Transformer

Hancock building to be transformed into gallery By KIMBERLY YAKOWSKI kimy@herald-mail.com Photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer The vacant G.C. Murphy building, which in recent years has been home to vagrants and pigeons, will soon house a deli and the work of local artists. Town officials were finalizing the sale of the two-story building to Naomi Hargett of Warfordsburg, Pa., for $50,000. Hargett said she wants the building to help revitalize Hancock's downtown and to make it a place people get excited about visiting.

Williamsport park transformed for holidays By ANDREA BROWN-HURLEY / Staff Writer photo: JOE CROCETTA / staff photographer WILLIAMSPORT - The Grinch glows green in Byron Memorial Park. The holiday humbug with a heart two sizes too small is among dozens of Christmastime decorations on display at Williamsport's winter wonderland. Past the 60-foot community Christmas tree and on both sides of a winding park road lined with light post displays, decorations ranging from Nativity scenes to skating bears twinkle with tens of thousands of lights.

kevinc@herald-mail.com When clocks strike noon Saturday, the typically staid central branch of Washington County Free Library will shed its inhibitions to become a haven fit for 76 trombones. Out with vertical stacks of newly released books and videos. Out with the bank of computers and study tables. In with all manner of finery befitting a Gala in the Stacks: Cocktail tables, food, entertainment. It's a transformation worthy of flimflam man Harold Hill, titular character of "The Music Man," this year's Gala theme.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- Last Halloween, two Waynesboro businessmen purchased a building that resembled a giant pumpkin and since have carved out a restaurant space unlike others downtown. The formerly orange John Wallace building on West Main Street now features two outdoor seating areas that could comfortably seat 90 restaurant-goers, according to one of the building's owners. And the paint scheme has been muted with more natural hues. "I think we get the award for 'most improved' because it was the worst-looking building," said Paul Gunder, who joined Bob Zimmerman, a Waynesboro dentist, in the efforts.

Roads in Frederick are closed Wednesday morning due to several transformer fires, the Frederick Police Department said in a news release. The following roads will be closed until repairs can be made: Rosemont Avenue between Fairview and West Second Street, in east and westbound directions. Fairview is open north and southbound, according to the release. Culler Avenue at Rosemont Avenue. The intersection of Rosemont Avenue and West Second Street. According to Allegheny Power, repairs are expected to be completed by midmorning Wednesday, police said.

HAGERSTOWN -- Bob Coss remembers the treehouse he helped build in the mulberry tree in the woods behind a neighbor's house off Pangborn Boulevard. "It was pretty big. I think we had three rooms -- two levels right above each other and a third level kind of at a kilter -- made out of old pallets and deteriorating rubber mats we found at an old factory," recalled Coss, now 48. "It was fancy. " And, he said with a laugh, "it was pretty high up, much to my mother's displeasure.

HAGERSTOWN -- With palm trees, steel drums, sand and seashells, all that was missing were the trade winds. This could have been Jamaica, Barbados or any tropical island. It wasn't. It was Robinwood Medical Center. The Antietam Healthcare Foundation hosted its 14th annual Crystal Ball Saturday night with the theme "Sunset in the Caribbean. " About 325 people attended the black-tie event, with proceeds benefiting the new Washington County Regional Medical Center.

By RICHARD F. BELISLE Staff Writer CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A food pantry's effort to buy and renovate an old lamb slaughterhouse could be killed in favor of a new industrial park. The Rev. T.J. Cover - who founded Giving Others Dedicated Service, or G.O.D.S. Mission - seven years ago, hopes to buy the former Appalachian Lamb Co. at 8642 Molly Pitcher Highway North with grants, loans and donations. However, the property's owner said he already gave Cover a chance to buy the slaughterhouse and now wants to develop the property.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Mary Fedorka blocks out the traffic and train noise under the railroad overpass where she is painting two large murals by turning up the headphones on her portable CD player. "What I play depends on my mood and where I am in the project at the time," said Fedorka, 39, of Hagers- town. The huge sweep of sky above the early-20th-century train station she's painting requires classical selections such as Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," Fedorka said.

The walls are a cheerful light green. At eye level for a small child is a section, bordered by blue molding, with the words “believe,” “dream,” “smile,” “wish” and “imagine.” In a corner of the room is a carpet segment with a big, soft pillow on which to lean. It’s a good place to sit and read or peruse the books in the bookcase that helps create the space. “It’s beautiful. It’s heavenly,” Loretta Wright, director of Memorial Recreation Center, said Sunday at an open house for the renovated library room in the center on West North Avenue in Hagerstown.