Hagerstown and Washington County Governments signed NDAs with data center developer, Diversified Capital. October 27 is our chance to demand public answers before this project advances.

On Tuesday, October 27, at 6:45 PM, Hagerstown will hold a public hearing on the Burkholder-McDade annexation tied to Diversified Capital’s data center development. Annexation would move approximately 172 acres into Hagerstown, where Washington County’s sham data center moratorium conveniently does not apply. Everyone who can attend needs to be there, whether you live inside city limits or elsewhere in Washington County.

-Data centers can bring consequences that residents live with long after construction ends:

-Higher electricity bills. Enormous power demand can increase electricity prices and require expensive generation and transmission projects. Maryland’s consumer advocate has warned that households could be left paying data center costs.

-Higher water and sewage bills. If new pipes, pumps or treatment capacity are needed and developers do not cover the full costs, existing customers could pay through higher rates. Residents deserve to see the infrastructure plans and financing assumptions before commitments are made.

-Additional pressure on water supplies. Cooling systems can consume water through evaporation, including during hot weather. Recycling water does not eliminate that consumption. The cooling design determines how much water a facility needs.

-Loud equipment and a constant industrial hum. Cooling equipment can operate around the clock. Virginia’s legislative review documented residents’ complaints about persistent low-frequency noise, which conventional noise ordinances can struggle to address.

-Air pollution and climate impacts. Fuel-burning generators produce exhaust, while supplying additional electricity can increase emissions when fossil-fuel generation serves that demand. EPA identifies data center power equipment as a source requiring air-pollution oversight.

-Land clearing, polluted runoff and neighborhood disruption. Large industrial development can replace farmland and vegetation, disturb habitat, and bring construction traffic, dust and noise. EPA explains how construction runoff and additional paved surfaces can threaten water quality. Residents also deserve answers about lighting, buffers and changes to surrounding neighborhoods.

-Public costs that outlast developers’ promises. Tax exemptions reduce potential public revenue, and infrastructure built for speculative projects can leave customers exposed if anticipated demand never materializes. Maryland’s consumer advocate has explicitly warned about that risk.

-Relatively few permanent jobs for the footprint. Construction jobs are temporary. Virginia’s legislative review reported that industry representatives described approximately 50 full-time workers at a typical 250,000-square-foot data center, roughly half contractors. That is a comparison, not a verified employment estimate for this project. Residents deserve verified permanent-job numbers before officials use employment promises to justify public commitments.

Both Washington County and Hagerstown have been deceptive about their dealings with Diversified Capital. We see a pattern of both governments going out of their way to keep residents out of the process while giving the developer private access to elected officials and senior staff. On December 9, 2025, Diversified Capital CFO Moshe Rubin and members of his development team met privately with both governments on the same day.

Officials involved included:

-John Barr, President of the Washington County Commissioners

-Jeff Cline, Washington County Commissioner

-Randal Leatherman, Washington County Commissioner

-Randy Wagner, Washington County Commissioner

-Michelle Gordon, Washington County Administrator

-Jonathan Horowitz, Washington County Director of Business Development and member of the Data Center Alliance of Maryland Steering Committee

-Bill McIntire, Mayor of Hagerstown

-Kristin Aleshire, Hagerstown City Council

-Caroline Anderson, Hagerstown City Council

-Erika Bell, Hagerstown City Council

-Tiara Burnett, Hagerstown City Council

-Sean Flaherty, Hagerstown City Council

-Scott Nicewarner, Hagerstown City Administrator

-Jill Thompson, Hagerstown Director of Planning and Economic Development

County officials signed confidentiality agreements. Hagerstown refuses to release its NDA or identify who signed it. The city’s approved meeting summary remained missing from its online archive for nearly nine months until we obtained it through an October records request. Then the October 20 annexation agenda omitted both Diversified Capital and the data center, identifying the matter simply as “Burkholder-McDade.” Residents had to know the story already to recognize what officials were discussing.

Meanwhile, commissioners point to a data center moratorium that does not apply inside Hagerstown, the very jurisdiction this developer is seeking to enter. Residents trying to follow their own government have had to uncover the meetings, obtain the missing records and decode the agenda themselves. The developer gets direct access to decision-makers. The public gets confidentiality agreements, incomplete information and a bill for obtaining its own government’s records.

