Chair's Message

BJ Goetz, President

Middletown Valley Bank

It is a great honor to lead this organization that’s sole focus is to improve our community. Community business leaders have paved the way for many great things throughout the history of the Greater Hagerstown Committee. Today is no different. Through our visionary leadership, resources, and hard work we can continue to be the catalyst for many great things that will lead our community into the future. With continued collaboration with community stakeholders and elected officials, we will continue to drive Washington County forward and make great things happen!

Our forums and committees continue to work tirelessly to advance projects and create initiatives that better our quality of life. I encourage all our members to consider engaging with a committee of interest as your time allows.

The new stadium and event center under construction in our downtown core, as well as other projects like the work taking place on Jonathan Street, new market rate upper-floor housing, and the expansion of our beloved museum reflects the work going on in our Vision forum and Downtown Enhancement Committee driving business, investment, and home ownership for the future of our city’s core. Having vibrant and active urban centers will help us attract and retain the young creative class and the educated workforce needed to diversify our economy.

The new Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine, expansion of USMH, HCC and their new D.M. Bowman Family Workforce Training Center, and the work at WCPS to expand opportunities for their students to earn college credits will allow us to build a skilled labor force for the region. Our Education Forum is actively bringing the education leaders in our community together in an environment that promotes strong collaboration – paying great dividends to our students.

Thanks to the work of our Transportation Forum and a united community front, we will finally see Phase 2 of I-81 get widened. While that’s worthy of major celebration, it only gets us to the halfway point, so we must still work with the new administration and our federal partners to find funding to widen this critical economic corridor all the way to the Pennsylvania line.

These are just some of the significant things occurring in our community that GHC and its membership have been a part of. As a result, we are seeing significant public and private investment throughout the county and signs that we will be growing faster than we’ve had in the past. We are making Washington County a premier community to live, work, and play. As a result, we must also work to address the challenges this creates, like a limited workforce, housing affordability and availability, and building the infrastructure needed to keep up with our pace of growth. With these challenges and many others, GHC stands ready to lead, support, and drive this community forward so that we can continue to make our community a place to be proud of.

I am humbled by the trust that you have shown me. I am honored that I have this opportunity to lead this organization for the next four years and look forward to the great things that we are going to do together.

Sincerely,

BJ Goetz
Chair of GHC, 2023-2025