Internet Access

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - The Shepherdstown Public Library has received a $1,793 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to upgrade computers previously granted by the foundation, West Virginia Library Commission officials announced. The grant will allow the library to sustain free, high quality access to computers and the Internet for patrons. "It's very important for libraries to be able to provide this," said Hali Taylor, director of the Shepherdstown library. "This keeps us very state of the art. " Millions of Americans rely on library computers for research, distance-learning classes, health information and communicating with family and friends.

If you strive to be a good journalist, you try to see things from the point of view of the people you're interviewing. And so, yes, I understand that in many cases, government officials would rather not tell citizens - and the press - everything that they're doing. For example, if you're a county official who wants to dismiss a department head, but you don't have a really good reason to do so, you might not want to the public to know how much you're paying him or her to just go away quietly.

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Keller Stonebraker Insurance Inc. Keller Stonebraker Insurance Inc. has acquired Select Benefit Services, a Frederick, Md.-based company that provides employee benefits plans and life, health and long-term care insurance. Keller Stonebraker's headquarters are in Hagerstown. A division of Farmers & Mechanics Bank and a member of Mercantile Bankshares Corp., Keller Stonebraker has offices in Hagerstown, Frederick and Cumberland, Md., and Keyser, W.Va. Performance Pipe Performance Pipe's Hagerstown plant was inducted as a STAR site of the Voluntary Protection Partnership (VPP)

julieg@herald-mail.com SHARPSBURG - The Sharpsburg area will continue to get its cable service from Adelphia for at least two more years. The Sharpsburg Town Council voted 5-0 on Monday night to renew the town's franchise agreement with Adelphia. High-speed Internet access could be installed before Thanksgiving at Sharpsburg's library, fire hall, ambulance hall and elementary school, an Adelphia spokesman told the mayor and Town Council at Monday night's regular monthly meeting.

scottb@herald-mail.com Tuesday marked the Washington County Board of Education's first "virtually paperless" meeting and it occurred without any major problems, Board President Edward Forrest said Wednesday. School officials are paying a contractor for a service that allows them to post information about board meetings and policies on the Internet. During the meeting, board and staff members were connected to the Internet on laptop computers, system spokeswoman Carol Mowen said.

scottb@herald-mail.com WASHINGTON COUNTY - Washington County Board of Education officials say they are paying a contractor to post information about board meetings and policies on the Internet to increase public access and save printing costs. However, board officials said that no study has been conducted to see how many county households have Internet access, and that the change will initially cost more money rather than save money. William Blum, the board's chief financial officer, said Sunday that all Washington County residents have Internet access at the county library if they don't have computers at home.

laurae@herald-mail.com ANNAPOLIS - Government agencies in Washington County finally will be able to tap into a broadband network cable that was buried along Interstate 70 five years ago. Maryland's chief information officer, Ellis Kitchen, said Wednesday that telecommunications equipment needed to gain access to the fiber optic cable was installed in Hagerstown and Frederick last week. The new points of presence (POPs) will allow state and local government offices to hook up to the high-speed network known as networkMaryland, he said.

In what seemed as much a pep talk as a speech, West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise this week told a group of Eastern Panhandle business and political leaders that the region might be in the running for a global corporation's new data center. Whether it happens or not, Wise's administration has many believing the state is ready to get beyond its "old economy" base of coal mining and manufacturing. First came Wise's decision to push through the legalization of video lottery games, which gave the state the financial breathing room to fund the PROMISE scholarship program.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Republican David Keller hopes to put his best foot forward with the residents of Pennsylvania's 9th Congressional District during a walking tour that will take him through 14 counties. Keller, who is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster and Chambersburg resident David Bahr for the Republican nomination in the May 21 primary, started his journey Thursday from the steps of the Franklin County Courthouse. He planned to head east on U.S. 30 and south on Mont Alto Road, stopping for the night in Mont Alto, Pa. Keller, 32, plans to spend the next few days in Franklin County and then will march 15 to 25 miles a day, popping in businesses, community forums and group meetings along the way. "I figured this would be the best way to get out and meet people and hear what's on their mind," Keller, a Hamilton Township resident, said Thursday.