Tuesday, May 31, 1988 --

• Wicomico County residents will have to dig a little deeper into their pockets to pay their property taxes this year as the County Council has approved a 10-cent rate increase. The budget totals $45.4 million and includes $2 million in new funding for the Board of Education. The tax rate will now be $1.85 per $100 of assessed value. The budget also funds a new Circuit Court judge and awards needed raises for the State’s Attorney’s Office.
• The Board of Trustees of State Universities and Colleges has set new tuition rates for Salisbury State College, as well as the Bowie, Coppin, Frostburg and Towson campuses. Undergraduate SSC students this year will pay $1,362. Out-of-state residents will be charged $2,900.
• Lynn Fair and Gini Holloway, both of Salisbury, have been named coordinators of the National Chicken Cooking Contest that will be part of the 1988 Delmarva Chicken Festival that begins June 10. Fair and Holloway will have 60 volunteers to assist them. This year’s festival will be held in Salisbury.
• Wicomico Board of Education Comptroller Bruce Ford joined Superintendent Evelyn B. Holman in seeking County Council approval to move $400,000 in money left over from the current year's budget into next year. Though the schools are receiving $2 million more than last year, they’re still netting $4 million less than they sought. Holman said the council’s failure to fund the system’s needs means her middle school plan -- moving sixth-graders into the junior high schools -- will have to wait at least a year.
• Salisbury native Michael Benjamin, 33, of Hagerstown, was among four people killed in a horrific boating collision Saturday night night in Assawoman Bay. His body was spotted floating Tuesday morning from an airplane contracted by the Department of Natural Resources. The son of Salisbury businessman Alf Benjamin, he was a passenger in a 19-foot Baretta boat that struck an anchored cabin cruiser at high speed.
• Fulton P. Jeffers, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Peninsula General Hospital Medical Center and Dr. Roger C. Merrill, President of the Medical Staff, saluted four physicians who will retire but remain affiliated with the hospital as part of the Honorary Staff. Honored were Dr. Dermot J. O’Neill, Dr. Andrew C. Mitchell, Dr. Chester Collins and Dr. Walter D. DeVault.
• Mid-Delmarva YMCA Director Rich Stover unveiled plans for a 17,000-square-foot addition to the Shumaker Drive facility. The expansion is expected to cost $2.26 million. Plans include an indoor 75-by-42-foot pool, new locker rooms and a fitness center. The Y has more than 1,500 members. Local businessman Richard Henson has put up a $1 million fundraising match to help generate funds for the project.
• The Beach Boys played a concert at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center to kick off their 25th anniversary summer tour. Brian Wilson did not appear with the group, which was led by Mike Love, Al Jardine and Carl Wilson. The band performed a single 90-minute set before a crowd that was estimated to have been a sellout.