From The Aegis of March 5, 1987:
Harford County Sheriff Dominick Mele was seeing red 25 years ago this week after the county executive, Habern Freeman, hinted at creating a county police force, and had already gone to the extent of creating a task force to do a "comprehensive study" of all county police agencies.
"We believe that it is time for us to determine whether a county police force would better fit our concept of county self-reliance and accountability," Freeman said during his annual update on Harford County.
Mele, who called it a "slap in the face to the people in the county who duly voted for me," said he thought Freeman was trying to diminish the sheriff's role to a civil one, in which deputies would essentially serve papers and run the detention center.
"He wants me to roll over and let him run the office, that's what he wants. But I don't roll over for anybody," Mele said.
Local pastors were protesting the Harford County Health Department's "three for free" program in favor of "none for me."
The health department was giving away three free condoms 25 years ago to anyone who stopped in and said "three for free," but local pastors thought the effort was an attempt to break down the "moral fiber" of a family.
The health department's goal was to try and stop the spread of AIDS and stem the rising rate of teenage pregnancy.
The lawyer for the Harford County Council was asking 25 years ago that Maryland's attorney general, Joseph Curran, look into whether it was legal for the county executive to transfer the local government's ownership in the main building and ground to the corporation that operated Harford Memorial Hospital.
Freeman had accepted a $1.17 million payment for the property, which the county auditor said was valued at $11.8 million.
Traffic was on the rise on I-95 through Harford County, setting an all-time record in 1986. The state counted 17,669,082 vehicles passing through the Tydings Bridge between Cecil and Harford counties, an increase of 1.3 million over the 16,334,017 the year before.
Traffic also increase on the Route 40 Hatem bridge by 2.8 percent. Records indicated 7,151,408 vehicles passed through the toll plaza on the bridge, up 195,733 from a year earlier.
The state health department was looking into a claim by an Aberdeen family that a package of Girl Scout Thin Mints cookies was tainted with glass-like particles.
A girl told police she bit into a cookie from a freshly opened package and felt something gritty and shiny. The girl's sister tried another cookie and encountered the same problem. Neither girl swallowed any of the cookie.
The last of the concrete streetlight poles along Union Avenue in Havre de Grace was slated to be removed in 1987. The thoroughfare was lined with 44 streetlights, 34 of which were concrete. Over the years, aluminum and fiberglass poles replaced about 10 of the poles that had been damaged or where additional lights were installed.
Eight people were running in the March 10 Bel Air town commissioner race. Candidates were Geoffrey R. Close, William L. Cundiff, Mark Alan Ferragamo, Irene A. Getz, J. Vaughan McMahan, Estelle S. Bolton, Susan K. McComas and Frederick L. Rush Jr.
Fallston's 12-year-old Steve Chaires was getting ready to represent Maryland in a national CYO-sponsored free throw shooting contest. The basketball player made 22 of 25 free throws at a competition a week earlier in 1987 earning him the right to move on to the national competition at a date and time to be determined. Chaires hoped to one day play for University of North Carolina.
All appliances were on sale 25 years ago at Montgomery Ward, including a 30-inch gas range for $268, a built-in dishwasher for $198, a Record-A-Call 1000 phone answering machine for $69.99 and a 13 function wireless remote VHS video cassette recorder for $299.
Glen Echo Furniture was celebrating its anniversary month in March 1987 with "exceptional savings," likeLa-Z-Boyrecliners for $259 to $349, dining room sets for $820 to $1,320 and sofas, loveseats and chairs from $559 to $645.
