Worker

Workers are one step closer to finishing construction of a $12 million, environmentally friendly office building at Fountainhead Plaza in Hagerstown. Earlier this month, construction workers started to raise the side panels of the Fountainhead One Professional Offices building, a 55,000-square-foot project that is taking the spot of a demolished Martin's supermarket at 13200 Pennsylvania Ave. Developer Asad Ghattas said the offices should be finished by Dec. 1. Once the panels were up, he said, “the steel people will come in and put the deck on the roof.” Ghattas said the Martin's supermarket moved because there wasn't enough space at Fountainhead Plaza to install gas pumps.

By the end of Wednesday night, production was expected to be over at the Unilever ice cream plant on Frederick Street and the 391 employees who will lose their jobs were dealing with the shutdown with “mixed emotions,” according to a plant worker who is also a United Steelworkers union official. “I'm glad it's over so I can move on with my life,” Teal Beard, who has had the prospect of the plant closure hanging over his head for three years, said Wednesday. Beard, who has worked 21 years at the plant doing stocking and forklift work in a freezer unit, said he did not have any plans beyond taking some time off and enjoying the rest of the summer.

As the Fourth of July celebration at Fairgrounds Park drew to a close Wednesday, the cleanup was just beginning. Workers from the Hagerstown Parks and Recreation Division were out Wednesday night and Thursday from morning to the afternoon, cleaning up the park after the popular event. “It's just another day on the job,” said Randy Lee, a city recreation worker. “Every day's a cleanup day for me; today there is just more trash than usual.” Lee, who was picking up the trash left at the park Thursday morning, said he didn't mind the work because he enjoys being outside.

Using their fingers or plastic forks, dozens of people invited to South Hagerstown High School on Wednesday tasted a variety of potential new menu items as the county school system moves toward offering students healthier foods that use fresher ingredients. Most of the items were new, such as a curried chicken wrap and Asian vegetable noodle lettuce wraps, and others were an attempt at a healthier version of existing dishes offered at schools, said Jeff Proulx, supervisor of Food and Nutrition Services for Washington County Public Schools.

A former employee of San Mar Children's Home in Boonsboro has filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, claiming she was discharged from her job because she is a lesbian, according to documents. Sarah Rutledge, 29, alleges her co-workers made disparaging remarks about her sexual orientation and marriage to a woman throughout her time at San Mar. Rutledge said she also was placed on probationary status on Sept.

Brian White was named City Hospital's Quality Service Award winner for March. Each month, the hospital's Service Award Committee selects an employee to receive the award. White, an employee in the cardiac rehab department and The Wellness Center, was nominated for providing excellent customer service. “Brian gives the most consistent customer service of anyone I know at WVUH-East,” said Pam Gesford, a colleague who nominated him for the award. “All of his patients love him, whether it's in cardiac rehab or The Wellness Center.

When Bruce Massey moved to the area 31 years ago, he found himself with time on his hands. By day, he settled into his full-time job with the State of Maryland's unemployment office. By night, Old South Mountain Inn in Boonsboro became his second home and the staff his family as he began working as a server. He now works at Washington County Department of Social Services as assistant director for administration, a job he's held for 12 years. Massey, who was the only child of an Eastern Shore poultry farmer, said he was used to working hard on the farm and wasn't one to sit around.

How long has it been since your doctor asked, “How do you feel?” For many American patients, this has become a seldom-asked question. Patients are more likely to be greeted with a statement of laboratory results. And if they are within normal limits, an assumption often is made that everything is fine. Doctors are less likely to touch their patients today, and many of them know less about their patients' daily lives. This does not mean physicians are cold or uncaring (they might be rushed because billing standards strictly limit their time with patients, and to make an adequate income they must keep on task)

A helicopter landed at the prisons south of Hagerstown to fly out a construction worker who injured several of his fingers Friday morning, state prison and Washington County Emergency Services officials said. Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said the accident happened at about 8:15 a.m. while the worker was setting a heavy piece of electrical equipment at a Maryland Correctional Training Center housing unit. Roxbury Road east of Sharpsburg Pike (Md. 65)

Former employees of Vishay Angstrohm Precision, also known as Ward Leonard, will meet Thursday for lunch at 1 p.m. at Always Ron's restaurant, 29 N. Burhans Blvd. in Hagerstown.  Guests will order from the menu. The community is invited.