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Before learning Wednesday afternoon that the man who has verbally pledged $15 million toward the construction of a downtown multiuse events center is a resident of Pennsylvania, The Herald-Mail contacted a number of people with possible connections to the project to see if they knew the identity of the mystery man.
Nobody did.
But a lot of people denied they were the potential donors.
One of those who denied making the pledge was Vincent Groh, a Hagerstown property owner who donated the building that now houses Barbara Ingram School for the Arts.
“No, I don’t have that kind of money,” he said.
As for the project, Groh said, “I think it’s a stupid idea.”
The donor also is not Suns owner Bruce Quinn, West Virginia Powerball winner Randy Smith or Russ Potts, founder of a sports marketing company in the Winchester, Va., area, the men said.
“It wasn’t me,” said Smith, a former Berkeley County, W.Va., sheriff who won a $79 million Powerball jackpot in 2010.
Smith said he’s donated $8 million to $9 million of his winnings to the Berkeley County Community.
Asked if he was the donor, Potts laughed and said he wasn’t.
Potts is a former Virginia state senator who served as sports marketing director for the University of Maryland; founded his own sports marketing company — Russ Potts Productions in Winchester, Va.; and is executive director of the Winchester Education Foundation, according to the foundation’s website.
“In the first place, I couldn’t write a check for that. And if I did have it, I would write it for here, which is my hometown. But I’m happy for Hagerstown and I’m happy for that wonderful community. I think it’s terrific,” Potts said.
Hagerstown Suns co-owners Quinn and Tony Dahbura also were asked if they were the anonymous donor.
“I looked in my right sock and, unfortunately, I had 20 and couldn’t make change for 15,” Dahbura joked about the pledge.
Dahbura, a minority owner of the Suns who lives in Hagerstown and co-owns Hub Labels, said he was definitely not the potential donor.
As did Quinn.
“Ha. Am I? No. Not that I know of,” said Quinn, majority owner of the Suns.
Local businessman and developer Don Bowman said he is not the prospective donor.
“Not guilty,” Bowman said.
Somebody posted a comment under The Herald-Mail’s online story about the pledge, stating that the donor was Taylor Davis.
