Family Business

After 16 years in public service, Washington County Emergency Services Director John A. Latimer IV is returning to the private sector. Latimer resigned Monday from the county's top emergency services post to take a full-time job with his family's masonry firm, Gruber-Latimer Restorations LLC. He said he decided to return to the firm, where he was employed part-time when he worked as a Hagerstown city firefighter, for the "growth opportunities" it...

Ronald Scott pushes his hotdog cart up Jonathan Street in Hagerstown Thursday. He recently launched the family business, D's City Dawgs, and hopes to add a second pushcart later this year to use in other Hagerstown neighborhoods.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Sunnyway Foods, a two-store grocery business with 175 employees, began 50 years ago with Aldine and Margaret Martin selling meat at area farmers markets. Sunnyway Foods is still in the family. In 2000, the Martins' sons, Michael and Dean, took over management of both stores. The Greencastle store is at 212 N. Antrim Way (U.S. 11) and the Chambersburg store opened in 1973 at 49 Warm Springs Road. Dean Martin, 41, is company president and his brother, Michael, 43, is secretary/treasurer.

A steady stream of morning customers flowed in and out of the Spickler's Market, picking up everyday items - everything from pop and cigarettes to produce and household items. Sandwiches and cold cuts are sold at the deli counter in the back of the store. The cashier is at the front. Melissa Shives, a new cashier, works the 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. She said it gets the busiest between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., the lunch rush, she said. "Yeah, we've got our regulars," she said between transactions on a recent Friday morning.

Charles M. Brown, co-owner of Brown Funeral Home in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, died Sunday morning at age 85, said Bob Fields, co-owner of the three funeral homes. “He was really a good role model and a good man,” said Fields, who became co-owner of the business in 1986. “He was always making sure we had time to spend with our families.” Brown Funeral Home has operations in Martinsburg, Inwood and Charles Town, W.Va., Fields said. “Pretty much, the funeral home was his life,” Fields said.

Gelwicks-Tosten Lindsay Ranee Gelwicks and James Wellington Tosten announce their engagement. Miss Gelwicks is the daughter of Robert and Sonya Gelwicks of Hagerstown, formerly of Thurmont, Md. She is a 2003 graduate of Catoctin High School. She is the operations manager for her family business, G&G Drywall Services Inc., of Hagerstown. Mr. Tosten is the son of Linda Pierre of Hagerstown. He attended South Hagerstown High School, and obtained his GED in 2001. He is lead drywall technician for G&G Drywall Services Inc. The wedding is planned for today.

Two New York City gem dealers have filed a suit that alleges a Hagerstown councilwoman and her family conspired to avoid paying them nearly $200,000 for inventory at a downtown jewelry store. [cont. from front page ] Councilwoman Susan K. Saum-Wicklein, her father Douglas Saum, and her husband Michael Wicklein, are named as defendants in the lawsuit filed last week in Washington County Circuit Court. At the heart of the dispute is last year's closing of the 100-year-old family business, Saum's Credit Jewelers.

At its heart, if not in size, Tristate Electrical & Electronics Supply Co. will always be a family business to CEO John M. Waltersdorf. With 500 employees in five states, Waltersdorf said it's hard to find a hotel large enough to accommodate the annual holiday party, an elegant overnight affair attended by most employees and retirees. But he doesn't want to end the 50-year-old tradition, which brings together people from each of the company's 32 branches. "It's the one time of the year that we all get together and it's not business," he said.

Name of business: Creative Arts Owners: Karen Snider and Tracy Schindel Address : 2 W. Potomac Parkway, Williamsport Opening date: April 1 Products and services: Sports-related party supplies, small gifts and scrapbooking supplies from baseball to ballet to karate to fishing. Market area: USA How did you get into your business, or what motivated you to start it? "Both Karen and Tracy are black belts in karate and are both scrapbookers.

Name of business: Rebekah's Resolutions LLC Owners: Rebekah Burral-Phetteplace and Cheryl Kipe Yeagy Address: 19603 Longmeadow Road, Hagerstown Opening date: April 15 Products and services: On-site evaluations for reupholstery and repair of business and office furniture. Market area: Hagerstown and surrounding area How did you get into your business, or what motivated you to start it? "As the third generation at Kipe's Upholstery, where they cater more toward the residential market, I realized a need for businesses, such as hotels, banks, etc., that are environmentally conscientious and choose to reupholster or repair their existing furniture.

