, city police said. Several residents helped Hagerstown police and Maryland Department of Natural Resource officers corral and free the animals during the 90-minute incident that started about 6 p.m., city police Sgt. Ben Lyncha said. Lyncha said he believed the deer got into the construction site through a small portion of the fence that had been pushed in. Once the deer got out, one took off down a nearby alley and the other down Potomac Street, Lyncha said.

Motorists entering Shepherdstown over the Potomac River bridge should expect delays over the next nine months as work begins on a long-awaited safe pedestrian underpass linking the East and West campuses of Shepherd University. Shepherdstown police said last month that a 21-year-old Shepherd student was hospitalized with serious injuries when she was struck by a vehicle while walking through the busy crosswalk on North Duke Street, the route that brings traffic from Maryland into Shepherdstown.

Hundreds of dollars in tools that were being used by volunteers to build a home through Habitat for Humanity of the Eastern Panhandle were recently stolen from a project site, leaders of the nonprofit organization said Tuesday. “We'd like to get our tools back,” said Brian Truman, the organization's operations director. The theft from a locked storage box at the construction site at Lair Way off Nadenbousch Lane south of Martinsburg was discovered on Monday, Jan. 16, Truman said.

The left lane of South Potomac Street is scheduled to close at 8 a.m. Tuesday for work at the Washington County Free Library construction site, according to an emailed traffic advisory from the City of Hagerstown. The lane needs to be closed to accommodate the construction work and delivery vehicles, according to the advisory. The work is expected to last until 4 p.m. Tuesday, at which time the lane is expected to reopen. The closure is expected to be repeated Wednesday, according to the advisory.

Construction is set to begin Monday on the renovation and expansion of the Washington County Free Library in downtown Hagerstown, county Project Manager Gary Pozzouli said. The city already has blocked off the parking spaces adjacent to the construction site on South Potomac and East Antietam streets. Those spaces will remain off-limits for parking throughout the construction period. The work is expected to be completed by October 2012, unless delayed by unforeseen complications, Pozzouli said.