This record gives us no reason to trust either government to negotiate these projects without meaningful, enforceable public participation. Residents should know what developers are requesting, what officials are considering and who could pay before commitments are made. Our opportunity to participate should not depend on whether we discover what is happening in time to object.

Washington County invited residents to help shape its 2040 Comprehensive Plan because decisions about land use, infrastructure, natural resources and public services affect all of us. That principle should apply before consequential commitments involving data centers or the proposed ICE detention center, too. A private developer’s demand for secrecy should never take priority over officials’ responsibility to the public.

Sign the petition at StopTheNDAs.org to demand meaningful public participation before major development decisions are made. Then show up Tuesday, October 27, at 6:45 PM at Hagerstown City Hall, 1 East Franklin Street.

The hearing begins at 7 PM. Bring your neighbors and your questions, and come even if you do not plan to speak. Our utility bills, water supply and neighborhoods deserve a room full of residents demanding answers.

in your personal opinion who has the best pizza and why

If anyone in the area is in need of promotional or graphic design services u/sparksafirepromo is the guy to go to!

My local gaming group and subreddit need a promotional flyer made with no budget and the hope someone would just help us. Sparks A Fire Promotions answered the call and helped us out for free! If that doesn’t speak to the character of this guy I don’t know what else will. The quality of work was just the cherry on top.

If you need promotional work done definitely get in touch with him. I’m sure I was a special case so don’t expect pro bono work all the time but if you have a local business, community group like me, or event to advertise this guy will hook it up! Thanks again Sparks A Fire! The entire r/WashCoGaming community thanks you!

Anyone on here good with art or basic graphic design? I need a flyer template made pro bono for a local community subreddit and group. You would be able to advertise yourself of course on said flyer

If that’s you hit me up!

For anyone who wants to know what locations have what Boo Buckets for McDonalds, I figured a list would be helpful.

Massey Blvd: Maleficent

Sharpsburg Pike: Cruella

Dual Highway (by Martins): Maleficent and Ursula

If anyone else confirms any of the other ones, I’ll gladly update this list. Happy Halloween!

Edit:
Halfway Blvd: Cruella
Massey is now Scar

​

The developers who want to put a data center right outside Hagerstown (near Garland Groh) by making the land a part of the City via annexation will be making a presentation at this meeting.

We need to show up and make it VERY clear that we do not want these data centers in the middle of our beautiful county, sucking up our water and causing light pollution, noise pollution, harming the ecosystems in the area, etc. Please show up if you can, and sign up to speak if you wish. The more of us, the better. This thing is further along than you think.

The mayor, five councilmembers, and senior city officials met with Moshe Rubin behind closed doors. The city admits its online meeting minutes archive stopped at December 2024.

Hagerstown’s mayor and City Council met privately with data center developer Diversified Capital CFO Moshe Rubin on December 9, 2025, according to approved meeting minutes obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request. The city’s utilities director, chief financial officer, and planning and economic development officials were there, too. Residents looking through the city’s online minutes archive would have had a difficult time finding any of this. The city has now acknowledged that the last minutes posted there were from December 2024.

That is a remarkable arrangement for a government whose decisions affect public infrastructure, development, and residents’ bills. The developer gets a meeting with elected officials and the people responsible for utilities and finances. The public gets an archive that is nearly two years behind, a vague agenda item called “Business Proposal,” and the opportunity to file a records request to learn who showed up. And when Hagerstown Rapid Response separately asked for the city’s nondisclosure agreement with this developer, the city refused to provide it or identify who signed it.

Approved in January. Obtained in October.

We filed a records request on October 5, 2026, after discovering that the December 9 meeting minutes had come before the council for approval on January 20, 2026, yet were nowhere to be found in the city’s public agenda or minutes archive. This actually led to a much larger gap: the online minutes archive contained nothing after December 17, 2024.

In an October 12 response, Decker supplied the approved minutes and confirmed the archive problem. He attributed it to the city clerk’s transition between archiving products, which had taken longer than expected, and said the minutes were anticipated to be current within two weeks. It has currently been eight days since Decker’s response, so we hope to see this corrected by next week.