Bikle's Ski Shop, a retail staple in downtown Hagerstown for close to 50 years, will close its doors for good after the ski and snowboard season ends in early spring. Co-owners Bill L. Clowser and his sister, Barbara Tritle, recently announced they will retire from the family business when they close up at the end of March. Their building at 7 S. Potomac St., is up for sale. “After 49 years, I've decided it's time to move on from retail,” Clowser said. “I've done it long enough.

It seems that my fans are in awe of me. Just the other day, someone told me that I was an institution. … Or was it that I belonged in one? Another adoring minion said that I was a dynasty. Hmmm, maybe he said dinosaur. That doesn't matter. But the truth is prognosticating games is really a family business … a tradition that has been carried on for as long as there has been communication. My family got in on the ground floor of it. Of course, we had to adapt along the way to spread the word.

Name of business: Maiden Insurance Owner: Kathy Maiden Address: 406 N. Mildred St., Suite B, Ranson, W.Va. Opening date: October 2011 Products and services: All lines of insurance products Target market: Those seeking insurance for auto, home or small businesses How did you get into your business, and what motivated you to start it? I started in 2003, when my husband, Tom Maiden, was deployed with the U.S. military.

Mrs. Cynthia Lou Fox McJonathan, 68, died at 2:32 a.m. Saturday, 28 April 2012, at Meritus Medical Center near Hagerstown. She was receiving respite care and rehabilitation at Golden Living in Hagerstown following her second case of pneumonia this year. Born 1 September 1943, in Waynesboro, Pa., she was the daughter of Betty Jane (Boward) and Paul Marion Fox. Her early years were with her paternal grandparents, Myrtle (Brown) and Wilbur Fox, on their farm on Harbaugh Valley Road in Sabillasville.  She was graduated with an academic diploma from Thurmont High School with the Class of 1961.

Charles M. Brown, co-owner of Brown Funeral Home in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, died Sunday morning at age 85, said Bob Fields, co-owner of the three funeral homes. “He was really a good role model and a good man,” said Fields, who became co-owner of the business in 1986. “He was always making sure we had time to spend with our families.” Brown Funeral Home has operations in Martinsburg, Inwood and Charles Town, W.Va., Fields said. “Pretty much, the funeral home was his life,” Fields said.

About five years ago, farmer David Herbst and his family had a big decision to make. With two of his four children - married with kids of their own - wanting to continue the family business of operating Misty Meadow Farm on the outskirts of Smithsburg, they either needed to drastically increase their dairy production or undertake more custom-crop farming to support everyone. “We needed to go to 600 cows if we wanted to support these other families,” Herbst said, saying the idea was met with great resistance by his daughter, who handles most of the milking of their 160 cows.

Family is the operative word when it comes to Family Recreation Park east of Hagerstown on National Pike.   The business was started in 1988 by Jack and Evelyn Barr, as one the family could run together while providing a wholesome entertainment venue for families. Evelyn Barr said they had visited a family-oriented park in Pennsylvania and thought the idea would work in the Tri-State area. “My dad wanted a family business, something all family members could enjoy - good, clean fun,” said Jayne Angle, one of Jack and Evelyn Barr's eight children, who helps run the park with sister Jeanine Horst.

Theodore "Wayne" Myers, 71, of Hagerstown, Md., went home to be with his Lord on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011. He died while at Meritus Medical Center after battling long-term seizure- and stroke-related issues. Wayne was born in Hagerstown, Sept. 11, 1940, and he was the son of the late Theodore "Ted" Martin Myers and Helen Irene Marshall Myers. Wayne was a stockholder in The Hagerstown Block Co. and a retired employee with more than 30 years dedicated to working in the "family business.

M. Wayne Warrenfeltz, age 70, passed away Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011 at his residence in Centerburg, Ohio, after a long illness. He was preceded in death by parents Milton O. and Mary E. (Poffenberger) Warrenfeltz. Wayne is survived by Patricia (Snowberger) Warrenfeltz, his wife of 51 years; son, Curtis Warrenfeltz of Virginia Beach, Va.; daughters, Sharon Newcomer of Ringgold, Md., Debra Warrenfeltz of Delaware, Ohio, and Julie Zubiate of Carmel, Ind.; six grandchildren and four great-grandsons.

The business closed in October, but an auction Saturday of the contents in W.H. Knode’s Sons Southern States farm and hardware store will mark the official end of a five-generation family business. It will have the obvious inventory found in such businesses — fence supplies, tarps, lawn and garden supplies, galvanized pipe and nails, electrical and canning supplies, animal traps, farm hats and gloves, even tractor weights. But this auction will also sell the owners’ personal history.