Û¢ Û¢Û¢ Hagerstown After Fairchild: Down But Not Out  
Hagerstown, already buffeted by the winds of economic recession, got more bad news last week when Fairchild Industries announced plans to close its main aircraft plant there by the end of the year, throwing 1,000 employes out of work.</br></br>But Hagerstown officials say that while their little Western Maryland town may be ill, it is not dying. As the adjacent map and legend below shows, Û¢ Hagerstown is surrounded by dozens of viable industries in a tri-state area that feed its economy and provide work for its citizens. And Hagerstown officials are betting their community is likely to live as long and maybe as well as some of its healthier brethren.</br></br>HAGERSTOWN, MdÛÓHold the flowers. Cancel the wreaths. This little town in Western Maryland is rather ill, but it is not dying. And community officials are betting their town is likely to live as long and maybe as' well as some of its healthier brethren.</br></br>In view of some of the current statistics, that might seem a foolhardy prognosis. About 14 percent of the labor force here is unemployed, out of a population of 34,132 people. In Washington County, of which Hagerstown is the county seat, the unemployment rate is 12.3 percent. (The latest figures available show the national unemployment rate was 9 \h percent in July and August, while the metropolitan Washington areaÛªs rate, which is not seasonally adjusted, was 5 percent in July.)</br></br>And then there was last weekÛªs bad news. Fairchild Republic Co., a division of Fair-child Industries, announced plans to close its main aircraft plant here by the end of the year. Some 500 workers will keep jobs in two smaller, local Fairchild operations. But another 1,000 workers will join the ranks of the unemployed.	~