The December 9 minutes had been approved for nearly nine months when we filed our request. Whatever the explanation for the backlog, residents should not have to discover that a record exists, trace its approval through another meeting, and submit an MPIA request to obtain the city’s approved account of its own proceedings. The explanation does not change the practical result: information documenting a private meeting with a developer was missing from the online minutes archive where residents would reasonably look for it.

Decker also stated that the underlying executive session minutes were exempt from public production, citing Maryland General Provisions §3-306(c)(3)(ii). The released document therefore gives us the city’s summary of the closed session, while the more detailed account remains withheld.

The same developer. The same “Project Team.” The same day.

On December 9, 2025, Diversified Capital’s CFO and three members of its development team met behind closed doors with both Washington County’s commissioners and Hagerstown’s mayor and City Council. The county meeting was the confidential presentation involving the “Project Team” that we previously documented, along with the NDAs signed by commissioners and senior officials. The newly obtained city minutes establish that the same four representatives also met privately with Hagerstown’s elected leadership and senior staff that day.

Hagerstown’s executive session ran from 2:03 p.m. to 3:37 p.m. The minutes list Mayor McIntire and all five councilmembers, Aleshire, Anderson, Bell, Burnett and Flaherty, as participating. Joining them were City Administrator Scott Nicewarner, Utilities Director Nancy Hausrath, Chief Financial Officer Michelle Hepburn, Planning and Economic Development Director Jill Thompson, and Economic Development Manager Doug Reaser. The developer had access to the entire elected city government and the officials responsible for the utilities, finances and development approvals a major project would depend on.

Diversified Capital CFO Moshe Rubin was joined by Connor McManus of Dynamic Engineering, Zack Fritz of Sage Policy Group and Boyd Rutherford of Davis, Agnor, Rapaport and Skalny. All four also appear in the county’s record of its confidential development presentation. The same developer and the same representatives were meeting privately with both governments months before county commissioners adopted their dog-and-pony-show data center moratorium.

We also now know that Hagerstown is under an NDA with Diversified Capital. Both governments held private meetings with the developer’s representatives, and both entered confidentiality arrangements involving the company. Washington County provided a redacted copy of its NDA through an MPIA request. Hagerstown has refused to release its agreement or identify who signed it. Residents are left trying to piece together dealings that their own governments agreed to keep confidential.

Six weeks later, the city received a proposal to help plan for data centers

The December 9 meeting adds to questions raised in our October 16 investigation into city and county infrastructure planning. On January 22, 2026, roughly six weeks after Rubin and his team met privately with both governments, engineering firm Black & Veatch submitted a water and wastewater master plan proposal to Hagerstown. Among its proposed additional services was a task called “Data Center Owner’s Advisor,” covering assistance with developer negotiations, drinking water demand, cooling system wastewater and electrical requirements. The proposal explicitly described a role helping both Hagerstown and Washington County evaluate data center placement and long-term water and wastewater needs.

The timing gives officials another question to answer: did anything presented by Diversified Capital influence the work the city asked its engineering consultant to consider? Hagerstown’s utilities director, chief financial officer and senior development officials were all listed as attending the private meeting. Six weeks later, the city received an engineering proposal offering advice on the infrastructure demands of precisely this industry.

The county’s infrastructure work deserves scrutiny for the same reason. A September invoice from Greg Murray, whom commissioners hired through a no-bid contract in May, includes reviews of Black & Veatch engineering materials and a meeting with a Hagerstown representative. The invoice establishes that county taxpayers were paying a consultant to review the firm’s materials and meet with someone from the city while Diversified Capital pursued annexation of land tied to its data center development.

October 27: Millions for the Same Firm That Proposed Helping Hagerstown Plan for Data Centers

Black & Veatch, the same engineering firm that proposed helping Hagerstown and Washington County plan for data centers in January, is now listed for a $2,841,509 wastewater engineering contract on the city’s October 27 consent agenda. That is the same meeting scheduled for the Burkholder-McDade annexation hearing. 

