April 9, 2001
 
 Anyone read the wants ads yesterday? If you did, you saw an ad for the position of executive director for Destination Allegany, a position currently held by Jerry Hess.
 
 Mr. Hess’s role consists of running both the Visitors Bureau and the Scenic Railroad, so maybe he got tired. Or, maybe he wanted out before that proverbial four-letter-word hits the fan.
 
 Under Mr. Hess and his bosses, Lee Fiedler and Cas Taylor, the Scenic Railroad has hit some new milestones. Like what? How about this: Four weeks away from the start of the regular season, and only a few days from the special Easter Train, the Scenic Railroad is still working to establish food service for the Frostburg end of the line.
 
 Gee, that could be a problem.
 
 They’ve booked a whopping $7,000 in reservations, according to the Times-News, most of which are specialty train repeats from last season (dinner trains were a big hit last year). That’s a measly 120 to 150 riders booked so far this year.
 
 In spite of what the media is telling the public, reservations have never been slower. It should help immensely that the railroad’s Board of Directors decided to gut the advertising budget this year. Smart move.
 
 The Railroad did manage to get a brochure put together - they did it themselves. That’s the good news. The bad news is it was printed at a Pittsburgh company rather than locally. It seems that company had an inside track with Mr. Hess.
 
 Nice that they ask local businesses to support tourism efforts with memberships, donations, and their taxpayer dollars, then take work that could be done here to a company located 100 miles away in another state. Can you get your Destination Allegany membership refunded?
 
 We appreciate Mr. Hess deciding that he really wasn’t up for this job - who would be? Who could really run the train and the Visitors Bureau at the same time, especially when you’re not making the decisions?
 
 It will be interesting to see who’s next in the line-up. We heard Visitors Bureau Board chair Ed Mason, Scenic Railroad Board chair Jim Stafford and Lee Fiedler already have someone in mind, someone approved, no doubt, by Mr. Taylor. Another former Kelly Springfield employee, just like Mr. Hess.
 
 In the job description published, the one qualification notably missing was past experience in marketing tourist or tourist related entities - which is just a little different than selling tires.
 
 Let’s hope the next director has a lot of energy, and won’t mind being at the helm when the Scenic Railroad and the Visitors Bureau collapse. When that happens, Mr. Fiedler, Mr. Taylor and the boards of both agencies will be looking for someone to blame. They left that out of the job description, too.