Directors

The family, friends and colleagues of Washington County Emergency Medical Services Director Brigitte Heller, who died Thursday of injuries suffered in a traffic accident earlier this month, remembered her as a dedicated and passionate member of the rescue community. Kevin Lewis, director of the Washington County Division of Emergency Services, said EMS employees intend to remember Heller, among other things, by wearing a black mourning strip over their badges. Lewis said EMS personnel were told about Heller's death Thursday morning.

On May 15, Contemporary School of the Arts and Gallery Inc. introduced Ashlyn Mazone-Lucas as its new music director. A recital was held at Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, where Mazone-Lucas sang. Mazone-Lucas will offer vocal lessons from September to May. She will also offer mini summer camps July 2 to 14 and July 16 to 27. The gallery is at 4 W. Franklin St. in Hagerstown. For more information, call 301-791-6191, send an email to ronlytle3@netzero.net or go to www.csagi.org .

Three people and a museum were recognized Tuesday for their preservation efforts in Washington County. “These are unique projects and unique people,” said Betty Shank, chairwoman of the Washington County Historical Advisory Committee. “But the commonality is their dedication to preservation,.” Architect Kurt Cushwa, city Planning Director Kathleen Maher and Development Review Planner/Zoning Administrator Stephen Bockmiller were honored, along with the Model Railroad Museum at Antietam.

A former local band director who was charged earlier this month in a domestic dispute that ended in a three-vehicle crash near Philadelphia, will be arraigned July 5 on a stalking charge and other counts, according to a Pennsylvania court official. During a preliminary hearing Thursday, Magisterial District Judge Edward Kropp Sr. scheduled the arraignment after finding cause to uphold stalking, harassment, disorderly conduct and careless driving charges against John Edward Eckstine Jr., 54, a Montgomery County (Pa.)

The new executive director of the Berkeley/Jefferson Day Report Center has been commuting from the Harrisburg, Pa., area since he started the job last week. Jason Castillo, 36, of Enola, Pa., was hired by the center's board to replace Joe Sacchet, who retired in March after helping county officials start the alternative sentencing program in the Eastern Panhandle. Castillo's resume´ was among 37 reviewed, community corrections board President Pamela Games-Neely said. “And any one of them could have been hired,” Games-Neely said of the quality of the applicant pool.

Kerri Barnes cried tears of joy and leaped into the air with her arms outstretched after a split board vote enabled her to keep her job as director of Tayamentasachta. “I am feeling ecstatic,” Barnes said after the Greencastle-Antrim School Board voted. The school board had discussed cutting Barnes' position, as well as teaching and support staff positions in order to balance the district's $33 million 2012-13 budget. Cutting Barnes' position as director of the school farm would save the district $85,000 in salary and benefits.

Leah Gayman, executive director of the United Way of Washington County since 2008, has resigned. Michael Harsh, vice president of the organization's board of directors, said Gayman stepped down Friday, citing personal reasons. “The board is looking for an interim director, and then will look for a permanent replacement,” Harsh said. Attempts to reach Gayman for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful. When Gayman took on the job of executive director in March 2008, she became the local organization's third executive director in less than a year.

The former facilities director of Berkeley County claims in a lawsuit that he was wrongfully terminated in November because he opposed wrongdoing and waste in county purchases of goods and equipment. The lawsuit filed May 4 in Berkeley County Circuit Court on behalf of Jay Russell of Winchester, Va., names the Berkeley County Council and Council Member Douglas E. Copenhaver Jr., as defendants. Russell is asking for unspecified general damages; reinstatement of employment, benefits and seniority rights; back wages; future lost earnings and benefits in lieu of reinstatement; attorneys' fees; and punitive damages, according to the lawsuit.

A Hagerstown man and former band director at Boonsboro, Clear Spring and Williamsport high schools has been charged with stalking, disorderly conduct and other counts after he and a woman crashed their vehicles during what police alleged was a domestic dispute last week in Pennsylvania. John Edward Eckstine Jr., 54, of 388 Key Circle, also was charged with reckless endangering other persons, simple assault, false reports to law enforcement, harassment and careless driving, according to a news release issued by the Lower Pottsgrove (Pa.)

After almost 24 years as director for institutional advancement at Hagerstown Community College, Lieba Cohen will retire Friday. She didn't set out to land a job in the field. She majored in Spanish, had a minor in Russian and said her “grandiose scheme” was to become a United Nations interpreter. “You never know where life is going to lead you,” said Cohen, 64. In 1970, the University of Albany graduate married Gerald Cohen, with whom she had grown up in Rochester, N.Y. He was in theU.S.