Branch

With the sale of its Essex branch, Irvington Federal Savings and Loan Association of Baltimore today said it is now in compliance with two of three federal capital requirements."

Taylor Branch's second narrative of the civil rights era, "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-1965," has won the 1999 Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association.The book, published last year, is the second in a planned trilogy by the Baltimore historian. Branch has said that he "hopes to sustain his thesis that [Martin Luther] King's life is the best and most important metaphor for American history in the watershed post-war years."The ABA award goes annually to writers who best illustrate the legal system.

NEW YORK -- The Baltimore County branch of the NAACP will not be disbanded but will be taken over by an administrative officer who will set up elections and reorganize branch finances, the organization's national board decided yesterday.The administrator also must report to the national board twice in the next six months about reforms in the branch.No date has been set for elections but Nelson B. Rivers III, director of national field operations for the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said they likely will happen "sooner rather than later."

Bay First Bank has opened its third branch office in the Elkton area on U.S. 40, known as the Delancy Plaza branch. Bay First Bank serves Cecil and Harford counties with full-service offices in Bel Air, North East and Perryville, plus a drive-up/ATM location in North East. The bank held a ribbon-cutting June 26, followed by a celebration with games, refreshments and bank specials June 30. The branch is a 3,500-square- foot building at U.S. 40 and Delancy Road. It offers deposit, lending, mortgage, investment, brokerage and insurance services, as well as an ATM, drive-through lanes and safe deposit boxes.

The U.S. Postal Service plans to relocate its Ostend Street branch, prompting community concerns that the South Baltimore peninsula could be left without a post office.Baltimore Postmaster Mike Furey said postal officials are meeting with neighborhood groups and elected officials for suggestions for a new site. Furey said the branch will remain in the 21230 ZIP code, but it could move from South Baltimore to Southwest neighborhoods such as Morrell Park, Pigtown or Westport.Some residents enjoy the ambience of the cramped branch at 146 W. Ostend St., but postal officials say it is too small to accommodate the growing number of customers -- and mail -- in the area.

With the sale of its Essex branch, Irvington Federal Savings and Loan Association of Baltimore said it is now in compliance with two of three federal capital requirements."

The gold is leaving the Linthicum library branch -- the gold carpeting, that is, with a recarpeting project planned this month.. The 11,000-square-foot building will be closed from Feb. 21 through Feb. 26 for replacement of the carpeting, which library manager Adam Mazurek says is about 14 years old. Mazurek said none of the materials checked out of the Linthicum branch is due during that week, although the after-hours book drop will remain open....

WASHINGTON -- The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has threatened to suspend officers of its branch in Compton, Calif., unless they rescind their endorsement of the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.On Wednesday, the national office told officials of the NAACP branch in Compton, a largely black community on the outskirts ** of Los Angeles, that they had until today at 3 p.m. EDT, to withdraw their support for Judge Thomas.If they fail to do so, the national office said, the branch president and all those who signed a resolution supporting the judge, who now sits on the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit, would have to resign.

Starting tomorrow, all 28 neighborhood branches of the Enoch Pratt Free Library will be open every Saturday. It marks the first time in more than 10 years that citywide Saturday hours will be available at Baltimore's financially strapped public library system.To pay for Saturday service, 22 of the libraries will close on a weekday, either Monday or Friday. The other six libraries will continue their Monday through Saturday schedule.The new policy, announced yesterday by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, is a welcome change for patrons who have suffered through erratic service for years.

Aaron Earl Branch, a former Army finance worker, died of cancer July 16 at a daughter's home in Baltimore. He was 76. Born and raised in Baltimore, he attended city schools before enlisting in the Navy late in World War II. After the war, he worked as a mail sorter at the main city post office. In 1959, he went to work as a civilian employee in the Army's finance department in New York City. He left the job in 1965 and returned to Baltimore. "He didn't work again because of illness," said his former wife, Shirley Lee. A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at the Joseph H. Brown Jr. Funeral Home, 2140 N. Fulton Ave. He is survived by four daughters, Maria Elena Branch and Dawn Dingle-El, both of Baltimore, Aarona Jordan of Westbury, N.Y., and Cathy Branch of Philadelphia; four sisters, Esther Wilson and Norma Powell, both of Baltimore, Maryland Burris of Essex and Sylvia Welbon of Silver Spring; 13 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.