Mistakes in applying the town building code are haunting the Hagerstown Town Council, according to discussion during an Oct. 14 special meeting. About a dozen residents of the Graceland Heights subdivision attended an Aug. 5 council meeting to ask why they had been without power for several days after a storm. Town officials said they […]
Author Archives: Bob Hansen
Bob Hansen is a reporter for the Western Wayne News.
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Nettle Creek collecting food for weekends
Nettle Creek schools are collecting food to send home with students on weekends. “We are going to ask the community to donate food items for weekend backpacks,” Superintendent Emily Schaeffer told the school board on Oct. 16. It’s intended to help children who are “food insecure,” meaning that they might not be getting three meals […]
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Neighbors complain about property
Hagerstown finds itself without a building commissioner for the third time in a year as pressure builds for the town to take action on unsafe properties. Several residents asked the Town Council on Oct. 7 for action on a house and yard that has become an eyesore over the past year. The building commissioner’s resignation […]
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Richmond store is all about 4 R’s
Earth Day reached out and touched Penny Ausmus more than 50 years ago. She is still trying to do what she can to get people to recycle, reuse and repurpose waste. Ausmus and a group of like-minded friends have opened the East Central Indiana RE Hub at 1700 N.W. Fifth St. in Richmond. To the […]
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Grant funding helps Western Wayne schools
More than $4 million has come into the Western Wayne school system during the three years of increased effort to seek out grant funding, according to a report shared with the school board on Sept. 11. Nearly three-fourths of that has been won on the strength of competitive grant applications submitted by the school corporation. […]
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Town enforces unsafe properties law
Hagerstown Town Council has authorized its building commissioner to send letters to four property owners giving them 15 days to fix violations of the town’s unsafe properties law or submit their plans for them. Building Commissioner Terry Ford has identified four properties that appear to be in violation of the town’s unsafe buildings law, according […]
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‘Flame Feastival’ includes auction, food, fun
Clay Township Volunteer Fire Department is having a “Flame Feastival,” including food, a large auction and attractions for kids from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, to help raise money for a new fire station in Greens Fork and for equipment. The fire department is raising money to help replace the fire station and outdated […]
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Response to bomb threat reassures officials
Two days after a threat of school violence, Northeastern Wayne officials said they were glad teachers, staff and students knew what to do. Northeastern schools responded by going into lockdown on Aug. 19 after the Richmond Police Department reported that a male voice on the phone threatened to go to a local school with a […]
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Republicans choose 3 town council members
Hagerstown Republicans chose two new Town Council members and reelected one. Seventy-nine participants in an Aug. 13 convention chose Allan Bullock, Chris Blaase and Dillon Pitcher to serve on the council. Bullock, the present council president, will start a second term as Blaase and Pitcher take office for the first time on Jan. 1, 2025. […]
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Hagerstown will enforce electric easements
Having experienced more power outages than usual in the past month and delays in restoring power, some residents are asking Hagerstown Town Council for help. More than a dozen residents, most from the Graceland Heights area, met with council on Aug. 5. Town officials put the blame for outages mostly on trees and limbs falling […]