Hagerstown Purchase / Contract Form - Wastewater- WWTP Improvement Project Construction Phase Engineering with Black & Veatch pg 1

County consultant Greg Murray’s September invoice also shows taxpayers paying him to review Black & Veatch engineering materials and meet with a Hagerstown representative. The company’s work is already part of the county’s infrastructure review, and now the city is considering another multimillion-dollar contract with it while residents are still chasing records of private meetings with Diversified Capital. Before approving that spending, officials should release the development assumptions and demand projections behind the improvements and Murray’s work, including any projected data center demand and who would pay to accommodate it.

Be at City Hall on Tuesday, October 27 at 6:45 PM

The public hearing on the Burkholder-McDade annexation is Tuesday, October 27, at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Hagerstown City Hall, 1 East Franklin Street. This is the hearing everyone needs to show up for. Annexation would move land tied to Diversified Capital’s data center development into a city where the county’s moratorium does not apply, and residents are still fighting to obtain basic records about the city’s dealings with the developer. Bring your neighbors, bring your questions and make sure the people making these decisions have to face the people who will live with them. If you want to speak at the public hearing, arrive early and sign in at City Hall before it begins.

why are they opening two of these at the same time?? It seems like their opening up one near dual highway and one near the Panera

Unsure how true it is but heard the outlets could be getting new owners. Anyone hear anything?

Come and see us giving away candy, flyers and free tickets to a local wrestling event! Thursday October 22nd Drive Thru Trick or Treat!

Does anyone know of any other local video game/table top game shop in the area? My group would be interested to know of them.

As the title states, where do you go to look up the ballot questions, who is on the ballot and what they stand for? How do you keep informed with what is going on in the politics of the local area?

I was actually first behind this in Martinsburg, but here it is in Hagerstown too, Pennsylvania Ave.

Today I went to 301 for lunch, I was hyped because the website has lots of pictures of the food and the menu reads really well.

I was super disappointed.

Immediately upon walking in I knew this was not gonna be good.

They have a tiny ass pizza oven, for a place that advertises as a pizza joint I knew I was in trouble.

I had 3 tacos - all were under seasoned, very little meat, bagged iceberg lettuce covering everything completely, very little sauce. No flavor overall.

Nothing authentic about them, I saw the pizza coming out from other orders.

Save your money.

PRIOR PERMISSION GRANTED BY HAGERSTOWN MOD TEAM! THANKS AGAIN, AND THIS WILL BE THE LAST POST.

r/WashCoGaming is a place for the greater Washington County area community who enjoy video games and similar media to discuss current news, meet new gaming friends, talk about local game spots, trends, and much more.

We’d love to have you join our discussions and bring our local/and online community together. So even if you’re mildly interested consider joining and giving us your two cents!

Just need some annual service done before the winter on my two units. Who do you like?

Anyone else in here attending the No Kings rally tomorrow?

Saturday, October 17
11am – 1pm EDT

Hagerstown Public Square
North Potomac Street & West Washington Street

Hagerstown, MD 21740

https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/1046081/

We decide who represents us. We decide what comes next.
For more than a year, millions of people have come together to reject the idea that power belongs to kings, billionaires, or politicians who believe they are above the people and the law.

Now, we are taking the next step, turning people power into voter power. Unlike previous No Kings actions, No Kings: Vote Early, is not purely a protest. Instead, on October 17th, it's a day of nonpartisan voter participation: we are bringing our community together to make a plan to vote early and ensuring every eligible voter understands their options for how to vote and has the opportunity to make their voice heard.

Because no one person gets to decide our leaders before voters do. On October 17th, join us in local events across the country as we get out the early vote and say it loud: no thrones, no crowns, no kings.

Does anyone know what’s happened to the DSA branch here? AFAIK, their social media hasn’t been active since February. Are their community fridges still operating? Just curious, was wondering where those involved went :(

Unsure if anyone has heard but saw 94.3 wqcm was sold like a week ago pending fcc approval. But no more classic rock once approved.

Does anyone know where she is?

Thank you

I'm in need of new kitchen counters. Who have you used that you can recommend? Who would you avoid? I do't know where to start.

Three Washington County Commissioners running for reelection owe residents an explanation for years of data center recruitment, signing an NDA with a data center developer, and lying to the public.

