ummm, ok. What is the point of this article?

People met privately to talk about redevelopment... and none of them commented. Either they were pi$$ed off when they left, or they are trying to act like Hagerstown is Los Alamos Lab.



Friday July 23, 2004
City, county, business leaders meet privately
by GREGORY T. SIMMONS
gregs@herald-mail.com

HAGERSTOWN - Officials from the City of Hagerstown and Washington County, local business representatives and Hagerstown Suns General Manager Kurt Landes met behind closed doors Thursday.

People who attended the two-hour meeting at the Four Points Sheraton had little to say about it afterward.

A reporter who showed up at the meeting was asked to leave.

Shortly after the meeting ended, Washington County Commissioners President Gregory I. Snook said, "We talked about redevelopment for downtown."

When asked what the meeting was about, Richard Phoebus Sr., president of Hagerstown Neighborhood Partnership Inc., replied, replied, "I'm not going to comment on it."

Hagerstown Neighborhood Partnership, commonly referred to as the community development corporation, is a nonprofit organization designed to spur redevelopment projects in Hagerstown.

Phoebus also is on a number of other local boards. When he was asked in what capacity he was attending the meeting Thursday, he said he was there as "a citizen."

Asked why he was meeting Thursday with Snook and Hagerstown Mayor William M. Breichner, among others, he replied, "we talk often."

Landes also was mum.

"I have no comment for you," Landes said.

Breichner said he had "no comment. You'll have to talk to someone else. ... I'm not going to comment."

County Commissioner James F. Kercheval said that those at the meeting were people who wanted to work with the community development corporation on a project.

He said he was invited to the meeting and was asked not to speak about the topic of the meeting. He would not say who asked him not to talk about the discussion.

Art Callaham, Greater Hagerstown Committee president, also was at the meeting, and also declined to talk about what was talked about.

Reached by phone, Callaham said he was "just an observer" and the meeting was "a private meeting" about "nothing that I can share publicly." He referred questions to City Planning Director Kathleen Maher, who was at the meeting.

Maher, reached at her office, said those who met "were in the early stages of discussion for a potential project" for Phoebus' group. "At this point, that's all I can say."

Maher referred other questions to Phoebus. A call to Phoebus' work phone was not returned.

Maybe it makes them feel powerful-- I've got a secret. Seems like a group statement could have been made that was a little more polite and with less attitude.

Answer:
I`ll talk to you when you can give me something in return for what you want. Local politics. (Can you say, hard headed people.)

What was the point of this article, you ask.

I can't tell you, you'll have to ask someone else.

They're probably gonna kill another old building, replace it with a business, that's not really a business, that's associated with a large international conglomerate that will tell you they know nothing.

Or,

the City of Hagerstown is gonna be sold on EBay to the highest bidder.

Seems to me that the point of the article is: they wouldn't let the reporter in and wouldn't tell him anything afterwards, but he's got an assignment to turn in or get in trouble, so he turns in this article, which is basically nothing said about nothing.

Nobody would talk to the poor reporter . . . so maybe this is revenge - making it look like some kind of suspicious activity.

hehe... It reminds of one of the HM articles that i have seen in the past... where a reporter travels around town to ask peoples opinion's on a certain subject, and then posts their reply/comment in the paper with the picture.

Actually, I think there's something interesting going on and I think the Herald is showing due diligence in reporting it, to the extent it did.

Let me explain with a hypothetical:

Suppose the Suns ownership decides that it wants to build a new downtown ballpark. The Suns wouldn't have to say publicly that they want to do that (even if they want to tap public money) until it's time to file the appropriate paperwork OR to ask political leaders for the money.

But, before reaching that stage, the Suns might want to communicate with various political and business leaders to see who might help with the project and who might throw up roadblocks. Moreover, they would want to apprise leaders of their plans out of courtesy.

So they would call a private, off-the-record meeting with the political and business leaders -- which the Suns could do because (1) they're a private entity, (2) no government votes would be taken at such a meeting, and (3) none of the local government bodies would have a quarum present. And the Suns could demand that the attendees keep mum on the proposal and contents of the meeting because, under Maryland privacy laws, public officials must keep confidential any real estate discussions until it comes time to either file paperwork or take some sort of government vote. Moreover, the political and business leaders might not want to make that information public before the Suns are ready to do so, because early publicity might screw up what might be a good idea or plan.

Now, suppose an industrious reporter catches wind of all this off the record. He can't get anyone to speak on the record about the meeting and its contents, so he can't print what he's heard. But he can still signal to his readers that something big apparently is going down by simply telling the story that there was a hush-hush meeting of muckity-mucks who refused to speak on the proposal, other than to say some big business opportunity might be in the offing. For him to report this -- even in a very nebulous form -- is beneficial because it beats telling the public nothing and it starts the historical public record of what might end up being an important project.

Now, this is all hypothetical -- but it does have some plausibility, eh?

I think Tom is dead-on. Better to report something than nothing. My only beef is the apparent rudeness exhibited by some of the attendees -- especially elected ones. Either they acted rudely or the reporter made it sound that way.

A downtown ballpark... where exactly would it fit?

On the hospital property!

What I think really happened was that the reporter was actually tipped off in advance by one of the attendees. When he showed up, everyone clammed up because they felt they didn't need to supply a comment. So now are intrepid reporter is mad, so prints the article in the way that you have read it.

As far as reading into the article is concerned, I think it has something to do with the Suns and a stadium. By keeping the businesses involved, the Suns are keeping up with potential partners in building the Stadium. I think the politcos that were there mean the Suns may be asking the city to assist in building the Stadium. It also signals the Suns intentions of keeping the Stadium within city limits.

Hey, maybe the Canadian BB team (I can't remember if it's Toronto or Montreal) isn't coming to DC or NoVA, but to Hagerstown! You could really get Peter whatever-his-name-is-owner-of-the-Birds stirred up if you told him they were coming to H-town! You wanna start a rumor?

Hey you might be right. Not just yesterday did I have a door-to-door solicitor knock and indicate that he was from the Baltimore Orioles. He mentioned that they had found Hagerstown as a target market for awareness of the team and that they were giving away box seats to O's games.

I did not get into detail with him concerning the offer; but I thought it was very interesting that there is significant rumor around the potential for a major league team coming to the area and these O's folks showing up at my doorstep.

I think this does mean the the Expos are moving to Hagerstown