Counseling

Disability services Oct. 26 and 27; Nov. 2 and 3 - The Department of Rehabilitation Services at the Washington County One-Stop Job Center. 10 a.m. to noon. 14 N. Potomac St., Suite 100, Hagerstown. Call 301-791-4760. Dress for success Oct. 26 - Learn how to dress for success and interviewing techniques. 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Washington County One-Stop Job Center, 14 N. Potomac St., Hagerstown. Call 301-393-8255. SCORE seminar series Oct. 29 - SCORE Millennium Small Business Seminar Series continues.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Jefferson County Commissioner Lyn Widmyer made a motion Thursday, backed by Commissioners James Surkamp and Frances Morgan, to delay a scheduled employee evaluation for County Administrator Leslie Smith until an attorney familiar with labor law can be hired to sit in on the session. Commissioners Dale Manuel and Patricia Noland opposed the motion. Both said they were surprised when Widmyer made it. They also said Smith's performance has been excellent over the years.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- Washington County Public Schools will spend about $1 million over three years on additional social workers and school counselors for the county's most poverty-stricken schools. The money was received through a U.S. Department of Education grant and about $344,000 is expected to be received this year, according to Steve Burnett, supervisor of school counseling for WCPS. More than $337,000 will be received in the second year of the program and more than $332,000 in the third year.

Disability services April 6 and 7; April 13 and 14 - The Department of Rehabilitation Services at the Washington County One-Stop Job Center. 10 a.m. to noon, 14 N. Potomac St., Suite 100, Hagerstown. Free. Call 301-791-4760. Jobs workshop April 7 and 8; April 15 - Early Intervention Job Search Workshop, tips to re-energize your job search. 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Washington County One-Stop Job Center, 14 N. Potomac St., Suite 100, Hagerstown. Free. Call 301-393-8224 or e-mail jtrader@dllr.

ANNAPOLIS (AP) -- The Maryland Republican Party says its general counsel, Douglas Thiessen, died last week while skiing. Thiessen was 35 years old and was employed as the assistant general counsel for the Parole Commission within the federal Department of Justice. The party says he was on a ski trip with family members when he died Friday. A spokesman at the Whitetail resort in Mercersburg, Pa., says Thiessen was found unresponsive on the side of a ski trail. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in Hagerstown.

MARCH 4, 1950-DEC. 29, 2008 KEEDYSVILLE - Mary Ann Kerins, 58, of Marble Quarry Road, died Monday, Dec. 29, 2008, at her home. Born March 4, 1950, in Warren, Pa., she was the daughter of John "Jack" H. and Mary L. Hickey Kerins of Pennsylvania. She was employed by Hood College of Frederick, Md., as director of the counseling center and consultant for association of volunteers. She was a member in the International Service, teaching and supporting communities in Uganda and Southern Sudan.

Q: A couple of times, I have set daytime appointments with a local SCORE counselor. Since I work "down the road," I couldn't make it back to Hagerstown in time for the appointments. Are there any options to daytime appointments? Also, have you changed the location of the SCORE tax workshop? A: SCORE is a national association of active and retired businessmen and women who volunteer to share their expertise with small businesses and new business startups, as well as those who are thinking about going into business.

The action taken to fire six upper-level Antrim Township employees raised many questions. To help better understand the power and limitations of a township board, The Herald-Mail spoke to legal expert Tom Wenger, legal counsel to the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors Most township employees are "at-will" employees and do not have contracts for their services, Wenger said. At-will employees can be hired and fired "at the will" of a township board. However, being at-will does not leave an employee without legal recourse for being terminated if the facts support his or her case.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The founder of the West Virginia Society of Ghost Hunters was placed on three years of supervised probation by a 23rd Judicial Circuit judge who suspended an 18-month jail sentence for her convictions of practicing medicine and counseling without a license. At the end of a two-day trial in September 2007, a jury found Susan R. Crites, 57, of 208 Ruffed Grouse Lane, guilty of three counts of practicing medicine without a license and five counts of counseling without a license.