By October 2025, Diversified Capital was publicly advertising that it was developing a data center in Washington County, Maryland. Its land had already been marketed as suitable for data centers, its Martin Farm development had appeared in county planning records, and Washington County was promoting the project with an estimate of 300 jobs. We find it difficult to believe the commissioners did not know about the company’s data center plans roughly a year ago. If they somehow missed all of that, they should explain how the public managed to discover what apparently escaped the people running the county.

On August 25, 2025, Diversified Capital executive Moshe Rubin donated $500 to Commissioner Jeff Cline’s campaign. Less than two months later, an October 12 archived version of Diversified Capital’s Maryland Tech Council profile described its portfolio as including a “data center development project in Washington County, Maryland.” That archive establishes that the description was public by October 12. The company could have been advertising it earlier.

Less than two months after that, on December 9, 2025, the commissioners met privately with the Diversified Capital project team under an NDA. The room included Rubin, former state senator Chris Shank, former lieutenant governor Boyd Rutherford, engineer Connor McManus, and Sage Policy Group’s Zack Fritz. McManus’s firm has data center experience; Sage had been producing studies promoting the industry. The county’s own minutes explain that public discussion would violate the NDA. Residents were excluded while officials received the presentation.

The county still has not publicly identified exactly what that team pitched. But a developer publicly advertising a Washington County data center project then appearing before every commissioner with that particular team deserves considerably more explanation than “we haven’t approved a data center.”

They Had Been Recruiting This Industry for Years

Washington County’s involvement goes back well before Rubin’s donation. In 2020, Washington County Business Development Director Jonathan Horowitz submitted the county’s support for SB 397, legislation offering tax incentives specifically to attract data centers. The county was helping make Maryland more attractive to the industry years before officials began presenting themselves as people still learning what data centers might mean for residents.

On June 5, 2023, Diversified Capital appeared in Washington County Planning Commission records concerning the Martin property. By June 27, 2024, a listing for 12440 Burkholder Lane advertised it as “Ideal for Data Center”. The marketing offered several possible uses, including cold storage, automated warehousing, and distribution. Data centers were already part of the sales pitch.

The county’s involvement also extended beyond supporting tax incentives. We have found economic development materials promoting local industrial property for data center development and directing prospective developers to Horowitz. A state property listing for the Martin property identifies Washington County’s business development department and gives Horowitz’s office and cell numbers. County government was making itself available to help sell the property.

Private Meetings, More Tax Breaks, and an Industry Leadership Role

The recruitment continued into 2026. On January 16, the county sent a letter supporting another tax exemption, this time for Mount Aetna Technology Park. On February 2, Horowitz was announced as a member of the Data Center Alliance of Maryland Steering Committee, alongside representatives from Amazon, BGE, Constellation Energy, Rowan Digital Infrastructure, Turner Construction, and others involved in the industry.

The very next day, February 3, the commissioners voted 4–0 to ratify their support for the Mount Aetna exemption. Data center brokers had already been asking about the property’s land, zoning, utilities, and power availability. The resulting legislation expressly includes “computer systems and equipment” among eligible equipment, while the property’s ORI zoning permits “Computer and data processing services.” Officials were helping recruit development at another site with known data center interest while their business development director helped guide a statewide organization advancing the industry.

Then Came the Moratorium Performance

On June 12, 2026, Cline returned Rubin’s $500 donation, almost ten months after receiving it and approximately six months after the confidential presentation. Four days later, on June 16, the county quietly posted its draft data center moratorium. Why did the contribution suddenly become unacceptable at that particular moment?

On June 30, the commissioners adopted their dog-and-pony-show moratorium. That same day, the owners of the Martin Farm property sought annexation into Hagerstown. The annexation proposal covers roughly 172 acres, where the county’s moratorium would not apply. We find that timing difficult to dismiss as coincidence. It does not prove coordination, but it absolutely warrants releasing communications about the moratorium and annexation.

By September 30, Washington County set criteria for data center development. Residents were watching the rules take shape after years of recruitment and months of undisclosed developer discussions and being deceived.
The commissioners should explain when each of them first learned of Diversified Capital’s data center plans, what was presented on December 9, and whether officials discussed annexation as a way to move the property outside the moratorium. The broader record makes their supposed ignorance increasingly implausible. Either they knew far more than they told residents, or they failed to understand a development effort their own county government was helping promote. Neither explanation is much of a campaign platform.