By Greg Bassett

Saturday, March 4, 1972 --

• Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel, state Sen. Mary L. Nock, Wicomico County Council President Lewis R. Riley and state Health Secretary Dr. Neil Solomon were among the dignitaries at Saturday’s ground breaking for a center on Snow Hill Road that will treat and house persons with Intellectual disabilities. The new $5.5 million campus-style facility will have beds for 250 people from the Eastern Shore and have a staff of more than 300. Residents will be housed in cottages for 25 persons each; there will be 12 classrooms on the site.
• U.S. Rep. William O. Mills, an Easton Republican who succeeded Rogers C.B. Morton as Maryland’s 1st District Congressman, announced he will run for re-election this fall. Mills defeated Democrat Elroy Boyer in a special election that was held after Morton was appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Nixon. Mills served as Morton’s chief aide in Washington for eight years.
• Robert C. Hamill said about 150 people showed up Saturday to help his effort to clean up Coulbourne Mill Pond, just south of Salisbury. Hamill, representing the newly formed Wicomico Environmental Trust, said the cleanup project is the first of many planned around the county. Hamill said the pond has been filling up with aquatic plants that are affecting water quality.
• Frank Ratka, Manager of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, met this week with community leaders representing the Eastern Shore Symphony Society. Chaired by Salisbury clothing retailer Lewis M. Hess, the local Symphony Society is trying to arrange an April concert in Salisbury that would feature the Baltimore Symphony. Ratka said Salisbury was considered an important market for the orchestra, noting that the community was one of the original symphony societies formed 17 years ago to promote symphonic music across the state.
• Six Salisbury Boy Scouts have received their Eagle badges. All members of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Troop 268, the young men were celebrated in an Eagle Court of Honor. The Eagle Scouts are: Charles C. Habilston IV, W. Scott Parker, Robert Y. Torrey, Robert B. McFarlin, Gary L. McCready and Alyne L. Longfellow.
• The Allegheny Air System has new rates for its flights to several East Coast and Midwest cities through Friendship Airport in Baltimore. Flights from Salisbury to New York City are $28, flights to Boston are $39 and flights to St. Louis are $68. The flights are all on airplanes that are part of the Allegheny Airlines network.
• Officials are still investigating how a spring-season-like electrical and rain storm on Thursday managed to cause a two-hour blackout across much of Salisbury. A spokesman for Delmarva Power & Light Co. said severe lightning strikes apparently struck several key electric poles, as well as other electrical equipment. The storm hit at about 8:30 a.m., causing massive traffic interruptions on Route 13, as traffic lights stopped working.