Hagerstown

If you're seeking the boundary between Ravens country and Steelers territory, look no farther than the floor of a ballroom in Hagerstown. The dividing line that separates fans of the two NFL teams will run down the middle of the Grand Ballroom at the Hager Hall Conference and Event Center. The owners of the expansive complex have invited fan clubs of both teams to watch tomorrow's AFC Championship showdown, and they will split the room. Purple-and-black chairs on one side, yellow-and-black on the other.

Marianne Draper, a retired bookstore sales clerk and book collector, died of cancer Monday, on her 67th birthday, at Northwest Hospital Center. Marianne Stine was born and raised in Hagerstown. She was a 1959 graduate of South Hagerstown Senior High School and attended Hagerstown Junior College. The former longtime Ten Hills resident, who had lived in recent years on Cromarty Road in Baltimore County, had worked at Cokesbury Bookstore on Rolling Road from 1991 until 2005. "For the last three years, she worked as a caregiver for a stroke victim," said a son, Jared Draper of Odenton.

Volvo AB of Sweden said yesterday that it is cutting production and workers at its Mack Powertrain Division plant in Hagerstown to reduce costs because sales of its trucks and buses have dropped. The Hagerstown plant will reduce production of its transmissions by a third and of its engines by 25 percent, said Ilse Ghysens, a plant spokesman. The changes are effective Jan. 25. The cuts were first reported by the Herald-Mail in Hagerstown. "There is a lower demand due to the economic downturn, and we have to adjust," Ghysens said.

Gary Rohrer hoisted the cherrywood end table from the showroom floor and turned it upside down. "There it is," he said to his wife Marjorie, pointing to the green Statton Furniture label imprinted underneath. For 82 years that label has been synonymous with high-end, high-quality traditional furniture. But soon it may mean high-end collectors' items. Statton, the Hagerstown company that has been owned by the same family for four generations, is going out of business. A company once as solid as the cherrywood its workers crafted into ornate furnishings, Statton has struggled to make sizable profits for years.

Volvo AB of Sweden said yesterday that it would embark on a $50 million expansion and add 50 workers to its Mack Powertrain Division plant in Hagerstown as part of a sweeping restructuring across the company. But the truck maker also announced it would lay off up to three-quarters of its 120 workers at a parts facility in Baltimore as the company moves to streamline some operations. The changes in Maryland are a small piece of a plan outlined by Volvo, which acquired Mack in 2001, that executives said would make the truck company more cost-efficient.

Baltimore baseball fans have an internal clock that normally tells them to shut it down by this time of the summer and turn their rooting interest to the Ravens and the NFL. A decade of losing seasons at Camden Yards has had its effect, though the 2008 Orioles have done a better job of holding fans' attention. But there's certainly no postseason in the offing. However, before you pack away the diamond dreams for the season, you might want to check in on the Maryland representatives in the Little League World Series.

On Monday, June 30, 2008, ANNA ELIZABETH HENSHAW, 84, of 16505 Virginia Avenue, Williamsport, MD died at the Washington County Hospital. Born July 6, 1923 in Baltimore, MD, she was the daughter of the late Edward J. and Anna E. Meyer Bell. She was retired from Exxon Corporation in Baltimore, MD. She was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hagerstown. She is survived by two sisters, Catherine B. Shanklin of Woodstock, MD and Dorothy Kypta of Timonium, MD; was loved by nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews.

Marriotts Ridge will play for the Class 2A state baseball title today after South Hagerstown was forced to forfeit its victory Wednesday over the Mustangs in the semifinals. South Hagerstown's 14-10 win at Arundel was overturned because, it was ruled, the Washington County school violated the rule on pitching limitations, the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association announced yesterday. The No. 12 Mustangs (18-5) will meet Kent Island for the championship at 4:30 p.m. today at Ripken Stadium.

Baseball state semifinals Marriotts Ridge's run through the regional playoffs consisted of low-scoring affairs, but last night in the Class 2A state semifinal, the Mustangs ran into a South Hagerstown team that relied on its explosive offense to win. The Rebels sent every batter to the plate in the first two innings, but they walked nine batters and hit one through the first four and could not pull away. South Hagerstown's hitting eventually bailed out the pitching, and the Rebels won, 14-10.

Nine correctional officers at a medium-security prison in Hagerstown were fired yesterday amid allegations that they assaulted an inmate last month, according to a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The nine officers, who worked at the Roxbury Correctional Institution, plan to appeal the decision, according to the union representing correctional officers in the state of Maryland. "These mass firings are a reckless rush to judgment on the state's part," said Joe Lawrence, spokesman for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.