Today In Salisbury's History: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 1986
Salisbury Independent
Posted 1/14/21
Tuesday, Jan. 14, 1986 --
Some of the 120 Peninsula Press employees who were recently put out of work were expected to be among the applicants at the Maryland State Police job …
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Today In Salisbury's History: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 1986
Posted
Salisbury Independent
Tuesday, Jan. 14, 1986 --
Some of the 120 Peninsula Press employees who were recently put out of work were expected to be among the applicants at the Maryland State Police job recruitment fair, scheduled at the facility next to WBOC-TV. Trooper Wayne Lowe is coordinating the mass application session that is open not only to former Peninsula Press employees, but to all members of the public 21 and older. Brenda Phillips, Personnel Manager of Peninsula Press, said allowing police to use the plant as an application site is another part of the company’s continuing effort to help workers who were laid off Dec. 10.
The Salisbury Police Department, in cooperation with the Wicomico State’s Attorney’s Office, has purchased a $3,000 video camera that will allow officers in a surveillance vehicle to record illegal drug transactions on city streets. When linked with a $4,500 “body wire” transmitter worn by an officer posing as a drug customer, the camera is a potent investigative aid that is expected to make convictions easier. Salisbury Detective Rick Culver recently spent four weeks at the National Intelligence Academy in Florida learning surveillance techniques.
The Wicomico County Council voted to build the new county Health Department on a 30-acre site where the new county jail will also be constructed. The budget for the new building is $4.5 million. Plans call for the department’s offices on Carroll Street and Spring Hill Road to be consolidated into the site off Naylor Mill Road. The county has yet to decide what it will do with the office building on Carroll Street.
At long last, plans for a Route 50 Bypass that would extend north of Salisbury has made it into the state’s transportation planning budget. While no one is sure what the highway’s route will be, it is expected to cut through the Northwood Industrial Park. State officials said the new highway will finally be needed for summer traffic surges, once they complete construction of two new Route 50 bridges in Cambridge and Vienna.
The Super Giant Food Store was open for business just one day after a major fire in a second-floor motor room forced customers and employees to flee the building. While estimating the damage at up to $300,000, Giant officials said only a small portion of perishable foods was lost because of power interruption to cooling units. The store’s 95 employees were called in to work all night cleaning the store. Officials said that while there are no frozen foods currently in stock, all other regular items are available.
Local Black leaders are considering legal action against the city of Salisbury to change the current at-large council election system to one that is made up of individual districts. New Directions Committee President Billy Gene Jackson said his group’s requests that the city address the matter have been ignored. Four the last four or five years, the city and Wicomico County have been discussing whether to establish minority-majority districts for their councils, but without consensus.
The Salisbury City Council has turned over its option to buy the G&K Furniture warehouse on Fitzwater Street to a developer hoping to transform the city riverfront. Robert A. Fox will pay the city $10,000 for the option while he spends the next three months securing financing to purchase the old brick structure from local lawyer John Nason. Fox would incorporate the three-story warehouse into part of a $45 million project that would include a hotel, offices and retail space.
Long lines have been forming all week in anticipation of this Saturday's huge Maryland Lotto drawing. The jackpot has reached an all-time high of $8 million, causing lottery faithful as well as new customers to seek tickets. The Drug Fair Drug Store in the Clairmont Shopping Center has routinely seen lines more than 50 people long, with even bigger crowds expected as the weekend nears.