Wednesday, July 4, 1990 --

• In an expansion of their normal law enforcement responsibilities, the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office will begin speed radar patrols all across the county. According to Maj. Kirk Daughtery, the office doesn’t have the manpower to catch speeders all over the county, but will concentrate initially in Mardela Springs and Pittsville. He said two deputies will each be working two shifts of two hours each day.
• A federal judge has at last ruled that Wicomico’s 5-2 voting plan does not violate the U.S. Constitution. The county has been entangled in a lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Department since 1987. The case has at times exposed some county leaders as being insensitive when it comes to ensuring fair elections. The final agreed-upon plan calls for five councilmanic districts and two at-large seats.
• Gov. William Donald Schaefer has reappointed Dr. William J. “Kel” Nagel, 42, to a second five-year term on the Wicomico Board of Education. A Salisbury lung doctor, Nagel has served as the board’s chairman since 1984. In a controversial move, the Wicomico Democratic Central Committee also presented 39-year-old Fruitland homemaker Billie G. Cooley’s name to the governor as a possible alternative.
• Four Democrats on the Wicomico County Council have filed for re-election: Henry S. Parker, Philip L. Tilghman, Betty K. Gardner and Julia Foxwell. John M. Morris, who has been on the council for a decade, will not be seeking re-election. Parker and Tilghman will be running for the two at-large seats that are part of the new districting plan.
• Sharon J. Lynch, a 4th-Grade teacher at Pinehurst Elementary School, has been selected as Wicomico County’s Outstanding Teacher for 1990. Lynch, who has been an educator in county schools for 20 years and was a prior nominee, will represent Wicomico in the state’s Outstanding Teacher Recognition Program to be held later this year.
• Perdue Farms President Donald Mabe told a lunch meeting of the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce that animal rights groups have singled out the Salisbury-based company because it’s the most-visible poultry company in the Northeast. He said the groups’ continued claims of inhumane slaughter practices in Perdue’s processing plants are untrue. “You must realize the kind of people that are attacking us,” Mabe said. “They believe the life of a rat, dog or pig is just as important as a human’s.” PETA has been holding attention-getting protests on Route 50 in front of the company’s Cypress Street plant in Salisbury.