Family Car

Keep your eyes open and be prepared to duck if necessary; elsewise you run the risk of being smacked in the puss by the pay-raise hot potato currently flying among County Commissioners with cruise missile-like speed. "Awkward" is the word they used most often to describe the circumstance that an independent committee has recommended awarding them an $8,000 pay raise at a time when financial stresses have forced many of us to subsist on packets of ketchup retrieved from the glove box of the family car. Their responses kind of have the ring of, "Aw shucks, a pay raise for li'l ole us?

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - They won't be popping champagne corks New Year's Eve at the Franklin County Courthouse, but those assigned to man the Emergency Operations Center that night don't expect to be blowing gaskets over Y2K problems, either. "We're going to have the EOC open, as we would with any disaster," said Franklin County Emergency Management Coordinator Denny Monn. "It's going to be staffed with a skeleton crew, about half a dozen people. " The center will be open from 10 p.m. to noon on New Year's Day, Monn said.

Dear Tom and Ray: Guys, what's the big deal about plug-in hybrid cars? I've read that various automakers plan to come out with plug-in hybrids in the next two to five years. Isn't a plug-in hybrid just a current hybrid (like a Prius) with a battery charger? Is there some additional technology here that I'm missing? -- Bob RAY: Well, I guess you COULD put it that way, Bob. TOM: But if I were to simplify it, I'd say that today's gasoline-electric hybrids use electricity to supplement a gasoline engine, whereas tomorrow's plug-in hybrids will use a gasoline engine to supplement electric power.

WILLIAMSPORT -- One of the first perks Conococheague's 11-12 All-Stars received as District 1 champions on Friday night was a special ride around Williamsport -- not just in a family car caravan but on a Williamsport Volunteer Fire Company truck. The team and coaches climbed along the top of the truck for a noisy tour through town to begin celebrating their 12-2 win over West End at Ebersole Field to claim the first district championship for Conococheague since 1974. "At the beginning of the year I thought we could be at this point," said Conococheague manager Mike Iseminger.

HANCOCK ? When Eugene Harne first took the pulpit at the Hancock Church of God more than 30 years ago, he looked down to see his new congregation ? two older women and his family of six. "One woman sat on one side of the church and the other sat on the opposite side," Harne said of that Sunday in 1974 at the church's former location at 163 N. Main St. In those early days, Harne, his wife, Bonnie, and their five children drove 42 miles one way from their home in Foxville. The did so for about 10 years.

Pensinger to run for Greencastle mayor By RICHARD F. BELISLE / Staff Writer, Waynesboro Greencastle may be going from green to Red. Red Pensinger, of 323 Moss Spring Ave., has launched a write-in candidate for mayor in the May 15 primary. If he wins the November general election, he will replace Frank Mowen, who ends his second four-year term as mayor in December. Mowen sat on the fence for weeks trying to decide whether to seek a third term. He procrastinated so long that he missed the March 6 filing deadline.

Editor's note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail runs "A Life Remembered. " Each story in this continuing series takes a look back -- through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others -- at a member of the community who died recently. Today's "A Life Remembered" is about Warren "Puff" Weaver, who died May 8 at the age of 87. His obituary appeared in the May 10 edition of The Herald-Mail. GREENCASTLE, Pa. -- For the many people who met and did business with Warren "Puff" Weaver in the last 55 years at Antrim Way Motors (now Honda)

alician@herald-mail.com SMITHSBURG - Pat Higman's dad, Bud Bushey, joined the Smithsburg Volunteer Fire Co. when he was 16 years old. He was the last surviving charter member of the company before he died in 2002. Higman, 69, of Smithsburg, said the charter group bought the company's first fire truck. She remembers sitting with her dad as he called bingo to help raise money for the company in 1940, when she was 5 years old. Today, Pat Higman is treasurer of the Smithsburg Volunteer Fire Co. Ladies Auxiliary.

To President Judge John Walker, for requiring Franklin and Fulton County, Pa. people who want to divorce to attend a class to show them how a split could harm their children. To West Virginia State Trooper Carl Mahood, who was honored for making 138 drunk driving arrests in 1996, and all other police and fire/rescue personnel honored at the Martinsburg, W.Va. Elks' Lodge's third annual Law and Safety Day Banquet. To the Basketball Hall of Fame, for once again ignoring the 43-year career of Mount Saint Mary's College Coach Jim Phelan.

For a brand that appeared to be standing still as the world passed it by, Mercury has a few surprises up its sleeve. One of them is the new-for-2005 Mariner, a sport-utility vehicle that oozes style and taste from every angle. The Mariner is but one of a quartet of recent and forthcoming models wearing the Mercury badge, including last year's Monterey minivan and the '05 Montego full-size family car. Next up will be the 2006 Milan, a midsize five-passenger sedan coming late next summer (perhaps "M"-class would be a better label for these Mercurys?