July 18 – Hagerstown Mayor and Council will hold a work session this afternoon at 4 p.m. in Council Chambers at 1 E. Franklin Street.
One item up for discussion will be the 911 Memorandum of Understanding.
Wes Decker, Communications Officer for the City of Hagerstown, explained, “The city and the county have finally come to an agreement on this. It looks like that 911 payment the city has been making to the county for a number of years now will finally come to an end. I believe it’s in 2026. It will be phased out over the next several years. What was really struck up in that deal I can tell you is that the county will be taking the money that the city would have been giving to the county for the 911 services and the county will be putting that towards the Hagerstown Fieldhouse project. So that’s how that work. The city will then make lesser payments over the next three years and then it will be phased out completely come 2027, something that the city has wanted for a number of years because we provide our own fire service here in the city. All of those individuals that had worked for the city and went to the county when that 911 payment was originally put in place are no longer working for the county. So they’ve all moved on at this point. So I think both sides will be very happy with this agreement. It will be brought out into the public light this afternoon and everyone will know some of the specifics behind that agreement.”
The downtown gift card program will also be discussed.
Decker said, “You can get a gift card just like you would for any of the big stores out there with smaller entities who are online, but we’ll get a group of downtown businesses that will be part of what is called the Yiftee Downtown Gift Card Program through our Main Street.”
It’s part of the National Main Street Program, but would be tailored a little bit to Hagerstown.
Decker said, “It’s kind of a neat thing because it would really be tailored specifically to downtown businesses, and that would help we hope get more feet on the street, get people looking at some of those businesses downtown as some of their first choices when it comes to shopping, going to restaurants, things of that nature.”
The 50th anniversary of Hip Hop Celebration could be coming to Hagerstown, too – more about that at the work session.
To watch the meeting, residents can attend in person or log onto the city’s YouTube channel or Facebook page.
For this afternoon’s agenda, click here: https://hagerstown.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/MeetingView.aspx?MeetingID=1203&MinutesMeetingID=-1&doctype=Agenda
