New Lease

Recent votes by the Hagerstown City Council: · To appoint a committee that will review the city's charter Martin Brubaker: Yes Kelly S. Cromer: Yes Lewis C. Metzner: Yes Penny M. Nigh: Yes Alesia Parson-McBean: Yes · Adoption of a zoning ordinance text amendment to modify cluster regulations ZT-2006-04 Martin Brubaker: Yes Kelly S. Cromer: No Lewis C. Metzner: Yes Penny M....

karenh@herald-mail.com Washington County Public Schools enrollment increase this year is 30 percent lower than anticipated, but growth still could give Conococheague Elementary School a new lease on life. The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to modify its 2007-2012 Capital Improvement Program and approve a new feasibility study that could keep Conococheague open. The total cost for the program, which has not been presented for approval to the Washington County Commissioners, is almost $221 million.

After nearly 15 years, our love affair with one of the most successful sporty cars ever built gets a new lease on life. Under the Mazdaspeed brand (the company's racing division), the Miata has evolved from a relatively low-key, top-down, two-seat funmobile into a formidable driving machine that delivers more smiles per gallon of gas. With the same basic principles that made the '03 Mazdaspeed Protge such a fun ride, it's now the Miata's turn to receive a little aftermarket magic: more power; better handling; and a more aggressive look.

By LAURA ERNDE / Staff Writer photo: JOE CROCETTA / staff photographer A Rottweiler named Brutus has a new lease on life thanks to a good Samaritan. Brutus was hit by a car last Monday after he got loose while his owners, Ricardo Solomon and Melody Gibson-Solomon of Mulberry Street, were out of town over the Christmas holiday. His leg was broken in three places and required an $800 operation, which the young couple couldn't afford. After agonizing for a day, they called Cumberland Valley Veterinary Clinic to reluctantly request the dog, who is not quite 2 years old, be put to sleep.

By ANDREA BROWN-HURLEY / taff Writer photo: KEVIN G. GILBERT / staff photographer WILLIAMSPORT - Supporters of the now demolished Hagerstown Roundhouse say they may move the railroad museum out of Hagerstown because they need more room to display artifacts. "We'll pursue a new site with as equal a vigor as the 10 years we spent trying to save the Roundhouse," said Robert Tracey, president of the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum. Museum officials met with the Williamsport mayor and Town Council on Monday to discuss the possibility of relocating in the Williamsport area.

View all of the photos for purchase! HAGERSTOWN -- If you had told Charles Rickard's parents 12 years ago that their son one day would walk across the stage to receive his college degree, they wouldn't have believed it. That's what Rickard, 30, of Waynesboro, Pa., said Saturday morning during his Kaplan University commencement address to a crowd of around 1,200 at the North Hagerstown High School auditorium. In the moments to follow, he was awarded his associate of applied science degree in computer forensics with high honors.

Tina Schaubroeck of Greencastle walked around the track at Kaley Field with a renewed pep in her step during the American Cancer Society's 19th Annual Greencastle Relay for Life on Saturday. “I just found out this past March that I am free of breast cancer,” said the 41-year-old teacher at Mowrey Elementary School in Waynesboro, Pa. After being diagnosed in December 2011 and losing most of 2012 to cancer treatments, Schaubroeck is determined to make every second of her life count.

It might be missing many of the elements that made the original Charger a Charger, but the 2006 version - the 40th anniversary of the name - is the closest yet Dodge has come to reliving that past glory. Joining the Chrysler 300 sedan and Magnum wagon, the Charger is intended to evoke the age of the muscle car (the late 1960s), when sporty two-door hardtops powered by gut-pounding big-cubic-inch V-8s made just about everyone else on the road run for cover. That once-proud Dodge model has taken a real pounding since those heady days.

tammyb@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Holly Place and Holly Place North got a new lease on life Monday with the announcement that the state will provide up to $150,000 to keep the facilities open while administrators look for a more permanent solution to their funding woes. Members of the Washington County Delegation to the Maryland General Assembly made the announcement at a midmorning news conference. The money will come from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Council approves equipment expenditures A street sweeper, treatment chemicals and a backhoe loader were part of a group of items for which expenditures were approved by the Hagerstown City Council on Tuesday. The council unanimously approved the group of expenses in what is known as a "consent agenda. " They included: · $184,361 to Atlantic Machinery of Silver Spring, Md., for a street sweeper to replace a current sweeper · $734,418 through a joint agreement with Washington County for water and wastewater treatment chemicals · $74,199 to Standard Equipment Co. of Frederick, Md., for a John Deere backhoe loader, replacing an excavator in the Water and Sewer Department · $18,240, through a state bid price, to Criswell Chevrolet in Gaithersburg, Md., for a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck with towing and snowplow packages.