By Greg Bassett

Friday, Nov. 4, 1994 --

• For years, Wicomico law enforcement agencies have focused on arresting dealers who are operating in open-air drug markets. Now, police and sheriff’s deputies are armed with cameras and are taking photographs to be used to prosecute both buyers and dealers. “We’ve locked up a lot of drug dealers, but there is always another one to take his place,” said Sgt. Steve Bacon of the county’s Narcotics Task Force. “But people aren’t going to be buying drugs with the police taking pictures.” Fruitland and Salisbury police, as well as sheriff’s deputies will use the photos to identify buyers and initiate a formal investigation.
• Kenny Rogers Roasters isn’t coming to Salisbury -- at least not yet. The Florida-based restaurant chain, owned in part by country music legend Kenny Rogers, specializes in hickory-smoked chicken. It was set to open a franchise on South Salisbury Boulevard, where Friendly’s Restaurant was recently located. Franchise developer Brian Haigley said, however, that the 3,500-square-foot building is too small and he will instead investigate other leasing opportunities.
• The Salisbury City Council is divided on what to do with six horses that a volunteer group has offered to buy for the Police Department. Police Chief Coulbourn Dykes would like to have the horses as part of a mounted patrol. A citizens group has said it will raise the necessary $100,000. Councilman Bob Caldwell said the council is moving too fast on a decision while Council President Bob Gladden said his colleagues are dragging their feet. Gladden noted that the horses wouldn’t cost the city any cash, so there was no reason to wait.
• Musician Neil Sedaka will be in Salisbury this weekend to perform with the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center. Sedaka, 55, was a popular singer in the 1950s, whose career underwent a Renaissance in the late 1970s and ’80s. Tickets for the Saturday show are $25 and $20.
• Finalists to succeed Dr. Evelyn B. Holman as Wicomico County schools superintendent are continuing tours of county educational facilities and meeting with school and community leaders. Ronald Jones Naso, as Assistant Superintendent for a school system in Kansas, is in town this week. Officials will also meet with Randolph G. Outten, a Superintendent in Harrisburg, Pa., and local candidate William T. Middleton, Wicomico’s Acting Superintendent.
• Businessmen Bob Culver and Charles Dolbey are proposing a 100-seat, double-decker restaurant floating on a barge in the Port of Salisbury Marina. Culver said he would need to rent three slips from the city to accommodate the restaurant-barge. Culver told City Council members that a positive advantage would be that if the barge fails as a business, it could be towed somewhere else and re-opened.