Tri State Area

By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer A 285-pound male black bear was hit by a truck on eastbound Interstate 70 just east of Conococheague Creek early Tuesday, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The area, just west of Md. 63, is heavily wooded and sparsely populated, Natural Resources Police Officer Ray Harner said. Black bears generally avoid people, he said. Forest Game Project Manager Steve Bittner was called to the scene at 6:15 a.m. by Maryland State Police and a decision was made to euthanize the injured bear, a DNR release said.

Thunderstorms are expected to hit the area again today as a line of storms makes its way east on the heels of Tuesday's heavy rain, the National Weather Service said. Nearly an inch of rain fell Tuesday in the Hagerstown area, adding insult to Saturday's nearly 2 inches of injury that flooded rivers and creeks, according to information from Hagerstown Weather Watcher Greg Keefer's website i4weather.net. A line of storms, stretching from Illinois to Arkansas, working its way east, was expected to reach Franklin (Pa.)

Spooky stores, hot apple ciders and plenty of trick-or-treating. It's that time of year. Here are some of the Halloween highlights in our area. Trick-or-treating Thursday, Oct. 27 Greencastle, Pa., 6 to 8 p.m. Waynesboro, Pa., 6 to 8 p.m Monday, Oct. 31 Chambersburg, Pa., 6 to 8 p.m. Hagerstown, 6 to 8 p.m. Hancock, 6 to 8 p.m. Martinsburg, W.Va., 6 to 8 p.m....

Dates for area trick-or-treat listings. All take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25 • Halfway • Greencastle, Pa. • Waynesboro, Pa. Friday, Oct. 26 • Maugansville Saturday, Oct. 27 • Hancock Wednesday, Oct. 31 • Chambersburg, Pa. • Hagerstown • Martinsburg, W.Va. • Shepherdstown, W.Va. • Smithsburg • Williamsport

Weather forecasts call for high winds and heavy rain across the Tri-State area for most of today. Accuweather meteorologist Brian Edwards said rain is expected to fall steadily Saturday morning and pick up in the afternoon, dropping as much as 0.5 inches per hour over the course of several hours. "We could get some flooding," Edwards said. "I wouldn't rule out a couple of thunderstorms. " Edwards said winds might reach 45 mph, and the storm could drop up to 2 inches of rain before it tapers off Saturday evening.

The National Night Out is a community event designed to strengthen community spirit, and police and community partnership, and to help people learn how to prevent crime. Several areas in the Tri-State area are holding National Night Out events Tuesday, Aug. 3. o Hagerstown: 6 to 8 p.m. at Fairground Park, 351 N. Cleveland Ave. Activities include a safety area for children and an adult health screening area. There will be information tables, police demonstrations, a dunk tank, a Moon Bounce, face painting and other entertainment.

A freeze warning is in effect for the entire Tri-State area, effective from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. Tuesday, the National Weather Service reported Monday. Overnight temperatures are expected to drop below the freezing mark in Washington County, as well as Franklin and Fulton counties in Pennsylvania and Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties in West Virginia, the weather service said. The expected freeze ends a weeks-long period of unseasonably warm weather in the region. In Hagerstown, the mercury hasn't dropped below the freezing mark (32 degrees Fahrenheit)

A light snowstorm that is predicted to hit the Tri-State area overnight might make roads a little slick for drivers this Sunday. National Weather Service Meteorologist Carrie Suffern said Saturday afternoon that a storm might drop an inch of snow before sunrise Sunday. Erin Wolfe, Hagerstown communications manager, said the city Public Works Department was monitoring the storm. “If the weather should worsen, they'll send the (salt-truck) crews as appropriate,” she said.

Chelsea McClure was originally due to give birth Dec. 26, but still hoped, for the duration of her pregnancy, to have a New Year's baby. “I didn't think it would actually happen ... that was my goal,” the Shippensburg, Pa., mom said after enduring about 24 hours of labor at Chambersburg (Pa.) Hospital. Mission accomplished. Weighing in at 7 pounds, 15.3 ounces, Ciara Emma-Rose Bard was not only the first baby born in Franklin County, Pa., but McClure's second child was the first born in the Tri-State area, according to hospital officials.

It was a school of fisherman - not fish - that huddled in one area of Conococheague Creek at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., on Saturday. Those anglers, like all of the others standing in the water, were after one thing - the elusive tagged fish that come with prize money. Every year, thousands of fishermen from the Tri-State area come to Chambersburg for the annual Noontime Lions Trout Derby. This is the 16th year for the event, which offered nearly $50,000 in cash and prizes this year.

