Thursday, July 25, 1963 --

• The Mayor and City Council have formally abandoned plans for Snuff Hill, an urban renewal project proposed for the neighborhood west of Riverside Drive extending to Beauchamp Street. The city’s Retail Association and other business groups strongly supported the project, but about 125 nearby neighborhood residents spoke harshly against the plan. Apartment units would replace the single-family homes in the neighborhood and the project would be geared to low- and middle-income residents.

• People in Salisbury are still talking about Sunday’s eclipse, which was the second one in 24 hours. Band leader Wallace Duyer said the Salisbury Community Band’s first performance of the year was held in the dark for much of its 8 p.m. performance as the moon obscured the summer sun. Because of the cosmic event, city officials had asked that the band’s performance be rescheduled, but the concert continued even as musicians had difficulty reading their music sheets.

• For the final quarter of the 1963 fiscal year, Wicomico County led the entire state of Maryland in increased liquor consumption. The statewide dispensary system requires each county to report sales -- statistics show Wicomico’s alcohol consumption spiked 17.48 percent year over year. During April, May and June, county residents consumed 13,080 gallons of distilled liquors. The county collects a 50-cents-per-gallon tax, so Wicomico’s coffers reaped $25,608 for the period.

• A clerical error totaling $42,000 has resulted in the withdrawal of the winning bid in the construction of 17 new classrooms at James M. Bennett High School. Atlantic General Contractors was awarded the $469,365 bid by the Wicomico school board but decided to pass on the project. The school will now be built by the second-place bidder, J. Roland Dashiell & Sons, who said it would charge $503,300. The Salisbury contractor has until September 1964 to complete the work.

• Three new directors have been named to the board at Truckers & Savings Bank: Charles F, Bateman, Samuel Stein and William E, Oliphant. Bateman is Executive Vice President of Symington Wayne Corp., which operates a petroleum equipment plant in Salisbury. Stein is President of H.D. Metal Co. and Secretary of Salisbury Steel Co. Oliphant is General Manager of Oliphant Chevrolet in Salisbury.

• The Salisbury Police Department on Wednesday night moved from City Hall across Salisbury Parkway to the old Wicomico County Free Library. The city was given the library space when city officials donated the armory building on South Division Street to the county for use as a new library. The police will use both floors of the two-story structure, as opposed to the basement space they were allotted in City Hall.

• People are struggling to call Salisbury State College by its new name. Effective July 1, the word “Teachers” was dropped from Salisbury State Teachers College. Most often in conversation, one will hear the institution referred to as “STC” as opposed to the newly correct “SSC.” It was in the early 1950s that the college began extending its curriculum beyond just educating future teachers. 

• The Salisbury Chamber of Commerce is trying to raise $32,000 so it can hire Fantas Locating Service to recruit industries to locate in the Salisbury community. Fantas is credited with recently bringing a huge General Foods plant to Dover and several businesses to the Cambridge area. If hired, Fantas would begin its contract work by performing a four-month business study of the Salisbury community.