By Greg Bassett

Tuesday, April 28, 1970 --

• The Salisbury Chamber of Commerce stepped into its next half-century on Monday with a 50th anniversary banquet held at James M. Bennett Senior High School. Eleanor J. Stagg, the first woman president in the Chamber’s history, took over the gavel from Thomas S. George Jr. and called for “news ideas and new thinking” in the years ahead. She said the Chamber can only go as far as its members are willing to work for it.
• The Salisbury City Council tonight will begin sinking its teeth into Mayor Dallas G. Truitt’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The mayor’s budget totals more than $3.5 million and calls for a property tax increase of 5 cents. The budget was presented Monday, but the council will spend tonight – as well as two nights next week – studying the budget and interviewing department heads. The budget includes a 4 percent hike in city employees’ salaries, which has already been decried as not enough.
• A letter to City Hall was read aloud at Monday’s Salisbury Council meeting. Members of Mrs. Long’s class at Selbyville Elementary sent the following: “We like your zoo. Our 1st grade spent the day and ate our lunch. We helped Earth Day by picking up all the trash we saw. Here is some money to keep a nice zoo.” Enclosed was a check for $3.50.
• William O. Thomas of Druid Hill Avenue has retired after 40 years with the Internal Revenue Service in Salisbury.Thomas opened the audit division offices in April 1946, after having worked for the IRS in Washington and Baltimore. Thomas was recently honored by fellow IRS employees at a banquet. He said he plans to travel and then work as a tax consultant.
• Allegheny Commuter flights carried 2,210 passengers on flights between Salisbury, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., during March. Operated by Henson Aviation of Hagerstown, Md., the Commuter replaced Allegheny Airlines at Salisbury last June. The Commuter provides six daily roundtrip flights to Friendship International and two to Washington National Airport. The flights also carried 35,892 pounds of air mail and freight last month.
• Salisbury No. 2 Fire Company were called to a blaze Monday night at Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church on Old Ocean City Road. Pastor Donald E. Bauer said the fire started in the back of the building in a store room. Two pianos and some wooden chairs were damaged. Chief James Beauchamp said 29 firefighters responded to the scene.
• City Police are investigating the theft of two boxes of frozen fried chicken stolen from a freight car on the rail siding, near the Isabella Street warehouses of Campbell Soup Co. Police Chief Leslie J. Payne said when the security guard was making his rounds at 3:23 a.m., he saw someone run down the tracks and then discovered the seal on the box car had been broken and the food had been removed.
• Delegate Richard M. Laws, a Democrat, is the first to file for one of two Wicomico seats in the House of Delegates. Laws was appointed to his current seat in July 1969. He succeeded E. Homer White Jr., who accepted a regional position with the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Lawes, 41, is a lifelong Wicomico resident, is in partnership with attorney Victor H. Laws in Downtown Salisbury.
• Employees of Chris-Craft Corp., who have been idled by a shutdown since early March, have been notified to return to work next Monday. Russell Wagner, personnel manager, said the plant was closed for an inventory adjustment due to the nationwide economic squeeze.