Editor's note: This is the first of three days of coverage regarding missing persons in the Tri-State area. The Herald-Mail reached out to law enforcement agencies to obtain information about individuals reported missing. They include Revell Jeeter of Harrisonville, Pa.; Arthur Murray of Williamsport; Mary Jean Olshefski-Beatty of Bunker Hill, W.Va.; and Melissa Moreland, who lived with her parents near Paw Paw, W.Va. Their stories will be told Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

About 13 minutes after Judy Emmert crossed the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street on Monday afternoon, she heard the two explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 170 others. As exhausted as the Hagerstown resident was after completing the 26.2-mile race, Emmert said she thought she better get off the street and started running toward where her group from the Cumberland Valley Athletic Club was congregated a few blocks away. “First, I heard what sounded like two cannons going off really loud, like Civil War cannons, one right after the other,” said Emmert, 51, a dentist with Eric Smith's practice.

The massive federal budget cuts commonly referred to as the sequester will be felt nationwide and will lead to furloughs at places such as Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pa., while the 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg, W.Va., is facing layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts. The sequester went into effect March 1. The Herald-Mail recently asked Tri-State-area lawmakers to answer five questions about the sequester and its impact. The questions and responses will appear in editions Sunday and Monday.

ExxonMobil's Educational Alliance Program awarded $1.8 million in grants this year to schools to help enhance math and science education across the United States.  This is the 13th consecutive year for the program. AC&T supported 13 schools throughout the Tri-State area with $6,500 from Educational Alliance funds. Schools could partner with Exxon and Mobil-branded service stations, the majority of which are independently owned and operated, to apply for the grants.  Checks were distributed to the following schools to be used to advance their math and science programs: Greenbrier Elementary, Lincolnshire Elementary, Emma K. Doub Elementary, Smithsburg Elementary, Boonsboro Elementary, Winter Street Elementary, Greencastle (Pa.)

Name of business: G&J Signature Cabinetry LLC Owner: Greg Janes Address: 68 Hinton Court, Suite 1, Martinsburg, W.Va. Opening date: April 2012 Products and services: A full line of wood kitchen and bath cabinetry, and all types of countertops, including granite. Target market: Tri-State area How did you get into your business, and what motivated you to start it? G&J Cabinetry is an expansion of my established business, Greg Janes Custom Homes and Renovations, LLC, that encompasses all aspects of renovations, including custom homes, kitchen and bath, additions, garages, replacement windows, plumbing and more.

Bethany Norris loves to sing. In fact, she loves it so much that she often sings “from the time she wakes up in the morning to the time she goes to bed,” according to her mother, Julie Norris of Keedysville. “She started singing, really, when she was 3 in our church choir and had her first solo when she was like 4 or 5,” Julie Norris said of her 11-year-old daughter. On Saturday afternoon at The Maryland Theatre, Bethany's love for singing scored her a cool $1,000 as the winner of the Search for the Stars final, an event hosted by Herald-Mail Media.

An early spring snowstorm that passed through the Tri-State area left up to 6.2 inches of heavy, wet snow in Washington County on Monday but caused few traffic problems, officials said. There were some power outages but those had been eliminated Monday night, according to FirstEnergy Corp. The National Weather Service listed some unofficial observations for snowfall totals in Washington County and deepest amount recorded was 6.2 inches in Maugansville. Rohrersville had 5.5 inches and Cavetown and Longmeadow had 4 inches, according to the NWS. Hagerstown weather observer Greg Keefer reported on his website at i4weather.net that 4.2 inches of snow fell in Hagerstown.

Shepherd to host literacy leaders conference SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Shepherd University's Department of Education and the Jefferson County Reading Association will host a half-day Literacy Leaders Conference for the Tri-State area on Saturday, April 20 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Shepherd's Erma Ora Byrd Hall auditorium and classrooms. The conference will include keynote speaker Clayton Burch, executive director of West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) Office of Early Learning, who will present the “The Common Core and You;” plus breakout sessions; a hands-on activity focused on vocabulary, comprehension, and writing; a poster session; and book donation through Kappa Delta Pi: Literacy Alive.

There are different models of economic development organizations in the Tri-State area and beyond, some operating as organs of county government, others as independent authorities or public-private partnerships and, in the case of Washington County, a hybrid of a government department with a board of directors largely from the private sector. Following is a look at several of them:   Washington County Agency: Hagerstown-Washington County Economic Development Commission Operational status: Government agency with a 12-member board of directors, mostly from the private sector.