Loan

A local company that a Hagerstown official said could create about 70 new jobs within the next five years will receive a $100,000 loan from the city if approved next week. During a meeting Tuesday at City Hall, Economic Development Manager Jill Estavillo said the loan, which will come via the state and be administered through the city, will help fund Duvinage's business expansion that has been underway since last year. The expansion of Duvinage - a corporation manufacturing circular and spiral staircases - was necessitated following its October acquisition of Ohio staircase manufacturer Sharon Stairs, the production of which was shifted to Hagerstown.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 Tuesday to approve a loan of $94,476 to Sharpsburg Area Emergency Medical Services toward its purchase of a new ambulance. The company is replacing its 2000 Ford F-550 Horton ambulance, which has mileage of more than 100,450 miles, Washington County Director of Emergency Services Kevin L. Lewis said. The money will be loaned to the company from the county's Fire and Rescue Revolving Loan Fund, which had a balance of $300,000 prior to the loan to Sharpsburg Area EMS, Lewis said.

Washington County Health Systems Inc., the company that owns the Washington County Hospital, will receive a $340,518 loan through the City of Hagerstown to fund renovations at the new Walnut Street Community Health Center, City Council members informally agreed Tuesday. The loan will come from the city's Community Development Block Grant funds, which is federal money distributed by the city. The 20-year loan with a 2 percent interest rate will be used to complete renovations of the second floor of the clinic.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., announced Tuesday that funding, in the form of a guaranteed loan, has been made available to Cumberland Valley on Ice, Inc. from the United States Department of Agriculture through its Rural Development program. The recently approved conditional commitment for a guaranteed loan of $1.4 million has been arranged by the USDA to be financed through Farmers and Merchants Trust. These funds will be used for the construction and operation of the proposed Olympic-size skating rink in Zullinger, Pa. The establishment of the rin will create two full-time and 30 part-time positions.

A Washington County Circuit Court judge on Friday denied former Hagerstown Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II's motion to vacate a confessed judgment on a loan he co-signed in 2008. Bruchey said he co-signed a $60,000 loan from Biltrite Homes Corp. with Michael Griffith, who later declared bankruptcy. Judge Daniel P. Dwyer denied the motion during a hearing Friday. “No good deed goes unpunished,” the judge said, echoing a comment made earlier in the hearing by Edward Kuczynski, the attorney for Vincent Groh, president of Biltrite Homes.

BOONSBORO - Maryland officials announced Wednesday that the state Board of Public Works has approved a $168,000 loan to help build a water treatment facility for Boonsboro and Keedysville. Boonsboro Mayor Charles F. "Skip" Kauffman Jr. said the loan, which eventually will become a grant, is part of about $1.5 million the state has promised. That equals a little less than half of the $3.1 million cost of the facility, which has been mandated by the Maryland Department of Environment.

Washington County plans to ask director Ron Maxwell to repay $300,000 the County Commissioners loaned him to shoot a Civil War movie in the county, Commissioners President Gregory I. Snook said Wednesday. Read the full story in Thursday's Herald-Mail newspapers.

Film director Ron Maxwell has repaid almost all of the $300,000 he borrowed from Washington County 10 years ago. As part of a settlement, the county agreed to waive at least $80,000 in unpaid interest Maxwell owed. County spokeswoman Sarah Lankford Sprecher wrote in an email that Maxwell made payments of $60,000 apiece on Dec. 15, Feb. 15 and April 15, and the county is considering his loan “paid in full.” Maxwell's overall payments total $298,214.52. As of October 2011, Maxwell owed the county $181,786 on the principal and $81,255 on the interest, which accrued at 4.5 percent annually.

The Black Rock Golf Course Board will receive up to a $250,000 loan from Washington County to replace worn-out maintenance equipment. The County Commissioners approved the loan at Tuesday's meeting. The board plans to repay the county over a five-year period. The loan will pay for new mowers and other maintenance equipment. The purchases will save about $75,000 a year in repairs and other costs associated with maintaining the old equipment, according to information included with the commissioners' meeting agenda.

BOONSBORO -- The Boonsboro Town Council Monday night decided to give a $32,000 loan to the South Mountain Little League for improvements to a senior division field on Monroe Road. The South Mountain Little League already owed the council $6,000 it borrowed for new lights at the baseball field, Mayor Charles F. "Skip" Kauffman Jr. said. The little league organization then wanted $26,000 for a new fence and a backstop for a senior division field, Kauffman said. Town council members agreed to combine the outstanding $6,000 with the $26,000 request for a $32,000 loan to the South Mountain Little League.

