Fort Ritchie

FORT RITCHIE - The military base that has served the U.S. Army and the National Guard over the years will have one last bash on Friday. Fort Ritchie will stage an hour-long closing ceremony at 5 p.m. followed by a "Twilight Tattoo," according to Army spokesman Steve Blizard. The base will not officially close until Sept. 30, when the post will be handed over to civilian authorities. The featured speaker for the closing ceremony will be retired Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters, a former U.N. ambassador who received military intelligence training at Fort Ritchie during World War II. During the Twilight Tattoo, 300 troops from the 3rd U.S. Infantry and 60 musicians from the U.S. Army Band will demonstrate drills, Blizard said.

If you ask Eric Forrester, he will say barbecue is an art form. And Forrester, owner of Mason-Dixon BBQ Services near Greencastle, Pa., promised there will be plenty of art at the Memorial Day Pignic on Saturday, May 25, and Sunday, May 26, at Fort Ritchie. The inaugural two-day event will feature its own arts festival, a music festival, and three barbecue competitions. “Barbecue is very American. That's why people enjoy it so much. There are very few American forms of culinary art,” Forrester said.

By STEVEN T. DENNIS Staff Writer The Washington County Commissioners plan to create a nonprofit PenMar Development Corp. to oversee development at Fort Ritchie once the Army turns the site over to the county in October 1998, officials said Thursday. The details haven't been worked out, said Commissioner Ronald L. Bowers, the commissioners' representative on the Fort Ritchie Local Redevelopment Authority. Bowers said the commissioners plan to study other, similar development corporations, including the Baltimore Economic Development Corp.

kimy@herald-mail.com Six teenager boys who admitted to vandalizing unoccupied housing units at Fort Ritchie were sentenced Wednesday to probation and community service. Each of the Smithsburg-area teenagers admitted to one count of malicious destruction of property and was found delinquent by Washington County Circuit Judge Donald Beachley, who was sitting in juvenile court. Three of the teenagers were 15 years old, two were 16 and one was 17. The charges stemmed from an incident in January in which several windows at apartments at the former U.S. Army base were smashed.

The reuse authority at Fort Ritchie has a new name, a new budget and a new governing structure. The fort will be called the Lakeside Corporate Center at PenMar, said Robert Sweeney, the executive director of the Local Redevelopment Authority, which is in the process of becoming the PenMar Development Corp. under state legislation signed into law last week. Sweeney briefed the Washington County Commissioners on Tuesday. Sweeney said the first corporation board meeting will be June 9, when interim lease agreements for reuse of Army buildings will be signed.

PenMar Development Corporation officials on Tuesday announced the U.S. Army had awarded a grant of almost $2 million to help with the conversion of Fort Ritchie to Lakeside Corporation Center. A cooperative agreement between PenMar and the Army also includes options that would increase to $5.8 million the amount the corporation could receive over the next three years, said Robert P. Sweeney, executive director of PenMar Development Corporation. --cont. from front page -- PenMar is a private/public company that is heading the effort to redevelop the base, which closed on Oct. 1. The goal is to attract businesses and create jobs, Sweeney said.

By SAMANTHA KRULEWITZ Staff Writer FORT RITCHIE - Michele Showe arrived at the Army base at 8:30 a.m. Friday to make sure they got a picnic table near the grill and the lake. Showe, of Hagerstown, along with her friends and family spent the day at the fourth annual Fourth of July Open House at Fort Ritchie. This is the third year they have attended. "I'm having a great time. I sent the kids to the pool," Showe said. "What's important is to get a parking spot and a grill.

Assume for a moment that the PenMar Development Corp. made a serious error when it signed a contract to sell the old Fort Ritchie U.S. Army base to Corporate Office Properties Trust. That's what opponents of the sale believe. The property should have been appraised, they say, because the acreage there is worth more than $9 million the contract calls for, an amount that drops to $5 million if 1,400 jobs are created there over nine years. But if an appraisal were done now and it was found that the property were really worth $20 million, what could PenMar do?

By GUY FLETCHER Staff Writer ANNAPOLIS - Washington County business leaders and lawmakers struck a compromise with some Maryland General Assembly leaders Sunday that should allow the passage today of legislation that could be critical to the redevelopment of Fort Ritchie. The new legislation would establish the public-private PenMar Development Corp., which will be responsible for turning the fort into a combination corporate technology park and business training center after the Army closes the base next year.

By GUY FLETCHER Staff Writer ANNAPOLIS - State lawmakers were asked Tuesday to approve the formation of a public-private corporation that would take charge of converting Fort Ritchie to a combination technology park and corporate training center after the Army leaves. "We view this as a phenomenal opportunity for economic growth and jobs in Washington County," Del. John P. Donoghue, D-Washington, told the House Commerce and Government Matters Committee. He was testifying in favor of a bill (H.B.