Monday, Feb. 15, 1993 --

• In 12 frantic hours, more than 800 people applied for the 220 new jobs available at the Walmart store set to open later this year in North Salisbury. And, since the retailer will continue taking applications for the remainder of this week, the early application surge indicates just how fierce the competition is in the local job market. About 60 percent of the available jobs are full time. Those applying ranged in age from 16 to 70, according to Store Manager Jeff Platt.
• Habitat on Maryland’s Lower Shore will receive a $400,000 grant to construct a 33-home community off of Jersey Road in Salisbury. The Community Development Block Grant cash secured by the county will be used to purchase 21 lots in Kirkwood Estates, each with an assessed value of about $7,000. The current landowner, Weisner-Shea Partnership, will inturn donate 12 lots to Habitat. Each home is expected to cost about $33,000 to build, according to Habitat President Tony Whall. Habitat will need to raise about $200,000 each year to keep the development progressing, Whall said.
• Filtronic Comtek Inc. said it will bring 50 electronics manufacturing jobs to the old terminal building at Salisbury-Wicomico Regional Airport. The British company said it will lease the terminal’s main floor for two years while it begins construction of a permanent manufacturing site that will ultimately employ 200 people. Comtek officials said that building would likely be in the new business park slated for land on Airport Road. Workers in Salisbury will be hired to manufacture cellular telephone base units.
• Mark Brewer, 39, manager of the Salisbury-Wicomico Regional Airport for the past eight years, is leaving his post to manage the airport that serves the Pennsylvania towns of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. Now that the new terminal building has opened in Salisbury, Brewer said, he is ready for a new and bigger challenge. He said the Allentown airport is much larger and even offers international flights. He said his paychecks will also be bigger: He will be paid $65,000 a year in Pennsylvania, compared to $45,000 here.
• Officials are still trying to determine what the local economic effect will be when the Campbell Soup frozen foods plant in Salisbury officially closes Aug. 1. Economics professor Dr. Evan Kraft of Salisbury State University said the “downsizing is part of a general trend” nationwide, but the Campbell Co.’s decision doesn’t necessarily mean other local manufacturers are in danger of with closing or moving. The plant has been a Salisbury fixture for 48 years; some 804 people are employed there and its annual payroll is $21.5 million.
• A Maryland House of Delegates committee has rejected a state panel’s recommendation to sell off and privatize Deer’s Head Center in Salisbury. The Governor’s Commission on Efficiency and Economy in Government earlier this year determined that private companies could operate Deer’s Head at less cost. The committee said there were too many unanswered questions about how Deer’s Head would be handed over to a private operator.