Raw Sewage

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- The Warm Springs Public Service District's insurance company will pay for a Vernon Street family whose home was damaged by sewage to be housed at the Best Western through Jan. 16, homeowner Deborah Harris said. The family was helped initially by the American Red Cross. When the sewer department responded to a call Tuesday from Harris that raw sewage was gushing outside a blocked sewage pipe, department workers used 200 pounds of pressure to unclog it - a force that "flooded the home with sewage," Harris said.

charlestown@herald-mail.com SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - The crowd roared with laughter Wednesday as Bob Starry recalled his favorite childhood memories of Shepherdstown. His tales covered a mix of memories, from the awesome basketball he and his friends used to play to the days before indoor plumbing. There were the times when people used to wash their cars in Town Run, when local fairs included strange attractions like the "ugliest man" contest and when kids sold corncobs to local residents to be used for kindling in wood cookstoves, said Starry and two friends who grew up with him in town.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Despite pleas to help the homeless, veterans and a Boys & Girls Club in Martinsburg, a $495,000 HUD grant will be used instead to repair a sewer system and replace a bridge, officials with the program announced Monday evening. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant, part of the federal Community Development Block Grant program, tentatively has been offered to the city for the next five years, said Pat McMillan, local director of the program.

George Carlin strolled onto the stage at the Maryland Theatre Saturday night and greeted the crowd with a profane-laden hello. It was the langauge many die-hard Carlin fans were waiting for, and it didn't take long. "Just wanted to make you feel at home," quipped the 61-year-old comedian. Then in classic Carlin style, he began making a mockery of U.S. customs that he says make no sense at all, like airport security and germ-killing hand lotion. Despite all the efforts to find explosives, airport officials "haven't found one bomb in one bag. There are no bombs," said Carlin.

A company seeking a zoning change in Williamsport has been leasing two buildings from Washington County for nearly seven years. The lease agreement, which took effect Jan. 1, 2006, covers the county's Conococheague Industrial Pretreatment Facility at 16232 Elliott Parkway, outside Williamsport, and Nicodemus Treatment Facility at 15801 Lockwood Road in Williamsport. Under the agreement, Spirit Services pays the county $345,600 a year to use the pretreatment facility. The company has an option to buy the pretreatment property between the 21st and 22nd anniversaries of the start of the lease.

Washington County health officials have warned users of Hamilton Run against fishing and any recreational activity on the stream as a result of a Sunday sewage spill. The spill of 25,000 gallons of raw, untreated sewage appears to be the result of vandalism, Hagerstown Water and Sewer Department Manager David Shindle said Monday. Shindle said it appears the spill lasted about 45 minutes, and likely will cost the city $750 in fines. The spill occurred on a construction site where a contractor for the city is working to replace a sewage pipe, Shindle said.

Heavy fare was the norm in the Civil War era By TERI JOHNSON Staff Writer Today's low-fat menus couldn't hold a candle to the heavy fare that local residents of the early 1860s preferred. Foods of the period were laden in lard, said Carol Anderson, a historical cook who lives in Harrisburg, Pa. "We've always liked fat, and we always will," Anderson said. Lard was used liberally to prepare dishes all over the country, said Kevin Rawlings, a Sharpsburg resident who does living history.

For most people, buying a home is probably the most expensive - and the most important - purchase they'll ever make. And yet in this state, no license is needed to go into the home-building business. Local homebuilders think that's crazy, considering the fact that if you want to do something as simple as putting new stairs on an existing home's back porch, you need a license from the Maryland Home Improvement Commission. And so, last year, the Washington County Homebuilders Association worked with the County Commissioners and the Maryland General Assembly to pass a law that would enable local jurisdictions to pass builder licensing programs.

Officials at Beaver Mechanical Contractors aren't burying their heads in the sand about potential computer problems starting Jan. 1, 2000. The Hagerstown company is replacing its customized computer system with a system equipped for the new millennium, said Vice President Tim Bryan. The company wants to start testing its new computer system for date-related glitches by the end of this year, according to Bryan, who said it also might invest in new security and telephone systems.

Sewer, road improvements set for Greencastle By RICHARD F. BELISLE Staff Writer, Waynesboro GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Greencastle-Antrim School District Superintendent Duff Rearick, facing student population growth of 4 percent to 5 percent a year, is keeping a wary eye on school building space in his four schools. Perhaps Rearick should talk to Teresa Schnoor, the Antrim Township administrator who's in charge of the township's sewer system. A project that will take most of Schnoor's attention in 1998 is the $3 million upgrade to the township's sewage treatment plant on Worleytown Road.