The Daily Times from Salisbury, Maryland • 1

Lone goal lifts JMBtowin over Parkside Win $200 in free groceries OLD CAMPBELL SOUP CO. PLANT SOLD BUSINESS, PAGE 29 SPORTS, PACE 23 SEE PAGE 2 DAILY Tt TO ml I. edTi 11 Wednesday, September 25, 2002 Salisbury, Maryland 50 cents A Gannett Newspaper WICOMICO Board dismisses Housing Authority director Propane line safety check half completed in community where explosion occurred By Daniel Valentine DaHy Him Staff Writer SNOW HILL Inspectors have found more than 32 gas leaks so far during a test of nrnnane lilt LtHKd Mi mm i Sim MI FT raw 1 4 mmf" iwwt mm im w-iii 1 1 iiiim n'v s- rCV i I -A: yj y-rt- itvrSfe; j-v lines this month, town officials said Tuesday The survey follows a fatal gas explosion that injured 17 residents and firefighters Sept. 1. The safety check is only half completed.

"That's Two of the leaks discovered were rated Grade meaning they posed a danger of another explosion, a town official said. They were repaired by Eastern Shore Gas Co. The 30 other leaks were rated Grade 2. Though these breaks are only required to be watched, workers for the utility plan to fix them soon, the official said. By Joseph Cacchioli DaHy Time Staff Writer SALISBURY Deirdre Dougherty was fired Monday as executive director of the Wicomico County Housing Authority after years of troubled financial management prompted officials to reorganize the agency The authority's four-member Board of Commissioners voted 3-1 to dismiss Dougherty, who had worked there for 21 years.

"Her employment was terminated as of yesterday," board member Brenda Cox confirmed Tuesday "It's an effort to restructure and to bring our Housing Authority into a grading of superior." Cox said Wicomico's Housing Authority was once rated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as "superior" and has now slipped to "troubled." The authority, which receives no state and county funding, has struggled for three years to climb out of a backlog of monthly financial reports and late annual audits required by HUD. The poor reporting has delayed nearly $400,000 in federal funding. The funding delays have forced the authority, which administers federal rent subsidies for more than 1,000 senior and low-income households in Wicomico, to postpone repairs and renovations. In August, authority commissioners met with HUD officials and the Wicomico County Council, claiming their delinquent reports were close to completion.

Yet, HUD officials said they still had concerns about the authority's reporting and spending, and warned funding could be lost. See AUTHORITY, Page 4 Timet Photo by Joty Gardner Eastern Shore Gas Co. employee Michael Bonnaville checks a ps fine Tuesday on Church Street in Snow Hill, Safety checks of propane lines in the community are half completed following the explosion of a house in the town Sept 1. SHOWELL Gas leak forces school to evacuate for 2nd time not good news," said Mindie Burgoyne, a spokeswoman for Snow Hill town government. "We only have about 800 people on the system.

This is a significant percentage." Two of the leaks discovered last week were rated Grade 1, meaning they posed a danger of another explosion, Burgoyne said. Those leaks were repaired by Eastern Shore Gas Co. The 30 other, leaks, found along main gas lines that run along streets and supply lines that connect to houses across the town of 1,200 people, were rated Grade 2. Though these breaks are only required to be watched, workers for the Ocean City-based utility plan to fix them soon, Burgoyne said. The company is now being investigated by the Maryland Public Service Commission, which regularly reviews corn-See SNOW HILL, Page 4 "very small" leaks were discovered on the roof in the same area where leaks were found earlier this month.

The gas lines were shut off and will remain off through the rest of the week, Chatham said. Students and staff returned to the building within two hours, though afternoon kindergarten classes were canceled as a precaution, accord-See SHOWELL, Page 4 employees, said Paula Jones, the school principal. "It was very faint, but we quickly got the students out of the building and called 911," she said. Firefighters from Showell and Ocean Pines arrived on the scene. Employees from Sharp Energy, the company that supplies gas to the school, tested the building for leaks.

Ric Chatham, Sharp Energy's director of safety, said two By Anita Ferguson Daily Timet Staff Writer SHOWELL For the second time in three weeks, a gas leak forced students and staff to evacuate an elementary school for two hours. About 480 students and 55 staff members at Showell Elementary School evacuated the building Tuesday at about 11:20 a.m. when an odor of gas was detected by several school "Any time there is even a small gas leak, we have concerns. School buildings should be the safest place for children to be." Lana Williams spokeswoman for Worcester schools i I Wall Street's free fell worsens Pleasant with a mixture of clouds and sun and highs in the mid-70s. Tonight's lows will be in the low 60sPage 10 States achieve bay buffer goal early Barriers built 8 years ahead of schedule Dow Jones sinks to October 1998 level mmmmmmmmm 13 Business 29-30 Movies Classified 3344 Obituaries By John Biemer Comics 31 Prep Weekly 26 -V j- dinary accomplishment" to meet the objective set in 1996.

Still, "there's a tremendous Commentary 8 Sports 23-28 Delmarva 2 Style 11-13 Lotteries 4 Television 13 2002 The Dally Timet "There's still a wave of sentiment out there where people are disgusted and throwing in the towel." Charles White Avatar Associates portfolio manager Fed holds rates steady Page 29 sion to leave rates unchanged. "It's still not a great environment," said Charles White, portfolio manager at Avatar Associates. "There's still a wave of sentiment out there where people are disgust-See STOCKS, Page 4 By Hope Yen Associated Preaa Writer NEW YORK Wall Street's malaise deepened Tuesday, with stocks falling on a confluence of factors that included disappointing earnings news and a criminal investigation into Xerox's accounting practices. The Dow Jones industrials dropped nearly 190 points to hit a four-year low. Growing concerns about a possible war with Iraq exacerbated the selling.

There was little reaction to the Federal Reserve's deci- BALTIMORE States in the Chesapeake Bay's massive watershed arrived eight years early at their goal of building 2,010 miles of vegetative buffers along rivers and streams that feed the bay, an environmental leader said Tuesday. Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker described it as an "extraordinary, extraor- AT note amount of work left that needs to be done" to restore the overall health of the bay, he added as he. See BAY, Page 4 Trader Richard Tandy works at the New York Stock Exchange during a busy selling day Tuesday. ii NEW home features spa- cious kitchen, formal din i ing room and great room with fireplace, and master Us SJ LINCOLN Mercury "Sinn of a Good Deal" suite with lots of closet space. Call Sheila Kirwan for more details 410-430-5959.

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