Thursday, March 10, 1977

• Following a federal bankruptcy reorganization filing, Ocean City developer James B. Caine has placed his luxury horse-training complex in Salisbury, The Winter Place Farm, up for public sale. The asking price is $7.5 million.
• Deficiencies at Peninsula General Hospital were cited in the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals’ decision to only certify the hospital for one more year, instead of the usual two years. Officials are racing to complete the construction of the new Peninsula Regional Medical Center next door; it’s opening would alleviate all deficiencies, officials said.
• Robert H. Douglas, Pupil Services Director, told the Wicomico County school board that there have been 823 suspensions this school year, compared to 1,058 at the same time in 1976. The 22 percent reduction was attributed to better in-school handling of situations, tougher procedures and “kids are getting the message that things are changing.”
• Just 10 minutes after a 2:55 a.m. armed robbery at the Statesman Motel on North Salisbury Boulevard, a Maryland State Trooper spotted a man running along the railroad tracks near Lake Street, and stopped and searched him. Reginald Wendell Jones, 20, of Swan Road, was charged with armed robbery and weapons violation. Police said $32 was taken from the cash drawer while clerk Julian Windsor of Mardela Springs was being held at gunpoint.
• Over coffee and cake, a panel of 20 teachers met with the Wicomico Board of Education and aired a list of concerns. Among the issues teachers raised: classrooms that were too hot despite energy conservation measures, classrooms that were too cold, a proposal to realign school boundaries, concerns that the Driver Education Program might be canceled, the 20-day maximum on absenteeism and new graduation requirements that call for more phys ed programs.
• Ray Beers, affectionately known to his co-workers as “Mr. Fix It,’ retired after 27 years as maintenance director at Deer’s Head Center. The 56-year-old Beers first arrived at the hospital in 1950, when he was part of a team installing an X-ray machine. He was soon hired as chauffeur to drive patients at a salary of $1,7760 per year. In 1957, he married the hospital’s switchboard operator, Janice Hopkins of Mardela Springs.
• Jeff Ferrand set a Major Duckpin League record in leading Del-Mar-Va Tuxedos to a clean sweep over second-place Budweiser Wednesday night at Wicomico Lanes. Ferrand rolled a 188, 183, 146 for a new League Set Record of 517.