By Greg Bassett

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1976 --

• Sara The Jaguar has been moved to her new $50,000 home in the City Park’s zoo. Zoo Director Stefan Graham had predicted that it could take several days for Sara to voluntarily enter a transfer cage attached to her pen, but the huge cat walked right into the cage on Tuesday. The jaguar’s new exhibit will open to the public in about 60 days.
• Wicomico County State Sen. E. Homer White was among the few lawmakers who voted in opposition Monday to legislation that would require state and local governmental bodies to conduct the bulk of their business in public. The so-called “sunshine bill” would require bodies to do their work in public unless the content of their discussions centered on one of 13 specific areas, including personnel discussion, property acquisition or legal counsel. The Senate vote was 39-7.
• The Eastern Shore Police Association has commended the Salisbury Police Department for its efforts to raise money to help Camp ESPA, the police boys’ camp near Sharptown. City Detectives Orville Niblett and Leo Bateman recently presented a check for $2,138.33 to Police Association President Robert W. Burkhart. The money was generated through a series of fund-raisers held by Salisbury officers and their wives, including a bake and yard sale, and a basketball game.
• Some new observers were seen at Monday night’s Salisbury City Council meeting – and they are hoping their attendance there becomes a habit. Anna Emond and Ray Matheu were in the crowd – each is a Republican candidate for council. Council President W. Paul Martin made a point of recognizing Emond and Ratheu, comically informing them that he was one of their Democratic targets in the March 23 election. Dr. Vernon Cantrell is the council’s lone Republican incumbent.
• Funeral services are scheduled Wednesday at Holloway Funeral Home for automobile agency executive Austin L. Mill, 75, who died Sunday. Mills was the founder and a partner in Mills Motors in Fruitland. He opened the business 20 years ago with his son, A. Kenneth Mills of Salisbury, and had been in the car business for more than 40 years.
• The number of farms on the Lower and Mid-Shore has dropped in the past five years while the real estate value of farms has more than doubled. There are 4,642 farms in Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset, Wicomico, Dorchester, Caroline and Talbot counties, which is 267 fewer than 1969. Wicomico now has 738 farms, compared to 826 a half-decade ago. FArmland values in WOrcester and Wicomico have soared to $951 per acre from $347.
• The Southern States Cooperative’s new agriculture center facility will open at Brick Kiln and Rockawalkin Ridge roads this Saturday at 10 a.m. Southern States is holding a grand opening celebration that will feature free hotdogs and balloons. WICO-AM will be broadcasting live from the center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Entertainment will be provided by the Taylor Family Singers.
• An exhibit of 20 original Currier and Ives lithographs telling the story of the Revolutionary War almost didn’t make it into the new City-County Government Building in Downtown Salisbury. Questions about whether the commercially sponsored exhibit should be permitted in a public building had organizers scrambling to have the display moved to the county library, but that building wasn’t available. Ten modules – each 8 feet high and 4 feet wide – containing the 20 prints are now on display in the government office building’s lobby.