Sears

The Sears store in Martinsburg Mall will close by mid-August, a company spokeswoman said Thursday. "It's being closed for business reasons," said Kimberly Freely, a spokeswoman for Sears Holdings. "As a normal course of business, we continually evaluate our store portfolio and make those decisions accordingly. " Freely said the closing was an isolated decision and will not affect other Sears or Kmart stores in the area. Sears and Kmart merged in 2005. The Martinsburg Mall Sears has 57 employees, Freely said.

Martinsburg Mall is in negotiations with a prospect interested in the former Sears location, and Robert Gardner, the mall's general manager, said the possibility of signing a deal to fill the anchor space appears promising. Deals to replace Sears and develop an outparcel of the 79-acre property at 800 Foxcroft Ave. for a fine-dining establishment could be announced in the near future, Gardner said. "I would love to mention the name of (the restaurant)," Gardner said. "It will be a fine-dining establishment, something the Martinsburg market doesn't have.

More than 100 Kmart and Sears department store branches are expected to close nationwide, their parent company announced Tuesday, without specifying which branches would close or when. Both store chains have local branches in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Sears Holdings Corp., which owns Sears and Kmart, announced the closings as part of a quarterly business report. Year-to-date sales are down 1.8 percent for Kmart and 3.3 percent for Sears Domestic, according to a company news release about the report.

Sears to add 50 employees when move to mall completed HALFWAY - Sears will expand its work force by 50 positions as it prepares to open in the Valley Mall in March, a Sears spokeswoman said Thursday. Sears is taking over the mall anchor store that was home to Montgomery Ward until it closed last March. The department store will move from 80,542 square feet at the Long Meadow Shopping Center to 122,711 square feet at the mall, Sears spokeswoman Melissa Winchester said.

More than 250 people descended on the Washington County One Stop Job Center in Hagerstown Thursday to fill out applications and drop off resumes, trying to match their skills to the needs of prospective employers. "The turnout has been incredible so far .... We saw 56 people in the first hour," said Becky Dice of Aerotek. Many of those people also had the skills the staffing firm was looking for in warehousing, commercial services and professional services, Dice said. Machine and forklift operators and call-center representatives were among the positions Aerotek was looking to fill, she said.

Cindy's Sweets & DeLite-ful Treats, a dessert shop at Valley Mall in Halfway, reopened with a store inside the mall last week after being housed in the food court since July. The shop moved out of its location at the front of the mall facing Halfway Boulevard to make room for Cafe Rio Mexican Grill, according to Valley Mall marketing director Michele Wills. Cafe Rio plans to open in October, and sports bar Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery will follow by the end of the year, Wills said.

Malik Powell is tightly guarded by his sister, Dominique Sears, in a pickup basketball game at Wheaton Park in Hagerstown on Tuesday.

An EPA agent is decontaminated Tuesday during the second day of a bioterrorism drill outside the former Sears building at Long Meadow Shopping Center in Hagerstown. Story, A3.

The following students have been named Students of the Month for October at Salem Avenue Elementary School: Avery Kops, Bryce Prandi, Gerald Jones, Kyla Sears, Nevaeh Napier, Mario Jennings, Alex Saunders, Alyssa Stickley, Seth Hollar, Cameron Emory, Jaron Pearson, Dena Solieman, Carrie Yeager, Keylin Colindres, Cianna Ortiz, Hannah Blanks, Jessica Bittinger, Ehmahni Parson, Hunter Sears, Amber Slick, Adia Fletcher, Tara Nalley, Zach Prather, Alexis...

julieg@herald-mail.com WASHINGTON COUNTY - Boscov's Department Store officials want to open a store in the Hagerstown area within the next few years, Boscov's senior vice president of real estate and development said Thursday. Company officials are looking at two sites in the Hagerstown area, but John Hlis would not say where they are. Depending on the developers, a store could open in early 2006 or 2007, Hlis said. "We think Boscov's would do well in that marketplace and we would offer customers a great-looking store," Hlis said.