--Thursday Aug. 24, 1961

• Wicomico school board president William S. Moore signed the contract for the new high school to be named after James M. Bennett. Attending the signing ceremony were Wicomico County Commissioners President Wade H. Insley, O. Woodland Dashiell of J. Roland Dashiell builders, School Building Commission Chairman W. Ryder Jones, and William T. Booth of Booth & Somers Architects. The school will take 540 calendar days to build and will cost $1,519,108, with $180,000 going toward architect fees and equipment.
• Salisbury Police were holding two Somerset County men in custody after they allegedly broke into a home at 300 East William St. and lived there for a few weeks while the owner was away. Albert Lee Hastings, 34, of Westover and Lloyd Edward Ross, 41, of Princess Anne, were charged after prominent Salisbury businessman N.R. Wooten returned home from an Ocean City stay and found someone had slept in his beds, trash was strewn about the house, and canned goods, cigarettes and soft drinks were missing. Wooten called police, who found Hastings hiding in bushes outside the home. Ross was later arrested wearing a shirt and suit belonging to Wooten, police said.
• Wicomico State’s Attorney Alfred T. Truitt Jr. is calling on Gov. Millard Tawes to investigate problems in the state’s Prison Farm System. Truitt said he was considering conducting a probe through the grand jury system, but realized the problems aren’t entirely local. Nine prisoners have escaped from the Poplar Hill Camp in just the past two weeks. Truitt said the camp is overcrowded, that there is not enough work to occupy the inmates, and system changes have allowed inmates serving short terms to work in the camps. He said the camps have traditionally been open only to inmates who are at the end of serving out long prison terms.
• At the local farmers auctions in Salisbury and Laurel, cucumbers were selling for $1.50 a bushel, 15-pound watermelons were .16 cents, a 50-pound bag of white potatoes was .87 cents and peppers were $1.25 per bushel.
• The movie “Dondi,” starring David Janssen and Patti Page, was playing at the Ulman. At the air-conditioned Wicomico Theater, a Sneak Preview movie was planned at 8:45 before the showing of the current feature, “Tammy Tell Me True,” starring Sandra Dee and John Gavin.
• Salisbury Police, with the help of a C&P Telephone crew, rescued Donald Lee Short, 12, from the steel framework under the Overhead Bridge on North Salisbury Boulevard. Police said Short and some other boys climbed 25 to 35 feet up into the structure, but then Short was afraid to climb down. The utility crew used a hydraulic lift to rescue the boy. The bridge crosses the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks that run through Salisbury.
• In Socials News, Miss Christine Truitt, daughter of State’s Attorney and Mrs. Alfred T. Truitt Jr. of Elizabeth Street, will celebrate her 9th birthday with a Hawaiian swimming party at the home of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George L. Ralph of Woodland Road. Mr. and Mrs. William M. Morris and their daughter, Julie, have returned to New York after a visit with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar L. Morris of South Pinehurst Avenue and Mrs. A. Percy White of South Park Drive. Also, Dr. Donald A. Pirie has opened a dental office at 711 Camden Ave., where he will focus on extractions and oral surgery.