Herald Mail

The problem: The condition of the road on Md. 60 at Longmeadow Road, north of Hagerstown. A Herald-Mail employee said she could feel the ridges in the road when her car bounces over them. The problem is the most noticeable when making a left turn onto Md. 60 or Longmeadow Road. Who can fix it: Maryland State Highway Administration What they say: Heather Keels, a district community liaison for the Maryland State Highway Administration, wrote in an email: “SHA's Hagerstown shop is aware of the rutting that has formed on Md. 60 in several areas, including the Longmeadow Road and Cortland Drive intersections.

The Herald-Mail will not publish tomorrow, to give all our employees a chance to spend Christmas with their families and to allow readers, for one day this year, to reflect on something other than the news. What many people think of as "news" is meetings of elected officials, accounts of police and fire calls and reporting on criminal trials. But there is another kind of news that The Herald-Mail is privileged to share with the community. They are the notices of births, children's triumphs on the playing field and in the classroom, and their weddings.

In each of the past 13 years, The Herald-Mail has celebrated the New Year by selecting a Person of the Year, someone who has had a significant, positive effect on Hagerstown and Washington County and those who live here. We are preparing to do that again this year, with the selection of the 2012 Person of the Year. Candidates for the honor are nominated by people in the community. After nominations are in, the Person of the Year is chosen by a group of local residents and Herald-Mail employees.

katec@herald-mail.com The Herald-Mail's annual landmarks contest is back for its eighth year. Once again, readers will be takin' it to the streets, searching for the Hagerstown locations that are hiding in plain sight. Do you know where these are? If you do - and you also know where to find the five other photographic clues that will be published one per day on section fronts this week - you will have a chance to win $500. Last year there were 10 clues.

Click here to view all of our finalists! HAGERSTOWN -- It's official. Matt Dattilio is Hagerstown's hottest man. After 1,975 votes were cast Monday night to determine the hottest man during an event at Bulls & Bears restaurant, the Coldwell-Banker Innovation real estate agent came away the winner. Cheers went up from a crowd of about 140 people as Dattilio walked down a staircase and received good wishes from supporters. Despite being Hub City's biggest hunk, Dattilio said he figured life will be "pretty normal" from now on. Was he surprised?

Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series about missing persons in the Tri-State. The Herald-Mail contacted law enforcement agencies to obtain information about area residents who have been reported missing. Those profiled include Revell Jeeter of Harrisonville, Pa., whose story was published Sunday; Arthur Murray of Williamsport, whose story appears today; and Mary Jean Olshefski-Beatty of Bunker Hill, W.Va., and Melissa Moreland, who lived with her parents near Paw Paw, W.Va., whose stories will be published Tuesday.

It's nice to have a five-time "Jeopardy!" champion sitting next to you in the newsroom when the boss comes over and tells you he wants a historic timeline of the newspaper from its inception in 1828 to the present. When Herald-Mail Executive Editor Terry Headlee told me he wanted Bob Fleenor ("Jeopardy!" champ) and I to come up with the timeline, I knew I was in the clear. That would have been like Joe Torre coming up to me and A-Rod on the bench this summer and telling us he needed a home run from one of us. Bob hit one out of the park.

o Click here for a downloadable nomination form Back in 1999, when many businesspeople were concerned the Y2K bug would bring their operations to a grinding halt, two Herald-Mail editors decided to look at the new millennium's approach in a positive way. They approached Publisher John League with an idea to start 2000 on a high note, by marking Jan. 1 with the announcement of The Herald-Mail's Person of the Year. It was decided that the Person of the Year would be someone who had made a significant, positive impact on Hagerstown and Washington County.

Editor's note: Each week, The Herald-Mail invites readers to answer poll questions on its Web site, www.herald-mail.com" target="new"> www.herald-mail.com . Readers also may submit comments about the poll question when voting. Each Sunday, a sampling of edited reader comments will run in The Herald-Mail. Last week's poll question was: Do you think schools are safer since The Herald-Mail sent reporters out Oct. 5 to check security measures? "I can still pick my son up from his elementary school without showing any ID. The secretary called him to the office after advising the teacher 'someone is here to pick him up.' All I had to do was fill out a sign-out sheet.

Can you tell us what to do? Four years ago, at the suggestion of Publisher John League, I put out the call for readers to serve on a citizens advisory board for Herald-Mail's editorial page. Since 1997, the group has met monthly to talk over issues for the editorial page and suggest topics for my own personal columns, which appear on Thursdays and Sundays. The group has hashed over everything from the allowable length of letters to the editor to which syndicated columnists we should run, and a lot of ground in between.