Tuesday Oct. 12, 1971 --

• The Salisbury City Council decided to send to referendum a request to annex some 200 acres south of the city for Canal Park, a proposed $3.5 million housing development. The general annexation area would extend along the creek from South Division Street to Route 13. Businesses in the area are opposed to the annexation. Lawyer Alfred T. Truitt Jr., representing the business contingent, said his clients will petition the annexation and are “prepared to exhaust any remedies we might have.” He said the opponents aren’t against the housing development, they just don’t want the project -- or their businesses -- annexed into the city. Dr. H. Gray Reeves, who owns rental property in the affected area, said because of the federal freeze on wages and prices, he could not pass along city tax costs to tenants.
• Perdue Farms was paying top rates for corn and soybeans now being harvested as part of the fall season. Soybeans brought to the Hobbs Road facility were bringing $3.05 per bushel while the paying rate for corn was $1.10 per bushel. Deferred payment premiums ranged from .02 cents to .05 cents per bushel.
• Businessman Avery W. Hall has agreed to serve as chairman of Mayor Dallas Truitt’s Fire Department Centennial Committee. The department will turn 100 years old in 1972.
• It appears the ballpark estimates for the controversial plan to build a single office building to serve both the Wicomico and city governments are off by between $1 million and $2 million. The County Council learned this week that the long-debated building slated for the Calvert Street parking lot could cost as much as $4 million. Original estimates had the ultra-modern building, which would face South Division Street and the Salisbury Parkway at no more than $2 million.
• Miss Emily Morris of Lincoln Avenue and Charles Vaughn of Frederick Avenue were two Salisburians selected to attend the Maryland Ornithological Society’s semi-annual meeting at Rock Run Sanctuary near Baltimore. Morris and Vaughn are trustees of the Wicomico Bird Club.
• Junior Board President Mrs. Rodger K. Steffens announced her group had donated $5,000 to Peninsula General Hospital’s Building Fund. She said that during June, July and August, Junior Board members gave more than 1,831 volunteer hours to the hospital.  
• Prominent Salisbury and Ocean City businessman W.T. Sturgis died at age 61 after a long illness. The Middle Neck Road resident owned Sturgis Electric Co. on North Salisbury Boulevard and was one of the largest appliance dealers in the region.
• Laura Hamilton, a daughter of Police Chief and Mrs. Leslie Payne of Greenmount Avenue, was cited by the Wicomico County Board of Education for her high performance on the 1971 National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Hamilton, who last year attended Wicomico Senior High School, is now living and studying in Norway as an exchange student with the American Field Service.