The Hancock Town Council voted Wednesday to provide a $200,000 loan to the company planning to build electronic home plates there later this year. The council voted to loan the money to Spessard Manufacturing with a personal guarantee from owner Jerry Spessard. Spessard is the co-inventor of the Eagle Eye Electronic Home Plate, which can call balls and strikes, as well as record pitch speed and other data. He plans to build a 6,000-square-foot facility in the town-owned Stanley Complex property.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved two measures to remedy situations involving two businesses that have defaulted on county-issued loans - canceling one and extending another. By a 4-0 vote, the commissioners accepted a request made by an official with T. Rowe Price to cancel the remaining portion of a $739,206 loan issued to a subsidiary company, TRP Suburban Second Inc., by the county in August 2010. Robert Mandley, project coordinator for the county, told the commissioners that the company contacted the Hagerstown-Washington County Economic Development Commission to ask to terminate the loan agreement due to a change in internal operations that would not allow the business to meet job requirements or capital investment goals.

Rocky's Pizza & Cafe Napoli, a longtime business in downtown Hagerstown, will close its doors by Sunday, a city official confirmed Thursday. Hagerstown spokeswoman Erin Wolfe said the city, which owns the building that houses the pizza shop at 40 N. Potomac St., recently had a meeting with officials of the business to discuss its “financial relationship” with the city. The business officials told the city that they would be willing to vacate the premises, Wolfe said, although she refused to elaborate on the financial situation that exists between the two parties.

A local company that a Hagerstown official said could create about 70 new jobs within the next five years will receive a $100,000 loan from the city if approved next week. During a meeting Tuesday at City Hall, Economic Development Manager Jill Estavillo said the loan, which will come via the state and be administered through the city, will help fund Duvinage's business expansion that has been underway since last year. The expansion of Duvinage - a corporation manufacturing circular and spiral staircases - was necessitated following its October acquisition of Ohio staircase manufacturer Sharon Stairs, the production of which was shifted to Hagerstown.

Boonsboro Mayor Charles F. “Skip” Kauffman Jr. issued an annual report looking back on the year 2012 during a regular Boonsboro Town Council meeting last week. Among the issues that Kauffman touched on Feb. 4 is the town's debt for its wastewater treatment plant. The plant cost $11.6 million and the total debt stands at $7.9 million. Kauffman said the plan was for the plant to be funded by new development, but there was no development in the town in 2012. The town did pay off a water-filtration project loan five years early, Kauffman said.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced a new microloan program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency designed to help small and family operations, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers secure loans of less than $35,000. The program is aimed at bolstering the progress of producers through their start-up years by providing resources and helping to increase equity so that farmers might eventually graduate to commercial credit and expand their operations.

Redefining our terms would be less taxing To the editor: I have an idea that may help resolve the current economic impasse. The major sticking point that has prevented Republicans and Democrats from coming together is the word “tax.” Democrats see increased taxes as indispensible. Republicans see the increased taxes as the boogie man to be avoided and opposed at all costs. They both are looking at taxes from a political rather than an economic standpoint. Cleary, tax hikes themselves will not get us out of this deficit crisis.

A Washington County Circuit Court judge on Friday denied former Hagerstown Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II's motion to vacate a confessed judgment on a loan he co-signed in 2008. Bruchey said he co-signed a $60,000 loan from Biltrite Homes Corp. with Michael Griffith, who later declared bankruptcy. Judge Daniel P. Dwyer denied the motion during a hearing Friday. “No good deed goes unpunished,” the judge said, echoing a comment made earlier in the hearing by Edward Kuczynski, the attorney for Vincent Groh, president of Biltrite Homes.

Police: Driver falls asleep, hits parked vehicle WAYNESBORO, Pa. - Two vehicles sustained heavy damage in a crash at about 11:20 p.m. Wednesday on Clayton Avenue, Waynesboro police said in a news release. Police said the driver of a pickup truck fell asleep, causing the truck to strike a parked vehicle. No injuries were reported, police said.   Pa. State Police investigating theft by deception CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania State Police are investigating theft by deception in which a Chambersburg woman wired $550 to an individual in Jamaica as part of a loan.

After he was court ordered to repay an $80,000 debt in mid-August, Hagerstown Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II filed a motion to vacate the confessed judgment against him and has been granted a hearing in December for his lawsuit with a local businessman, property owner and landlord, according to Washington County Circuit Court documents. Bruchey's motion, signed and filed Sept. 20 on his own behalf, states that the affidavit for the confessed judgment that was signed by plaintiff Vincent R. Groh, president of Biltrite Homes Corp., is “neither dated nor acknowledged.” Bruchey claims the confessed judgment affidavit gives no explanation of the history of payments or tally of late fees on the loan to determine if the amount owed is correct, and with incomplete figures, it makes the claim of 15 percent in attorney's fees indeterminate as well, court documents show.