Property Line

State Highway Administration officials agreed Monday to examine whether more shrubbery could be planted to separate a residential road from a new Hagerstown shopping center and a fence extended between the development and homes. cont. from front page People who live along Swann Road next to the Centre at Hagerstown expressed disappointment at what they said they regard as a failure by state officials and developers to shield their homes from noise and light from the shopping center, where some stores will open this month.

There are now plans to open two Wal-Mart Supercenters in Hagerstown. Plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter along Edgewood Drive between Twigg Cycles and Funkstown were submitted to the Hagerstown Planning Department on Monday. cont. from front page Another one of the massive supermarket/general stores is under construction at the Centre at Hagerstown shopping plaza along U.S. 40 next to Interstate 81. That store probably will open in mid-June, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Daphne Davis, said Tuesday.

By TERRY TALBERT Staff Writer The Environmental Protection Agency has put the 19-acre former Central Chemical Corp. plant site in Hagerstown on its Superfund list of the country's most hazardous waste sites. The EPA said agricultural pesticides and fertilizers were blended at the plant from the 1930s to the 1960s, although the corporation continued some operations at the plant until 1984. Hazardous waste material has been found in soil, ground and surface water, and in fish caught downstream from the site, the EPA said.

By JENNYLYNN BROWN Staff Writer CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Fire destroyed a large hay-filled barn and damaged a corn crib on Earl Road early Saturday morning, fire officials said. Chief Ed Smith of Independent Fire Company in Charles Town said the call came in at 1:39 a.m. "We arrived to find a large barn totally involved in a fire that had radiated across the property line and started burning a corn crib. We let the barn burn and saved the corn crib and other attached storage buildings," Smith said.

By TERRY TALBERT Staff Writer When the tires in Denzil Poling's Cearfoss yard caught fire on Tuesday, his neighbor's worst nightmares came true. Melvin W. Sours, whose yard backs up to Poling's property, stood in the wooded area behind his home as firefighters battled the stubborn blaze across the way. For Sours, the fire had literally hit close to home. He was angry. "I told the county this was going to happen," he said, shaking his head. "It scared me," said his wife, Rosa Sours, of her reaction when she saw the flames.

In my business, it's not a good idea to get angry. If you let your anger fuel your zeal when you're trying to get information, you tend not to get the whole story. Last April, I broke that rule, and wrote an angry column about the ongoing zoning dispute between a local company called Clean Rock Industries and its neighbors, Dr. and Mrs. Eric Smith. For those unfamiliar with the case, the short version goes like this: Five years ago, after being chased away from sites near Huyetts and Beaver Creek, Vincent Iuliano and Richard Jamison settled on an Oak Ridge Drive property near Funkstown, a site once used as a contractor's equipment storage yard.