Funding

It is a local chapter of Business Network International, or BNI, whose mission is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive and professional word-of-mouth referral program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with local business professionals. The revenue generated by the chapter members as a direct result of referrals is tracked each week. When a member is successful in doing business with a referral he or she received from another member, an anonymous “thank-you” card is turned in stating the name of the person who gave the referral and the dollar amount of the business generated.

The Town of Hancock donated $500 to Children's Village to support the free life-safety education program Children's Village provides to all second-grade students in Washington County each school year. Funds were generated from speed- camera revenue. Hancock was the first town to install the cameras. T.J. Buskirk, chief of police for the Town of Hancock, presented the check to Rochelle Morrell, director of Children's Village. “The Town of Hancock and the Hancock Police Department are committed to Children's Village and its successful safety program.

The Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce will focus on six core areas that affect the local business community as part of its agenda for the 2013 Maryland General Assembly session. The six areas are: over-regulation, job growth, a competitive tax structure, affordable health insurance, transportation funding and infrastructure investment, and workforce development and education. The chamber unveiled the agenda this week, to time with the opening of the 2013 legislative session in Maryland.

A running track at Boonsboro High School that gets a lot of use by the school and the community will be renovated with $157,000 that was awarded through the state's Program Open Space. The track, which has not been resurfaced since 2001, is showing signs of wear, Washington County Public Schools officials said Wednesday. “That's a pretty good life out of a track,” said Boyd Michael, deputy superintendent of schools. Lane one on the track and a straightaway used for sprints are particularly worn, said Susan Lowery, athletic director at the school.

Washington County is losing two outside funding sources - more than $1 million - by abandoning plans to build a senior citizens' center on the Hagerstown Community College campus. The Maryland Department of Aging had promised the county $800,000. Another $250,000 would have come from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Both grants were contingent on a senior center being built at HCC, County Administrator Gregory B. Murray said. At the start of 2012, after ruling out other sites, county officials were focused on placing a new senior center on the college campus.

St. Maria Goretti High School announced its People for Animal Welfare Society recently held a fundraiser to help animals affected by Hurricane Sandy.  The club sponsored a “Wear Orange” out-of-uniform day in honor of the official color of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Students could pay $5 to be out of uniform for the day and the money collected went toward the Hurricane Sandy animalrelief effort. The club also received donations for the relief fund from three local veterinarians: Drs. Tracy Barlup, Phil Palmer and Roger Horst.

Time is running short for City of Hagerstown officials to request money from the state in support of a stadium project that would keep the Hagerstown Suns. But now, after a new stadium proposal made Tuesday by Suns majority owner Bruce Quinn for a facility that may not be built in the city's core, there's no guarantee - at this point - that the $400,000-a-year contribution from Washington County would be available anymore, either. Quinn's plan, albeit just a concept, assumed that the county's portion and another large chunk from the state would factor into a 20-year debt service model on a $21 million to $22 million facility to be built possibly somewhere in the city's East End. “The solution I presented to council was based on all the available financial information we have been privy to,” Quinn said in an email Wednesday night.

Franklin County, Pa., property owners are facing a possible tax increase as the county commissioners hammer out the details of a 2013 budget that reflects increased spending at the 911 center and county-owned nursing home. On Thursday, the county's fiscal director presented a $107.3 million spending plan for the general fund. She and the county administrator cautioned that draft included all requests from department managers and would be subject to trimming. “This is an all-requests budget,” County Administrator John Hart said.

On the day he was named chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., told reporters he feels Interstate 81 needs to be widened to six lanes. “It's just wall-to-wall trucks. That roadway is going to need to be expanded,” Shuster said in a conference call. The House Republican conference voted Wednesday afternoon to name Shuster and other committee chairmen for the 2013-14 session beginning in January. No Pennsylvania House member currently chairs a full committee.